Greco Thunderbird II on Ebag

[dadagoboi]

Now that is hardcore...

In January 1976 ThunderBucker and I convoyed from Gainesville, Florida to Hollywood, California. He in a 1965 VW Baha bug and me in my '60 Austin Healey Sprite.  The Sprite sucked a valve somewhere in Texas.  Finally in Tucson, Arizona we pulled into a DIY garage (those were the good old days) realizing I wasn't going to make it through the mountains.  We removed the cylinder head and Steve proceeded to lap a new valve in with nothing but a power drill and grinding paste.  Yes, he's fairly hardcore.

[Highlander]

Now that must have been a story, so please do so if you would... probably best in it's own thread...

[Stjofön Big]

What model of the Sprite was it? Colour? Why you bought her? Was everything all right after Steves job? What happened to her? Wow, there's a good story here, I guess!!!

[dadagoboi]

What model of the Sprite was it? Colour? Why you bought her? Was everything all right after Steves job? What happened to her? Wow, there's a good story here, I guess!!!

First model, "bug eye" (frog eye). Originally white, by that time primer gray.  It was given to me in '72 with rusted through floorboards and a broken gearbox which I rebuilt on a dining room table, combining the best parts from 2 transmissions.  Made it to L.A. the next night and became rich and famous.  Sold in '79 when my wife brought a brand new metallic black X-19 to the marriage...all true except the rich and famous part.

[Dave W]

I loved the look of the bugeye Sprite and was so disappointed in the bland looking second model.

Those were the days, though. If you wanted a British sports car you needed to at least know how to tinker with them.

[Stjofön Big]

B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l!

[Dave W]

I was just thinking about how shocked most people would be today at how primitive the Sprites (and MG Midgets) were. No side windows, they had those acrylic plastic side screen assemblies you had to manually put in place. No door locks, and the only door handles were on the inside. Manual top (of course) and IIRC you had to assemble a separate frame before you put the top on. Maybe Carlo can confirm. They didn't even have a heater as standard equipment, not that a heater would do much.

[dadagoboi]

I was just thinking about how shocked most people would be today at how primitive the Sprites (and MG Midgets) were. No side windows, they had those acrylic plastic side screen assemblies you had to manually put in place. No door locks, and the only door handles were on the inside. Manual top (of course) and IIRC you had to assemble a separate frame before you put the top on. Maybe Carlo can confirm. They didn't even have a heater as standard equipment, not that a heater would do much.

Yep, sliding side curtains.  By the time I got my Bugeye there was no key, just a toggle switch for the ignition.  The windshield wipers were a joke.  Heater was standard, it just didn't have any controls.  There was a heater core with a faucet type valve to allow water from the radiator to flow though it that you accessed from under the bonnet.  Then it was "on" until you reversed the procedure.   Putting on the top required mounting the separate frame and then stretching the vinyl over the frame and attaching it with various snaps to the car and windshield, 10 minutes minimum.  In contrast putting up the top on my Alfa Spyder took one hand and less than 30 seconds.  I guess it didn't rain in Britain in the 60s.

[Highlander]

Don't be daft - they only came out of the garage on the one sunny afternoon of the year... usually mid week when everyone else was at work... Ah, the good old days of full employment and quiting your job on a whim, knowing you could walk into a new one...

[Aussie Mark]

We removed the cylinder head and Steve proceeded to lap a new valve in with nothing but a power drill and grinding paste.  Yes, he's fairly hardcore.

[dadagoboi]

Good 'un, Mark!  Here's the urban version.  Streets of L.A., 1978, before I woke up one morning to find my side curtains and top gone.

[Stjofön Big]

Could be the starting line of one helluva blues tune:
"I woke up one morning
to find my side curtains and top gone"
Could concern the matter of a bloke waking up with his sideburns and mop laying on his pillow.
Now, take it from there! But remember to not forget to give cred to co-writers Carlo and Stjofön!

[ThunderBucker]

Hardcore, shit, that weren't nothing.  While getting ready for our transnational outing, I was putting new pistons and cylinders (from JC Whitney--remember them?) on my bug.  They were "high compression".  I think 7.8:1.  Whew.  Stand Back!  Anyway, while putting them on, I didn't have the band clamp set right and broke one of the top rings.

No sweat, head down to the import parts store and get another set.  Back at the bug, find out that the top ring for my "hi compression" pistons was only 1.5mm thick vs the standards which were 2mm.  Crap.  Went to a couple of machine shops who just shook their heads.

I was not going to miss our convoy out of Gainesville to our Bright Future in Hollywood.  Filled with automotive mayhem--Marty's van ate an alternator in a rainstorm in Biloxi, Carl's Sprite a valve in Tucson, etc.

I had to remove .5mm off that ring.  Armed with a plate of glass off an old TV front (they were flat back then), some silicon carbide dust from my parent's rock tumbler, and an orbital sander, I proceeded to grind away that .5mm, checking for high spots with a micrometer, and pressing harder on those areas, until I had the ring ground down to 1.5mm all the way around.  Carefully put that sucker in and ran that baby all the way out to CA, and still running strong when I sold it several years later.

[Highlander]

"I woke up one morning
to find my side curtains and top gone"

Barely enough left... for me ta sit on...