Spyder restoration - long time coming

[WestonE]

Beautiful and no doubt soon to have new wheel center badges

[peteracs]

Hi Eric

I actually have had some for around 9 years......

Thanks

Peter

[mangocrazy]

They look great Peter, and set the white of the body off a treat. I think they'll give the car a really good visual lift.

[peteracs]

Hi Graham

Thanks, yes happy camper. I had consulted better half on it as my taste in these matters leaves a lot to be desired.

[peteracs]

Another milestone day, woo and hoo....

Yesterday I picked up 5 gallons of the Esso 99 unleaded as discussed elsewhere, interestingly it appears to only be available at some Esso stations, not all. Put a couple of gallons in the car, no leaks in the tank which is a relief, though would have been surprised as the tank was in good condition when I took it out and cleaned and painted it and has not had anything in it since.

I then cranked the engine on the starter without plugs in to make it less stressful, result, absolutely no fuel in the inlet filter, I removed the inlet pipe from the carb and retried, still nothing. I checked that if I blew down the inlet pipe back to the tank I could hear bubbling the other end and had checked the return pipe was ok. So I decided to replace the mechanical fuel pump with a new spare I had bought many moons ago. Result was loads of petrol in the filter just before the carb. So new plugs installed and moment of truth, it fired almost immediately and then just ran. It was almost a shock that it actually ran quite well given this was from approx static timing and the carb had been cleaned and had a refurb kit.

After running for a while the auto choke operated the inlet flap on the carb, so another item ticked off and so far no obvious water leaks, though I did not run it long enough for the thermostat to open, though I had tested it before installing, albeit quite a while ago.

Next jobs, sorting out the rear hanger for the back box as the stud on the box is sited too low for the rubber hanger, and get a bush welded into a short section of the exhaust just after the down pipe which is for an AEM air/fuel sensor. I read an account of a guy using one to check the running of his Fulvia and was quite impressed that you could get on the fly readings whilst going along which gives you a good indication of how good your carb setup is. No substitute for a rolling road, but with just carb and no ECU etc, seems like a good start to see just how rich or lean the car is running under load.

Also hoping to visit a company next week who hopefully will sort out rechroming the wheel bolts.

Peter

[betabuoy]

I've been thoroughly enjoying your recent updates Peter and your tenacity is impressive.  I too share that fascination of the first start of an engine.  Still in my top ten moments is hearing my own engine fire and run relatively smoothly after an earlier engine rebuild of my own!  Really great work.

Chris

[WestonE]

Great work Peter. Definitely a moment to celebrate. I use AEM sensors in many places to keep the ECU informed, but my wideband lambda sensor that does some auto tuning is actually a Bosch item.

I recommend some excellent wine or some fine beers!

Cheers

Eric 

[HFStuart]

That's a great moment in any build. Congratulations.

[peteracs]

Thanks all, yes, feels like one of THE moments after so long, especially as it the first time I have had it running since buying it in 2010.

Wine will have to wait until tomorrow, try to limit the weekly intake!

Peter

[Nigel]

Nice going Peter!

I had a similar thing when starting mine after 14 years inactive!

Regards
Nigel

[peteracs]

A little bit more progress over the last few days.

After a few comments re alternator on this forum, I decided to bite the bullet and buy a new unit, 55A Borg and Beck unit from partsinmotion.co.uk

See

https://www.partsinmotion.co.uk/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=productdetails&virtuemart_category_id=108&virtuemart_product_id=1003887&Itemid=128

£74 delivered within one working day.

So after fitting it, I fitted the cam belt cover, which is the grey metal version seen on the early cars. Fan belt fitted and all starting to look tidy now.

Final job on the air filter was sticking the seal around the inside lip of the lid.

The door mirrors are bolted to the top of the door skin, rather than the later quarter light version. They are simply held in place we via a plastic gasket with two raw plug like protrusions which fit into two 8mm holes in the door skin. There is then a metal bar which is secured via two self tapping screws which screw into these raw plugs. The mirror base then clips onto this bar and is secured via a single grub screw.

I also removed the short pipe which is part of my exhaust system. It fits just after the flexi I have which is connected to the down pipe. As mentioned before I want to use an AEM sensor and so I drill/ground out a hole in this short pipe to suit the bush.

Today I visited two companies in Bilsthorpe, Notts, one to talk about and instruct them to re-chrome 16 wheel bolts, these will be available in Feb apparently and will cost £5 each, so not cheap, but I know this is not a cheap process. The second company make custom exhausts for bikes, but were convenient to ask the guy who owns it to weld my bush into the pipe. He did it there and then which was a full result. Quite refreshing to meet two guys who were most welcoming and happy to help with small, but needed jobs.

Next job is back to installing the interior, especially now the heater appears to hold coolant without leaks.

Peter

[peteracs]

Another day and had a decent amount of time on the car.

Before I start on the interior I wanted to wrap up the engine bay and the exhaust system, so they were the first jobs. Engine bay was a case of refitting the air filter, including the rear facing intake from near the exhaust, fitting the crankcase breather hose to the block and air filter (I wish I had fitted it to the block before I fitted the radiator and front grill.....), refitting the water drain pipes under the valance and adding a piece of rubber tubing to protect part of the speedo. After that I ran the engine and checked the new alternator which I fitted the other day was charging ok. Photo of engine bay below.

Next the exhaust had sealant put on all the joints, the short pipe with the air/fuel mixture sensor bung and the rear box were installed. All the U clips and hangars tightened up for the final time. Also the bracket assembly at the bottom of the down pipe which attaches to the block was installed and tightened up. Hopefully that is almost the last time I will need to crawl under the car, the last things are to tweak the routing of the brake lines to make sure a decent clearance to the exhaust, especially around the rear brake balancer. Phot below of the tail pipe which I am particularly happy with especially as this was a second hand stainless system I bought which I had to hack to make into a more manageable installation. The original maker obviously knew what the were doing when it came to forming the bends, the issue was with the whoever hacked it as apart from the back box, it was all welded as one piece from the down pipe to the middle box.

A quick test of the engine and exhaust and on to the interior. I managed to get the rear parcel shelf installed, it just sits there so no big effort, after that it was checking how the rear seats fit and the rear ‘door’ cards. I am still puzzled if they only have just two push fit clips and one screw and how/where to fit the screw.

I also offered up the actual door cards which looks as though they will be straight forward to fit, though I have some work to add the plastic chrome kick panels and the door lock surround before it can fit them. I am short of one of the door lock surround for now.

[WestonE]

Hi Peter looking really good. I wonder how much further I would be if I was not forced to return the car to the paint shop preventing me from building mine up any further.

You will be driving this car in the spring and after your first trip to have wheel alignment done loving the drive.

Well done!

Eric
PS is you door card lock button trim bright chrome or satin silver? 

[peteracs]

Hi Eric

Thanks.

The door lock trim is the early bright one and you cannot use the later one as the curve at the top is a full 90 degrees unlike the later one so they are not interchangeable unlike the pull handle trim where I am going to use a pair of the later satin ones as the bright ones I have have missing lugs and are difficult to find.

Plan on the alignment is to get it about right, MOT just to be sure all is in order, then go for the full alignment.

Peter

[mangocrazy]

Excellent work, Peter and well done for your persistence over weeks, months and years. The time when your rebuilt engine fires up for the first time is always special. I remember when the spare engine I'd taken down to France as a replacement for the broken one first fired up - I was in shock. That was with ignition timing done by guesswork, as well. You certainly seem to have got 'over the hump' as it were, so hopefully everything will fall into place from now on. Look forward to seeing the car in the New Year... 

[WestonE]

Hi Peter the S1 lock trim sounds like the pattern used on S1 Montecarlos which is also rare as hens teeth because they break so easily. I just might have one.

I will look.

Eric

[peteracs]

Hi Eric

Looks like I have found one via Facebook, so hold off for now as do not want to waste your time.

Thanks

Peter

[peteracs]

Another day, a few more jobs ticked off.

Rear seats, parcel shelf and rear ‘door’ cards installed. I have yet to have a brave pill and drill the top corner of the rear door cards. According to the parts book there should be a screw to secure it next to the door, but my car does not have a hole and the door cards do not either, so guess there was not one originally. It does look like I need one at present, though I have a little more experimenting to do with clips, though that will have to wait. After screwing the retaining stud of the rear seats which goes into the boot, I could finally put the rubber carpets back in together with some rubber backed ‘underlay’ underneath it to provide some padding. Although this is not resistant to water, it is easily removed and quite durable and is similar to the original ‘sponge’ material used under the main cabin carpet which caused all the hassle originally.

I also installed the front seat belts, not until I had installed the rear door cards, which made the job a whole lot more difficult. The end result I am pleased with, photo below. The seats are the originals, but retrimmed in leather. I was unsure how the rear seat belt nuts which go to the outside world were originally blanked off, so I had some spare seatbelt bolts and cut them down to size to be used as blanking bolts.

The next job is likely to be the carpet after I have fitted the some closed cell foam on the floor, hope to get to it later this week.

Peter

[WestonTB]

I think you are really going to enjoy summer 2021!  That is one superb looking Spider, soooo close to being on the road.

Another one saved , many would have bottled it but you did the decent thing!

Awesome.   

[peteracs]

Hi

Thanks, always good to have the encouragement. Yes been a long time with many long periods of inactivity, but this year has meant I have been here all year and limited excursions, so lots have been done which has been most rewarding especially as I am mainly retired.

Peter