Spyder restoration - long time coming

[peteracs]

Finished tweaking the carb today, ie lowered the float as the car looked to be running rich, also reduced the on choke revs which were too high for my liking. Out for a run locally and although subjective the engine seems to have more urgency than before and the gear change is now much improved. Before with 4th you had to be very deliberate in positioning, now it just goes in, so pretty happy with the state of affairs. I guess most of the runs until next year will now be local ones.

Peter

[peteracs]

Just realised there was one other feature of Nigel’s car which I have not mentioned which was notable. It has the original power steering which was a revelation. On modern cars the steering can take the feel out of driving, whereas this power steering (are they all like this?) feels just like the normal Beta but with the brute force edge taken off. A very enjoyable experience and hopefully my HPE when done will feel like it.

Peter

[Neil-yaj396]

Just realised there was one other feature of Nigel’s car which I have not mentioned which was notable. It has the original power steering which was a revelation. On modern cars the steering can take the feel out of driving, whereas this power steering (are they all like this?) feels just like the normal Beta but with the brute force edge taken off. A very enjoyable experience and hopefully my HPE when done will feel like it.

Peter

The power steering on both my ie Coupes was very good for its time. I remember driving contemporary Fords that had no feel at all. I wouldn't say that they were as good as the electric power steering on my Ypsilon or TF.

[squiglyzigly]

The hydraulic power steering on the betas is hard to fault for a 40 year old design. Considering Lancia made no geometry changes between PS and non-PS cars, it’s a well implemented installation.
The only FWD cars I’ve driven with nicer PS are Thema with variable assistance and Alfa 159. (All hydraulic).

Yes I know they’re all Italian and yes I’ll put my hands up. I’m biased.

Ian

[HFStuart]

Integrale and Peugeot 309 also had notably feelsome power steering

[Nigel]

Peter,
As mentioned on my HPE thread, I had cleaned and re-packed the top needle roller
bearings, but was disappointed with the resulting stiffness of the steering,
i.e. no change.
There is also a huge lack of self-centering.

I wonder what the self-centering is like on other P/S Betas?

Nigel

[squiglyzigly]

Beta PS self centering is good. It’s a good balance between effort and pulling itself straight, and easy to let the steering wheel glide through your hands depending on what finish your steering wheel is.

If your steering isn’t straightening up very well then maybe check bottom ball joints and track rod ends are moving freely. Should be evident with the wheels off the ground and forcing it lock to lock by hand holding a wheel.

Cheers
Ian

[peteracs]

Nothing much to report recently until today as 4 weeks in France, new kitchen and crap weather have kept the car inside for a while. Today however was an organised visit with Grantham Classic Car Club to the Great British Car Journey near Ambergate in Derbyshire.

https://greatbritishcarjourney.com/

It has been open for around a couple of years, I visited last year, but plenty to see, so revisit was again enjoyable. I also met the owner, Richard, who asked who owned my Lancia, and ghe. Went on to explain his father had a Spyder I. The 70s and hated the gear change… His family also had an HPE, but no real comment about that……

There were at least a couple of groups visiting today and apparently yesterday there were approx 250 cars there as a general meet. Maybe next year organise a meet up there for those who are within sensible driving distance? They have an on site cafe which supplies meals and cakes etc.

Oh yes, I was given pride of place outside the entrance which was nice!

Peter

[Neil-yaj396]

Hi Peter, would definitely be up for a visit next year. Tim W isn't far away too and perhaps tempt Chris M down for the day......

[peteracs]

And a mention on Facebook …..

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=877033923660476&id=105317997498743

Peter

[WestonE]

I went to the Great British Car journey with the Monte Consortium recently. I think Gaydon is far better. It is a small British vehicle focused museum with a drive your Dad's car offer. It was a shame the vehicles offered to go out and drive are so ordinary and mundane. I would have gone for a drive in a Jensen Interceptor or Jaguar E Type but a base model Ford Escort, Ford Capri or Mini 850 was not inspiring to me.

This is each to their own stuff. It might well have been more interesting if there was another car group with interesting vehicles in the car park as Peter had.

Not on my list to visit again and others in our party were underwhelmed.

Eric   

[peteracs]

Hi Eric

I understand your view. To some it will appear a bit mundane as the focus is on mainly cars from the Austin/Morris/Rootes/Jag/Rover stables. Personally I liked the variety of age of cars and the mix. Also for me the audio sets you get are how one of these places should be done.

As to the Dads car bit, not my cup of tea, but none of my friends dads had an Interceptor or E Type, though a 50s Humber Hawk would be top of my list…..

Peter

[peteracs]

One thing which has always bugged me was the after market mats for the car. If you have black interior there are endless suppliers. However for us with brown interiors, I have struggled to find any in a shade of brown, the nearest, which I bought, was light beige which apart from not so practical, is also out of keeping really.

So I was happy to finally find a supplier who offered brown mats. I bought a set (£37 inc shipping). They arrived today and are nice quality and edged in black leather, though they will edge in one of 27 options apparently. The colour is not quite what I would call brown, more a mink colour, but much better than beige, so happy with them, but will keep looking to see if I can get a more brown set.

Peter

[peteracs]

Should have added company was Autostyle (http://www.autostyle.co.uk/) for the mat set.

[peteracs]

Nothing much to report until today as just had the car out for local runs. Today however I had decided to get a MOT, the last one was almost 2 years ago when it first went back on the road. I figure once every two years is ok given the number of miles and my checking over everything periodically.

So off to the MOT station. On arriving they did not have my booking which I made online last week, not a great start, but they kindly agreed to fit me in, so good result I thought. Not quite, they could not find my car on the system, even though they could see they did the last one and the Gov system reported when the last MOT was done. All very strange, sadly I did not bring the paper copy of the last MOT, nor the V5. So I agreed to come back with both and to rebook. On getting home I duly dug out the V5 and last MOT and realised why they could not find the car. Their system relies on the VIN number only, registrations can vary, not the VIN, and the VIN on the V5 was wrong, and must have been since registration I suspect. As such when I had the last MOT, ie its first since 1999, the guy had to reinput the details, using the V5 onto the DVSA system, so their system is looking for the V5 VIN not the actual car VIN. So on to the difference which is very small, but will make a difference when trying to look it up. As most know the VIN on Betas is broken into model 828, Series eg B, type eg Spider S, engine eg 1600 and finally the number in the production eg 001234. My car is a very early one so has the two leading zeros in the production number BUT the V5 VIN omitted them so resulting in VIn eg 828BS01234 rather than 828BS0001234. Hopefully this will allow them to sort out the MOT. I am not proposing to do anything about this which may create more hassle. I had noted the V5 says 1592cc for the engine as well which I guess was a common mistake, probably by the registering dealer.

Peter

[mangocrazy]

Hi Peter,

I seem to remember having the exact same problem with my Spider when trying to register it in France. As with your car, the two leading zeroes of the serial number had been omitted on the VIN. I had to get the details on the V5 corrected before I could proceed with re-registering. It wasn't too troublesome as I recall - I had to supply photographic evidence of the stamped plate in the car and DVLA duly supplied an updated V5 and altered their records.

Graham

[peteracs]

Hi Graham

Interesting, just checked on the HPE V5 and guess what, that also has the two leading zeros missing…

Maybe I will then get it changed for both cars.

Peter

[Nigel]

Hi Peter,

Some time after acquiring my car I noticed that the V5 had the
VIN starting 2LA...an easy mistake to make I suppose.
I sent 2 photos of the cars stamping and plate to DVLA and it
was corrected without any fuss.
It's worth doing, just to avoid hassles later.

Best, Nigel

[SanRemo78]

Yesterday I had the drill out dismantling a scrap bootlock to salvage some pins/buckets/springs and I contemplating taking the chassis plate out. But for some reason I didn't.... Mine is missing two zeroes too! I guess it's going back to the DVLA to be corrected! Photo required of the stamped number but that's not too clear, the stamping isn't as deep as it should be!

I think there might have been something going on between 1978 and 1980 with regard to chassis numbers? The donor car for my Stratos replica was a 1978 Coupe and it's chassis number was six digits after the usual model sequence, (I know as I've still got the plate and the stamped number) but now it looks like later cars had eight digits in addition to the model number. I wonder if DVLA couldn't cope with the extra zeroes back in the day so just recorded the last six numbers?

Guy

[peteracs]

Hi

Back for the MOT today and after explaining the problem with the VIN, guy had never come across it before which I guess is no great surprise and he thought it probably explained why they could not find the car originally on the DVSA database. He originally thought it was because the car had not been MOT’d since the 90s, now we are not sure, though it is not a problem going forward.

After all this the car went through the MOT no problem, so that is it for another 2 years….

Filled up with Esso 99 ready for the trip to Marks on Saturday, hopefully the weather will be kind and can have the rear roof down most of the way.

Peter