Rhode Island Spyder Project

Welcome to the Madness, Tom!

I used to live on the other side of the bay over in Tiverton.

Glad to see another build in progress on here - We have several underway on here and it sounds like you’re going about it well.  
Don’t be afraid to ask questions.  There is a lot of technical expertise on here willing to help!

Gordon
The Speedster Guy from Grafton, MA

Welcome to the Madness, Tom!!  That looks like a fun project.

Looks great! Post lots of photos of the progress.

Oh man, that thing looks fine! Good luck with your build. I think you'll find it fun and pretty straightforward. Carey & crew are great to work with.

Any questions fee free to ask. Either here or at spyderclub.com(I'm the moderator there). I built two Spyders.

Welcome, Tom.

Looks like a great build, Tom. You've got the makings of a real treasure! Best wishes from a former Barringtonite.

Mike

Thanks for all the positive feedback, I'll provides updates as I progress.  Hope to wrap up the assembly of the front end this week and add heat to my garage space.  The weather is cold and windy this week so I should have time to make some progress.

I do have a couple of questions.

Should I list my build questions here or start a new topics?  I'm thinking that I will post project updates here.

Access to the top of the steering box?  Working on my Sand Rail has me spoiled.  Once I lift off the body everything is right there to work on.  On the Spyder, the top of the steering box is within 1/4" of the bottom of the frunk.  Should I add an access panel there?

Tom

Congrats! Anxious to follow your build out and experience.

@Tom Gilchrist posted:

Access to the top of the steering box?  Working on my Sand Rail has me spoiled.  Once I lift off the body everything is right there to work on.  On the Spyder, the top of the steering box is within 1/4" of the bottom of the frunk.  Should I add an access panel there?

Tom

You can just reach it with a right angle screwdriver and open-end 13mm, although an access panel makes it MUCH easier. You shouldn't have to mess with it often.

The front adjustment can also be reached with a custom hex wrench and a 41mm open-end. The pictures are on here somewhere of the tool I made. The custom wrench consists of a cut-down 7/8"(22mm) nut welded to a bent(30 degrees or so) piece of 1/8" x 1" flat steel.

Key point: the box should only be adjusted when the box and pitman arm are dead-centered. Also, the pitman arm should be REALLY tight, 1/16 of a turn can make the difference between good and crappy handling/feel.

Cheers.

Here you go Tom

I got the front end roughed in last week.  Spindles, brakes and shocks installed.  I still need to mount a fuel filter and fuel pump up front, but turned my attention to the back of the car this week.  Worked on a jury rigged engine hoist and a small set of spreaders for the engine over the week end.  Repurposed the casters and 2 x 1 tubing that Special Editions used as a cradle to ship the car on.

Put the transmission in today.  A lot more fiddling around with the hoist and jack stands than you would think.  The weather is good this week, I'll be struggling to put time on the project.

I was able to get the engine installed on Thursday.  I reached out to Carey for guidance on doing the install.  He provided me with a detailed description of the 3 dimensional pirouette that the engine needs to perform to get in place.  I need to add another engine leveling device to my hoist before I try this again, but it is in for now.

Yeah, that position looks like a bear to snuggle the engine up in to.  Not like a Speedster at all.  

Still.....   It looks really nice sitting there!

Looking good!

Re the steering box: Cut an access hole and make an aluminum cover. Sheet metal screws are fine to put it in with; extra points for nutcerts and machine screws. A little silicone to seal it in place.

Thanks for the positive feedback.  For now I'm going to leave the access to the steering box as is, and move on to other tasks.  I'm pretty sure I'll get back a lot of these issues as winter projects.

I'm going to work on the fuel system today.  Securing the a filter and fuel pump up front is the first task.  Right now I'm looking at adding a bracket to the back side of the front beam.   I'd love to hear how other have handled this.

I have not developed any plans for locating the filer and fuel pressure regulator in the back.  It seems that I have a ton more space and choices.  Sometimes too much choice is a bad thing.

Tom     

On a Spyder, a long bolt and a spacer through the beam mounting holes works very well to mount on the back side of the beam. Keep it low to stay away from tie-rods and steering box.

You can also mount the pump and pre-filter in front of the beam, unless you have a front swaybar. That can be snuck in there also if needed.

I think the front is best, as the hose from the tank can go over the beam and stay 100% away from the steering components.

In my Spyder, I have a custom anti-sway bar that I made. I have dual horns, and a filter and pump for the gas heater in front of the beam. Behind the beam is the pre-filter and EFI pump. The post-pump Subaru can filter is in front of the beam.

It can get pretty packed up there eventually. To start I had just the horns, pump, and filter.

I recommend a rotary self-regulated pump(3 to 3.5 psi) if using Webers or Dellorto carbs. No need for the extra complication and connections with a external regulator in the back.

I mounted my fuel pump/pre-filter to the front side of the passenger footwell with these.

And mounted my Malpassi Filter King filter/regulator with SS cable clamps on the torsion tube on the inboard of the passenger side frame rail.  

If I had to do it all over again, I’d keep the fuel pump on the beam but use SS cable clamps instead of putting it on the footwell, only because it hums a bit (cause it doesn’t know the words) and the footwell kind of amplifies it. OTOH, it’s comforting to hear it run before I start the engine. It’s inaudible with the engine running.

FWIW-CAP Hardware sells these rubber covered Stainless Steel cable clamps in just about every size. IMO, they’re one of the handiest things around for building our clown cars.

These guys, on Amazon, have a wider selection - I've used them quite a bit:

https://www.pacergroup.net/sta...uZ_XZKBoCXA8QAvD_BwE

This is great stuff, thanks for all your contributions.  I was wondering where to get those sweet rubber covered clamps. 

Danny, that front end has a lot of stuff going on up there.  I'm guessing that didn't happen over night.  I put the pre filter and pump right behind the center plate that is part of the front beam.  I stayed away from the moving parts.