1979 Trouble Spitfire

[PhilA]

The wind funnels are probably quite effective above 20 mph.

You see the electric fan has a shroud. Because they work.

[Jerzy Woking]

Thanks for the thread SIC, an interesting read, even though I have never wanted one. But I have become aware of them.

Pulling into the car park of my hotel in Viriat, France, I park next to....a Spitfire.

Looked nice and shiny. Twin pipes too.

Spitfire One Viriat.jpg (202.44 KiB) Viewed 295 times

Spitfire Two Viriat.jpg (205.26 KiB) Viewed 295 times

[DodgeRover]

Thinking about your fan control issue I remembered a thread over on retro rides by nomad, he was using a KLIXON thermostat rather than the Kenlowe set up and he had reported it was working well, available at all sorts of different temperature ranges and cheap.

[LynehamHerc]

My kenlowe worked well for quite a few years and never had to use the illuminated manual switch, just relying on the dial thermostat. I think I removed it when the motor went but it's so long ago now I can't be sure.

[SiC]

If it was a genuine Kenlowe fan switch, it'd probably still be working. That was missing/never fitted so ND fitted a cheap thermostat switch to see if they were any good. It worked fine when he had it but started to be temperamental on the day of collection. So presumably cheap ones aren't good.

There are a few other options for electric fan switches. Ranging from stuff that cuts inline on the top hose, these pressure bulb ones that go in into the hose and then fully digital programmable ones. All vary in price and quality.

With the mechanical fan now on it, there should be no need for the electric fan. However as it's already there and fitted, to save cluttering up my garage with more spares it can stay on the car.
But if it stays, I might as well make it work. I don't want to spend any money with new thermostats or the like, so I'll just wire up the random switch under the dash (probably was for aftermarket fog lights it once had) through a relay. That way if I absolutely need more cooling on a sweltering hot day, I can flip the switch and run the electric fan too.

I think I've spent more time chatting about fans and cooling than I have sorting it!

[PhilA]

A very pleasant day today spent talking cars with SiC today.

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British summer, British sportscar!

[Hooli]

I still can't believe he hasn't poked it (too much) yet.

Shouldn't the centre caps be black though? looks odd all grey wheeled.

[PhilA]

I still can't believe he hasn't poked it (too much) yet.

Shouldn't the centre caps be black though? looks odd all grey wheeled.

Been resisting the urge. I told him not to.

I think it looks nice with the caps silver, to be honest

[Hooli]

I'm not saying it looks bad, just odd as I'm used to seeing them black.

[xtriple]

My second-ever car was a Spitfire. Bought from a 'Bombsite' car dealer in that delightful town, Scunthorpe. JNK 972C so it was already pretty bloody ancient but anything interesting in Scunthorpe was a fucking rare event (Gillan played the baths once, and my dog had puppies inside my bed while I was bopping with a married lady... happy days!)

My first car was Mini Cooper 'S' that I had slaved for many months of Saturdays to get, but that's beside the point (was there one?). It was bright red and looked great but of course, it wasn't. The bootlid was fibreglass (a bought that way item), the sills were, fibreglass, the bonnet was fibreglass with the odd bit of metal, the doors were... filler! It was, in short, a proper lash- up and I fucking loved it!

It cost £295 (I sold my Cooper for about £400 so I was quids in) and it was the most fun for £300 any young man could have. Sure, it leaked like a sieve and every time it rained my right side was drenched 'cos the roof and the windows were not on speaking terms, the stereo was some awful Sharp auto-reverse thing with tiny speakers mounted immediately behind the front seat that were totally inaudible above about 15 mph and the thing really liked to slide around all over the road when it was even fractionally damp (which it was, a lot!), but it taught me an awful lot about car control as I wended my weary way from Sunny Scunny to Loughborough where I attended the proper University (which was alongside the Poly, then amalgamated and it was all Loughborough University, oh the shame...)
on weekly visits to see the current bird.

Winter came and what was charming, nay, amusing during the halcyon days of summer quickly became fooking tedious, okay, downright dangerous in the snow and ice, traction was a thing Triumph were only vaguely aware of (or was it the bald and shite tyres? This we will, sadly, never know) and it all came to a sorry, if predictable end during a wintry January night when lubricated by several shandies at the student union and in the company of a rather plumptious young lady who was NOT my current girlfriend, the car met its sad demise in the in the entrance to a ploughed field when talent and traction ran out.

A very cold and dismal night was spent in the car without shoes (lost in the mud) or one sock (likewise) and a very, VERY disgruntled young lady who the next day, made her escape and was never seen (by me) again.

What became of the car I hear you ask? No idea is the answer as I saw the damage I'd done to the farmer's3 gates and did what any sensible young, pissed student would do and legged it and left the fucker to its fate.

RIP JNK 972 C