bugeyeguy – Page 59

Awesome 2008 Beck Speedster for sale! Great price!

May 2, 2022 by bugeyeguy

NOW SOLD! Thank you for your interest!

If you’re looking for a really fun Beck for the summer, this one’s worth a serious look! it was my own personal car and it has air conditioning and it’s tons of fun! The price is a great for Beck too!

Bud purchased this car from us about a year ago and has put around 2000 blissful miles on it since. But he has since fallen in love with a 911 and has asked us to sell this Speedster for him to make space for his new love. If you want a Speedster replica with air conditioning, check this one out!

The car is currently located in Northern California.

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AN5 501 is Finally on the Move!

April 28, 2022 by bugeyeguy

In case you missed it, I bought the first production Bugeye Sprite back in December, and have been waiting patiently for supply chain issues to resolve so that 501 could get a ride out of Melbourne, Australia where the car was parked at a dealership, waiting in limbo. We are exceptionally excited to have acquired this amazing piece of Bugeye history. Now we just need to get her here!

Our boat date was finally confirmed as April 30, and much to my delight, the car has been packed in a 40 foot container and she’s ready to go. You could put a lot of Foster’s Lager in there with our little Bugeye, and I have to believe that something must have been packed in there with it. I’d imagine that we don’t just have a tiny 11 foot long Bugeye luxuriating in such a big box, but I will never get to see the container, as I will not be present when all the kangaroos jump out when our box arrives in New Jersey.

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1275-powered 1959 Bugeye project for sale!

April 28, 2022 by bugeyeguy

Now SOLD to Samuel in Alabama! Thank you, our 350th sold!!!!

Our latest offering is “Mooney” (AN5L 17816), a 1959 Bugeye that was a bare bones autocrosser, last run in the late 80s. It’s a solid car, with good panels and floor. We got it started this week and it runs well, with good oil pressure. You can expect to need to do a thorough mechanical refresh on this car should you choose to make it your own. She will need all new hydraulics to make the clutch and brakes actuate and a new wiring harness would be really nice, as well as rebuilt carbs (these work but would run even better once rebuilt), and new oil pressure gauge line. All these bits are the typical Bugeye replacement items after a long hibernation.

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A Hole That Will Make You Weep

April 28, 2022 by bugeyeguy

This little hole could be the reason for your failed rear brakes!

We see dozens of soiled brake shoes from axle seal leaks. This weep hole is critical and they are often plugged. Make sure to check yours!

This set of shoes will need to replaced. Oil and grease are two of the biggest culprits for premature brake shoe failure.

Too often, we remove rear drums to find shoes that look like these above. Soiled. Why? Everything leaks in our world, and while the culprit is often a mix of axle grease and hydraulic fluid, sometimes the oil is blocked from exiting the back plate which compounds the problem. You can see the design of the back plate (two pictures down) allows the bearing carrier to sit in a nice little recess with a drain hole, and if that is blocked, the oil that leaks past the axle seal is going to ruin your brakes.

As you can see, over time this “weep hole” clogs with whatever mixture of foreign debris and fluids and reeks havoc on a braking system.

Axle seals can only do so much. When these weep holes are clogged (and they often are), the axle oil will run out of its recessed area and onto the drum, where it will be the same principles of spin-art; soil your brake shoes, coat your drum with oil, or both. Either way, you’re left with no rear brakes and a big mess to clean-up.

If you find yourself with a plugged weep hole, this is one method that can be used to clear it: a pick.

You can see the hole in all these pictures, on just the naked axle housing and also on the car with the backplate attached. Keep ’em clear!

And keep in mind that a failed axle gasket and o-ring will also cause the same effect, even if your weep hole is clear, as will a leaking rear wheel cylinder. You can find our wet brake shoe kit in our catalog, we have the parts to help!

Float Bowl Fiasco!

April 22, 2022 by bugeyeguy

This is John’s Bugeye, which came to us with an erratic misfire under high load. The symptoms were the same as we’ve seen when valve guides are too tight (we’ve written about this in the past). I thought you might like to read about our diagnostic process. We make mistakes too.

Sometimes the best way to solve a running issue is to re-create it! That’s what Tucker and David did in diagnosing this Bugeye.

Under extreme heat and load the engine would break up and misfire. Once we pulled off the road and the temperature dropped just enough, then the valve guides would relax and the engine would run beautifully once again. You could drive the car around town without this issue surfacing but once you were under the highest loads (on the highway, downshifting to climb a hill, for example), only then would this problem resurface. So we did what any good shop would do… rip off the head and send it to the machine shop for a proper milling of the guides to ensure adequate clearance for the valve stems no matter how hot they get. The machine shop verified that the guides were indeed too tight, and they honed them out to make sure the problem wouldn’t recur.

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Linda Progress Report!

April 22, 2022 by bugeyeguy

This is Linda, our 347th Bugeye, sold to Doug in Indiana. Doug wanted all the best drivability upgrades, and so we have begun a set of upgrades in earnest. I thought you might like to see the work in progress, this is somewhat typical for us as we upgrade to disk brakes, and a new exhaust header. The car will enjoy several dozen upgrades before she departs! Thank you Doug for the opportunity!

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