Spyder Project by Air-cooled Bruce

Bruce:  Not much more fun than starting a new build, knowing what you want and hoping that it ends up that way.  I have confidence that this car will have your touches all over it.

Enjoy!

Worked on the stainless veneer firewall today.. Pretty touchy, trying to overlay the stainless over a thin flexible piece of fiberglass. The veneer is stiffer than the firewall !

Got the center part bent and will work on the rest tomorrow and post some photos then. It won't look like much because of the plastic coating on the stainless veneer. I have to do this in 3 or 4 pieces. The Speedster was in 4 pieces including the "firewall air intake hole" cover.

I'm curious, does anyone know of a product that I can spray or "squeege" on the firewall between the stainless veneer to take up any gaps ? Something that won't glue them together ? Possibly use mold release on the veneer so they can be separated ?

I changed my Avatar to something totally unrelated today but when you see it you'll see why. It's a divers lifetime quest !................Bruce

No new Avatar !  Don't know why. I deleted the old one and put the new one in but it didn't happen .............Bruce

Now the work begins ! Picked up the Suby Case yesterday, went and bought some new respirators and today I start smoothing out the case for the guy to start polishing it.

Rancho sent out all the external hardware for black oxide coating so that should make a nice contrast in the finished product. Made a trans. holding fixture to make it easier to work on polishing the case.

Almost finished with the stainless veneer for the firewall. Once finished, the firewall goes back to Ensenada Mex. to be installed in my body, then all of it shipped back to Greg...........Bruce

Went down to the Polisher today to check out progress with putting a shine on my Suby Trans. case.  He's half way and said that he will be finished this Friday! The phots below show what it's looking like with a 320 grit sanding job. All the casting chafe and flash is now gone. Next will be the Cratex in progressively finer grit until it's mirror like.

Bruce

Ooooo. That's nice, Bruce. I'd leave it "nickle sheen" if it were me.

Stupid-cool.

Yeah. I took one look at that and say it's done, stop right there.

I'm with Stan and Danny- it looks great just like it is!

FINALY !!!  The polisher guy finished my Subaru transaxle case so tonight I will spend the evening cleaning all the grit/wax out of all the threaded holes with the appropriate taps plus all the other tiny nooks n crannies. Tomorrow it's back to Rancho down in Fullerton so they can stuff it full of those knarly looking tiny/wide saw blade looking wheels ! All 19 of em ! (assuming the LSD has 4 spiders n 2 side ones) The tension of excitement is elevating !   Heres some photos of the finished polish job.  The bottom looks the same too.............Bruce

Wow!  Talk about shiney. 

aircooled posted:

FINALY !!!  The polisher guy finished my Subaru transaxle case so tonight I will spend the evening cleaning all the grit/wax out of all the threaded holes with the appropriate taps plus all the other tiny nooks n crannies. Tomorrow it's back to Rancho down in Fullerton so they can stuff it full of those knarly looking tiny/wide saw blade looking wheels ! All 19 of em ! (assuming the LSD has 4 spiders n 2 side ones) The tension of excitement is elevating !   Heres some photos of the finished polish job.  The bottom looks the same too.............Bruce

Wow....almost chrome like....beautiful. Bruce..what type of " shop " does that type of polishing ?  Thanks..

Bruce that is quite nice... are you using something to keep it shining like a clear coar and please refresh my memory, will that be a full Subarugears tranny with reversed r&p?  

Thanks Bob.  Dave....It's what this guy does. Just old custom car stuff all the time. guys and companies Bring him parts to polish or to prepare them for triple plate chroming . He has no sign on his doors or business. He has a booth at the Pomona Swap Meet every two months where he shows/sells his work and passes out cards. He took over the business from his Father. His name is AIDAN and his phone is (626) 494-7036. He's not good at staying on a schedule so you have to plan ahead for that. He is who I use to put the polish on my Wing and Visors mounting brackets so many of you already know the quality of his work.  He liked doing this Suby case because he said the aluminum was die cast not sand cast (read smoother here) and of some high quality aluminum that polished  up better than anything he has done in the past. 

I see him shipping stuff out occasionally too....................Bruce

Ray....No R & P flip.   It's going in as a mid engine Spyder by Vintage Motorcars. Both engine and Transaxle are Subaru.  I haven't made up my mind on clear coating it yet.

I do have a pretty cool looking chrome German Eagle that I may attach to the top-smooth part of the trans though. Just for looks.. Sort of strange...Japanese trans with a German symbol  !  Maybe  I should attach a Subaru logo....The one with the constellation of Pleiades ?............Bruce 

If you need the trans to be shorter there is a shortened unit rather nose cone that could be bought from Australia, or their california supplier.  just saying. 

Thanks Ray....I didn't know that.  But if I need one at least I'll know it's available. How much shorter is it ?...............Bruce

Bruce, that looks awesome!  Glad you did that and it'll add a big bit of "Bling" when you open the clamshell.

Someone wondered if you would be clear-coating it.  I have aluminum spokes on my steering wheel and they would cloud every other year or so unless I polished them regularly.  Quickly got tired of that and clear coated them with Krylon clear acrylic.  Been looking great for over 5 years now.  Food for thought.

Bruce I think it is about a 4 inch cut... here is the info.  You either cut or replace the nose cone with their part. 

Link for more info.

@Safety Jim Buffalo NY. is in Buffalo and he built his own car and he is coming to Carlisle this year.