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Grandpa's Bugeye

  • Thread starter Deleted member 9684
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Do you guys remember seeing photos of a barn find bugeye painted in the gulf racing team colors recently? As I recall, that car got a nice refurb as opposed to a full restoration. Its patina was preserved in a nice way. If anybody can provide a link to that sprite I think seano might benefit from seeing it. I vote for a nice refurb rather than a full restoration for grandpa's car. Get the car on the road and have fun and then decide if you want to dump the money into it for a full restoration.
 
I would agree if it was well preserved, but I suspect this car has some significant rust that could cause further damage if not properly repaired.
 
Hoping for an update...... :smile:
 
sorry there has been no update on this...my wife and i had our first child this year, so the car really took a back seat... I intend to start the restoration this year...I've got some VERY old black and white pics of grandpa with the car...will need to get them scanned when i get them from my mother...
 
Well, in case I haven't said it in another thread.....congrats on the kiddo....boy or girl? Photos of kids are okay also!
 
:iagree: Not only "OK", but required!! Get one something like this...you won't regret it in years to come!! :thumbsup:

PS: I still have that bugeye and the kid is now 24!
 

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That's a great shot Mike.
Something I need to remember to do more often.
Maybe my girls will start getting married and dropping off grandkids to play in grandpa's cars... This year my oldest daughters will turn 20 and 22.

(did I just think that out loud??) :shocked: :wall: :crazyeyes:
 
In late 1962, my wife decided to have twins, so my original Bugeye went away. I now have 2 Bugeyes and 12 grandchildren, each wanting 1. First one for myself.
 
my how time flies. its been 2 years since my first post, and unfortunately not much has progressed with the little healey.

i'd like to hear from anyone who's had experience with any restorers in the NY, CT, NJ area as I think it best to have someone with the right skills do a proper restoration on the car.

if anyone has any leads, i'd love to hear from you. if you prefer not to post, my email is sean(dot)olsen(at)gmail(dot)com

thanks!
 
So we had a look at the healey today....

Pulled the plugs and put a little marvel mystery oil in each cylinder and turned it over by hand...all good there....

Put a fresh battery in it and pulled the startter cable(that is certainly an interesting solenoid)...and got nothing, so it needs to be taken apart and cleaned or replaced.

So we jumped the solenoid and the starter roared to life but wouldn't engage....something wrong with the bendix...

Pulled the starter(that was fun...having never done it before, I figured out that I'd need to remove the heater hose and the oil filter to get it out)

So after we got the starter out, we noticed the bendix was just full of gunk and not rusty, so I cleaned it up with some wd40 and and bench tested with another hot battery and t seems to work just fine. I now need to reinstall and see if it works.
 
Should be able to remove starter without removeing anything else.
 
Also do not lubricate the bendix with oil or grease, it attracts and holds gunge. You can however use dry graphite powder.
Graham.
 
resintalled the starter today and it turned over nicely. need to put some new NGK BP6ES plugs in it, connect my temporary fuel tank and see if it will fire... if that goes well, next step is to clean out the tank and fuel lines.
 
Before firing it up be sure you have oil pressure. Common for these engines to lose prime on the oil pump if they sit for too long. Spin it with the plugs out till oil pressure comes up. If it does'nt want to, remove the banjo bolt at the block in the line going to the filter and pour some oil in, refit bolt and try to get oil pressure up again. Repeat if necessary.

Kurt.
 
Might be a good idea to prime it first!!![Just in case]

Kurt.
 
thanks for the advice kurt...was thinking about that too!
 
today was a very good day. My dad and I finally got the healey to come to life... It wasnt a big job, nor did it require a ton of work or money... we connected the test tank directly to the carb and gravity fed it. put in some new plugs, checked the oil, turned it over to make sure we had oil pressure and then proceeded to try an fire it up.

it didnt fire up at first, so we cleaned the points gently with a file and some paper. used a bit of starting fluid after many attempts without it and it fired up! 40lbs of oil pressure and 160 degress of water temp.

rear brakes are hung up, but after some coaxing with the clutch and some RPMS, she's now moving! I think we need to pull the wheels off next weekend and have a closer look.

next steps are to do an oil change next weekend and replace the fuel tank. i drained it, but it's pretty nasty and i just don't want to fight it.
 
Sounds promising!
 
Congratulations! :cheers: You've got a real gem there. And you are right to inspect the brake system, the whole system. :yesnod: Brakes mean a lot.
 
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