Fan shroud project

This is sort of a vestigial post about my now abandoned (?) effort at making a proper(ish) center mount fan shroud for the Spyder. I post it now because there is renewed interest in this project from other Spyder guys, and because the One Guy who supposedly had tooled up to manufacture these and sell them for $1,500 a throw has, after years of promises, not yet done so.*

Let’s begin with the gold standard. (links to video)

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Fuel tank cover update

It was a productive weekend for Projekt Spyder.

I spent about nine hours bending metal.

Here is the photographic evidence.

Fuel tank cover

Had a light day at work Thursday so on the way home I stopped at Vince’s Auto Parts to see if I could get a little metal to make an authentic looking fuel tank cover. Turns out I could.

Original style clam latches: done

I found a few hours over the week to keep after my clam latch project. Another nine or so over the weekend and we’re done. That’s 22 hours to make parts I was going to do without on this build. Glad I did ’em though.

550-style clam latches

Took a break from sanding this weekend and decided to try to make some 550-style clam latches.

Got pretty far along in the 9 or so hours I spent working from the junk pile. Why do this?

Three reasons:

1. It’s cool. Original Spyders had these latches you turned with a long churchkey; the replicas don’t. More legit-looking detail is just better.
2. The modern replicas use two Bug hood latches to hold the clam down—and they’re fiddly. It is reported that clams sometimes pop open on bumps, leaving just the wicked-cool leather straps to keep the clam from flying up and off and causing quite a ruckus out there on Highway 61. Adding a slot-lock as original can only make things better, from a purely practical perspective.
3. I’m tired of sanding.