Missy's "Barn" Find 1978 Triumph Spitfire 

On September 23rd, 2017, friends of the Broad River European Motor Club gathered and drove to Kingport, TN for the extraction of Missy’s 1978 Triumph Spitfire. This was a great club outing and we all had fun.

The extraction gang… Left to right: Bruce Harless, Bob Cabiness, Sam Nichol, Doug Carlisle, Curt Holland, and Missy Holland.

“Barn” find in Tennessee. Completely original, rust free 1978 Spitfire. It had been stored in this basement for who knows how many years.

With Doug at the wheel, the rest of the crew pushed the Spitfire up the ramps and into the horse trailer.

Safely in the trailer.

There were quite a few spare parts too.

Kevin’s one and only ride!

Home and in the shop, ready to begin.

The interior was missing when we purchased the car. We removed the seats and tunnel so we could begin cleaning up the surface rust on the floor pans.

 
Despite being a rust free car, there was still surface rust on the floor pans that needed to be addressed. Since this car was such a nice original, we decided to do a preservation only, not a restoration. Our goal with the preservation was to prevent any further deterioration, so surfaces like this needed to be cleaned rust free, and repainted with modern paints for excellent protection. The floors were still very solid, just light surface rust was present.

The same was the case with the boot floor. It was still very solid, just needed to be cleaned and preserved to prevent any further deterioration.

  
Curt designed and built this remote blast head that ties into the cabinet blaster in the shop. This allowed the boot and floor pans to be blasted 100% rust free. This is the perfect surface for new primer.

The blast and suction head being used to clean up any surface rust on the floor pans, making them good as new again.

Here we have just started with the cleanup of the front floor pans.

  
Once the floor pans were blasted 100% clean, self etching SEM primer was applied.

Seam sealer and several coats of primer surfacer were sprayed to make it all nice and smooth and ready for color. Missy is spreading seam sealer.

Final ScotchBrit work in prep for paint

Missy painting her first car parts using PPG catalyzed urethane. This paint will be much more durable than original paint.

Paint work to floor pans and boot floor all done!

The area of the bulkhead where the brake and clutch master cylinders mount was a little rusty so everything was removed in prep for touching up the paint.

The battery box had not faired well. This would have to be removed and replaced.

Drilling out the spot welds for the old battery box

New battery box installed, brackets reworked, and the bulkhead painted with catalyzed urethane for good protection of the metal.

Brake and clutch master cylinder brackets, cylinder, and pedals going back in place.

The front and rear bumpers were removed and shipped to Knox Chrome in Tennessee for re-plating. The front one had a small ding in it, so it needed some straightening.

Since we decided long ago to preserve the car not restore it, some buffing work was needed to shine up the 40 year old paint.

Meguir’s polish and then Swirl mark remover were used.