MadaboutKitcars

I understand your frustration Dave.
I think you are a perfectionist - but it looks great as it is.

There will always be things that you can see that no one else will ever notice.
After all you have stared at it for hours and know each and every square inch and all the little imperfection.

looking snazzy Dave....liking it.

If the paint is starting to get you down , you could always ' fake patina ' it and give it the ' recent Barn find ' classic car look !!

( probably not helping things am I ? )

Seriously , you are nearly there ..its worth it.

As my friends have pointed out this morning:
The day i finished the interior we had rain and gales.
Last night i refitted all the rear end electrics and this morning is the first real severe frost of the winter.

So i reckon that when the front end is reassembled we'll get snow

I'm dreading what will happen once i pass the MOT! Tsunami?

So in the same way that Pats is called Skippy and the great white G46 is Orca - is yours Stormchaser or something like that !!

Dave, I had a similar outcome on a paint job once. I was painting at 3am after having 12 hours of sleep in 4 days. I was trying to finish a car for a show. My painting was going great then all of a sudden I was just getting a dry dusting of paint. I thought that it was the compressor or regulator. I turned up the pressure and finished the job. The front of the car was great the rear was very dull. I buffed and buffed and never got it to look right.

The thing was that the problem was not with the compressor or regulator. The vent tube had plugged on the siphon gun. The gun needs atmospheric pressure to work properly. I knew this but in my fatigued state didn't figure it out until it was too late.

I am not saying that this was your problem. But, I feel your pain. And, I thought that my experience might help some one else that finds themself in the same situation.

Have fun. John

Well.... Apart from the fact that i broke the 42 yr old horn "brush" swapping it between steering wheels so the Horn is not yet working (so no MOT) and my starter has started playing up this morning, it's done!

I'll order a new brush and hope it gets through the Christmas post so that i can fit it while I'm off over Christmas and while I'm waiting for that I'll get the starter out and see what's going on. Hopefully it's nothing too much as it's a new starter!

Basically when i turn her over on the key i can hear the starter turning fine, but it doesn't seem to be engaging with the engine. But then very occasionally it does?
It was working fine up until yesterday, so any ideas on a postcard please!

But I did manage to get it working once this morning long enough to get some pics in the sun. Just please be aware that there is still some polishing to do, so please don't be too picky about the current finish. I describe it as "medium resolution" i.e. it's looks good from a short way away, but up close you can spot the issues

Some final pics:









Fingers crossed i can get the horn and starter fixed over Christmas and have her on the road early in the new year!

Then i can start making Mods!

Dave she looks great
The mods on the bonnet look like they were meant to be there and the details will have people guessing what it is
I hope to see it in the flesh next year

LOOKING MIGHTY FINE DAVE .....

Have you taken it for a sneaky drive yet ?

Sadly not I was planning on taking it up the lane you can see in the background on some of the pics as that is a private road. But i was doing a temp test on the drive, which it passed with flying colours, and i turned the engine off while i sorted some things out and that was when the starter started playing up, so i just put her back in the garage for the time being.

The combined wisdom of my local is that i've got a sticky pinion on my starter and that a bit of lubrication should sort it out a treat. Failing that it might be the starter ring come loose (somehow) but there are a few pints on it being the pinion so I'll have a look at that over the next day or so!

Hi Dave, looking really good, I just might invest in a compressor and gun and yellow paint and a DA just that the weather is not to good for a while now I want to do something again now your pics inspired me right lets have a look on fleabay cheers PAT

I picked up a "normal" starter from Moss in Bristol today in case my hi-torque starter was causing the starting issues i've been having.

I've just fitted this and it all works lovely! Even the weird noise has gone, so i can only assume that was all related to the hi-torque? I'll have a look at that at some point to see what was going on as it's nothing obvious, I'm just glad it was nothing more serious!

So as I'm just waiting for the horn brush before it's done I've talked to my local garage and it's all booked in for an MOT and a good "once over" on the 10th of Jan! panic. panic. panic. panic

So it's now time for lots of pre MOT checks and "fettling" over Christmas i thinks!

Now that it also starts on the ball, i've finally taken it down our private lane (only a hundred yards or so) and the two things i noticed were:

1) The wheels _still_ rub on full lock I've already recessed the bulkheads and fitted smaller tyres so i think that the BIG hammer may be used at some point as i've had enough of this!

2) You have to literally Stand on the brakes to make them work! I'm assuming this largely due to them not being used for 1+ years, so I'll do a few more back-n-forth trips down the lane on the run up to the 10th to see if they get any more effective.

Scary stuff, especially the brakes!

There might be nothing wrong with them though, it could just be the lack of a servo. I drove an Elise on a track day a couple of months back and you had to stand on the middle pedal to get any braking at all. I guess we've all gone a bit soft in the right thigh muscle since cars started getting servo brakes as standard.

This is why I'm fitting a servo with a 1.9:1 ratio to mine, not to improve the Sammio brakes so much as to give consistent pedal feel between it and modern cars. Hopefully this will prevent me leaving face prints all over the inside of the windscreen of my Saab after driving the Spyder.

As for the wheels rubbing, have you considered adding some rubber 'stops' to limit the wheel travel? The old Herald/Vitesse has far more steering lock than you really need so it shouldn't do any harm limiting it a bit.

The run up to the MOT next Tues is now getting a bit frantic....

The horn now works a treat, but the rear left indicator stopped working

I assumed I'd pulled a connection when i was wring up the horns, but it turns out that the contact plate inside the indicator has come off where the wire is soldered on to it! As a bought it at a show i can't return it, but luckily i had two other indicators of a slightly different style on the shelf, so they're being rapidly fitted!

I also took her for another run down our private lane and it was obvious that she needs tuning, so i balanced the carbs with the aid of a bit of left over fuel tubing (i felt like SUCH a car nerd sitting there listening to carb sucking noises!) and i've also done a compression test and all 6 cylinders are near enough the same, which was a relief.

I scrounged a colour-tune from a neighbour, although as soon as i took the spark plug out it was obvious that she's running rich and the colour tune confirmed that. But despite lots of fettling i couldn't get her running lean enough so i've placed an emergency order with Rimmers for two new needles and 2 carb overhaul kits and the carbs came off last night in readiness so fingers crossed i can get those overhauled and refitted this weekend.


Finally, i've also done a bit more careful adjustment of my already recessed bulkheads to try and get rid of the last bit of rub on extreme lock. well....... actually i whacked them with a hammer, and it's getting a lot better, but i'm not at all sure I'll ever get enough space on the passenger side due to the recessed battery box, but I'll see what can be done by Tuesday and then it's just lots of:

Best of luck with the mot on Tuesday, I for one will be holding my breath for you.

I had to rebuild my carbs too - mainly because the first time I tried to start my engine the carbs sprayed fuel everywhere past the perished seals just as the worn out starter solenoid exploded in a shower of sparks due to the massive overload it got because of the knackered starter motor...

That's when Canleys and Rimmers started seeing some pretty expensive orders from me.

If your carbs are anything like mine were you'll be shocked by the amount of yellow crystaline crud that's built up inside them over the decades and a good clean will help no end I'm sure.

Good luck, tomorrow.

Take some celebratory pics with nice backgrounds

Cheers! I'm optimistic, but realy nervous!

The new indicators were fitted and the carbs overhauled this weekend and it makes the world of difference, despite the fact I'd bought the wrong needles so i didn't fit those!

I also bit the bullet and cut and re-welded some extra patches into the passenger bulkhead so i've not got any more rubbing. Although i do have hair speckled with underbody sealant and i'm hoping it will dry by the morning! (on the car that is, not my hair!)

I also found a last minute problem with the MR2 seat belt clasps i'd fitted. Basically despite looking fine, they were too short and at such an angle that with the seats fitted i couldn't easily/quickly plug the seat belts in and i just wasn't happy with that! It's a good job i tested them before tomorrow! So i've just whipped those out, cut them, welded some steel bar extensions in, ground them flat and painted them silver and they look and work fine now <phew>

And i've just come back in after a final soggy run down the lane (wind "deflector" my @rse! ) and it all went a lot more smoothly although i did have some fun trying to get into 3rd gear! But hopefully that won't affect the MOT?

wind deflection - sort of ....rain deflection - no !!

thinking of doing Sammio rain macs , hats and brolly's as a package and marketing it as WET WEATHER GEAR.

Good idea. BTW, how's my tonneau cover coming along Gary? My grand plan is to keep the passenger side zipped over when I'm flying solo and put the heater on full blast to keep my lower half toastie. If my top half freezes then I'll be fine on average.

Fail

Although in fairness, he was giving it a once over before doing a proper MOT and when he started noticing a few things that would fail the MOT he basically just made a rectification list for me rather than formally fail an MOT. Which was appreciated.

So from his inspection, here's the list of things that need attention (for my reference as much as your interest):

1) Windscreen or wind deflector? -- i was advised that if this was left on for the re-test then he'd have to phone the ministry for advice before being able to test it as even though i look over it, he looks through it!)
2) Headlight aim too low -- we knew this would need adjusting so I'm fine with this.
3) O/S Front wheel bearing noise -- I'll re-do the brakes first and then investigate this.
4) Front brakes binding -- I'd told him it hadn't been driven in a while so may need a test drive to loosen things up, but i guess I'm going to have to strip and rebuild all the brakes!
5) Rear brakes binding -- as above
6) N/S & O/S front springs incomplete! -- Advised to fit proper lowering shocks or similar before re-test!
7)O/S drive shaft rubbing on flexi-hose. -- I'm surprised at this as I'd checked the drive train, so I'll have to have a look at this to see what he's on about.
8) N/S rear lower suspension joint, excessive wear. -- This sounds like the sort of thing i was expecting, so i'm fine with looking into and rectifying this one.
9) Brake balance - let's rebuild and then check again.
10) Brake efficiency - again, lets check again after the rebuild.
11) unable to check all w/bearings due to binding brakes -- fair enough.
12) some of the older welding repairs need attention. -- there were one or two older welds that need inspecting and possibly correcting.


So ignoring the brakes, suspension and brake related issues, there's only a few things to check. Although i will now have to fit proper lowering shocks! I'll also need to buy another pair of unmodified Vitesse springs.....


Serves me right for not completely stripping and rebuilding the donor i suppose! ho hum.

A fine tooth comb...

I suppose this is when you think its worth spending more on a doner? Sounds like your spraying passed Its crap weather at the moment, so you're not missing anything. You've still done a great job Question, is he saying that when you cut springs down, you can no longer use standard shocks?

garyh.

http://garyssammiospyderbuild.blogspot.com/

yup.

Being someone who doesn't like the unknown, i've just done some initial investigations and subsequently placed an order for a few bits n bobs with Rimmers. I'm now a lot happier that the fail list isn't as serious as i first worried it was. And as Gary says, it's all down to trying to save a few quid on the donor!

What i've found is:


I'm just going to remove this for the next MOT as i've re-tested how i sit and i look WAY over it!


i couldn't hear / feel anything? but i'll double check.


Wheels turn fine and the 'binding' seems very minimal and due to lack of use. That said i'm going to remove and clean and re-fit everything for peace of mind.


Took drums off and while they're not completely dead they do need overhauling, so new shoes and some other bits n bobs have been ordered. This one is a fair cop!


I've bit the bullet and ordered a set of GAZ height adjustables and some new springs to go in them. TBH i wanted to fit these anyway, so this was a good excuse!


only very, very, very slightly and it's all due to the inner flexi hose bracket having been re-welded too low at some point in the past 43 years. So easily fixable


yup, i've got problems with trunion wear. (i still feel like adding 'phanaar' when i talk about trunions, sorry!) replacement lining kit ordered.


they all look fine to me, so when i've done all other jobs I'll womble up to the garage and get him to come and show me which ones concerned him.

Seeing as i was a bit down heartened, I forgot to add the good news.

It did pass the emissions test and he said that the engine sounded like it was running fine, which is good to hear after the last minute carb rebuild the weekend

Bad luck with such a long snag list but it sounds like you're reacting to it positively as just another challenge.

Bit concerned about the incomplete springs thing though seeing as how I've cut mine down so much. Is he not being just a bit picky? I'd be interested to hear Gary J's take on that one.

Are the ride height adjustable dampers capable of being adjusted far enough without binding up full length springs I wonder?

Anyway, good luck overhauling the brakes and sorting the other bits.