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Reply to "Thunder Ranch build thread"

Your shifter is different than mine, Danny, and looks more compact. Curious to know more about it. I think your seats may be more like the originals' shape, but part of what's going on there is your brake handle is posted way up and to the right of everything, which keeps it out of the way (or at least out of the middle of the seats).

I know most of the replicas have the brake handle to the right of the shifter, but on the original cars it was smack dab in the middle, left of the shifter. I'd suspected that putting it there would be something of a project, but I didn't realize until this week that the replica hand brakes (at least the one I got with this car) are so very different from the originals—designed to be mounted much higher, and quite resistant to being mounted anywhere near as low as the originals. I've got mine about as low as it can practically go, and that's still about two inches above where the originals' cross tube went.

Ray, my seats have sliders and I'm installing everything so they work, but as you probably know, a lot of Spyder guys mount their seats right on the floor to give more head room. Mine are now mounted about 1.5 inches above the floor and that makes a difference. I'll probably mod my rear cross members to lower the backs of the seats before I spray the inside of the tub. 

It's also worth noting (and is seldom noted) that the replicas, while wider and longer than the originals, are made to have less depth. If you look carefully at an original Spyder where the floor meets the frame tubes, you'll notice that the floor doesn't actually meet the frame tubes. There's maybe a 5/8th-inch gap, which is where they tuck the oil lines & such. It's subtle, but it matters a lot when you get into such a small car. 

The originals are roomier under the dashboard too, because the fuel tanks are shaped differently. 

All of which are things one would never notice if not building one and test-fitting everything 20x a day.

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