Bugeye to Blobeye conversion *WITH FINAL PICS*
 

So I have a WR Blue 2002 Bugeye at the moment with bright orange wheels. Some people love it, others hate it... To be honest, it's not the colour scheme that I've ever thought of changing.

The front end!

Always fancied a blobeye but the price difference between the bug and blob didn't really seem worth it to me. After having quite a bit of work done to the engine, it never really crossed my mind to sell the car and buy a blob. Instead i decided to look into doing a conversion.

So here goes....

Hopefully some readers may find this interesting and may even try doing a similar conversion. I'm working to a fairly tight time schedule as the car is my daily drive so I'm hoping to get it done in 3 days, start to finish.

Here is what the car looked like to start with

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/k...er/image-7.jpg

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/k...er/image-9.jpg

I managed to get hold of all the parts that I think I require in advance which include:

Blob bonnet and scoop - £100
Blob wings - £50 each
Blob Bumper and bumper bar- £100
Blob headlights with HID's and de tango'd - £200
Front slam panel from a blob - £150

All in all £650



As I am running a FMIC I haven't bought any inner wheel arch liners yet as I was going to see if they could be fitted with the Intercooler pipe work.

More pics to follow shortly

Awesome mate.

I have all the parts to do the same but may jump to the hawkeye.

Look forward to seeing the progress of this buddy,.

It would be great to get some pics up once you start the work. Did you not fancy going to the hawkeye though? (I have a bugeye and my choice would be to jump to a hawkeye front end for mine - I personally think the lines look smoother!)

I'll keep an eye on this thread!

Good luck :thumb:

I was very close to going for the hawkers front end but my reason for choosing the Blob was down to a number of factors. Firstly price - hawk bumpers and wings are reasonable but the lights seem to be fetching big money. Secondly as I have an sti7 interior fitted, I wasn't too keen on having a somewhat modern exterior of the hawk matched with a more classic interior of the bug.

Atleast now I'll hopefully know exactly what to to for the conversion so should I change my mind and go for the hawk front end in the future, thinks shouldn't be too difficult, fingers crossed.

Oh and I forgot to mention that I have a feeling more cutting and chopping is required to fit the hawk slam panel compared to the blob slam panel. I may be wrong.

More pics to follow this evening of the conversion

Can't wait to see results, thinking about conversion myself if I don't sell my car. How much will it set you back in total??

Wiley

Nice looking bug, I've done the jump to hawkeye, not anymore work than going to a blobeye, if you drill out the spot welds and weld in the hawk slam panel and headlight buckets.

Looking forward to seeing the progress.

Ricey

Looking forward to the progress. I love the wheels, was considering going for a different colour on my white bugeyes wheels maybe a lime green :wonder:

Thanks, definitely grabs some attention. My next idea on the car was to experiment with a vinyl wrap. I have planned to go white, sticking with the orange wheels. Think the coloured wheels on a white car would look smart.
Go for the green look IMO

Excellent, As previously said Im pleased you have done a thread on this, I will watch with interest ;)

Rob

Sounds like a plan though it does look very nice with the blue. I may have to try and get a bit of photoshop treatment. Have subscribed to your thread :thumb:

As mentioned earlier in the thread, the parts cost me £650 all together. I forgot to mention that I also managed to get some STI8 side skirts for £50 aswell

So £700 and a couple of late nights after work. I am also looking at getting a bit of money back from the conversion by selling the original parts.

I'm lucky that the conversion panels are in really good condition so a respray should not be needed.

Its started

After removing the bonnet, lights, bumper and wings (in that order), I began work on the bumper bar and slam panel removal.

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/k...er/image-6.jpg

Sorry for not including photos of the panel removal but this is fairly straight forward and took around 30 mins

So the front bumper bar was next on the list. The bolts at the front were easy to access and with a little help from some WD40, the bolts were removed.

Before getting too carried away on the car I decided to prep the bumper bar which was to be fitted. I'm running a FMIC so the bumper bar requires cutting in order to fit. I also gave it a little clean up and a touch of paint at this stage


From this-
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/k...r/image-11.jpg


to this due to my car running a FMIC
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/k...r/image-12.jpg

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/k...r/image-13.jpg



Next, I was back to the car.

Spot welds were drilled out from the slam panel with a 9mm drill. 30 Spot welds in total

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/k...r/image-14.jpg

the removed part below
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/k...r/image-15.jpg


This is now how the car is sitting at the moment. Awaiting the new slam panel from scooby spares tomorrow hopefully. Ill try to add some more detailed images in the future.

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/k...r/image-16.jpg

Trial fitted the bonnet, bumper and wings as it's just started raining so don't want the engine bay getting too wet tonight. (Supported by various tools and cable ties atm as there are no supports fitted until the slam panel arrives)

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/k...r/image-17.jpg

Very good mate, nice read ;)

what cracking idea fella

me personally like your bug how its was more tbh
how will this affect the resale

good work and all the best
and love the wheels

cracking job looks the dangles:D

just out of curiosity at this stage for me, are the blob lights plug and play into the existing bug loom?

Best mod ever for a blobeye! Looking good mate.

Very cool mate - interesting stuff :)

Subscribed, looks a great project.

Looks good so far mate, you certainly don't hang around :thumb:

It's coming along nicely :)

How is the wiring conversion looking, havent attempted to sort out my the gremlin with my lights as yet.

I managed to get some of the loom with the lights so pretty clear to see how they are wired up. Should get on to them tomorrow so I'll send you some pics and more info as requested last week. There has been a small amount of modification done to the lights with regards to plugs but I've not really inspected them. Been focusing more on bodywork recently. As I say though I'll forward more to you tomorrow

Tom

Nice one Tom, thank you. Looking forward to pics of the finished project.

A bit more progress on the conversion.

The front blobeye slam panel arrived from Scooby spares this afternoon so I spent a little while prepping it and removing the spot welds

This image shows what it looked like on delivery
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/k...r/image-18.jpg

30mins later, each spot weld was drilled out and it looked like this. Next was a test fit and a bit of patience
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/k...r/image-19.jpg

Before and after the slam panel was fitted
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/k...r/image-16.jpg

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/k...r/image-20.jpg

Tomorrow its down to fitting the front bumper bar, bumper, wings and lights

Well done so far...
I'll be keeping an eye on this thread :thumb:

I guess you've bolted the Blob Slam panel in place?

Yep, bolted in place. Photos to be uploaded today, was getting a bit dark last night. I used 6mm bolts nuts and washers on the easily accessible areas and self tapping screws in those pasts that i did not have a great deal of access to

Is front panel not being welded back on?

Self tapping screws?

My slam panel is bolted in place and rivets in the hard to reach places, behind the headlight panel not on the main mounting points of the slam panel.

Looking good!

My lower crossmember was rotted so I started to drill out the spot welds in that then the drill's battery went flat and then I burnt out the angle grinder!!! lol
Kinda which I hadnt started hthis conversion now! but reading your thread has kept me focused on getting it finished now!!

Cheers
Ricey