Bugeye Restoration

Dashboard of the month centerfold

February 21, 2020 by bugeyeguy

Who doesn’t love a nice dashboard? Truth is, we stare at them every time we get into our cars, and they have to look nice with all the curves in the right places.

The dashboard above came to us in a nice red Bugeye we picked up in Florida and brought to our workshop for extensive mechanical restoration. Now that the car’s systems are all tip top, we’ve moved on to cosmetics. This dashboard looks like someone got angry (when the car didn’t start?) and kicked the center of the dashboard.

The customer agreed it was time for a straighten and recover. Note also the puffy covering. Please don’t do this, it never looks right. The original dashboards were flat and vinyl covered, with the vinyl glued directly to the metal face.

I suppose people sometimes try to hide the imperfections in the dashboard with foam, but it never works. We will straighten, weld, fill, smooth and recover this dash so it looks like it did when it came out of the showroom. If you need help with that, send us your dashboard and we will restore yours properly too!

One of the best parts of a dashboard restoration is getting intimate with the yellow factory crayon markings that grace the back of every factory dash. Above you can see the backside of this particular dashboard. It includes the options codes H, R/C, W/W and MPH. These exact codes are seen on 95% of the North America AN5″L” (for left hand drive) cars that have come through our shop. Heater, Rev counter, windshield washer and MPH speedo (instead of KPH). As far as we can tell, every Bugeye shipped to our continent came with these options.

Also of note is chassis number on the back of the dashboard 39692 (AN5L 39692). This car has a missing vin plate, so this information is particularly useful. This particular car is registered to the engine number 9CUH 39076. Engine and chassis numbers were “in range” so we have good reason to believe that this is the original engine. Because the number on the dash is close to the number on the engine, we have good reason to believe that this is the original dashboard that came with the car. With this new information from the back of the dashboard, we can make a correct vin plate for this car and set the record straight.

Our Best Builds

February 14, 2020 by bugeyeguy

This week, we said goodby to Goldie, our 259th Bugeye sold…

Turn it up!

The two cars below hit the road this week. We loaded them into an enclosed trailer bound for Phoenix and San Francisco. They may look like somewhat normal classic cars, but these are two highly prepared and modified Sprites, each with more than 200 modifications and improvements, to make them world class.

Both cars represent our interpretation of the ultimate Sprite. They are both supercharged, both with five speed transmissions, and both with 1275 engines and front disk brakes. Each one is uniquely built out to meet the needs of the new owner. Each one is the product of our obsessive passion for these cars.

You can see the team of people who built them in the photo above. We bring many years of automotive restoration experience to the process. We also bring the experience of more then 250 prior Bugeye builds. Our tireless obsession to produce the best helps us to deliver a product that is of the highest caliber.

In the video above, you can tour some of the improvements that we built into each of these cars.

Goldie was a radical transformation. The car was excellent when we got it, but we felt the color scheme would be punched up and better integrated. The black wheels and black lug nuts made a huge difference-the silver wheels looked out of place. So did the gold thread throughout the cockpit. We were able to both tone down the gold color and punch up the black cockpit with gold accents. Now, the car feels just right.

I am a huge fan of these hardura mats, as they look like they belong in a Bugeye, and with good reason-the trunks came from the factory with this covering. We are able to custom coordinate the threads to accentuate the interior. We also stitched similar accents into the seat piping. The result is a tasteful set of accents on an already stunning car.

We echoed the gold thread in the dash trim bar too. Standard would have been flat black vinyl in a car with a black interior.

We dressed up the engine bay and fit a supercharger and aluminum radiator. A new harness was also required to tidy things up.

The result is a signature edition, signed and numbered!

Like what you see? We can build one for you. Let us customize one of our cars currently for sale, or we can pick up and modify your own. Anything is possible. We look forward to putting our experience to work for you!

Another Bugeye Sprite Transformed

February 7, 2020 by bugeyeguy

It was time to say goodbye this week to Richard’s Red Bugeye, a car that came to us for a massive sorting project. This was a wonderful build, given that we took a barely drivable Bugeye and turned it into a world-class machine. The car enjoyed about 200 improvements, ranging from new SU carbs to eliminate the Weber stumble, to a new wooden dashboard, painted license plate light support, custom tonneau, vinyl covered dash trim and countless other improvements.

In the video below you can see the car zip to 70 mph without a hiccup. This is our goal… to build a stable sportscar that can be enjoyed in a wide range of conditions. When everything works in harmony, you have a well-sorted Sprite, and we strive to deliver this result, each and every time.

We would be delighted to sort your car next! Whether an old friend or a new acquisition, we can pick up your Classic British sports car anywhere in the USA and make it wonderful again. Call or email if you are interested!

You can see Richard’s Bugeye in action in the video below (just prior to delivery):

This second “before” video is from when we had just received the car. Note the old dashboard, missing windshield wiper assemblies, and more!

Weber Carburators suck

January 17, 2020 by bugeyeguy

I am all for Webers on an Elan (or some other twin cam or V12 marvel), but on A series street engines, they are the wrong choice, plain and simple. They stumble, transition poorly, start with difficulty and generally seem like way more carb than these little engines need. Side draft or down draft, it makes little difference. They are a compromise. In our world, SU carbs rule.

*Down draft Weber seems like a simple solution to worn out SUs, but a proper pair of SUs rules.*

Case in point… this is Richard’s trick little Bugeye that we picked up in Texas post ebay purchase for sorting. The car is now one of my top 10 favorites, because she has responded quite well to our multiple improvements. But we could not stop the car from a slight cough each time we exited a curve. It ran well, but nothing diminished my smile more than asking for power on an exit, and getting a slight delay.

Now, however, now that HS2 new carbs and K &N filters have been bolted on (above), this thing is pure perfection. Instant and smooth power delivery, without delay or hesitation. SUs work. Slightly bigger HS2 carbs (as shown) are even better. And if you can spring for new HS2s and air filters (available in our catalog by clicking here) like what you see above, then you have a slam dunk. And an impressive 1275 engine 0-60 time of 11.4 seconds (stock original 948 with H1 carbs was 20.5 seconds) with no hiccups.

I am absolutely certain there is someone reading this out there who disagrees, and has massaged their Weber into what they feel is the ultimate fuel/air blender, but from my experience driving more than 300 Sprites, they just flat out suck, and should be the first thing you remove from your Sprite.

Bugeye flipped

January 17, 2020 by bugeyeguy

Our new rotisserie is now in service! This is the best way to find all your lost change!

Below you can see Ken fabricate the mounts so that we can hang our cars for body and sheet metal restoration. This particular car will go now to be media blasted, and the blaster can gain best access courtesy of the rotisserie which will further enhance the quality of our final result.

And the fabrication will be that much easier, with an infinitely variable work surface. If you ever have to see a Bugeye upside-down, may it always look like the one below!

Right-side up once again! Ready for transformation!

Why old tires are really unsafe.

January 17, 2020 by bugeyeguy

I have previously harped upon the ride quality benefits of new rubber, especially on a quarter-elliptic equipped Bugeye. In this post, I will show you something we have not seen before, which is a verifiable braking reduction due to old rubber.

It can be challenging enough to get Bugeye brakes to work properly. Hydraulic and rear axle leaks are common, which will trash the rear shoes and make the rear brake performance suffer.

But in the case of this particular car, the brakes are perfect, not only all brand new, but optimally fit to the drums, and with each brake offering an excellent drum contact patch. We know this because we just built Conrad’s car shown here, and spent nearly 200 hours perfecting all the systems. And so when I went out to road test the car and rear brakes kept locking prematurely, this really got my attention.

We started to wonder if there was a bias issue, or a wheel cylinder diameter issue, or something going on to over pressure the rear brakes and under pressure the fronts. Only when I backed up and locked the fronts just as easily did it make perfect sense to us… the tires, not the brakes, are the issue here.

These tires are from 1993, and now 26 years old as of this writing. Of course, you might say these should have been thrown away years ago. But there were no cracks on the rubber anywhere. The tread is new. And it’s a Bugeye! How much stress could that cause a tire?

Well, the real issue is rear lock-up in a panic stop. If you apply these brakes firmly, the rears lock before the fronts can perform optimum braking, and moreover, the car begins to fishtail, which is obviously very dangerous (why anti-lock brakes make so much sense). This car has drum brakes all around but it would make no difference if they were disk or drum.

Above is the “back-up” test, that confirmed the fronts are working just fine, but when unloaded in this sort of stop, are just as likely to skid. Thus all four tires need to be discarded immediately. The rubber here is skipping along the peaks of the asphalt, instead of gripping the peaks and valleys. Traction is compromised as a result.

We sell Bugeye tires, and they are quite reasonably priced. You can find them here. But make sure to check your date stamps on your tires, and keep your car safe!

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