Bugeye Basics – Page 9

Jay Leno’s Bugeye Survivor!

June 10, 2022 by bugeyeguy

Exciting news!

Jay Leno has made a new video chronicling his 1959 Bugeye, which is linked below. Jay’s car has many similarities to “Muffin,” another white Bugeye survivor, just purchased this week by Bob in New Jersey (our 354th). Jay obtained his original survivor and has spent the past few months going through it and this is the first peek at how the project has moved forward. This video is one more mainstream endorsement of the car that we love so much, and you can see how giddy Jay is while he plays with it!

[Read more…]

The Quest For Gold!

June 10, 2022 by bugeyeguy

As I write this, AN5L 501 should be loaded on its second container ship and on its way from Cartagena, Columbia, to Edison, New Jersey, where we can retrieve it after the long voyage from Australia and begin our quest for concours gold! The gold medal we seek will (hopefully) come when we bring the car to the Austin-Healey Club Enclave in the Pocono Mountains this September, where the car is entered in the Concours judging competition. Our goal at this event is to attain “gold” certification which means that out of 1000 possible points, we are able to attain 950 or more, as determined by a team of four judges and a roughly two-hour stem-to-stern inspection.

[Read more…]

All about the “L”, Part 2

June 10, 2022 by bugeyeguy

You may not remember that I had a chance to buy AN5L 501 in about 2012. At that time, the car was a basket case. It was also located in California, so I was not able to physically inspect it, nor did I have an abundance of photographs. There was also an additional anomaly… the number plate. The vin plate pictured above read “AN5 501.” But left-hand drive cars for export were all supposed to include an “L”(for left-hand drive) after the AN5.

This car was stamped as if it was a right-hand drive car, yet it was configured as a left-hand drive car. All documentation stated that the first production Frogeye was built for the USA market, so there should’ve been an “L” stamped into the number plate. Everything else (that I could see) checked-out on the car, but this numbering issue was unsettling, especially once I factored in the magnitude of work that lay ahead and the (at the time) outrageous price that was being requested for such a rough car; so I passed. (See my prior post about the number plate by clicking here.)

[Read more…]

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!

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.

A Very Enlightening New Product!

May 13, 2022 by bugeyeguy

This may be one of the most significant products we have added to our catalog in a long time. The perfect storm of old British cars (and drivers) not getting any younger and new drivers paying less attention sometimes creates a precarious situation if your classic breaks down on its next trip. Thus, we are required to fortify our defenses. We are pleased to offer our new LED Rechargeable Flashing Roadside Flare Kit as just such a fortification. These lights should be required equipment for every classic car. None of the vehicles on which we work have hazard lights, so these portable hazard lights are really a hot set-up should anything go wrong with your vehicle and leave you on the side of the road.

Our handy roadside hazard light kit comes with everything you see here. Click here to order!

There are three lights in each package. There are no batteries; all you need to do is charge them with the included USB cord and stick them to the back of your car. In the unlikely event of an emergency, simply stick the handy magnetic lights on your back deck and hit the button. You can pretty much wake-up anybody barreling down the road behind you, day or night. I’m putting a set in each of my cars and you should too! Order yours today!

« Previous Page