Gold Seal Spitfire Peeling Back the Years

Thanks to some of the owners of the Gold Seal car who had owned it after its Richard Lloyd Gold Seal Racing, and Mugello Circuit exploits I have filled in some important gaps in its history.

John Petty in particular supplied some excellent pictures of the car whilst in his ownership.

I decided rather than strip its paint all in one go I would carefully peel it back layer, by layer, and tie in its various colour schemes to contemporary drivers.

The above picture shows the initial strip revealing a overall yellow scheme. The pictures John Petty supplied show the car in these colours during his ownership in 1970-72.

Courtesy of John Petty

Further sanding reveals more yellow.

A bit more and I could almost polish it!

John told me he brought the car in 1970 from a gentleman called Peter Long, and he thinks he later sold it on in 1972 to a Mr Russell Bracebridge.

Coutesy of John Petty (the marks on the print is water damage)

In the next instalment I reveal a totally unexpected short lived colour scheme!

Chicane Gets New Wings Part IV



OK so its escalated into a full respray!

So now its gone from fitting a new pair of front wings, and an engine rebuild into a full bare metal respray.

To be honest the paint was looking a little tired even though it has been painted before in our ownership about 10 years, and 100,000 miles ago. It had also been painted before we got it when it still lived in South Africa.  In our ownership its never been garaged, and it's only seen a polish a couple of times in that time. Taking that into account, and those new front wings I thought another comprehensive paint job was due.

Bare metalling threw up no surprises, indeed this car is still on its original sills, there cannot be many 2000/2.5 left with this sort of mileage still on their original sills.

Whilst I was at it I took the opportunity to replace one of the front doors for its original one that we removed during its respray many years ago. I can't for the life of me remember why we swapped it as its rust free, and fits far better than the substituted one?

  

FHP993C MOT'd

Resting on Llandudno Promenade during 2014 MSA Spring Classic Road Rally

I can't believe how time is flying by. This is brought home to me every year when MOT time comes around on FHP993C. It never seems to me than other than a few weeks have elapsed since the last time I did it.

All she needed this year was a couple of gallons on fresh petrol, a charge of the battery (she hadn't been out much since Aprils MSA event), and a couple of flicks of the reluctant light switch to wake it from its slumbers. One of these days I'm going to change that switch, but it seems to respond each year to a bit of exercise.

It must be getting on for 20 odd years that I have had the privalege of looking after FHP, one of my favourite cars of all time.

More Vitesse RBRR progress

Having completed the rebuild on the Vitesse slipper diff I turned my attention to the halfshaft assemblies. A couple of new short shafts, some GKN (Hardy Spicer) u/j's, new wheels bearings, new trunnions, and one new housing were consumed in the rebuild.

Over the years the back end of the car had settled to the point where a new swing spring was required so that went in. Everything then went back in with Polybush Red mountings, and new bolts, nuts, and washers as a matter of course.

Whilst the prop is away being checked for balance James had a poke around the car looking for any corrosion issues that might interest the MOT man.

In a matter of minutes he was attacking the passenger footwell with an angle grinder. I had never really given it a second look as it has been effectively hidden under a large aluminium passenger foot rest that was bolted through a rubber floor mat.

It turned out to be a little 'frilly'!