PCO6 Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 I owned and restored British cars (MG, Triumph & Jaguar) for years but I haven't for the last 15 or so. Lucas, The Prince of Sparks and Darkness, gets a bit of a bad rap. The electrics were usually restorable provided the plastic parts were in tact. That was often the cause of failure for cars made through the '50s to '70s, switches in particular. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser54 Posted January 23, 2018 Author Share Posted January 23, 2018 This is what you keep handy if you own a British car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PCO6 Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 ^^^ ^^^ I hope you have a good "non British" gasket on that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lthompson741 Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 Looks nice, my parents had a '71 spider in our garage growing up. I always wanted to get it running again, but never could find the money. I've driven a late 70's and it was a lot of fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser54 Posted February 6, 2018 Author Share Posted February 6, 2018 Scored a parts car today. Same year as mine. Perfect reupholstered seats......Ran when parked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser54 Posted February 6, 2018 Author Share Posted February 6, 2018 These seats came with it. My current seats are from a Fiero and sit too high. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PCO6 Posted February 6, 2018 Share Posted February 6, 2018 One of my Brothers told me that there's a good market for Fiero seats. He has one with speakers that are built in to the head rests and apparently those are the ones that the hot rod guys are always looking for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser54 Posted February 7, 2018 Author Share Posted February 7, 2018 18 hours ago, PCO6 said: One of my Brothers told me that there's a good market for Fiero seats. He has one with speakers that are built in to the head rests and apparently those are the ones that the hot rod guys are always looking for. Yeah. They had speakers in them. There's covers over them now. The black and red ones. They're comfy, but too tall for the car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser54 Posted February 11, 2018 Author Share Posted February 11, 2018 Parts car is home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser54 Posted February 12, 2018 Author Share Posted February 12, 2018 While dinking around in the garage with some buddies yesterday, one of them kept walking back and forth noting how similar the cars were. I thought nothing of it since they are both 1978s. He yelled "Check this out!" Look at the serial numbers. They are 0030 and 0036. What are the chances that 2 cars, built on the same assembly line 5 cars from each other, would end up 40 years later in the same garage in Prescott, Arizona? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skorpyo Posted February 13, 2018 Share Posted February 13, 2018 So which one is the younger one, donor or recipient? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser54 Posted February 14, 2018 Author Share Posted February 14, 2018 23 hours ago, Skorpyo said: So which one is the younger one, donor or recipient? The recipient. #0030 The recipient had no carpeting or interior panels. Donor #0036 has all that. Cleaned it all up and dyed it. Next is to swap it into #0030. Gotta get the carpet in before I can put those fancy reupholstered factory seats in. Finally be sitting in the correct position. I'll try to snap some pics of the progress this afternoon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser54 Posted February 16, 2018 Author Share Posted February 16, 2018 Made progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser54 Posted February 18, 2018 Author Share Posted February 18, 2018 Finally!!! The proper seats. Correct height. Had a fun drive when done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser54 Posted February 23, 2018 Author Share Posted February 23, 2018 Disassembling the donor. I removed the hanging pedal assembly. It comes out into the engine bay!! very slick. I added grease fittings to it per my long time Alfa owner friend. I'll use this one when I put the new booster into my car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser54 Posted February 25, 2018 Author Share Posted February 25, 2018 I'm gonna do a remake on the rear body at some point, so I decided to begin by removing the big, fat, ugly license lights. I have a new LED one ready to go on. It will be located below the plate and painted the same color so it blends in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeep Driver Posted February 27, 2018 Share Posted February 27, 2018 That's really awesome, man. Looks like a really fun car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser54 Posted February 28, 2018 Author Share Posted February 28, 2018 10 minutes ago, Jeep Driver said: That's really awesome, man. Looks like a really fun car. It's a kick. Pulls from idle to 6800 RPM. 5 speed. 4 wheel disc brakes Coil rear suspension. 4.56 gears...Meh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser54 Posted March 1, 2018 Author Share Posted March 1, 2018 I decided to try Iridium spark plugs. I've had good success with them in my quads and my supercharged Miata. Only went on a 10 mile round trip, but I had to turn the idle down when I got home. Feels more responsive. The plugs I removed have less than 500 miles on them. NGKs also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser54 Posted March 7, 2018 Author Share Posted March 7, 2018 Got a piece of crud out of one of the idle circuits on Saturday. Idles great now. I've been bugged by the fact that it has such low gears. 4.56s with 14" tires. But, yesterday I took it out for a spin and at 110 MPH in 5th gear it was still pulling. I can live with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-man930 Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 I dig it! One of my coworkers is into old Limey stuff; very strange how they did some stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser54 Posted March 10, 2018 Author Share Posted March 10, 2018 The Limeys were kludgy compared to the Italians. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser54 Posted March 10, 2018 Author Share Posted March 10, 2018 Dialed in some positive caster the other day. Way better straightline stability and quick turn in for the twisties. I could get in trouble with this thing. Have a rollbar on the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser54 Posted March 12, 2018 Author Share Posted March 12, 2018 Put it on the lift Saturday and changed the trans and diff fluids. The Alfas have great transmissions, but don't like to be shifted fast. I used BG UltraGuard 75W90 in the trans and took a quick road test. Immediately noticed an improvement in shifting. Quick road test because it started raining and I have no top!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser54 Posted March 16, 2018 Author Share Posted March 16, 2018 New brake booster. My old one was full of skanky old fluid from a previously failed master cylinder. Used my Hobo Freight brake bleeding tool and bled the brake and clutch systems twice. Haven't had a chance to test drive it since it's 47* and very windy. I'll do that tomorrow. I've been driving without any boost and it's not that bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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