Restoration story of my Spitfire convertible

[sami_voodoo]

Spitfire,

Thank you for sharing your wonderful restoration with us. This is what the whole Pakwheels forum is all about - generous sharing of knowledge and good experiences with all of us.

Please continue whenever you see fit, we shall be waiting eagerly.

Wassalam,
Sami

[spitfire]

salamz brothers,lets continue the story of restoration.first of all lets renew the previous developmants we had and the panels we chopped and replaced with new ones.
So far we chopped all the sills,i.e inner,middle and outer.lower side of A+B posts.front and rear floor pans,rear side of rear left+right fenders,lips of the rear fenders and doors.like this we almost completed cockpit of the car.now we came to the floor pan of the boot which was covered in black paint and some surface rust. So first of all we remover all the paint with paint remover.one thing to mention here is that when ever removing the paint is required,it should always be done with a paint remover and not with heat(batti) as our mostly denters do because by heating metal unnessesarlly ,it becomes more prone to rust.any how
after removing the paint I came to know that there are small holes and cracks in the floor of the boot.these cracks and holes could be easily repaired,grinded and painted afterwards so no one could even imagine the underground position of the floor and that was not that weak as well.....
But after thinking for a couple of days "MERA DILL NAHIN MANA"and I decided to go for a complete boot floor replacement exactly duplicating the original floor pattern and obviously in 18 guage steel sheet ,which was again not an easy task but the level of standards I was observing in this restoration required so.........we went for complete boot floor replacement......

[spitfire]

first of all all the spots all around the boot floor was broken with a very sharp chisel(we specially made for this perpose from an old engine valve) and the whole boot floor was removed in a piece . After removing the floor pan,things started to look like this....see the pic which is an under side view of the boot without floor.......

[spitfire]

then the same procedure was repeated to get the exact pattern of the boot floor,like first on butter paper then on chart paper ,then holes along the lines ,priming the sheet we selected and traced the dots and then pattern was drawn on the floor panel(exactly like i explained in the making of rear and front floor pans)but in this case,as it was a big pannel we had to join 3/4 sheets of butter and carbon paper and then chart paper and then we went on the same way as we did with the floors pans.but because of the big size and very strange curves ,it was very time consuming and difficult.I have tried to find the original pattern/farmas but cant get hold of them.probably lost some where or destroyed ......

[spitfire]

just have a look at these pics showing old and new HAND FABRICATED boot floors.if you pay a little attention,you can see the holes in old boot floor.just see the similarity and detail of both floors.
the groove pattern and the humps at the sides were very difficult to make,It took about a week to finish this pannel (starting from sheet)and three days in making farmas.we also made steel strip farmas of the humps to check the accuracy of tat part........see these pics..

[spitfire]

also see the details from underside of the two (old and new)panels also the details of bent sides on the edges of the panel which were to be spot welde to the existing /sound metal of the car.......see these pics...DONT FORGET, NEW ONE MADE OUT OF 18 GUAGE STEEL SHEET AND ALL HAND MADE.......NO MACHINE OR PRESS WAS USED

[spitfire]

any questions or comments???

[Alkazar]

WOW, i am amazed at the level of detail. You will be proud when this is finished.

[shoaibiqbal]

Great going yaaar!!! (Y)

[Storm]

with the detail of the coverage and the build, how can we ask any questions? just keep up the good work and share the build with us. It's helping me keep my mind off certain things.

[spitfire]

salamz and thanks brothers,
now we started fixing it at its place.if you see in detail,the old floors have two metal strips on each sides.actually it is the reinforcemet for the rear bumper.we drilled the spots and took these out and spot welded them to the new floor pan.then we put it in place and secured with grip pliers and got the allignment right.see this pic...............

[kiani1]

@ Spitfire

Gr8 Pix !

[spitfire]

then we spot welded the boot floor in the place .one thing I forgot that we primed it throuhly before fixing like all other panels...see the pic

[spitfire]

if you have seen minis and other british classic cars in detail ,you may have noticed that where the two parts /panels are welded together,instead of getting their edges inside ,they were outside (like at the front of mini doors) and there is a steel capping all over the joint.you got it?????????
same kind of capping was fixed on the lower rear side of rear wing and boot floor joint.so we made a capping and fixed it (making the joint neat) exactly like original /specimen spitire,see the pic.....welded with copper wire...

[spitfire]

lower side of right door was rusted as well so the rusted part was cut and new panel was welded in place .......and one thing to tell you here specially that "THIS REPAIR WAS DONE BY MY SON" LOL......see the pics...

[spitfire]

now the floor pans were all new including cockpit and boot and they were primed before fitting .remaining part was then sanded to bare and shiny metal ,all the traces of a sligtest rust was removed and the whole area was primed...see these pics..

[datzburier]

Rehman Bhai, good photos.

Don't let the Child Labor Laws enforcement people see these pictures.. LoL.. Cute kid, BTW.

He's got the car bug already in him, as they say it here, like father like son...

The car is literally rising out of its own old self, like Phoenix, rising out of its rusted previous life. The shiny new steel frame is pictures are giving the look of an automobile comming out of an assembling plant.

Marvellous job.

BTW, are you Mechanical Engineer by profession. Your technical references hint toward an Engineering background.

[bkahive1]

Masha Allah, very very kute kid. This is what they say, Like father Like son.
I can be certain that his Mom will not be very happy

[adil_dar]

Mashallah A cute boy

Mr. Spitfire you are distracting our attention to other things. Unfair.

[spitfire]

salamz brothers....
@datzburier.....thanks bhai thank you very much..you are absolutely right that my son has a car bug already in him.we live in this world where accidents happen every day but ADIL'S accident has really touched me and still I am not completely out of it though I never met him(being a very sensitive person).my son is so so crazy about cars.I dont want him to be so.he inherited these germs from his father...lol..ALLAH HUM SAB KO AUR HAMARAY BACHOON KO APNI HIFZ O AMAN MAIN RAKHAY.AUR BURAY WAQAT SAY BACHAYE..AMEEN.actually right from my child hood I used to admire sports cars.in those days (mid sixties)only british cars were on the road japanese came very late.my father imported two triumph heralds from england.one wasted after30 years and one is still lying with me in pretty good condition but I dont find time and courage to restore it.spitfire was my favourute since my child hood thats why I am so dedicated....
AND NO I have no engineering back ground at all,I belong to a famous land lord family and I have done M.sc in Biochemistry..totally opposite field but you will be amazed to know that I know completely about cars and have a complete uptodate workshop in my house including all modern tools for my own cars and my cars have never visited any workshop in their life for any mechanical work including engine overhaul etc.but restoring body of a car at home was my first and very interesting event......
@bkahive1......thankx brother,this is a strange thing that his mothers likes my hobby very much and she is always there to admire and advise me according to her knowledge about cars and likes my son to participate.