re: recurrent hood dent

[Taylor Clark <taylor@domain.elided>]

Timothy Leigh Rodgers wrote:

> My 1992 Spider is quite low (stock car) and I have to
> go at a creep over any bump, dip, or driveway. 

Are you sure that your car has not been lowered?  I'm not sure what the 
differences are between 1974 stock height and 1992 stock height.  

My 1974 spider had been lowered an inch by some previous owner and it hit 
the ground a lot.   Dips are worse than bumps since the lowest part is in 
front of the axle.  I hit everything, often with a crash, and even once 
while driving at speed down a twisty road.   Drove me nuts.  The sump guard 
was pushed up so it actually was hitting the pan.  Wes Ingram (the SPICA 
wizard) used some spring spacers to raise back to stock height and removed 
the sump guard.  Net gain was maybe 1 3/4" or a little more.  This was 
scary, since now if I did hit something, nothing was protecting the sump.  
But its been several months, and I don't hit anything any more.  I still 
have to pay attention and try to avoid going too fast over obvious aprons 
and dips.  It is *really* much more pleasant to drive the car this way 
compared to whatever handling gain I might have gotten out of being 
lowered.  

Caveat - this was an alteration made by an expert and in my case he made 
the right call.  You certainly don't want to run your unguarded sump into 
anything.  

-Taylor Clark
 1974 Spider in Seattle and lucky to have a fine mechanic.
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