‘Bout a month back the stub axle of my rust belt year round ride sidecar broke, given the sidecar’s age I felt a full post mortem examination was in order. The Spyder is unique in having no external frame resulting in a lower center of gravity, better aerodynamics, and a cleaner look. To pull that trick off the Spyder has a sheet steel subframe laminated between the layers of it’s fiberglass body in high stress areas. The photo above shows “rust jacking”- Rust expands the metal, you can sometimes see this happening between the outer and inner frame rails of old rusty trucks as the normally tight fitting rails are pushed apart.
So I took off a few parts that pierce the body of the sidecar where those steel plates lie, as you can see above rust is all too plainly visible and yields easily to casual probing= not good!
So we have a rusted out “frame”, busted axle, and while were at it should replace the wheel that’s so old it don’t even have a DOT marking. Given that this hack has given 27 years and over 100,000 miles service and a new one is $5k, normally it’d take on a one way trip to the “grove” and I’d order up a new one. But sidecars and especially the Spyder are on the gearhead’s endangered species list, so I’m gonna try to rebuild it. Given that the remains of bankrupt Motorvation are still being fought over. parts may not be available for a while, if ever. So I may have to make my own… But a metricized Spyder sidecar reborn via CAD would be worth it!
GearheadGrrrl 