Restoring a Spitfire in a garage? Yes the WW2 fighter...
 

I remember seeing a TV show ages ago which showed a guy restoring a Spitfire in his own garage. It must have been at least 10 or 15 years ago. I tried finding it on the web a few times now, but given the fact that Triumph made a small sports car with the same name....and that this one is more at home in a "garage", meant that all my attempts were in vain until now.
Does the mentioned TV show ring any bells with someone? I remember seeing the Spit fuselage stored along the long garage wall.

Alex

Hi Alex

I think the Spit you're referring to is V-Vicky (ML407). It was restored by Nick Grace and flown by him until he was killed in a car accident. The aircraft is now flown by his widow Caroline or by his son. Very popular on the airshow circuit. I seem to remember the restoration being shown on TV. ML407 is a genuine WW2 veteran Mk9 converted to a 2-seater after the war.

here it is ...
 

Dave, Terry, Thanks!

That must indeed be the one. On the Grace Spitfire website they also offer a DVD covering the TV show from the eighties......that would be the show I remember. And there is a wee-bit of the show on youtube showing the first engine starts of the spit after restoration.

thanks, Alex

p.s. Such a small world. I just realised that this particular Spitfire was one of the three seen in the "Top gear vs. The Germans" episode I just watched last week!

oh my ...clicking on that link brings up that oh sooooo lovely sound of the engine on flypast..oooooOOOOOoo So good to know its being flown and not stuck in a museum as a statue, or worse, atop a concrete pylon.

by the way, you do know the famous spitfire wings were designed by a Canadian, eh?

Just seen a article on the local bbc news about a group building 12 replica spitfires in enstone oxfordshire.
http://www.enstoneflyingclub.co.uk/n....php?wnID=2589

Those 90% aircraft are probably Mike O'Sullivan's machines. Mike is a CMP owner (drove from Istanbul to Normandy with us in his C15A).

The design is absolutely outstanding and has developed from a small homebuilt "toy" to something that is unrecognisable quite close up from a real aircraft. The handling and performance are outstanding and it will outclimb a real Spitfire.

Mike has just shifted his whole operation to USA taking some of his key people from Australia and has resumed production.

I hope the Oxford venture gets up.

Lang

ah if only I had 300 thousand $$$$$ (add taxes of course)

http://gizmodo.com/278044/build-your...m-a-263000-kit

but oh those wings, designed by a Canadian ;-)

stumbled upon this on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDbc5...eature=related

More restoration work, or more realistically - reconstruction - going on:

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/battle-brit...ealand-1456094

H.