Spider (Type 939) 2006 - Current

With that clarification out of the way, what we have here is a seriously tatty but rather lovable Spider LE - a rolling project. I love it for the fact that it's been used and enjoyed by the previous owner and not babied for a moment. At 151,000 miles at the time of writing it's also got to be one of the highest mileage 939 Spiders out there. The last owner didn't really do paperwork but tells me that she's never put a clutch in it or had that M32 gearbox tinkered with - so they're at least 100,000, possibly 150,000, miles old...

A summary of the mechanical work that I've done on it:

ABS sensor, front and rear springs, timing chain and top end re-build with new VVT components, auxiliary belts.

Next up: subframe bolts, attend to binding brake, exhaust blows and check out minor oil leak...

On the long list: gearbox bearings, rear arms, heated seats fix.

In my head the values of 939 Spiders were holding firm, so I would continue admiring the best looking of the alarmingly pretty 939 family from afar. 

But in autumn 2024 I spotted on Facebook an honest but rather sorry looking Spider for very little money. Better still, it was an LE so with updated interior and the reasonably rare tan leather, it had a long MOT and the hood worked. Ok, so it was very leggy at 149k miles, warning lights on and paintwork in a sorry state; but I firmly believe that cars like to be used and that mileage is just a number. This had, clearly, been used for all journeys and in all weathers. Oh and it was in Northumberland, a good 150+ miles away.

Nevertheless, I checked that advert repeatedly for 2 weeks - it stayed by far and away the cheapest hood-working MOT'd example on the market. Eventually I folded and messaged the owner - who turned out to be very honest and straight-forward. Yes, the car had been daily driven and enjoyed but now it was a forced sale owing to poor health. I took an executive decision to work from the Newcastle office one Friday and went up to see it that evening...

It was just as described, running - not brilliantly but I was confident it'd get me home; hood working fine; FILTHY inside and out (this photo shows the state of it on collection day). The owner kept horses and had used the Spider to drive up to the stables, with her dogs in the passenger seat, on a near daily basis. The paintwork had literally been shotblasted away at each corner from the stones and mud where the car had gone up and down the lanes and tracks; and worn off the sill by her riding boots. Elsewhere the lacquer was going badly on upper panels. The interior was a symphony of dog hair, dust and mud. She'd had it 7 years and put 100,000 miles on it. Before that it had changed hands lots of times, but that's not too unusual. She drove on the test drive - which was fine as it demonstrated that she drove it well, with plenty of mechanical sympathy. Turned out she was an ex-driving instructor. You buy the vendor as much as the car, right?

And yet, this bargain 'ghetto Spider' charmed me. Most of all I loved the honesty of it and the owner's obvious affection for it but zero ***** given approach to the cosmetic care. Some good friends in East Mids have absolutely mint 939 Spiders on tiny mileages that live in garages and are sorned much of the year. The thought of parking this alongside at our next meet tickled me. Also, I've a history of thinking I've bought bargain cars then getting them home and watching them slowly and expensively unravel. This was eyes wide open - I knew LOTS would need doing, but I could do it on my terms and I wasn't risking too much capital. If I didn't buy it, I'm convinced this would have been a breaker and that would have been sad.

So we agreed a price starting with a one, and the rest is history... and lots and lots of £££ subsequently.

I'm under no illusions here - ultimately what it needs is a full respray and prep by a specialist. But I'm not going to spring for that for a while, so now it's a case of tidying and managing the decline. 

Given how much paint is missing it is a good advert for the galvanised solidity of the 939. I need to get underneath and get each wheel arch liner out and clean and protect it all. The front subframe seems ok - specialist has given it clean bill of health, but it still wants some Dynax treatment.

But my first job was to tidy the worst of the missing paint by rubbing back, painting on some rust killer and then going over it with some white zinc primer. I'm a total idiot with a spray can, but this work has taken the car from total visual basket case to ten footer. So I'll take that.