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(if a car is not pictured here, it has been sold)

Great 1960 Bugeye Sprite driver for sale!

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This is a sweet 1960 Frogeye Sprite we call “Cloud” (AN5L 44831).

Now SOLD to John in Ohio! Bugeye #411! Congratulations!

Cloud is a solid car that was built in 1960 near the end of Bugeye production (the car was first titled in 1961). This is a great driver for anyone wanting a mostly stock car with some select upgrades. For example, Cloud was fit with new Minilight alloy wheels and front sway bar during a complete restoration about ten years ago. The car presents nicely and is still quite clean with nice paint and nice body lines and gaps. A luggage rack is also fit, which is handy for weekend getaways.

Cloud has the correct 948 engine mated to an upgraded ribbed case transmission. Drum brakes are fit all around along with wider than stock 175 tires from 2012… the tires ride fine but are aged-out and should be replaced (we can do that for the new owner). The car also has an aftermarket front sway bar from a later Sprite, which improves handling and helps make the car corner flatter.

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How to care for the gears inside your Bugeye Sprite gearbox

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Here’s a video we first posted in 2014… it’s worth revisiting to help preserve Sprite gears worldwide!

Bugeye gear boxes last forever if well cared-for, but many people are heavy handed with their shift levers and grind going into first or gnash going into other gears. A slow hand helps! I like to think that every old gear box I meet draws my shifter into gear rather than me forcing the lever (and potentially creating wear). This is true when driving all old cars. Double clutching also helps on down shifts, and we have other videos that describe how to do this.

In the video above you can see the carnage from sloppy shifting. Fortunately, a rebuilt gearbox for a Sprite is far less expensive than one for a late model car, so even the most smashed gears can be replaced. But with good care, they are very stout and will last the life of the car and beyond!

British car memories

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We are tuning up our website this week and have a few classic posts from about ten years ago. This one caught my attention and is well worth another view!

My first car was a 1966 MGB and I remember sitting in the driveway in that car, even though the engine was all apart in our garage, and imagining what it would be like to drive it. Perhaps that’s how I ended up shooting so many videos of British cars today, all courtesy of that 1966 B that sat in my parent’s driveway for about a year while the 16 year old me learned how to rebuild the engine.

One of the things I love about bringing old British cars back to life is facilitating the kind of experience you see in the video below. We have prepared many Bugeyes as gifts. Many of our customers buy a Bugeye to remember special times in their lives, and to keep those memories alive. It’s a privilege to play a role in that process.

Head-turning 1960 MGA for sale! Drive and show! New video!

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NOW SOLD to Alan in Washington! Congratulations!!!!

Excellent restored example with factory disk brakes! Check out the comprehensive tour of this striking classic in the video below!

This 1960 MGA (GHNL84453) was the subject of an extensive restoration. The paint is excellent and the interior features upgraded leather seats, a nice upgrade with color coordinated red piping. In fact, the restorer chose many premium upgrades, including an upgraded stayfast convertible top, which looks great, and a stainless steel exhaust system. She’s got the stock and original 1600 engine and (stock) front disc brakes as well as really sharp wire wheels. The car is very solid. The underside looks great. The restoration cost a lot more than the current asking price so here’s a great chance to purchase a stunning car without the hassle and extra cost of restoration.

We love the MGA brand AM radio shown above! We’ve also just replaced both rear hubs (they were a little worn) to eliminate any clacking noise from the rear end and to further tighten things up. This is a good one!

For you whitewall lovers, below is a photo of the car so-equipped… she comes with the blackwalls shown above, but the tires are older and should the new owner want to change them, it’s fun to see the car with white walls-some people prefer this look with maximum contrast (we can configure the car any way the new owner would like).

We’ve installed a new generator/alternator, so it looks stock, but is actually an alternator hidden inside an original-looking generator body-this makes a lighter and stronger product with better bearings than the original generator. The regulator looks stock too but it’s actually a brand new dummy regulator with a 50 amp fuse inside that looks exactly like the original, so this is a hot set-up for improved charging, especially at low RPMs. We’ve rebuilt the carbs as well for improved driving performance! The clutch slave cylinder is also new.

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Dashing

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There is no more impactful cockpit restoration opportunity than the Sprite dashboard. These come to us in an infinite variety of “flavors”. Most are hand crafted by our former selves, back when we were young and function was all that mattered. I know I made a lot of dumb decisions back in those days (and I suspect I am not alone). Thus, there is a wealth of padded and over-drilled dashboards out there, often full of improvised switches and work-arounds. 

Before: though certainly not the worst we have seen, the dash in this Bugeye was padded at some point in its life (stock was un-padded) and had an extra hole added for a battery cut-off switch, which was no longer needed. The radio hole also needed to be welded as it lacked metal support for the vinyl covering that had previously been installed.

This particular dashboard was padded, with a large cut out switch on the dash, and with a couple of extra holes hidden under the padding.

In this series of photos you can see how we restored this client’s dashboard back to stock. It is beautiful. The dash bar above the dash is also properly covered now in black. The entire effect is stunning, and the transformation very successful. Now, this car looks right, and restored to its original glory.

Upon removal of the dash from the car, all of the gauges, cables, and switches were removed, and the weathered old vinyl and thick layer of padding glued to the face was stripped away. This revealed what we needed to fix. Namely, the radio hole needed to be filled (which has already been done in this photo), one hole needed to be filled-in adjacent to the steering wheel, and another needed to be welded and re-drilled for the washer pump.
The backside of the radio hole repair. After all of the holes were repaired on the dash, we sandblasted the entire dash, added a layer of body filler to smooth out any surface imperfections, painted the whole dash black, and carefully installed a brand new vinyl cover.
After restoration, the dashboard got new cables, switches, and knobs. A new washer pump, new heater and washer switches with knobs, and the original ignition switch are installed already; a new turn signal switch, new starter and choke cables, and a new original-face combination gauge and original speedometer, tachometer, and fuel gauge.
The finished product! A combination of new parts, really nice original ones, and a lot of skill and tender loving care have taken this dashboard to the next level! Let us do this to your dashboard. Call us for details or click here!

If you would like your car restored to this level, please give us a call. We’ll be happy to pick it up and bring it to our shop and transform your Bugeye into the car of your dreams, just as we are in the process of accomplishing with this client’s car. Alternatively, if you would like us to restore your dashboard back to its original perfection, please give us a call for more information or click here to view in our catalog!

We also offer similar services for cockpit trim and windshield frames. Click on the photos below to check out each of these services and to get the wheels in motion on your restoration!

Dashboard restoration service
Windshield frame and shanchion refinishing service
Cockpit trim refinishing service

Flip Flopping Fiberglass

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We spend a remarkable amount of time working on Bugeye noses. One cannot handle more than 500 Frogeyes without becoming a nose master… none of them fit. All of them need help. All of them have had some form of trauma. We are forever adjusting and refitting them.

The flip forward option is a delightful innovation, especially for our aging lower backs that enjoy the relative ease with which flip-forward noses flip. It’s a lot less work to flip a nose than hoisting one with conventional hinges. And with flip nose conversions come a set of new challenges… frame horns have to be parallel and we are frequently re-aligning those too.

In the pictures here or you see another unique nose challenge. This is a fiberglass nose (on the teal car “Priscilla“) with minimal structure, which made for a very floppy taco shell. We are gifted to have Ken on staff who is a master fabricator, and he constructed a gorgeous inner superstructure to give this droopy nose much more rigidity. In these photos, you can see the initial templates he made for the panels he cut to make a new radiator shroud, thereby adding structural integrity to a nose that was pretty much just flapping in the breeze.

I am beaming to see this innovative repair… we faced a complex challenge to add more rigidity to a wiggly piece of fiberglass in order to better control the nose fit. And now, with Ken’s help, we forged a solution and thus now have the means to fine tune this nose and control its movement. Now, this nose has a fan shroud structure to add much-needed rigidity.

Another Bugeye has now been transformed!

Contact us at customercare@bugeyeguys.com or call (203)-208-0980 Monday - Friday | 8 am - 5 p.m. EST