Tim,
I know the dilemma well. I was faced with the same question at that
stage of my own restoration. While I don't think it is the right thing
in all cases, here's what I did.
I painted the firewall, inside of the cockpit, the dash, the windshield
frame and the front valance myself. I then reassembled the tub onto the
freshly painted rolling frame (with all drive components installed). I
then installed the windshield frame and glass, all dash components and
the transmission tunnel cover.
At that point I trailered the car over to the paint shop that did the
remainder of the painting.
If you choose this route, make sure your painter understands all the
work you have done on the frame and takes precautions against overspray
on the frame.
I can't say whether you need to replace the bushings with polyurethane
or rubber, but it is a good idea to replace them while it is easy to do
so.
Regards,
Joe Curry
P.S. My Spit is a Mk1, so if yours is a later style, the windshield
frame is stationery, (so don't try to remove it) 8^)
Dr T. Dafforn wrote:
>
> Spent 8 hours last weekend spliting the body of my spit from its chassis,
> now have the body nicely placed on stands so I can have a good look around
> underneath....
> And what do I find...
> The bottom attachments for the seatbelts, where they bolt through a
> strengthener in the rear wheel arch were half rotted out... In fact there
> was a nice half circle of rust all 'round the lower part of the
> strengthener... god knows what woiuld have happened in an accident...
> Anyhow a worth while warning... which has led me to cut out the offending
> rust and weld in higher guage strengtheners...
> So the question is have yu checked yours recently...?
>
> Also on the 'body off' point, do I have the body sprayed while off and
> risk scratchinf it during the tricky process of remating it with the
> chassis..
> or
> Do I put the prepared body back, remove the engine to afford the body shop
> good access to the fire wall and send the car to be resprayed like that...
> (the bonnet doesn't need spraying!)
>
> And finally while access to the chassis/ dif. is easy do I repace all the
> rubber bushes with polyurethane?
>
> Cheers again for any help
>
> Tim
> Spitfire 1500 (in two sections)
--
"If you can't excel with talent, triumph with effort."
-- Dave Weinbaum in National Enquirer
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