They get no respect. Water inevitably gets in your engine oil and sits on the sheet metal under the oil. Hard to believe that such a well-lubricated tray could rust from above, but the water sits below the oil and does the damage. (Remember, you need to change your oil at least once per year to get the water and sludge out. Even though you add quarts of oil through the season, you still have to change it.)
[Read more…] about Be kind to your oil pan
The 948 Sprite engine is a delightful little powerplant, and it works just fine for noodling around country roads, or for running up to the grocery store, or for taking the long way home. But it was designed in an era where there was no such thing as a 500 horsepower new car that you could buy from the local car dealer. It was designed when the everyday bloke had some free time, and didn’t have to rush home to check his instagram account. It was designed during a moment in history when 46 horsepower worked just fine.
[Read more…] about Keeping up with the Joneses
With supply chain issues and pandemic closures, it sometimes feels like the world is broken right now. But we had a jump on everyone else… British classic car world was broken long before the pandemic arrived. Our day is spent with broken things, and our job is to figure out efficient ways to keep everything moving forward nonetheless.
[Read more…] about Broken things scoreboard
I call this display our Rusty Swan Manifesto.
These are quarter elliptical springs from Greg’s Bugeye, which, as you might remember from last week’s post, were found to be sagging and rusty. Here’s how they look on the floor once Terry extracted them. One great way to make peace with messes like these is to call them art.
We cleaned out the spring pockets, rust-proofed them and loaded in new springs and shims. The photos below show the result. The available springs are all too tall but our wedges fix that issue, so Greg’s car now looks and rides right!
[Read more…] about Bugeye SwanPinion seals, (like everything else in our world), leak.
We change a lot of them. And while the $2.49 seal this is often a great solution (click here if you need one), we all need to be very aware that there is often more to the story. The seal is only part of the battle. What rides on the seal is often the issue.
[Read more…] about Pinion Minion
NOW SOLD to Ryan of MA. Congratulations on giving our 338th Bugeye a new home!
This is a Bugeye we call “Johnson.” It’s a 948 powered car with drum brakes all around, as well as a smooth case transmission, so it’s relatively stock in configuration.
This is a car that was extensively made-over in our shop in February 2020, and we recently got the car back when the owner traded for something different. What’s special about this one is that we’ve gone through every square inch of this car for a great client who pretty much gave us free rein to fix anything and everything and the new owner is going to get a special car as a result. She’s cosmetically not perfect but it looks quite striking- the real value of this particular car is that it has been carefully combed in our factory and sorted-out with more than 190 improvements so everything has been adjusted fully-fettled for a lucky new owner.
Upgraded mirrors, hardura mat custom interior, spin-on oil filter, new clutch, electronic ignition, aluminum radiator, three-point seat belts, you name it (with the exception of the front sway bar), we upgraded it, all the hydraulics have been renewed too. There is an extensive build sheet we can share, if you are interested.
The underside is quite solid. The car drives great. Call if you are interested. This is a car that will show-up on the new owner’s doorstep and work reliably, because we went through it in 2020 for the prior owner and would only release it to him when it was completely sorted. Now you can have the benefit of all that hard work.
The new owner will get a Bugeye that is a delight to drive, and completely configured for best reliability and driveablilty!
