Bugeye Restoration

The quest to find a great Bugeye, online.

February 4, 2022 by bugeyeguy

Bring a Trailer is an amazing phenomenon that moved about $900 million of classic cars and stuff in 2021. There are lots of new competitors wanting a piece of that action, so we will be seeing even more online auctions in the future. And like any modern online universe, it comes with some unique challenges. All the information on a typical BaT auction is largely crowd-sourced, so the discussion about each car is generally directed by the audience and that audience is often striving for credibility.

Thus posters often cite their memories, history, blood, sweat and tears, etc. to gain a toehold in the group discussion. Occasionally, viewers chime in with praise for the seller, EG, “I have seen every car this seller built and they were all excellent.” Occasionally, you’ll hear from folks who have gone to inspect the car, so you’ll see in the comments, “I’ve been to see this car and it’s everything it was represented to be, and looks even better in person.”

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It’s all about the “L”

January 28, 2022 by bugeyeguy

A number of people emailed about our new 501 project that I announced last week now that we’ve purchased the first production Bugeye sprite (AN5/501). They were astute to notice that T-shirt we’ve made (and chassis number plate) shows AN5/501. Yet the car is clearly left hand drive. So what gives?

A call to the Heritage Trust, keeper of all heritage certificates for all classic BMC cars, confirmed that the first six production Frogeyes were all left hand drive bound for the United States (AN5/507 was the first right hand drive Frogeye). This is interesting in and of itself… you would think that this distinct British made roadster would’ve started life primarily as a right hand drive vehicle for some lucky Brits, but actually the first production cars were left hand drive. Remember, the total production is predominantly left-hand drive for all Sprites, with the USA as the primary market for this product, and that was always part of the BMC strategy.

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Fuel sender funk

January 28, 2022 by bugeyeguy

We’ve had many posts about Fuel sender’s, but it never ceases to amaze me there’s always a new way for people to mess this up so it’s worthy of one more post. The tank shown has the sender mounted 45° out of whack- and can’t move fully without hitting the tank. I didn’t think you could install a fuel sender this way – and the online auction where this car was purchased would not reveal this so the buyer had to have us fix it.

There’s actually a dent in the tank so that it can go all the way up to “full” the float has to go up to the top of the tank to send the needle up to full. Also interesting about this photo as you can see how much corrosion has happened from fuel leaking out of the top of the cork gasket. You can see the stains and the loss of paint indicating that this one would’ve been leaking badly. Of course the owner complained that the gas gauge didn’t work at all!

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Our most significant car ever!

January 21, 2022 by bugeyeguy

I never would not have thought we could have handled so many Bugeyes since I started our business in 2007 (341 sold as of this writing). Nor would I have ever thought purchasing my Bugeye “Gumby” in 1978 would one day spawn such an all-consuming enterprise. From concours gold to electric conversion, we (and our Bugeyes) have had a wonderful ride. We’ve built a lot of great cars and made a lot of drivers (and spectators) very happy.

This past December, I made my most significant purchase ever, and bought car AN5/501, the first production Bugeye Sprite. It seems entirely fitting to me that we should own this car, and that we should do everything we can to leverage our experience to make it as accurate as possible so that it can protect and share this critical piece of British sports car history.

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Floppy front end

January 14, 2022 by bugeyeguy

Another day, another worn front end on a Spridget. This post is a not so gentle reminder to go out and grease those zirk fittings on your Spridget front end, to help keep your kingpins from wearing out.

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Loosey goosey – rickety rack

January 14, 2022 by bugeyeguy

Everything changes. We learn this lesson weekly. That which once worked, works no longer. Parts are getting older. Cars get used. Things wear out.

Steering racks never used to be a problem with Bugeyes, we haven’t replaced many over the years, but more and more of them seem to have worn inner tie rods. In the video above, you can see me exaggerating the play we sometimes see. This rack is worn out. Check your car to see if you can discern that your inner tie rod ends are worn out too!

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