Another 12 Months

Took the car down to Lutterworth MOT Centre for the dreaded MOT today. I found the place on the internet as it's not really that local to me but it appeared they had an understanding of classic cars. The guy who did the test, James, also had a couple of Triumphs and was very helpful and made the experience a good one. The car passed with no advisories which is great but he also pointed out one or two things that although weren't worthy of an advisory, where worth looking at over the next period. For me this is exactly what you need from an MOT station when dealing with older cars. You don't want some draconian, you've failed attitude, but one that helps you get through the test and also what to look at to get through the next one. I can't rate them highly enough and would recommend them to anyone with a classic car.  Lutterworth MOT Centre in Leicestershire, you heard it here.



Can you see the Spitfire in the background? One of the projects for James



The car had just been up in the air and the wheels hadn't settled back down again. Hence the high looking ride

Tidy Up

Got round to some more small jobs to help tidy up the outside of the car. The rear vents which at some point were changed to black always looked good in my opinion but were now a little scuffy. I considered changing back to body colour but as the rear light panel is also black I decided to leave it.

After a sand down I used red oxide primer and then satin matt black. I do think it has really improved them and for an hours work the results speak for themselves.

MOT is also booked for the end of next week so time to start worrying.

Red oxide primer

Satin matt black

Both vents now have a new lease of life

Moved on to the rear light panel which had lost some paint around the bottom of the right lamp and had surface rust coming through above the same lamp.

After a good sand with 120 grit paper I used some etch primer and then resprayed with matt black. Another good result tidying up the car a bit more.

Good job much improved

Rear brake lights

One thing my wife noticed as I was putting the car away was one brake light appears round and the other more rectangular. On closer inspection you can see that on one side the area around the bulb is much smaller with a very flat top and bottom and the on the other side, although still with a small flat top and bottom area, is much rounder. Looking in my Mk3 parts catalogue it shows the round version and on Canleys website it shows the 1500 Spitfire with the flatter more rectangular version so it appears I have one of each.

One thing that threw me was when looking on the Rimmer Bros website for GT6 Mk3 lights they show a picture with one of each type side by side in the same order as mine. I thought it maybe had both types originally on the car for some odd 70's reason but I cant find anywhere that can help me on that and the general forums where I posted the question so far haven't helped either.

You can see the one one left has a rectangular brake light and the right is more rounded

The other news is my paint has arrived for some touch ups around the bottom of the car, the rear light panel and rear vents. I will wait until generally warmer weather before taking anything on. I also picked up a new oil filter as a package containing nothing but aerosol cans was a bit boring.

Small Changes

Got some new bits and pieces from James Paddock. New screws and cup washers for the dash, a new radio aerial, gear knob cap and windscreen wipers.

With my MOT coming up the wipers were a bit past it so I got some nice stainless ones which fitted no problem. One thing I did notice was one wiper arm is straight and the other over the drivers side has a left hand bend in it. Not sure if this is right to have one of each but anyway, the blades were slightly longer than my last set so I had to remove the arms and reposition.

New wipers before I repositioned. Drivers arm has a bend in it.

The gear knob had reverse in the wrong direction so I finally replaced this although I do question the use of the word "new" when describing the cap I received. The screws made the dash look at little better as the old ones had no cup washer and were very rusty looking.

Chrome aerial looks nice but still didn't work

The aerial was a bit of pain as I had to remove some interior trim inside the rear quarter to get the cable through but after a bit of messing around and back pain I got it all rigged up. The old aerial had snapped and was held together with tape and the radio had a very poor reception. Well what a surpise all that messing about and it didn't make any difference so I will have to remove the radio now and check the connections etc. It may mean the stereo needs replacing (which I have always said it does but just can't find the spare cash to do it).

Went for a decent drive and gave the car a bit a stick and for the first time since I've had it, I actually think the car sounded good. Once you get the revs up the exhaust note changes (or in my case can be heard) and I think the car handles better and feels lighter and better balanced when you give it some.

Did a quick video of the car being revved. Sounds pretty good considering its a standard exhaust.

MOT approaches Aaargh

I need to get the car in for an MOT during May and the panic has started to set in. I have no idea if it's going to get through or not. Basically the car seems fine with nothing really obvious but as this will be the first MOT I've done with the car I'm expecting the worst. The handbrake cable is still sticking from time to time so I need to have another look at that, but apart from that most stuff I'm going to be working on in the next period has nothing to do with the MOT at all.

The current up coming job list:-

Sticking handbrake cable
New windscreen wipers
Gear knob cap reverse in wrong direction
New radio aerial
Respray rear light panel
More touch up paint jobs around sills, rear valance, rear vents and rear light panel.

We will see how it goes and if it fails the MOT the list of jobs will surely grow.