Final assembly and fettling

It’s been a busy month. I got the engine back in but couldn’t get nuts on the motor mount bolts, so had to cut those off, pull them out and replace in the conventional manner, up from the bottom, thus ending my experiment in doing this operation more efficiently.

I salved my wounded pride by tackling the side scripts. I am happy to report they fit well and look shiny!

Advertisement

Sway Bar Update

Spent several hours this weekend working on the sway bar mounts. About 90 percent done.

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.

Marker lights done, really

I re-did the license plate lights.

Continued slow going

I have spent even less time working on the car this month than last. My left wrist is somehow injured, the weather’s cold and wet and I’m just not feeling it. Still need to find a painter.

Still, I’ve spent a couple hours here and there. One thing I did was fit up an aftermarket Bug sway bar to see if I could make it work.

Lowering the driver’s seat

Decided to modify my cross rails to set the driver’s seat down. Four hours of cutting, drilling, grinding, welding and painting yesterday and we got about a half inch lower in the back.

The surprising thing is, I could feel it.

Shifter, e-brake, fabrication, seats and compromises

Today, a short illustrated essay on replica compromise. As is known, the Brandwood cable shifter is the go-to Spyder replica shifter.* It’s reportedly easier to set up and keep in tune than the Jamar linkage shifter that used to come standard. Both are pretty different from the exacting engineering in the original 550, but the cable box’s bulk makes for noticeable changes in the replica Spyder cockpit. Here’s the car I’m trying to copy.

You can see here how small the original shifter housing is. At about two inches off the deck, it tops out about even with the top of the front bulkhead.

Whereas my cable shifter…