Now SOLD to James in Colorado! Congratulations on a beautiful British cruiser!
Looking for an inexpensive summer ride? This MGB is ready for Summer fun, beautifully restored and ready to drive. She’s tastefully upgraded with a wooden dashboard, side draft Weber carburetor, upgraded stereo and excellent matching red tonneau cover. Excellent exterior and interior, and quick!
Before Spring driving season blooms, make sure to give your car a good visual inspection, with a particular focus on your rubber bits. (If you’re looking to get your car ready to drive this spring, and would rather have us run through it and tighten things up, give us a call and we will be happy to give your car the attention it needs… we pick up nationwide).
The examples below came to us from an armada of British cars here in our workshop for driving-season maintenance. For example, inner control arm bushings need to be fresh so that your suspension is good and tight. These were long past their expiration date. If you see cracked rubber flared out around your inner control arm mounts, it’s time to replace!
Here are some motor mounts we removed this week from a Morris Minor, also well past their useful life. Morris Minors and Bugeyes use the same engine mounts, so if yours look like this, make the change!
My first car (a ’66 MGB) had two dead six-volt batteries for my entire ownership. I never shut it off or parked it unless I was on a hill, and I pop started my way through high school. Sometimes, I had to walk a bit after parking if my destination was, for example, deep into a very flat flood plain, but it in Southern New England, it never seemed to an issue, and all the pop starting and walking seemed to keep me in fine shape.
Nowadays, we expect a little more from our vehicles, and as the world has evolved, societal pop-starting skills have atrophied. So jump into the nearest vehicle with a clutch pedal, check out the video above, and go practice. You never know when The Prince of Darkness will pay you a visit!
The beading on the tops of the Bugeye bodies are sometimes damaged or removed in restoration. Here’s a video about how to restore them to their original configuration. Make sure to get your beading cleaned-up and properly terminated before the paint goes on!
Beading came in a “T” section and plugged into the seams and was brazed in place in the factory that built the original bodies. Some restorers like to cut off the bottom leg of the “T” and attach the flat strip along the seam to recreate the original look. Once installed, make sure to avoid hitting the bead strip with a sander or grinder or you will ruin the original profile of the strip.
Should your beading be missing or damaged on your Bugeye, we offer a full body beading kit that provides enough beading material to do an entire Bugeye, with a little bit left over! Click on the photo below to get yours, or click here to view our full catalog! We can also provide cut sections in case you only need a small strip. Call or email for help!
Every week, we get a new question regarding the numbering system of these cars. It’s confusing. For example, the body panel stamping factory assigned a BAE number, which didn’t match the chassis number, or the engine number!
It helps to understand that each Bugeye was handled by several different factories all over England before it drove to the yard for shipment to the USA. The base chassis was stamped and welded at John Thompson Motor Pressings, and then the car was shipped to Pressed Steel, where the body panels were made and welded onto the tub.
From there it was on to the Morris factory for paint, and then one more leg of the journey brought the painted tubs to the Abingdon MG factory where the cars were assembled. Engines also were made off site, and they would ship-in from the Morris engine factory. So you had multiple players, and multiple numbers from multiple sources, and no unified numbering system.
In the video below, we dig into these various numbers to help you make sense of how all 50,000 or so Frogeyes came to life. And if you would like a heritage/birth certificate for your car, click here!
Once upon a time, before the invention of cable television and Internet grocery shopping, human beings would routinely go outside, hook up a flat tow bar to the family station wagon, and drag their sports car to the race track for a weekend of fun. At the track, they’d remove their windscreen, tape-up the headlights, put some more air in the bias plies, don a helmet (one with perhaps less protection offered than a modern bicycle helmet), and head-out onto the track to test the bond between man and machine.
Vacaville, Vineland, Bridgehampton, Road America, & Mid-Ohio were all popular destinations. It was easy to be an amateur racer back in the day; there was little barrier for entry. Whether you had a TR3, Lotus Eleven, or a Bugeye Sprite, you were eligible and welcome to compete.
The halcyon days of sports car competition are in the rear view mirror, but they are fondly remembered even today; even if you weren’t there with your own car, or a kid following around your dad in the paddock, you’re still a vintage racer at heart, and you understand.
Our new Vintage Racer shirts are inspired by an actual weekend in July, 1958. On that day, the racers and spectators scattered about the field probably didn’t think it was a particularly special moment in history. It was just another fun weekend to kick the tires and light the fires… but to us, that was a moment in history that means a whole lot.
July 6, 1958 was just a few months after the launch of the very first production Sprite (AN5L/501), and thus the Frogeye was still quite novel, which makes the car’s appearance on the poster (that inspired these shirts) all the more special!
Celebrate with us by pre-ordering your very own vintage racer t-shirt. Choose from crew neck or long sleeve varieties. Shirts will be available to ship in 4 to 6 weeks. Click the photo above to reserve yours today and let your racing spirit shine!
