I wanted to clean up my spyder last weekend and discovered my clutch master cylinder was leaking! ruined my floor mats. hoping the carpet can be saved. the sound deadening material is a mess! the brake fluid got between it and the floor boards and dissolved the materials, glue and paint. The only option was to keep cutting it out until you get it all - like flesh eating bacteria... There seems to be foam + plastic glued to the floor boards, then foam padding with a layer of paint, carpet, floor mats. Is there any replacement for these materials? I think i will de-rust and paint it with some Por paint. Either leave it as is or try to replace the material if its available. I am a big fan of leatherique conditioning and pristine clean. Other than the seat bottoms and back is any of the interior actually leather? The pristine clean does a really great job of cleaning the stitching. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
New parts arrived from Lenny at AutoItalia this week. I installed new hood shocks last night. top - new from Lenny @ AutoItalia middle - original bottom - one a mechanic installed years ago as you can see, the new/original are longer so the hood opens much more now, to about 75deg instead of 45deg. Much easier access. They are also made in the USA! The markings are different, but otherwise are essentially identical. I also got a new hood foam panel. Ironically, I must have met Lenny at a concourse Italiano years ago, I found his business card in my desk over the weekend. I will probably re-build the brake master as well. And replace timing belt over the holidays. Its been about 20 years since I last replaced it. Image Unavailable, Please Login
It's all leather and alcantara. Go slow with the cleaner though. Test small inconspicuous spots. Have a view of the Biturbozentrum Yahoo Groups site. You'll get lots of help there too. Oh and don't drive the car at all till you replace the timing belt and all the associated bearings and bushings in the tensioner.
It was a spectacular fall day and I had a little time to get my hood cleaned up. I wanted to get the old foam off and cleaned up before I start the clutch master and timing belt. It probably needs valves adjusted, I don't know if they have ever been done before. I'll try and get it really cleaned up as I disassemble and have better access. Would like to do a car show or two next year. Like anything, you can get it 70%-80% there with about 25% of time and then to finish takes 75% of your time... The hood actually looks good, I had a really bad sun angle. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Originally the heads were supposed to be re-torqued after the first 1,000 miles. That was mandatory and free at the time. It's a big job because it means spitting open the cambox which you'll be doing when you adjust the valves. Most people never bothered with the 1,000 mile service and that's one reason why you see so many head gasket failures years later with these cars. You can learn how to do the valve adjustment yourself if your mechanically inclined otherwise find someone to help. It's a bit fussy and irksome during assembly/disassembly as it's easy to drop a shim into the crankcase if you're not careful. So when you check and adjust the valve clearances be sure to re-torque the heads as well. Were it me ... even if they require no adjustment I'd split the camboxes and re-torque the heads. The engine compartment sparkles nicely! But that won't mean squat if your 20 year old cambelt/tensioner were to poop on your parade. That's an engine out and heads rebuild deal. Best of luck with your project as these are exotic and fun little cars when properly taken car of. So many were not ...
I interested to know as well. I plan on replacing the aged bonnet foam on my SZ at some point. A cool car and a nice thread. Thanks.
After peeling the foam off I took a 1" paint brush and applied some paint thinner/mineral spirits (its a good solvent for certain things like oil, grease, etc. and won't hurt the paint - DO NOT use lacquer thinner or any other solvents sold at Home Depot, they will destroy paint) and then a second coat right away and used a plastic putty knife to scrape it off. Then brushed it again rigorously and wiped clean with paper towels. If you look closely, there are some minor scratches in the paint from the plastic putty knife, but none went through the red paint. They could all be polished out, but I am not going to worry about them since I will be putting new foam in. Then I cleaned up the oily spots on the engine the with the brush and paint thinner. Then I washed it with the garden hose and used the 1" brush with LA's total awesome cleaner (could use anything, but its pretty powerful and cheap) to really clean the remaining dirt. And the engine as well. Washed thoroughly with the garden hose. Started the car and let it warm up. And all was dry. I will give it a wipe with some Isopropyl alcohol prior to applying the new foam.
I managed to get the old clutch cylinder out tonight! Any advice for installing the new one (shown below)? I am thinking that I will install the flexible line to the clutch master, install them, install the clutch slave, connect the two, then install the brake master, reservoir, fill and bleed the clutch, bleed the brakes, and then put it all back together, timing belt, etc. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I am working on getting the floor boards cleaned up. I was debating how to go about it, as you can see I am moving in the direction of completely pulling up the tar/foam material. Once the rust is cleaned and re-painted with Por, I will probably just lay it back in - undecided though. What a 19 year old timing belt looks like. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
3m adhesive remover works very well. These pads just have to be replaced periodically even if you don't use the car all that much. I'm about to do my 3rd in 32 years and BTW the adhesive film backing ain't all that great, it tends to separate from the foam ... Spraying the bonding surface on the hood with 3M contact adhesive helps. Just protect everything before spraying.
I got the new fuel lines and filters installed Sunday and the car would not start! I might have the pre-pump filter in backwards (there was only a sharpie arrow indicating flow direction. I need to verify that it is going the right direction). I will take another look this weekend. I ordered a fuel pressure gauge and will check fuel pressure at the rails. If not, probably should check pump pressure output. I can hear it running - and then shuts down. Why does the fuel travel around the upper cowl (item 24)? And what the heck is that pictured in the upper left blowout? My car is like that and it looks like the AC line passes through the center of a section of the fuel line? Image Unavailable, Please Login
I've never seen a Bi-Turbo under the bonnet, but that would be your fuel-cooler. Especially when your tank is getting low and the outside temp is hot, the fuel can get very hot and you may get vapour-lock, notwithstanding the pressure the fuel is under. The fuel-cooler prevents that from happening, but only when the A/C is switched on. Looking good, keep at it! Jack.
I took the spyder to the 2nd DC Italian car show. ran great, it always has. I thought I would have the only Maserati there. Six showed up! 1 older, the Merak, and four newer, a new Quatroporte, Ghibli convertable (both left early) and the beautiful blue Gransport and the gray (I should know the model, but am not sure). There were 2 Ferrari 360 Modena coupes with manual transmissions present, blue and silver... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I can't believe its been nearly 4 years!! There have been a few Biturbo auctions on BaT recently so I thought it would be good to update and catch up with everyone. All the hydraulics were rebuilt. The timing belt, water pump, and cam cover gaskets were replaced and fluids changed. Just to be sure, I replaced the water pump screws with anodized titanium screws. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login ALL the rubber fuel lines were replaced along with the filters - and they needed to be! Image Unavailable, Please Login And a little paint correction here and there... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I've always used stainless cap screws except where high strength is called for. I've been doing that since 1986, never had an issues or any rust on them. The only down side is if you drop one somewhere not nice ... the magnetic retrieval tools are useless. Looks like your car is coming along. I hope to get my 84 back on the road this spring now that I finally have a new WP. That reminds me ... I need to order a new cam belt.
During the fall of 2018 I finally got around to getting the top replaced. The fabric was deteriorating, the window was yellow, hard and had several splits. I also wanted to get my seat bolsters replaced. They were in bad shape since I have owned the car, and got in worse shape when a mouse ate some of them! To make a long story short, they also had to replace the seat leather which I had hoped to preserve. I never realized how much color variation there was in the seats I had. The new color is probably a little darker than the original, but I was shocked when I saw it!! I am learning to live with it because it does look good and the workmanship was outstanding. Image Unavailable, Please Login For the winter project, I cleaned all the plastic lenses attempting to make them look spiffy. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Sometimes it can be hard to see the difference between the as-is and the polished, but they now look close to new. I wet sanded the scratches with a 3M 3000 grit sanding foam pad and then Griots compound followed with Gyeon CanCoat. All the black trim was finished with Griots Black Trim Restorer. Image Unavailable, Please Login
The summer of 2019 (remember life pre covid?) I took the "new look" Spyder to the DC Italian car show. It is a non-judged viewers choice event. Image Unavailable, Please Login Biturbo getting a little love from the DC crowd! Image Unavailable, Please Login
I finally had a chance to get it out again this weekend and tried a few glamour shots for a BaT look. I am not even thinking about selling it though! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Yes, I agree, she looks super clean and nice! Nice work! Where did you find the new top? I should probably replace mine, for similar reasons, but I never use it.
Its a Gahh top. https://gahh.com I chose to have it installed at the same time I had my seats repaired and you get their warranty with an authorized installer. I have no clue how easy/difficult it is to install. It does seem a little tight around the frame elbows, just like the original, so eventually it will probably wear and split at the same location. It is indistinguishable from the original and supposedly better canvas. You should start a thread for your car and post some pictures! We need to build enthusiast appreciation for these cars no matter what the 70's Maserati owners say... Maserati wasn't the only automobile company that produced some abysmal looking cars in the 70s in addition to surviving government regulations.
I was no aware that Maserati produced some "abysmal looking cars in the 70s". Please name one. OK .... maybe the rare but not very attractive QPII. Please no insults from QPII lovers Ivan
