It lives...

Finally - after 18 months of dismantling and then rebuilding, and help from the people here on this forum - I got my Spider started.
I've had her since the 90's, and kept her in a carcoon for many years - and fortunately, it seems to have kept the rust down to a minimum. The 'restoration' was initially just going to be a new head gasket, timing belt and water pump - possibly the clutch as well, as it seemed to slip when I drove it onto the trailer on moving day. I really shouldn't have started it up to move it, but it had been started fairly regularly over the years it was off the road.

Anyway - after getting the engine out - I thought it would be a shame not to do a few more things while the engine bay was clear. About £5k later - and I've pretty much done all I wanted to:

Wheels powdered and new Pirelli tyres;
Brake calipers refurbished;
New copper brake pipes;
New Hel hoses;
New discs and pads;
Subframe powdered;
Swing arms powdered - new rubber bushes, new arb bushes;
New steering arm bushes and fragile internal spacer replaced;
Engine bay cleaned, de-rusted and resprayed;
New fuse box;
NOS radiator - still in Lancia box - almost a shame to use it.
New hoses;
New pistons - Guy Croft fitted them to the con rods for me and cleaned up the rods;
New big-end bearings;
Water pump;
Belt tensioner bearing from GC;
Valve stem seals - head work and block skimmed;
Light porting on the inlet manifold and head;
Engine painted up and all new gaskets, seals and core plugs fitted;
New clutch, bearing and pressure plate;
New gear linkage bushes;
Got rid of fuel pump lobe from auxiliary shaft;
Electric fuel pump and FilterKing;
Refurbed carb;
Fuel tank removed and de-rusted - sender renovated. It still had about 40 litres of 4* petrol in - that looked like orange juice;
New front suspension units;
New back suspension inserts;
Renovated front and back hubs;
New bearing for dummy drive shaft;
Back suspension and frame powdered;
As much de-rusting as I could do with it on jacks - lots of cleaning of everything else;
Hood frame powdered;
New handbrake cable;
New wiper arms (difficult things to source);
Dashboard bulbs all checked and replaced;
New speedo cable;
Magnecor leads;
New dizzy cap, rotor arm and plugs;
Stereo refubished;

Like I said - I was fairly lucky. Many of the bolts that I removed from underneath looked like new, and were still yellow. What I did have though was the effect of condensation rusting - so, bits that don't normally rust had gone. Like the indicator and light stalks, the heater outlet on top of the dash under the windscreen - those kind of things.

Nearly got round to trying it a few weeks ago, but the radiator leaked, and rather than get a renovated one, I managed to fin a brand new one on ebay.it - which was really nice to find.

It took me a couple of hours this last Sunday (after failing on Saturday) to get her started. The timing was proving difficult, and I tried various combinations of dizzy orientations versus timing marks on the crank pulley. I'd forgotten that the crank goes round twice for a full cycle, and I think that I was unlucky to have got it 180 degrees wrong several times. I had vapour and sometimes exhaust fumes firing out of the carb like a steam train. However, when I got it right, it started straight up, and ran fine. Amazed and relieved at the same time. So nice to hear it again.

Worst job - removing all of that black stuff from the bulkhead. Took about 26 hours.
Most satisfying job - fitting the big end bearings and crank, and then seeing the crank rotate so easily.
Best tool - the impact wrench. How have I done without this tool up to now?
Failed job - tried to get to the heater motor to free it up (battery light comes on when activated). I won't be driving it during the time of year when it's needed anyway.
Still to do - a few bits of trim and radiator cowling, the bonnet and catches need to be fitted - and then it's off to the MOT station - and then straight to the wheel alignment centre after.

Oh - the horn has stopped working again - since I finally got it going several weeks ago - which was after many hours of tracing wires, and earthing of the steering column.

Now - the running in procedure. Anyone got any tips?

A few random pics:

	Author	Topic: It lives... (Read 5386 times)
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