L @ @ K Greg at Vintage Motorcars selling his personal Speedster

@550 Phil posted:

To be clear.  Greg did not build this car for himself.  It was a customer car.  The delivery was cancelled.  I believe it was due to a customer health issue.  I think this will get more common.  When you have to wait 2-3 years or more to get a car, anything can happen.  I'm close to 2 years since my order date.  Having a procedure soon for a bad back.  At some point I may not be able to get in and out of these cars.  The ownership window is closing.

Only if you decide it is.

The reaper bats 1.000. I'd like to live while I'm alive. I'm not calling it quits until I absolutely cannot do this anymore. @Jack Crosby is my spirit animal.

I'm only 59, but I've got some hard miles on this chassis. I got a new left knee 2 weeks ago. Right now (as I type), I'm on an ice/compression machine for 45 min. to get the swelling down. This is at least a 4x daily thing. I went to PT every day last week and will every day next. It's working. The other knee is scheduled to be replaced in 2 weeks, so the race is on - will I be rehabbed enough to remain ambulatory, or not? We'll see, soon enough.

Regarding backs - L1-L5 discs are all bad. My car is in pieces (as per typical for this time of year). I popped one of the discs trying to work on it two days ago, so I've got a TENS machine and a back brace on it right now.

Build the car. Drive the wheels off it. Live while you're alive.

So true about living it while you can.

Sorry to hear about all your ailments, Stan.  Hopefully there are better days ahead.

Phil.  Good luck with the back work you are getting done.  I guess many of us are facing similar issues over the next few years.

Sorry that you have those challenges…. Back issues are a real challenge as are knees for sure.  

@aircooled posted:

Phil........My original order date is January 21 2019.  Half of this was my insistence on getting what I  wanted.  That has changed  (my mind at least).  I believe my car is back at VMC now. To be mostly completed and given to me to put on the finishing touches.....Bruce

Having owned the first Subaru Spyder ever I understand what it means to wait for the R&D. I thought back in 2003 that 2.5 years was a tremendously long time to wait on a car. I look in the mirror now and say “keep it simple stupid”. The Pre A coupe will take a lot longer to build than a speedster. I’m talking to Greg on Monday about building me this instead. At this point I just want a car.

@550 Phil posted:

At this point I just want a car.

Thankfully, at this point - you have a car. I've ridden in it - it's fast and beautiful. Enjoy the thing you have while you wait for the thing you hope for.

Well Phil there always are some compromises and the builder’s capacity at the moment of the build but like Stan says at least your driving something nice until then.

@Stan Galat

Hang in there!   Knees are tough.  Lots more difficult than a hip and after spending the last six weeks being my wife’s caregiver for her new hip (a Titanium ball joint that looked like automotive jewelry before it went in), I know about what’s involved in the healing process and it’s a lot more involved for your knee(s).  

She came to really hate both the compression socks (a wicked PITA to get on) and her walker, but she ditched both of them last Thursday ( we had a great take-out dinner to celebrate ).  She’s walking farther and getting stronger every day and I can finally get out into the shop without fear of leaving her alone.

Kathy just reminded me of surgery on her foot years ago when she had that ice system 4X per day as well as some diabolical electrical stimulus machine that worked inside of her support boot.  That was a lot of fun, too.   🤬

@LI-Rick posted:

I don't think anyone is upset, except maybe you.

@Bob: IM S6 posted:

Well, I guess you and I have different tastes in builds, and probably in life in general.

Have a nice day.

I hear you Bob.  I feel the same way about:

• Widebodied Speedsters
• Fuchs
• hoodstraps on frunks
• dual headrest nacelles
• anything but Wide 5s on Spyders
• external filler caps on Speedsters

Now You Kids GET OFF MY LAWN!

@Michael McKelvey posted:

There was a time when I wore plaid pants.  I probably wouldn't do it now.

Why not?

@Sacto Mitch posted:

.

Trying to figure out where this whole plaid thing came from, with limited success.

It seems plaid was definitely not a factory option — from Porsche.

But, let's see, 1955 and who was the other big name in German sporting machinery?

That's right, the other big name was Porsche. And maybe not so big, anyway.

The big name was M-B. (Our good doctor was still wet behind the ears in the car business when M-B was winning overall at places like LeMans, Mille Miglia, etc.) If you were a serious poser (and of sufficient means), you didn't fool around with these quirky little doodlebugs from Zuffenhausen, you ordered up a proper 300SL.

Which came standard with cloth seats. Um, plaid cloth seats. And, if you were actually gonna race the thing, why bother with the duded up optional leather seats that were only gonna get trashed, anyway?

So, fast forward to just a few years ago, and the Mercedes marketing department gets this brilliant idea to squeeze a few more bucks out of all the trust fund kids who are snapping up whatever Gullwings show up at Amelia Island.

M-B re-issues the authentic plaid seat material (operative word being authentic), and the trust fund kids go all gaga.

"Ours isn't just a Gullwing. We've got the plaid."

So, did some of the other buyers at Amelia Island (the ones who couldn't afford the Gullwings and had to settle for a crummy four-cam Speedster) take notice and figure this must be the new thing?

Historically correct, historically cashmeckt! Did you see what they just got for that Gullwing?

Dunno. But stranger things have happened.

Me, I don't pay much attention to Amelia Island. My eyes are more on the market — to see when chicken breasts are on sale.

.

Porsche went big on patterned cloth inserts, but not until the 70’s IIRC. AFAIK, could still get cloth inserts in the 80’s in 924, 944, and 928s.

The funny thing, to me, is that back then it was the cheap choice. Like hardwood floors/wall to wall carpeting in the 60’s. How many of us have ripped up shag carpeting to reveal a beautiful hardwood floor? I have, twice.

Yeah, plaid was an option in the 70's. I have seen some of them. Some of those plaids were terrible and would make any self respecting Scot burn his kilt.

@Panhandle Bob posted:

Yeah, plaid was an option in the 70's. I have seen some of them. Some of those plaids were terrible and would make any self respecting Scot burn his kilt.

Yeah.  But we all had plaid trousers back then too.

The 1970s, a decade of bad taste in dress.

@dlearl476 posted:

I hear you Bob.  I feel the same way about:

• Widebodied Speedsters
• Fuchs
• hoodstraps on frunks
• dual headrest nacelles
• anything but Wide 5s on Spyders
• external filler caps on Speedsters

Now You Kids GET OFF MY LAWN!

As many on here have said, it's a big tent out there, but we can all have our preferences.

@Bob: IM S6 posted:

Yeah.  But we all had plaid trousers back then too.

The 1970s, a decade of bad taste in dress.

I worked in an upscale traditional menswear store in SoCal when I got out of the Corps. to help finance school as the GI Bill didn't go far. I had always worn Ivy League style clothing, and still do.

When the trend changed towards Disco, the owner decided we had to follow it. It was painful and ugly. We had to wear that crap and it was an awful experience.

Stan......Sounds like you are in the same boat as Robert M and I in 2019.......gettin your frame and suspension overhauled...............Bruce

@Panhandle Bob posted:

I worked in an upscale traditional menswear store in SoCal when I got out of the Corps. to help finance school as the GI Bill didn't go far. I had always worn Ivy League style clothing, and still do.

When the trend changed towards Disco, the owner decided we had to follow it. It was painful and ugly. We had to wear that crap and it was an awful experience.

Now THAT sounds like a hostile work environment.

@aircooled posted:

Stan......Sounds like you are in the same boat as Robert M and I in 2019.......gettin your frame and suspension overhauled...............Bruce

New ball-joints and bushings, for sure.

@dlearl476 posted:

I hear you Bob.  I feel the same way about:

• Widebodied Speedsters
• Fuchs
• hoodstraps on frunks
• dual headrest nacelles
• anything but Wide 5s on Spyders
• external filler caps on Speedsters

Now You Kids GET OFF MY LAWN!

I used to care about half of these. I don't anymore. If somebody loves their pride-'n-joy, I'm 100% good with it. I'll not get a widebody or put plaid seats in anything I own, but a guy likes 'em - he should rock them.

FWIW - I LOVE external filler caps on speedsters. Stupid-functional.

I'm with you Stan on the external filler cap system. Someday, maybe. right now I'm wrestling with the install of my new IMI starter. Awkward process.

I'm pretty much with you Stan.

I really hate Spyder mirrors on Speedsters, though. It's a pet peeve, 'cause your gussied-up Speedster will NEVER be a Spyder.

@DannyP posted:

I'm pretty much with you Stan.

I really hate Spyder mirrors on Speedsters, though. It's a pet peeve, 'cause your gussied-up Speedster will NEVER be a Spyder.

Ah - they're fine.

You gotta' do 'em right, or they look like a half-loaf of bread out there on the fender. If they're cool looking - but they're probably not very functional.

I really thought the spun aluminum Raydyots on my Coupe were the bomb for a 356.  They looks business like but still spiffed it up a bit, and they were actually useful (once I put in convex mirrors).

@Lane Anderson posted:

I really thought the spun aluminum Raydyots on my Coupe were the bomb for a 356.  They looks business like but still spiffed it up a bit, and they were actually useful (once I put in convex mirrors).

Not my jam, Lane - but I'm glad you liked it.