Another Shakedown Drive

Gassed up the Bugeye and took her for another 50-mile shakedown drive around the Tucson Mountains. Axles are (knock on wood) still holding up, but to be honest, I've not pushed them super hard yet. That will come. For now, I'm primarily just putting miles on the car and continuing to discover a number of little things that require attention. One of the bigger issues is vibrations and rattles. I *think* the worst offenders are coming from the dash area, but to be honest I need another set of ear-balls in the car with me to track 'em down while underway.

The passenger-side seat belt showed up yesterday, so I will try to find time this week to get it installed. These RaceQuips are so much easier to use than the Crowe units. Definitely a worthwhile upgrade.

In other news, I sold my old Quick Jacks on Craigslist this week and.... drumroll.... ordered a BendPak MD-6XP to replace it. I'm really limited by my dinky little garage space, as well as the incredibly small dimensions of the car, which render a lot of lift choices non-starters. I'm 95% certain the BendPak will work-- but only if I use it oriented sideways under the car. Going to be interesting...

Sunday Morning Drive

 Still nervous about the fix we made to the right-side axle, but the only real way to test it is to start putting miles on the car. So that's exactly what I did yesterday. I've got a favorite drive that encircles the Tucson Mountains. It's about 50 miles in total, traveling through the Saguaro National Park and the Tucson Mountain Park. Beautiful 2-lane rolling/twisty drive. The car behaved well on the drive, though I did jot down a half-dozen tweaks/fixes that occured to me on the drive. Most notable were the 3-4 sheet metal "buzzes" that occur at various speeds. Really hard to localize them with just one person in the car, so will need to bring along a passenger to help me diagnose the locations. You can't fix a problem until you identify it, right? Also need a dead pedal for my left foot, etc... Just various things that will consume my life over the next 6-9 months or so. At least the axles didn't break...

Before the drive, I installed my new driver's side 5-point harness, which is a HUGE improvement over the Crowe units that require everything to slot together. Happy enough that I ordered the passenger side harness, which should show up this week. Sorry for the crappy photo:

Here's the car parked on the side of the road just outside the National Park. Beautiful day for a spirited drive:

Finally, I'm looking hard at buying a shop lift for the car. I have a set of Quick Jacks, but they don't get the car up high enough to be practical. The problem is... well, the choices... and the limited space and height of my tiny garage. Single and dual scissor lifts, short 2-posts, short 4-posts.... argh. Just need to make s decision and get something ordered....

A Few Steps Forward, One Backward

 First the bad news: we broke another axle in the car. Previously we broke the left side axle when, we think, we over-extended it. I.e., the axle was just a little too short and, upon full droop, over-stressed the inner CV joint and blew it apart. We fixed that by installing a slightly different length axle and all seemed fine. It was good enough to put about a hundred miles on the car without issue.... but then yesterday, the right side axle decided to let go. Different type of breakage, but (perhaps) due to the same axle-length type issue. We're building a new axle today and will try it out. Fingers crossed. Argh. Aggravating.... but also not unexpected as this is essentially a brand new car, with a brand new, untested drivetrain. Things are bound to go wrong. But still... arghgh!

In good news, the brake master cylinders have been replaced with slightly smaller diameter units that provide more pedal feel/movement. I think I still need fresher/better brake pads, but for now this is a big help over the previous rock-hard pedal that took Herculean effort to stop the car.

We also built new intercooler ducting to force air through the IC rather than spill out around it. 

And finally, the new plate is on the rear of the car. Love it.

Back to the Shop For Tweaks....

 After a couple of weeks of driving the car around and seeing what works and what doesn't, I drove the car back to Joe's shop to work through a few issues. These range from minor (loose turn signal switch and some wiring) to relatively important (rock-hard brake pedal that requires smaller diameter master cylinder) to annoying (very difficult to open/close bonnet, rock spray front front tires) to performance related (need sway bars, intercooler ducting...). The plan is to work through these over the next couple of weeks and then get the car back on the road for the next round of shakedown. My hope is to take the car to its first autocross in January. Fingers crossed.

My new license plate arrived for the 1959 Austin Healey:

Cleaned up radiator grill painted and installed:

Initial mockup of intercooler duct work:

First Cars & Coffee....

 Took the car to its first C&C meeting. We have a half-dozen different C&C's here in Tucson, but the one I enjoy the most takes place on the first Saturday of the month at the local TopGolf facility. Here are a few observations and lessons learned from the trip, in no particular order:

• Get there early--but not too early. The meet ostensibly takes place between 7am-9am, but everyone said to arrive early. I left the house at 6am and arrived a good 30 minutes early, which was a) good, in that I could park anywhere I wanted; b) bad, in that it took another 30 minutes before most cars showed up. I could have left at 6:30am and been fine.
• Wear gloves. The bugeye doesn't have heat (yet). It was about 40F when I left the house (wearing a warm jacket and ski cap) and the cockpit was surprisingly comfortable. But, I forgot gloves, and my hands quickly turned into frozen hams. 
• Darkness is a challenge. The little penlight I carry in my sling bag died about 30-seconds into use. When it's pitch-black dark outside, it's a challenge to get the 5-point seat belts on and the car ready to go.
• Get the damn keys out first. I carry the car keys in my front pocket. After getting fully strapped into the car is not a good time to remember where the keys are. 
• Need better mirrors. Really not pleased with either of the car mirrors. The peep mirror on the A-pillar needs a lot more adjustment. The dash-mounted rearview is a vibrating mess. I'm going to keep the peep (with alliteration), but find a better rear-view mirror--preferably one with a dimmer built in (see the next bullet point).
• Don't go blind. When you're basically sitting on the ground, tailgaters at night with high-beams produce TERRIBLE glare reflected off the rearview. 
• Bring a chair--and use it. I brought a foldable camp chair with me, but literally forgot to unfold it and use it for the first hour or so I was there. Literally stood the whole time--but that was OK, as I spent A LOT of time standing anyway, talking to people about the car (see next bullet point).
• The car was a hit. Probably spoke to 50 separate people about the car, all of whom said incredibly nice things about it, took tons of pictures of various bits and bobs, and asked tons of questions. People ranged from "This is a '59, right? I had a '58 and the taillights were different..." to "Damn. Damn. Damn!" to "Is this a kit car?" to "Is this a midget" to "An Ecotec? Turbocharged? Are you crazy!?" to "This is the coolest car here...." But it's all also just a vanity exercise. I was standing in line for coffee at one point, and overheard two guys behind me: Guy A: "Did you see that Lamborghini with the roof rack? Insane!" Guy B: "Fuck that. Did you see the wicked turbocharged Bugeye Sprite? You gotta go see that thing!" Very, very cool to hear....
• First time filling the gas tank was interesting. I filled up the tank with premium at a local QT on the way home. Only got 7/8 of the tank full, according to the gauge. Not sure if it's a calibration thing with the gauge or I just can't fully top off the tank. Hmm...
• The car is freaking fast. Got into a little, umm, spirited driving contest on the way home against a new Camaro that had (at least) an exhaust put on it. The guy maneuvered hard to get alongside me at a stoplight just outside of town, gave me a big thumbs up, revved his engine hard, and then took off like a bat out of hell when we got the green. I started relatively slow and relaxed, but a micro-second later, my inner teenager kicked in and I said what the hell. Foot to floor, bouncing off rev-limiter throughout the gears-- simply walked away from the guy about 100 yards into the little race. Backed off north of 90mph and let him catch up. Another big thumbs up from him. A huge grin on my face. I'm suddenly 45 years younger....
• Scraped something. On one of the big dips on my 2-lane driving home, I briefly scraped something underneath. Gotta get the car up on a lift today and see what's what. 
• I love this car. Yes, it's tight in the cabin, rearward visibility sucks, the brakes need a lot of help, everything is raw and unfiltered and both cold and hot at the same time, there are a ton of little things need addressing, it needs interior and paint, etc.... but it is SO much fun to drive this car. Can't wait to get it tuned and dyno'd in a few weeks.

The only photo I took of the car, 30 minutes before the next 200 cars showed up:

First Significant Drive(s)

You I got a fast car. Is it fast enough so we could fly away?

First, the huge news: drove the car home today. It will stay in my garage for at least a few weeks, as Joe is going on holiday and his shop will be shut down for at least that long. Absent his tools and amazing help and skills, I can continue to do a variety of things to the car at home. Most important of all is to just drive the sh!t out it and see what breaks, what vibrates, what wears out, what rattles... in short, start compiling a list of closeout actions for the car. 

I do have to say, however, that first drives are really, really promising. Sure, there's a number of things that immediately need fixing. For instance, the brakes basically are as hard as a rock to press and stop the car. Hopefully, the smaller diameter master cylinders on order will fix that. And so on....

....but overall, the car actually handles pretty well already. There's been no real alignment, shocks and spring settings are just guesses at this point, and the car is in desperate need of at least a front sway bar, if not a rear one, too. But she tracks straight and true as-is, and the steering is super responsive (to be honest, almost too responsive; you sneeze and you've lane-changed...). 

The power is also still very de-tuned. The previous owner who had this engine in his car was an old man (hey, ain't we all?) and Joe and his compatriots at the shop rev- and boost-limited that incarnation (5500rpm and 6psi, respectively). That tune is still on the car as it currently sits, but holy crap does she pull hard already. No idea what the current horsepower is, but 1850lbs of car will scoot under even modest hp levels. The engine noises, too, are glorious, with the side exhaust and turbo spool just singing in harmony. I'm still grinning from the couple of drives I've done.

I simply love it. And there's a lot to do to make it even better.. Woot!

And in related news, a couple of new features were added this week. First is a prop bar for the bonnet. Works really well and keeps the bonnet up and very secure. Main issue is just the struggle to open the bonnet in the first place; things have gotten heavier with additional bracing and such. I'm thinking some kind of helper springs are in the future.

Also got my 5-point harnesses installed. Seats need serious re-upholstery, and the belts themselves are a bit of a chore to put on, but they're secure and safe once you're all buckled in:

And the other thing we added was two gauges in the engine compartment, peeking out under the cowl-induction hood. One is boost and the other is fuel pressure. Both are lit and easily read from the cockpit. A very nice solution indeed!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, so little will take place, but in the following days, there will hopefully be a lot of miles and more smiles. And lists. Lots of lists. I've leave you with this final shot of the car back in its ultimate permanent home, my garage:

Lights... Mirror....Action!

 We got the new LED front headlights installed and wired up:

Also got the rearview mirror installed:

Plus got the car re-titled and registered in AZ. Last time it was legal was ~3 decades ago under my old California title. This time, I even ordered custom vanity plates for the  1959 Austin Healey:

More Bonnets and Mirrors and Miscellania...

 More chipping away at the punchlist. This week it's been strengthening the bonnet and adding some bumpstops to make opening and closing it a bit easier. We may still add some kind of spring assist or gas struts to help lift the (heavy-ish) bonnet, but just these little stiffening pieces seem to make a big difference already in how unwieldy the piece is, especially upon closure. In other news, the overflow line from the overflow tank was installed, the transmission speed sensor hooked up, headlight buckets blasted (in advance of installing LED lights), and a rear view mirror ordred and delivered. Also got the "peep" sideview mirror mounted. The check-list is rapidly shrinking....

 

Bodywork, Sheet Metal, Mirrors, & Horns

 Making continued progress with the car. This week, we got the bonnet-to-cowl gap set, finished the covers for the rear shock mounts, started mounting the side-view mirror to the A-pillar, and even got (very loud and obnoxious) horns installed and working.

Problems and Progess

 Well, we blew up the driver's side inboard CV joint on the rear axle. Not entirely clear what happened, but our guess is we shortened that axle just a tad too much, so upon full droop of that rear corner of the car, we overstressed the joint. We think. We put one of the original longer axles back into the car and will see what happens when pushed hard again. Fingers crossed.

In the meantime, a full punchlist of remaining work was created and a couple of simpler elements were knocked out. Niether of these were parrticuarly pressing, but are on the list and any progress is good progress.

First up was a sheet metal duct plate that directs exit air from the back of the radiator down and out of the car; i.e., to keep the hot radiator air from migrating up and warming the intercooler.

And second, some simple covers for the rear upper shock/spring mounts were made from aluminum sheet metal:

Springs and Shocks and Woot!

 Springs and shocks were installed with all new grade-8 hardware. We then took her out to begin shaking down any/all issues. Still needs dyno-tuning, improved brakes, a proper alignment, etc... but boy, is she already q.u.i.c.k. Love it!

Odds and Ends...

Got some odds and ends done this week while we wait for springs and shocks to show up. Sheet metal cover for the tunnel was completed (with insulation), as was the under-dash firewall and tidying up of wiring. Coolant system overflow tube was fabbed and installed. The engine was run for about 30-minutes in the Arizona heat with no overheating. Hopefully, suspension pieces show up soon so we can get her back into a drivable state.