Took a couple of days off work because my wife had laser eye surgery and
I had to take the kids to school and pick them up. Nothing else to do
except work on the Bugeye. I'm getting real close to finishing this
car, but the more work I do on it, the more bugs pop up in the system
I'm working on. Today was spent in my 120 degree garage (one way to
lose weight) wiring the lights, front and rear. The headlights work
perfectly, high and low beam nice and bright. The rear taillights work
when the light knob is turned, but the brake lights come on when I turn
the ignition on! I disconnected the two wires that go to the brake light
switch and they went out. Touch the two wires together and the brake
lights come on. I'm no electrical genius or any kind of genius for that
matter, but even I can figure out the brake light switch is stuck
internally in the on position. I did want to use that switch as it had
the correct date on it for my car (original switch to this car). Now I
get to drain the brake system and bleed it again.
The license plate light in the rear does not illuminate when the
lights are turned on, have not figured this one out yet. Have not tried
the turn signals yet because I ran out of the connectors to solder to
the wire ends when I got to the front of the car (just 2 connectors
short!) The wiring harness I got from British Wiring really was very
well made and wired exactly like the wiring diagram I got from the
Clymer book. This wiring diagram shows where single and double
connectors go in the circuit and is very easy to follow.
Last but not least, I tried to install the Amco top I got at a
British car swap meet a couple of years ago, brand new in the box. It
had been sitting in that box, sent from M*** to the gentleman I bought
it from over 15 years ago! I locked my top bows in the retracted
position and then tried to install the rear retainer bar in the slot in
the rear of the top. The only openings for it are the triangular ones
that expose the bar to the chrome escutions on the rear deck. The slot
extends past these openings just enough to equal the length of the
retainer bar. How the heck are you supposed to put it in there without
cutting a slit in the pocket? Just to test fit the top, I stuck the bar
in one of the triangular openings and slid it through until it stuck
out the other traingular opening. About 4 inches at either end stick
out. I slid the front bar in the pocket at the front of the top and
tried to pull it over the windshield to tuck it around and under the lip
on the windshield frame. It seems to be an inch to an inch and a half
too short! How do you stretch these things?
It's going to take a couple of days just to figure out and work the
problems I created just working on the car today! This isn't a
restoration, it's subtle torture to drive me insane.
Mike MacLean-60 Sprite
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