When we bought our 1980 Spitfire from Automotive Restorations, owner and fellow Spitfire lover Kent Bain, he admitted that he had bought the car from a local kid that was quickly ruining it. While Kent had started sorting the car, we convinced him that he didn’t have time for such nonsense and we b…
I would have never noticed the duplicate license plate lights. I have been looking of a 71 or 72 rear bumper for a while. Stupid thing is a GAVE one away years ago before I got my 80 Spit.
Even a 1978 or so rear bumper is usuable. I took the extra bits and pieces off and underneath was a slim early style bumper. There were a couple holes that I covered with chrome carriage bolts but pretty good for a driver level car on a budget. Cost? Less than $10 for six carriage bolts and nuts.
Yes, you can also use a later bumper, but you will have to fill the holes either by welding and then rechroming, or by filling in with a couple of extra bumper bolts.
So what does it drive like after losing all that weight from each end?
Actually, this car drives pretty darned well. We have been fixing several things at once, so it is hard to measure just the difference the bumper change made. Still, you can definitely feel the difference in handling and straight line performance when you knock a hundred or so pounds off the corners of an 1800 pound Spitfire
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