bugeyeguy.com

The largest restorer and reseller of Bugeye Sprites in the world


CURRENT INVENTORY IS SHOWN IN THE SMALL PICTURES JUST BELOW THIS TEXT!
(if a car is not pictured here, it has been sold)

Awesome Black 1959 Bugeye for sale!

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NEW: Check out the striking red tonneau (photo below)!

This is a 1959 Bugeye we call “Jackson,” (AN5L 12413). We picked the car up in Jackson Wyoming, where it was living most recently as part of a larger collection. This car has a stunning paint job and interior, and was extensively restored. The new owner will enjoy many new parts installed by the prior owners.

I first met this car in June of 2014 when it sold at the Mecum auction in Seattle (for $23,000). The following month, the winning bidder hired a shop in Seattle to get this handsome car sorted-out mechanically, and spent a whopping $13,000 (we have the five page receipt) on a complete new front end, new radius arms, new brake parts, electronic tach conversion, electronic ignition, HS2 carb conversion, new fuel tank, and a host of other new parts and improvements, to make the car great to drive.

All this work was completed in August of 2014. The car has been driven about 500 miles since (auction mileage was 82,251 miles and now shows just 82,794). The car was recently traded to a friend of the owner in Jackson, which is where we acquired the car.

We’ve just gone back through the car to take care of a few details that were missed. Now Jackson is ready for a new home, and the car looks stunning!

The interior is quite plush, with an upgraded electronic tachometer. The wood steering wheel is quite elegant and the car presents quite beautifully. It’s comfortable and drives extremely well.

The car has a stock foundation with its original 948 engine (9CUH 12510) and drum brakes all around. Rear brakes have been upgraded to the later style with dual pistons.

The interior is all new and stunning. She rides on nearly new 14 inch VTO wheels, which are quite handsome, and wider 185/60×14 rubber (from 2013) for a more aggressive look. Wheels and tires are from 2015, and show almost no wear.

Mecum’s poster comes with the car, and as shown, there is a top and older side curtains for restoration, but they are well worn (a new red top would look stunning instead, and we can install one for the new owner). None of the other original bits , such as hubcaps and wheels are included.

Very few miles have been put on the car since the restoration, so it feels very fresh, and the new owner will enjoy a car that has benefited from a tremendous amount of work from prior owners. This is a great opportunity to own a very striking Bugeye!

Weber Carburators suck

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I am all for Webers on an Elan (or some other twin cam or V12 marvel), but on A series street engines, they are the wrong choice, plain and simple. They stumble, transition poorly, start with difficulty and generally seem like way more carb than these little engines need. Side draft or down draft, it makes little difference. They are a compromise. In our world, SU carbs rule.

Down draft Weber seems like a simple solution to worn out SUs, but a proper pair of SUs rules.

Case in point… this is Richard’s trick little Bugeye that we picked up in Texas post ebay purchase for sorting. The car is now one of my top 10 favorites, because she has responded quite well to our multiple improvements. But we could not stop the car from a slight cough each time we exited a curve. It ran well, but nothing diminished my smile more than asking for power on an exit, and getting a slight delay.

Now, however, now that HS2 new carbs and K &N filters have been bolted on (above), this thing is pure perfection. Instant and smooth power delivery, without delay or hesitation. SUs work. Slightly bigger HS2 carbs (as shown) are even better. And if you can spring for new HS2s and air filters (available in our catalog by clicking here) like what you see above, then you have a slam dunk. And an impressive 1275 engine 0-60 time of 11.4 seconds (stock original 948 with H1 carbs was 20.5 seconds) with no hiccups.

I am absolutely certain there is someone reading this out there who disagrees, and has massaged their Weber into what they feel is the ultimate fuel/air blender, but from my experience driving more than 300 Sprites, they just flat out suck, and should be the first thing you remove from your Sprite.

Bugeye flipped

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Our new rotisserie is now in service! This is the best way to find all your lost change!

Below you can see Ken fabricate the mounts so that we can hang our cars for body and sheet metal restoration. This particular car will go now to be media blasted, and the blaster can gain best access courtesy of the rotisserie which will further enhance the quality of our final result.

And the fabrication will be that much easier, with an infinitely variable work surface. If you ever have to see a Bugeye upside-down, may it always look like the one below!

Right-side up once again! Ready for transformation!

Why old tires are really unsafe.

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I have previously harped upon the ride quality benefits of new rubber, especially on a quarter-elliptic equipped Bugeye. In this post, I will show you something we have not seen before, which is a verifiable braking reduction due to old rubber.

It can be challenging enough to get Bugeye brakes to work properly. Hydraulic and rear axle leaks are common, which will trash the rear shoes and make the rear brake performance suffer.

But in the case of this particular car, the brakes are perfect, not only all brand new, but optimally fit to the drums, and with each brake offering an excellent drum contact patch. We know this because we just built Conrad’s car shown here, and spent nearly 200 hours perfecting all the systems. And so when I went out to road test the car and rear brakes kept locking prematurely, this really got my attention.

We started to wonder if there was a bias issue, or a wheel cylinder diameter issue, or something going on to over pressure the rear brakes and under pressure the fronts. Only when I backed up and locked the fronts just as easily did it make perfect sense to us… the tires, not the brakes, are the issue here.

These tires are from 1993, and now 26 years old as of this writing. Of course, you might say these should have been thrown away years ago. But there were no cracks on the rubber anywhere. The tread is new. And it’s a Bugeye! How much stress could that cause a tire?

Well, the real issue is rear lock-up in a panic stop. If you apply these brakes firmly, the rears lock before the fronts can perform optimum braking, and moreover, the car begins to fishtail, which is obviously very dangerous (why anti-lock brakes make so much sense). This car has drum brakes all around but it would make no difference if they were disk or drum.

Above is the “back-up” test, that confirmed the fronts are working just fine, but when unloaded in this sort of stop, are just as likely to skid. Thus all four tires need to be discarded immediately. The rubber here is skipping along the peaks of the asphalt, instead of gripping the peaks and valleys. Traction is compromised as a result.

We sell Bugeye tires, and they are quite reasonably priced. You can find them here. But make sure to check your date stamps on your tires, and keep your car safe!

What’s under your hood?

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Start here. Kirk’s Bugeye heads out for media blasting shortly, on our rotisserie. This is a blank canvas, awaiting a unique list of upgrades chosen by the owner.

Sometimes Bugeyes seem to have (at least) 31 flavors, because we have nearly 31 Sprites in our building at the moment, and it seems like every one of them has something different to say about how to transmit power to the rear wheels. We are lucky that racers past customized Bugeyes since day one, and that the 948 CC engine was followed by two bigger engines (in later Spridgets) that look (and fit) basically the same. Thus it seems much more common to find Bugeyes with something other than the original engine, rather than still carrying the original lump.

Kartik’s 948. This car is here all the way from California, after two different California shops fit a down draft at shop #1 and then a side draft Weber at shop #2, neither of which worked when Kartik wanted to tool around his neighborhood. In frustration, he asked us to pick up his baby to finally sort out (we are honored). Above you can see his beautiful-like-new-completely-rebuilt HS2 carbs and K and N filters that we fit, which, along with our fuel pump conversion, which now provide instant starting and great drivability, which is all Kartik ever wanted. HS2s are the answer, but they have to be good ones that aren’t all worn out (we sell brand new ones in our catalog). We pull off a lot of Webers, they are perfect for your Lotus Elan, but not right for these little engines. I’ll have another post about Webers in the near future. They always stumble. This car (now) does not. In such a tight and fun car, stumbling is not an option.

Some of the engines in the pictures to follow are in fact original, but what intrigues me most is the variety of different induction systems and details. All of them go down the road nicely once they leave here. And that is part of the fun. No two (identical) cars are, well, exactly the same.

In this post, you will see a summary of some of the most noteworthy engine bays in our current mix of vehicles. In each photo caption, I have called out some of the most noteworthy details.

I hope you enjoy this unconventional tour, from the inside out!

We picked up this Bugeye a client from Indiana (we call it “Indy,” so we don’t confuse all the red cars in the building at the moment). This one had a worn transmission and a massive oil leak at the 948 oil pump cover, all of which we fixed this week. Note the “pots and pans” air filter, which was stock item on later 1275 Sprites, but we much prefer the K and N air filters (which we sell) as shown on Kartik’s car shown above, as they breathe better. Tune your carbs with no filter and then put these on (shown above) and everything changes, because they are restrictive. Our new K & N filters don’t do that. Note the oil cooler installation, this is a reasonable place to locate the cooler, should you live in very hot climate and need one (we sell those too). This car also has 185 tires, BTW, which are too wide. We all want more grip, but these change the steering input, ride quality and handling. Too wide.
Here’s Conrad’s 948, a newly restored tub we picked up in Tennessee and assembled from boxes and bins full of parts. These are newly rebuilt H1 carbs, which are the original size. They cannot take the K and N filters without modification, so he will get the original pancake filters (which we also sell in our catalog, (you get the idea)) once we are done tuning. Almost everything you see in this photo is brand new. Making it all fit and work together is the hard part, and the team has put a lot of hours into making this car into something truly wonderful.
Phil and Shannon bought “Goldie” from us and asked me to sign the engine bay when the project is complete, so the engine had to come out for an engine bay repaint so it would be worthy of our cosmetic seal of approval. The car was previously painted with the engine in place and the engine bay didn’t match but now the engine bay matches the paint on the car. (This color is full of pearl and metallic highlights, and it reflects light differently on every surface, depending on the angle.) Everything going back on the car is getting restored and repainted. She’s fit with a new harness, new supercharger, newly painted heater box, and so much more. Look for a feature on this car soon, it is a special one!
This is “Cole,” one of my personal Bugeyes. This is a fantastic car, that came with a 105 HP dyno print out, courtesy of a great engine and a single 1.75 SU carb. This is a great car in every way, which is why I have kept it for myself. It takes a lot for us to sort cars out this well, and to make them perform this well, and it’s rare to find one built properly. Note the big oil cooler, mounted higher up than in the previous build above. The car runs cool. Our aluminum radiator seems the best solution for hot running cars. These are 175 tires, as big as one should go.
This is “Gumby,” my car since 1978, and the car responsible for the existence of our business, and this web site, and our parts catalog, and all the builds you see on this page. Thank you Gumby! When we sold our 200th Bugeye, we built this up with every trick part in the book. This car has a custom cross-flow head and four port electronic fuel injection on a 1275 engine. Looks kinda like all the other engine in this post, but it is radically different, with no choke and no distributor, with ignition and fuel management all managed by the Storm computer on the upper left of the photo. This car also has rear disk brakes, twin piston calipers, aluminum radiator and a whole lot more.
This is “Sparky,” our “Prince of Darkness” model, which is powered by 50 lithium manganese batteries. This is our smoothest and most vibration free Bugeye ever, and it has taken me up to 109 mph with ease (and quicker than “Cole” and “Gumby,” above. We have built two electric conversions and look forward to making more. It is a delightful way to enjoy these cars, because we can eliminate many of the maintenance items in favor of an amazingly reliable electric motor, which will probably run exactly the same in 100k miles as it runs today.
And last but not least, here is AN5L 552, our concours gold Bugeye we built in 2015 that scored 967 points to attain gold concours at the national Healey Conclave in Gettysburg, PA. This was our most difficult build ever, because everything had to be both factory accurate and beautiful, and after two hours of judging by four judges, everything was held under a microscope. I don’t think we could have innovated the way we have without this build under our belts. The originality and accuracy of this car helped us understand the foundation that lives in everything we do. On this car, you see a Judson Supercharger, which was allowed in the concours without deductionas a valid period accessory.

Which one fits your Bugeye identity? (Everyone needs one of each!) We can build your dream Bugeye! Call or email… we can pick up your car anywhere in North America and turn it into your particular perfect car, or we can build you your ultimate Sprite from scratch… pick and choose your favorite features from the images above, and we will assemble your ultimate ride! Call or email anytime. We have a great new team of mechanics and are booking new projects for this winter if you are interested!

Supercharged Bugeye driving video

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Last week, I posted our blue supercharged Bugeye “Pal.” That car is now sold (CONGRATULATIONS to Patrick in Northern California!!!)

I added this video to the post late, and so you might have missed it. It’s a good one, so I wanted to share it once again. Enjoy! (And let us know if we can supercharge your Bugeye for you! Call or email anytime!

Contact us at David@bugeyeguy.com or call (203)-208-0980 during business hours