Rhode Island Spyder Project

Mine as well. Just had them off to un-stick a rear caliper.

You should have enough cable on the other end, i.e. at the e-brake handle/adjustment.

Not Finished, but running.  I was able to take the Spyder out for a lap around the neighborhood yesterday.  Still a ton of things to do, but it was nice to fire up the engine.  I'm glad to ran the engine in my other car last year,  Being able to have it fire right up was nice.  non of the stress of starting a green engine.  The Magaflow exhaust sounds great too.

I'm trying to arrange insurance so I can start the registration process.  My local guy has a couple of quotes.  They need to see some pictures before the firm up the coverage (Front, Rear, Engine and Trunk).  Haggerty came in at $700/year.  I was told they will only offer coverage including collision.  I put the value of the car at $40K.  Any guidance you can offer is welcome.  I'm working on the local insurance guy to drop the works "Kit Car" from his vocabulary. 

Superb, Tom. Looking great!

Nice!!!!!!!

@Tom Gilchrist Great job on getting your Spyder on the road! Let the good times roll.

Nice job, Tom. That's a big step!

@Tom Gilchrist posted:

Not Finished, but running.  I was able to take the Spyder out for a lap around the neighborhood yesterday.  Still a ton of things to do, but it was nice to fire up the engine.  I'm glad to ran the engine in my other car last year,  Being able to have it fire right up was nice.  non of the stress of starting a green engine.  The Magaflow exhaust sounds great too.

I'm trying to arrange insurance so I can start the registration process.  My local guy has a couple of quotes.  They need to see some pictures before the firm up the coverage (Front, Rear, Engine and Trunk).  Haggerty came in at $700/year.  I was told they will only offer coverage including collision.  I put the value of the car at $40K.  Any guidance you can offer is welcome.  I'm working on the local insurance guy to drop the works "Kit Car" from his vocabulary.

Try American Modern and ask for an Agreed Value policy.

@Tom Gilchrist  The last that I heard, RI RMV had adopted “Replica” as a category of special interest cars, along with Hot Rod and Custom.  It often takes a while for the insurance companies to catch up.   They may be more familiar with a Factory Five Cobra replica so maybe play that angle to get them to pay attention to it as a replica?  I don’t know how the RI RMV handles emissions testing on a replica so I can’t offer anything for that.

I had Liberty Mutual on my car when I lived in Tiverton, but it was registered as a ‘69 VW Beetle Convertible.  Also had Liberty Mutual when we came back to Mass. (still as a ‘69 Bug) but when I changed my registration to  ‘57 Porsche Speedster replica they freaked out and dropped me.  I ended up with Hagerty with an agreed value policy and have been happy, so far.

Hagerty knows full well what the cars are, it's the local agents that usually don't know.

I don't know if RI is more expensive than NY but I have Hagerty and added my Cayman to the policy along with my Spyder. Both cars is $900 a year, not bad I think for Agreed Value coverage for both, flatbed towing and zero deductible. Spyder only was about $550(LOL!) or $600.

Thanks for the information and support.  I'll talk to the agent about an "Agreed Value" policy.

The lap around the neighborhood was fun, but it really had to be a lap since I didn't have reverse.  The guys at Special Editions tell me that they very often have to trim a pall to get the shift fork to fully move into the reverse position.  Looks like I'll be spending the afternoon on my back doing some sculpting. 

"Very often" is every single time. It's in the PBS shifter instructions. The reverse fork must be trimmed, best done with a cutoff wheel. The nosecone(tailcone in our case) must be removed to get to the fork. I put a plastic bag over my trans and poked the reverse fork through. A Sharpie mark is a good guide for where to cut. It isn't much to cut, but it must be done.

Temporarily stick a drill bit into the tapped hole at the bottom of the diagram and rest a straight edge against the drill bit, make your mark and cut. Easy peasy.

That picture is all I can find, the PBS website is down.

I usually use two hands to get reverse, the lockout spring is STRONG.

Thanks for the info on the PBS shifter.  I didn't receive any literature with my shifter, just put it together and put it in the car.  I should have run it through the gears before I put it in the car.  In any event, armed with the info Danny provided above and some insight from Special Editions I got it sorted out yesterday.  I was not enthusiastic about loping off a portion of the reverse shift fork with out understand what the real source of interference is.  I played with the pieces for a while and found that the shift pall sticks further into the reverse fork than the other two.  So much further that the round portion of the pall is sticking into the fork so there were four points of contact between the pall and fork.  The two points on the pall that should contact the fork and two points on the pall shaft, essential pining the fork so the pall would not rotate.  I dressed the pall shaft a little to get some motion started but could not get enough without weakening the pall shaft.  I put a radius on the inboard leading edge of the reverse shift fork to get the rest of the motion I needed.  Works smooth now.

Doing this while installed in the car was not as bad as I thought it would be.  Getting the rear mount off with the engine installed was a bit tricky.  Before I put it back together I drilled through the rear mount so the shift housing bolt that is captured by the rear mount can be removed with the rear mount installed.  It made getting it back together much easier.

Now onto my alignment and brakes.

Glad you got it sorted, Tom. These things happen when you change the workings of the shift action from an arc to a straight line...

But the function of this shifter is just snick-snick superb. You'll love it. It's definitely better than any rod shifter I've used or adjusted in a Spyder. I've worked on a few different Becks and Vintages besides my own. The PBS is #1.

Carey sent me a beautiful round and polished aluminum shift rod to replace the squared-off PBS dune-buggy looking one. I immediately shortened it(it was pretty long) to the original PBS length and I absolutely love it.

I bought a custom knob from Twisted Shifterz and that came out very nice. They can make MANY sizes, styles, colors, shift patterns, and threads. I did black with white pattern routed into the knob. They really weren't expensive either.

https://www.twistedshifterz.co...lections/shift-knobs

This would help the Speedster guys too, if you like custom stuff.

I originally took this pic to show my Bluetooth receiver, so it isn't the greatest one of the shift knob itself. It is a decent shot of my Jim Dubois e-brake though. 

Good to hear about how happy you are with the PBS shifter.  I'll look forward to enjoying it myself.  I think the arc versus straight line movement of the shift pall is the source to transmission mod requirement.  I think the angle of the pall slide is a little off.  As in all things, when you did into the details you probably would find that they did the best they could considering all the constraints.

Thanks for the info on the shift knob.  I have one on back order from Special Editions.  The threads on the shift shaft were wearing a hole in my palm so I stopped by Auto Zone to a knob to at least cover the raw threads.  I plan to use it on my lawn mower when I get the real one.  Have a good week end.   

PBS...Click-click...clunk...$ 600 + with cables vs.(0) for Randy's rod

ReV

I'm curious what your purpose is here, Rev?

I would have commented earlier, but I'm getting ready for Carlisle tomorrow. Car is loaded in the trailer.

You mean the New Canaan C&C…it’s a fun, low key event

ReV

I've got a question about ride height.  Over the weekend I set the rear wheels perpendicular to the ground with no passenger weight.  I then adjusted the front beam to get the floor level.  I used a string system to complete the alignment.  I was pretty happy with the alignment setup, it checked out within a string width when I rotated the wheel boards 180, and gave me good access to make the adjustments.

My concern is that after I drove the car into the garage and my wife and I got out, the rear wheels showed a fair amount of negative camber.  I rolled the car back a forth a bit with no passenger weight and the wheels came back to neutral camber.  I expected this and thought about placing bags of cement in the seats during my alignment, but did not think I needed to go to that trouble.  Now I'm wondering.  If I set it up so the wheels are neutral with passenger weight onboard, it will have more positive camber than I care for while parked.  What is the right compromise?

What's "right" can be different for everybody.

You've got to get the front high enough to not rub the tires when two-up, but not high enough to look too high.

You've got to get the rear to sit not too high(into positive camber) or too low(bottoming out). I initially ran my Spyder pretty low all around, but raised it after I bottomed on speed bumps going into Lime Rock Park.

I have the rear set around 2.5 to 3.5 degrees negative camber(depending on weight in the seats), and the front to be level with the rear height or slightly lower. Slight front-lower rake helps high speed handling(110+). The front is about 1.5 degrees negative camber.

I run 1/16" toe-in, both front and rear. These settings have served me well over the years on the street, Auto-X, and DE laps.

I've got a newbie question for you.  Yesterday I went to confirm the timing on the engine in the Spyder.  I had set it last year when the engine was in my sand rail.  It became immediately apparent to me that seeing the degrees on the pulley was going to be a problem.  I used a small inspection mirror to confirm that the timing was in the ballpark, but I was not able to read the numbers as well as I would like.

What do you guys do?  I have a borescope that gives a great image, but securing the end of the fiber optic would be a pain and the chance of the fiber optic getting caught in the works seems too high.  As I write this I'm wondering if I should use a selfie stick.

In other news, I have an appointment with DMV next week.  that's how they work now as the result of Covid, anything that you need to do in person requires an appointment that  you setup online.   

My neighbor is a used car dealer and he offered to loan me his Dealer Plate so we could bed in the brakes.  Had some fun on our back roads and then went up to Route 1 to see how it felt.  It was great.  Ran out of gas as required.  I know the hub caps are a faux pau, but my wife loves them.

Tom, I taped a flexible inspection mirror to my timing light so I could hold the light and mirror one-handed.

I know some people have actually cut an access panel in the firewall just to set the timing.

"Ran out of gas as required". Yup, done that. I carried a full one gallon can for a while until I figured to get gas at 1/4 tank LOL!

While I had great access with my shroud off, I took a paint pen and marked the outside of the pulley  corresponding to TDC (red) idle and max advance (yellow) so that I can see them with my timing light without using a mirror.

Thanks for the suggestions.  I was thinking that putting a couple of small groves with colored filler on the OD of the pulley to mark the important angles would be the plan.  I'm going to try the selfie stick and see how it works.  I know I'm close so there is no panic right now.

Come to think of it Tom, I believe I did the same with a small triangle file prior to the paint pen.

I just used a spring-loaded center punch to mark the edge of the pulley at 0 and 30 degrees on the motor I'm building.

I filed in a subtle notch on the top of the pulley at 0, 5 before and 30 before TDC. My timing light has a dial on it so if you know 0 you can dial it in to flash at any timing. Set it to "30" and revved to 3000 and looked for the mark, which appeared. Then set the light to "0" and did it again and saw the 30-degree notch.

Then I installed the CB Performance Black Box....

I have an appointment with the DMV inspector on Tuesday.  I'm knocking on wood as I type this but, so far my transit through the registration process has been good.  The hardest part that I've faces is being comfortable being separated from so much money to pay the sales tax.

Test fit the car and my new E Trac's yesterday.  Compared to my sand rail, there is not much to tie down to on the Spyder.  I like the basket straps, they are holding the wheels firmly in place and are independent form each other.

When I moved from Massachusetts to Tiverton I had to go through the same process (except for that killer sales tax - They hit us up for that with our Austin Healey, though) and I found the DMV and State Police inspectors to be easy to work with and just doing their jobs.  Often, the inspectors are "car guys", too, and can appreciate that you built the car and tend to admire it after they get the inspection done.

Hope you don't have to go too far to get the look-see done.  After all, you're halfway to NYC, way down there in the corner of the state.    

Thanks for the encouragement Gordon.  I spoke with the inspector on the phone and he sounded like a reasonable guy to work with.  He even mentioned that if I leave the inspection with an open item, he could send an inspector down to me to save a return trip.

Nothing is to far away in RI.  It's funny, somehow the size of the state seems to restrict our movements.  We try to avoid going north of 138 which really only 15 minutes up the road.  Visiting the Tax man in Providence was a big trip, but was only a 35 minute drive. 

Good luck Tom. After living in NY for 5 years, I’m really glad to be back in Utah. DMV is mostly a breeze.

My project made it across the line on Friday, we are on the road,  My experience with RI DMV was very pleasant.  Kit cars get sent to an inspection garage up in Providence and get checked out by the same guys that check the city and school buses.  Really nice guys, all very interested in cars.  They put the Spyder up on a lift meant to support a grey hound bus and checked the suspension.  They were impressed with Special Editions work and signed off on my inspection paperwork.  I then sat with the supervisor as he completed my registration and I left the lot with plates and tags.

I appreciate the support and guidance that you guys provided my project.  Also, I can't say enough about my experience working with Special Editions.  Great response to question during the selection and build process and the support after delivery has been great.         

Very sweet, Tom. Congratulations.

That's great news, Tom!

When I went for my replica inspection here in Mass. everyone on my Hot Rod side hoped that I wouldn't get "Sgt. Burns" as he was a real PITA on inspections.

Turned out I got him and he was very brusk at first ("just give me your paper work and I'll figure it all out in my office") but after it was all over and I had satisfied everything he asked for, he turned out to be a nice guy - even a muscle car motorhead!

These guys have to deal with a lot of salvage cars, many of questionable repair quality, that they have to inspect and certify as OK and put up with a lot of flak from the "mechanics" bringing some of them in, so I can see where they might be a little critical.

Now that you're rolling, we'll have to find an event somewhere near us for the NE group to show up at and check out your new ride!

Congratulations and happy Father's Day!!