bugeyeguy – Page 57

Top Shelf 1960 Bugeye Sprite For Sale! Driving Videos!

June 8, 2022 by bugeyeguy

NOW SOLD to Eric in New York! Our 353rd Bugeye sold!

This is AN5L 33167, a 1960 Austin-Healey Sprite Mark I we call “Cinnamon.” Cinnamon is one of the nicest restored Bugeyes in the United States, and if you are looking for an upper-echelon Bugeye, give this one a serious look!

Part of what makes this car so special is that we have already been through it and upgraded it for a prior owner, so dozens of the usual punch list items have already been addressed. We started roughly two years ago with a fantastically restored car with excellent body and paint work, and sorted every last detail for its first owner after the restoration, who lives in Florida. He had us upgrade the car with an aluminum radiator, three point retractable seatbelts, a GPS speedometer, electric tach, and all the reliability improvements that are most common for cars prepared in our shop. That owner later added Ford five-speed conversion to upgrade the car even further!

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There’s Always A Catch

June 7, 2022 by bugeyeguy

Here is an essential item we’ll make sure is present on our Concours restoration of the first Bugeye, AN5 501 (which is projected to arrive in our building some time this July). This is the bonnet safety catch that was built-in at the factory. It was installed just in case you failed to latch the nose properly with the twist latch, so that the nose didn’t fly up at speed.

If you’ve lifted one of these conventionally hinging noses recently, you know all too well that it would take typhoon-like wind speeds to lift the nose even an inch; and with a realistic (if not ambitious) top speed of around 100 miles an hour, there’s just no way that a steel Bugeye nose is going to lift on the highway.

As a result, we remove these catches.

The bonnet safety catch has caused trouble with many a paint job in the past 65 years.

Aside from their redundancy, another main reason is because of what you see in the picture above; they are commonly not aligned with the square hole they cut into the bonnet, and, consequently, they bend and scratch the daylights out of the underside of your nose.

So, if you have one of these things installed, you’re invited to remove it. Your nose will thank you, and no one will ever know!

If, however, you’re into Concours details and wish to keep your Frogeye 100% factory correct, then you’ll need one of these latches. We just so happen to have good stock! You can purchase yours here!

Newly-Improved 1959 Bugeye Sprite Survivor For Sale!

June 3, 2022 by bugeyeguy

Now SOLD to Bob in New Jersey! Congratulations on making Muffin our 354th Bugeye sold!

Since we checked in last, Muffin has enjoyed some major upgrades to prepare her for a new home. We pulled the engine and addressed the weak third gear that came in this car by installing a good original smoothcase transmission and also added four new lever shocks and rear dog bones, new slave cylinder, new transmission and motor mounts, new clutch, new water hoses and heater valve, new pinion seal and a new, more handsome radiator.

We have also put in the proper turn signal switch. The car is now ready for a new home. There’s also a nice tonneau included- as shown in the new photos.

If you are looking for a great mostly original Bugeye (with much improved HS2 carbs) Muffin is your girl!

This is AN5L 12856, a 1959 Austin-Healey Sprite Mark I we affectionately call “Muffin.” If you are the sort of person who likes mostly original cars, this one is for you! She’s a drum brake car with the original 948 engine, which was upgraded with HS2 carburetors. This setup is exactly the arrangement you would find installed on the Sprite mark 2s. HS2s are a great upgrade for any 948-powered Spridget, superior in most every way to the original H1s.

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Why We Do What We Do

May 27, 2022 by bugeyeguy

This is the 350th Bugeye we’ve sold, “Mooney,” and this is a big moment for us Bugeyeguys. We are extremely excited to have reached this milestone. It seems like just recently that we sold our 100th (and that’s when it became clear to me that we really had something here), so to now reach our 350th car is a milestone I had never imagined possible.

More importantly, Mooney represents a true rescue of a forlorn Bugeye that was waiting its turn in someone’s garage for years. Intentions were great, but life got in the way, as most of us know all too well. We are grateful that the previous owner gave us a call so we could acquire the car, and thus, Mooney could come out to play once again.

Mooney is a good car with good bones; our job was to revive the important systems to make it a driver once again for the new owners, a wonderful father/son team who will certainly bring this car to new heights!

We rebuilt the dashboard, installed a new wiring harness, re-plumbed and replaced the hydraulics, and the rest is up to the new owners. Check out the before and after pictures in the video below!!!

For this car, we have been the conduit to bring a hibernating Sprite back onto the streets for all to observe and enjoy, and for all to ponder how we once routinely transported ourselves from point to point. In so doing, we created a new way for a father and son to come together with a common goal, which is to have fun and to keep this car alive for generations to come.

That is an accomplishment truly worth celebrating.

2003 Honda ST 1300 sport tourer for sale! 0-60 3.84 seconds!

May 19, 2022 by bugeyeguy

Now sold!

Here’s something a bit different this week… I’ve owned this 2003 Honda since 2006. Since then, I have enjoyed about 17,000 delightful and trouble free miles on this fantastic machine. Now it’s time to let someone else enjoy it. I am just not using it anymore, as I spend all my open road time in customer cars preparing them for departure!

Someone is going to get a spectacular bike! Ive owned this bike all these years because I had not been able to find any other motorcycle like it; it felt so intuitive, so easy to ride well, and is so wonderful at accommodating high highway speeds and wonderful sport riding at the same time. The saddlebags and rear top bag accommodate a massive amount of groceries for errands or luggage for a tour, and my wife and I have enjoyed some wonderful rides up to Northern Vermont and beyond on this fantastic machine.

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Electric Bugeye For Sale! With Driving Video!

May 19, 2022 by bugeyeguy

NOW SOLD to a client of ours who is making a surprise gift! Thank you and congratulations!

It’s time for us to make some space in our crowded shop, and we’ve got so many projects moving forward that our fully restored electric car is not getting much use. I figured it would be nice to send it to a new home. Many people have inquired about kits and about having us build an electric Sprite for them and you might find that buying a completed car is a more practical and ultimately more cost-effective way to go.

We built “Frog-E” as the ultimate prototype for electric classic Sprite conversions. It has taken me up to 109 miles an hour with no shortage of speed in reserve, and it’s delightfully balanced with a 50-50 weight distribution courtesy of the fiberglass nose. In fact, the net weight of the car is about 50 pounds greater than a steel Stock Bugeye, so weight distribution is better and weight is minimally impacted by the electric conversion. Frog-E’s range is about 100 miles, the torque is smooth, ample, and delicious, and the ramp-up of power is moderated by the computerized controller, so there is no risk of breaking the driveline due to stomping on the “gas” pedal.

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