New UK Spitfire Restoration Company?

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Member for

11 years 9 months

Posts: 599

Hello all,
Came across this site seemingly based in Warwickshire , can anybody shed any light?
http://www.spitfirerestorationgroup.com/

Regards
Jason

Original post

Member for

11 years 10 months

Posts: 635

Should this be part of the Burma thread? It seems to anticipate a surge in demand for restoration facilities when the Spitfires arrive from Burma. It would be interesting to know what restoration work the organisation has done to date.

Member for

13 years 6 months

Posts: 491

Spitfire engineers with, between them, over 140 years Spitfire specific engineering experience. That's easy for you to say......

This sentence is best read in the style of Mel Blanc's Sylvester from Tweety pie

Member for

19 years 9 months

Posts: 201

I would imagine a lot of equally qualified Spitfire restorers could be quite offended by the unqualified remark on their website about most existing Spitfires being re-machined replicas!!

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 8,464

Indeed - the 15 or so I have been involved with over the years were all based on substantial original aircraft!

Member for

16 years 5 months

Posts: 615

Hi all, if the fuselage section they are showing on their web site is an example of what they do then then prospective customers would do well to look else where to have work undertaken ! God knows what sort of rivets have been used ! or are they bolts ! obviously supposed to be a PRXI or similar. Top of Fr12 is not correct and fwd & art datum longerons not correctly joined !! They can not be serious!

Steve"P"

Member for

17 years 11 months

Posts: 2,605

Top of Fr12 is not correct and fwd & art datum longerons not correctly joined !! They can not be serious!

Shouldn,t there be spacers at the longeron joint?

Member for

11 years 9 months

Posts: 599

HI
I thought the photo’s on the site looked familiar, though not 100% sure but could these be ones taken of the rebuild of Spitfire IX EN199 in Malta during the 1990’s by Mike Eastman?
Looking at the shot of the “new U/C leg” the background looks very Maltese along with what looks like the stub part having been recovered from the sea.
Maybe Mike if he is around could comment?

Regards

Jason

Member for

13 years 6 months

Posts: 491

Perhaps this is a new venture by "Spitfire4hire", I haven't seen an update from them in a while......

Member for

11 years 10 months

Posts: 635

Apparently following a successful 2012, they updated their website for 2013. Their News section is strangely devoid of real news however.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 658

Nice wings, they seem to have a few additional ribs inboard of the aileron..obviously the company that likes to give you 'extra'. Still as they say, has been signed off by the CAA, so must be OK I guess!

Member for

14 years 9 months

Posts: 85

mmmmmmm concerned about the lack of fuselage and wing jigs

Member for

16 years 5 months

Posts: 615

Yes Chris wing also has a couple of extra ammunition bays !

Steve"p"

Member for

18 years 6 months

Posts: 554

Nice wings, they seem to have a few additional ribs inboard of the aileron..obviously the company that likes to give you 'extra'. Still as they say, has been signed off by the CAA, so must be OK I guess!

Interesting as they say they have M3 and M5 Approval but no mention of E4 or similar which is required for Restorations.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 8,464

Hi all, if the fuselage section they are showing on their web site is an example of what they do then then prospective customers would do well to look else where to have work undertaken ! God knows what sort of rivets have been used ! or are they bolts ! obviously supposed to be a PRXI or similar. Top of Fr12 is not correct and fwd & art datum longerons not correctly joined !! They can not be serious!

Steve"P"

Doesn't look very pretty to me..

I'd bet my ten years against their 140 every day!

Bruce

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 658

With reference to another current 'thread' re the value of Spitfire PLC, I feel another 50p can now be added to the total!

Member for

14 years 9 months

Posts: 85

on a web search I found that they claim to have the best engineers of spit restoration in the world must be good as no body has ever heard of them if they actually exist why don't they say who they are allright on another track can people list who they think can add up to 140 years expeariance I mean it would take 10 people with 14 years each with hands on so to speak

Member for

19 years

Posts: 923

HI
I thought the photo’s on the site looked familiar, though not 100% sure but could these be ones taken of the rebuild of Spitfire IX EN199 in Malta during the 1990’s by Mike Eastman?
Looking at the shot of the “new U/C leg” the background looks very Maltese along with what looks like the stub part having been recovered from the sea.
Maybe Mike if he is around could comment?

Regards

Jason

Definitely all photos of the EN199 static restoration - perhaps Mike Eastman would like to comment - he is/was a contributor to this Forum ...

Member for

12 years 11 months

Posts: 6,535

Chumpy,

Thanks for that. Every little helps ! I'll add another 50 pence making it a quid and some 'bottom dollars' as in 'bet your'.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 3,566

our team of engineers who between them have 136 years Spitfire specific experience, will strip the aircraft back to nuts, bolts and rivets to ensure that no stone is left unturned.

Would they be restored or original stones?

Member for

14 years 9 months

Posts: 85

leave no stone unturned mmmmm did they build spits with stones in them perhaps they did