BugEyeGuys – Page 20

White Christmas Driver 1275/5-Speed Bugeye Sprite for Sale! Driving video!

March 29, 2024 by bugeyeguy

NOW SOLD! Congrats Dean in Oregon for taking home this wonderful car! Bugeye # 409!

Christmas is a car you can drive and enjoy, with all the right drivability upgrades.

And check out the underside! We’ve spent two full days cleaning off any surface oxidation and sealing up the underside and wheel wells of this car. You can drive this one without fear of getting the underside dirty! It’s a performance driver meant to be used! Check out the new pictures in this post and give us a call if you’re interested!

We’ve been hard at work lately on “Christmas,” a 1959 Austin Healey Sprite (VIN# AN5L 18416) (titled as a 1960), with a 1275 engine, front disk brakes, front sway bar, upgraded headlights and a Datsun 5-Speed transmission. If you are looking for a great driver that still looks somewhat stock but has the most desirable drivability upgrades, then give this one a serious look. The car has an excellent interior and for most people, this is a perfect Bugeye… nice and clean but not too nice to go out and enjoy.

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Owner-tested, owner-approved!

March 22, 2024 by bugeyeguy

It’s pure bliss for me to be able to test drive a client’s car on a meaningful 60 minute outing because it allows me to confirm that we haven’t missed anything in our restoration process. It also allows me to enjoy the satisfaction of driving a very well sorted classic sports car that can compete in the modern landscape.

I wish there were more business owners who thoroughly tested their products like this… customer service in the world would be at a much higher level if this were the case. Be that as it may, at least in our little world, all of our cars are owner-tested and certified before they go home.

Click “read more” below to see a video tour!

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Battery Tray Decay

March 22, 2024 by bugeyeguy

Battery trays rust. Like death and taxes, this is an inevitability in Spridget world. It’s a popular moisture gathering point and 60-plus years of battery acid exposure, (which is corrosive to metal),makes matters worse.

This one above (on a client car here for restoration) was exceptionally bad, so much so that a battery could no longer safely be installed in this car. As such, we cut it all away and welded in a whole new tray, which is a job most easily done with the engine out of the car.

*Click the photo above to order a new battery tray for your Bugeye today!*

You will find below a series of photographs to show you how we did it; view them by clicking “read more”. If you need a new tray, we would be happy to send you one… or if you prefer, we will pick up your car and bring it here and weld in a new one for you! You can buy one from our parts catalog by clicking here.

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Five-Speed, 1275-powered 1960 Bugeye for sale, fast and smooth!

March 15, 2024 by bugeyeguy

Now SOLD to Marc in Montana! Congratulations on Bugeye #408!

This is “Emil,” (AN5L 25092) a great Bugeye we have serviced in our shop a couple of times so we are excited to be offering this car once again! Emil was restored in 2013, with a rebuilt 1275 engine and mild cam, exhaust header, spin-on oil filter, electronic ignition, front disk brakes, aluminum radiator and five-speed Datsun transmission. The car also has a flip-forward super light fiberglass nose and factory wire wheel splines, currently driving knock-off Minilight style wheels. These are all the best upgrades! Check out the driving video below!

Most recently, this car was in the stewardship of one a client of ours out in California. He purchased the car from us on March 9, 2017 and it departed our shop showing 9,232 miles at that time. The car currently reads 10,539 miles so the most recent owner put just about 1300 miles on the car during his seven years of ownership. Incidentally, ground-up restoration of the car was completed on 8/2/13, with 8193 miles showing, so the car has been driven less than 2500 miles since complete restoration.

The car drives wonderfully-we’ve just tuned and sorted a few maintenance issues.

Before we sold Emil to the California client in 2017, we fit upgraded slotted and drilled front brake rotors, LED lights, upgraded headlights, a burl wood dashboard, wood steering wheel, alternator kit, phone charger/cigarette lighter and an upgraded lockable choke assembly.

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Suspect suspension: have you checked your king pins lately?

March 15, 2024 by bugeyeguy

New Kin pin bushings are nearly useless unless up/down play is properly shimmed (not so here!)

Most Spridget front suspensions have excess play (they’ve had a hard life). Tightening things up pays immediate dividends, both in performance and sure-footedness. Spridgets (and lots of other cars of the era) ride on a solid king pin. The swivel axle that rides on the king pin has bronze bushings pressed in place, and those bushings are prone to wear, especially if they are not greased regularly, as the pair of videos in this post can attest.

Lower swivel axle bushings need frequent greasing

King pin suspension systems have a lot of parts, many more than a ball joint system does. That means many more opportunities for wear, and for part failures. The threads on the fulcrum pin, constantly turning in the control arm as the car goes over bumps, hills, and around curves, wear out, creating slop in the control arm. The repeated vertical motion wears the thrust washer, creating up-and-down slop. Years of constant contact with the road and turning wears the upper and lower bushings, creating lateral slop. The lever shock, which also serves as the upper control arm on Bugeyes, wears internally, creating a harsh ride and affecting the suspension geometry.

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The importance of fuel cap fit

March 8, 2024 by bugeyeguy

Fit and finish of the filler neck on Bugeyes is something we take very seriously. If the neck is too high in the back deck, it can look unsightly and detract from the overall look of the car. If it’s too low? It might look okay, but it can cause your car to shut-off prematurely.

The photo above is a filler cap setup on a Bugeye in our network that quit running before returning home, and when the client went to open the fuel cap, the tank hissed. This means the tank isn’t venting properly, in this case because the filler neck gasket is blocking the underside of the cap. When the cap is hard up against the rubber gasket as shown above, the cap cannot properly vent.

*This is what your filler neck should look like when the fuel cap is attached, with a small gap between the bottom of the cap and the top of the filler neck gasket.*

If your filler neck gasket and fuel cap are touching, you will need to fix it or excessive vacuum in the tank will stop your fuel from flowing to your engine and kill your car. How you fix it depends on what fuel tank you have installed in your Bugeye.

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