Monthly Archives: July 2025

Interior Cross-member Cover

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The frame cross-members that are located in front of each of the interior seats are covered with carpet. Getting in and out of the car would create significant wear and tear on that carpet. Someone on the Austin Healey Experience Forum made plastic covers for the crossmembers using plastic that was originally intended as a receptacle for yard waste. We thought we would give the idea a try and ordered one from Home Depot through Amazon.

Lawson Easy Bagger

It turned out that the plastic material was easy to cut and bend into shape. We made a couple of variations and installed a pair in the car. Bugeye Restoration Video Episode One Hundred-Thirteen shows the creation and installation of the carpet covers.

https://vimeo.com/1105240596/3778f4f161?share=copy

Early indications are that the cover is going to work quite nicely!

 

Bleeding the Brakes & Bedding-in the Pads and Rotors

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We used a combination of the traditional pumping the brakes while also opening and closing the caliper bleeder valves with the Gunson’s EEZIBLEED system.

Gunson’s EEZIBLEED

Combining the two methods did result in some braking action, but it was not the firm pedal that we were looking for. We let some time pass and then came back to this project.

Since the brake lines were essentially full of fluid and we had removed much of the air in the lines, we tried a slightly different approach with the EEZIBLEED system. Rather than putting fluid in the pressurized container, we simply pressurized the system to 15 pounds and used the compressed air to push the silicone brake fluid throughout the system. This process worked pretty well and we ended up with decent pedal feel. While the brakes are good enough for travel on the road and initial testing, we will undertake the bleeding process once again after we get a few miles on the car. It is just a usual iterative process with these little British cars.

On July 14, 2025, we took the restored bugeye on the road for the first time. It was a short ride at slow speed intended only to break in the new disc brake pads and rotors. We followed the recommendation of Steve Christiansen of Ol Phartz Partz from whom we purchased the rear disc brake kit. However, his instructions are very similar to that provided by both Moss Motors and by Green Stuff, maker of the brake pads we used on the front wheels.

As Steve says, “the rotors and pads require a thermal cycling process for maximum performance and longer wear. This will also lessen the likelihood of the rotors, cracking due to thermal shock. To bed in the brakes; accelerate moderately to approximately 25 mph and apply the brakes down to about 5 mph using normal to light pedal effort. Do this 8 to 10 times, slow slowly building up heat in the pads and rotors. Do not make severe stops or apply brakes during acceleration. After temperature has been built in the pads and rotors, use the brakes extremely hard several times. Park the vehicle and let the brake cool for about 1 to 2 hours until the rotors have cooled to ambient temperature.”

We completed the bedding-in ride and will test drive the car for a longer distance the next time out. The short Bugeye Restoration Video Episode One Hundred-Twelve shows a little about the final brake bleeding process and the brief test drive.

https://vimeo.com/1101278228/9cef5f77df?share=copy

 

 

 

Original Jack Restoration & Jacking Up the Car

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Jack Restoration

The car we purchased from Michigan had an original jack to be used on the side of the car. While it was pretty rusty, it did appear to function and it even had its original wooden crank handle! The jack doesn’t lift the car very high but it does get both tires off of the ground, one side at a time.

Original Rusty Jack

To restore the jack we first had to cut four welds as shown in the accompanying video to disassemble it.

Cap Welds to Cut

More Welds to Cut

More Welds to Cut

Gear Exposed

Once disassembled we took the components to friend, Randy Forbes. At Randy’s, we media blasted the components with aluminum oxide. We then returned home, masked the assembly, covered the screw and painted the inside of the jack with black Rustoleum spray paint along with the gears and the inside of the assembly cap.

Masked and Ready to paint the Inside Casing

We put some grease on the gears and returned to Randy’s where he re-welded the four welds we had cut.

We painted the round bar that is inserted into the car with two coats of POR-15 black paint for durabilityand then over-coated it with the Rustoleum spray paint. We then sprayed the entire jack with the Rustoleum. The little wooden handle was still in great shape. We painted it with five coats of clear polyurethane and reattached it to the handle.

The final step in the restoration was to grease the screw and run the rod up and down a few times. The jack was then good (or perhaps better) as new.

Jacking up the car

We had not planned it that way, but we ended up putting the newly restored jack to use right away. We needed to lift the car to bleed the brakes one more time. Previously, we had used the floor jack to lift the rear of the car at the differential, but we discovered that now that we had approximately 5 gallons of fuel in the tank the additional weight dropped the rear of the car making it impossible to get the floor jack to the differential. So we used our newly restored jack to lift one side of the car, which raised the fuel tank enough that we could then insert the floor jack below the differential and lift the car to put it on the jack stands.

At the front of the car, the tie-down hoops create an obstacle for the use of the floor jack. We screwed together three 2 x 4s to make it possible to lift the car with the floor jack and also install two jack stands. However, even this proved to be problematic. When one tries to tilt the bonnet forward, it contacts the 2 x 4s before it is fully opened. So, when we take the car off the jack stands, we will cut an angle on the face of the 2 x 4s to eliminate the contact. There is always something!

Front Jacking Blocks

Bugeye Restoration Video Episode One Hundred-Ten shows the full restoration of the original jack as well as its use in lifting the car for the brake work:

https://vimeo.com/1099970250/715d09e4e4?ts=0&share=copy

As it turned out the three piece 2 x 4 stack of lumber we used for jacking up the front of the car did not work as well as we would like. When trying to open the bonnet the body came in contact with the wood and would not fully open. Bugeye Restoration Video Episode One Hundred-Eleven shows how we modified our process to get the car up in the air and then back on the ground.

https://vimeo.com/1101255301/f978bae782?share=copy