1978 Spitfire FM76948U

     8/99
     Well this little darlin' is the newest arrival in my stable. There is presently less than 2,000 miles
on this restoration, accumulated over the last five years. I can't claim ALL the credit for her present condition
though. The P.O. did do a nice job on the initial frame off restoration work back in 1993/94. The Vermilion
paint job is near flawless.  These first two photos were taken by the P.O. back in 1994 just after the completion of the paint job.

The final product just after completion of the restoration.         

  ... and a shot face to face

Look at the shine on this beauty!
  
The patterns visible on the bonnet... are actually reflections of all
the stuff in the garage the night I bought her.

    Since purchase, many small items (and some large) have been refurbished or replaced.
She recently has had almost every rubber seal on her replaced. New outer door window
rubber and inner fur seals, bonnet and quarter valence seals, trunk and ragtop to
windshield seals.  I recently installed a new rear leaf spring, even though I probably
could have gotten away with simply replacing the little rubber pads between leaves to get
rid of the squat and  bring her back up to normal ride height. A pair of matching rear view

The following four photos were taken at Ft. Smallwood
Park September 1999, next to the Chesapeake Bay at the
mouth of the Baltimore Harbor.

That's the Key Bridge in the background for anyone who knows Baltimore.

(with the new K&N Filter shining brightly)


That's me in the reflection on the bonnet taking the picture...30 feet away!


Notice a front license plate has been added? That's a NOS front license plate
bracket I won on Ebay. It still had the OEM paper on it protecting the chrome.

      Just after these photos were taken, I stripped, cleaned and repainted the
wheels silver. Something about the black just didn't look quite right. I've found
Plasti-Cote 'Truck and Van' paint 'Slate Silver' is a very close match to the original
silver used on the wheels. Yes... I think they look much

The next two photos were taken at the New Castle Delaware show Oct 3, 1999.

A bunch of nice Healeys as a backdrop... how much classier can you get.
The white on the windshield is the car show ID. sign and my own 'blurb' about
the state of the engine/car mod's and the names of the e-mail lists I belong to.

Right next to the 'group' delineation sign.  Only two of us out of 117 cars.