George's Cars

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It went limp….

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No not me, the headlights on the buggy dipped on the way into Galway city today. Well the passenger side did. When I got her into the garage i found out the bold for the headlight broke. Yes thats right, it broke. It wasn’t over tightened but it only lasted about 100 miles on the buggy. Its an unusual bolt, it has a square head and is hollow on the inside for anyone who hasn’t seen one.

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Since there is no place around here to get a new one and the weather is too nice to leave the buggy sitting in the garage so I welded it. I actually think the bold shattered, when i went to line them up they wouldn’t, even the edges where not a match.

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I know its not 100% straight, but it will hold until i can get my hands on a new one. I want to drive the car tomorrow!!!!

Quiet site

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Its been a bit quite around here lately. I finished the buggy, mostly, there are a few jobs to be done but I have had to prioritise my family again for a little while. In the next few weeks i’ll start getting back into the garage again.

The pictures of the blue beetle where for a fellow member of the Eircooled club who was interested in buying her but family circumstances wouldn’t allow it at the time. I’m half thinking of doing her up over the winter but ssssh, don’t tell the wife, if Alma hears I’m thinking about starting something else I’ll be divorced. As you can see it needs a heater channel on one side and generally just a good clean up and tidyup. Its a good car and goes great.

I have got approve from the boss to do one project over the winter, I’m hopefully going to start Evin’s mini -manx, basically just like my beach buggy only 1/10 the size!! It will even be powered by a aircooled motor but he is only getting a 50cc one!! It will be another year or so before he will be able to enjoy it fully but I want to have it done for next years shows so we will have a little and large!! I’m having a little trouble getting my hands on the mini-manx body but hopefully I’ll be able to get one before I’m in the UK next month.

After sitting around doing nothing most of the day yesterday in pissy rain, today I had to come back to work and the sun is out!!

I might get out for a spin after work.

It has been raining all day today, really heavy rain so driving the buggy wasn’t an option until about an hour ago. It stopped raining so i decided to try get a few miles in her.

Don’t drive through puddles in a buggy!! That woke me up thats so sure.

Oh well, i’ll have to wait until it dries out a bit. Still put a smile on my face though :lol: :lol:

well as finished as these things ever are!! I’ll write a more detailed report tomorrow. I’m tired!!

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A small gathering and a mini swap meet. There was a nice selection of parts on display.

A beach buggy. Another day working on the buggy. I really need to go back to work soon!!!

I think i’ll let the pictures do most of the talking here, I’m too tired for a long post.

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Now before someone comments, because i know someone will, yes the head lights aren’t straight, i’ll sort that out tomorrow.

I’ll be there!

Well Friday morning I was thinking with a bit of luck i would be test driving the buggy on Saturday afternoon. By 6 o’clock on Friday I knew that was not going to happen.

The first big issue was the rear indicators, yes those arrows, they look savage but they are no where near bright enough, even at night time you would struggle to see them, so I had a few decisions to make. I could have put a second indicator under the body like a motorcycle indicator but i wouldn’t be happy with the look of it. I decided on the hard fix, surprise surprise. I started taking the old ones apart and a new plan was formed, i ordered 50 bright orange led’s and i’m going to rebuild the rear lights in their original casing. Its going to take a bit of work but at this stage i have put so much time into those rear light they might as well be the way I want them. Providing things so to plan with making my own rear indicators the only other problem will be getting the existing ones that are on the body out. They where put in with the intention that they where not coming out.

Saturday morning things went from bad to worse. I started building the dash. Speedo, dials, light switch, wiper motor, radio…Oops. The radio wouldn’t go in. When i positioned the radio in the dash i didn’t have the wiper motor in place. Being honest i forgot all about it until there was a problem. Plus the fuse board also collided with the wiper motor. So the only solution was to move the radio and move the fuse box. The fuse box wasn’t a issue but moving the radio would require repainting the dash. Not something i wanted to do. But in the end it was the only option. I have to cut out the only radio slot, repair it with fibreglass, cut out the new hole for the radio. Sand and repaint the bonnet.

Thats about there we stand at the moment. I’m taking a break today. I have been in the garage for 12 days straight and I’ve had enough for now. I’ll go back tomorrow after work. She will be ready for next saturday,

I spent the day working in the garage again today. It was a bit of a strange day I got of lots of work done but no jobs finished. Most of the day was spent on the wiring, i got most of the rear of the wired up, its not tidied up but i find that when i tidy up wiring before its tested if never works, once i test it all I’ll tidy it up. I did get the battery terminals finished, thanks to dad’s help.

We also got the cage in but some of the bolts aren’t lining up so I’ll wait until its over the pit to get a bit more leverage on them.

I got the speakers in and wired up. They look pertty good but I’ll replace them with marine stuff when the budget allows.

So generally more of the smaller jobs done but not much visible progress.

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Peters wiring loom diagram and the one that came with the bugpack wiring diagram, bugpack for the colour coding and peters so I can make sense of it all.

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