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

Two very early Bugeyes, two totally different outcomes!

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Drivability upgrades abound on AN5L 505, such as an aluminum radiator, electronic ignition and spin-on oil filter!

The excitement continues this week as we attempt to master all the minute details on 501 and prepare the car for the national concours with just six weeks to go! If you’re new to our story, we’re taking a perfectly beautiful restored number one Bugeye and turning it into a perfect re-creation of how the car looked the day she left the showroom floor. This is not an easy task because every nut, bolt and washer has to be exact, every color has to be correct and there are a few mysteries that even defy our advisory board of past concours judges. Fortunately for us, we’ve taken apart and seen so many cars that we have a pretty good idea of how these cars were built by the factory and we feel confident we’re re-building a car that would make Donald Healey proud.

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More early car subtleties

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AN5 501 engine bay prepped with hydraulic lines in place on the firewall – note the proper steel hydraulic lines to match the original.

Many of our videos call-out the unique features of early 1958 cars. The first 1000 or so cars had some unique bits that were reinforced and strengthened by the time car #1600 or so was built, but there are also some unique features of the very early cars that are not even all that well-documented. One of those features is the mounting of the brake and clutch lines across the firewall. In these photos you’ll see the two green cars 501 and 505 with small p- clips and the brake lines close together and up high on the firewall.

AN5L 505 hydraulic lines, still run in the proper location, but with the copper-nickel line, which is much easier to form and work with.
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AN5L/501 – The quest for gold! Let’s dismantle a perfectly wonderful car!

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I will confess I did contemplate leaving this car exactly how it was restored in Australia and bringing it to the Austin Healey enclave just how it was restored by the prior owner. It was that nice.

After much soul-searching searching, however, I re-committed to making car number one exactly accurate. Tony in Australia (prior owner) built this car to be a driver he could show and drive anywhere. He did beautiful work and installed a number of wonderful features (such as disk brakes) to make the car more drivable than ever… but my vision for this car is that it would look exactly the way it looked when it was brand new, which would preclude any modifications.

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AN5L/501 – The quest for gold! Disassembly day!

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It has begun! We’ve hit day number two, or as we call it at Bugeyeguys, “disassembly day!” We ripped apart a perfectly fine and restored Bugeye to get it back to 1958 specifications, as it would have been the day that it left the factory.

In the video below, we point out some of the differences between the very early Bugeyes and the later versions – take a look and follow along!

AN5L /501-The quest for gold! Just add red oxide!

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The most important result this week is that we now have our proper red oxide coating in the boot of our 501 Sprite and can begin to next assemble all of the rear end components. If you’re unfamiliar, original Frogeyes had red oxide on the interior of the body that was then painted body color on top of that which meant that looking inside the boot you would see traces of this red oxide, particularly on the top of the boot. Our car was painted green throughout when recently restored in Australia so this was technically incorrect and we wanted to repair this and that’s a big reason why we took everything apart especially in the back end of the car.

Now that the red oxide is laid down we can layer on top all of the various fabrics and bolts that would have come later in manufacturing to make it an accurate car for the Concours Judging to come.

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The Eagle Has Landed!

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C’mon in, 501, you’re in good company

Last December, I announced at our company holiday party that I had purchased the first production Bugeye Sprite. Never did I imagine that we wouldn’t be opening the box with this car in it until mid-July 2022, but here we are! Seven-plus months after its journey began, AN5L/501 has arrived, and this special Sprite does not disappoint.

501 is a car that has been restored to Concours condition while also being made into a driver at the same time. This is perhaps one of the best interiors we’ve seen in a Frogeye, one that is both accurate and usable. The builder of the tunnel mat included the ribs that would’ve come on the original rubber mat on the tunnel into a hardura piece and did so with great skill and artistry. Many other small details involving the interior were done with the utmost precision, as well.

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