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Yes the exhaust jack or bag jack as we used to call it are great. The one I used many years ago was an impressive bit of kit and would raise the car car in no time with no damage to the car. Obviously I cannot vouch for the one you are looking at, but mine was well made and stood up to much use and abuse on tarmac, grass and farm tracks. I had forgotten about it until now and can't remember what happened to it. Someone borrowed it I suppose!
With the weight of the straight six up front and the chassis side-rails on the Herald/Vitesse being non load bearing, I'm afraid the Beetle type side jack would just cut a hole up the side of the body.
The bag jack looks very promising though, and with the Westfalia brand name carrying a reputation for quality I'll be placing an order for one of those. It has the added bonus of being great vfm too as the cheapest 'direct from China' equivalent I could find on ebay was far more expensive at £95.
To use a jack of the beetle type it would have had to have been incorporated from day one of the build. It might have been mounted at the front of the chassis rails, where the bonnet hinges perhaps?
Several cars older cars I know have scissor or lever jacks rather like caravan jacks built in under the car, you simply used a shaft with a handle to raise the car by turning the handle just like raising a caravan. MG 'Y' type had hydraulic rams bolted to the front and back axles and a hand operated lever under the bonnet, you could choose either front, rear or both with a selector then pump away and the car would be jacked up, very swish.
The built-in jack idea is tempting. Like you say, it'd need to be designed in from the start though. If I built another Spyder I'd definitely consider incorporating at least one at each end of the car as jacking mine up has always been a bit of a headache.
Can't you put a rubber seal into the rims to make them accept tubeless tires?
Not 100% sure but I don't think it's that simple. The old MGB wires I've recycled have a rubber band to cover the ends of the spokes, but that's to protect the inner tube rather than to seal the ends of the spokes. You can buy replacement tubeless wire wheels but they're not cheap. Well, not compared to the price of used original wires on ebay.
The inflatable car jack looks to be the answer Mr T as i never gave the ground clearance a thought and was going to add a scissor jack to the cars kit, so well done on bringing it to our attention.
I had not considered such things as flat tyres, but you have made me aware of the problem of a low car, and mine is certainly in that category.
Actually I have one of those inflatable jacks which I've had for years, and not used in ages. They are very good, but one downside I found, was that they only work on a single exhaust pipe. Just about all my cars have been twin pipes, which is why I stopped using it in the first place!
I suppose if one pipe could be bunged up it may work. Be warned.
Bit of a classic car meet in Shouldham at lunchtime today, centred around The King's Arms (which is a community owned and run pub and well worth a visit in its own right btw) -
It's going to be a regular meet on the first Sunday of each month. All welcome, the more the merrier.
"Mr T - Your Spyder always looks small compared to "normal" cars, but compared to that Chevy!"
Just what I was thinking Paul! Looks like a great day. Whose is number 2?
Tim
That's Phil's road car. He's already built two Spyders - no.2 for himself and no.3 for a friend (Barry), and is in the process of building a more extreme car for sprints and hillclimbs, whilst remaining road-legal.
Bearing in mind his road car runs a modified 2.5 straight six and has been clocked on the track at over 130mph, his next car should turn out to be a bit special.
If you hunt back through the Sammio pages you'll come across a thread titled 'pihl and barry run out'. It's well worth a look as his daughter is a talented photographer and there are some lovely photos on there. He's also posted some excellent videos on youtube.
As for my car being small, I think if I'd cut it into three pieces we could've got the whole car in the Chevy's trunk...
Had a really nice blast round the local roads yesterday as it was fabulous weather (apart from being a bit windy).
Not so nice here today though, kept threatening to rain even though it never actually did, so I decided to do a non car related job that I've been promising my teenage son I'd do for ages. Build his pet guinea pigs a shelter for when they're wandering about in the garden and it rains.
It was intended to be something functional and basic, but one's got to do these things with a sense of style I suppose -
So, one Alpine chalet style guinea pig shelter. Luxury.
At first glance i thought you had fabricated a hard top ?
We should start a new thread with non car related follies, I will take a picture of my mock Tudor chicken coop tomorrow, and the welsh dresser gerbil house. Ed.
