Now SOLD to Peter in Massachusetts! Congrats on giving Cherry (our 359th Bugeye sold) a loving new home!
We have recently upgraded Cherry with a new aluminum radiator, and hoses, heater valve blanking plate, air filters, and more! If you’re interested in a strong driver Bugeye for the remainder of the driving season, give us a call!
Cherry is a strong driver with a few cosmetic imperfections. Check out the video below!
Our latest project started as a bit of a nightmare… Imagine waiting seven months for your number one Frogeye to arrive and then completely filleting it on the floor of your garage. With just eight weeks to rebuild the car completely to concours specs, the voice in my head kept saying “what on earth are you thinking?” 501 showed up nicely restored but with disk brakes, HS2 (later) carbs, an electric fuel pump and lots and lots of incorrect hardware. It all had to go in our quest for concours gold.
August dawned this week with a lot of key concours point sucking issues behind us. We corrected foundation issues and started the rebuild and now this project has taken on an entirely new dimension.
It has become a lot of fun.
[Read more…] about Bugeye Second Honeymoon!
Bugeye numbers are very confusing. Each Bugeye Sprite has five unique numbers stamped on the car. 501 is no exception.
The chassis or VIN number is located under the carburetors. AN5L 501 is missing the “L” on the chassis plate even though this car was a left hand drive car from day one. Our heritage certificate verifies that he “L” was omitted from the VIN plate due to human error on the production line.
How could it be that VIN numbers and stampings wouldn’t be exact? Perhaps it was a simple mistake. Maybe the plate was made before the plans were solidified to make the first car LHD and USA-bound. Or maybe the man on stamping was a bit green.
[Read more…] about Bugeye Numerology
The excitement continues this week as we attempt to master all the minute details on 501 and prepare the car for the national concours with just six weeks to go! If you’re new to our story, we’re taking a perfectly beautiful restored number one Bugeye and turning it into a perfect re-creation of how the car looked the day she left the showroom floor. This is not an easy task because every nut, bolt and washer has to be exact, every color has to be correct and there are a few mysteries that even defy our advisory board of past concours judges. Fortunately for us, we’ve taken apart and seen so many cars that we have a pretty good idea of how these cars were built by the factory and we feel confident we’re re-building a car that would make Donald Healey proud.
[Read more…] about Two very early Bugeyes, two totally different outcomes!
Many of our videos call-out the unique features of early 1958 cars. The first 1000 or so cars had some unique bits that were reinforced and strengthened by the time car #1600 or so was built, but there are also some unique features of the very early cars that are not even all that well-documented. One of those features is the mounting of the brake and clutch lines across the firewall. In these photos you’ll see the two green cars 501 and 505 with small p- clips and the brake lines close together and up high on the firewall.
Now sold!
We get a lot of requests for automatic Bugeyes and that’s a tall order because autos don’t fit without extensive to make it fit a Sprite tunnel. However, there are (of course) other great automatic choices and we’re proud present one this week!
This is a 2001 Z3 convertible with an automatic transmission and perhaps it’s just what you need to enjoy the Bugeye experience without the bug.
Under the hood is a stunning and clean 2.5 liter six cylinder power plant which looks like it will be working long after we’re all dead and gone. This particular car has only roughly 32,000 miles and it’s been obsessively maintained by one of our customers who traded it for his sixth, (yup, his sixth,) Bugeye that he’s purchased from us! Thank you Ron and Laura for breaking all the records, you’re more gold standard than any Concours bugeye!
Ron takes great care of his cars and this one is no exception. It’s a very clean example that’s ready to go. Fly in and drive it anywhere! You can also switch to manual mode and shift the gears if you want to have some more sporty fun. The top is in nice shape, the car is very clean and it’s been well-maintained so if you’re looking for a reliable car with which to drive around and collect your Bugeye parts, this could be the one!
Give us a call or email if you would like more details! More photos to come!
