New ‘97 Spider TS owner, Surrey

[Lee 0]

Hi guys. Been lurking a bit and learning stuff! I was recently gifted a red ‘97 TS Spider from my elderly landlords, who realised their car was needing some tlc and they could not do it. The proviso was that I could have it for free if they could occasionally take it for a spin. Not a problem for me! 
 

The car itself had been MOT’d 11 months previous and sat largely unused since, as the car was suffering massive laquer peel and was just generally looking sorry for itself. After a few quotes for a respray of more than the car is likely worth, they just let it sit before offering it to me. 
 

it had had a fair bit of work a couple of years back from a specialist in Sussex, who replaced the head and head gasket, water pump, cam belt and serviced. It has around 125,000 miles . 
 

So I gave it a damn good clean, but the laquer peel was too awful, along with a few resprayed panels, and I could not drive it like that. But throwing a bucket of water over it showed me it’s potential and I decided to bite the billet and get a pal who resprays our competition cars to give it a decent budget blow-over in his oven. Also I sourced a set of 18” Blackline alloys for a very good price and tomorrow the car is off the the spray shop! 
 

I absolutely adore how these cars look, always have, and to be gifted one was a few fortunate twist of fate. 
 

there are a couple of mechanical niggles, the main one being the roof rear window is cracked, and  the radiator fan appears stuck on and you can hear it 50m away over the tickover! But hopefully something simple. I will post some more pics up when it appears out of the spray booth hopefully next weekend. 

[Luigired 0]

Ciao Lee,

I'm curious to see how you have improved the car. some news?

[Paso 239]

Welcome Lee!   Good luck with your project!