At long last...

So yeah, I finally bought a hoist... Realised waiting for a crane-type one wasn't the answer, so bought this two-ton one from ebay in August 09 for about £30 inc postage - in other words, not much more than a day's hire. After the Haltrac problems, still wasn't convinced, and Jon advised me to 'wear a helmet' after all the creaking from that occasion. So just to be on the safe side, I wedged a length of 4x2 vertically under the joist at the front of car before yanking on the chain. And it was effortless... engine just floated up, and once it was high enough, just hung in the air while I shoved the car back to let it down again.

And then it was all over - two and a half years of waiting, and that was all it took... So now that was all out of the way, I could go ahead and strip the rest of the front chassis down. Hubs and suspension were first, leading to another expense - while the shocks may well be in working condition, after 36 years, modern ones will undoubtedly be far better, so an uprated set have been added to

the shopping list.

Steering rack and ARB followed, leaving a completely clear - and

surprisingly good condition - chassis. All those years of oil leaks have obviously protected the paint work, so rather than sand the entire thing down, decided to just take a wire wheel to the bare patches.

So scraped at least a jam jar full of crud off the top and sides of the frame, gave it a bit of a wash down, and then set to with KuRust before the Hammerite primer.

So here endeth the catch-up - all the updates from now on will be happening in real time, so you can see just how long it really takes me to get round to this stuff...

spend spend spend

To pass the time, clear a bit of junk, and stop scratching the GTi door, I had a look to see if anything was at all salvageable from the bonnet assembly that was standing up against the wall in the car port. Needless to say the panels were beyond repair, but some of the support tubes looked rescuable with a bit of KuRust and Hammerite, and the headlights of course had to come out. The buckets behind these were also shot, so that rear assembly formed part of my order from Moss, who conveniently posted the 15% discount sale I'd been waiting for in spring 09.

Hadn't bought anything since the Rimmer Bros 15% sale the previous year (mainly hoses and plugs etc) but now had a much better idea of what was needed. So along with the rear headlamp arrangement and a few smaller bits and pieces, ordered a set of EBC Greenstuff pads, some braided hoses, and the front quarter valances which were also rusted through.

Had blanched a bit on seeing how much the entire new steel bonnet assy would set me back (£900+, before painting) so dropped Geoff at Wins a line one Sunday to ask him to keep his eye out for a used, good-condition, Mk 4 bonnet, ideally in carmine red. Got in the office Monday morning to find his reply: 'strangely enough I have in stock a nice carmine red bonnet, £175+vat'. By the time I made my first ever visit to his place to take a look at it, he was shutting up shop to move to new premises up the road, so with the purchase of a copper brake pipe kit before we left, and being highly impressed with the bonnet that was in his new premises, I became both his last and first-ever customer in the space of an hour. Bonnet even included headlight assembly, so as Moss hadn't shipped my order yet, I was able to call and cancel those bits, saving £45...

The other good news re the bonnet was that he was happy to hold onto it till I got the engine in and deliver for about a tenner. Did I mention he's a top bloke? He even gave me a number for a guy with an engine crane for sale, although this turned out to be too expensive.

Still, that was a very productive day...

Hoist on my own petard

Round about spring 2008, my Uncle Rob loaned me a Haltrac rope engine hoist, which I was a bit sceptical about, but nevertheless set about arranging an overhead system for. Two ceiling joists were conveniently placed at either end of the engine bay, so I destroyed an otherwise perfectly good hole saw by cutting 2in holes out of both of them to fit in a hefty steel tube which was extended to the required length by fitting a smaller diameter metal extendable leg from a kitchen work bench in it. Then wooden battens were fastened over the outsides of the holes to prevent any slippage.

I was confident about the set-up, but would the hoist work? Once I'd acquired a few links of chain to suspend the hoist from, all that remained was to get my mate Jon round to give me a hand. Was expecting this would merely involve pushing the car back once the engine was lifted and I was hanging on to the end of the rope, so we could then dump it on the floor. As it turned out, once we'd removed the overlooked bolt still connecting the engine to bellhousing, it still wasn't plain sailing. With one of us tugging on the rope, the other lifting and pulling at the engine till we were blue in the face, there was an ominous amount of creaking (from joists rather than us, I think) until we eventually had to concede defeat.

Being so close yet so far, the following week I reserved a proper crane from a place near work, which was conveniently much cheaper than the big-name hire places. Of course the day I went to pick it up was the exact same day that a mate of mine decided to bring in the dishwasher I'd said I'd buy from him eight months ago... The bloke wheeled out the massive crane, and we both stood looking gormlessly into the back of my GTi, 70% of which was taken up with a supposedly compact Hotpoint Aquarius. "I'll come back," I said...

I never did though, as I decided to start off down a fresh road of bidding on ebay. This would take some time...

Stalling problem

Within first couple of months, set about getting engine ready for removal (apparently not the original - note single carb). Haynes book was very handy here - engine mounts, manifold, bellhousing bolts, hoses and connections were all undone inside an afternoon.

Ready for lifting out in other words. Shame I didn't have an engine crane...

So realising that hiring one would call for at least two days rental, ie £50+, due to needing to clean up chassis etc once it was out, decided to wait till a second hand one came up for sale at under £100. A good idea (or stalling tactic) in principle, as it would no doubt come in handy one day for the daily driver, but involved a long, fruitless wait...

Pointless first steps...

Initial plan was just to switch the engine over, but then I decided to remove the gearbox and clean it up while I was at it. So seats were removed and carpets pulled up, cheering me up no end to see the excellent condition of the floor beneath.

Changed mind about removing the gearbox after some advice along the lines of 'ain't broke, don't fix'. Also discovered that fitting an overdrive wouldn't be a simple switcheroo with rear extension on gearbox but would need propshaft removing and shortening, so decided to leave that to another time.

The beginning

In late 2006, due to a buyers' chain problem with my forthcoming new house, I'd moved in with my aunt and uncle for a month or so, who had dragged their 1973 Mk4 Spitfire kicking and screaming out of the garage to make way for my vanload of possessions.

Having more or less grown up with this car, I'd barely given it a second glance, but when my aunty announced - on the day I was moving out – that she was going to scrap it, it took me approx half a second to make a rash decision and say "don't do that - I'll rebuild it!" The curse of hating to see stuff go to waste strikes again...

Because of clutch and engine problems, the bonnet had been removed and left standing outside for quite a few years – don't think the car has seen action since 82 – but that aside, having been more or less constantly garaged, the rest of it was in astonishingly good condition. As it had never been fitted, the refurbed Herald engine with new clutch even came as part of the package - in other words, it's all free, but if I sell up, I pass on what they'd have got for spares.

Oh yeah, did I mention I've never done anything like this before? I've done my own maintenance and repairs over the past 10 years or so, mainly to Haynes 3- and occasionally 4-spanner ratings, so was/am looking forward to the project as much for its educational opportunities as having another car to drive.