The "To Do List

     Once having decided that we would not attempt to make the Spider all original stock, a few more difficult questions emerged.

      For the time being we will be keeping the engine all stock. The car runs well and runs great on our mountain roads here in the Black Hills. There are times when it would be fun to have a little more kick in the 40-70 mile per hour range, but for most open road driving the car is fine.  Should an engine problem develop in the future, we might consider some performance up-grades, but right now we're satisfied.

     As of this writing, we are still getting ideas for the paint job. The body man, who we trust, suggests that we take most of the old paint off, get down to the sheet metal and start with a new primer. That way we can find any old "bondo" patches that may be lurking underneath and also find any rust problems that may be otherwise hidden.  We are looking for a show-quality paint job with a clear coat top, so the idea seems reasonable.  Now for the color. Sorry, purists, but I  happen to like my reds deeper than the factory red stock paint.  It's gonna go.  We are looking at a deeper cherry red, in a urathane.  Not stock at all.

     We arem however going back to the factory style door mounted rear view mirror.  We found a reproduction of the original which was mounted on the driver's side only. The after-market mirrors are  history.
 
     The convertible top is being replaced by one from International Auto Parts. These are expensive, but we believe they are worth the extra cost.

     The interior is getting a complete makeover.  The center console is broken and will be replaced with a new reproduction. Also the carpeting, seat cushens and upholstery will be redone. 

     The final touch will be a new sound system. The existing radio is not stock -- the original is long gone. So the idea is to put a good radio that looks somewhat retro.  .... you know, with real knobs. But the radio will need a CD deck.  Finding this could be hard.

      That's about it.  

       We're keeping the non-stock hub caps and  the non-stock radio antenna.  The only other items on the horizon are non-stock bumpers. Pres 1975 Spiders had cute little bumpers, which did almost nothing.  They were replaced in 1975 with bumpers that were supposed to withstand a 5 mph crash.  They didn't.  So what's the point of carrying around 200 extra pounds of worthless bumpers.  Many owners -- were legal -- have simply removed them.  We don't plan to do  that.  But a set of custom bumpers might be something we can look into as we move down the list.

There will be more on this as we progress. Do come back.  Meanwhile, if you press THIS BUTTON you will be dumped at the Roosevelt Inn Home Page