The Bastard Child - A '76 Spit6

A quick initial overview...

Well I simply couldn't pass this one up. Considering I started this project back in 2000, it's about time I finally played with a Spit6. I purchased this one off EBay. Considering it was only 25 minutes from my house, I would have been crazy not to snatch it up. This page is just a preliminary preview of the car as I cleaned it up and gave it a good once over.

Talking to the seller (a friend of the original owner) gave me the following 'history'.

The guy bought it around five years ago. Drove it for two. He (the original owner) moved mid '03 and left the car behind. Someone stole the bumpers, as well as the triple Weber DCOES. (Hence the weird cut out.... to clear the DCOEs as well as the radiator neck) The EBay seller (a friend of the owner) convinced him to let him pick it up, move it to his house, and sell it for him. The friend got it running...just barely, before deciding the 'kids'
needed his cash more than another toy. So he put it on EBay.

Well that brings it up to today, when I retrieved it. Upon first examination...all I can say is.... the p.o. was a FOOL! No rust on the underside. Just a little under one light pod on the underside of the bonnet, and a tiny bit at the base of the rear side quarter, behind the passenger side wheel. A bit of surface rust on the drivers side foot well, but that's it. It's a KD prefix engine (higher output than the earlier MKI or latter MKIII engines) No downpipe, or rear exhaust box on the car. The oil had a bunch of water in it, but the rad was full. So I changed the oil and filter, and fired it up. IT STARTED! Ran rough...like a cyl was missing. well that figures... it had a Lucas distributor on it (screw in wire type) and the wires were making poor contact. Fixing that didn't change the way it was running.

So I open up the oil cap to see if it's blowing air.... and noticed a push rod NOT under a rocker and just dancing around! So I popped off the rocker cover to find TWO valves are stuck down. Sure enough, two exhaust valves were stuck open. Upon cranking the engine, the push rods simply fell out from under the rockers. A little Brake-Kleen and a wedge driven into the valve springs popped up the two stuck valves. A flashlight down the sparkplug hole showed the valves had not touched or damaged the piston tops.

A quick full valve clearance adjustment on all of them, and it fired up and ran smooth and true.

VERY LOUD without any downpipe or exhaust of any type, but its running strong. All hydraulics are holding pressure.

So all I need is a new pivot on the bottom of the shift lever, and a down pipe (a brand new Monza tail pipe was included in the deal. as well as a bunch of books) and I could be driving this one around New Years day! All
electrics work, and all the keys actually work in all the locks!

...more to come...

	Cleaning up the paint, The top is after a good 3M scrubby pad scrubbing with soap and water. Actually it looks like I simply stripped off all the old wax . Just a side shot
The engine is relatively clean. It has a Lucas 6 cyl distributor, but the vacuum advance unit has been cut off. It also has no tach drive cable output so the tach cable is just hanging there.	T he manifold coolant hose bypasses the intake manifold but all heater plumbing is there.
This weird hole originally was cut out to clear the triple DCOEs that were on the cars.
The bumpers, as well as the DCOEs were stolen off the car when the p.o. moved and left the car sitting for two years.	The dashboard is relatively un-crazed and in good shape. It does have a MKII(GT6+) 140mph speedo and tach installed. A new heavy weight plastic tranny tunnel is installed, and it appears to have been GLUED in place!
The floors are surprisingly rust free. a bit of surface rust but not much. So apparently even though it sat, the rag top, being in good shape kept things dry.	Brand new Konis front and rear
	Brand new Konis and rear spring at the rear. Only a slight brake adjustment was needed. All the tires are new as well with little or no tread wear indicated.

The Bastard Child - A Spit6

an 'as purchased'... a partially completed Spit6...

The rear deck shows the paint is actually in good shape, once I gave it a good scrubbing and got rid of all the old wax.	The trunk as well has little to no rust. It's just the typical seam sealer that is all dirty and grimy. The gas line routing is a bit strange though.
The underside of the car is in good shape as well. A lot of surface pitting, but no major rust.

©1987-2008 All material copyright© Teglerizer 1996-2008	last edited 03/18/10	hits since last reset