I haven’t because I haven’t done any. I did bugger about with the choke and the carbs because it was having some problems from cold but I decided the problem was the knob inbetween the chock knob and the seat.

My other car, the ‘reliable’ daily runner however has had a worse few months. The morning it was due to go into the garage to have the engine management codes read (the engine warning light was on) it wouldn’t start. So with some sense of irony I jump started it using the Spitfire.

So, I hear you cry, what is the problem with workshop manuals. Well, they assume that you have good access to the car and a decent place to work. I have the road outside my house, this makes finding some of the drain plugs a bit of a pain, the sump plug should be easy but I couldn’t find the coolant drain plug when it came to drain the engine (I actually did get round to replacing the rubber hoses).

The manual rather helpfully has a picture of a drain plug but that’s it, it’s a plug in a block of metal, where you find said plug is left as an exercise for the reader.

A few more photos

I can’t quite pin down when classic cars started appealing to me but it was sometime near the end of University. I’ve been toying with the idea of buying a classic for a few years but always got scared for various reasons; not having a garage, not having any experience of fixing engines etc.

So to cut a long drawn out story….I decided just to buy one or I never would. What’s the worst that could happen? (don’t answer that!). So with a bit of research and a few viewings I bought a 1979 Triumph Spitfire 1500 (with overdrive).

So far so good, we went camping last weekend (hence the tents in the photos) and it made the 80 odd mile journey with very few hitches. I’m still getting used to having a manual choke and there was a bit of a rumbling on the near side front corner which turned out to be some loose wheel nuts (which was both scary and a relief at the same time).

As for why a Spitfire. Good question, I guess if you’re going to have second car it might as well be a soft top, being British was obviously nice too. I quite like MG B (GT)s but there are quite a few of those around. Spitfires are slightly rarer and arguably more stylish.

I’ve now got an ever growing list of things to fix on it. The first is very probably going to be fixing the heaters, they’re currently stuck on hot!