Shelby is ready to depart!
It’s always particularly special when we get a car back in our shop that we previously prepared because the car inevitably leaves with new improvements each time through. In this case, Shelby has been here for two prior owners and now is ready for Vernon in Oklahoma, the third owner to push the car to new heights.
[Read more…] about Shelby Says Sayonara!
Now SOLD to a buyer who has asked to remain anonymous for now! Bugeye #356 has found its next home!
Today’s Bugeye offering is a car we like to call “Creamsicle.” AN5L 2564 is a great driver with a 948 engine and front disc brakes. We had this car in our shop in December 2020 and delivered about $8,500 worth of improvements, so the car has been recently gone through for a prior customer; if you’re looking for a well-sorted car, thus, this is a great candidate.
We call this car Creamsicle for obvious reasons. There’s a good story behind its unique paint job. The fellow who had this car for many years in New Haven, Connecticut was on a budget (like a lot of Bugeye owners were back in the day) and in order to paint the car he was able to reclaim surplus paint from his body shop buddies to use on his car. That’s Barracuda Orange Crush on the center section and Chrysler White on the wings. He wanted an entirely orange car, but there wasn’t enough orange to finish the job, so white would have to do – and that’s how Creamsicle was born.
[Read more…] about Fun 948-powered 1958 Bugeye Driver For Sale! Driving Video!From our “never seen this before” department, here’s something ugly we found this past week. As ugly as this situation was, this car has actually been this way for a lot of miles.
On this particular Bugeye, the car has been driving with no rear washer on the control arm mount. This allowed the control arm to wiggle in its mount! That’s not desirable because it results in alignment changes with every bump and turn, and a less than stable front suspension. It’s amazing that there were no real issues as a result of this omission; I can assure you the suspension is much tighter now that we’ve installed the proper control arm washer and bushings in their rightful places!
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…] about Jay Leno’s Bugeye Survivor!
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.
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!
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.
