This is a really nice 1959 Bugeye Sprite we call “Belle.” AN5L 12297 is reportedly a lifetime California car with a wonderfully solid underside and no signs of any body rust. The car comes with receipts back to 1984, all from Northern California. 50,471 shows on the odometer. One sees many bright red Bugeyes… this car is the correct “cherry red” color used by the factory.

The car has been upgraded with many of the popular performance upgrades to make this car into a wonderful fast driver. If you are a purist and prefer all-stock, and you just want to noodle around town, you don’t need these upgrades. But this package of improvements is widely accepted as very useful for bringing out the best in a Bugeye. If you want more power and better handling, which for many collectors equates to more fun, then this is a car worth serious consideration.

She has a rebuilt 1275cc engine and upgraded 40 DCOE Weber side draft carburetor and header. The Weber is set-up right and the car performs quite well! Very quick! The carb and header add additional horsepower to the strong 1275 engine (which came from a later Sprite or Midget, before it was rebuilt). Incidentally, the original 948 and later 1275 engine have exactly the same footprint, which is why this is such a popular conversion.

Wheels are nearly new, JB from England, shod with wider 175 series tires with very little wear. Rubber is fresh, from 2015.

The transmission is a rebuilt ribcase unit with no issues, it still works like it’s newly rebuilt. The differential was rebuilt and upgraded for highway cruising, with a 3.9 ratio. If you are unfamiliar, the original differential had a 4:22 ratio.

Front brakes were upgraded to discs, and the electrics were converted to negative ground with an alternator installed for higher output. The alternators are also more durable than the original generator, with better bearings. A new electronic distributor was added with electronic ignition, again for more reliabilty. The tachometer was rebuilt to function as an electronic unit which means the sometimes problematic cable drive system is eliminated. It’s more reliable than the original mechanical version.

Other great features include an electric fuel pump, aluminum radiator with nice upgraded expansion tank, walnut burl wood dashboard and steering wheel, 3-point seat belts/shoulder harnesses, new wiring harness, rebuilt seats with new foam and upholstery, new rear leaf springs, new Halogen headlights, new LOUD Hella horns, brass fuel sender float, custom locking choke control with original knob and an original tool kit.

The top and tonneau are nice, both older Amco models, but still with plenty of life. Side curtains are also of similar vintage and quite usable. A front sway bar was added, for even better handling.

The underside is very solid! The paint shines beautifully and the interior looks like new. It’s a clean Bugeye.

The exhaust system includes a small resonator and muffler perpendicular to the car. It works great, and sound nice. It’s also quite recent so there is no need to make any changes. However, if the new owner desires, we can put in a performance muffler with no resonator for a sportier exhaust note and perhaps less back pressure.

This car would also benefit from a five-speed conversion, for even more wonderful highway cruising. It is quite common for us build-out Bugeyes to the specifications of the new owner, so if you want a five-speed Bugeye, we can convert this one for you. Since it already has so many nice upgrades, it is a perfect candidate for this upgrade.

There is just one thing missing, did you notice? We took off the nice wipers to detail the car, and they are still sitting on the bench. Not to worry, I’ll put them on in the morning.

This is a good one, with great handling and performance, and overall, great fun, she’s a fast driver that will make you smile. We’d love to send “Belle” your way! Call or email if you are interested!

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This is AN5L 31095 (we call it “Gavin”), a 1960 Bugeye that was the subject of a ground-up restoration in 2014. A ton of money and time was spent to bring this car down to bare metal, and nearly everything was replaced or rebuilt at that time. The original 948 engine was rebuilt by a shop in Massachusetts. The original drum brake front king pins were re-bushed. The floor was repaired with new panels. The wiring is new, and the chrome was redone. The gauges were rebuilt. The project was quite extensive.

The interior was also redone, and looks great.

The car drives well, although some maintenance is needed, primarily because the car has been sitting. For example, the master cylinder is due for replacement, as are some wheel cylinders. I would also replace the bias ply tires, as I much prefer radials. We can get it ready for the new owner if they so desire. If you are interested in the car, call to discuss options.

The bodywork is nice, and the car looks great. The nose fits well, quite a bit better than most. The paint has yellowed a bit. It’s hard to see in the pictures, but the color is not uniform. And the normally flat beading on top of the fenders was ground to more of a point. This is a perfect car for someone who doesn’t sweat the small stuff but still desires a nicely restored car at a great price.

This fully restored and expensive restoration can be had for $15,995, a deep discount when compared to most professional restorations-this is a lot of Bugeye for the money. The bodywork is nice, but since it was less than professionally done, you can buy this car for about half of the cost of Tanner, the other completely restored Bugeye in our lineup.

They look almost the same, how come Tanner is twice the price? Feel free to call to discuss!

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BARN FIND! Up for auction soon! Email for schedule and more details!

Want to be the talk of every car show you attend? Make this barn find a driver, and you’ll have something really special… a time-capsule survivor that you can drive. Anyone with deep enough pockets can restore a Sprite, but few people can claim they have an unmolested barn find that they brought back to life as an exercise in preservation (not restoration).

Every month we are offered Bugeyes for restoration. They are almost always completely or partially disassembled, stalled restoration projects or bodywork disasters that stalled for a good reason. The only way to bring this type of basket case back to life is to make everything new again.

But our barn find shown here is unique. In fact, I strongly encourage the new owner to think long and hard before completely dismantling this car and embarking on a lengthy restoration. Instead, I would fix the two underside issues…. 1) put a new floor in the driver footwell and 2) weld a patch behind the driver seat (these two areas have small holes, and are shown in the photo album). Then I would restore all the mechanicals and drive this car exactly as you see it. I would not repair the dents, or patch the rear fender bottom because that will merely complicate the revival, and would diminish this particular story. Instead, I would leave it alone and work toward driving and enjoying this car as soon as possible.

I have seen Bugeye restoration projects trade at prices ranging from “free” to about $10,000. Incomplete or bondo-ladened or disassembled cars (which are harder to put together), can be had for less than this one. This car commands a premium because it has been off the road since 1974, it is complete, has not been molested and it has a great story.

I first met AN5L 37802 in June of 2015 when the owner (“Skip”) was taking down his barn in the Catskills (in New York) where the car had been stored since 1974. In the picture above from 2015, you can see Skip extracting the car as the barn is removed. He had purchased it in about 1967 from the second owner.

You can still see the original Crandall-Hicks plaque on the back of the car. This was the New England British Motor Corporation distributor at the time, so this is a wonderful plaque to still see in place. You might enjoy reading a bit about Crandall-Hicks at the link here… they sold Indian motorcycles in the 30s and later helped bring the BMC line to our shores. I was amazed to read that in 1955, they built a Quonset hut (just slightly larger than ours) on their property, to house their shop and British car inventory! (That structure was destroyed in a snowstorm but was replaced with another Quonset hut!!! They are still in business, and it looks like they now sell power equipment, albeit not from a Quonset hut.)

Anyway, Skip ended-up trading the car for a Ford tractor and brush hog in 2015, but I was lucky to buy it from the latest owner (who merely stored the car inside since 2015). It still looks the same today as it did when it came out of Skip’s barn.

I enjoyed finding the 1973 Major League baseball rule book under the passenger floor mat. I called Skip and asked about this (he’s happy to meet the new owner) and it turns out he drove the car everywhere in the early 70s as an umpire for little league games.

Skip parked the car in 1974 because it had low oil pressure, so you’ll need to rebuild the stock 948 engine in the car, which would likely need a rebuild from sitting all this time anyway. Or put in a rebuilt 1275 engine and enjoy the horsepower increase. The heritage certificate verifies this is not the original engine (9C-U-H 37496), but instead one from a later Bugeye (9C-U-H/47168). The stock 948 engine currently in the car is definitely from a Bugeye, one that was built a few months later near the end of production, in late 1960 (this car was built April 22 of 1960, per the heritage certificate).

The original hardtop is a nice detail that comes with the car. But most importantly, everything is in place just as it was in 1974. Original jack and jack handle is included as is original (torn) tonneau. Period Amco front and rear bumper bars are also nice to see.

Indicated mileage is 74,114. It’s always amazing to think back to a time where it was common for people to routinely use these cars as daily drivers. This one was parked after just 14 years on the road.

Tires will of course need to be replaced after sitting for so long. The car rolls freely and we can ship it anywhere in the world. The car is currently in our shop and comes with complete paperwork for the new owner to register the car, anywhere in the world.

It’s getting harder and harder to find complete unmolested Bugeyes so we are pretty excited to find this one!

Call 203 561 6929 if you are interested!

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