Click Here To Visit Our Parts Catalogue

CURRENT INVENTORY IS SHOWN IN THE SMALL PICTURES JUST BELOW THIS TEXT!
(if a car is not pictured here, it has been sold)

All about the “L”, Part 2

by

Here’s the plate, but where’s the L?

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…] about All about the “L”, Part 2

There’s Always A Catch

by

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

by

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. 

It’s All About the “S”

by

Things are worn out all around us, and as usual, below are some posts about the usual broken car parts. But this week, we are also proud to announce that we have worn out our company name! Effective today, Bugeyeguy becomes Bugeyeguys. It’s a small difference, but it means the world to us!

Bugeyeguys, circa 2012. A different era (in a different building!).

When I started this company in 2007, the name “Bugeyeguy” was meant to be inclusive, as in, “I’m a Bugeyeguy, you’re a Bugeyeguy, those of us who love Sprites are all Bugeyeguys.” Now, fifteen years later, we want to further emphasize inclusivity by making our company name plural. We also want to celebrate and acknowledge just how far we have come with a new name that reflects where we are headed. This is no longer about any one person, and can only be about a much larger team, and that includes our growing staff, and our growing family of fans.

The quonset’s facade has come a long way since this picture. So has our company.
Our humble quonset hut prior to its transformation into the space we know today. Check out the transformation in the slideshow below!

We are now a team of eight full time employees, all dedicated to the same mission of keeping these cars at their best. We have just sold our 350th Bugeye (thank you Samuel in Alabama for taking home “Mooney”!). We have just added air conditioning to our rear workshop so our technicians can be at their best through the entire summer season. We now own the world’s first production Bugeye Sprite (AN5 501), which we will upgrade to accurate concours standards and showcase as early as this coming September, at the Austin-Healey Club of America Enclave in Pennsylvania, and other big shows next year. We have a very full production schedule full of classic British cars that need upgrades and repairs, and we are honored that they have been brought to us from all over America!

Car 501’s Journey is making progess! Follow it here.

Car 501, by the way, has left port in Australia and is getting closer every day at the speed of about 18 Knots. She’s currently making a stop in Dunedin, New Zealand, on her way to Cartagena, Columbia! (Follow her progress here.)

Things out back have come a long way too! Here is Gumby in 2015, taking the maiden voyage up our long ramps, the old way we had to load cars into the building.

We’re having another great year so far in 2022, and we thank you all for your support and interest in our work. We can’t do it without you! Thank you for being among the best Bugeyeguys (and girls) in the world!

Bugeyeguys all! Samantha, Austin, Nick, Ken, Bodhi with David, Rob, Terry and Mike. (Tucker is not present above, but he gets a special picture below!)

P.S.: It will take us a little while to change all of our logos to the new one you see here. Both bugeyeguy singular and bugeyeguys plural will take you to the same place. Phone numbers and contact info won’t change. We look forward to serving you for years to come!

Tucker wrestles Cici’s fuel tank to the ground

Sender Gasket of the week!

by

This week, we upgraded CiCi’s Iris Blue Bugeye (here from Incline Village, Nevada) with a fresh 1275 engine and ribbed-case transmission. While checking over the car, we found the tell-tale sign that her sending unit gasket had failed.

Can you see the clue in the photo below?

Look very closely. Do you see the stripes running left to right? Those stripes were caused by a leaky fuel sender leaking fuel out of the top of the tank.

Look closely and you’ll see some fine lines along the bottom of the tank. We didn’t fill the tank so we had no gas smell to reveal the presence of fuel sitting in the sender well, (nor did we want to fill the tank incase we would immediately have to drain it for repair). But these fine lines gave us enough of a clue to dig further.

[Read more…] about Sender Gasket of the week!

Broken, Regardless of the Universe You Inhabit

by

If your u-joints are notchy like this, and feel like they have a spot in them where they “catch”, its time for some new ones! (notice how it moves smoothly in one axis, but notchy in the other)

On Cici’s Bugeye whilst reinstalling the engine, we noticed that the universal joint on the back of the driveshaft was clearly not up to speed. Take a look at the video above; you can see that it is “notchy,” perhaps because one of the u-joint end caps is missing one of its rollers. Maybe the last installer knocked one of the needle bearings out of position and it’s been like that ever since? Regardless, clearly a new U-joint was needed, and now Cici is back in business.

Any time the drive shaft comes out, make sure you check your u-joints! We sell them in our catalog if you need a spare! (Buy yours here!)

Our Greaseable U-Joint is a direct replacement for your Spridget’s driveshaft. Click here to order!
Contact us at customercare@bugeyeguys.com or call (203)-208-0980 Monday - Friday | 8 am - 5 p.m. EST