Bugeye Basics – Page 6

Fresh Rubbers!

March 17, 2023 by bugeyeguy

Before Spring driving season blooms, make sure to give your car a good visual inspection, with a particular focus on your rubber bits. (If you’re looking to get your car ready to drive this spring, and would rather have us run through it and tighten things up, give us a call and we will be happy to give your car the attention it needs… we pick up nationwide).

The examples below came to us from an armada of British cars here in our workshop for driving-season maintenance. For example, inner control arm bushings need to be fresh so that your suspension is good and tight. These were long past their expiration date. If you see cracked rubber flared out around your inner control arm mounts, it’s time to replace!

Here are some motor mounts we removed this week from a Morris Minor, also well past their useful life. Morris Minors and Bugeyes use the same engine mounts, so if yours look like this, make the change!

[Read more…]

A lost language

March 10, 2023 by bugeyeguy

My first car (a ’66 MGB) had two dead six-volt batteries for my entire ownership. I never shut it off or parked it unless I was on a hill, and I pop started my way through high school. Sometimes, I had to walk a bit after parking if my destination was, for example, deep into a very flat flood plain, but it in Southern New England, it never seemed to an issue, and all the pop starting and walking seemed to keep me in fine shape.

Nowadays, we expect a little more from our vehicles, and as the world has evolved, societal pop-starting skills have atrophied. So jump into the nearest vehicle with a clutch pedal, check out the video above, and go practice. You never know when The Prince of Darkness will pay you a visit!

Bugeye fender-top beading properly configured and terminated

March 10, 2023 by bugeyeguy

The beading on the tops of the Bugeye bodies are sometimes damaged or removed in restoration. Here’s a video about how to restore them to their original configuration. Make sure to get your beading cleaned-up and properly terminated before the paint goes on!

Beading came in a “T” section and plugged into the seams and was brazed in place in the factory that built the original bodies. Some restorers like to cut off the bottom leg of the “T” and attach the flat strip along the seam to recreate the original look. Once installed, make sure to avoid hitting the bead strip with a sander or grinder or you will ruin the original profile of the strip.

Should your beading be missing or damaged on your Bugeye, we offer a full body beading kit that provides enough beading material to do an entire Bugeye, with a little bit left over! Click on the photo below to get yours, or click here to view our full catalog! We can also provide cut sections in case you only need a small strip. Call or email for help!

One car, five different numbers!

March 3, 2023 by bugeyeguy

Every week, we get a new question regarding the numbering system of these cars. It’s confusing. For example, the body panel stamping factory assigned a BAE number, which didn’t match the chassis number, or the engine number!

It helps to understand that each Bugeye was handled by several different factories all over England before it drove to the yard for shipment to the USA. The base chassis was stamped and welded at John Thompson Motor Pressings, and then the car was shipped to Pressed Steel, where the body panels were made and welded onto the tub.

From there it was on to the Morris factory for paint, and then one more leg of the journey brought the painted tubs to the Abingdon MG factory where the cars were assembled. Engines also were made off site, and they would ship-in from the Morris engine factory. So you had multiple players, and multiple numbers from multiple sources, and no unified numbering system.

In the video below, we dig into these various numbers to help you make sense of how all 50,000 or so Frogeyes came to life. And if you would like a heritage/birth certificate for your car, click here!

Five different components builders left their numbers on every Bugeye!

False start=rear end

February 17, 2023 by bugeyeguy

This is a post about safety for your body, (and your Bugeye’s body too)!

For years, I’ve been inviting our customers to take responsibility their rear end (and for the car following behind). That sounds like an audacious presumption, since there are lots of idiots on the road and we can’t be responsible for what’s in the rear view mirror, but that is exactly my point. They are out there and (potentially) aiming at you– so please pay attention, and you have a fighting chance of staying out of harm’s way. If this sounds like an annoying and unreasonable task, stay with me on this, it doesn’t have to be… it has become second nature for me to “watch my six,” and hopefully it will also become easy and second nature for you too!

This is what a Bugeye repair (not by us) looks like. Even a slow-speed hit can stove-in your rear end, and in this case, a tremendous amount of dollying was required to straighten it out. And lots of filler too (which was just removed on this car for another go at making it straight…

The energy relationship between a Bugeye and an F150, for example, is always going to be more impactful than if you’re driving late model car. That is to say, the crash protection on the back of a Bugeye is nonexistent, and modern SUVs and trucks can significantly damage the back end of a Sprite, sometimes to the point of totaling the car, even in a low speed crash. So it’s really critical to be mindful of your rear view mirror any time you step on the brake pedal in a Sprite (or in any car, for that matter).

[Read more…]

Nick’s Tech Tips: A striking problem with your Doors

January 27, 2023 by bugeyeguy

This week in the shop, we encountered a particularly extreme example of what often happens to door strikers on Bugeyes (and all Spridgets up to 1963). Unfortunately, it’s something that can be prevented with the proper maintenance, but when things are allowed to deteriorate, this is ultimately the end result.

Over time, door strikers can go from looking nice and new (right) to a chewed-up mess (left) if your door latches aren’t properly maintained. Note: the screw mounting holes are the same distance apart on the new part as they are on the old one, they look like they are different due to the angle of the photo.

One of our most recent additions into the showroom earlier this week exhibited hard-closing doors and a rattle coming from the body when going down the road on its initial test drive. After some quick investigative work, it was determined that the striker plates were the source of the rattle. The strikers on this particular Bugeye were EXTREMELY worn, meaning the door wasn’t securely latching closed in its intended position, and lateral movement was allowed to occur. This is not only annoying, but also potentially dangerous, as a worn striker can, in some cases, allow the door to fly open on corners when leaned against (or when the car flexes), and this is potentially catastrophic news if your Bugeye doesn’t have seat belts fitted. (We sell 3-point retractable seat belts you can install, they are available here… but let’s fix the latches first.)

[Read more…]

« Previous Page