Finally a Bugeye of my very own

[JPSmit]

Looks great!

Looking up the stairs - does your garage open into the kitchen without a door? Or is that another 'outside' space.

Slightly nerdy comment but, the screws aren't phillips they are pozi drive - almost the same but the pozi isn't tapered. The screwdrivers are almost interchageable but it you are going to be taking out frustrating screws you might want to get the right screwdrivers

Phillips and Pozidriv cross-head screws – explained in simple terms – PB Swiss Tools

In the first half of the twentieth century, the slotted screws proved to be increasingly problematic. The industrialization brought about more and more power-operated screwdrivers. Aligning the screwdriver to the slot in the screw took up too much time and laterally slipping off of the screw...

www.pbswisstools.com

 

[Lou E]

Looks great!

Looking up the stairs - does your garage open into the kitchen without a door? Or is that another 'outside' space.

Slightly nerdy comment but, the screws aren't phillips they are pozi drive - almost the same but the pozi isn't tapered. The screwdrivers are almost interchageable but it you are going to be taking out frustrating screws you might want to get the right screwdrivers

Phillips and Pozidriv cross-head screws – explained in simple terms – PB Swiss Tools

In the first half of the twentieth century, the slotted screws proved to be increasingly problematic. The industrialization brought about more and more power-operated screwdrivers. Aligning the screwdriver to the slot in the screw took up too much time and laterally slipping off of the screw...

www.pbswisstools.com

There’s a door at the top of the stairs, I wanted to replace it with a glass door but code requires it to be steel.

I didn’t know that’s what they were called and definitely appreciate you letting me know but I did try one of those also, it is part of an electrician set I was given at my previous job. Unfortunately it didn’t work either, the last bolt is always the hardest to get out and this time was no exception, driver’s side closest to firewall.

Thinking of taking the hood off to make working on it easier. Haven’t done it yet because I like closing the hood and staring at the car for a while before heading in for the night and I won’t be able to put it back on by myself, but my back is starting to let me know I need a better plan than hunching over the engine.

 

[DrEntropy]

Lou, a really superior "loose juice" for a penetrant is a 50/50 mix of ATF and acetone. We call it "Weasel Pi$$". Better than ANY commercial penetrant on the market. Repeated application and a day or two and you'll wish you'd known of it long ago.

 

[Lou E]

Lou, a really superior "loose juice" for a penetrant is a 50/50 mix of ATF and acetone. We call it "Weasel Pi$$". Better than ANY commercial penetrant on the market. Repeated application and a day or two and you'll wish you'd known of it long ago.

Thank you for the tip, I’m sure it will come in handy as I go through the car.

 

[Lou E]

Well, I didn’t get it running this weekend as I had hoped but progress was made. Ordered a coil, points, etc. so hopefully when those things show up I’ll get it fired up.

Bonnet came off, my back couldn’t take it anymore and it didn’t make sense to keep it on there just because it looked cool. There’s a lot of work to do and it just makes things much easier, the time will come to put it back on!

 

[Jim_Gruber]

Re. Posidrive Screwdrivers - The old Multiple Screwdriver Sets from Craftsman contained Posidrive Screwdrivers - They are marked # 1, #2, or #3
( the big one needed for door hinges). Congrats on the new BE. Add your Car Type - '59 Bugeye and City, State to your profile, so we know where you are located.

Jealous of this much garage space. Mine could look like this without having a daily driver to go with Bugsy IV, Mr. MAX '04 Miata MAZDASPEED. Too many tools, too many toys. Need more time to play with the toys.

 

[SaxMan]

Way too neat of a setup. You need more tools and miscellaneous parts strewn about for it to be a proper LBC garage!

 

[Lou E]

Re. Posidrive Screwdrivers - The old Multiple Screwdriver Sets from Craftsman contained Posidrive Screwdrivers - They are marked # 1, #2, or #3
( the big one needed for door hinges). Congrats on the new BE. Add your Car Type - '59 Bugeye and City, State to your profile, so we know where you are located.

Jealous of this much garage space. Mine could look like this without having a daily driver to go with Bugsy IV, Mr. MAX '04 Miata MAZDASPEED. Too many tools, too many toys. Need more time to play with the toys.

This is the first time in 10 years the garage has been this spacious, had to clear every out to paint the floor and taking my time with moving things back. Enjoying it while it lasts!

I added personal info, not sure why it’s not showing up.

 

[Lou E]

Way too neat of a setup. You need more tools and miscellaneous parts strewn about for it to be a proper LBC garage!

Hahaha don’t worry, won’t take long before the newly pain floor won’t be visible because I’ll have crap everywhere. I’m not as neat as the pictures would have you believe, may have to share some pictures of my slot car space to give you guys an idea of what the garage will soon look like again.

 

[Pat MM]

Your garage is still awesome!
We have a 1950 house with a short 20’x20’ garage tacked on the side. There is no entrance to the house from the garage, oddly.
I‘ve got 3 cars in there and about 10 bicycles hanging around to boot. The Sprite is sideways in back, behind the Morris Traveller that has the engine out, and my wife’s big car, a VW Karmann Ghia, is next to the Traveller.
I wish I had half the space you’ve got, but I’d probably just fill it with more projects… oh, and there is the lathe with a 5’ bed that I am using as a stable base to mount the old fashioned bench mounted VW engine rotisserie I’m using for the engine. Things are cozy, to say the least, but at least we have a garage now…

 

[Lou E]

After attempting to start the car and having some gas hoses leak before the engine caught, I have begun replacing them all, I’ve started working on my side curtains as I figured it would be something I could “quickly” get the satisfaction of having something on the car actually finished and ready, while still working on literally everything else.

The frames on my side curtains are pretty beat up cosmetically but perfectly straight and all the seams intact so they are definitely worth some elbow grease, do you guys have any recommendations on how to best go about this? I think they are too far gone for a chrome like finish so I think maybe I would like them to have a brushed aluminum look, but don’t want to destroy the frame while experimenting with how to get there. I’ve also thought about painting them a matte finish but not too sure about that one yet.

What have you guys done with your less than perfect frames?

 

[Lou E]

Whatever finish the side curtains end up being, I plan on doing the same thing to the windshield frame.

 

[Trevor Jessie]

There were many aftermarket sidecurtains available. I'm not sure how they were originally finished. Does yours appear to be anodized? or just raw aluminum?

 

[Lou E]

There were many aftermarket sidecurtains available. I'm not sure how they were originally finished. Does yours appear to be anodized? or just raw aluminum?

At work now but I’ll try to get some pictures when I get home. They have an almost chrome like finish which probably looked really nice decades ago but have definitely seen better days.

 

[Lou E]

Hope these pictures give you an idea of what I’m dealing with. I’m not opposed to a non traditional finish, but haven’t been able to find anything online. I like the brushed aluminum look but again, not having seen any examples I don’t know if it would look right on the car.

I don’t mind the elbow grease or tedious work, I’m in no rush to get the car finished a I have no plans to drive it until next spring so just enjoying spending time on it whenever I can find that time…

 

[Trevor Jessie]

Looks like clear anodizing over polished aluminum. The anodizing will need to be stripped before painting, polishing or brushing.
I guess the first step is attacking it with oven cleaner. Then it would be a matter of sanding off the remaining anodizing until you get an even finish.

 

[Lou E]

Thanks for the tip, hopefully I’ll have an update later this evening!!

 

[Lou E]

Worked on the window for a bit this evening and I’m pretty pleased with the progress. It is definitely a lot a elbow grease but I think they will clean up pretty good. Thank you for the tip Trevor.

Started with this:

After washing off the oven cleaner with a green scotch brite pad:

And this is after sanding it with 400 grit sandpape:

Altogether I probably have about an hour and a half into it, I think another couple of evenings and it will be ready for polishing but the important part was I got to just turn off the brain for a bit and focus on the task at hand. Therapy may be cheaper but this is a heck of a lot more fun!

 

[JPSmit]

looks great!

 

[Lou E]

The fun continues!

Ordered some small sanding blocks, which should help with sanding the window frame flatter, so until they arrive I finally finished cleaning up the heater box. The leaking battery corroded everything but thankfully all the metal is still solid so I don’t need to replace the battery tray, just a little pitted in some areas but I’m not too worried about that as some time with high build primer and sandpaper when the time comes will leave things acceptable to my taste.

So back to the heater box, yesterday I had hit it a couple of times with paint stripper which made the work easier. If the weather holds I should be able to get some primer on it this weekend and continue sanding.

I

Much to my wife’s dismay the garage isn’t as neat as it once was…