Hi Bryan,
Congrats on the first fire as we say in the turbine business. Hope your trip
was
fun and exciting. We did have a real good time this week end. Great roads for
a
Bug-I nice and curvy. Even saw a old Midget rusting away. Too far gone in my
book
to restore, I hear you folks back East restore them in this condition. Wow,
that is
a pile of work literally.
See you next time.
Rick
Bryan Vandiver wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Well I finally took my bugeye project out for it's first test drive this
> weekend. I've owned this car for seven years, but only started actually
>working
> on it about 3.5 years ago. This has been a total ground up restoration which
> included having the entire body stripped and dipped. I started out with only a
> rolling tub that someone stuck a 1971 1275 and ribcase in. I had to acquire
>all
> other parts (seats, dash gauges ancillaries etc.) over the years, so I almost
> view this as a 'kit' car. The only work I didn't perform on this
>'restoration'
> was the body/paint, and dynamic balancing of the engine. Please bear in mind
> that I have NEVER driven a spridget before so I was basically a LBC 'virgin'.
> Here are my car's specs:
>
> ** '59 bugeye - Green (not leaf, not dark, just 'green')**
> 1275 with ribcase
> 3.9 pumpkin
> Front disk brakes (cross drilled rotors)
> Rear 3/4 dual acting piston rear brakes
> Original 7/8" brake/clutch master
> All 'new' springs (front/rear)
> Poly bushings everywhere (except rear 1/4 spring eyelet)
> tires - bridgestone re92's (165/65-13) on stock steel wheels.
> dellorto 40 side-draft (36mm venturi's)
> Maniflow LCB
> RC 40 exhaust system (modified to fit sprite)
> mildly ported 12g940 casting head
> Kent md266 (fast road) cam
> Ignitor ignition in stock distributor
> Stock style interior(except for color) tan with leather seats with green
>piping
> Stock gauges including tach drive
> Moto-lita steering wheel
> Polished aluminum trim
>
> The car starts and runs pretty well, but does seem to hesitate slightly when
>you
> first hit the throttle. I still need to figure out how to set the idle and
> timing properly.
>
> Steering is 'very' responsive although I still haven't set the 'toe-in'
> properly.
>
> Clutch requires some muscle but I'll get used to it, and the brakes also
>require
> more effort than I'm used to, but seem to work fine.
>
> There seemed to be plenty of power, and the engine wanted to rev. freely. I
>had
> a hard time trying to keep myself from over revving, since the engine isn't
> broken in yet.
>
> I couldn't get my signal flasher to work when I tested it in the garage, but
>it
> started working fine on the road (probably the vibration), which was cool. The
> tach and speedo seemed to be working fine (no bounce), but my fuel gauge is
> definitely dead (will post another email related to this).
>
> Took the car for three more drives for a total of 30 miles.
>
> On Sunday, drove it over to a friends' house (another Brian with a '59 green
> bugeye project - no kidding) who helped me drill and mount the shoulder points
> for my seat belts. Took him out for a drive back to my place, and let him
>drive
> it back to his house (sprite virgin also). On the way back to his house, the
> speedometer started howling, quickly pulled over, and unscrewed the cable off
> the back and the noise went away (oh-well).
> BTW - I weigh ~175, and the friend weighs ~200+ with both of us in the car I
> didn't notice and significant reduction in performance, but the car did ride a
> lot smoother;-)
>
> Washed the car for the first time last night, and adjusted the headlights. The
> only thing left to do is to recover the door pocket assemblies, and install
>the
> door liners. I also plan to take it back into the shop that did the paint, to
> 'fix' all the chips and scratches I put in it during the assembly process :-(
>
> I want to show it at the Palo-Alto car meet in Sept., hope to see some of
>you
> there....
>
>
> Oh yeah, the actual driving was... YAHOO!!!
> Feels like a go-cart only looks a lot better. I don't know who had the bigger
> smile, me or the car ;-)
>
> Thanks everyone for all your advise.
>
> Bryan Vandiver - 59 bugeye ( on the road finally!)
> San Jose, CA
--
52 MGTD,Sparky 74 MGB, B-tris 76 XJ12 Coupe, Jacque
60 Bugeye, Puddles 58 MGA Coupe, Ruby
http://www.softcom.net/users/walters
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/4644
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