I just had to dump another $65 in that POS Sprite.
I had to replace the rubber elbow for the fuel filler to the tank connection because it was old and you could smell gas all the time when you filled it up. I have already replaced the tank.
Then I also got two new chrome headlight trim rings for the headlights. One of them fell off on a full throttle run across the I-205 bridge not too long after I got it out of the shop I spent $3500 at getting it “Road Worthy”.
At $26 apiece I just got both. They kind of twist on and have one screw at the bottom to hold them on and one of the screws must have fallen out and the vibration and wind took care of the rest.
It’s still pretty damn smokey around here today as you can see.
I took it for another short shake out run a few minutes ago. I still need to bleed the brakes and either bolt the seat down or start cutting out the bad section of floorboard. If I decide to do that then the price is definitely going up.
I am happy to say the transmission seems to be working great but I haven’t had the thing much over 40 mph yet.
Gotta bleed those brakes man.
Phil, are you sure you’ve given enough thought to actually disposing of the demon Sprite, what will you fill all that extra spare time doing? I mean, if your missus cops to the fact you’ve got time on your hands, she’ll fill them with jobs you may not like!
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If I have less than 100 other projects just waiting I would be absolutely amazed.
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Does that have a cable or hydraulic clutch, Phil? Been so long I’ve forgotten!
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Hydraulic
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Do you wish you had a friend with some Emulex to spare?
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At this point, everything you spend on the car, you should mark up 2 to 1 for the selling price, which means another 250 got added to the price. Yeah, I know it adds up to 234, egorr, don’t forget about inflation. chuckling 🙂
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Gotta take into account the damn Sales Tax, right?
Fuckers.
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The Goobernator is gonna get his share, come hell, high water, or smoke…
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Being able to stop is DEFINITELY important, Phil!!
Oh and we in Spokane have been blessed with the smoke now, Phil. Yay.
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So that is the hacking and choking we hear sown here…
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No, I’m sheltered in place with my furnace fan and EAF running full tilt. Still having difficulty breathing, though.
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Quit buying shitty vehicles.
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I paid $800 for it in 1988.
Your advice is a bit late.
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Such wisdom in so few words from a random person, maybe I should write that down.
Or maybe anon should mind his own business.
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Maybe Anon just happened to not be logged in on the tablet…. Phil, as wise as he is in all that he posts here, does show a penchant for vehicles with a “host of issues” reputation. If I have a vehicle that is a guaranteed money pit, it gets replaced, I don’t buy ones that show all the signs of being a money pit.
The Alero with its “fail at 3 year / 36,000 mile construction”, the Pilot with the rabbit chewed wiring and the 08 Accord that was so bashed by hail that the interior was waterlogged and glass filled that the amount of time it took to strip the interior was far in excess of the vehicles future value. Learning to quit before it’s too far gone is tough, it hurts the pride, but it is prudent.
Just because you have the skills to fix something, does not make it worth your time to always be fixing everything. You can write that down, Grog…
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I feel your pain Phil. I swore off British cars in 1975. Fun they once were, but they cost ten times as much in parts to keep em on the road as gas, oil and insurance combined. If somethings not broke, then you’re not driven it.
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Besides, I don’t know if you have any knowledge of it’s provenance to be saying something like that to the exalted Sprite. We here worship the Sprite, it is our link to Phil’s benevolence, his humility, his patience… All hail Phil!
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I wonder if you maybe took the car up to your in laws place up near Mt Hood and you too could have a melted Sprite like the black car on the most recent post? At least you could collect on the insurance and it would be out of your misery…
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I think my MG-B cost me about $1 per mile back in the late 1960s before I dumped it. This is before OPEC raised gas to fifty cents a gallon.
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I’m amazed the headlight rings are available and for only $26 each.
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Hey, I’m tickled I can still find parts for my ’89 SHO!
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With or without the headache? 😉
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You would be amazed at what you can buy brand new for these things.
Just get ready for some serious sticker shock.
http://www.victoriabritish.com/icatalog/sm/t.aspx?Page=4
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Lucas Electrics? That stuff may be next on the list.
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I see I forgot to mention that the are only two fuses for the whole car and that the tail lights are not fused.
The covering over the wiring rubbed through one of the sheet metal fold over hold downs in the trunk back in about 1989 or 90, not too long after I bought the damn thing. It let the smoke out and melted some wires from the drivers tail light, across the trunk, up the passenger side of the car to the dash and then behind the dash to the switch.
I had to take the entire harness out, cut it open, peel the melted wires out, cut and replace them then rewrap the whole harness with friction tape and reinstall it.
Oh yeah, I am intimately familiar with the Prince of Darkness.
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I had a similar experience with a 1972 BSA motorcycle. Smoked a ground wire (positive ground) which I just cut the 2 foot smoked part out and reattached to the frame in a different place.
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