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)

Screaming 1380cc five-speed Super Sprite for sale! Long list of mods!

by

NOW SOLD to James in New York! Congrats on taking this fantastic Bugeye home! #410!!

NEW driving video! Vroom!

The NEW walk-around video below showcases the many custom features on this car!

Bugeyes were cheap when new, so it’s easy to find one online that needs a long list of upgrades… here is a car that has just about every upgrade we have available. This car is “in the sweet spot,” with tons of improvements for reliability and performance. Spot is ready to go now with no wait! Ready for your Spring!

Sweet Spot has returned to our shop and is now for sale!

We have owned this car three different times and for each owner, the car has jumped-up several levels. Spot is now set-up perfectly, with all the best stuff. This is a rare opportunity to buy an extremely well-modified and sorted Bugeye Sprite. It would take a lot of money and time to build a new car this good so if you are looking for a hot Bugeye, check this one out. 

[Read more…] about Screaming 1380cc five-speed Super Sprite for sale! Long list of mods!

Overridden

by

Bugeye rear bumpers aren’t so much bumpers as they are decorative chrome for the rear of the car, but nevertheless they serve as a very important buffer between the rear sheet metal of the car and the general driving public. While uncomplicated, there is still a right and wrong way to install rear bumpers on your Sprite. In the video below, I explain how to fit rear Sprite overriders for accurate alignment and maximum protection!

In addition to proper alignment, having the bumpers installed incorrectly can cause an interference issue with the exhaust, discoloring the chrome and ruining an otherwise perfectly nice overrider.

With the upper brackets installed upside down, the overriders sit too low on the car, which on the left-hand side can cause an interference issue with the exhaust and discolor the chrome, especially if the tail pipe is a little shorter than stock.
With the upper bracket installed correctly, the bumperette sits higher on the car, making exhaust interference much less of an issue. A muffler with a longer tail pipe is also helpful for this.

Should you need to replace or upgrade your Bugeye’s rear overriders, we offer a full line of parts to do so! Click the photos below to learn more or click here for our complete catalog!

Rear overrider (Bugeye only) (sold individually)
Complete Bugeye rear bumper kit with new chrome overriders
Bugeye rear bumper hardware kit
Rear bumper lower bracket (Bugeye only)
Rear bumper upper bracket (Bugeye only)
Overrider stiffener bracket (Bugeye only)
Rear bumper upper bracket isolator pad (Bugeye only)

Tub talk

by

It is no small feat to restore any automobile from the ground-up. The Frogeye Sprite unibody tub (or monocoque for our friends across the Big Pond) is a stout little foundation, but that doesn’t stop these little buggers  from taking abuse. After roughly 65 years, one accumulates lots of scars. 

This car featured here is no exception. It looked like a pretty sound car with its peeling paint attached, but once we blasted the structure and removed all the paint and filter, we were left with quite a massive project. Most of these cars need floor work and other structural work to the floor pan, and this tub was no different. Several layers of floor were present on this one and they all needed to be removed before the repairs could commence.

Peeling away the layers…
Each layer removed revealed another below.
So many layers!
The replacement floor tacked in.
Next came the replacement inner bulkhead panel, spot welded into position.
All done!
All said and done, FOUR layers of floor were present, including one layer made entirely of fiberglass and tar. Here are some photos documenting the floor replacement process.

Many of these cars also need rocker panels, as this one did.

Here’s what the inner structure of a Bugeye looks like at the rocker panel.
The RH rocker panel after replacement.
After replacing the rocker, the front edge needed to be built up to meet the edge of the bonnet.
All done!

This car also needed a lot of gap adjusting to make sure the doors would fit nicely with uniform gaps. The pictures below show how one of the door gaps was massaged into position; this has to be done for both gaps on both doors.

First, the door edge is built up with weld, then ground down until the desired gap is achieved.
The finished product! Each door cap needs to be massaged in this way, but the end result is uniformity throughout.
The process of correcting the door gaps.

This car also had a massive hit in the right rear corner that dislocated the license plate depression in the back of the car. Filler was used to fill the void from the prior repair, so we cut out everything. We cut out the crumpled up trunk floor in that area as well, and then welded in all new sections to bring this car back into spec. Click “read more” to see the process in action!

[Read more…] about Tub talk

Steering rack slop

by

This week, we have been hard at work putting the finishing touches on a Bugeye that came to us for an extensive mechanical restoration. Part of this restoration included doing a front disc brake conversion with new front lever shocks, new outer tie rod ends and camber-adjusting control arms, which we used to adjust asymmetry in the front end due to prior crashes. You can see these new components installed on the car below in the photo of the suspension taken earlier this week.

All-new front suspension components have completely transformed this Bugeye into a great driver!

While performing our typical final test drives, which we do to work out any “bugs” we encounter (centering the steering wheel, for example), I noticed a looseness, or “flutter”, coming from the right front wheel. The video below helps to explain this feeling and what can cause it:

Worn steering rack!
[Read more…] about Steering rack slop

Flip-forward basics

by

Bugeye bonnets are notoriously heavy and cumbersome, and as such can be hard to open, especially if you have a bad back. By adding our flip-forward nose kit, you can not only make the engine compartment infinitely more accessible for service (all but eliminating the painful bonnet “head bonk” inherent to Bugeye ownership), but also make the nose much easier to open and close!

The above video explains the ins and outs of flip-forward Bugeye noses; how to open and close them securely, how you can add rigidity to a floppy nose, and a basic overview of what comes in our flip-nose kits. All of the parts mentioned in the video are available for purchase, which you can do by clicking the photos below, or click here for our complete parts catalog!

Flip-forward nose kit
Bonnet “X” bracing (1 kit does both sides)
Leather nose hold-downs (pair)
Bugeye cowl gasket

Done-for driveshafts

by

A Bugeye’s driveshaft is a vital link between the transmission and rear axle. Without it, you’re going nowhere. It is important to make sure your shaft is in good working order, which means checking the universal joints for play.

An exploded view of a Bugeye driveshaft.

A customer’s car came to us recently with a “clunk” coming from the drivetrain- watch the video below and you’ll immediately understand why!

Ideally, you want your driveshaft to be free from any amount of play in the joints. This way the power from the engine and transmission can get transferred to the rear wheels with the least amount of lost motion.

[Read more…] about Done-for driveshafts
Contact us at customercare@bugeyeguys.com or call (203)-208-0980 Monday - Friday | 8 am - 5 p.m. EST