It’s not a daily driver, go for the bling, dude.
Crome wires rock!
I’d think that a couple of layers of clearcoat would help protect the wheels from environmental damage.
Hell to clean, though, and they can give a car that “over-restored” concours look I hate: cars are for driving in, not for looking at. It isn’t even authenticity, so much, it’s that in their heyday these cars were relatively cheap and designed to be driven for fun: they aren’t vintage Bugattis, and that ultra-shiny look that you’d never have seen on an original even in the showroom bugs me. Go for the painted wires, sez I.
Stretch - if mrstretch is increasing the compression of the engine, why not change the cat to a UK one to make the car UK spec? IIRC the UK 1300 Spits produced as much power as the US 1500 engines due to the compression and the US cat Triumph were forced to put on to pass emmission regs. I don’t know if you’re allowed to do this in the States, but it could be an option…
GT6 vs Spitfire - why not have the best of both worlds and put a Spitfire body on a GT6 chassis? They fit straight on with the only modification needed being a new bonnet (hood) that has a bulge to fit the larger engine under. If you must have a GT6 with a fastback, you can put metal plating over the transmission tunnel which will keep the cabin a bit cooler.
We have two Spitfires in our family, both my mum and brother have one (mum wouldn’t let my brother drive hers so he bought one himself), mum’s is a Jade Green (a bit lighter than BRG) 1300 with stainless exhaust, different suspension and K&N air filters, my brother has a red (we’re not really sure what red it is, one company reckoned it was a Ford colour) 1500 with a stainless exhaust.
This is something we’ve considered…putting a Spit body on a GT6 chassis so we can get the 6 cyl but still have the soft-top. mr.stretch has a billion ideas.
I got to drive Vronica all over the place yesterday…fun, fun, fun. The only thing I have to worry about is that our back roads are open range land; I think in a fight with a cow, Vronica would lose.
Johnny L.A., painted wheels are the way to go in wetter Washington. I could never keep my chrome wheels looking good on my cars when I lived in Olympia, there’s just too much water all the time. Here in the desolate wastes of semi-arid central WA that’s not as much of a problem.
I currently have a 2003 X-Type. It’s been a nice car - I enjoy the looks I get, although Jag’s have become somewhat more common than in days gone by. Everyone seems to have an X-Type or S-Type.
I remember when I was a kid, I walked by a dealership and saw a black Vanden Plas with gold wire wheels and all the gadgets. This was in like 88 or 89 - it was the coolest looking car.
Now, just a soon as I get a double garage and 30k, I’m going to look into some kind of XK drophead - either 120, 140 or 150.
Sometimes I think of myself as the Henry Ford of Jaguars - you can have any color (colour?) you want as long as it’s BRG or black.
Friend of mine really wants an Austin Healy 3000 - but that may be a long long ways off.
Two votes for painted wires, and one for chrome. I like them both, but I can see what Case Sensitive means about the ‘over-restored’ look. Still… A shiny thing! I like shiny things! But if the painted ones are better in this climate, and since they are less expensive, I’m kind of leaning that way.
I really like the S-Type in BRG. There was someone in the building where I used to work that had a BRG S-Type with a cream interior. Very, very nice. I like the S-Type’s classic, almost retro, lines. Style-wise, it’s a bit posh for me; but I wouldn’t mind driving one. I also like the X-Type. It reminds me vaguely of the E-Type. (My mom almost got a '66 E-Type convertible, but she needed a removable hood so that she could use the back seat for her son. So it’s my fault she didn’t get the E-Type!)
I like Austin Healey 3000s. That long bonnet and short boot and those sweeping lines are very pretty. And the six-cylinder engine is a good thing too! 
But…
One of my teachers in college had an MGA. I often found my MGB parked next to his A. I thought it would be cool to have a car like his. (MGBs were only recently discontinued, remember; and they were still very common.) It occurred to me though, that the MGA didn’t really serve as any sort of a ‘touchstone’ for me. I wasn’t alive in the '50s. For a six, the Triumph TR6 was more my style. More modern. Similarly, I appreciate the Big Healeys for what they are; but they don’t have the emotional attachment of the MGB or the ‘this is my era’ feel of the Spitfire Mk.IVs or TR6s. Even the Herald is ‘before my time’, since I barely remember it. Winning the auction was almost accidental.
Sadly Dad’s nostalgia is currently being relived in classic bikes and not cars.
When Dad could afford to buy cars instead of bikes he started off with a Triumph Spitfire (one of the early models) an 1100 which he traded up for a 1300 after a bit of an insurance scam (did I say scam? 
)
After that he changed up again to an MGB GT, chrome bumpers in BRG. Quite an appealing looking car 
There were two Italians, Fiat 124 Sport and Lancia Beta Coupe which could have easily out run, out driven and out rusted the British models, but they were in a different class altogether.
If Dad could have afforded the fuel and insurance (and Mum wasn’t pregnant with me!) there was an E-Type on offer for cheaper than the Lancia at the time, 1978/79.
Me? I want a GT-6 too. A mini E-Type, one of the later models with the restyled nose Although it looks like I’ll have to settle for a small Japanese hatchback…
I always thought they looked like mini Aston Martin DB5s - perfect for living out those James Bond fantasies on a budget…
I expect mine to look that good. It’s been completely disassembled, so its new paint (original colour) will completely cover the sheet metal. The gauges were sent to England for overhaul. The engine will be rebuilt to new specifications. New leather upholstery. New wiring harness. It will end up costing about the same as the one in your link.
I noticed the GT has painted wires.
For those of you who want a GT6…
This one ends in an hour. Restored black 1967.
This one is an older restoration that needs work, but ¼ of the price.
I already spent my GT6 money! But I can always change my mind. Until we actually start tearing Alison apart, she could be resold for money toward a different car. Once the restore starts, I’ll be too attached to get rid of her.
The restored Mark I is beautiful, but after losing the earlier GT6 and talking to my parts guy, I’m going with a Mark II or Mark III to avoid problems with the rear suspension.
The Mark III is too far away for us. Really, Wisconsin is just too far away. Well, I’ll show it to mr.stretch and see what he thinks…after all he was going to let me have the Herald.
We’ll see. Once I get my MGB back…
I looked at this 1976 Spitfire last week. Pretty. It’s a re-paint though, and I like to know what’s under it. There were cracks by the bonnet latches. The chrome was pitted. There was a draught in the upper-rear corner where the dirver’s window met the hard top. The tach didn’t work, and the speedo read slow. The odometer was in-op. There’s a nasty snap when closing the passenger door (bad roller in the mechanism?), and the passenger door looked like it needed to be aligned. The padded steering wheel is torn. I thought I heard a noise in the rear, but I wasn’t sure. My friend said the left-rear wheel looked tweaked. I thought it might be the typical Spitfire bow-leggedness, but he said it was the actual wheel. (The rear has a new transverse spring, so it didn’t ‘squat’.) There was a little shimmy around 50 mph. Wheel balance? The oil annunciator flickered on and off, and we tracked that down to a loose wire.
Okay, the speedo, odo and tach were mentioned in the ad. Fair enough. The car handled very well. It was a real blast to drive. I did see some smoke on accelleration, but the engine seemed strong for a 1500cc. I think it’s a decent car for its age. Did I mention that it handled well, and was a blast to drive? But the asking price is a bit high, considering the issues I found that were not listed in the ad.
Oh, lovely! The Herald shares a lot of parts with the Mk.I! (Is Nigel your parts guy? I haven’t contacted spitbits yet.)
Yep, Nigel is my parts guy. You’ll love him. He’s from the UK, owns two Spits, and I believe had his hobby take over his life to the point of opening Spitbits. The thing he warned me about the Mark I GT6 is in the rear suspension. However, Mark I Spits were introduced four years before the GT6 so I don’t know if the GT6 problems will apply to the Herald. Nigel can help you out though. Don’t borrow trouble, Johnny. 
stretch: I know you and mr.stretch like Webber carburettors. Aside from the reliability/ease-of-use issues, what advantages are there to them? Is power increased? How would a Webber affect fuel economy?
A Twin Webber conversion is a very popular conversion on all older engines - a lot of the older Minis use them, as do the kit cars using Pinto engines. People even repalce injectors with Webbers to increase power on more modern engines.
Apart from increasing power, I’m not sure what effect they’ll have.
Meanwhile I’ll just sit here in the UK laughing at the silly 'mericans trying to increase their HP to the levels our cars came standard with 
Ouch.
Oh – I should point out that I’m not interested in power. I mean, it’s a Triumph Herald fer chrissakes. If I were to do a carburettor conversion, it would be for reliability more than anything else. But I’ll go with whatever carbs will deliver the best fuel economy. (I’ve heard there’s this carb, y’see, that will let you get 100 mpg; only the oil companies roughed up the inventor and took his patent… )
Anyway, the MGB will have the alloy head and the overdrive. It will be my road machine. The Herald is just for driving round.
If you find the 20 kilobucks, here’s another one.
$49,000 for a Spitfire? :eek: Dude be whacked!
Sure, Mk.I Spits are not as common as Mk.IVs; but there’s a 1963 racer for 1/10 the price. It could probably be returned to its original condition for much less.