It has been awhile since I posted anything - car restoration happens very
slowly at my house. But I do have some good news to report - and a note
of caution to Bugeye owners out there.
Bridget, my '61 Bugeye, is being reassembled after a complete stripping.
The body was in decent shape to start with but was stripped, some minor
body work done and painted. I didn't do it so it is really nice... I
have done everything else, which is why it has taken forever. Everything
has been taken off, cleaned and repainted so now "all" that is left is to
put it back together.
The wiring harness is the most recent accomplishment. It took some
debugging and I learned a thing or two in the process. One significant
one is that those two fuses are certainly not going to protect your car
from all possible electrical faults. I miswired the license plate light
and bubbled insulation on the red wires. Yuch. I fixed it up well
though... A more careful debug process lead to the realization that the
windshield wiper motor was wired backwards. (Wires just got hot this
time - I had the presense of mind to check.)
I was using the wiring diagram in a reprint of the July 1958 AH Sprite
Owners Manual. Green wire to terminal one, black w/ green to terminal
two. Hmmm.
Better check the newly acquired reprint of the Workshop manual for the
Sprite Mk 1. Oops. Black w/ green to 1, green to 2. Ahhh. A further
check in the Bentley Sprite Mk2 manual (my original manual before I found
the Mk 1) confirmed this wiring. No more smoking wires.
So the electrical system works so far. The dash is perfect, the lights
work, so do the wipers, flasher, heater fan. Bridget breathes her first
life in at least 10 years.
I'm going to break from the strict restoration and put in a small fire
extinguisher though. I'm no fool.
Next step is the interior - I have the new carpets, trim panels, seat
covers, seat belts, door check straps... I still have to repolish the
aluminum cockpit trim rails - any ideas on how best to do this?
Pete Andrews 1959 AH Sprite Mk1 AN5L/18575
andrews_pf@salem.ge.com 1961 AH Sprite MK1 AN5L/44591
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