Visit to Special Edition/ Fiberfab Speedster /Subaru Conversion

2019... drive it to Carlisle !

 

Wow Tom, What is your car worth now?  Is this like golf clubs? My wife never notices if I have a new set or how much they cost..LOL.  I'm only kidding. I have had hobby cars for over 30 years and they are a labor of love for me not a venture to make money. Your car sounds like it is awesome and just the way you want it. Problem for me has been once a car gets to the " just way I want it stage" I get bored with it. I am hoping this Speedster is going to be my Keeper. We will see.

edsnova posted:

I actually know what he's talking about with trying to make the Subi motor mounts work with VW frame horns. 

You're building everything off the horns anyway so you can't easily improve the strength by using the beefier Subi parts. But you DO add weight.

The Rhino mounts seem to hold up well, and the transaxle mid-mount keeps it all stiff. The kafer bar will make it better yet.

Totally agree on the Kafer Bar.  CSP makes a great one and the frame horns weight carrying issue  will disappear.

Kinda like a boat isn't it, Tom?  You have an exceptional car with bells and whistles galore.  I'm looking forward to seeing it at Maggie Valley!

Jimmy V. posted:

I wonder if there is any Speedster events near the Louisville Ky. area?  ( I know about Carlisle and plan to come next year) If not I wonder if there is enough of us the live in 6 hours of Louisville that would come to an event if one was organized. Just a thought. Anyone listening?

Jimmy---you are just a stone's throw from the upcoming event near Asheville, NC the tour is named the "Tour De Smo".  Check it out under the events section.  Many accommodations in the area ---join us in about 4 weeks!  We have people coming from as far away as Chicago, Florida. and Dogpatch.

Jack Crosby posted:

Kinda like a boat isn't it, Tom?  You have an exceptional car with bells and whistles galore.  I'm looking forward to seeing it at Maggie Valley!

I won’t make it to Maggie Valley.  I’m still hoping for a gathering in Bremen in Speedster.

Impressive ... most impressive

I wont be able to make the Asheville event, my car will be getting finished around the time of the event.

Tom Blankinship posted:

Jack Crosby posted:

Kinda like a boat isn't it, Tom?  You have an exceptional car with bells and whistles galore.  I'm looking forward to seeing it at Maggie Valley!

I won’t make it to Maggie Valley.  I’m still hoping for a gathering in Bremen in Speedster.

I meant September

Jimmy V. posted:

Wow Tom, What is your car worth now?  Is this like golf clubs? My wife never notices if I have a new set or how much they cost..LOL.  I'm only kidding. I have had hobby cars for over 30 years and they are a labor of love for me not a venture to make money. Your car sounds like it is awesome and just the way you want it. Problem for me has been once a car gets to the " just way I want it stage" I get bored with it. I am hoping this Speedster is going to be my Keeper. We will see.

Priceless. I have no intention of selling unless I can no longer drive her.

I like the stance and ride height of your car, it has a unique look. Good job.

@Tom Blankinship, what does your pop up Decklid latch look like?

>
>

@Tom Blankinship, thanks for posting the picture.  Is the piece with what looks like a pop rivet through it part of the spring installation?  Was this added to your existing latch or was it all new?

Is that a fire suppression device below?

I can’t answer your first question, but @chines1 can.

Yes, that’s the fire suppression device.
>
>

I have the same fire suppression device in approximately the same position.  I have often wondered if it should be located above the carbs.  Seeing yours there makes me feel more comfortable.

It used to be above the carbs when the engine was air-cooled, but had to be moved when the Suby engine was installed.

Will it work? Dunno? But, it’s better than nothing.

>

@Michael McKelvey  That is our 904 clamshell latch.  The stock part pulls from the wrong direction for a Speedster, but we can disassemble and reposition the spring and lever to the other side (as seen on Tom's photo) and make it work for a Speedster.

Week 7 of the Special Edition Subaru conversion of my Fiberfab Californian Speedster. The engine is back in for the final Time. I am waiting on more pics from Carey but here is the one he sent.

This is Week 7 progress report from Carey of Special Edition.  Carey and his crew make the magic happen in way that truly shows their love of what they do and the cars. I am blown away and amazed at their service, bravo Carey and thank you. Getting closer to D day (Drive Day). See his report below. More pics to follow.

 Exhaust came in.  header fit great.  Muffler fit my car but not yours, so we had to fab the last 1/2 of it.  I used the twin tip section of a VW exhaust and milled all the guts out of it so it was hollow, so you have a standard muffler and then a cavity w/ the twin tips.  It looks good.  It also didn’t have an o2 bung, so we added it.
It was dropped at ceramics today and should be back late next week.

The heater core that was sent is the wrong size, so it was sent back and the replacement will be here Wednesday, but we’ve run heater core lines already

Coolant lines are run.

We can’t secure them the way we want to because your rocker cavity IS the back side of the cockpit (our car is a cavity) so anything we drilled there would be under the carpet and a potential leak area, so we are glassing in a tube behind the rockers to house the coolant lines.  Started that today.

I did come in Sunday and fabricated the scoop for the nose.  I need to attach it permanently and then seal it off from the rest of the nose and I am working on that still.

We changed your clutch cable to a proper length cable and corrected the angle of the Bowden tube.

We got the proper length wheel studs and they are installed

Truss bar is preeminently installed now too, in fact all the engine and components are installed and wired for the final time.  We managed to get the stock air box all tucked behind the rear firewall, very neat and trick, and just have to figure out what to do with the intake filter yet and then I have to replace one firewall brace that I had to cut out.

We should be done with all the mechanical end of things next week and ready to fire up as soon as the exhaust arrives.  I did give the guys Monday off, which is unusual for us, but they’ve been killing themselves and asked for it.  I must have been feeling nice.

If we have a GREAT week and everything goes incredibly well I’ll be testing by the end of the week.  If things play out like usual and we have “some: hiccup we’ll be close by the end of the week and actually driving the first of the following week

Still have the gauge swap to do, but we’ll do that when we do the heater core since we’ll have a day under the dash already

WOW. Can you say ......"thorough"

Here are the pics for week 7 's work.

 

@chines1

I can’t believe you had to cut out one of those precious, wooden 2” X 4” braces fiberglassed in and holding the firewall in place.  They are so much a “Classic” part of a Classic Motor Carriages body, ya know?   At least they didn’t use old Aluminum house siding in the wheel wells like another “builder” we all know.......  (and, of course, not YOU guys!  Sounds like you guys are bustin your humps! )    

Putting the bowden tube angle right is a nice touch. Mine is slightly wrong on Bridget (owing to the way I had to shuffle the engine forward which fouled-up the tube length and bend) & I just grease it twice a year—so far, so good—but cracking and re-welding the bracket is obviously the right way. Hats off.

More Pics of week 7 work.

Very very nice work, Carey and company! Enjoy that day off!

Jim, your photo did not display.    "IMAGE NOT FOUND"

Give it another shot.

Week 8 of my Subaru Conversion is in the bag. Carey and the gang at Special Edition keep amazing me with the attention to detail and their eagerness to please the customer. We appear to be very close. The engine will be up and running soon as the exhaust system is back midweek from the ceramic coater. Below is Carey's week end report and pics. He sent a couple of videos at my request. :

 Gauges, new fuel system, and wiring had Mike tied up the better part of 3 days when it should have been a day tops..  Believe it or not these Speedster wiring harness only have about 25 main wire runs and are very simple, but all of your wires happen to be BLACK so that was fun.  LOL   Mike said some wires had the remainder of what once was some sort of label… Anyway, existing gauges are now in original order and rewired properly.  I still need to test your fuel sending unit, but it wasn’t wired correctly which is probably why it wasn’t working, but I’ll verify it when we get the battery box fabricated and the battery installed.  I haven’t put any sending unit in the new tank and won’t until I test yours first.

The ceramic coater said it would be earliest Wednesday before we could pick up the exhaust and we’ll be ready for it then.  

I’ve got 2 more small deflector pieces I am putting in the scoop and then I’ll paint it.  All of my other ducting is glassed in and done, just needs paint/undercoat.  

Aluminum shroud is all bolted/riveted down and there is just one more small aluminum trim piece top go in the nose and it’s done.

Coolant system is complete to the heater core bypass.  Heater core lines are run to the front and we have to install the remote H valve and then tie into the heater core.  heater core was fit and Mike made a bracket for it.  The bracket has to be painted and then that can all go back in.

Engine just needs exhaust, connect the O2 sensor, and power wire to the alternator.  We’ll make a small harness for this and tie into your existing harness.

We painted all the old raw metal bracing with a rust encapsulating chassis paint.  There were some surface rust spots “here and there” on the pan/suspension/control arms/frame horns/etc so I just brushed some of the leftovers over them just to clean up a little…  nothing fancy.

We were able to remove the old studs from the aluminum adapter plates and machine them into wheel spacers for the new discs.  It was quick and painless.

We’ll be finished with the last few items on the list by first fo the week (Tuesday most likely) and be ready for the exhaust when it is ready.  Bill will button up his few upholstery items while we wait on the exhaust.

More pics from week 8 of Conversion.   The first pic. is showing that Carey had the tachometer moved to the middle. My car had the Speedometer in the middle which bugged me. The speedo is showing the 500 or so total miles on this replica. It had 120 miles on it when I bought it approx. one year ago.  The brand new 2276 engine that came in the car had a cam with most of the lopes wiped out . I had the engine rebuilt and sold this past February in preparation for the Subaru conversion.

All looks good! I talked to Carey yesterday, I think your car is not slowing them down much from the normal shop schedule. But then you have Anand's Spyder that requires LOTS more fitting and fabrication than Carey could dream of it needing!

Cheers, Jimmy, soon.....

My Subaru Conversion mid week update. Carey and crew are getting very close to having my car finished. I had been reading about the issue of the CMC style cars having the rear sag over time. I spoke with Carey about doing something to strengthen the way the rear body is attached to the frame. He looked it over and is going to work some magic to make this better. I will send some detailed info. and pictures covering this at a later date. The heater I am having them install wasn't a good fit under the dash. Carey didn't like it and contacted me. We decided to move the heater core and fan box to the front trunk area and duct it to the driver and passenger side of cockpit. It isn't ideal but is the best choice we have. I wanted to install a heater system to open up additional weeks of using my Speedster when the mornings are cold and the afternoons are warm here in the Louisville Ky. area. I like to drive my car in the 15 miles to my business and back as much as possible.

  They should have the engine fired up this week and driving it next to work out any bugs. I have to say again what amazing service and professional work Special Edition and Carey offer. It is hard to find this level of workmanship and customer service. I cant wait to be driving my Speedster.

Week  9 has the car very near completion. The heat system has been installed the engine has been started for the first time.. The CMC butt sag fix ala Carey and company has been nearly finished. They ran a 1"X 2  .120" thick rectangular tube down each side welded to the upright behind the door jam. They glassed it to the outside of the inner body wall and plan to add rivets to make it more secure. Carey plans to weld another metal piece on each side to triangulate the rectangular tube even though he says it is super stiff now. Carey thinks the car could be finished Wednesday if the weather permits him to get the car out on the road for shake down drives.  It has been a fun journey I can't wait to be driving my Speedster.  Carey and the crew at Special Edition are amazing. Hope to be posting pictures of me picking my Speedster up soon. Stay tuned.