Michael Stoliker's Journal
Home Page: Michael Stoliker
Bethlehem, PA, USA
| Total Posts: 18 | Latest Post: 2012-09-28 |
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I spent all Sunday morning with a spot weld drill and a dremel multi-tool picking apart the master cylinder tray I bought from Lee Seltsam via the trader forum on this site. True to his word, the panel was in excellent shape with only minor surface rust. The only dodgy part was the metal near a bracket welded to the back of the panel near the relay bracket. It looked like the metal had cracked from stress and then started to rust a bit. This piece of metal will get some extra attention when I start to reassemble the shelf.
The replacement part came from an earlier Spitfire; a 71 or 72? and I noticed some differences. For one thing, the flying buttresses that brace the panel and surround the brake cylinder are higher on the earlier spitfire. In addition, the dimple behind the brake fluid reservior is smaller and stamped right into the panel whereas on the 1978, the dimple is wider and deeper, so it is a separate stamping which is spot welded in place.
In pulling all the bits off the panel I gained some insight into how this must have been assembled when the car was being built. There are so many fiddly pieces that could only have been spot welded if the welder had access to both sides of the panel that it's obvious that this panel was assembled off the car, and then spot welded on as a finished assembly. In addition, there must have been a certain amount of stick welding done around the hood closure panels. These were certainly labor intensive cars to build.
The actual mounting brackets for the clutch and brake masters are still bolt-ons, and appear to be unchanged. Lee threw them in, so I now have an extra pair. I've cleaned and painted these parts along with the flying buttress and relay brackets that had to be drilled off the panel. If anyone needs any of these brackets let me know.
I'll add a picture later.
Edited July 31st. The extra brackets found a new home last week with another forum member out in Utah. So those brackets had to travel from Colorado to Pennsylvania to Utah to find a new home. They're more well traveled than me!
The replacement part came from an earlier Spitfire; a 71 or 72? and I noticed some differences. For one thing, the flying buttresses that brace the panel and surround the brake cylinder are higher on the earlier spitfire. In addition, the dimple behind the brake fluid reservior is smaller and stamped right into the panel whereas on the 1978, the dimple is wider and deeper, so it is a separate stamping which is spot welded in place.
In pulling all the bits off the panel I gained some insight into how this must have been assembled when the car was being built. There are so many fiddly pieces that could only have been spot welded if the welder had access to both sides of the panel that it's obvious that this panel was assembled off the car, and then spot welded on as a finished assembly. In addition, there must have been a certain amount of stick welding done around the hood closure panels. These were certainly labor intensive cars to build.
The actual mounting brackets for the clutch and brake masters are still bolt-ons, and appear to be unchanged. Lee threw them in, so I now have an extra pair. I've cleaned and painted these parts along with the flying buttress and relay brackets that had to be drilled off the panel. If anyone needs any of these brackets let me know.
I'll add a picture later.
Edited July 31st. The extra brackets found a new home last week with another forum member out in Utah. So those brackets had to travel from Colorado to Pennsylvania to Utah to find a new home. They're more well traveled than me!
The picked clean donor panel
The reason for all this (Brackets removed)
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