Monthly Archives: June 2025

Wipers, Mirror, Driver’s door and Rear Turn Indicators

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We are getting near the end of the assembly of the Bugeye and we seem to be left with a series of small jobs, usually unrelated to each other. In this post we paint the fasteners under the car, we the install the windscreen wipers including the custom intermittent operation feature, we install the driver’s rear view mirror on the windscreen post, we adjust the driver’s door latch and we install the rear turn indicators “beehive” glass and chrome trim rings.

Where we could, we replaced original fasteners with stainless steel, but in some cases we stuck with the zinc plated fasteners that have some protection against rust but we painted them black to help prevent rust. 

We already had some good windscreen wiper arms and ordered some new blade assemblies from BugeyeGuys.com. The blades are 8″ long. The installation was pretty easy once you figure out how to position the arm on the wheel box spindle. The motor was rebuilt and seems to operate just fine. The standard sweep on the Bugeye is 110 degrees, so the entire screen is not wiped clear when the wipers are operating. The refurbishment of the motor and installation of the intermittent controller was covered in an earlier post: https://valvechatter.com/?p=13890

To test the wipers we first covered the windscreen with a coating of Rain-X water repellent to give it some protection and then we sprayed some water on the surface. Everything worked as it should. The wipers are not fast but they seem to do the job.

We then installed the driver’s side rear view mirror that we sourced from AH Spares. This mirror features a stainless steel arm and a chrome mirror. The mirror was screwed into the front-most mounting point of the windscreen to the body.

We had fitted the driver’s door some time ago but we had not been successful in having it latch tightly. We added a second shim behind the catch and the door now latches but it takes a very firm close. We will adjust the door a little later and as can be seen in the attached video we will try lowering it slightly and perhaps moving it rearward.

Finally, we installed the “beehive” glass lenses and the chrome trim rings for the rear turn indicators. To protect the paint from any damage we borrowed an idea from a friend, Steve Thomton. We cut a piece from a rubber inner tube and taped it to the car. This worked pretty well.

Rubber protection for Turn Indicator lens and trim ring installation

All of these steps toward completion are covered in Bugeye Restoration Video Episode One Hundred-Nine.

https://vimeo.com/1095407258/8d2e485f0b?share=copy

0:00 – Painting fasteners under the car

1:45 – Wiper installation

2:32 – Wiper intermittent speed control

3:17 – Driver’s rear view mirror

4:22 –  Driver’s door adjustment

5:03 – Rear turn indicators “beehive” lens and chrome trim ring install

Tight is right

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Although the subject is not very interesting or exciting, going through the car to make sure all of the fasteners are tight and/or properly torqued where appropriate is critically important for the safe operation of a newly restored vehicle. In the short video below, we move from fastener to fastener under the car and also report on the size of the wrench required to do the job.

Bugeye Restoration Video Episode One Hundred-Eight:

https://vimeo.com/1092524345/9c58773a53?ts=0&share=copy

Starting the engine in the car and a few issues

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With June 2025 upon us, it was time to wrap up a few final items and get the engine started. This step is always exciting but also riddled with anxiety!

Good friend Randy Forbes helped us improve the looks of the engine bay by carefully bending a 1/2″ stainless steel pipe to replace the original copper heater pipe.

Original copper and new stainless steel heater pipe

The stainless pipe clearly looks better in the engine bay!

New stainless heater pipe mounted in place

Then it was time to get our electric fan’s thermostatic controller working. The water temperature fitting in the engine cylinder head is used for the water temperature gauge in the dash. Fortunately, there is also a bung for a temperature sensor or thermostatic switch in the top of the aluminum radiator. We modified an original temperature sender fitting by tapping it with 1/8″ NPT threads to receive a new switch that we picked up from Amazon. It turns on the electric fan at 190 degrees and cuts off at 175 degrees. We also have an override switch built in behind the dashboard. The wiring for the switch was previously anticipated and incorporated in our wiring loom.

Modified sender fitting and new thermostatic switch

Electric Fan Thermostatic Switch Install

With that job completed we then put about four gallons of fuel in the fuel tank and checked to see if we had any leaks. Experiencing none, we then turned on the ignition and ran the SU fuel pump to pump fuel to the HIF44 carb in the engine bay. Again, no leaks!!

No fuel leaks below the fuel fittings

With that behind us we then turned off the ignition and cranked the starter to generate fuel pressure as observed at the water temperature/oil pressure gauge.

The engine started right away as anticipated, since we had previously run it on a stand in the garage. However, we also encountered a very bad vibration and knocking sound. The noise seemed to emanate from the driveshaft tunnel. While we initially thought the noise might be coming from the driveshaft striking the body, after thinking about it for a while, we determined that they carburetor was running too rich, and the idle was set too low. once adjusted the engine smoothed out and the vibration disappeared. Hooray! The problem and solution can be seen and heard in Bugeye Restoration Video Episode One Hundred-Seven.

We also discovered that we had a problem with the gear shifter hitting the driveshaft tunnel thereby restricting its full range of motion.

Gear Shifter Hitting the Gearbox Tunnel

That was nothing that the careful application of the Dremel tool couldn’t solve. After a little paint was applied we reassembled everything and it was another problem solved.

The next problem we encountered was that the alternator was not charging the battery. We are using a Speed Hut, electronic tachometer supplied by Bugeyeguys.com. The electronic tachometerr does have provision for a charging light, but it is an LED. Unfortunately, an LED bulb does not generate sufficient load to signal the alternator to start charging the battery. We found out that you must have an incandescent bulb in the circuit to get the alternator to do its job. So, we modified our wiring and added an incandescent warning bulb in the charging circuit. The wiring modification is routed through Deutcsh connector D1. This process is also shown in the Bugeye Restoration Video Episode One Hundred-Seven. We just tucked the new light under the dash out of sight.

Finally, we made a slight modification in the carburetor float bowl overflow pipe by cutting off the curve at the end of the cunifer pipe and fitting a piece of quarter-inch rubber fuel hose at the end. We also replaced two 3 1/2″ bolts that go through the chassis floor into the gearbox mount with two 3 1/4″ bolts to avoid the possibility that the longer bolts might contact the upper part of the mount and cause vibration.

Bugeye Restoration Video Episode One Hundred-Seven:

https://vimeo.com/1092260334/7e6d3cd034?share=copy

Content summary:

0:00 – Heater pipe stainless steel replacement

0:25 – Radiator fan thermostatic switch 

1:33 – Fuel in the tank

2:32 – No fuel leaks!

3:02 – Rotating starter for oil pressure

3:17 – Engine start

4:45 – Knocking and vibration

5:25 – Searching for source of vibration

6:03 – Shifter surround modification

6:35 – Vibration problem solved

7:30 – Shifter problem fixed

8:06 – Alternator not charging

9:07 – Wiring modification in charging system

10:52 – Modifying the carb overflow drain pipe

11:18 – Gearbox mount bolts