Skip to main content

There's lots going on here now, with a deadline of next Thursday. We'll see if that happens, but for now, there are new brackets, new switches and new odds and ends to look at.
I spent more dough yesterday buying all of my aluminum fittings and stainless lines ... but I only want to have to do this once.
Every bracket has been made or modified to go where they're at, and that took up the lion's share of the last two days.
I should mention that we had a great visit with Angela Lane, and her 'Tales of the Spyder' motivated the hell out of the Wrench. It was steady working for the last two days. The MSD stuff and my master power safety switch are on a very cool mounting plate he made in less than 30 minutes, just as an example.
I'll update this later today with details in the photos themselves; I just want to get this up for now. I'm honestly able to see the light at the end of the tunnel now.

(The engine and transmission will be a state secret for now. Very cool things happening there.)

Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

There's lots going on here now, with a deadline of next Thursday. We'll see if that happens, but for now, there are new brackets, new switches and new odds and ends to look at.
I spent more dough yesterday buying all of my aluminum fittings and stainless lines ... but I only want to have to do this once.
Every bracket has been made or modified to go where they're at, and that took up the lion's share of the last two days.
I should mention that we had a great visit with Angela Lane, and her 'Tales of the Spyder' motivated the hell out of the Wrench. It was steady working for the last two days. The MSD stuff and my master power safety switch are on a very cool mounting plate he made in less than 30 minutes, just as an example.
I'll update this later today with details in the photos themselves; I just want to get this up for now. I'm honestly able to see the light at the end of the tunnel now.

(The engine and transmission will be a state secret for now. Very cool things happening there.)

Attachments

Images (3)
  • 100706 overview II
  • 100706 overview IV
  • 100706 overview I
The first shot here is the boot on the inside of the car. I had to go with a new master cylinder because the old one had been so badly corroded. In the second photo, there it is wearing its new coat of Wal-Mart black paint, and in number three the supporting cast have all been added.

Attachments

Images (3)
  • 100706 brake plunger boot
  • 100706 brake master I
  • 100706 brake master III
The shifter's tube will likely have to come back out because it's too long. The wire there in number two is the master power to the front of the car, and it's sharing that pipe with the fornt-to-back brake line. The "T" connection is off to the passenger's side to allow us to get inside the tunnel. The MSD box there in number three is solidly mounted on rubber feet to prevent vibration, and the switch is redundant to the key on the dash. Sort of an anti-theft device.

Attachments

Images (3)
  • 100706 brake line T
  • 100706 brake line T II
  • 100706 MSD closeup
I may or may not be able to reach this with my knee. Frankly, there was too much brake line piled into the driver's seat for me to try. Either way, with it hanging out here, I'll be able to slap it with my hand, and it won't be hanging out the bottom of the car getting corroded. Again with the custom mount, too. I really, really like the way the Wrench can whip things up out of thin air. I had nothing at all to do with this thingie; I was out spending money on fittings when he did this.

Attachments

Images (3)
  • 100706 knee switch lights
  • 100706 knee switch II
  • 100706 knee switch III
I wanted a turn signal switch right at hand for lane-changes. I needed to have it within a hand's reach of the shift lever, and this looked good to me. Four rivets, and bammo. Done.
Number two is the final install shot for the master cylinder with the blue lines on the container and the front-to-back line run into the pipe.
Number three is the end-of-day shot. I couldn't resist. Note the aluminum tank straps on the fuel cell -- I like them. They were intended to be temps, but I'm going to leave them.

Attachments

Images (3)
  • 100706 turn signal switch
  • 100706 overhead footwell
  • 100706 overview III
LOOK AT THIS! I was just there on Thursday evening - can't believe how much more is done! Brakes baby (can't say enough about the value of those...)

Tell your wrench buddy how much I enjoyed meeting him and thank him for showing me the pics of the great cars he has built. Though I may be prejudiced, the one he's working on right now is my favorite!

And regarding his father. That guy is in a league of his own - what a privilege to meet him. angela
You guys both know the score by now. I really wish it was different, but it's circumstantially dependent here. The way things went for the last 20 hours' work, totalling 35 or so man-hours on the meter, it looked like this car could have been done by Monday morning.
Some folks are motivated by intrinsic things and others are externally motivated. In a perfect world, we're on track for early next week to have it all together and wiring should be finished by Thursday. The world's not perfect, however, and now it looks like it's going to move from the garage it's in to yet another garage -- AGAIN due to circumstances beyond my control.
Every inch of wire, every bend in the brake lines and every nut and bolt are an inch, a bend and a small piece of hardware closer to being finished. As I said up top, there really is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Day by day. Thanks for the encouragement, guys.
No visuals with this one, I promise. I think I've been saturating the site with the color orange, so I'll stop.
All of my engine pieces are cleaned up now, and the super diff for the transmission got here yesterday. The engine's parts looked really good when we took the block apart, but I think whoever put it together must have given it a bath in sealer and lock-tite. I spent a great deal of time at the wire wheel, removing all the old goop, epoxy and residual pieces of paper and rubber seals from the components. Happily, when I go to the strainer screen and the sump pickup, even those were in really good material shape. I don't think I'm going to have any leaks.
The Wrench wanted to specifically look at the loop on the cap on the sump, to see if anyone had ever over-tightened the cap or used it as a jacking point. It looked like it had never been used; good news for me.
I have a new seal kit for a microbus engine -- we'll see if that works. No reason why it shouldn't.
My wiring is 90 percent complete. The five wires that aren't already run are laid out underneath the car in order to get the wire runs the correct length. All of my switches checked out with the test light, and all the wires did, too. I'm shopping for bulbs now, but I'm not in a hurry since they all worked when the car was last run in January of 2005.
The brand new Optima battery is installed. I got the red-topped one instead of the yellow; don't know that it made a difference for a little car with 10 fuses and a generator.
All of the brake lines are finished, but the new transmission needs to be installed before I can wire-tie the rears to their routing brackets. I need to cut the old brake line brackets off yet also.
The stub axles fit perfectly but were removed from mock-up tranny after checking fit. It's only 12 bolts; it'll take about two minutes to dunk those into the good tranny when it's in.
The car will be moving Tuesday to new garage. I anticipate significant progress by Tuesday p.m.; engine may or may not be re-assembled before the move.

And TC, the Skunk Works are going to have some cosmetic surprises, too.
Congrats Cory! I'm also doing some nice work on my engine this week. The guy who's porting my heads told me they'll be ready this week so my engine needs to come out; we'll be installing all the new stuff (CB 044 heads, pushrods & stainless pushrod tubes, rigid rocker shafts, swivel feet adjusters, crankshaft pulley, welded fan, SVDA distributor, refurbished OEM cylinder tin, heater boxes, exhaust system, Dellorto 40's...whew...did I forget something?). I feel like a kid the night before Christmas!
Cory, that's looking great.

I think this will be an inspiration to anyone in fuutre who's looking to deliver a lot of great quality work in a tight timescale. The nearest I got was when I had to move my car from a garage, but I don't think I could compare with your rate of work.

But the end product looks amazing - you'll be blown away when you get it on the road! Well done, and good luck.
Hi Cory,

Thanks for your kind words. Yes there's lots of stuff from my old man built into the car - his hard work, encouragement, and above all patience. That makes it very special to me to be honest.

I'm sure your car will be exceptional when it's done - that's why I look forward to the pics ;). I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy mine - in fact I'm certain you will.

Oh, and where are the latest pics ?!
Cory - I don't think your in-box is working (i'd sent you a email about a week ago). So please email me:

Laneco (at) internetcds.com

I'll be in DC the week of the 23-27. I can think of at least 4 reasons to drive to Maryland. You know that I got so lost on the way back last time that I drove 147 miles? Its only a 69 mile trip... angela
Post Content
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×