Jim "Studs" & Shirley Arch's
1964 Spitfire

April ISOA Calendar Story -or- How I Got My Nickname...

About 20 Triumphs met at the Tollway Oasis, at 2 pm, on a gray Thursday, in route to the Mid Ohio Race Course in Mansfield, Ohio.

Teeny was in tiptop shape . . . at least I thought so. Everything from the radiator to the tailpipe had been checked and/or replaced. We were ready to go . . .at least I thought so.

The first leg of the journey went fairly smooth. Only an overheated TR3 (Lars "Geyser" Sullivan got his nickname today, also) and an unscheduled bathroom break by members of the "Girlie Triumph Clan" before we reached our first schedule stop around Fort Wayne, IN for dinner.

After a gas stop we all got back on the road again. A few miles later I felt one of the rear wheels shimmy, and announced over the CB that I was pulling over. Upon jacking up the car, taking off the wire wheel, we discovered that the splined adapter had come loose. After tightening it up, we were back on the road again.

About 10 miles down the road, the wheels started to shimmy again. Luckily this time it happened a short distance from an exit so the rest of the group got off and waited in a gas station. This time one of the studs had broken, so I decided to put on the steel wheeled spare tire. Of course being the restoration purist that I am, my spare was the original that came with the car in 1964! I really didn't want to drive at highway speeds on this tire. Since the wire wheel was too large to fit where the spare was, the broken wire wheel went in the back of Kathy and Stagmeister's Stag and off we went to meet up with the rest of the group. After transferring the broken wire into Pete's WindsTR we were back on the road again. Because of this incident we were given the pole position so that the next time we broke down the entire group could stop. By being first in line we held the group to the legal speed limit or lower mainly because of my 35 year old bias ply tire. I don't know why they were all grumbling, I saved them all from getting speeding tickets!

After sunset, the rain began pouring down. On a very narrow, dark, country road with no shoulder, I felt the dreaded shimmy once more. This time I had to nurse it until I could find a driveway to pull off on. The group pulled over where they could and huddled around Teeny's right rear wire wheel. When I pulled off the wheel, I saw that two studs were broken, naturally, next to one another. With clear direction from the group, I pulled off the brake drum and proceeded to remove one of the good studs and put it in the hole across from the other good stud. Of course, I have no spare tire because it's already on the left rear. To the rescue came Joe Kaplon. He had the only other Spitfire in the caravan. I now placed Joe's spare on the right rear and the second bad wire went into the WindsTaR.

By this time we were about 3 hours behind schedule. There were several other unscheduled stops, with a broken throttle linkage on a TR6, Geyser number 2 on the TR3, and a bad rotor along that dark narrow road. Because Teeny was crippled, I was told to push ahead and that they would catch up. By this time it was well after midnight and we needed a break. We pulled off to a 24-hour truck stop, which had a huge canopy to shield us from the monsoon. We radioed the group and told them we were pulling over and waiting for them to catch up. When everybody gathered once more, (now it's about 2 am) we were only about 1 hour out of Mansfield. Somehow we took a wrong turn and lost the rest of the group. We got back on course but found ourselves alone. At this point a heavy fog started to roll in. We ended up taking the business route instead of the bypass and were one of the first ones to reach the motel at 3 am. Can you imagine only 13 hours to travel from Chicago to Mid-Ohio?

Early Friday morning we were scouring the local yellow pages for somewhere to buy studs for Teeny. I think Spitfires are the only cars ever made that have 3/8" studs. We called a place called "Upstairs, Downstairs" British car restorers in Mansfield. He didn't have any studs but said he could get them by the next day. So we placed an order. Lucky for us he also had two used Spitfire wheels so that both Joe and I could go home with our spares in the boot.

On the way out of the motel, looking for somewhere to eat breakfast, Shirley spotted a Suburban with a race Spitfire on a trailer parked across the street. She convinced me to go over and ask the guy if he had any studs. I went over and told him of my peril. He started rummaging through boxes of "stuff" that filled the back of his Suburban. He came out with a 3 pound coffee can that was full to the top with wheel studs and lug nuts! He asked how many did we need? I said three would get me by. He was a true Triumph enthusiast and wouldn't take any money. We proceeded back to the motel parking lot to replace all the broken studs and check the remaining wire wheel adapters for tightness. We finished in time to enjoy some of the events at the race course.

Early Saturday morning we went into Mansfield to pick up the studs and used wheels from "Upstairs, Downstairs". We needed to buy some tires for the two used wheels. The owner called the local Dunlap dealer down the street and told him to sell us any tires we wanted charging us his cost only. As you can imagine this was a very good deal for me, so I decided to buy four tires. "Mount two on these rims and I'll take the other two and have them mounted later," I told the tire dealer. So off we went with Teeny loaded to the gills with extra tires and wheels. Of course I didn't want to throw away the original tire that came with the car. Try to picture the Spitfire with two extra tires mounted on wheels and three unmounted tires aboard. Obviously the boot would not close. We went back to the motel to pile still more stuff into the WindsTR.

Later that day, with everything fixed, we decided to take a drive through the Ohio countryside. We ended up in a little town called Lucas, which is where the calendar picture is taken. If you look close at the picture you can see a 35 years old original bias ply tire on Teeny's left rear.

On the way back from Lucas, Ohio, I downshifted into third gear to get onto the exit ramp and my gearshift lever bent and nearly broke off! This is the type of shifter that is hollowed out in the center for the OD wires to go through. Once again enter the Stagmeister with a wonderful way to fix it. We took two small Craftsman open-end wrenches and put them on either side of the gearshift lever as a splint. Using two small worm drive clamps at the top and bottom of the wrenches we were back in business.

Sunday morning brought the sun and the festivities were fantastic! The return trip was uneventful. Just in case you are wondering, the return trip took 5 hours!

by Jim "Studs" & Shirley Arch

Copyright © 2003 Illinois Sports Owners Association