Progress!

"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
10/10/2016 at 04:19 • Filed to: Spitfires

The walls are now inclosed on the parts shed and half of the floor is sealed ready for painting :) denizen A is very pleased

DISCUSSION (26)

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires
10/10/2016 at 04:33

Did the floor on the red spitfire remove itself, or did it still need some persuasion? Haha

Good job on the parts shed, but isn’t this bigger than the shed you’re working in?

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
10/10/2016 at 05:15

Hah :) more persuasion than i was anticipating. Went through 4 cutting discs to liberate it. Made me realise how little of the underside was really left!

Kinja'd!!!

Significantly bigger actually! Similar length, a little narrower but with a big extra triangle on the side. It’s even got an insulated roof where my actual garage doesn’t.

The floor does slope considerably though which makes jacking a bit sketchy :S

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires
10/10/2016 at 05:32

Damn, that’s even worse than I expected!

Seeing the size, the new shed should be able to hold more than two spitfires right?

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
10/10/2016 at 05:38

You’d think so but the length is really marginal even with tiny cars like Spitfires. It’s odd how it can look really huge right up until the point you put a car in it...

The plan is to have a winchable platform to lift one above the other so I can stack them at the far end. I’ve built the little square at the back like a brick shithouse so it should be able to take the weight.

Then I should be able to get the blue and the yellow Spitfire in there as well as the MGB :)

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires
10/10/2016 at 05:44

Lada Niva spotted!

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > Eric @ opposite-lock.com
10/10/2016 at 05:58

Yes! We spotted one on eBay the other day that was restored, painted matte black with a taller lift kit than this one and artificial grass as carpets!

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires
10/10/2016 at 06:01

That sounds awesome. But every Niva is cool to me.

It depresses me that I don’t think you can buy them in the US...

duurtlang > Eric @ opposite-lock.com
10/10/2016 at 06:41

You can though. They were introduced in 1977 (and are still in production). This means you can get a 25+ year old one that’s eligible for import.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > Eric @ opposite-lock.com
10/10/2016 at 06:42

The older ones should be importable by now as I think they were first built in the 70s. Not sure when they started exporting them to Canada, but that would probably be your best option :)

CalzoneGolem > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires
10/10/2016 at 06:53

I could never build anything with a flat roof. I would need to shovel it regularly all winter.

Leon711 > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires
10/10/2016 at 07:08

Nice Niva!

Side note. We were right about he weight of vehicles, the kerbweight isn’t listed on VIN plates, it’s Gross Vehicle Weight (full payload of people and stuff), Gross Train Weight (Car and whatever us being towed) and Max weight over each axle.

shop-teacher > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires
10/10/2016 at 07:39

That’s a hell of a shed!

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires
10/10/2016 at 08:15

I spy a ‘93+ Niva.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Eric @ opposite-lock.com
10/10/2016 at 08:24

Some have trickled their way into the country. They were sold in Canada from the early ‘80's up until the late ‘90's so that’s one way, although it’s getting tough to find one old enough to import to the US but still in decent shape. I suspect some would have made their way north out of Central America, possibly even Mexico as well. I’ve also heard of people shipping them direct from Europe, a roll-on-roll-off trip goes for $1500 or so, or sometimes people load up a container full of cars and parts which runs around $4000 I think. Or you could check out ladausa.net to see if any things going on, although things have been super quiet there the last couple years.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
10/10/2016 at 09:08

A ‘96! Although you’d be forgiven for thinking it was 2 decades older than it is given its condition. Very far from being roadworthy

Still runs fine though :)

How’s yours treating you? I’ve always wondered what they’re like on the road :)

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > Leon711
10/10/2016 at 09:10

Thanks :) it’s ‘nice’ in the meaning of pleasant, not ‘nice’ in the meaning of good condition ;)

I thought so. No way an RX8 weighed as much as my Jag XJ40. My engine alone probably weighs half as much as an RX8!

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > CalzoneGolem
10/10/2016 at 09:12

Yeah we’re lucky that we don’t get anything like as much snow as the rest of the northern hemisphere. The South of England is closer to northern France than anything else really.

I did build the roof on the garage next to this one which has a pent-roof. Not having done it before I just picked an arbitrary height to add on the top of 5'. Now he’s got the tallest garage in the place with 3m tall walls with an extra 5' tacked on top :S

Didn’t look as tall as that when we were building it on the ground...

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires
10/10/2016 at 09:31

On the anticipation of dealing with up to over a foot of snow, I had to engineer quite a bit of distributed load strength into the ceiling for my new space. We don’t get so much every winter here in North Carolina, or even reliably every two or three, but it comes down that heavily just often enough I’ve got to be prepared... Got about 3' with much higher drifts when a blizzard came through in ‘93.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
10/10/2016 at 09:33

Eek :S yeah we get snow so rarely, but we have had deep snow a couple of times. Might have to get up there and shovel if it gets bad :S

How’s yours coming along?

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires
10/10/2016 at 09:49

Haven’t really driven it much since May unfortunately. I was planning on taking it to the Lemons Rally back in August so I decided to start fixing the things I’d been neglecting, and somehow managed to damage other components needing more parts ordered, more delays, etc. Since May it has a new trans, almost entirely new brakes, half a sound system installed (tricky with really no provisions from factory) and now the last piece of the puzzle (I hope) is a new oil pan, but I have to yank the engine to change it so I’ve been putting it off. Hoping to get to it later this week though.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
10/10/2016 at 09:54

Mine’s also a ‘96. It isn’t too bad on the road, but with it just having a shitty glasspack on otherwise straight pipes it’s loud on the highway. Doesn’t help that fifth gear didn’t do much, either, so 100km/h is 4500rpm or so. It’ll keep up with traffic, but passing on the highway takes a lot of planning and generally banging off the rev limiter in 3rd gear. It goes around corners surprisingly well, I’m guessing cause it’s so light, and obviously doesn’t give a rat’s ass about snow on the road, even with the age cracked super bald no-seasons that were on it when I got it.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
10/10/2016 at 10:02

Nice :) I know how it feels to have a 1-week job turn into a 3-week job because you break stuff doing the 1-week job :S

With the oil pan can you drop the front suspension rather than pull the engine to get it out/in? Not sure what would be easier tbh, but it’s an idea...

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires
10/10/2016 at 10:25

My dad’s brought on a friend who’s a welder by trade to speed things along, since my dad’s a bit slow and has had other things to do (as have I). He may be starting on the lot this coming Thursday - hasn’t yet, so we’re still at 1/14 half-trusses made. So, not coming along much. I reworked the arrangement of things in the shop so I can reach things with the welder, but then I’ve gotten swallowed up by work for several months. :s

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
10/10/2016 at 11:38

That’s generally the problem with all cars that weren’t extremely interesting and from Japan (where cars are subjected to rigorous maintenance due to laws) or Europe (where cars are subjected to rigorous maintenance due to culture). The examples that are old enough and nice enough to go through the effort of importing are extremely rare (damn you, 25-year import rule!).

Also, until I have a place with spare garage space (which I will some day), I won’t have anywhere to keep one, so it will be a pipe dream for some time. Maybe I’ll get lucky and find a late-90s Canadian one in sweet shape in another handful of years.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires
10/10/2016 at 14:55

I’ve looked into it and it can be done, but you have to blow the whole suspension apart to get the shafts out of the diff so you can drop it, and the diff mounts are also the engine mounts so you need to get a hoist on it anyway. Looks like it’s less work just to pull the engine right out, less risk of damaging important things too in my mind. I’ve already had the trans and engine apart this summer too, and there’s no need to pull accessories off.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Eric @ opposite-lock.com
10/10/2016 at 15:10

I think the issue with the Canadian ones is more that they were so cheap to buy new that they were mostly bought by people too cheap to bother maintaining them. The one I got looks like it was kept up pretty well, got under sprayed per the factory schedule, but then sat forever. The guy I got it from was working on getting it going again but was a bit of a hack (and also cheap) so I’ve unfortunately spent a fair amount of time and money replacing nearly-new parts because of crazily over-torqued and/or cross-threaded bolts, running the wrong oil in the trans, etc.