By Ken Edgar

  This treatise is somewhat a confession. Some time ago I had decided it was time to give my old Spit a freshening up as 50-odd years of service had taken their toll. This would be a thorough going-through as I had only repaired what was necessary over the past 25 years; while I was at it I would install an overdrive-equipped gearbox to give the little beast longer legs on the freeway. For background, I had purchased the car at the old Tanglewood, NC show back in 1992 for the princely sum (to me) of 350 bucks. The guy even brought it to my house for me. After a new head gasket and brake overhaul I used the Spit in its dilapidated state as a work hack for several years before repainting it in 1996. In 2001 I overhauled the engine after it tried to eat a piston ring; rebuilding the gearbox with new synchros while I was at it. I learned something from this: the new, aftermarket synchro rings are junk compared to OEM. They might be fine for an occasional sunny day driver but they will not hold up to everyday use, especially for a decade or more.

  My indefatigable Brother-in-law and I tore into the car, stripping it to the bare chassis and body tub. I went through the chassis first: some surface rust, worn bushings, a couple of rusted brake lines, but overall not bad for the car’s age. Even the rear transverse road spring was back to its old self with new thrust buttons between the spring leaves. The body, on the other hand – let’s be honest; I felt like I needed a tetanus shot after examining the underside of it. The floors had been repaired by a previous owner using generous lashings of fiberglass-reinforced plastic filler with chicken wire as a matrix. The bottom of the battery box was given the same treatment. In the seller’s defense I was told about this before I bought the car but I did not care at the time. The repair was, in all honesty, probably stronger than the original floor pan. Once the layers of paint and plastic filler repairs had been sanded away the rocker panels revealed the tin worm had been very active over the years and several old repairs surfaced. Pieces of metal, obviously salvaged and consisting of various different alloys, had been attached by various creative methods to patch up areas of rust. I started on about DPOs (dumb previous owners) and then remembered I had performed some of these repairs. A brazed repair on the driver’s side reminded me of the time I caught the interior carpet on fire performing said brazing – I know I’m not the only one who has made this mistake; you all know who you are.

   Hence this writing being somewhat of a confession. Sometimes we find ourselves being the dumb present owners. Repairs are made in various ways for various reasons; in my case it was simple economics. When I bought this Spit I was a financially-challenged college student with decent mechanical aptitude but little bodywork experience. The body repairs were as needed and performed with what I had on hand. In the process I learned how to properly do body repairs through trial and error. My most recent repairs, made about ten years ago, are okay to paint over. My early ones – the only option is to grab the cut-off wheel and excise the abomination. Economics is still a consideration even now – with Heritage floor pans going for around 300 bucks a side I was induced to graft in tatty but still usable floors from a ’79 Spit that I’d previously parted out and hand make new rocker panels for the same reason. Such decisions are not concours kosher but I never cared about trophy hunting anyway.

   This odyssey has prompted me to think that sometimes I shouldn’t be so quick to judge the previous owners of our cars, other than the occasional deliberate attempt to misrepresent the vehicle or gleefully going after a fault in the wiring with a pair of wire cutters, wire nuts, home electrical cord, and not a wiring diagram in sight. What some of us think of as a bodge may have made perfect sense to the previous owner at that time. After some thought I can remember the reasons for making repairs the way I did – usually a lack of time or money was the ruling factor. I can say the quality of my repairs has improved over time but I’m still learning and still improving. That will hold true until I can’t do it anymore. As of this writing the replacement pans are in and it’s on to paint the tub. Yeah, I’ll be doing that myself as well – it builds character.

  Here’s to another quarter century.