Greetings from south coast England - Chesil Speedster

Welcome to the Madness, Martin!!!

WOW, that's sure is a shiny black paint job!  I hope to visit nearby Cornwall when virus is defeated.

Thanks @Lane Anderson, I can feel the madness taking hold already!

Hi @WOLFGANG, it is indeed shiny, but it’s gelcoat, not paint. There are imperfections but not worth a respray. Being gelcoat, certain edges like the bonnet are effectively trimmed edges that are sanded smooth. I’ll look to touch those in with matching paint but that’s low priority for now!

As and when COVID-19 gets controlled, Cornwall is a beautiful place to visit. :-)

Welcome aboard! Have fun over the winter.

The Chesil looks nice Martin. Definitely sounds like it needs some sorting but it also sounds like you have a handle on it already. Searching and asking will always get you some answers, whether or not they're the right answers is another thing. LOL

Good luck with the project and post lots of pictures.

Welcome to Speedster Madness, Martin!

I'm halfway between the two New England Portsmouths (in New Hampshire and Rhode Island) and drive a CMC which I built back in the 1990's. 

Looks like a good winter project for you.  Just make up a list of "To-Do's" and start knocking them off.  Try to find an aircooled VW club near Portsmouth as a source of info from it's members for things like the exhaust system.  Getting a quieter one is as simple as finding a quieter muffler and figuring out how to get it in there - That big can probably has nothing inside for baffles but the rest looks like an extractor (header) system so you might want to retain that part.

I almost went with that color combo when I built my car (Black Gel and Burgundy for me) but eventually went with pearl white and Burgundy.  Yours will be a knock-out for sure!

Looking forward to seeing th progress on here!

Gordon
The "Speedstah Guy" from Grafton (Massachusetts - Not that one over there)

@Martin's Eleven (UK)

Martin, "Welcome To The Madness" known as replicar ownership! Nice score on your new ride. Looking forward to following your progress on your project! 

Cheers!

Thanks one and all for the warm welcome.

@Gordon Nichols Thanks for the tips.

Timing is everything and one of the best things to happen in the last month is that my wife has just taken up a new hobby (sewing) so doesn't mind me spending more time in the garage! Perhaps I can persuade her to get into car upholstery?

I'm loving the thought of impending work - which is unusual for me because I'm inherently lazy. :-) Usually my other toy, a '99 Honda CL400 scrambler needs very little maintenance other than fresh oil and filter. Working on this aircooled gem takes me back to working on our old Beetles with my dad and brother. My dad's no longer with us but would definitely approve of the Speedster.

@WOLFGANG posted:

WOW, that's sure is a shiny black paint job!  I hope to visit nearby Cornwall when virus is defeated.

Yes. A remarkable paint job on a perfectly flat body. The sorting is half the fun. Welcome to the fun house. 

ETA:  wow! If that's raw gelcoat I'm even more impressed. 

My wife has been a quilter for many, many years and has a couple of different sewing machines that do different things, like embroidering letters and images or doing free-style quilt stitching.  The cost of these machines is just as eye-opening as a lot of the Speedster stuff (on either side of the Atlantic) and I can easily equate a middle-of-the-line quilting machine to a new 2,110 Type 1 engine in similar cost.

BUT (there's always a "but", right?) God Forbid if I ever tried to use one of those machines for upholstery.  I did that once when we were first married and sewed up the front seat of a 1946 Ford coupe (it looked really nice) while she was away on a busniess trip, but ended up buying her a new machine after I screwed up her first one.  I also learned that they make special, rugged machines for upholstery for a reason......    

Aloha Tigermoth66, welcome.  A pretty ride.  Sounds like you've learned the beauty queen eats crackers in bed.  You'll sort it out.  Only rules, shiny side up and stay between the ditches.

Question:  Isn't "Tigermoth" also the name of a 30s-40s era biplane?  

@Ewatub yes, the DeHavilland Tiger Moth was indeed an old biplane. And with my surname being Moth, when I joined the RAF back in the mid 80s I naturally got the nickname Tiger. As nicknames go, it could have been a lot worse!

@Gordon Nichols I’m not really expecting my wife to upholster my car. And thank goodness for the internet because I have already researched the situation and found the machines needed for leather are indeed old, powerful and expensive, and not the modern electronic sewing machine my wife has!

Looks like a very viable project, Tiger. Thanks for sharing it here.

The exhaust on that looks like an A-1 Sidewinder; these are excellent for making power with a big, high-cammed engine. Do you know the specs of yours?

You might be able to quiet it some, without losing the benefits of those equal(ish)-length tubes, by replacing the muffler. Others who know much more than I will chime in.

As you may recall from your youth, VW Bug engines like to leak oil. After you get your oil cooler lines properly re-routed and squared away, you will find that the leaky bits on this engine are pretty much the same as on that 1200 you learned to drive in. Fixes are the same as ever: good gaskets, good hardware, careful assembly, and don't overtighten. 

Your stock transaxle ratios can be changed, and depending on how much power your engine has, and how strongly rebuilt the box was last time, you may want to consider opening it up to do so—or springing for a new/refurbed unit.

There are lots of gear ratio choices available and you can spend pretty much as much money as you have, and then some. If you've got some horsepower—and your engine looks like it should have plenty, once sorted—by far the best bang for the buck is to get a new Erco ring and pinion set at 3.44-to-1. That's a taller gear than VW ever put in there, and stronger. It will raise all your ratios, turning 1st into something more than a stump-puller, and leaving you with a 4th gear that (depending) runs 70 mph or so at 3000 rpm—all at the expense of off-the-line acceleration. 

I have two cars with this gearbox: a Subaru-powered (135hp) MGTD replica, and a Type 1 (120hp) 550 Spyder. In both applications it works brilliantly.

If you don't have a VW gearbox guy in your rolodex then maybe call these guys. Seldom here complaints about their work.

@edsnova many thanks for the useful pointers. Refurbed gearboxes are running between £1500-2000 here in the UK, with Free Flyers going for around £2400, so that’s not an option for now. I like giving work to small local businesses if possible, and I’m starting to find  all sorts of small engineering workshops nearby so hopefully I can find a gearbox guy who can do as you suggest and rework the existing gearbox.

I found the original invoice for the engine rebuild but sadly it doesn’t show what kind of cam was used. I’ve got an email into the original builders in case they are able to shed some light on the answer.

so I think the idea for the engine is to get the leaks sorted, perhaps get a run on a dyno to get an idea of the power, then sort the gearbox accordingly. The gearbox is an upgrade though, not a ‘must do’, so that goes to the bottom of the to do list!

Meanwhile, my wife and I are at a spa break for a few days to get over the death of our much loved Patterjack rescue dog, and my ‘holiday reading’ is not quite your usual fare:

This book is worth picking up. It's very entertaining, with humor and excellent illustrations.

74mm crank, 90.5 bore. You have a 1904cc engine. HD valve springs and dual 40s suggest some cammage was employed; interesting that the cam and head/valve specs are omitted.

Depending on cam and heads, your combo could yield anything between 75 and 130hp. 

In a Speedster I'd probably stay with a 3.88 R&P and maybe a .89 4th gear.

I forgot to add: I emailed Westfield Sportscars (who bought Chesil at the beginning of the year), to see if they had a build manual from the period my car was built. The Managing Director very kindly responded almost immediately, sending me a PDF of the build manual. I had asked for one that related to my ‘98 build car, because I’m sure they must have updated manuals over the years (or perhaps not?!). Top service!

Many thanks for your advice on gear ratios @edsnova, much appreciated. Top respect to you on your other builds too!

I agree, interesting to note there were no specs for cam/head. I’ve asked Stateside Tuning, the original engine builders, to see if they can help, otherwise it would need a disassemble to find out. Either that or a dyno run!

That IS good service!  I've read a lot of mixed reviews of the old Chesil so maybe the new guys are treating it like a real business with real customers who want real service.

That's always a good thing.

And I agree with Ed on the gearing.  I have a stock ratio VW transaxle from Rancho in California.   .89 4'th gear and the ring and pinion is now a 3:88.  At 75mph I'm turning a shade under 3,250 with 16" wheels and 205/55 tyres.  I used to run a 4:12 R&P and the overall performance through the gears was a bit snappier (2,110cc engine) but it was pushing 4,000 rpm a lot on the highways.  It seems much happier now - Me, too.

Nice Spa, BTW.  Looks like a place my wife and I have been to just outside of Cork, IR

Very nice !,  I like  the colour good luck with all the mods, it will keep you busy. 

Martin, does that Westfield company have any connection to the folks that built/sold the Westfield 7? I know in the states, they've kind of lost out to Caterham, but I think they were much more popular in Europe. 

After R&T did a serial write up on a Caterham7 build, I'm having a hard time talking myself out if selling my Spyder and 968 and building one.

You need to try one on for size first.  They don't fit everybody.

@dlearl476 yes, the Westfield 7 is theirs - https://westfield-sportscars.co.uk/

They also do a gorgeous Lotus XI replica which initially was a toss-up between that and the Speedster for me. But I went with the Speedster because it was more passenger friendly and slightly more practical! The beauty of the design was equal in my eyes.

Westfield certainly have a much more professional outlook on the whole 'customer service' experience.

@Lane Anderson posted:

You need to try one on for size first.  They don't fit everybody.

Good point. I'd wanted an Alfa Romeo Spider all my life. In the process of convertible shopping in 2004, I tried to test drive one. My knee wedged between the steering wheel and the console. The F type lost out because it was too short with the top up. 

The 968 won out in all categories. 

@dlearl476 posted:

Good point. I'd wanted an Alfa Romeo Spider all my life. In the process of convertible shopping in 2004, I tried to test drive one. My knee wedged between the steering wheel and the console. The F type lost out because it was too short with the top up. 

The 968 won out in all categories. 

Yeah, I tried many cars that were impossible for me to get into and recently tried a 914 and again it was impossible to get my head below the windshield... Glad I did not get tempted to buy sight unseen.

@Lane Anderson posted:

You need to try one on for size first.  They don't fit everybody.

For reference, see "the great ape tries out a Spyder" (again) in the Maggie Valley. I'm sure somebody took a picture.

I so desperately want to fit. I so completely don't.

You made me laugh Stan, Ditto on that. 

@Stan Galat posted:

For reference, see "the great ape tries out a Spyder" (again) in the Maggie Valley. I'm sure somebody took a picture.

I so desperately want to fit. I so completely don't.

I've had several people ask me how I fit in my Spyder. As anyone who owns one knows, ingress/egress is like putting on a pair of gloves. But once I'm in, there's plenty of room for my 6'2"-275lb self. 

 I'm sure it looks weird when I'm getting gas and the top of the body is about mid-thigh.  But the Spyder is orders of magnitude roomier than the Alfa was. 

This car was owned by me as a beetle in 86, was my first car. Orange 1302 S. I rescued the car from terrible condition and my dad and I rebuilt it. Spent its life with me with surfboards on top and sold it to travel the world!! I was looking at speedsters the other day and decided to randomly google my old number plate and up it popped. I still have a set of keys for the original ignition just out of nostalgic idiocy really. Glad to see it’s alive and evolved into a pretty speedster. Ever want to sell it let me know

@Grant Pennington-Davies - wow, great to hear from you. It's always interesting to find out about a cars history, especially when it's been such a personal story. You'll have to post a pic if you have one.. I must admit I didn't think of putting the car reg as text so it could be found via google, so it was a lucky find on your part. That's how I found my dad's old split screen Combi, which is now completely restored and running as a rental in Devon.

You'll never believe this, but I bought the Speedster from a guy in Brasted, which is only a few minutes from you in Sevenoaks!

TIming, as they say, is everything, and weirdly it was only yesterday when I sent off to DVLA to transfer the reg to a 'dateless' plate. So sadly for you, FGT 732J will be no more within the next week or so, and it will become SUI 633.

(for those in the USA, we have one registration that stays with the car for its lifetime and is separate from the car tax. We can change that registration to another registration plate, as long as it already exists and doesn't make the car out to be newer than it is.)

You may have already spotted that I've documented the refurb over the last 6 months in another thread. I'm just waiting on getting the interior sorted (torn seat and some carpeting issues) and I will be looking to sell it on at some point for another project.

I probably would have bought it if I had found it. Can I get the FGT 732 J plate Reg from you?

And let me know on resale when you are ready

I am returning my Alfa spider 1973 at the moment so dependent on timing could work

Sadly @Grant Pennington-Davies I think that once a number is removed from a vehicle it is lost unless requested to be held. Like I said, timing is everything - both good and bad. If I'd read your message a day before sending off the doc to DVLA, I could have paid the £80 and held the number. I'll DM you and perhaps take a drive out your way.