In reply to RichardSIA :
That is sweet. I'm a sucker for headlight covers..
Went over and started it on starting fluid this afternoon! Took a few minutes of looking at the 3 wires off the starter and figuring out what went where. The main battery cable and 1 other (redA) came from one terminal, and the other terminal had redB going to the Ignition Cylinder. We tried it first and it turned over but didn't catch. We hooked up RedA to Orange coming from the Distributor and tried again, and got fire! Next time I'll take a jug of fuel and see if it'll run from the tank. Hopefully video will embed below.
https://youtu.be/Lghd6TjcFVk
Now it's embeded. Pro tip always wear a glove on the hand closest to the carb.
Not been a lot of progress here. I've continued to work on the Courier, and spend time with my wife. It has been absolutely frigid here, and we are at 40wks pregnant, so lots of time spent inside and hanging out.
I did come across a great deal on a Mustang ii front end on one of my "every other week" searches, 13 minutes after it was posted and way out in the country. The next day someone posted some free Foxbody parts (stock K-member, complete spindles, lower control arms, steering rack and fuel tank/pump) 2 minutes from my house. Both are 4 lug.
So, whether I go with Mustang parts or keep looking to get cheap enough factory conversion parts I should be able to make something work with all of these parts. Worst case, I can use the Mustang II springs as lowering springs for the Courier, and set aside the steering rack for an eventual Rack/pinion swap on that.
Found a great deal on a disc brake front cut, 2 hours away from me! First run out to get it was a failure, but today was successful. He charged me $40 for the front end metal and $135 for all the components attached - there's enough there I can recoup everything, I believe.
the
I have been slowly chipping away at pulling apart my new disc brake front cut, but it has been slow going with the newborn!
I come tonight with questions.
First - I found the "factory" Single CircuitBrake Master Cylinder in the car, and I set it loosely in place. With this, I can now (in theory) bleed brakes and have a functional system for moving the car back and forth.
Using what I understand are rules set in place for safety, can I replace this master cylinder with a Dual Circuit with no budget impact? I may have to replace Master Cylinder anyway for disc brakes, but to be "letter of the law" replacement with a factory component for a disc brake Sprite, the only new M.C. sold are quite expensive.
Second - I am trying to figure out my best bet with the fuel system. The tank that came in the car was 2 factory 7 gallon tanks welded 1 on top of the other. The filler neck (also welded on) leaks, and the outlet port points straight up. Via FB Marketplace, I have a free Foxbody fuel tank with pump. I am wondering if it is possible or ill-advised to cut the Foxbody tank off just beyond the large "bubble" that includes the fuel pump, and cap it there. This would net me ~7-gallon capacity in a pretty compact package, the potential to run electric fuel pump if EFI is in the future, and nice outlets intended for fuel lines. Is it possible to remove the pump itself, leave the hanger, and have the mechanical (or an external, carb-friendly electric pump) pull the fuel out of these lines? Pic not mine, but shows the Foxbody fuel tank. You can see the Bubble on the near side.
I am also going to go ahead and order tires for the steel front wheels that came on the car, and for the rear wheels too. I know the rear wheels will stay so I will likely go ahead and get something aggressive (E78-14 comes out to 195/75 or 205/70, not so many good options unless I step down to 185/60), not sure yet what I'll get for the front - what's on there now is 195/60 R13, but it looks like there are some nice Auto-X tires available in 185/60 if/when I'm willing to shell out the coin. We'll see what happens there!
Hey, congrats on the new kid! Hope everyone is doing well.
Hope someone that knows the rules can help with guidance on the brake questions.
Have any friends driving through southern maryland anytime soon? You can have my old tank for the price of someone pick it up without me having to ship it or drive it somewhere. Sale price of it's scrap metal to me and needs to be cleaned out and I just put in a new tank rather than deal with it. It doesn't leak, it just had really really bad gas in it and plugged a filter in a scant few miles of driving.
In reply to classicJackets (FS) :
On the brakes ... yeah I'm going to quote the rule.
Partial Exemption: The Burchett Rule: Brake friction materials, lines, calipers, master cylinders, boosters, rotors and drums may be replaced with fresh ones that are duplicates or stock replacements without increasing or decreasing the budget. “Duplicate” is defined as having the same listed application in a major parts catalog as the part being replaced. Stock replacement is defined as having the Challenge car’s year, make, model, and trim listed as an application in a major parts catalog, or, if non-OEM front and/or rear subframes/axles/hubs/knuckles are used, the year, make, model, and trim of the donor vehicle listed as an application in a major parts catalog. This rule does allow adding stock replacement brake parts to a car that did not come with any at the time of sale. The purpose of this rule is to allow for safe brake components, not to allow for budget shenanigans. Original brake parts cannot be sold for recoup and then re-bought without budget impact to take advantage of this allowance.
So if you're using any of those more modern parts (think "non-OEM front and/or rear subframes/axles/hubs/knuckles") you can then use the MC and brake booster from the non-OEM car. I think that'll let you get a dual circuit MC with the rear axle or the Mustang parts you grabbed.
In reply to Stampie (FS) :
That disc brake front end could easily have come from a 1969 or later car which had a dual circuit master cylinder from new. Still big $$
classicJackets (FS) said:
Using what I understand are rules set in place for safety, can I replace this master cylinder with a Dual Circuit with no budget impact? I may have to replace Master Cylinder anyway for disc brakes, but to be "letter of the law" replacement with a factory component for a disc brake Sprite, the only new M.C. sold are quite expensive.
I cant speak to the challenge budget rules, but I dont think $130 is terribly awful for the single circuit brake/clutch master... https://www.bpnorthwest.com/austin-healey/sprite/braking/brake-master-cylinder/master-cylinder-3-4-bore-sprite-midget-w-disc-brakes-8038.html
That being said, IIRC this has an automatic, so you could cut/weld in metal to support using this later part and get your dual circuit brakes (with redoing the lines accordingly) for $44 https://www.bpnorthwest.com/brake-master-cylinder-economy-midget-68-to-79.html
I think for what this car is the later dual circuit brakes (not the early clutch/brake combined) is worth the effort and cheaper to do really. Just some light fab work.
If you DO wind up keeping the OE type (clutch/brake combined with single circuit brakes) with the diameter for the discs, pay attention to the rods that go from the pedal into the master, discs and drums have different lengths. When I did mine I couldnt get the disc lengths and had to cut down drum ones to get the right length.
In reply to Apexcarver :
Sadly, nobody I know coming through that way anytime soon! I do appreciate the offer and will keep an ear to the ground in case we can make something work.
Stampie: I appreciate the response, that may be a good way!
Turner: That was my hope, but trying to fall within "don't be a dick" rules :)
$130 isn't too bad, but for challenge budget that eats up a substantial amount of a small remaining budget. That second one would be great since it is an auto, and I have no problem trying to come up with some mounting creativity. If replacing MC doesn't end up being budget exempt I'll probably try to get creative with Cheap/Junkyard MC to maintain budget. In the meantime I'll hook up what I found and dive into getting drum brakes bled/Adjusted..
dude, i've been looking for a single-circuit master just like the one you have. I'll trade you a used, appropriately-sized, dual-circuit master cylinder for your application. ;-)
TurnerX19 said:
In reply to Stampie (FS) :
That disc brake front end could easily have come from a 1969 or later car which had a dual circuit master cylinder from new. Still big $$
its really immaterial, early disc cars use this style that is single circuit brakes with the clutch master also in the same housing on a common reservoir.
and the later ones have the clutch and brake masters separated and the brakes are dual circuit.
The calipers and drum wheel cylinders are the same for all the disc brake cars, so there really isnt a difference at all past the brake line setup. I went through all this when I converted my car from drum to disc.
You could even just go grab a willwood or whatever cylinder and use it, the bore size is 3/4 inch, that said, I think the economy part I linked is actually cheaper than willwood or other racing part suppliers parts.
She runs on a key and gas jug, doesn't sound half bad with true dual straight pipes! Should be dragging it home from my buddies to my garage within the next week, will get much easier to work on
In reply to classicJackets (FS) :
Congrats and I love watching the wrenches move along the cowl to fall off.
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
Yep, alternator needs to be tightened down further and belt needs replacement!
I was walking through Ace hardware yesterday and found a pretty cool exterior color in the "mistint" pile, Black Currant at $10/gallon. I think this will nicely cover up the 20 year old interior primer without being too bright. (It dries a little darker)
In reply to classicJackets (FS) :
Purple seems appropriate for a Bugeye!
Yes that color with some heavy gold flake hand painted lettering will look Choice.
Amazon has gold glitter paint additive. Just add the glitter to the purple and spray it with a Wagner paint sprayer.
That's what I would do anyway. I haven't done this myself. If you do and it doesn't go well I can't be blamed; I'm a concepts guy.
1995 me says "berkeley Yeah!" to purple metalflake
Yeah, that is awesome. Sweet wire wheels, too!
My buddy helped me get Riggamort home, involving a tow strap, and ~300 yards of pulling. I pushed it up so the front wheels are in line with my 318ti for a size comparison.. After this thing was off the ground for so long, it was easy to forget just how small it really is. Mid-thigh height at its tallest.
Aaand most of the "siblings" in one shot!
Small is good....not much weight for the engine to shove around...
The Ti hides it's long wheelbase well amongst other cars. The bugeye really shows the 27" wheelbase difference there!
Pulled the wooden trans crossmember and what was left of the rubber mount out today, and picked up a new mount from Napa for $6.79.
Got some "wings" cut tonight to match the brackets welded to the body reinforcement, will need to get it all connected appropriately. I'm hoping to use this angle iron as much as I can, since I got some pallets made of it for $3 each a few years back. Cheap, by the foot or by the pound!
