Hi all,
On Saturday I returned home from the hunt like the cavemen of yore
with my trophy - a chocolate brown '66 sprite. It was orignally
Riviera blue, and will be again someday. Thanks much to lister Gregory
Kirk for letting me know the car was there. The hardest part about the
whole trip was loading it in Riverside in 96 degree heat and unloading
it in Sacramento in 107 degree heat. Now that I've had a chance to size
up the car a little, I have some observations and questions:
1. The list wisdom is correct, a Sprite will just fit on a U-haul
trailer. The trailer is very heavy which is nice - it dosen't bounce
around any when being pulled uphill on the grapevine at 75mph by a dodge
Ram v-10 pickup.
2. There is a roll bar that has been welded just behind the seats. I
am wondering if any factory rollbars were welded in or if this is just a
PO modification. Whoever did it did a good job - they had strengthening
brackets cut to size and welded in too. The bar itself says SCH 40
which I take to mean schedule 40 steel pipe. The top could be closed
with it in place. I guess it doesn't matter because it will be removed
anyway (don't like rollbars) but I was just curious if it was original
or not.
3. Gas cap - were they painted body color on the '66?
4. Engine - The previous engine supposedly broke the crank so there
is another 1098 engine out of another car that came with it. No valve
cover, no sump pan, no generator or water pump. Any points to look for
to see if this thing is worth rebuilding?
5. Trans. - Still in the car. I know the thing has been towed as it
still has a tow bar attached to the front and the rear lights had tow
light wire spliced into them. It does not look like the drive shaft was
disconnected. I do not know how far it was towed in this condition, but
I suspect it was not a short trip! Any tips on how to tell if the trans
is shot without pulling it and dissasembling it? I rebuilt the trans on
the '79 and do not want to go through that again.
Thanks all for the help and I hope to have picture of my new find on a
new and improved home page soon.
Steve
'79 Midget in Garage
'67 Sprite in a field at the raceway
'66 Sprite in the Garage
wife shaking her head in the kitchen.
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