Saturday night was a bitter sweet moment. A few months back I sold my Triumph Spitfire that I brought back to life. The new owner Bruce, a reader and a frequent buyer of the cars we feature, hadn’t been able to get it shipped to its new home in California. Well, late Saturday evening the shipper finally arrived to take the little Spitfire away. I was both sad to see it go, but excited for it and its new owner!

Getting it shipped out proved to be a more difficult task then it really should have been. You see, I kept every part that I removed, replaced, or upgraded and I wanted it all to stay with the car. The original engine is stuck, but Bruce wanted it anyway, so I took it apart so it could be put it in the trunk. I had been told by the shipping company they would give me a full day notice of when the truck would arrive, but instead they gave me about a six hour warning. I could have loaded the engine months ago, but I didn’t want to leave the heavy engine block sitting in the trunk putting unnecessary strain on the suspension for an unknown length of time.

I had stashed the engine at our office, so either it needed to get to my house where the car was or my car needed to get to it. I decided the later would be the easier option, or so I thought. I had been driving it occasionally until I mailed the title off to Bruce, but once the title was gone, I parked it and would go out and start it regularly so it would be ready to go at a moments notice. As things always seem to go though, when I went out to start it on Saturday, the starter wasn’t working. It wouldn’t turn the engine over at all, so I quickly came to the conclusion that the starter needed to be pulled out. It thankfully only took a few minutes to get it out, but then an hour to drive to the parts store, swap it for a new one ,and drive home. Thankfully, it was still under warranty, so I didn’t have to pay for the replacement at least. I then had the fun task of installing it, but it went in quick enough and did the trick perfectly!

With only a handful of hours to spare, I took it for one last spin around the block and then headed to the office to load up the rest of the spare parts and the engine. Jesse had to come help me lift the engine into the trunk, which proved to be a fun task. We were able to fit everything in there though, except for one of the spare wheels. I figured I could work something out with the shipper to get it there with the rest of the car. With everything loaded up, I took a few photos and grabbed some dinner. I hadn’t even started eating when the driver called to pick it up, thankfully he needed to load up three other vehicles, so that bought me enough time to eat.

It was dark by the time I made it back to our office to help load up the car. The driver did a quick inspection and drove it around the parking lot to get accustom to the controls. He had to unload the three enormous German SUVs he was carrying to load the tiny Spitfire. He saw how interested I was in the process, so he invited me to help him load the car up. Soon we were talking about classic cars and some of the stuff he’s carried over the years. I then told him about the spare wheel that needed to go somewhere and he offered to throw it in the back of one of the SUVs! Soon we had all four vehicles loaded up and he was ready to hit the road. I said one last goodbye to the Spitfire and wished my new friend a safe trip back to California.

He had scheduled to deliver the car to Bruce early this morning, but thankfully he got into the Sacramento area late Sunday night and was able to drop it off before Bruce had to head out of town for work. I did hear from Bruce this morning though and he said the car arrived without any issues and looked beautiful! He can’t wait to see it in the daylight and to take it for a spin. I want to wish Bruce the best of luck with the Spitfire and I hope he will keep us posted!