Well, I didnt have the car ready for the 30th.
Annd.. I didnt have it done before becoming a father. 
Might take me a bit to get around to finishing up the last bits.
In reply to Apexcarver :
Congrats... Little Batman is a far greater achievement!!!
Before you were born I was in a race to finish my classic F-100 before my daughter was born. This was mid 1979. The running gear was done, new running boards, paint, new wood in bed, seat from a 70s Lincoln but the interior unfinished when Cassandra arrived. Fast forward to 2000, I sold the truck, engine was tired, paint was chipped, INTERIOR STILL WASN"T FINISHED! But we had fun! Sheet metal comes & goes, enjoy your child!
Super congrats on the arrival of the little one. 
Thrash day planned! Draw friends over with offerings of pizza and beer and tempt their significant others with meeting the baby all in an effort to get this over the line to running!
Parts to order and probably efforts to be made on shop organization.
When you have friends who are terrible enablers... Ive been offered ANOTHER bugeye project. Dont hold your breath on that, if I do it it wont be soon. That said, vintage racing is interesting to me. But a squarebody just makes more sense and I might be more interested in open wheels or a sportsracer than that.
So, the thrash day happened.
Much progress was made.
We pulled the pan to get the leftovers of the old broken dipstick tube.
finished mounting, plumbing and wiring the fuel system
mounted the generator
Installed dual gauge (coolant temp/oil pres)
finished engine wiring.
and a bunch of other small stuff its hard to remember
got to cranking, but no spark. I have some fiddling to do to figure this out. Early guess is that the distributor I rebuilt is grounding the points or the condenser is kaput. I have spare points and condenser if it comes to that.
It was exciting to even hear fuel pump noises and cranking. I've had this car since 2015 and havent gotten to make fast headway on it.
That was Saturday, taking a bit of time and will poke into the distributor with a multimeter some night this week.
Big thanks to all my friends who came out to help!
Keep an eye for this thread. IT SHOULD RUN SOON
Make sure you have the wire from the condensor to the points in the right place. The ring on the condensor wire (and the LT lead) should be in contact with the spring on the points but insulated from the post that holds the points in place. Other than that, check that the rotor isn't cracked, the 23/25D rotors are notorious for cracking (unless you have one of the "rivetless" rotors, ie the good ones).
I bet it is something more simpler, but here is the test for a bad rotor: (Assuming the points are working)
Remove the distributor cap
Remove the coil wire from the cap
Hold the coil wire over the metal on the rotor
Crank engine: If a spark jumps to the rotor, it is grounded and hence faulty.
Pete
Anyone interested in buying one of these? I'm not selling mine, but the guy I bought it from has another for sale. Needs work, but not too much rust to my recollection.
I did manage to work on it a little. Figured out the problem with the distributor (isolators in the wrong place on the points, my bad). Then figured out the timing roughly. It starts. I need to remove a plate to get access to the timing marks to put a gun on it, then lots of carb fiddling.
Oh yeah, the tank was dirtier than I thought... nasty varnish. Storing some mower gas in the tank to flush it some, going to drain it for the mowers and keep doing that for awhile.
Either that or just bite the bullet and get a new tank over the winter. we will see if it cleans up.
After months of back burner (distraction of being a parent and buying an Fmod car) I got around to doing something on this.
The in-laws visited and watched the kiddo so my wife and I could get some things done at the house. So, while the joint compound was drying in the library and after I finished pressure washing the entire front of the house (and the inside of my trailer), I messed about with the car and got it running!
Its had its maiden voyage around the neighborhood with the missus able to ride along holding the fire extinguisher. I am convinced that its impossible to drive this without a stupid grin. Its infectious. Plus, with a stock suspension HOLY BODY ROLL~! Plans to try it at an autocross may have to wait for a roll bar install.
The following things dont work: Headlights, turn signals, brake lights, tach, reverse gear, heater line is looped (no heater installed), Fuel gauge, wipers, charging system?
So, as you can tell, it needs more work. I need to actually put a timing light on it and sync the carbs. It has a good sized oil leak (yeah, I know, its british - but you can follow the oil drops down the road).
I'm motivated again on this. want to have it on the road running well before winter
Just ordered the Vinyl to do this with the rondels and the stripe on the fender ( Bonnet wing) in white. I like the look a lot. I have some other decals coming for the front fenders that I will reveal at a later date.
Very little keeping it off the road now. Mostly paperwork and me being distracted. Other than that, mounting and balancing tires, wheel spacers, troubleshooting charging system, slow leak in the radiator, and slow leak in a rear wheel cylinder.
I've tested it around the neighborhood and solved a vacuum line problem (I had routed vacuum to the carbs from the manifold when the answer was to plug the manifold line and port the crankcase vent to the carbs). This let me finally get somewhere on the tune and get the idle below 2k rpm. Timing is very close and it runs really well now. Its not Miata quick, but its fairly snappy.
Winter might see me take apart the front suspension. It seems that a front spring is fatigued and the car is low on the drivers front. Plus, I am at least going to install the stock front swaybar I have from a later car, but likely going to get an uprated bar and uprated springs while I am in there. Its soft enough to induce sea-sickness if you try a slalom like manuver.
In reply to Apexcarver :
While you do the springs examine the spring cup and the control arm where the cup bolts in very carefully. Some of your softness may be flexing, rust/fatigue in the cup or more likely the arm where they meet. I have seen a Spridget eject its spring out the bottom.
Properly set up a 1/4 elliptic Spridget should be pretty tail happy.
In reply to TurnerX19 :
I'll have to check that. I know its not a rust problem, but it is something to check out.
I know most people actually take a few leaves out of the rear for a race setup, even with adding stiffer front springs and a front bar.
Bought a new set of wheels after the 4 spokes showed to interfere with the tie rod ends. (Cosworth Vega wheels!) These ones should give the necessary clearance, but have other problems. Hopefully solvable.
Gonna have a different thread getting into that to get more eyes (insert link here)
One part will be upgrading the car to Disc Brakes! yeah, for some reason the hub part that goes into the rim is larger on drum cars than on disc cars. So I am gathering parts to do that.
I will get a pic later today, but the rims look AMAZEBALLS on the car.
Love those wheels. What are they or what are they from that they fit the Spridget pattern?
NOHOME said:Love those wheels. What are they or what are they from that they fit the Spridget pattern?
Cosworth Vega.
But theres a small problem. You cant get lugs to directly fit them. I am starting another thread exploring options, but its taking awhile to get it all down. The cliffs is that sprites use 3/8-24 lugs, which are strange and these are either flat lug or a strange small shank size. The figuring and solution will be in another thread when I get a chance to get pics and all the info in one place. (maybe this afternoon or tomorrow)
I KNOW it can be done.
In reply to Apexcarver :
What is the shank diameter?
Only one picture, so I can't see what the shank side of the nuts looks like. Could you use these and change the studs in your hubs?
Do you know if your wheels are 1975 or 1976 issue? Apparently they have different hole sizing.
I bet trent could make you some lugs
Vega wheels have been used many times on Spridgets over the years, but the 100mm bolt pattern is not exactly 4 inches. If you just put them on and bolt them up tight it puts a considerable angular strain on the studs. There is no room to re-drill the hubs. The better solution is to oversize drill the wheels on the 4 inch pattern. Flat face mag lug nuts are available in 3/8-24, but I would upgrade to 7/16 studs.
TurnerX19 said:Vega wheels have been used many times on Spridgets over the years, but the 100mm bolt pattern is not exactly 4 inches. If you just put them on and bolt them up tight it puts a considerable angular strain on the studs. There is no room to re-drill the hubs. The better solution is to oversize drill the wheels on the 4 inch pattern. Flat face mag lug nuts are available in 3/8-24, but I would upgrade to 7/16 studs.
My information says that they ARE 4x4 / aka 4x101.6 (multiple sources) kinda rare to find something that is 4x4.
I am looking at doing 7/16ths studs (the 3/8ths are kinda overstressed as it is). I think Deadskunk(warren) nailed the missing information. They would be 75 wheels as they are a smaller shank diameter (a dime wont pass through). So those ebay linked lugs might be enough with the 7/16th studs to have me in business. I was going to do another thread because I didnt think this one had many eyes on it! 
A a followup on the other issues in case anyone tries to do this as well.
Test fitments determine that they wont fit on the drum brake hubs that are on the car now, but WILL fit on the disc brake setup (later spridget) I have on the shelf (center bore). So I am moving forward ahead of anticipated schedule and upgrading the car to disc brakes. I might as well do it now, the suspension is in pieces for the spring and bushing swap. I dont want to go outside the neighborhood on the 20+ year old tires on the stock wheels.
Doing a British parts industry stimulus.
Disc brakes, big studs, panhard rod... My wallet is smoking.
Way to do your part as a patriotic American. I have been doing the same :-)
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