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Wires are going in. Pedals are in. I re-worked them a little with nylon bearings so they won’t wear out so fast.
Tonight I cut the first template for the floating floor.
Also got word from the upholsterer. He’s making progress.
Wow Ed,
It looks like you went to the Spaghetti Factory and got a take out order of wiring!! At least our cars are without CPU, ECU, PEU and other stink’in electronic modules to have to sort out….
When do we get to see the finished product? It would be worth an autumn trip up to the VA mountains to get an early look at your creation (earlier than next Carlisle event in May…)
…The paint color is great. Kind of blue, I think??
Keep up those progress reports.
Happy Jack
Here’s 550-0056’s pedals and floor.
http://type550.com/blueprint/restorations-2/fox-spyder-details/fox-spyder-cockpit-2/
Here’s the floor in mine so far:
Blog post on the most recent Spyder doings.
Why Ed,
Lookin’ good!! I would definitely put in the floor and the seat and sit in the car for at least an hour while you make “VROOM VROOM” sounds and pretend to be driving the car around one of the world’s most challenging race tracks!!
Great work!! Can’t wait to see the finished product at Carlisle next year!
Cheers
Happy Jack
I also would like to see the car at Carlisle. There are two of us here in Florida who are considering pulling our cars to Carlisle. Please let us know when you get information. Thanks.
1986 British Coach Works Type 52 (Sammy)
Chevy 2.8 V6, 5 speedPlease come up to Carlisle! I do plan to debut this build there and, as it happens, I’m also (sort of) in charge of this year’s “Speedsters Meet Spyders And TDrs” festivities. It’s shaping up to be quite a scene, and I am very much pulling to get a Full Compliment of my TD Replica brethren on the field.
Here’s hoping it doesn’t rain all day every day like last year.
It’s off topic, but for our Florida friends thinking of towing to Carlisle, stay tuned to the forum!
Our friends in the Speedster Owners Group organize caravans from various points in the country. There is always a “a southeast” caravan.
Ed or I, or maybe Bill, will share details in the Clubs and Shows section as those trips get organized!
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
Spyder build continues.
alongcameaspyder.wordpress.com/2018/10/27/shifter-e-brake-fabrication-seats-and-compromises/
It’s amazing how much time can be spent making something a half inch shorter or two inches longer. The shifter box and parking brake handle–if you want to get them to look similar to the original 550–are quite a fettle.
Not much going on. Still making incremental progress tho.
The cold weather sure makes for slow progress, but progress it is. It’s looking good.
Bill Ascheman
Fiberfab Ford
Modified 5.0, 5sp., 4:11
Autocross & Hillclimb
"Drive Happy"I trailered the car to a far-away painter last week and he appears to be doing the work.
I am stoked, boys.
Damn, that looks good, Ed. Can’t wait to see it @ Carlisle.
Bill Ascheman
Fiberfab Ford
Modified 5.0, 5sp., 4:11
Autocross & Hillclimb
"Drive Happy"I visited the car Saturday and it’s looking pretty awesome. Painter says he’ll probably bring me the Spyder Saturday.
Ed, I am quite sure that it will not surprise you to hear that I never attempted to undertake a project this time consuming and complex. I’m impressed.
Did you keep a log of your hours and costs? …..or shouldn’t I ask?
Hours so far: just under 1,000. Cash in is circa $36,000. There’s a little more to go. Not cheep.
Here’s a run-of-the-mill Beck on Bring a Trailer which sold the other day for $43,000.
There are quite a few trading around this figure, which is close to what a new Vintage or Beck would go for—but without many of the coolio details.
People will pay for details, and they do appreciate the authentic-looking touches. But it remains to be seen if anyone will pay anything for the level of detail I have imparted here. The fuel tank. The functional jack points. All that aluminum, with all the rivets in the right places. Pedals. The smoothed inner panels. The Autopulse 500 fuel pumps. The working keyed latches at both ends of the car. The correctly laid-out firewall. The correct dust excluders and stuff under the clamshell. The correctly-holed, hand-formed aluminum clam reinforcement panel.
Just so many little touches that nobody who hasn’t immersed themselves in 550 Renn Sport trivia would even recognize as “authentic,” but that (I hope) will ring true to the more casual observer.
There is basically only one other fiberglass Spyder in this car’s league: a CMI body that Carey Hines at Beck/Special Edition is currently putting the finishing touches on for an LA obstetrician named Anand Arjani. His car is everything mine will be, plus a $15,000 perfect replication of the correct Carrera fan shroud, plus the ($5,000) correct Carrera finned aluminum drum brakes. Plus a bunch of other things–the correct shifter with the (dodgy) correct linkage. Correctly shaped firewall. Just madness, cubed.
Arjani’s car is the King of All Plastic Clown Cars.
He’s certainly well into the six figures on the build. Everyone is too polite to ask how far. His previous Beck (also an open-wallet Carey Hines project) was featured in Excellence Magazine. That one was extraordinary—the most accurate fake Spyder to date (circa 2007).
And it’s not even close to what I’ve got going.
I’m hoping to find another Arjani out there. A guy who fell in love with these cars and obsesses over the details. Maybe a guy who has already owned a fake Spyder and wants a much “realer” one. This guy probably does not exist—at least not at the economic station I’m hoping to attract.
Even if so, no regrets. I’m doing it for the fun and challenge of it as much as the potential payoff. Whether I profit on this car or not, I want to be known, within this dwindling world of Plastic Clown Car enthusiasts, and “that guy who went absolutely sicko with the Porschey details.”
The paint is on the car now.
Never let it be said that “Everyone is too polite to ask”!
I discovered (after carefully reading one of your many detailed posts long ago) that you are “that guy who went absolutely sicko with the Porschey details.”
I’ve only met your wife briefly on a few occasions but, you surely hit the jackpot with her.
….And, if I were to want the absolute best replica of anything, I’d ask you to build it for me…..without reservation.
….And thank you for all of your detailed posts chronicling your build.
Ed
It looks great and I know you built it for fun and to turn a profit but man after all that work it would never leave my possession except to be handed down to one of my sons after my passing. I would drive the piss out of it and just enjoy.
I know that has gone through your brain many times – tell me I am wrong?
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