Resin Racer

Hallo, Bjorn!

Looks like you have a good summer project there, and it should be a head turner when finally done.  We all know it is a lot of work, so “Welcome to the Madness!”

@flatfourfan is on here from SA, too - Gary Bloom - and he’s in the final stages of finishing his speedster.  IIRC, he’s in Capetown and I know it is a big country but maybe you can contact one another for sources of parts and services over there.  We all know here how expensive US parts can be for you.  

Have fun with the project.  If you don’t find answers to your questions using the search, fire up a post and ask.   At the very least you’ll get a lot of conflicting opinions!!  

Love it!  Post more pictures as you go along.  The colour is quite retro - as is the whole car.

@Bear911

Best of luck on your Speedster project! Looking forward to following your progress and eventually see the final product with you behind the wheel doing some top-down driving!

A bit mad, conflicting and retro is probably an apt description! Thanks for the welcome chaps. I'll definitely update as I go along.

I love it already!  Looking forward to seeing more.

Great color. Love the centered through the hood fuel cap

Glad to see that you've found this place Bjorn........Gord, I'm in Pretoria by the way........almost 1000 miles away from Cape Town...:-)

Sorry, Gary, I don't know why I keep thinking you're in CapeTown - a mistake I'll not repeat.  

I thought it would be cool to drive between customer sites in Capetown and Durban when I visited there years ago, until someone told me it was a 2-day trip!  Dropped that idea and bought a plane ticket!    

Welcome! Great color!

Great group out here. They were tolerant of all my stupid questions. But, as CMC said, 40 hours later, it's done! Wait, the windshield. Your results may vary.

Hi Gary! Yeah we are in the same town, must make a plan sometime!

Today hasn't gone well. Hoped to have the seats fitted. Have fabricated some spacers for the seat rails from square tubing which I wanted to give a quick rinse in Deoxidene for some light surface rust, followed by a quick spray. Somehow managed to get it splashed into both my eyes! Turns out Deoxidene is phosphoric acid.... One trip to the ER later. Will make a full recovery, but no seats will be fitted today! What a muppet.

Here is a pretty engine picture while I wait for my eyes to stop burning.

Managed to get the gaskets fitted to the headlights and fogs yesterday. Think is looks ok. I should probably change the cars name to the Salamander!

Most of us on here have tens of stories like yours with the Phosphoric acid.  Some of us (like me) probably have hundreds of stories.  Glad it's not too serious but:

Be Careful!

The engine looks great.  Do the headlights have halo rings?  And I've always liked that color on a Speedster.......

Will do Gordon. Total freak event, but yes, nasty stuff. Will approach the whole build with more emphasis on safety now. Lesson learnt.

Yup, halos just like @Drumagination has on his build. Love it. With the mesh there is a bit of a steam punk element too!

Started with aetna blue but this has a touch more green and less purple in it. Unfortunately impossible to capture accurately! Really wanted a retro colour. Think it works

It may not be in person, but it comes across as Gulf Blue over the internet......

Nice ride, keep working, but a little safer, eh?

Welcome, Bjorn. It's looking really good! I finished mine up a few months ago and have to admit that I'm having even more fun than I had imagined. Your's is going to be a real beauty! I'm glad you survived the phosphoric acid splash without long-term harm. Good luck.

Mike

Its definitely darker than gulf blue in person. The candidates were Aetna, Meissen, Gulf, Aquamarine nonmetallic, Azure, VW Dove, Mercedes Blau Grau and even RAF PRU blue. In the end it was non of it! I call it Resin Racer Blau, haha.

There is a weird internal tug of war going on between getting it done ASAP in order to enjoy driving it versus just slowing down and enjoying the build.

So stupid 'Home Improvememt' style self inflicted ER trips aside, seats will hopefully go in this evening. Next up is electrics. Still trying to decide between putting the fuse panel below the dash, in the frunk or behind the rear bench. Major pros and cons to each..

Having the fuse panel next to the fuel tank would make me very nervous.

This is exactly why I'm thinking of alternatives!

@Lane Anderson posted:

Having the fuse panel next to the fuel tank would make me very nervous.

Doesn't everything make you nervous? Except brown liquor. That makes you silly.

VW installed their Eberspacher gas heaters right alongside the fuel tank in VW Bugs and Ghias. A little fuse panel ain't no thing.

My speedster has a fuse panel under the dash, and one in the frunk next to the fuel tank and battery. 

Not too much to worry about.

Gee, Lane, not nice to dis Danny like that...

I dunno...  I kinda like it.

@DannyP posted:

A little fuse panel ain't no thing.

You're doing it wrong.

"Ain't no thang."

Thank you for the corn-leanin'-flyover slang lesson.

@DannyP posted:

Thank you for the corn-leanin'-flyover slang lesson.

You are most welcome.

As “faux-slanger” Dan wrote, I have a gas heater AND fuse panel AND relay panel in the Frunk, all within 24” of the (sealed) gas filler. The tank vent is outside of the Frunk, as it should be.  Been that way for years.   I don’ t give it a second thought.

so, Lane:  

Thanks for the inputs.  I have a centre fill vented cap, so can't see frunk filling up with vapors. Real 356s and 911s have fuse boxes next to tank. Guess it should be fine. Fuse box elsewhere will look neater though. Of course ease of access also important. Toying with the idea of mounting it on a tray which then gets attached below dash once done.

In other news, the driver side seat is in! (That'll be the right side seat to my American friends!) I faced an interesting dilemma - if the seat is mounted higher, fairly tall drivers will be comfortable. I hate it, however, when drivers looks like they are sitting on top of a speedster. I prefer my shoulder being flush with the top of the door.  For this reason the seat is mounted pretty low. As things stand, I'm comfortable in the driving position with only about an inch of rearward travel still available. I'm 5ft 10. Shorter people will have no problem as there is plenty of travel.

Seeing that it is my car and not a commercial enterprise, I'll obviously keep it the way it is. But it does highlight a potential compromise for the manufacturers. If I ever sell (doubt it) to a taller person (statistically insignificant probability) then the solution would be to add half an inch for more travel. Or the hypothetical buyer can sit on the rear bench...

@Bear911 posted:

Thanks for the inputs.  I have a centre fill vented cap, so can't see frunk filling up with vapors. Real 356s and 911s have fuse boxes next to tank. Guess it should be fine. Fuse box elsewhere will look neater though. Of course ease of access also important. Toying with the idea of mounting it on a tray which then gets attached below dash once done.

In other news, the driver side seat is in! (That'll be the right side seat to my American friends!) I faced an interesting dilemma - if the seat is mounted higher, fairly tall drivers will be comfortable. I hate it, however, when drivers looks like they are sitting on top of a speedster. I prefer my shoulder being flush with the top of the door.  For this reason the seat is mounted pretty low. As things stand, I'm comfortable in the driving position with only about an inch of rearward travel still available. I'm 5ft 10. Shorter people will have no problem as there is plenty of travel.

Seeing that it is my car and not a commercial enterprise, I'll obviously keep it the way it is. But it does highlight a potential compromise for the manufacturers. If I ever sell (doubt it) to a taller person (statistically insignificant probability) then the solution would be to add half an inch for more travel. Or the hypothetical buyer can sit on the rear bench...

A taller person can tilt the seat back slightly by raising the front and they'll fit fine.

It's your car, build it for you! My seats are bolted to the floor in my Spyder, to fit ME.

If someday someone else gets it, it'll be their problem.

Yup, pretty much what I settled on. My car, my bum 🤣

As can be seen, loads of space to move aft, but the bottom of the seat will touch the rear of the pan first at the present height. I'm happy with the setup though. Hard rear tonneau also still to come, so maybe  anyone taller than 6 ft may struggle. Purely academic problem.

I like your seats and super light doors. Looks like you're going for speed and spartan.

Carry on!

To add speed, add lightness 😎

Yup. My Spyder is 1500 pounds(682 kilos), that is without my heavy weight added.

The transaxle need to go back in soon, after which the motor won't have much reason not to go in too. So I figured I better get the engine bay sorted asap. I have kept the same pattern as with my door cards, but in fibreglass fire retardant fabric stitched onto commercial engine bay insulation. I love some detail on a firewall, but wasn't brave enough for leather ala Singer!

When I say soon, I mean within the next 3 to 6 months, haha

I like that.  It'll probably cut down on noise a bit as well.

@Bear911 excellent work on your ride!!

That's really cool!

This dude's playing the game on a completely different level.

That looks great. Cool idea. I just got done reupholstering the inside and this would have been a good match.