It was nice to meet you too Slarti.

Glad you got the chance to watch a bit of the action, it probably got a bit tedious for you having to share a changing room with the GlamCabs girls...

Keep plugging away at your build and you'll be on the road sooner than you think.

As for the technical side of the build, don't be afraid to ask questions on this forum, we're a friendly bunch and someone is bound to have an answer/solution/pithy remark.

Looking forward to seeing your build progress and meeting up with you in your finished car :)

So, after the excitement of Goodwood, which was a fantastic show I shall endeavour to visit again next year, and a near 500 mile round trip running my Spyder at high speed it's time to start the inevitable tinkering process.

First job was a wash. On Friday the route into the classic car park was via a short gravel lane then straight onto some aluminium sandwich plate before pulling off onto a nicely manicured meadow where we all parked our pristine pride and joys.

On the Saturday, however, the parade of multi-million pound classic Ferraris/Astons/Jaguars/Me was diverted across the world's muddiest field where we all collected half a ton of mud on our cars' undersides. It was so bad I was actually glad I'd fitted mud and snow tyres, and it took four buckets of soapy water to get it all off today :(

The process of washing my Spyder for the first time threw up a job that'd been lurking for some time. Shortly after I fitted my recessed battery tray some very wise builders posted pictures of the drain tubes they'd built into theirs to stop the tray filling up with water. I made a mental note to fit one but never got round to it, so my battery tray was full of water when I opened the bonnet to clean underneath. I'll fabricate something in a day or so.

Having said that my Spyder ran faultlessly at high speed for three hours solid, I now find that this wasn't quite true. My old Triumph six uses a bit of oil, going from just below the max line to just above the min line after 460 miles at motorway speeds. When I took the oil filler off to top it up I found the tell tale mayonnaise that indicates head gasket failure :(

No big deal really, I have a spare gasket and it shouldn't take me more than half a day to replace. But I have a hunch that it failed due to the engine running rather hot. Usually, my temperature gauge doesn't shift from between the two central dots unless you're stuck in heavy traffic, when the electric fan quickly brings it back down if it rises. After an hour and a half on the motorway though, the needle was moving up too close to the red mark for my liking. It didn't actually overheat, and reducing speed to 50mph cooled it down again, but I want to be able to drive my car to Scotland on the motorway without having to constantly stare at the temperature gauge.

I guess the problem is that I've installed a smaller, modern, Honda Civic VTi aluminium racing radiator, assuming that a modern rad would be more efficient than an old Triumph one. This is probably true, but I hadn't allowed for the fact that modern engines are also more efficient than my old lump, and produce less heat. So, the plan is to fit a second radiator at the back of the car. I'll post some more information when the parts arrive...

I'll also be softening and raising the suspension at both front and back to give a less punishing ride and a bit more ground clearance. Once again, more info and pictures will follow once I receive the parts.

I'm also considering fitting a louder exhaust, mine sounds nice but it's not quite as spine tingling as the racers at Goodwood...

That's it for now, more later :eyebrows:

I'd love an exhaust note somewhere between the Scream of the Austin Healey 100 S and the Thunder of the Ford Galaxie 500 :biggrin:

Hello Towed,

I had to enjoy Goodwood behind a laptop. But hopefully I'm there next year with my Spyder.

I appriciate this thread sharing an honest experience with your car. It's an illusion to make the perfect car. And certainly, not at once without improvements on the way. But we can learn faster because of you telling us what to avoid.

I hear about your heating problems. I wonder, where does it say that aluminium is more efficient then Copper? Aluminium has a warmth guidance coefficient of
237 W m-1 K-1, while Copper has allmost double (390 W m-1 K-1).
Or to put it more simple: this is the reason why professional kitchens prefer to use Copper pans instead of alumiunium.
The thickness of the radiator is also important to increase contact surface with the air. (besides the hight and with offcourse). Perhaps the aluminium is less thick then the original Vitesse rad?

well done towed love the pic.s

Glad you like the pictures Phil, maybe you and Barry will join me next year?

That's interesting information about the thermal efficiency of the alloy radiators being inferior to copper Michiel. I hadn't really thought about it, but in my case the Vitesse radiator was simply too tall to use. If I'd lowered it far enough to fit under the bonnet it would've fouled speed bumps :(

The alloy racing radiator I fitted is about the same thickness as the original Vitesse one, but has about five times as many channels and fins. I probably would never have known there was a cooling issue if I hadn't run it down the motorway for three hours at a time at 70mph. In normal use it stays well within limits.

So, an MR2 roadster radiator is on order, which is short and wide at 320mm high by 650mm wide and under £50 new, and I'll be mounting that in the back end and plumbing it in between the front radiator bottom hose and the water pump inlet.

Not sure if it'll need its own fan, but it'll be easy enough to retro fit one if I feel it's necessary.

That should provide enough belt'n'braces cooling for high speed runs at Bonneville salt flats. Now there's a thought...

Tough old job, but someone has to do it :eyebrows:
Thanks for your words of encouragement .... we'll no doubt meet again sometime.
Hope to be able to fully rebuild back suspension this week-end. photos to follow.
Slarti

Its interesting to note your slight over heating problems. My GT6 radiator was knackered so I scrapped it with the intention of using a MK2 golf radiator as they are cheap, and it seems plenty of other GT6 owners have fitted them successfully.

The only thing I would suggest might help is standing your electric fan off the core so that you maintain flow without too much restriction. Have you got space between the rad and the engine?

Hi Adam, no space to stand the fan off I'm afraid, I've had to tilt the radiator forwards slightly just to get the fan housing to clear the front pulley as it is.

The second radiator arrived this evening, but they've sent the wrong one and it's far too big :( Waiting to hear back from them tomorrow, hopefully.

Spyder Softail
 

Started stage 1 of my 'improvements' today, the conversion to Softail spec. With the car jacked up and the wheels off, access to the top of the spring clamp is pretty good (note the liberal covering of Goodwood mud still spattered on everything) -

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/...ps967ad442.jpg

It didn't take long to whip the spring out complete with the 75mm lowering block -

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7c504b7c.jpg

A couple of seconds with the old angle grinder and I'd separated three more leaves from the spring stack -

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/...ps75ae0724.jpg

After a bit of rooting around in the scrap metal box I found a suitable bit of galvanised 40mm box section to turn into a not quite as low lowering block -

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/...ps71ce348f.jpg

As you can see the new block is about half the height of the old one.

The whole thing is now bolted back in place, but with the car still up on axle stands I've no idea what difference it'll have made to the ride height yet. I'm hoping it will sit about an inch higher and be a bit more forgiving over the bumpy stuff.

I'll be swapping the front arb for an uprated one tomorrow to compensate for the reduced rear roll stiffness, and I'm hoping that the 150lb Spitfire front springs arrive so I can make a start on raising and softening the front end too.

More tomorrow, hopefully.

Uprated front anti roll bar now fitted -

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/...ps213f066a.jpg

You can see how much thicker the late Spitfire arb is compared to the Vitesse one. It's an essential upgrade if you go down the swing-spring route and recommended by a lot of Triumph specialists (including Phil J) even if you keep the swing-axle setup.

No sign of the new front springs yet so I put the wheels back on and took the car down off the axle stands to check what's happened to the ride height at the back.

This is the 'before' shot -

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/...ps61a70c51.jpg

And here's the 'after' (sorry they're not from the same angle but it's raining heavily) -

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/...pseeddcc21.jpg

The result of removing three more spring leaves and taking about 40mm out of the lowering block was a rise of no more than about 10 - 15mm. That's fine so long as the shocks don't bottom out over bumps, so I went for a test drive in the pi$$ing rain to see what effect the changes have had.

The back end now feels more compliant. The difference is quite subtle - you wouldn't call it soft - but you can feel the back suspension absorbing the bumps now rather than crashing over them. Even from a short test drive I can feel that this has effectively improved the handling. I was able to push it round a roundabout much faster than I could before as it doesn't feel like it's going to step out of line if the back hits a bump, which it did before.

I want to take a full sized adult in the passenger seat for a run over a bumpier road to make sure nothing bottoms out before I can fully recommend this mod, but the early signs are positive.

As I rather like the stance my car has I'll be looking to get a bit more ground clearance by raising the front about an inch or so (the chassis is visibly angled down towards the front at the moment) and by modifying the exhaust (which is what fouls) to a side exit one that won't have to go under the diff housing. More details to follow next week as I'm back to work tomorrow :ballchain:

It was great to see you at Goodwood T,

I am still blown away by it and look forward to next years Revival! :eusa_dance: :eusa_dance: :eusa_dance: :eusa_dance: :eusa_dance: :eusa_dance:

First test fire of the side exit cherry bomb today. Should be ready for a road test tomorrow afternoon, once I've drilled a hole in the bodywork :fear:

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1fbcae27.jpg

sound'sand looks very neat towed..

Towed does the piece of box you have used to lower have any reinforcement inside it? If not then you may want to check it after some miles have been put through it to check it hasn't started collapsing?

Aware of the collapsing lowering block issue thanks to Phil. I welded strengthening blocks into the original, but the 40mm box section I used this time is double the thickness in the walls, so should be fine. I've also now received a pair of 150lb Spitfire springs and when I get around to fitting them I might just raise the rear suspension again anyway.

All good fun this tinkering lark :)

Hi mr T, was that spring originally a herald or spitfire spring? On the cooling side have you put any ducting in to guide air from the grille to the rad? If not i think you're getting a high pressure zone in your entire engine bay, stopping the flow throug h the actual radiator. I think this as u say only temp prob at high roadspeed. At least u need some kind of tray at the bottom linking nose to radiator, probably with a downwards lip. Look at some pics like australian ford falcon undertray. It creates a lower pressure behind the radiator assisting flow.

Hi Tim, rear spring is original Vitesse item. The three loose leaves were removed during the build, and I've just removed the next three down in the stack as the ride was rock hard. That's given the back end a softer ride and improved grip as the tyres are staying in contact with the tarmac. Once I get round to fitting the 150lb Spitfire front springs I should have a car that can be driven much faster on the road without hopping about and loosening both your fillings and your bowels.

Adding an alloy wing ahead of the radiator to scoop air into it was something I'd considered, but there isn't much room to play with at the front and if I did fit one it'd have to be removed prior to bonnet opening or it'd foul.

I might just fabricate something to divert air into the rear radiator when I fit it, which won't be this weekend as I just need to get the side exit exhaust finished and the car back on its wheels for Sunday's race meet at Snetterton. The reason for going for a side exit exhaust, by the way, is partly to stop the exhaust from heating up the rear radiator, partly to provide a little more ground clearance (the silencer was the lowest part of the car) and partly because I hope it's going to look cool.

Should have some video of it fully fitted by this evening. :nerd:

So, after test running Frankenstein's exhaust system made up from hacked about bits of the old system and a few new bends yesterday, it was time to assemble it with exhaust cement and test drive it this evening -

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9b259c76.jpg

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/...psbe45299b.jpg

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/...psa8cb36f2.jpg

It was too dark to video the test drive I'm afraid, but it sounds a bit more like a racing car now and I'm rather pleased with the way it looks.

All set for Sunday at Snetterton now :)

ouch my ears!
 

you may need ear mufflers on a long journey?