I think I might have a problem...

"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228) 06/20/2016 at 07:53 • Filed to: Need to go to rehab

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Only £114! It’s nothing but a shell, a chassis, a diff, front and rear suspension and a set of Minilites though :S still, I can sell the Minilites for £100 so I’ve basically got all of that for £14! I could either have a steak and a pint at my local pub, or this...

Not sure on the plans for this yet. Not that I don’t have ideas of what to do with it, more choosing which one of my ideas I want to do. Current options:

1. GT16v - find a rotten GT6 shell, weld the fastback roof onto this one and fit with a Dolomite Sprint 2.0l 16v engine and LT77 5-speed

2. GT2600 - find a rotten GT6 shell, weld the fastback roof onto this one and try and fit the 2.6l SOHC Rover/Triumph 2600 inline 6 into the front

3. GT4T - find a rotten GT6 shell, weld the fastback roof onto this one and fit a Saab B202 turbo engine with an LT77 5-speed

4. Spitfire Triple - make it as light as possible and fit the 955cc Triple from a Triumph motorbike

5. Spitfire Triple2 - mate two 955cc Triumph Triples together (probably by using the gearbox mainshafts connected together wit ha flywheel on the back, rather than mating the two cranks together) to make a 1910cc DOHC I6

6. Something completely different as a lot of life will happen between now and getting round to doing something with this...

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 06/20/2016 at 08:05

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How many projects do you actually have on the go now? I barely find time for one and maintaining my DD. That doesnt mean i wont end up with more projects but still...

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 06/20/2016 at 08:06

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I like the single motorbike engine idea.

fourvalleys > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 06/20/2016 at 08:09

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Tell me more about these Minilites.... :)

LongbowMkII > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 06/20/2016 at 08:16

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Stupid ocean.

What's the bolt pattern on the minilites?

LongbowMkII > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 06/20/2016 at 08:17

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Also I vote 4. Most of the work is already done!

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 06/20/2016 at 08:21

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Those sound like some great projects, but what about first finishing the other Spitfire and MGB? Haha

KatzManDu > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 06/20/2016 at 08:31

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Rotary. Seriously.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > KatzManDu 06/20/2016 at 08:33

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There is a possibility that my mate might be swapping an RX7 engine into his RX8, which would leave a Renesis without a home...

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 06/20/2016 at 08:36

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Oh yeah, those ;)

Yeah I do have a bit of a plan with all these. Once we’ve got the facilities in place (we’re building a couple more garages/storage places) they’ll get stored away from the rain.

Meanwhile the Spit6 gets finished (nearly at quite a big stage in that actually, mating the body to the chassis for the final time). Then after that the Spitfire 1850 gets done as that’s a budget build so I can do that while we’re saving for a house.

Meanwhile I’ll be picking up components for the MGB and this Spit whenever they come up for a pittance (which does come around if you wait long enough, as evidenced by this!).

My hope is that after I've done it all once the second time will be much quicker!

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > LongbowMkII 06/20/2016 at 08:38

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I could cut the windscreen off (MkIII and earlier had bolt-on ones) and make a little plexiglass screen like the old roadster racers.

Then I could weld the door skins in place with minimal insides and jump in it like old Le Mans cars!

KatzManDu > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 06/20/2016 at 08:40

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There you go ;)

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > LongbowMkII 06/20/2016 at 08:40

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They'll probably be 5.5J 13s with a 4x3.75 bolt pattern. Not sure what else outside (or inside) of BL they share that with :S

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > fourvalleys 06/20/2016 at 08:41

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They’ll probably be 5.5J 13s with a 4x3.75 bolt pattern. Not sure what else outside (or inside) of BL they share that with :S

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap 06/20/2016 at 08:43

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I like that too, especially seeing as I might be able to keep the sequential motorbike ‘box. The plan would simply be to bolt a propshaft flange on instead of the drive sprocket and away we go.

They do little centrifugal supercharger kits for Triples as well...

LongbowMkII > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 06/20/2016 at 08:44

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The Lotus has that bolt pattern. ... Stupid fucking ocean.

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 06/20/2016 at 08:48

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If you can keep the factory gearbox, I'd say yes.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 06/20/2016 at 08:49

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Err...way too many. This makes 10 cars under my direct ownership, three of which are on the road (which is not bad going for me!).

It’s mainly driven forward by blind optimism and belligerence ;)

Don’t get me wrong, it’s actually much much nicer when you’ve only got the DD and one project to work on. You get much more of a sense of moving forwards which helps keep motivation going. The main reason for all the purchases is that I’m damn certain that these cars will never be this cheap again.

I doubt they’ll ever be truly expensive, but given how the classic car market in general is going, and formerly unloved cars like the Jag XJS have increased in value beyond my very limited budget over the past year or two, it feels a bit like it’s now or never.

You see videos with people like Magnus Walker and that chap who offroads his 356 and they get asked how they managed to get such expensive cars and they all say ‘I bought them a decade ago when they were dirt cheap’.

As I've (sort of) got the space I'll do that with old Brit bangers!

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 06/20/2016 at 08:53

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Be sure to sex this one before placing it with the other. You don’t want any baby Spits hatching out.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > LongbowMkII 06/20/2016 at 08:53

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Ah bummer. I've just looked up shipping quotes and they'll probably be about the same price as the wheels themselves!

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 06/20/2016 at 09:01

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It’s not a problem when they’re this young. When they reach maturity they wrap themselves in a thin layer of dust, oil and surface rust and emerge a year later as fully fledged TRs.

It’s only then that they start popping out little Spitfires if you leave them together for too long ;)

n.b. The same thing happens with the closely related Dolomites and 2500 saloons as well.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 06/20/2016 at 09:06

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HA! I myself have been passing up terrible idea projects at a rate of knots to be able to continue paying off college loans and not make my dad go completely spare with misuse of storage - but for that, I’d be in almost as deep as you, but in classic rounded American iron. Saw what looked like a corker of a ‘50 Studebaker project in the local classifieds this week.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 06/20/2016 at 09:11

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Good luck with finishing all this! Are you going to keep all of them, or are some for flipping?

Also: go the triple option!

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 06/20/2016 at 09:19

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Thanks I’ll need it!

The plan is to keep them all, so long as I have space. There’s not enough money in these little things even when restored to concourse to make flipping them worth it.

I might have to get a bit ruthless further down the line once they're all done if there are certain ones that fill the same niche, but it's not something I'm greatly looking forward to.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 06/20/2016 at 09:28

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Yeah I’ve passed up a lot of great deals, but mainly because they fall outside of my £150 (recoupable) budget. Ending at the same time of this one was a very rusty £500 Mk2 GT6 that I’d have picked up, nicked the bodyshell from and resold the complete rolling chassis as a candidate for a GT6 convertible project.

I do like the old Studebakers :) there was a RHD Hawk 289 someone posted a few years back that was used for the US postal service. Would have been a very cool car to drive around the UK :)

It'll definitely slow down as soon as we start saving for a house, but sheet metal and MIG supplies are cheap so if I pick up rusty projects now I'll have something to keep me occupied while funds are tight!

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 06/20/2016 at 09:44

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My interest category tends to involve cars in the $1000-$3000 range as well, which is a little more than your targets. A lot of the things I like are in short supply, with a properly mad fanbase buying up all entries more solid than... well, your Triumph above. If I had a floating $2000 budget I expect I’d have found a way to be in even more trouble than you - with a Rambler Marlin, a 924, possibly an E9, an XJS, perhaps a late ‘40s Nash Ambassador, a Mercury Cougar...

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 06/20/2016 at 09:57

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Nice mix that :) if I had a bit more to play with I’d probably end up with something other than endless Spitfires :)

I’d probably have an Alfetta saloon, an XJS as well, perhaps the world’s most rotten Fulvia, an SD1 and maybe a 16v swap for my BX :)

All in good time :)

That's gonna leave a mark! > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 06/20/2016 at 14:00

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Looks like it came pre-stripped - time saver.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 06/20/2016 at 15:48

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Thats actually a very good point. I kind of did the same with the e36. I watched m3 values crawl up, then coupe, then the nicer saloons. I figured (perhaps wrongly) that the compact would also grow out of my reach eventually.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 06/20/2016 at 16:33

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Yeah it’s the not knowing that’s the problem. If I could be damn certain that Spitfires wouldn’t increase in value then I’d be happy waiting, but it works in odd ways. I’d never have imagined XJS’ would increase in value, give how overshadowed they are by the E-Type, but here we are!

Either way, if they do increase in value you’ve got one now!

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > That's gonna leave a mark! 06/20/2016 at 16:38

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Exactly! it’s actually better value as it’s stripped (if you value your time at all, which I’m not certain I do in practice...)

CaptDale - is secretly British > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 06/20/2016 at 18:30

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I found the correct answer to your problem

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > CaptDale - is secretly British 06/21/2016 at 04:55

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That’s actually what the PO of my 2nd Spitfire wanted to do with it (or rather, the chap that he bought it from anyway). As such I’ve got a spare on lying around!

He ended up making this ugly as sin bonnet scoop for it. At least the one in the pics looks half-decent.

I’ve definitely seen it that people have fitted RV8s without the need to cut up the bonnet:

Still, the RV8 is destined for other things...

http://oppositelock.kinja.com/tag/99p-mgb

CaptDale - is secretly British > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 06/21/2016 at 11:56

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You’re right, the Rover V8 is over played. You need to do this.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 06/21/2016 at 22:56

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Grab a chair, take a seat and join the club.

I bought a parts car for $300 because it had a new $100 fuel pump.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > gmporschenut also a fan of hondas 06/22/2016 at 01:42

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Exactly! Seeing as you needed to spend $100 on a fuel pump anyway, you’re getting a whole car for $200!

What car was it, out of interest...

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 06/22/2016 at 20:41

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A very rusty 914. Still had the engine (seized) and transmission if I ever have to send in a core for a rebuild.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > gmporschenut also a fan of hondas 06/27/2016 at 10:54

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Cool :) my dad’s got a 914/6. Cool cars, although his needs a bit of work now after sitting around for a couple of years while we’re finishing building work on the house.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 07/09/2016 at 17:33

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Ouhhhhh aahhh