Modified Bugeyes

Our supercharged Bugeye Sprite in Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car!

July 16, 2014 by bugeyeguy

We have another great article in the July, 2014 issue of Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car! (you can see their first article about our cars featuring three different Bugeyes at the top of our homepage) This new one is all about the blown Bugeye we built for a great customer in Vancouver. Click the link below to read the article! Thanks to David Lachance for another great Bugeye Story!

In the top picture, you can see the car as it looked once completed. In the picture beneath, you can see David shooting his detail pictures on his visit. The supercharger is a fantastic upgrade. We have kits in stock if you want us to build a blower Bugeye for you!

Click here to read Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car July 2014 “Blower Bugeye” article

How to fully sort an already great British Sports car

February 2, 2014 by bugeyeguy

It was very hard to part with this amazing modified 1965 Sprite, but we recently sold it to a great new owner in Nashville, where it will certainly have a great home. After the purchase, we were tasked with improving any weakness in the car, and so we further upgraded this already wonderfully upgraded car. Each improvement made the total package that much better, and now the car is TRULY ready for it’s next chapter.

As with most of the cars we purchase, there is an initial punch list of mechanical issues that need to be addressed, so we handled those first. No matter how well restored a car may be advertised to be, there are always issues that the prior owner either didn’t know they had, or couldn’t address with their resources for whatever reason. That’s why we get so many calls from people who have made recent EBAY purchases, because the listing seldom matches the actual car, no matter how good the photos look. We have the luxury of a fully stocked shop and a whole lot of experience knowing what is truly possible for these cars.

So here is the list of what we did before we could let this car go… first, the brakes were not operating at their potential. Even though they worked OK, I could tell from driving a lot of Sprites that they could be better. The rear brakes, it turns out, were assembled with the springs on the wrong side, so the rear brakes weren’t doing much, and the shoes were wearing at an angle. The Ebrake linkages were also installed incorrectly, so the rear brakes were compromised. Add to that a pair of leaking rear wheel cylinders and so there was brake fluid on the rear shoes. In total, the rear brakes needed to be completely redone.

Next the master cylinder had started weeping a bit, and the new owner elected to have us put in an upgraded sleeved master for improved longevity. There was a plug in the slave cylinder with no bleed screw, so we addressed that, bled the whole system, and that took care of the hydraulic system.

We next tuned and synched the carbs, and changed the ram air inlets to K and N lifetime air filters. I couldn’t tell that there was any degradation in performance but we feel a lot better now that the incoming air is filtered. We did notice a flat spot at about 3500 rpms, and a rich pair of needles fixed that, which was not surprising given the upgraded power plant in this car.

Next we moved on to modern drivability, and enhanced all the lighting, with LED lights on all four corners, and LED brake and tail lights. Cibie-style headlight bulbs also improved the look and lighting on the front end. We needed to convert to negative ground for the LEDs to operate, and that meant converting the electronic tach for negative ground. Complete disassembly of the tach is required for this.

We then added an air horn to replace the “road runner” style “meep meep” horn that was in there.

Another issue was a loose baffle that was rattling in the handsome twin tip muffler. The new owner opted to replace that with our slick Sebring Sprite muffler we have developed, with more petite tips that look more to scale on the car, and a deep and serious exhaust note.

Next were three-point retractable shoulder belts, which really help to make the driver feel more secure.

Shifting was difficult, especially when cold, so we added MTL synthetic, which I love in these Datsun five speed transmissions. It is a magic cure for difficult gear engagement in this particular gearbox.

Add to all this complete service of all the other routine items, and the car is ready for it’s new home. You can see me and Bodhi take our final February test drive here before loading the car into an enclosed trailer for (much warmer) Nashville.

I am not sure what you get when you pay for “dealer prep” shown on the window sticker of every new car. But at Bugeyeguy, dealer prep means 20 or 30 hours of careful enhancements for modern roadways and a thorough diagnostic discussion with a new owner to make sure that the car that arrives is exactly as expected. We’ve had customers who want to do it themselves, and customers with great local mechanics who they want to use for any enhancements. But most of our customers want to take advantage of the expertise that comes from now 120 Sprites we’ve shipped to new homes. With every car we learn something new, and we leverage that experience to make the next car even better!

Custom long wheel base Bugeye Sprite goes to a great new home

May 29, 2013 by bugeyeguy

Here’s the man who started our LWB project and you can see his new Bugeye fits him like a custom tailored suit!

Some months ago, we sold a Bugeye to a great guy in Louisiana who had one as a kid, and now wanted a nice restored car. Problem was when he got the car it didn’t quite fit like he remembered, and his adult 6’4 1/2″ frame was not quite as nimble as it was during his teenage years. So he asked us if it might be possible to lengthen the cockpit, and we cut this car in half, added 5″ to the floor pans, doors and rockers, and made a one of a kind long door LWB Bugeye. You can see pictures of the project unfolding on the LWB tab under categories on the right margin of our homepage.

Bugeyes fit a surprising range of body types, and we had 6’2″ Rick drive his car (Abby) across country people quite nicely. But Dave was pushing the height envelope, and to get him into his Bugeye, we set out to build a one-of-a-kind special car.

This past week, he flew in to our nearby New Haven airport in a Cessna Citation Mustang (which ironically is s SHORTENED Cessna citation). Anyway, below you can see the video of Dave getting in the LWB Bugeye for the very first time!

Dave lit up a cigar, and off we went, and it was quite special to watch the look on his face as he bombed around our neighborhood in his custom car.

There were no issues building this project, hardest perhaps was the lengthening of the door top cockpit trim. We cut some damaged trim pieces in half to make extensions, welded the pieces together and then sanded and buffed them to a high sheen so the extension was not visible. It was also challenging to lengthen the doors and make them smooth with no sign of welding seams, but with lots of sanding and patience, there is no evidence that these doors were ever extended.

Other than that, most of the project was pretty straightforward. We finished out the car just like any other stock Bugeye, so the car looks stock in just about every way.

Once you see the longer door version, all the stock cars look like they have stubby doors, but regardless, I don’t anticipate that we will customize too many more bodies like this, unless of course the demand is there, in which case we will be happy to make a Bugeye that fits your particular body type. It was an exciting project for us, and we are particularly excited about this result!

LWB Bugeye-build, update #2

January 11, 2013 by bugeyeguy Leave a Comment

Our extra long Bugeye is progressing nicely!

This week Bob’s been welding away to rebuild the spine of this car with sufficient strength and integrity to support an extra 5 inches of length. Again our goal is to build a completely stock looking Bugeye in every way except for a 5 inch section welded right in the center of the car to make the cockpit roomier.

The car is now sold– one of our customers fit fine in his Bugeye back in high school but right about now he’d like a little bit roomier cockpit in his Sprite. He was 6’5″ back then too!

Which rear end do you prefer?

December 3, 2012 by bugeyeguy Leave a Comment

What a joy to have two stripped Bugeyes in residence, both modified, both great fun, and both unique!

Shelby has now sold, but Wolf and Priscilla, our other modified Bugeyes, are still available!

Shelby in blue is radically modified, yet retains enough essence of Bugeye to be tasteful and attractive.

Wolf in green has a 5 speed transmission and leather interior, and more stock trim than Shelby but is still racier and more modified than most.

Both feature beautiful custom roll bars.

I love the clean rear of Shelby, a pure sculptural form, unencumbered by turn signals (they’re in the brake light housing), chrome, bumpers or fender beads. Look how much more busy Wolf looks, with all his stock Bugeye features. Both striking and wonderful… just different.

In a discussion today with a customer, we schemed about removing the vinyl on Shelby’s dashboard, removing the radio and welding the hole shut, and then painting the whole dash royal blue to match the car, then replacing the seats with blue leather covers with white piping, and capping off the build with powdercoated white minilight wheels. That will take Shelby into the into the super-frog stratosphere!

But Wolf’s still pretty cool… I like them both!

There are a few very distinct communities of Bugeye lovers–there are people who love the stock cars, and want nothing of the modifications. And then there are those who love Bugeyes and want more performance. “In sprite” of a common passion for Bugeyes, the two factions are sometimes highly polarized!

We love it all, and serve all communities of Bugeye lovers. We care dearly for that which is correct and original, and we also love the open-ended possibilities of building the ultimate Bugeye. Most importantly, serving these two sometimes divergent populations has helped us to better understand these cars in an intimate way. The knowledge that we collect serving all types of Bugeye-lovers helps us to make the highest quality product possible.

Each Bugeye that passes through our doors (and there have been many!) helps us to make the next car even better!

Click BUGEYES FOR SALE-CURRENT INVENTORY (right margin) for more info on these and our other cars for sale!)

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