78 Spitfire parts search

[rcvowell]

Hello,

I am looking for some parts to help with the restoration of the old Spitfire that I grew up playing on that eventually worked its way through three other families and is back in my possession for my kids to learn and grow on.

After 15 years of sitting, it actually fired up on the first pull after some fuel was poured in the cylinders. A friend will be swapping shaft seals on it, and I will address the carburetor to get it feeding correctly, but it sounded great to hear it again! It left our possession around 1992 and hadn't been seen since. The kids will love it!

Anyway..

Right now I am looking for:

Airbox assembly, or pictures and dimensions to recreate one from fiberglass.

Seat base and foam, or dimensions and pictures to try and make one. The wood on mine is completely rotted away. As near as I can tell it was a piece of flat 3/4" with a box built into the end around the tail light. Is this correct? I can probably figure out how to shape foam as well to make a new one, but if a decent one was out there, that would save a ton of time.

The kids are begging to fly up to our property in March to play in the snow, and they don't even know I have this project for them yet. It would be nice to get it usable, by then.

I have been searching eBay for other various parts I need as well which has helped, but these two have been hard to track down so far.

It's great to have this little sled back so that I can share it with the kids, we used to absolutely love it when I was a kid!

Ryan

[sledhead16]

Ryan welcome, neat story, a lot of spitfires were produced so more than likely someone on here has a airbox and seat for you!

[rcvowell]

Glad to hear it!

Once it is a bit more photogenic I will get some pictures of it, probably with my kids on it just because their grandma will truly appreciate them then!

I need some fresh plug wire boots too, but I am not sure if only the boot can be replaced, or the entire coil/wire/boot setup needs to be.

[sledhead16]

Ryan,

We love roasted, toasted, riders and trailer queens! all pics are fun for us to see! Alot of members here are serious addicts, like myself, and many started off with one and now have a whole herd of deere! A great parts resource is Matt at www.newbreedparts.com he ships quickly and gets you what you need. For stuff that Matt doesn't have many members here have used extra parts lying around and some members even have some NOS parts. Also for used parts the john deere snowmobile facebook page is a new addition for buying and selling parts.

[rcvowell]

Cool! Thanks for the heads up on the parts sourcing!

Who knows, maybe the parts tub that I have will get turned into a second Spitfire, one for each kid! I under stand addicting projects, my wife just thinks I already have too many.. property in two states, house in one, Opel Gt, Merc 1150 I6, 91 Chevy with Caddy 500, the list goes on! LOL

I have a chance of running across more Deere back home in Alaska, as well as my dream Kawasaki 440 Invader. With the trails and lakes around our place, they just make me wish I was a kid again playing on our "old" simple sleds. I have a Yamaha 700 MM as well, but like the light weight little Deere better from memory!

Thanks again for the input!

[JDT]

Knowing the histroy of any sled is great.
But the history behind YOUR sled is priceless!!!!

You have a 8.2L with THM425 in a Chevy? What a Lumina?

I have to see pics of this transplant!!!!!

[JDT]

Please...

[rcvowell]

91 Chevy truck, BOP TH400, 9 3/4" 14 bolt rear end. The transmission was from a rwd 472 car, can't remember which though.

Presently putting together a strengthened up 500 to graft a 3.3L Whipple supercharger to and run aroun 8-10 psi on it.

Nothing purdy or fancy, just my tow beast beater truck.





Near future tweaks include a custom single serpentine belt conversion, 3.3L Whipple Charger, and swap to BS3 fuel injection, possibly coil on plug ignition if I am still motivated.

Once it's debugged, I will setup this engine the same way and stuff it in my '00 1ton K3500 long bed, crew cab in Alaska to haul the Spitty! LOL

[JDT]

So what year is that block?

[rcvowell]

The one int he truck is a 71, I have later open chamber heads on it and swapped pistons to get 9:1 (or so) compression. There was some confusion about piston design and the original 76cc heads so I swapped them for the 120's. Wish I didn't now!

The engine I am building up is an original '70 block with matching 76cc heads, it will receive forged custom internals for the supercharger setup.

The new engine will be a slow and as money allows project, but should be an absolute blast to drive when it's completed. I see chassis bracing in the future though in that this current setup already likes to break things.

My friend that is helping with the long block build up is moving out of state this year so I am trying to at least get that together, then worry about the belt and blower setup later.

PS... on topic content:

It looks like I have located a complete air box for the Spitfire now, just need to confirm shipping and it should be on the way. After that the only major thing I need to find is a good seat foam to use as a starting point to make the wood base and recover! I love this little sled!!!!!!!!!!!!

[rcvowell]

Hello all, it's been awhile. I just got vack from a trip up north dedicated to getting the lil engine back in the sled and low and behold it runs! I did discover that I bought the wrong airbox. The one I gave is fir a 79 and up it seems, I still need one for a 78. Anyone with a complete 78 air box assembly want to trade fir a 79 assembly?

The primary vlutch seems to be in tough shape too, are aftermarket replacements available?

The seat is still needed as well.

Here is my wish list.

1978 air silencer assembly
Fresh, or good shape clutch
Seat
Good hood

I can't wait to get this sled operable again for my kids to pkay on!

Let me know if anyone has or knows where to find these parts.

If I can find the carb boot I can make the 79 box work as an option too.