@Gordon Nichols posted:I can’t use my IR thermometer for that right now. My wife is using it for forehead readings when checking for Covid.
Makes me feel like I’m going through TSA........
Well be happy your not getting full physicals from TSA ....
@Gordon Nichols posted:I can’t use my IR thermometer for that right now. My wife is using it for forehead readings when checking for Covid.
Makes me feel like I’m going through TSA........
Well be happy your not getting full physicals from TSA ....
Update: no wet-sanding this clear for 7 days, after which I should be able to get it, if not perfect, good enough so you're eyes won't hang on it. I did check the fit and we seem to have a scrape-free hood-to-body clearance.
@edsnova posted:...good enough so you're eyes won't hang on it...
I think that's the key to real-world paint touch-up.
My ivory car was primered in black. The tiniest rock chip is visible from outer space.
And I get rock chips on, like, every third drive.
I could spend three days fixing each chip - filling, sanding, buffing (assuming I actually knew how to do that) - but I've chosen a more realistic approach.
I dab on some touch-up paint, try not to spread it over an area twice as large as the original chip, and move on. If you stare at the chip, you can still see it, but if you don't know where it is, it's invisible. Again, these are supposed to be 70-year-old cars. Paint defects are part of the whole gestalt.
Besides, these cars gives us lots of other things to obsess about. Was it really idling smoother yesterday, or do we just imagine that?
It's not the length of the line. It's throughput time.
"Bleep!" "OK....You're good!"
@Stan Galat posted:Can I get an Amen!?!
Optimism has no place in building or troubleshooting. None. If it can break, it will break.
... like my clutch cable, just now.
... and just like that, my unwarranted optimism balloon is deflated.
Whatever broke, it wasn't the cable.
Nuts.
@Michael Pickett posted:Geez, how long is the line to get into your house?
Currently Gordon is residing in the dog house. If he's a REAL GOOD boy, Kathy will let him in occasionally, check his temperature, feed and water him, and maybe scratch him behind the ear with a freshly-gloved hand.
The Spyder is registered and I'm into test-drives and adjustments now.
Starts easy, idles a little low when cold, and the brake pedal is a bit low for my tastes. One pad may be rubbing just a tad as well, so I'll need to find that and re-shim the caliper, probably, and the brake line on the driver's rear caliper it taking paint off the inner fender, so I'm going to have to re-route it. E-brake also needs tightening. The car tracks and stops straight.
Gears are all there and I'm going to leave them be a while and see if the shifter gets smoother or not.
Left turn signal does not cancel. Dang. I'm not interested in pulling the wheel again to correct that, given the fiasco with the horn button. But I'll probably do it, all the same.
Need to aim the headlights lower. Will do that after the ride height is set and settled.
Gonna try to fit the cloth top before swapping out the glass windscreen for the proper plastic screen.
May yet have the slightest oil drip out of the passenger side valve cover. Need to make sure it's not a pushrod tube.
Once that's squared away the aluminum underpan goes back on.
Also I'll be making a towbar system for it.
Ed, I'm not seeing the pictures you tried to attach to the last update. Great progress, though. Congrats on getting it registered!
MIke be healed
I can't see anything either.
Weird. I uploaded them same as usual
The Spyder is registered and I'm into test-drives and adjustments now.
Starts easy, idles a little low when cold, and the brake pedal is a bit low for my tastes. One pad may be rubbing just a tad as well, so I'll need to find that and re-shim the caliper, probably, and the brake line on the driver's rear caliper it taking paint off the inner fender, so I'm going to have to re-route it. E-brake also needs tightening. The car tracks and stops straight.
Gears are all there and I'm going to leave them be a while and see if the shifter gets smoother or not.
Left turn signal does not cancel. Dang. I'm not interested in pulling the wheel again to correct that, given the fiasco with the horn button. But I'll probably do it, all the same.
Need to aim the headlights lower. Will do that after the ride height is set and settled.
Gonna try to fit the cloth top before swapping out the glass windscreen for the proper plastic screen.
May yet have the slightest oil drip out of the passenger side valve cover. Need to make sure it's not a pushrod tube.
Once that's squared away the aluminum underpan goes back on.
Also I'll be making a towbar system for it.
Glad you got it registered
Looks brilliant! Thanks for the new pics, Ed.
Once again: Wow! What a beauty! I hope, though, you NEVER have to use those wipers.
Thanks, Paul. Going to pull out the wipers and wiper motor and put the plastic screen back on the car. I do want to test fit the cloth top first though. And I may set that up to work (if I can use that word) like the original Spyder tops did as well.
All your countless hours of work and the 100's of pounds of stuff you acquired from my PA shop made for one nice ride !
My, my, my... Sometime to be very proud of here, Ed.
Simply gorgeous.........
@aircooled posted:Any ideas on how or where you will attach the roll bar ?......Bruce
No roll bar in this one Bruce.
@aircooled posted:Any ideas on how or where you will attach the roll bar ?......Bruce
This is how Greg did mine, and the PCA okayed this at LRP. There are two forward diagonals just below the door tops that bolt onto plates in front of the bulkhead. It isn't pretty, but it comes out for street duty. I'm the fat guy and my friend Mike is wearing the Lotus shirt. It was 95 and humid that day, summer DE 2018. Car ran very well, rings were tired. Lot of blue smoke on throttle off. Did a full top end, pistons, barrels and heads last summer. She runs strong now.
Ed, that blue looks great out in the sun.
My tow bar had about 1.5 inches of ground clearance and would scrape on angled driveway entrances. But hey, it's only the bar dragging, not the car.
I have two big bolts that go through the bottom of the pan ahead of the little "hump" and go through and screw into nuts welded on the top of my frame extensions to which I attached my jack points. I CADded this out already. Plan to cut and drill some square or c bar and bolt it on there, then bring it up past the jack points and terminate under the grill with horizontal pivot points to which I can attach a Bug bar which I'll cut the ends off of and box for the pivots.
I'll probably end up tying the two bits together with some small square tube to keep the lateral stress off the jack points, but really it shouldn't matter as they're solid 1-inch round bar welded to 3/16" plate.
Anyway on this I'll have a real welder after I tack for fit-up.
A couple big Clevis pins should take it from there.
So Ed, how many multiples of 40 hours do you have in that build?
Hours in: 1803.
Well that makes it at least 45 weeks of work for a one guy operation. The car looks awesome from here will it be at Carlisle?
Ed, I gotta come see you and this fab build. You still have it, right? When's a good time? It is stunning.
Kelly, you are welcome here any time. I will have the car for at least a few months for sorting.
Continued sorting. Ordered some brake flare adaptors today. Just got done opening up the inner fenders for brake caliper clearance. Tightened the axle boots because they leaked like hell after that first trip around the block. Still dialing in the ride height. Fronts seem pretty good but the left side is 1/4-3/8 lower than the right and so: Gotta drop the rear passenger side about 3/8 of an inch and raise the driver's side 1/8 or so.
Details.
Ed, someone is going to cherish your work for a very long time
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