Tag Archives: tow hooks

Loose Ends

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This post covers several items added to the car as we begin to near the completion of this restoration.

Rear Tie down brackets (tow hooks)

In an earlier post the front tie down brackets, or tow hooks, were mounted to the car. We also purchased rear tie down brackets or tow hooks from Q1 Classic Engineering. These are heavy duty and very nicely made. We painted them black with POR 15 and easily installed them.

Rear Tie Down Brackets

Battery management quick connect cables

We then added some wiring to the battery so that we would have a quick connect system for the battery management charger. This is particularly useful given that we have a cover on the battery.

Battery Management Quick Connect Wiring

Horns revisited

We discovered, with the installation of the bonnet gas struts, that the operation of the RH strut hit the interior horn. So, we decided to forgo the second horn and just use one. The single horn,  by the way, seemed plenty loud.

Dropping the Interior Horn

Painting the exhaust

We are not ready to install the exhaust but this was a good time to go ahead and paint it. It came from Maniflow with their familiar metallic green paint. We simply roughed it up with a little sand paper and sprayed it with Rustoleum black BBQ high temperature paint.

Maniflow Metallic Green

Exhaust painted high temperature semi-gloss black

Installing the anti-sway bar

We then installed the anti-sway bar that we purchased from BugeyeGuys.com. We had previously painted the components so this turned out to be a quick job.

Anti-sway bar bits

Installing the motor mounts

The motor mounts were then installed. However, when we are ready to install the motor we will remove the RH motor mount and fix it to the motor. The LH mount will remain in the car because it is easier to leave it due to the steering column.

Heater control cable

We then connected the heater flap control cable that comes through the firewall from the heater switch to the bracket on the heater blower. 

Machining a starter cable connector

For some reason the standard connector that joins the starter cable and the starter switch is too short to do the job on the car. We know that the battery tray was replaced and perhaps the starter switch mounting bracket that is attached to the tray was slightly off? At any rate we solved this problem by machining a new connector made from a 3/8″ stainless steel bolt. Our friend Randy Forbes did the mill work for us. Thank you Randy! The new piece – almost identical but about a 1/4″ longer worked beautifully.

A new stainless starter cable connector

The new and the old

Repainting the Sprite Flash

The flash emblem or badge as mounted on the rear deck of the car was gold with red lettering. Unfortunately, the replicas of the badge available from the usual suppliers is copper in color with the red lettering. So, we stripped the paint from the badge and then repainted the badge with Rustoleum metallic gold spray paint, followed by painting the red letters and finally coating the badge with Rustoleum Krystal Clear. We were pleased with the results. We are going to mount the badge later and will be using a 3M adhesive rather than mounting it through holes in the car.

The gold paint first

Followed by Red in the letters and Clear

Re-chroming the grille

The grille is an important feature of the design of the Bugeye as it is what defines the ever-popular “smile” of the car. Modern replicas apparently do not fit very well so we decided to re-chrome the original because we knew it fit. We sent it to Dallas Plating https://dallasplatingga.com  in Dallas, Georgia and we were very pleased with the quality of the work and the delivery time.  It took only 3 weeks from the time we put the grille in the mail until we unpacked it. The charge for the plating was $440 and that seemed very reasonable compared to other businesses we checked.

Re-chromed Grille

Re-chromed grille sitting in place

 

 

Bugeye Restoration Video Episode Ninety-five covers the installation of the items mentioned in this post:

https://vimeo.com/1046168116/36c5ceb74e?share=copy

0:00 – Rear tie down brackets – tow hooks

0:39 – Quick connect battery management cables

1:28 – Revisiting the horns

2:33 – Painting the exhaust

3:18 – Anti-sway bar installation

4:46 – Motor mounts installation

5:11 – Heater control cable attached

5:24 – Machining a new starter cable connector

6:40 – Heater and starter cable covers

6:54 – Repainting the rear deck “Flash” badge

7:30 – Re-chroming the grille

 

 

 

Bonnet Fixings – Hinges, Gas Struts and Tie-down Brackets

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The Front-tilt Bonnet Hinges

The Bugyeye has had a front tilt hinge mechanism installed for some time. We originally used the kit sold by Mini-Mania.

Mini-Mania Hinge Kit

The front hinge concept has become very popular because it provides much better access to the engine bay than the original rear hinge set-up. Today, front hinge kits are sold by many of the usual vendors such as BugeyeGuys, and Speedwell Engineering. Most are based on the innovation and work done by Gerard Chateauvieux who sold his kit through Gerard’s Garage. There have also been many approaches to latching or anchoring the bonnet to the chassis. Some have also installed gas struts to assist and control the process of opening and closing the bonnet. 

In anticipation of using both a front hinge kit and gas struts, we made a few modifications to the Bugeye front bonnet to strengthen the stress points, particularly around the radiator air box. We wanted to accomplish these changes prior to paint and we were successful. We first fashioned a couple of gussets, drilled them for plug welds, primed them with weld-through primer and welded them in place on both sides of the bonnet. 

Gas Strut Gusset

Primered Gusset

Gusset welded in place on bonnet

We also used the little brackets that came with the Mini-Mania hinge kit to strengthen the air box by riveting the bracket to the side of the headlight bucket rim. Four rivets were used with each bracket. As an added bonus, these brackets have holes that can be used to attach a range-of-motion limiter cable.

Mini-Mania bracket

After considering various front hinge kits for the Bugeye bonnet we decided to go with the hinges made by Erick Moser of Q1 Classic Engineering. Erick makes his hinges from high grade aluminum and supplies delrin washers/fittings and fasteners with his kit. What really appealed about Erick’s kit is that the hinges mount without having to drill additional mounting holes in the body or cutting the threaded bushings on the frame rails. We powder coated the components in satin black and substituted stainless hardware.

Q1 Classic Engineering Bonnet Hinge Kit

We decided to make some small reinforcing plates of 1/8″ steel to add support at the upper mounting point of the hinge. At that point the securing bolt only goes through the radiator shroud sheet metal so the extra “beef” should be helpful. We painted these black and installed them with the kit.

Getting the bonnet hinges to work effectively involved some trial and error. We ended up having to modify the hinge plates and the sliders, but Erick was great and assisted in making the necessary modifications.

Template for Modified Hinge Plate

We ended up with a very functional and good looking bit of kit. We will paint or powder coat the modified hinges when we remove the bonnet to install the motor.

Q1 Classic Engineering Bonnet Hinges

Hinge Spacer Block 1″ Wide

We also added gas struts purchased from Amazon. The struts we installed are 16″ long. We tried both 28 lb. and 35 lb. struts and found the 28 lb. units to work the best. The heavier struts tended to pull the rear edge of the bonnet way from the cowl.

Gas Struts 16″ 28 Lbs

The front tie-down brackets/tow hooks were also purchased from Q1 Classic Engineering. Nicely made and heavy duty. We painted them and installed between the hinge plates and the chassis rails.

Q1 Classic Engineering Tie Down Brackets

Q1 Classic Engineering Tie Down Brackets Installed

Mounting of the bonnet hinges, gas struts and the toe down brackets is shown in Bugeye Restoration Video Episode Ninety-four:

https://vimeo.com/1043279717/37ec3901e6?share=copy