Restoration story of my Spitfire convertible

[spitfire]

@anonpak....yes you are right.the res spitfire is also in the need of colour .it is in its original colour yet never painted /restored .not a single piece touched.so I am planning to scrap all the paint and get it repainted in tomato red.the project spitfire is with me for last 10 years and this red one is with me for more than 6 years and you will be amazed to know that I have not driven this red car more than 10 kms....in all this time......reasons?????????

[PuNk]

@Spitfire
May Be The Reason is That They wont be in a condition to drive OR may be lack of Time or in teh presence of many cars u may be...

@Spitfire
Since U always mentioned mazda miata so i by mistake typed Mazda in my post. Pointed out by Storm & Shani606 I Edited my post

[spitfire]

@punk.....you are absolutely right bhai...the three reasons you mentioned are 100% right.I stripped the red spitfire to make patterns/farmas of different panels to restore the other one but could not get time to reassamble it.same is the case with Rx-7..did not drive it for about six months.last I drove it to sahiwal and back(my village).and it is resting in the garage.......today I went to see that red miata and drove it too(along with my mechanic)who takes care of all my cars.body is quite nice but roof is" desi made" interior is average.I took it to 100 km and it was giving a very bad vibration at this speed.AC was not operational.tires were gone.original number plates were missing(karachi reg)rest was fine....lol. asking price(fixed price)was 4 lacs 50 thousand only.not nagotiable.I was double minded but my mechanic said as you are so perfactionist that you will open this too to make it perfect and it will be in the row too so there is no sence in buying it...when I thought about his statement ,I found weight in it....and droped the idea of buying this red miata.......BUT THE WHITE ONE WHICH IS IN YOUR CITY IS WORTH BUYING.I contacted the owner but he does not want to sell it.....so I think I should drop the idea to buy a miata........what you brothers suggest after knowing all this situation????????

[spitfire]

SORRY.....above post is irrelevant in this thread but I want the advises of my pakwheel brothers......tomorrow will post more pics of the bonnet INSHALLAH (today very tired...MIATA KAY CHAKAR MAIN.....LOL...)

[hash4u]

drop miata
restore a mini

[spitfire]

@hash4u...I have dropped miata.....:(.I will only buy 1 which will meet my level of perfection otherwise no....minis are great cars but dont have courage and time to restore any other car otherwise I would have bought this miata.both spitfires are due for painting...

[spitfire]

lets come to our restoration.....
as I have told you that bonnet was in very bad and rusted position.I have posted some pics too which are showing the condition of the bonnet.now we started to take different panels apart ....see these pics

[spitfire]

as you can see from the above pics that inner wheel arches are removed.you can see the condition of the lip of outer fender curve in a poor state...and here are the inner wheel arches...see these pics..

[spitfire]

another view of both inner wheel arches.If you see in detail ,you can notice the patches of sheet along the side if the inner archs.some previous owner tried to repair them...see these pics

[spitfire]

an outer view of the arches.from these pics you can see the poor,poor condition of this pannel.the original metal had rusted away.please note that they are made in two parts and they are welded together,you can notice that big seam joining two parts together..see these pics...

[sami_voodoo]

@Spitfire,

Please do not repaint your red Spitfire. It will lose all its value. A big appeal of older original-condition cars these days is that they have a higher value than restored cars. Why? Because they haven't been "spoiled". I'd suggest that you repaint only the one you are restoring. Even if your red Spit becomes scruffy, do not worry, it'll be a gem in the eyes of a connoisseur.

Thanks for sharing your experience! It's a great thread, and one which I check everyday.

Wassalam,
Sami

[sardar69]

grt yar

[rkhnsh]

NicE wOrK mAN......gO On.........u r gIvInG A nEw LiFE To DiS BeaUTY.

[devilousangel]

(Y) gud ! keep it up ... luv the work ur doing...

[spitfire]

salamz and sorry brothers that I could not post more pics of the restoration because I was out of city and did not have my pc with me:( I will continue fron tomorrow INSHALLAH.

[PuNk]

Will Wait!

[spitfire]

salamz brothers,first of all I am very sorry for delay in posting..actually my son deleted the pics I stored in my pc and resized them to upload fast(as some of my pakwheel brother suggested)he was looking for"NEED FOR SPEED"...lol.fortunately I had a back up copy on 2 cds but could not find them......today I found them and on my way...

[spitfire]

SO...first of all we removed the inner wheel arches of the front fenders(i have posted the pics).these arches were in two parts welded together as shown in the pics previously posted.the condition of the outer parts (which are attached with the fenders )was very bad.but the inner halfs(towards the engine side)were in good shape only some surface rust.So we decided to make only outer sides of both the inner wheel arches and use the old innes sides.we separated two from each other ...see these pics...

[spitfire]

you can see from the above pic that some one attempted to repair them by welding patches of steel sheet along the curve,looking very very bad and out of allignment.some more pics of the same panel from different angles showing the details and condition of it ..see these pics..

[spitfire]

and some more.......