Spyder restoration - long time coming

[peteracs]

Visited Mark’s place today on one of his open days. Met both folk I knew and some new faces to me, a jolly good and useful day. Bought some parts including the long awaited bonnet cover which I know Mark has been chasing for a long time. Also came away with good small panel from the inner wing that was a mystery mangled piece of metal on my HPE project, thanks to Nigel for pointing it out. Also to Guy who brought along the inner wing rubber gaiters which I was in need of.

The journey was an interesting one to say the least. I left home at 5:00am and arrived at Hawkchurch at around 10:00am,  route was mainly motorway, bit of the M1, M69, M6, M42, M5. With the Spider having the 1600 diff, cruising was best at an indicated 70 mph, which translated to 65mph actual at 3500 rpm. No great drama on the way down and the car felt really solid. Managed 38mpg as well which surprised me.

The return journey via the same route was a bit more exciting. It had rained on and off whilst we were at Marks, but no rain when I left, this continued up to just north of Cheltenham on the M5, then the heavens decided to open up and we had the full lightening, thunder and road awash with standing water, some of it could have been dangerous. This lasted all the way up to the M42 turn off which is a fair distance. Once on the M42 the rain gave way to clear skies and it was warm and dry for the rest of the run home. So car was put away dry luckily. The car however ran absolutely faultlessly even having waves of water thrown at it and driving through significant standing water.

The total distance travelled in the day was 480 miles which is as far as I have driven in one day for a long time never mind in the Spider. Not the most practical to do that kind of distance due to the noise level, but on the positive side, the seat was really comfortable. All in all a positive day all round.

Lastly a big thanks to Mark for taking the time out.

[peteracs]

Following the thorough soaking it got the other day I had a good look around for water ingress and was pleasantly surprised given it is a Spider and they are prone to water in the cabin, or at least this one was before my time given the amount of rot in the front floor pans. There was only one drop of water I found in the boot just below the aerial which I suspect has come in via the aerial itself and not the seal around it. Looking underneath I checked the drain pains on the two enclosed sills and found the drivers ones (front and back) were dry, but evidence of water coming out of the drain holes on the passenger side, they were also slightly clogged up. I then realised that one of the rubber bungs for that side was completely missing which would most likely explain water in the sill, not a good find. I therefore left the car in the baking sun all day and revisited it on Monday. All seemed better, but I remembered I had bought ages ok a can of Bilt Hamber Dynax-S50 which comes with a long ‘wand’ for cavity use and had never used it on the Spider. So I removed the 4 rubber bungs and had a bit of a poke around inside with fingers and a hooked dental tool. I was pleasantly surprised to find the missing bung inside the sill and less happy to find some cloth material and a few leaves, only conclusion was a mouse at some time in the past as I ha e no idea how long the bung has been in the sill. After that used the Dynax which is simple to use and really appears to cover well due to the pressure and the design of the long ‘wand’ which has a special end to distribute the liquid to the side of the tube rather that just coming out the end. All 4 bungs now replaced and hopefully that should be it for a while.

I also have some Dynax-UB which is designed to spray on the underside of the car to protect it. That is a job for later this year as want to get on the with HPE parts.

Peter

[peteracs]

Something which I had in the back of my mind ever since the visit to Goodwood last year for the parade lap etc, was an issue that I assumed was not normal. I was going on a downhill bit of the A34 near Newbury and got up to what was a fairly high speed for me in the car to keep up with the traffic, hit a rough bit of road and one of the front wheels felt pretty unstable. I have also felt the front end had a bit of bump and thump whilst on rough roads at lower speeds, though the handling appeared pretty decent so was consigned to one of those things. The front struts are the original ones from the car and have only done 27k miles, the rears I replaced with KYB inserts during the restoration, but I did not have any fronts so kept the originals. However it had kept niggling at me and having a new set of front struts all ready for the HPE which would not be in use for at least the next 6 months most likely, I decided to put them on the Spider.

The result on a short test drive at relatively low speed is very positive. Subjectively of course, it is a much smoother ride with less rough feedback on the steering. I had a quick play with the old struts and although there is plenty of resistance pulling the main bar out, pushing in met with almost zero resistance on both, as a comparison I checked with a pair of struts which came out of the Coupe and there was a good resistance both ways. So my conclusion is that, even though the original struts had only done approx 27k miles, being so old they have degraded and inserts are needed, another order for Mark to sort out a pair for the HPE now…..

[peteracs]

Had a few drives out and the handling is now very acceptable, have bought a cheap second hand strut brace from a Subaru to have a play with to see if I can hack it and see if that makes any difference to the handling/feel.

Just back from Betameeta 2023 in Shropshire, 333 miles covered over 2 days. No problems and finally feeling comfortable with the car (it has taken all this time to get used to the engine and wind noise and feeling all the bumps in the road in a Spider compared to modern cars). Only small if annoying issue is I now have a rattling/vibration somewhere behind the instrument cluster, thankfully it is an easy item to take out.

Also up for changing is the oil at some point later this year. I have some 10W50 to try out, so will see how that performs when hot, hopefully better than the 10W40 I originally used which eventually when hot gave me the red light on tickover, the more traditional 20W50 I replaced it with has been faultless, but based on comments received, I really want to try to get on with a 10 grade for cold starts.

Peter

[peteracs]

Probably the last car show visit this year, our local Grantham Club open night. Had a good 1 hour drive before to enjoy the end of a nice day. Off to France for a few weeks so car now all washed, dried and tucked up in garage.

Peter

[peteracs]

Back at the Restoration Show 2023 a guy who writes articles for Classic Car Weekly, Alan Anderson, approached me to ask about writing an article. After a few email exchanges he confirmed it was in the queue to be published and this week confirmed it was in this weeks copy. Always nice to have your car in print, though you have to accept some artistic license of the writer to tell a story. Overall an enjoyable experience and good to get Betas in the mags. Once the copy is well beyond current I will post a photo just for the record.

Peter

[peteracs]

Here is the article…

[Clifford]

Thank you Peter.
Nice article and of course a great car!
C

[peteracs]

Hi Clifford

Thanks

Peter

[peteracs]

Hi

Very much keeping on top of maintenance with the car now. With the main work on the HPE, I am not planning any changes to the car as pretty happy with it as it stands.

A few jobs underway, the front subframe was originally just cleaned and painted with Hammerite. I tend to use the front subframe for jacking and axle stands and the underneath has suffered accordingly so needing a clean and using rust converter/primer and will then give it some Hammerite to finish. I also realised I have never put any protection inside the front subframe, so used the same protection I used on the inside of the sills using the long wand provided with the aerosol can.

Also noticed the odd weep from a couple of coolant hoses, so tried tightening and that seems to have sorted it.

Final job will have to be left for now is the sump pan has seeped oil which is disappointing and a bit of a faff to get off as you need to loosen one of the engine mounts to raise the engine. I will pluck up the enthusiasm before I do the oil change which is due before I start using the car this Spring.

The engine has been started regularly and the car moved to try to avoid flat spots on the tyres.

Peter

[peteracs]

Hi

Odd when you have a car for so long and then suddenly realise a part is missing or is not originally as supplied.

I have been sorting out the front seats of the HPE and realised I only have two of the brown plastic covers for the upper bolt on the tilt mechanism (photo 1). I then ventured into the Spider and lo and behold none of the seat mechanisms have these cover pieces. Up until now I guess I never realised they existed, or had never checked. The Spider seats were recovered back in 2010/11 and the trimmer reassembled them, so I have no idea if the seats had them before this.

After buying the Coupe for the restoration of the HPE, I had a set of very tired seats which I stripped and had 4 of these plastic clips albeit in black. I also had two brown ones originally from the HPE and have sourced another couple from Italy. So the 4 black ones are now installed in the Spider (photo 2).

Peter

[peteracs]

Oil change day, nothing out of the ordinary in the old oil which is comforting. I had old school 20/50 in the engine after the issues with warning light on idle with the 10/40 I had previously tried. This proved to be ok, but I really wanted to have a 10 grade for cold starts, so this time I am trying fully synth 10/50 and will see how that goes. Went for a test drive and it appears ok, but the test will be the summer heat on longer journeys.

Peter

[peteracs]

First get together of the year for me after the long lay up from September…… the car has been regularly started and had a few local lanes runs, but this is the first long run and on the fully synthetic 10/50 oil. All went well with consistent oil pressure, albeit the outside temp was pretty cold. Went to the Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre at Ruddington. 40+ vehicles of varying ages, shame the fog did not lift much as was very cold.

Peter

[peteracs]

Hi

Went to our local East Midlands Club meet on Monday evening. As we had a dry day (not so many since October it seems), I decided to go in the Spider which would give it a good hour run in total. I am unsure how much time I have spent driving it in the dark, not so much so was an interesting exercise to see how effective the lights actually are. I have standard Halogens fitted. Dipped lights were ok, ideally would have preferred them brighter, but full beam was more than bright enough for what was quite a dark evening.

Peter

[squiglyzigly]

Hi Peter,
I know it’s not legal but I’ve fitted 100w bulbs in my dipped beam units for both coupe and Berlina. They are much better although still nowhere near as bright as modern cars. I’ve not been flashed by anyone to suggest the lights are dazzling oncoming traffic so I think it’s worthwhile.

Ian

[peteracs]

Hi Ian

Thanks, gives me food for thought, though do not foresee me doing that much night driving tbh.

Peter

[peteracs]

Back from 4 wet and mainly cold weeks in France and yesterday fired up the car after a bit of battery charging. Out for quick drive to warm everything up including the tyres. Nothing amiss apart from I noticed I still have a small weep around the down pipe from the expansion tank which I have tried to cure. Nothing for it, it will need to be replaced to see if that solves it.

Peter

[peteracs]

One of those jobs which I kept putting off was the leather pull tabs on the catches for the rear drop down hood. The catches are perfect, the leather not on both of them, one had broken off at the rivet. I had put it off because the rivet is a blind type and I was not confident in replacing it successfully.. you can get the rivets, but I thought I would make a mess of it without any specific tools to compress them. After a bit of Googling I came across Chicago fasteners which seem to be used to fasten books with loose sheets in it. They are available in a wide range of shaft diameters and heights and simply screw together. So ordered a pack of 5mm shaft, 8mm internal height in stainless. Also I ordered some 3mm black leather offsets and a 5mm leather hole punch. These arrived this week and the result I am pretty happy with, never having done anything with leather before.

First photo shows a Chicago fastener, second is new pull tab installed.

Peter

[Nigel]

That's a really neat job you've done Peter.

Those Chicago fixings work well.

Cheers, Nigel

[Clifford3051]

Good result Peter.
I did something similar with mine
C