1981 SoCal Spider #2 "Baby Boy"

[argonaut]

Well, I couldn't wait to get my basket case 75 Spider back on the road. I wanted a daily driver. First I went and test drive some BMW Z3s, and they were nice cars but lacked character.
So I went and looked at this blue 81 fuel injected Spider 2000 a couple weeks ago. Once I test drove it, I knew I wanted it. It just put a big grin on my face! (the Corvette behind it is nice too, but you know what they say about beggars and choosers...)



It needs some sprucing up here and there but it is pretty complete and in overall decent shape for the price. I'm pretty happy with it so far.

I replaced the water pump, tensioner bearing and timing belt last weekend. And it was a good thing I did because the water pump bearing was almost totally gone and spitting coolant everywhere! I'm just glad that it made the 60 mile drive home.

After work today I pulled the bumpers off. SOOO much better looking without those hulking things.





Needs a cure for the stink bug stance. The rear is about 40mm higher than the front.



Next on big decision is wheels and tires. I'd like to keep the 13s but there are no summer tires available in 185/70R13. I could get a set of Toyo Proxes RA1s in 205/60R13 size, but seems kind of like a waste of money for a weekday commuter and weekend canyon carver. CD-68 replicas would be my preferred but I can't find any.

[SLOSpider]

Nice find!

[KevAndAndi]

Very nice. I would have left the bumpers on and tucked them; they really don't look bad that way. But, to each his own. Hope you have lots of fun with your new toy.

[argonaut]

I did see a post about tucking the bumpers and I thought that it look okay. I also contemplated retrofitting the early style bumpers at a later date. If I do either one of those I think I will fabricate some custom mounts rather than collapsing the original bumper shocks.

So far I'm just enjoying driving the car as it is.

[narfire]

Regarding wheels, have a look at mark's web site. I believe he has plenty of wheel choices and with some progressive springs that stance will come down some.
http://www.fiatspiderparts.com/

[argonaut]

Oh I have. But I'm waiting for his replica CD66 wheels to come in so I can go look at them and see if I'll like them on the car. It's either those or the volumex replicas or the Rota RBs.

[argonaut]

I finally found a set of mirrors that I thought looked decent and would cover up the holes from the old, ugly ones.
They're supposed to be for an 70- 81 Camaro in case anyone is interested.







Next on the list are wheels, tires and lowering springs. Then I'd like to find a nice chrome or stainless power antenna to replace the black rubber one. I also need to go through and tune up the fuel injection and ignition system because its a little hard starting when it is cold out.

[argonaut]

So I finally got these put together a couple weeks ago, and then put them on the car. I think they changed the whole look from preppy Italian cruiser to mini-muscle speedster.
205/50R15 Yokohama S.Drive tires on 15x7 Rota RB wheels.





Then I brought it a little closer down to earth by installing some of AR's lowering springs in the rear. Now I just need to put the front lowering springs in, and I think I may cut one of the closely wound coils off of the rears.

Before:



After:



It was a really quick and easy install. At least it was easy until I found out that both the axle housing and the panhard bar hit the crappy exhaust system that was hacked into the car. The worst part was they cut all the flanges off and just welded the downpipe to the cat to some poorly bent pipe over the axle back to a glass pack muffler. It sounded good at idle but it droned at cruise rpm and was way to buzzy at WOT above 4500rpm.

I didn't take any pictures but I replaced the entire exhaust with another used downpipe, cat, resonator and muffler. Now it is quiet as a whisper! I can actually hear the intake and the valves singing and the tires squealing!

[klweimer]

Jason,

Your spider is really shaping up! Just a thought on the new springs; I'd leave them alone for a few months and let them settle in before cutting any coils out. It's really hard to put that coil back on later.

Kirk

[SunnySideUp]

What influenced your choice of AR's lowering springs over those from other vendors?

[argonaut]

SunnySideUp,
That is a good question. I knew I wanted to lower the cat and I figured that I had 4 options:

1) Cut stock springs (Free)
2) AutoRicambi (fronts look similar to others, progressive rate rears with approx 11 coils, "15% stiffer than stock", $200)
3) Allison Automotive (fronts look similar to others, progressive rate rear with approx 10 coils, "15% stiffer than stock, $200)
4) Vick Auto (fronts look similar to others, linear rate rear, advertised at F=231 lb/in, R=118 lb/in, $150)

Now in my opinion I don't like the progressive rate rears, but i went with them because in general I heard good feedback about AR's and Mark Allison's springs and nothing about Vick's. I was already ordering a bunch of parts from AR so the little extra shipping and no tax made them slightly cheaper for me.

Since I had the rears out recently I took the opportunity to measure the coil thicknesses, spacings, diameters, free lengths and number of coils on stock and AR rear springs. I then did a few calcs to evaluate the stock rate and the low and high rates for the AR progressives. I don't have the numbers with me now but I can share later tonight if you want. Also I haven't measured the fronts yet, that may be a job for this weekend.

[SunnySideUp]

Thanks for the info! I'd be interested in what you think of the ride and if you have any rubbing on the front fender lips when cornering during "spirited" driving after you install the front AR springs.

My first Spider was the color combo of your '81 - sharp car!

[argonaut]

Lots of little things on the car needed doing...still need doing. Got the front lowering springs in, rest the front camber and toe alignment, replaced door wedges, installed some cheap headlights with integrated LED turn signals, installed a fiberglass front air dam, installed new hood and trunk emblems, rerouted the passenger side parking brake cable over the top of the exhaust with a little bracket I made, tried mounting some driving lights (but didn't wire them in yet), remounted one of the wing window latches (too high up, ugh), tried feudaly to get the one side of the hood to stop waving in the wind at high speeds, replaced the leaky fuel injector hoses (much easier than I thought).

Now I need to get after replacing the brake pads, fixing the sloppy shifter (if I can ever figure out how to get the wooden knob and chrome thingy off), and figuring out where the ridiculous oil leak(s) are coming from to I can fix them (or just finish assembling the head for the spare higher compression motor).

Pictures or it didn't happen!

Raccoon face!


Parking brake cable over the top.


I call him Baby Boy.


Jealous older brother.

[argonaut]

I am thoroughly enjoying driving it, save for the fact that every time that I address one squeak or rattle, another one appears! Aaaarrrggggg!! Maybe that is part of the Fiat charm???

Anyway, Baby Boy definitely needs a little more power and a little better braking at some point in the future too.

[SunnySideUp]

The lowered stance looks great! - enjoy the ride!