FrankenSpider Lives!

[Godfrey DiGiorgi <ramarren@domain.elided>]

Friday was The Day: Time to bring this amalgam of Spiders back to the 
road.

I picked the car up around 1pm on Friday, drove it down to the emissions 
referee in San Jose where it passed smog tests with flying colors, 
finished off the DMV paperwork. 3 months in the shop, a gazillion details 
later, it's now insured, certified, registered, and stickered. Yahoo! 

Later on Friday evening, I picked up Beth and we ran back up to retrieve 
the MR2. It's so NICE to drive a top down car on a warm evening again! 
I'm smiling all the way... Saturday, I ran it up to Livermore and back, 
up to a friend's house in the Santa Cruz mountains and back, to the 
grocery store and back, stopping and starting, keeping it under 4000 on 
average while breaking in the new pistons and rings, but working it 
reasonably. Between Friday and Saturday, oh about 250 miles or so. I'm 
pleased with what I see as fuel mileage so far: about a half tank in 
150-175 miles.

Okay, so after all the work, money and time, what's it like?

This is the first time that this assembly of parts has been all together 
in one car. The interior is a functional but odd-looking mismatch of 
tan/brown/red bits from two different cars. The leather seats are good if 
a little worn. The mirrors are painted to match to a red '82 Spider ... 
which looks awfully silly on a silver '79 body. The body desperately 
needs a serious rubbing out and wax. The headlights are aimed a bit too 
high. The usual bunch of leaves and junk are blowing their way out of the 
ventilation system. The radio isn't hooked up yet. Yeah, we need some 
work there. Function before style...

The Bosch L-Jet engine with high compression pistons is a much more 
willing starter and likes to rev far more than my stock, 90+Kmile '78 
SPICA engine did. The throttle is lighter and it's difficult to keep it 
under 4000 rpm. It feels much more like my '71 did way back when.

Hitting the brakes the first couple of times, it pulled left than right 
then settled down into just stopping. A little soft ... they needed to 
bed in properly, which they're now well on the way to doing. The gearbox 
is definitely less worn than the '78 was: the action is more positive and 
tighter, the synchros work a lot better. It does want to pop out of gear 
in reverse and third gear synchro is not 100%; I'll overhaul it 
eventually. The chassis is solid: it tracks true and tight, the 
suspension seems very good. 

Idle is a bit fluffy still when cold or on restart from hot but seems to 
be improving. I figured these injectors have not had to work for a living 
for a while, a bit of injector lube and cleaner is likely in order, so a 
bottle of Techron and a full tank of gas went in. I'm finding it has 
definitely improved things. So far, I'm not detecting any detonation or 
pinging with the hi-compression pistons either: they seem to be a big 
win. 

The switch to the '82 4.10:1 differential really makes me happy. This 
engine is now very capable of pulling the taller gearing and it makes the 
gearbox much more useful, as well as giving a more relaxed cruise at 
speed. I always felt the '71 and '78 Spiders were geared too short and 
were 'busy' on the highway. This is much better, as long as you have the 
power to pull it.

There are some niggly bits that still need work. The '79 light switch is 
a bit worn and the running lights go out occasionally until I fiddle with 
it again, I'll replace it with the better one from the '78. The horn 
switch is a bit sticky, but it has come back to life. There's a little 
noise from the rear of the car which sounded like either some stuff 
rattling around in the trunk or the exhaust hitting: probably a little of 
both. I moved stuff in the trunk around and it went away, but the exhaust 
is very close on one side and touches if you push it an inch to the 
right. The steering box needs an adjustment as it's a touch loose on 
center. The speedo needs a rebuild, the oil pressure gauge needs a new 
sending unit. 

All in all, a successful job and a very nice Spider. My list of niggles 
is remarkably short given the amount of things that got changed and 
shuffled around to build this car. The cosmetic touches can wait, the 
mechanical details will get attended to soon. I can't wait to let this 
engine rip up to it's power peak ... it sounds so healthy and runs really 
really well. And I also can't wait to unburden the car of those heavy 
bumpers and fit my fiberglass replicas -- that will make a huge 
difference to the handling feel. 

I'm one very happy Spider driver. :)

Godfrey

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End of alfa-digest V7 #648
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