Thunder Ranch build thread

👍🦌@Kevin - Bay Area is this a nice early Christmas 🎄 🎁 come early Sept. 

Who's the faux-est one of all? New Award for Carlisle?

Here's a "problem area" on my car. If you squat down in the door frame and sight across the front of the seats to examine the shifter and e-brake handle you can really see how incorrect they are:

As compared to this shot of 550-0073 (The Al Special):

Looks great to me, don't squad down, problem solved and it will be just fine ~

Yeah, like Alan said, stop squatting down to look at it.

I like Alan's solution, Ed.  Sounds like a winner, especially when you remember that most replicas are longer than the originals.

Supposedly these cars are about 4 inches longer and maybe 2(?) inches wider. It's kind of stunning when you look at how small they are and realize "yeah, too big tho." 

You do realize, of course, that YOUR shift lever is topped with a "Manly-Man" shift knob - something that can be grasped securely in your hand whilst giving you the feeling that you are in charge as you power through the gears.  

YOU are a motoring Ace, deserving of such a fine machine.

On the other hand, that "550-0073" special has a (yawn....) VW "People's Car" mushroom shift knob, the same as in my 1957 Oval Sedan and two million other "people's cars".  That had 36 wimpy hp.  And no heat (but plenty of exhaust fumes).   

If anyone asks, just tell them that you have the same "special" shifter that they put onto the winning LeMans cars which was then removed and presented to the winning driver as a race souvenir.  Yours was removed from a non-winning (DNF) car and it later appeared in a rather sketchy ad on "Bring a Trailer", where you won the bidding at $12,500.

That sounds very believable, Gordon; consider it done. 

To explain my less-than-perfect frunk rendition I shall also endeavor to develop an outrageous story involving the necessity of fitting the FIA-mandated 60x40x20cm hard-sided suitcase under the bonnet in order to continue to qualify in the sports car class for sanctioned under-2 litre hill climbs on the continent after 1960. 

In this car's context it makes excellent sense.

It's all in the details. Wow...

That 0.5% of car enthusiasts that know the 550 will know the car is a replica based upon the proportions. But 1/2 of that group will still admire all the attention and time you have into your build. The other half of that group are total snobs, so who cares what they think?

The other 99.5% would think it’s real if you had an “8-ball” shifter knob on it. 

One day, in the near future, I’d like to either make or buy (probably buy, because we’ll #idiot here) the shift knob from the 917. 

Correct Kevin! And at this point anyone who knows what a 550 is (and what they sell for) will know it isn't real just based on the fact that it's being driven on public roads. But it'll be worth a second look anyway, I hope.

I always liked Lenny's spider shift knob. Similar to

^^ THAT! ^^

Is Wicked Awesome!

And Ed:  Someone in the Beaufort, SC car club had a case with similar dimensions in the trunk of his '62 Corvette for car shows.  When he opened it (usually just as cars were getting lined up and parked for the show) he had all the fixins for high-potency Bloody Marys (recipe from "Kathleen's Pub" on Bay Street) which, of course, got quickly passed around, so by the time the crowds arrived the club was in a party mood (read that, "pretty well lit").   The good old days....

Not that I am in any way endorsing such craziness, but those dimensions lend themselves to something better than tools or spares, don't-cha think?

edsnova posted:

Correct Kevin! And at this point anyone who knows what a 550 is (and what they sell for) will know it isn't real just based on the fact that it's being driven on public roads. But it'll be worth a second look anyway, I hope.

I always liked Lenny's spider shift knob. Similar to

@edsnova Some PITA advocate might not like that 😎🎄

Yes, PETA can sometimes be a PITA.  

I believe that those spider knobs are no longer available as it is illegal to kill them and cast them in resin.

DannyP posted:

I believe that those spider knobs are no longer available as it is illegal to kill them and cast them in resin.

Nope, it's because the spiders are still ALIVE and trapped in the train. You can see mine wiggle a leg every once in a while.  :-p

I actually measured and there's no way I could get an FIA-cert suitcase to fit in the front of my car. This will make the story even more complex and entertaining.

Clutch re-tested, Spyder script secured, screws holding the Autopulse fuel pumps set with permatex red, under-cowl vaccuumed and Wendler badges installed this morning. 

Where the heck did you find the Wendler Badges?  The Spyder Factory is making those from scratch.

@Gordon Nichols -- I think there are others making them -- Carey, for one, comes to mind. Carey hits them with some spray paint and gives them that antique look. Pretty cool!

Mine came in a box with the rest of the scripts. I think it's aluminum and not silver.

Mine were a gift from another Spyder guy. I used pop rivets, kudos to you Ed for using the proper looking rivets.

Time lapse:

Christmas, 2017: 

Christmas, 2018:

Present day:

OK, Spyderguy.....

Anything happening on the shop front or are you taking time off over the Holidays? (which I would not begrudge you one iota).

Re-fabbed my breather/fake oil tank out of steel 'cuz the aluminum one was too weak. 

I'm also moving down my final assembly punch list: cleaned up under the dash today, riveted in the body tag, modded my throttle return spring so it's not ass. That sort of thing. There are about 115 individual punch-list items ranging from "top off transaxle with gear oil; tighten plugs" to "Visit MSP with docs for sign-off" to "install final Porsche scripts."

Basic been that long?

Blog post.

Panicked a little when I couldn't get the backup light to work with the trans in reverse (knowing the switch was good); thought maybe I had a bum transaxle.

Then I tried pushing the car a little in gear. Low and behold: the fan spun counterclockwise in both reverse and second! 

I was able to fix it pretty quickly after that discovery.

Also spoke to the safety inspector guy today and he's pretty sure—not 100 percent, but pretty sure—he'll have to see working windscreen wipers to give the car a pass. So I'll be saddling up the glass screen and delving back into my long-abandoned wiper rig before putting the floor back on the car.

All in the game, I guess. 

You're an inspiration to me, Ed.  When life throws me the occasional wicked curve, and I whiff, I think of you and take another cut.  Good on ya! 

Yes that sucks about the windshield and wipers, I know another Maryland Spyder guy that swapped his screen out after the inspection.

Keep plugging away, Carlisle WILL BE MADE THIS YEAR. Unless it's sold before.......

edsnova posted:

 

"...Low and behold: the fan spun counterclockwise in both reverse and second!..."

 

Ed, I think the technical term for that is a poltergeist .

I know you were focused on the switch and on whether or not it was working, but did you notice the demonic spirits escaping at the bottom of the photo?

Is your garage located anywhere near a cemetery, or maybe a former cemetery?

In any case, I'd stay away from your TV for a while.

Yup....Those "Light Orab's" that haunt photographs on occasion can be downright frustrating...even scary.  The one I have trouble with  is the Gay little "Amp" that goes around blowing all the fuses randomly. They always catch you off-guard.  So much so, that as soon as a fuse blows, you don't believe it happened so you install another fuse and watch to be sure it blows too.  This is very common troubleshooting procedure and is why I always carry 2 of each size of fuse.

Sometimes I insert a screwdriver into a randomly selected device or assembly just to practice this unique skill and be reassured that the procedure still works.

Occasionally I practice it using an "ice-pick" style trouble shooting light. I make sure the shaft of the "pick" part is resting on a grounded part of the assembly. This is to "steady" the insertion of the "pick" enough to ensure it only touches the hot post !

Bruce

All this tiime I thought is was angels

Shift linkage/bracket adjustment continues apace!

Reverse gear is not reachable by standard means yet unless the works are adjusted such that it is the only gear that can be selected.

I pondered this phenom for a bit and finally decided that my home-brewed gate selector bracket is not yet ready for the big leagues, and set about adding a triangle to it for stiffening purposes.

I designed this as a bolt-on but, having tacked it together, I find I can't remove it without taking at least one of the two brackets off the trans, so I'll probably end up welding it to both brackets to make them into one big bracket like Brandwood made originally. 

It's admittedly no longer elegant but it should not draw undue attention to itself under the spare tire.

For those needing a refresher here's my November, 2017 blog post on why I decided to make this mess instead of just using the stock bracket like a sane person.

Hope springs eternal

Anything limiting motion (or allowing too much play) at the shifter end?

When we installed a Vintage shifter in my car, it turned out just the thickness of the carpet was enough to change the geometry and prevent proper shifts. Yeah, an entirely different system, but you get the idea, right?

Thanks for that, Mitch. I don't think the trouble's at the box but I do plan to double check and shim it up if necessary. 

Spent four hours today. First I tried the shifter in reverse with the bracket/gusset just tacked in place. It worked! So I pulled the assembly and finished welding the shifter gusset.

I worked around it slowly so as to not warp it. Then I sliced the top of the tube and tapped it down to make it conform to the plate bit before welding across.

Then I was going to weld the new part to both the old parts to make it one unit but decided not to do that when I went to test-fit it on as a one-piece item and could not get it to fit under the holy frame bit I made.

The rearward part that attaches to the end of the bracket is threaded for the little ball that the cable end grabs. The upper part of course fits over the stud on the transaxle and is notched to kind of "lock" in place against one of the ribs. So I guess that'll have to be good enough.

Painted it.

Re-bent the reverse light bracket to tuck the light up, prepped and painted that too while I was at it. Also re-painted part of shifter bracket that got dinged-up from previous bending and bending back. I then reassembled all the bracketry and adjusted the shifter.

All four forward gears work easy now and reverse is where it should be. 

There are 73 items remaining on the punch list.

Just 103days until Carlisle you'll make it Ed !

I'll make it if I can avoid adding **** to the punch-out list.