bugeyeguy – Page 16

Beautiful Iris Blue 1960 Bugeye for sale, California car! $21,995

June 14, 2024 by bugeyeguy

NOW SOLD to Bob in MA! Congratulations on taking home car #414!

We are very excited to offer for sale “Fiona” (AN5L 21356), a very clean 1960 Bugeye with quite the story to tell. Fiona came to us from California, where she spent the last 35 years under the stewardship of the same owners. This is a very clean California car that has been well-loved by the same family for many years!

Check out the driving video below!

Under prior ownership, Fiona appeared in two magazine articles, once in Road & Track in 1991 and once in Miata Magazine in 1992 . Both articles are available below to read, and a copy of each original magazine will come with the car.

[Read more…]

Ain’t no Pokey

June 14, 2024 by bugeyeguy

Car show season is upon us!

Here’s Gumby at speed on the way to “British by the Sea” a couple weeks ago. This special car was awarded “first in class,” quite an honor in this large show which featured an assembly of about 320 classic British sports cars.

Driving Gumby allows me to appreciate the importance and effectiveness of the many modifications we add to our cars. Gumby is a competent highway cruiser and stunning restoration, with all the right modifications. I’ve had so many people over the years tell me they were terrified to drive their Bugeye over 40 miles an hour because the car was unstable and unpredictable… but Gumby tracks beautifully at 75 miles an hour.

We’ve now sold and restored almost 500 Sprites so we know how to make these cars wonderful. Please get in touch so we can help you get your car in winning form! We will be happy to pick up your car anywhere in the USA and improve it for you. And we certainly can provide the parts to get you there with grace and style. Get in touch!

Bugeye Sprites done right!

June 7, 2024 by bugeyeguy

Once we receive a car that we buy or contract to restore, we immediately start improving the car. After the first test drive and ride on a lift, we build a spreadsheet to record any and all issues. Each car goes through multiple pre-departure checklists. These are our babies, and they don’t leave “the nest” until we get them right.

Throughout the process of building our cars, I put on as many miles as possible, and then, on the final test drive, my job is to verify everything is done right.

Because we work with so many cars out of our area, we only get one chance to optimize the car. Emil, for example, (the car in this video) will travel to Montana once we release it, so we need the car to be perfect before it departs.

In this video, you can see my final test drive before this car was loaded for a long trip to Montana, and you can hear a bit about my thought-process as another Bugeye heads out for a new life.

1960 Bugeye Sprite for sale, great driver!

May 31, 2024 by bugeyeguy

NOW SOLD to Phil in CT! Congrats on bringing home Bugeye # 412.

Price reduced! Now $19,995! More than $20,000 in recent work completed! Great value!

Here’s a fun driver for sale with a ton of new work just completed! Meet “Mira” (AN5L 42061), a 1960 Bugeye Sprite (titled as a 1961). This is a nice driver with a stock 948 engine and drum brakes all around. We’ve just completed a very thorough mechanical restoration, so the car has been quite upgraded for the new owner.

Mira had been hibernating during recent years so we adopted the car for a massive refresh prior to sale. The wiring harness was damaged from a prior fault so we removed all of the original wiring and installed a brand-new reproduction wiring harness that looks just like the day the car was new. We took this opportunity to install a number of new electrical parts in addition to the harness, such as a new ignition switch (with our upgraded ignition switch guillotine to secure the switch in the dash), a new starter pull switch, new horn contact ring, horn brush, turn signal switch, wiper switch, dip switch harness, and more!

[Read more…]

Tach drive trouble

May 31, 2024 by bugeyeguy

Spridget tachometers occupy a lot of our time. They break a lot. That’s why we love the electronic tachometer option we sell in our catalog, which you can see below (click photo for more pix in our parts catalog). This electric gauge allows you to dispose of the wonky mechanical drive system.

Most Sprites still have their original mechanical tach drive. We’re constantly discovering new ways that they can break.

In today’s installment of “As the tach turns,” you can see something new, which is a worn generator housing, which resulted in a high level of stress on the tach gearbox which led to its destruction and rendered the tachometer non-operational. I am sharing this with you because it helps all of us be that much smarter about keeping these instruments operational. It’s smart to check your tach gearbox-take it apart and pack it with grease.

*A worn rear generator bushing led to all of this carnage!* *(New, replacement tach gearbox is shown in foreground)*

The symptom, in this case, was a tachometer that worked intermittently. Disassembly of the little tach gearbox attached to the rear of the generator revealed more carnage than we’ve ever seen before. You can see the teeth are worn badly on the drive gears, and that’s why it was full of brass powder. This little gearbox was well on its way to having no gears.

A new generator and tach drive fixed the problem.

*A properly-configured and maintained Bugeye mechanical tachometer system can work almost as well as an electronic tach!*

Please also make sure your tach cable is routed properly in your the engine bay so you don’t add stress and friction to that driveline. If that cable is stressed, your tach will read quite nervously. Click here for a post we have done in the past on the proper routing for your tach cable.

You can buy all the parts you might need in our catalog. This post demonstrates one more reason why we like alternators or Gen/alts, which have better bearings than the original stock generator and charge more efficiently. You can buy all those parts at the links below if you’re interested, or click here for our complete catalog!

*Generator/alternator is a nice upgraded from the stock generator (available for cars with and without cable-driven tachometers)*

*Sprite/Midget alternator conversion kit*

Bugeye Paint stripper

May 31, 2024 by bugeyeguy

Non-silicone brake fluid removes paint beautifully. Ask me how I know!

For the past few months Gumby has had a leaking brake light switch where it attaches to the brake line union on the passenger side under the bonnet. You can see where the brake fluid collected on the little shelf underneath it, and proceeded to munch my beautiful new paint in that area. Arghh!

*The blistered paint and old fluid has been removed and we will re spray this area in green. You can see Gumby’s original red paint left behind*

The solution was to remove the brake light switch from the union and wrap the threads with some Teflon tape to improve the seal and then re-tighten the brake switch. That should stop future leaks.

It’s not so easy to remove the brake light switch, which is why we have a custom tool available to help you do so should you have a similar malady. You can see and purchase that tool below by clicking on the photo.

*We call this tool “The Lifesaver”! This tool will help to keep your brake union steady while you remove your brake light switch. Click on the photo to learn more and to order one today!*

All classic car owners need to regularly check their hydraulic fluid. This is a very important diagnostic action. The first clue that my switch was leaking was the low fluid level in the master cylinder. It was low enough that I soon would have lost my brakes…so please check your hydraulic fluid reservoir frequently.

In fact, people often over-check their engine oil and insufficiently check their hydraulic fluid. Engine oil burns and leaks, but unless you’re down multiple quarts, the car will still run just fine. Brake fluid, however, dramatically impacts stopping and also eats up your paint. So make sure you check your fluid regularly. If your clutch side is low, your slave cylinder is likely leaking, and if your brake side is low, then chances are good your rear wheel cylinders are leaking and simply checking the level is your first diagnostic steps to help you keep your car in tiptop shape. Brake fluid doesn’t evaporate, so if the level drops, you have a leak that needs to be addressed immediately.

*If you loose enough fluid so that you see the little fence inside your reservoir, you have a leak that needs to be addressed before simply refilling the reservoir.*

Before I leave this subject, silicone DOT 5 fluid is a nice solution if you are concerned about paint loss from leaks. The challenge is that you can’t mix it with DOT 3 or 4, so the entire system has to be completely flushed to make that changeover. You have to get rid of every last bit of DOT 3/4 residue or you will get contamination. A DOT 5 switch is really only practical if you are re-doing all your lines and cylinders.

If you find a leak in your hydraulic system, you will need some new hydraulic parts to fix the issue. We have a complete line of brake and clutch hydraulic parts in our catalog! Click the photos below for some examples of parts we have available, or view our full line of brake hydraulic parts here!

*Brake light switch (Screw terminals, Bugeye only)*

*Hard brake line kit (Bugeye, Mark II Sprite/Mark I Midget)*

*Brake master cylinder, 7/8 bore (Bugeyes with four-wheel drum brakes)*

*Clutch slave remote bleeder (948-1275)*

*Improved clutch slave cylinder, stock 7/8″ bore*

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