(The saga of Gift Sprite can be found in the archives. For those who
are "new" here, it was a very generous gift to me supported by list
members, and assembled by Frank Clarici with significant help from Ron Soave)
Four years ago, while attempting to teach my daughter the ins and
outs of driving a stick on the back roads, there was a minor gearbox
explosion, I thought. The chassis was pretty rotten and many friends
suggested that I shouldn't be driving it at all. (It was resurrected
from a rat infested warehouse in NY and, suffered for it.) Thinking
that the transmission was toast, and having a "new" fun car (64
Mini), it got pushed to the back of the list of things-to-do.
(including building a proper shed garage which doubled as a
graduation party site for my daughter's graduation).
With Frank's passing I thought it important to re-visit Gift Sprite,
and evaluate better the state of things. I pulled the axles, hoping
that was the problem, it wasn't, they were fine. So Saturday, I
pulled the engine and transmission. The clutch had exploded. Nothing
but a hub, which explains why I could shift gears without needing to
depress the pedal, not that the car moved.
Thinking of what Frank had said, that the car wont last very long,
knowing that the chassis was rotten, I rolled around under it for a
while. It IS rotten. The 2 front triangular gussets are unattached.
The reason the bumper would wiggle was that the frame horns are
rusted through. The RH aframe attachment rail is, ahh, flexible.
Frank's patchwork floor boards were intact, but not supported by any
pre-existing steel. The glued-on carpet was doing a lot of the work.
The paint looks great, though!
Just thought I'd share.
Peter C.
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