NOW SOLD to Roy in Oklahoma! Congratulations on giving our 344th Bugeye a great new home!
This is “Bucky,” (AN5L 18013), a 1959 Bugeye that’s a very special driver. The car has a few nicks in the paint, and the wiring harness should be changed to a nice reproduction original one, but if you want a wonderful 1275-powered front disk-brake and five-speed car to drive and enjoy, give this one a serious look. We had the car here 1400 miles ago (in 2019) for about $13,000 in upgrades for the prior owner, so if you don’t mind the slightly scruffy cosmetics, you get a car with a massive list of mechanical improvements that we already in place for the prior owner.
We have the build sheet that shows about 100 improvements that we can share if you are interested, but some of primary improvements already made include a new top, completely new front end disk brake conversion, new rear axle pinion seal, all new hydraulics, new steering column bushings, new header and performance exhaust system, aluminum radiator, electronic ignition, front sway bar and of course the Ford five-speed transmission upgrade, which makes the car much more user-friendly plus they are much more stout than the original gear boxes. You get a fully synchronized gear box plus an overdrive, so there are very sweet driving benefits from this upgrade. Because the prior owner gave us the freedom to fix anything that needed attention when the car was here in 2019, everything integrates quite nicely, and this car is a dream to drive.
When the car arrived here last week, the head gasket was blown, so we replaced it and install a fresh newly machined 1275 head with hardened valve seats for unleaded gas. This gave a chance to look at the cylinder bores up close, and the engine internals look quite new. So this is a low mileage engine, with a bottom end rebuilt in the not too distant past, and with a brand new head. You can see how nicely the car now drives in the video shown in this post.
A note about this video… the top bow was deployed in its holders during this drive so the bow was rattling against the back deck. Sorry about that! That rattle has now been fixed (by locking the bow in the low position so it can’t rattle)!
Bucky was a Wisconsin resident most recently and that’s where the heated seats were added. The dashboard is non stock from a later Sprite, so the non stock seat heat switches on the dash fit just fine. By the way, the underside on Bucky is excellent, with recent new floor pans. Solid!
The car is ready for new front shocks (these are fine but starting to get a little soft). The 155 tires are good, from 2017. There is a good tonneau present, but the zipper needs repair. The rockers are painted with a chip guard paint to protect them from stone chips.
Go Bucky!
