Triumph Repair: new spitfire owner advice, spitfire 1500, vintage triumph

Question
Jim,
I recently purchased a 78 Spitfire 1500.  I do not plan on maintaining it on my own, as I have no knowledge.  I am currently looking for a local shop to do any work that will come up.  Is it better for me to look online somewhere to get my parts then take them to have them replaced?  Do you recommend any particular place to order parts from.  Thanks!
Kristen

Answer
Kristen,

Partly it will depend upon the shop.  Since repair shops also make some money on selling you the parts some get picky about owners supplying parts.  At the very least, if a part you provided proves to be bad then you'll have to pay the labor to replace it.

What you can do is look at the Vintage Triumph Register website (www.VTR.org) to see if there is a local club (chapter) in your area.  There will be people with Spitfires who have an idea of which shops do good work and which ones should be avoided.

As for ordering parts, there is a good list of vendors on the VTR site as well.  All have good point and er, not so good points depending upon what you need and how quickly you need the parts.  

Cheers,

Jim