This car, even faded and tired had good charisma. You can see plenty of red paint peeking through from where the cheap burgundy paint is flaking away.
I found a donor car complete with clean title and negotiated a price of $300. Score! I towed it home and set to work. Really there is not much at all I needed to convert my '74 except the VIN tags. So that's what I kept and got rid of the rest of that ragged little jalopy of a '71. When I uncovered my dormant '74, I could see that storage had not been kind. The paint was bubbling all across the hood. I fired it up to drive and first gear was almost completely non-compliant. The car was not road worthy anymore.
Because I really had a bond with the car, the only thing to do was to remedy the bubbling paint and repair the ailing transmission, so that's what I took to doing. I stripped the body to bare metal. There were five (5!) coats of paint- the burgundy, under that were two different reds, under that a dark blue, and under that the original and unflattering brown. I shaved the side markers, eliminated the wipers and made a few other little mods along the way.
Then I took a break from the Spitfire that lasted several years. She sat half apart and un restored. By the time I found my way back to finishing her up, the smog laws had changed and the 1974 model year was exempt!! In went a hot cam and I milled the head. I found good used replacement transmission parts (I needed a counter gear, shaft and needle bearings along with all the standard rebuild parts).
I had a beautiful base/clear coat paint applied in a similar burgundy to what I bought the car in and had the stripes recreated. I rebuilt the suspension and brakes and once again had an awesome little car to rip around in for a few more years.
'71 Donor car that ended up being entirely un-used.
Spitfire stripped of 5 layers of paint. It was very rust free, with clean original floors and all other areas.
After some minor body work for mostly door dings.
Over the years I built several engines for the car. The best one was stock bore, custom grind cam from "Spitbits" in Lincoln, Ca, 32/36 Weber, long tube header, comp cams electronic ignition and about .050 milled from the head to bump compression. I painted them all red.
After rebuilding.
Note the blacked-out tail section and the early rear bumper with integrated license plate light.
I wasn't aware that the wheels were alternatively tucking and leaving tarmac. No wonder when I laid on the throttle while exiting, my rear tires always seemed to go up in smoke instead of rocketing me forward!