We’re getting this particular Bugeye “Bic” (our 241st sold!) ready for departure to a new home in Colorado. The new owner requested a flip-forward nose conversion. If you are unfamilar, the original hinges were mounted at the cowl and the flip-forward conversion gives much better engine bay access.
This conversion was popular with racers so there is precedent and thus it is widely accepted that you can add this conversion to your car without diminishing value. Of course there can be heated discussions about this, with purists and concours judges objecting, but by and large it’s OK to switch to flip forward. Like the 1275 engine, this was a common and popular modification.
What made this particular modification somewhat unusual was that the radiator supports were modified on this particular car. A portion of the radiator support was cut away, perhaps as a result of an old collision. In order to mount the limit strap bolt of our flip kit, you need the metal base intact so there is something to which we can fasten the limit strap. To be clear, our kit has its own limiter built in and thus no leashes are needed.
So in order to mount the kit and make it work, we cut off the old supports and put in new ones and we were happy to have those newly in stock for our catalog (you can order them by clicking here). Now we can attach the brackets to the nose and button it all up. If you want to make your nose flip-forward, click here to order your kit.
In the photos below, you can see the new hinges in the closed and open position. Next, we’ll mount the nose on the new hinges, align it, and add some leather hold-down straps.
