How do you make it rain in California?... buy a speedster.

Ted,

Very nice work! Thanks for sharing.

Art

DANG, Ted! Nice job, my brutha! 

Wow.     

Ted.......Outstanding!

My 25+ year old body has a few cracks in the gel coat... well at least your body is young... Mine has cracks in the gel coat too now that I am over 60  

By the way nice job on alignment.

Very nicely done, Ted! Just one thing-

"I should have spent that 5 speed  money on a paint job."

You go wash your mouth out with soap right now!

Ted,

You've got skills, man. 

"You know, like nunchuck skills, bow-hunting skills, computer hacking skills. Girls only like guys who have great skills."

HA! Oh come on guys. You are too kind. Most of this stuff is just scary to think about and we psych ourselves out before we even try it. 

That door alignment was so simple I bet even  @Former Member could almost do it himself.  Granted we all know he wouldn't have let his door slip out of his hand and flop over onto the floor/table/etc - and scratch then hell out of it.  

Check back when I have to assemble the axles and install that 5 speed!  We'll see how well the skills play out then.

Skills that impress me? Those who can paint and weld. Those people are artists! And then there is Brian - he built his entire car! (he's nuts...)

Al you cracked me up on the soap joke..

Ted: Thanks very much for that tutorial. I will save it for the Spyder build: aligning all the panels is apparently Job One. 

Ted, I'm impressed with your skills, but I'm even more impressed that you were able to do this without making three trips to Home Depot.

As it happens, I've got exactly the same alignment problem. The bottom, rear corner of my driver's door is out by about the same amount your passenger door was while the top lines up pretty well. I've lived with this since the car was new, but your post gives me hope that mere mortals can align the doors on these things.

If I'm reading your post right, the fix was the shim, but you had to completely realign the door because you took the door off the hinge. And you had to do that because you couldn't fit 'a socket' in to remove the hinge from the body with the door still attached to the hinge.

Do I have all of that right?

What puzzles me is that my doors' bolts have torx heads, so it looks like you could get some sort of right-angled handle in there with a torx bit to remove the doors from the body. In theory, you could then drop in a shim and avoid all the hassle of completely realigning the door. It should just bolt back on where it was, top to bottom and side to side.

In fact, I'm thinking if I know that only the top hinge has to be shimmed out a bit, I could fix this by just unbolting the top hinge from the body, sliding in a shim, and rebolting, without undoing anything on the lower hinge at all.

But that sounds too easy.

What am I missing?

TRP posted:

That door alignment was so simple I bet even  @Former Member could almost do it himself.  Granted we all know he wouldn't have let his door slip out of his hand and flop over onto the floor/table/etc - and scratch the hell out of it.  

 

I don't know, Ted; Teby is pretty new around here...

And as for the door, I feel your pain. These things happen.

Mitch - you have the same bolts I have. The body side bolts are about 2" long. You can put a Torx bit on a small ratchet to get everything loose but you quickly run out of room in the door jamb. If I could have just backed off that top hinge I would have. I can post a photo of what I ran into if it will help.

About the door scratches. I wet sanded and buffed it. Not too bad. Just one scratch left.

Mitch - I think I get what youre asking. You want to back off the top bolts just enough to be able to slide a shim in. Humm... It should be theoretically possible. Your shim would need to account for the existing bolts. So where mine is solid with 3 holes in it which essentially trap the shim.  Your shim would have 3 slots in it... Like the letter 'E'.  In hindsight... If you can pull that off you would save a bit of fiddling with the alignment. Remember that you want the hinge to sit flat so you can't just shim the front or back. 

All that said - If i were to do it over? I would shim the door side of the hinge (between the door and the hinge).  Why? Right now your hinge points are plumb and true. The door swings freely with zero effort, right? When you put a shim between the body and the hinge the two hinge points are no longer plumb. Placing the shim on the door side would not change the hinge line. My passenger door doesn't swing as freely as it did prior. Its nothing bad but its noticeable. Maybe its all in my head? Maybe Im over thinking it?

Ted

Ted,

I think you should take it off, drop it again, and put the shim on the other side. Then you could color sand (again), and think of something else you might have done differently.

We get extra credit for degree of difficulty!

WTTM.

Ted, I didn't realize how long the bolts were and now get the clearance problem you had.

I was also thinking that just some washers, slotted as shown in this photo, might work (they might have to be trimmed on the edges, too).

How thick was the shim stock you used?

Here's a photo of my door edge. The top actually aligns pretty well, but gets gradually worse towards the bottom. It's amazing to me that they would have shipped the car this way. If I were closer, I'd have just taken it back to VS for adjustment. As it was, though, I wanted to get the mechanical issues sorted first before worrying about stuff like this.

PS: And now, reading your latest post, I was wondering about the two hinges going out of plumb, too. Do you think just loosening the top hinge (at the door to hinge side), without loosening the bottom hinge at all, would mantain alignment?

In other words, would loosening the door side at the top, sliding in the shim, and retightening maintain alignment?

I figure this would lessen the chances of dropping the door, too.

I used 1mm stock. 

The door to hinge union is pretty interesting. On my car there is a tapped metal plate  that floats around. This is what gives you the adjustment. Loosen the bolts too much and youll hear a... 'thud' as that plate falls to the bottom of the door. 

If i were in your shoes (size.. 10.5...11?) I would prop the door up on the extreme end so as not to stress the bottom hinge. Once you have that set... Dive in. Even if the door moves its pretty simple to adjust.

In the photo above is that door completely closed? You may want to move that striker in a few MM. But one thing at a time.

Once you get finished its pretty satisfying. 

You've got this maaaaan!

Soooo... this was in my in box Saturday morning: 

That's what a pile of cash and 18 months looks like.

Anthony will most likely install the trans for me. If he does Im going to miss the WCC.

If I install it I will most likely break down on the WCC. 

We will see when it ships.

Excellent! What happened with the mainshaft?

They had to make a whole new batch. Gary went through 4  before he found one we liked. Goldie locks and the 4 mainshafts. One (my original) was ground too small after they modified it. The second one?  Same. Third had pits we didn't like. Fourth was juuuust right. Now that it's all done it should ship sometime this coming week.  

Need to have some tabs welded on to the frame horns and then figure out my next move with the axles. WCC seems like a long shot.

I'll believe it's over once it is in the car.

The tabs will be welded when the trans is fitted, for proper spacing.

PS- you could be up and running in 2-3 weeks...

TRP,

Don't go up Highway 17 lookin for a $7.39 stubby wrench!

Ha! It's on East Dunne in Morgan Hill. Between Hill Rd and the Mormon Church. I'll find that sucker!!!  

Don't feel bad, Ted.

Somewhere between Carlisle, PA and the Tappan Zee Bridge, on a remote section of I-78 in New Jersey, probably once sitting on the shoulder of a bumpy downhill section, sat a ramp for Pearl's car hauler trailer.

My son and I both double-checked everything on the trailer when we left the hotel in Carlisle, but when we got back to my house, after the 7 hour trip, one of the ramps (a big, ugly, heavy thing) was missing.  I got the car off of the trailer (we always have spare ramps) and ended up wasting half of the next day welding a new, replacement ramp together.

There, you see?  Speedster replicas are just like car hauler trailers.  Things fall off both, sometimes.

Wow! Hahahah.  I guess I don't feel so bad now.  Im just usually so careful not to lose tools. I've had this set for so long it bums me out to lose a wrench so carelessly.

Jim Kelly posted:

A warped flywheel can cause driven clutch disc springs to fail.  It's always a good idea to surface the flywheel on a clutch job.  Long-term slippage can also heat the springs, making them brittle and easier to break.  If your flywheel is bad, you'll know before long, launching or not (just kidding about the launch).  In my case, cockpit problems were the culprit, but I was a mere callow youth at the time.   

The heat checked flywheel can cause the clutch to chatter which will break the springs in the disc. If everything is right you shouldn't have any trouble with a sprung disc. Any one that knows a lot about clutches will tell you there is absolutely no reason to run a solid, unsprung disc on the street. They are harsh, tend to chatter and transmit lots of driveline noise. The same thing goes for a solid disc with no marcel in it. These are for road racing or drag racing only. If you look at the outer edge of the disc, between the two linings you will see a slightly waved plate separating the two halves of the disc. This is the marcel or wave plate that cushions the disc and makes the clutch much smoother.

Phil IM356D posted:

Sorry to see the tranny build take this turn.  I will likely do another build some day and I'm definitely interested in a 5 speed. Egos are a delicate thing.  If the tranny Guru is that sensitive I would not want to do business with him.  As a Doc I get advice from nurses, technologists and colleagues all the time.  A wise man considers all advice and then decides.  To dismiss a suggestion out of pure arrogance is foolish.  There is always more than one way to skin a cat  (I hate cats).   I'm sure the tranny Guru is swamped with work.  I believe him.  Good thing since he won't be getting any referrals from this site.   

Hey, I love cats!  And dogs too for that matter, unless it's a doggy car.

Robert M posted:

Ron O posted:

Teby S posted:

Robert:    

Good thing you didn't attempt the double water bottle set up..

Tebs

 

I'm going to have to do some major research before I tackle that one.

Check with this guy, he knows how to get a couple water bottles on a bike:

Nice jugs!

My experience has been otherwise, Frank; I've always found an unsprung disc worked fine on the street, without any of the issues mentioned as long as the flywheel surface is true/not overheated, the release bearing was working properly, the bowden tube had the correct amount of bend and the cable guide tube was well greased and secure. It's lighter than a sprung disc, too. 

TRP posted:

As I was cleaning up my tools I figured it out. 7/16 box end 'stubby' wrench! I am in the midst of relocating the oil cooler and fan. I had to remove the remote oil filter.  When I reinstalled it I wedged a wrench in the fender well to hold one nut on the bracket while I used a ratchet on the other side. In my hurry to leave this morning I forgot to unwedge it. I guess it worked its way loose and went bouncing down the road. Because of my OCD - I went to look for it. No luck. Pretty stupid of me so that's what I get. These are the things that make me crazy. I will go look for it AGAIN! 

Serves me right for not using metric!!

HEY ALL:

Funny thing...........As I was driving on East Dunne up in Morgan hill  I hear this: 

"ting  ting ting ting ting....... THUNK!!!     

Ummmmm.......... TED??     

I found your 7/16 stubby wrench........

Damn thing stuck there all the way back to Fresno!!

What are the odds?

What's your address,  I'll send it back to you...........I have no use for it because I use METRIC...

tebs

Teby S posted:

TRP posted:

As I was cleaning up my tools I figured it out. 7/16 box end 'stubby' wrench! I am in the midst of relocating the oil cooler and fan. I had to remove the remote oil filter.  When I reinstalled it I wedged a wrench in the fender well to hold one nut on the bracket while I used a ratchet on the other side. In my hurry to leave this morning I forgot to unwedge it. I guess it worked its way loose and went bouncing down the road. Because of my OCD - I went to look for it. No luck. Pretty stupid of me so that's what I get. These are the things that make me crazy. I will go look for it AGAIN! 

Serves me right for not using metric!!

HEY ALL:

Funny thing...........As I was driving on East Dunne up in Morgan hill  I hear this: 

"ting  ting ting ting ting....... THUNK!!!     

 

Ummmmm.......... TED??     

I found your 7/16 stubby wrench........

Damn thing stuck there all the way back to Fresno!!

What are the odds?

What's your address,  I'll send it back to you...........I have no use for it because I use METRIC...

tebs

 

 

Sorta new guy or not...........that was FUNNY!!!

I agree Robert.  Tabby does come up with a good one every now and then.

Ok, Tebby, well done!

Very clever.....very well done  Teby...........Bruce

HA! I wish that was my wrench. Mine are all black anodized. Which makes them super hard to find in the bushes / middle of the highway.

My wife just texted me: 

Wife: "What did you order? The FedEx guy just showed up with a box marked "HEAVY" and I had to sign for it."

Me: Nothing?... oh! WAIT!... Have 'em put that in the garage.

Wife:"What is it?..."

Me: "It's complicated... I paid for it a long time ago... I've been paying for it... for a while... I'll explain later..."

Wife: "Is it car parts?..."

I'll spare you all the rest...  but it looks like the 5 speed arrived!

Thats a photo of the box when it left LA 3 days ago. Ill see how it looks when I get home.

Me: "It's complicated... I paid for it a long time ago... I've been paying for it... for a while... I'll explain later..."

Sounds like you may be paying for it for quite a while still...

My wife assumes every box I get in the mail is related to the Speedster... She's right about 100% of the time

Do the instructions look like this?

Not that heavy though. What's it weigh? Maybe 85 lbs?

Woo hoo!!!!