Dismantling, cleaning and painting

Last weekend, I spent a few hours restoring a box full of spitfire sub-assemblies.

This involved undoing lots of rusty bolts, degreasing, scraping off loose paint, wire brushing away rust, spraying everything with red oxide primer and hanging the parts on the washing line to dry…

There is something very satisfying in doing this. You start with an assembly that is seized up and caked with a mixture of rust, road dirt and grease. It looks as if it is fit for nothing other than scrap.

By careful application of good workshop technique, stuck items are released, gunk is scraped off, grease is dissolved and rust is scrubbed away and once painted, oiled and reassembled, you are left with something that has been restored to full serviceability at little cost apart from some time and elbow grease.