It was a productive weekend for Projekt Spyder.
I spent about nine hours bending metal.
Here is the photographic evidence.
First I relieved the back of the center bit to make room for the hood latch. I thought of deleting the latch (it’s incorrect for a real Spyder) but thought better of that, since the key latches on this car are also incorrect and pretty weak compared to the originals.
Next I test fit the middle part, bent the back part to center the filler hole, socked two screws into the filler, tucked the back under the actual fuel tank lip and bent the front down to simulate what a Spyder fuel tank looks like.
Now I has something to measure off for the side pieces.
This morning I set about CADing the curve on the front of the tank and cutting the side pieces to make that.
Then it was time to roll a half-round bead along the outside edge. I don’t know why, but the originals have something like this, and I have a bead roller, so what the hell, right?
Bending… 
Fitting… 
Fixing the bends temporarily with screws… 2554
More fitting. . . . 
Making sure the hood closes…which it doesn’t quite because the front corners are just slightly higher than the lip edge of the body.
So now I have to lower the front about a half an inch and sock in screws to hold the front in place for final fettling.
Then it’s down to welding the box parts of the sides and the latch relief, and figuring out how to make the front hinge and rear latches work.
—Oh, and making a convincing early Porsche fuel tank sending unit cover with good electrical pass-throughs so I can wire it to the real sender underneath. And also the breather port behind the filler. Cake.
After that it’s down to fabricating the decorative “hold down straps” to cover those seams. I’ve ordered some one-inch steel band straps and 1.5-inch cotton weave belts to get that done. With those, some quick steel epoxy, some primer, hammertone paint and a few rivets and hinges I’ll have maybe $80 of material in this mod.
Along Came A Spyder 