Hopefully I'll see you all at the PA meet in Sept...
I hope to show the car then, so if you see a 'green' (and I mean green) sprite
there it's probably me :-)
- Bryan
>X-Sender: pbohler@mail.wenet.net
>To: Bryan Vandiver <Bryan.Vandiver@eng.sun.com>, spridgets@autox.team.net
>Subject: Re: First bugeye test drive!
>Cc: brianbliven@ontk.com, bluebery@jps.net
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>
>Congratulations.
>
>Too bad you weren't road worthy a bit sooner, you could've come up for our
>tour to Ft. Ross. Both Rick&Carolyn and David "Crash" Ramsey drove their
>bugeyes. We had a great time. Began with breakfast and ended after dinner.
>Full and fun day.
>:-)
>
>
>At 12:44 PM 8/9/99 -0700, Bryan Vandiver wrote:
>>Hello,
>>
>>Well I finally took my bugeye project out for it's first test drive this
>>weekend. I've owned this car for seven years, but only started actually
>working
>>on it about 3.5 years ago. This has been a total ground up restoration which
>>included having the entire body stripped and dipped. I started out with
>only a
>>rolling tub that someone stuck a 1971 1275 and ribcase in. I had to
>acquire all
>>other parts (seats, dash gauges ancillaries etc.) over the years, so I
>almost
>>view this as a 'kit' car. The only work I didn't perform on this
>'restoration'
>>was the body/paint, and dynamic balancing of the engine. Please bear in mind
>>that I have NEVER driven a spridget before so I was basically a LBC
>'virgin'.
>>Here are my car's specs:
>>
>>** '59 bugeye - Green (not leaf, not dark, just 'green')**
>>1275 with ribcase
>>3.9 pumpkin
>>Front disk brakes (cross drilled rotors)
>>Rear 3/4 dual acting piston rear brakes
>>Original 7/8" brake/clutch master
>>All 'new' springs (front/rear)
>>Poly bushings everywhere (except rear 1/4 spring eyelet)
>>tires - bridgestone re92's (165/65-13) on stock steel wheels.
>>dellorto 40 side-draft (36mm venturi's)
>>Maniflow LCB
>>RC 40 exhaust system (modified to fit sprite)
>>mildly ported 12g940 casting head
>>Kent md266 (fast road) cam
>>Ignitor ignition in stock distributor
>>Stock style interior(except for color) tan with leather seats with green
>piping
>>Stock gauges including tach drive
>>Moto-lita steering wheel
>>Polished aluminum trim
>>
>>The car starts and runs pretty well, but does seem to hesitate slightly
>when you
>>first hit the throttle. I still need to figure out how to set the idle and
>>timing properly.
>>
>>Steering is 'very' responsive although I still haven't set the 'toe-in'
>>properly.
>>
>>Clutch requires some muscle but I'll get used to it, and the brakes also
>require
>>more effort than I'm used to, but seem to work fine.
>>
>>There seemed to be plenty of power, and the engine wanted to rev. freely.
>I had
>>a hard time trying to keep myself from over revving, since the engine isn't
>>broken in yet.
>>
>>I couldn't get my signal flasher to work when I tested it in the garage,
>but it
>>started working fine on the road (probably the vibration), which was cool.
>The
>>tach and speedo seemed to be working fine (no bounce), but my fuel gauge is
>>definitely dead (will post another email related to this).
>>
>>Took the car for three more drives for a total of 30 miles.
>>
>>On Sunday, drove it over to a friends' house (another Brian with a '59 green
>>bugeye project - no kidding) who helped me drill and mount the shoulder
>points
>>for my seat belts. Took him out for a drive back to my place, and let him
>drive
>>it back to his house (sprite virgin also). On the way back to his house, the
>>speedometer started howling, quickly pulled over, and unscrewed the cable
>off
>>the back and the noise went away (oh-well).
>>BTW - I weigh ~175, and the friend weighs ~200+ with both of us in the car I
>>didn't notice and significant reduction in performance, but the car did
>ride a
>>lot smoother;-)
>>
>>Washed the car for the first time last night, and adjusted the headlights.
>The
>>only thing left to do is to recover the door pocket assemblies, and
>install the
>>door liners. I also plan to take it back into the shop that did the paint,
>to
>>'fix' all the chips and scratches I put in it during the assembly process :-(
>>
>>I want to show it at the Palo-Alto car meet in Sept., hope to see some
>of you
>>there....
>>
>>
>>Oh yeah, the actual driving was... YAHOO!!!
>>Feels like a go-cart only looks a lot better. I don't know who had the
>bigger
>>smile, me or the car ;-)
>>
>>Thanks everyone for all your advise.
>>
>>Bryan Vandiver - 59 bugeye ( on the road finally!)
>>San Jose, CA
>>
>>
>>
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