Blog – Page 38

Wonderfully Restored Yellow 1960 Bugeye For Sale! NEW Driving Video!

October 13, 2022 by bugeyeguy

Now SOLD to Ralph in New Jersey! Congratulations on Bugeye #366!

Sharpie has undergone some more upgrades! This week, we put in all-new wheel cylinders to restore the drum brakes to their peak performance. We’ve also replaced the Radius Arms to make the car ride more smoothly.

I wasn’t a fan of the lousy reproduction choke and starter knobs and cables that were installed when we got the car, so we’ve changed them to accurate reproductions of the original, just like the ones that you see on our Concours gold-winning car, AN5L 501. Sharpie is looking and driving better than ever!

Check out the listing below and give us a call if Sharpie is the car for you!

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Give Your Shift Tower a 2nd Skin!

October 7, 2022 by bugeyeguy

Here’s something every shift-tower-equipped Sprite needs. It’s too easy to scratch your painted shift tower, and it always seems to be in the way as you load and unload or work on your car! Our shift tower second skin is a paint protector that keeps you from scratching the nice paint work underneath the tower. We’ve learned from daily work in our shop that it’s too easy to scratch this painted surface on your transmission tunnel, so we started requiring a cover such as this one on all jobs once the car enters our building. It’s such a good idea we decided to make and offer them to you! These covers will protect your shift tower from chips and scratches, but it’s also a nice idea if your car has a beat-up shift tower and you’re not interested in repainting it. Perhaps this cover is just what you need to spruce up your cockpit! We recommend that you pop one of these on your tower anytime you sit down in your car for service. Keep your finish looking good for years to come!

Get yours by clicking here!

The Austin Healey Sprite (MKI-IV) and Mg Midget’s (MKI-III) had this hard shift tower up until late 1969. Afterwards, they went to a soft vinyl shift boot.

100,000 Mile Oil Change!

October 7, 2022 by bugeyeguy

Proper routine maintenance is a critical part of British car ownership. An important aspect to this is regular oil changes. Over the years, we’ve been asked by a number of Bugeye owners about whether they actually need to change their oil because so much leaks out and burns up! The answer to that question is yes, it is important to change your oil at regular service intervals, and there is a very clear reason why, even if it burns a quart every week. You can see that reason here in these photos.

Inside this oil filter housing bowl is a mountain of sludge and debris.

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Flashy 1970 MG Midget Driver! $11,995

October 1, 2022 by bugeyeguy

Now SOLD to Gavin in Michigan! Congratulations on a slick Spridget!

If you’ve been looking for an attractive Spridget at a very reasonable price, this MG Midget is worth serious consideration!

This four-speed 1970 Midget had its 1275 engine rebuilt in 2008. It’s nicely set-up with a single1-3/4″ SU carburetor (which is one of the nicest ways to configure these cars… I have this set-up on one of my Bugeyes). It’s also built-up with new 14 inch rims… some people really like the look; they’re 1 inch bigger diameter than the 13s that were stock. You also get nice 175 (recent) tires for great handling and grip. Its a flashy red midget in nice shape with lots of great upgrades.

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501’s Quest For Gold: What Was The Point?

September 30, 2022 by bugeyeguy

The judging team hard at work judging AN5L 501! What did they find?

When car AN5L 501 underwent the judging process last week in our effort to obtain Concours gold certification for it, we had an idea of what the process might look like because we have been through it before. However, we were quickly flooded with questions among our wonderful followers as to how the process works, what we got right and what we got wrong, what our score was, etc.

Lying Down On The Job! Even 501’s undercarriage got a close inspection from the Scrutineers.

Unfortunately for some, the Concours committee and Austin-Healey Club have asked us to refrain from sharing the actual score we received when the judging process was completed, and we will respect their wishes. All that matters is that car 501 is a Concours Gold certified car, and that is what we set out to achieve. But what we can do is discuss with you what some deductions were and why they occurred, as well as share an inside look into the judging process live in action!

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501 & Gumby Return Victorious!

September 23, 2022 by bugeyeguy

We did it!

This past week, I attended the National Austin-Healey Club Enclave in Pennsylvania. I decided to bring two Bugeyes that could not possibly be more polar opposite from each other. Car 501 was there to be judged as a concours vehicle, undergoing 4 hours of relentless judging from a panel of 4 experts with the goal of attaining gold medal certification. Gumby was brought to show at the popular vote show in downtown Stroudsburg. Much to my delight, we left the Poconos with both cars receiving the highest possible awards!

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1275 Disc Brake 1960 Bugeye Driver For Sale!

September 23, 2022 by bugeyeguy

NOW SOLD to Mark in Georgia! Congrats on taking home Arnold, our 365th sold!

This is a 1960 Bugeye Sprite we call “Arnold” (AN5L 27855). Arnold has been here at Bugeyeguys twice before and received an extensive amount of upgrades and attention each time. It’s fresh off a five-year stint in Canada and is ready for its next owner. Arnold is a sound driver! And many people love wire wheels with two-eared knock offs!

Arnold has many reliability and performance upgrades to make it fun, including a 1275 engine with exhaust header and rib case transmission, premium aluminum radiator, K&N lifetime air filters (which have been freshly re-charged), front disc brakes with vented rotors, a solid-state electric fuel pump, front sway bar, three point retractable seat belts and more!

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Adding Fuel To The Fire

September 16, 2022 by bugeyeguy

Most Bugeyes came with the Carburetor setup you see here, with overflow pipes protruding from the float bowl. But what did car 501 have?

It’s crunch time here at Bugeyeguys! We have been spending our last week before the National Austin-Healey Club Enclave appearance ironing out the final details to get AN5L 501 ready to judge. This past weekend, we had a couple of unbiased third party observers mock judge car 501 and tell us some areas they thought we could improve. (More on that here.) However, there was one area that has been a real point of contention (and sometimes confusion) between the mock judges, our lead project mechanic Terry, our lead project researcher Nick, and myself. That area was the carburetor bowl vents.

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Our Quest For Concours Gold Nears The Finish Line!

September 16, 2022 by bugeyeguy

Car 501 immediately upon its arrival to our shop. This car has come a VERY long way since this photo was taken about 66 days ago.

The end is near! We are so very close to loading AN5L 501 into a trailer and taking it to the Austin-Healey club national Enclave and concours event in Pennsylvania next week. We have spent the last 66 days completely disassembling the car, rectifying every non-concours detail we could find (and some we didn’t even know existed), and putting it back together. We did all of this in conjunction with our normal business operations, too! It has been two months of research, documentation, meetings, consultations, blood, sweat, and a little frustration to get to where we are today with 501, but we are elated with the final result, and we believe the concours judges will agree that this car is worth concours gold!

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“Topping” Off Our Concours Quest!

September 9, 2022 by bugeyeguy

As the deadline approaches for the concours debut of Bugeye #501, we are getting into some of the finer points of accurate national concours preparation. Each trip down the list of requirements reveals a new element or something we may have missed. We are double- and triple-checking every element to ensure maximum accuracy (and points) and also to ensure we have properly returned car 501 to its accurate original state.

This week, we worked on the top and side curtain fit. The car will probably never be out in the rain again, but the kit has to be accurate and has to fit right, as we will be judged on accuracy of the components and also on quality of the fit. None of these ever fit well; in fact, the weatherproofing of a Frogeye was always a bit of a joke. However, this car actually has quite nice fit and finish of its weather components, especially when you consider that the pieces are all quite old!

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