Mine has some mild pitting and rust under the headlamp mount, as well as a wrinkled fin. Once I get the car through enhanced inspection, titled, and on the road, I’ll take the grill off the car, straighten the fin, then send it out to be re-chromed. While I’m at it, I’ll remove the crooked MG badge and put it back on straight. The previous owner…[Read more]

Sent the pics to Rare Car Network magazine (fka ReInCarNation fka Kit Car Builder) which may or may not still do a print edition.

They ran ’em.

Most of our VW-based cars have mounted tank mounted too high for this to work.  It’s feasible only if the tank is way down low on the floor, as in the Duchess, which has a custom fuel tank.

I remember the look of horror on the crew at the station where, on our trip to VA Beach, Paul Mossberg topped off his MG by sticking the fuel nozzle in his radiator. That would be my choice, but my tank is in the back.

Spyder debuted in public over the weekend at cars & coffee in Hunt Valley on Saturday morning and Annapolis on Sunday.

People seem to be interested…

If you can find an old school hot rod shop around most of those guys know how to do it all without even looking at the book.

I have a local very old school alignment shop here in Fredericksburg that does it for me but I have heard the father passed away and not sure the son will keep it going – support those local shops while we still can before…[Read more]

You can set camber by loosening the nut on the ball joint and turning the eccentric with a channel lock. You also need to set camber first, then toe. Changing the camber will change the toe-in, but changing the toe will not affect camber.

Oh! All this only after ride height is set. The ride height affects camber and toe!

Crash’s advice is spot-on. I run about .5 degrees negative camber on my car (spec is 0) and it’s good. I also have one set of caster shims in place, so the caster is about 3-4 degrees. Stock Bugs came with less than that, to keep low speed steering easy, and it gets worse: typically, any VW whose front end is lower then the rear will lose enough…[Read more]

It’s really fun to drive, Dale. You should come up and I’ll let you take a spin.

Very nice Ed – love to drive it – can’t believe you are going to sell?

Hopefully you change your mind before that happens.

Been sorting the Spyder for a few months now. It’s running strong and tracking straight, stopping short and sounding delightfully loud. On Tuesday I revved the engine to 6000 rpm on a highway entrance ramp, and it seemed to like that. The dyno slips with these engines (I have one for a sister build, not this engine per-se) indicate they made peak…[Read more]

Given the way they’re made—with the divot for the grub screw on the edge of the large leaves only—the small ones should slide out. But they probably won’t until you loosen the center grub screw. I just rebuilt the beam on my Spyder and it was a real adventure sorting out how the height adjusters worked on this one: the grub screw was buried ins…[Read more]

If it hasn’t been run in a while, maybe pull the coil wire and turn the engine over with the starter for 10-20 seconds to get the oil flowing first before trying to fire it.

I completely overlooked the FiberFab emblem. Good eye!

I agree, looks like a Fiberfab. The logo on the front gives it away. Also I agree that the headlight brackets are non standard. That said, most parts are easily available via MG Magic. However, as these were mostly self assembled you never know what the original owner did (or didn’t) do.

It looks like a Fiberfab. The headlight brackets are custom made.

Red flags are the same as any with a 30+-year-old homebuilt car: look at the floors and frame head. Check all the rubber bits (tires especially) for dry rot. Assume the gas tank is full of rust and scale. Examine body and engine carefully. Assess your own true willingness to work…[Read more]

You probably know that the period correct outlet looks like two RCA style speaker plugs as found on the back of a stereo amplifier. As in

But since these work well with only my period correct brass “trouble light”

and Happy Jack’s hilarious portable tea kettle (which is hands-down the absolute best TDr accessory I have ever, or will ever, run…[Read more]