I’ve had the chance to experience several ’70s Spitfires, as a matter of fact I currently own one! They are fun, albeit slow, little sports cars and they are quite easy to work on. While I like the later cars, I’ve always enjoyed the looks of the earlier cars better. There were a lot of refinements that make later cars better to drive on a regular basis, but if you want a sporty looking little British roadster, you can’t go wrong with a second generation Spitfire. This one is barn fresh and while it is rough, it comes with a complete set of desirable wire wheels! You can find it here on eBay in Home, Pennsylvania with a BIN of $3,500.
The seller seems to specialize in Spitfires, we actually have seen this car before when they listed another Spitfire that was found in the same barn. I think the seller is a bit optimistic about the price on this ’66. They are more valuable than later cars, but this one looks pretty rough. I see a lot of rust to repair and it looks like most of the suspension is going to need to be replaced or rebuilt. Most parts are cheap for these cars, but there are some items that are quite pricey. I’ve had great luck dealing with the guys at BP Northwest (thank Jamie for that tip!), as a matter of fact I have a shipment of parts waiting for me at my house right now!
Restoring this car is likely going to be a challenge, but it does have some nice extras. The hardtop is a huge plus, as is having the wire wheels and all the mounting hardware. The seller doesn’t state whether this has the highly desirable overdrive transmission, but I don’t see the overdrive stalk switch so I would assume it lacks this feature. While I really do love the styling of these early cars, I actually think I’d keep my ’78 just to not have to restore this one. What do you think? Are the looks worth the work?
A little bit high, but not as high as you’d think. Hardtop is nice, as is the AMCO glove box. I have one produced a couple of months after this one, wouldn’t trade it for the world.
I wish I had that radio for my 1964 MG Midget restoration!
Patrick, I have an original 64 radio with a service manual that I will sell. Contact me if interested.
Although the completeness, wire wheels, hard top and color are really nice things this car has going for it I think the price is a little high. I would hope with cash in hand an interested party would be able to get this for closer to $2500. I have found that most sellers are willing to negotiate and for the right price this little Spitfire would be a decent project.
Here’s one that may end up a lot less expensive, but sure needs some work: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Triumph-Spitfire-Spitfire-/151958413148
Once I got away from years of British cars and the Brit car guys, I came to fully realize……..no one cares.
I don’t bring this up to be negative or bring anyone down. But items like this?………the ship has left the dock.
Ok, that one I have to disagree with. If you don’t have British car enthusiasts in your area; sorry for you. Many of us are still around; a little older perhaps, but we actually have had some success recently getting younger members into our organization as well. The South Central British Car Gathering that our club puts on every year has gotten larger and larger and continues to grow. Parts availability is better than ever thanks to demand making it economically feasible to reproduce more and more parts. If the ship has left the dock, there are a lot of folks on it and we’re having a grand time!
I’m a British car lover, and actually, I’m the 25 year old kid who bought this seller’s other Spitfire (the blue 1969 Mk3). It’s happily sitting in my garage waiting for a shipment of parts to arrive. I’ve always loved British cars, but I’m also British. lol
oh my god… what an utter piece of Junk.
How many tens of thousands is this going to cost to make descent?
And how little is it going to be worth afterward?
Ok what am I missing here. I am not really a brit car guy but do work on them. Yes to pay me to restore this is going to be stupid, but to do this one yourself doesn’t look to bad. I think the price is to high and the red one is a better start point, but I think I could make this a nice runner for 10k, and a pretty nice car for 15k. The biggest issue is that a person is going to have to enjoy doing this, and not do it for a quick flip. For example today I spent several hours bending brake lines and getting the ends perfect, on several of them it took 3 tries to get them perfect, but when I did it was great. It is a lot of fun bringing the dead back and I have seen far worst restored, so you naysayers what is the issue with this one.
Kevin Harper
BIF motors
Compared to other cars a spitfire would be cheep to restore.
You can do almost everything without help
If you are tough you don’t need an engine hoist.
It’s so small a one bay garage is enough
Sanding, painting, finishing, did I mention small
What’s it worth finished?
Just go for a drive in the mountains or sightseeing and remember all those mussel cars still in the shop not finished
Does anybody know what a spit 6 is?
Yup! Driven one :-). Lots of fun!
yes, but when the fix-up is finished, the spitfire will still retain its rear wheel bearing design where the outer bearing race is the AXLE shaft…………always a repair-in-waiting………..
My first car was a 65 Spitfire. I paid $150 bucks for it. It had a foot of water in it, the top was shot. The floors were paper mache. It only fired on 3 cyls. After I put new rings in the engine rebuilt the tranny and brakes and glassed the floors back in, I had $482 bucks total in the car. Drove it for a year and a half and sold it to a fellow student for $785.00. That is in 1977 dollars. My front cowling didn’t look near as good as this BRG one and it didn’t have wire wheels with it. Having said all that. I agree 3500 is a big ask. If it ran and had air in the tires he might have a better chance at getting that. I’m thinking more like 1800 only because it has a hard top. Being complete is great, however I assume it would need everything before it was fresh and loverly.