Triumph Spitfire 1500 Model

Hi All,

In the mid 1980's I was stationed at NAS Miramar California, (The place they shot the "Top Gun" movie) I had 1979 Triumph Spitfire

1500, but had to give it up (the Navy had other plans for me).

I was recently given a second chance, and bought a 75 Spitfire. It is amazing what 30 years will do to a car (sadly, it had not been kept up as well as the first).

I am recreating the valences forward of the radiator out of ABS plastic. Eventually I will be getting to the side valences. Then I am going to tackle the glove boxes. All made of that cardboard stuff.

I am also a member of one of the paper model groups here on Google, and I am finding that some of the skills I developed for that hobby (and some of my old aviation skills) are paying off as I bring my Spitfire up to speed.

I have two questions:

  1. Does anyone know of a paper model (or a CAD like file) of a Spitfire out there?

  1. What was with the treated cardboard, why that and not something else?

Thanks,

R/ Howard Columbus, Ohio.

Reply to
Howard
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We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Howard" saying something like:

Cheapness, pure and simple. Dead easy to mould a paper slurry in a glove box shape. Many of the BL/BMC cars at the time had paper[1] components inside where nobody would see them - door panels, glove boxes, etc.

It was quite common in the motor industry at the time and before cheap plastic moulding was properly developed.

[1] I use the word paper loosely to include cardboard, hardboard, and any other paper-based or woodpulp material.
Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

Commonly known as fibreboard. And used by just about every car maker at that time. Not really much worse than the cheap plastics used these days and unlikely to survive 30 years intact.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Grimly Curmudgeon realised it was Mon,

26 Jun 2006 00:36:51 +0100 and decided it was time to write:

Yep.

In the case of the Spitfire, BL did not bother to mould it in glove box shape. They took flat sheets of fibre board, stamped them into a suitable shape and folded them so that they could be utilised as as shelf under the dash to hold essential spare parts, like dizzy caps & arms, bonnet cones, bits of wire and blown fuses. Dead handy, actually. Apart from the blown fuses.

Reply to
Yippee

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Yippee saying something like:

Oh yeah. There was another offering from BL which had the ultra sophistication of folding *and* rivets, to make a box up.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

Grimly Curmudgeon realised it was Mon,

26 Jun 2006 18:21:31 +0100 and decided it was time to write:

There are rivets in Spitfire under-dash-shelves, too.

Reply to
Yippee

It's easy to criticize, but what material would you have used in those days for this purpose on a cheap car?

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Dave Plowman (News)" saying something like:

Fibreglass. Cheap, strong and unaffected by damp. My abiding memory of paper-product parcel shelves and gloveboxes is the unstraightness of them, caused by humidity.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

Maybe - but try pricing out the cost in a mass produced car. They would have had to be made by hand.

Yes - it's not an ideal material. ;-)

The instrument cover on my SD1 is fibreboard and they all warp. A club member has threatened to reproduce them in fibreglass but so far no show - despite many provisional orders.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Dave,

Thank you. That does make some sense. I guess it was just a matter of what they had at the time.

Maybe they had a good idea but did not take it far enough. Paper Mache cars. Consumers could make their own body modifications, and it would be faster than fiberglass, and without all the itching.

R/ Howard

Grimly Curmudge> We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the

Reply to
Howard

Dave,

I can vouch for the 30 years (31 to be exact) not staying intact. I have the stuff broken up in parts in the garage.

So, they used inexpensive paper pulp and yet were environmentally conscience. That works for me.

Thanks

R/ Howard

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Reply to
Howard

Hi Yippee

I noticed that they had just used straight board. This will make it so much easier for me to replicate it. When making paper models, I have fournd that curves have a tendency to complicate the design and construction. I also like that they are open, nothing hidden. My passenger one even has parts in it now. I don't know what they are for, but it has parts.

Thanks Y

R/ Howard

Yippee wrote:

Reply to
Howard

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Dave Plowman (News)" saying something like:

Chopped sprayed mat and resin - no hand laying necessary. Mind you, I don't know if that technique was around 30/40 years ago.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

Grimly Curmudgeon realised it was Tue,

27 Jun 2006 16:56:39 +0100 and decided it was time to write:

It was around 40 years ago, but I imagine it would have been several times more expensive than folded cardboard. Besides, why make a parcel shelf that will withstand the ages for a car that's built to rust away in, what, ten years?

Reply to
Yippee

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Yippee saying something like:

Average life of a car on British roads in the 60s/70s was about 8/9 years, so cheap and nasty was the way to go, I agree. I recall seeing many 6 and 7 year old cars in breakers with terminal rust, solely due to non-existent protection and salty roads.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

I was wondering why I always kept seeing the same kind of corrosion damage on these cars.

So this would be the epitome of planned obsolescence.

Thanks,

H

Grimly Curmudge> We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the

Reply to
Howard

More just to save costs. Many would have cars under sealed after buying new - and that did help their life. But it was factory wax injection, seam sealing (and part galvanising) that made the big difference. However, it's also contributed to cars being worth next to nothing when a few years old.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

But nothing has really changed in that case.

In 1970, I scrapped a 1963 Cortina that was, literally, falling apart from rust. The strut tops were shot, the floor was shot and the front wings were crumbling away. Among other things...

What's a 7 year old Ford 4-door banger worth in the UK now? More than I got for my old Cortina, I'll bet.

Reply to
Dean Dark

I had to look it up. Found two 1979 versions in Australia. One for $6000, one for $500.

I guess I will have to just apply my own under seal and hope mine does not degrade any further.

R/ Howard

Reply to
Howard

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