CURRENT INVENTORY IS SHOWN IN THE SMALL PICTURES JUST BELOW THIS TEXT!
(if a car is not pictured here, it has been sold)
Porsche 911 SC Targa for sale-1978 with just 65k miles!
Custom Works Tribute! 1967 Austin Healey 3000 MK3 BJ8 for sale
Restored 1960 Austin Healey Bugeye Sprite!
1960 Austin Healey Bugeye Sprite for sale– Freshly rebuilt 1275 engine and disk brakes!
2018 Mini Cooper S JCW for sale, in Mint condition with just 7000 miles

Bugeye Loading Dock

January 25, 2019 by
2015, when we first moved in

2019 and countless Bugeyes later… only the staircase is “original” (railings are next).

Our facility continues to move forward to it’s fully renovated state. It is the mother of all restorations, and it keeps going and going. This week though, we had a breakthrough with one of our biggest challenges, loading dock drainage.

Cedar face, arched roof, new doors and more… but still too much water.

We’ve had a very tough time trying to get our loading dock to drain properly. We have ground the concrete dock extensively, trying to pitch the dock toward the driveway, and it hasn’t worked. The water was still pooling in front of the door, leaving us at risk for big ice patches right where we don’t want them. This week, we grooved the dock, and each groove is pitched outward, and finally we have drainage where we need it.

Our 1951 Quonset Hut is marching forward to completion!

Filed Under: Quonset Hut restoration

Bugeye Sprite tow dolly long term test

January 25, 2019 by

In case you were wondering if you can tow a Bugeye on a tow dolly, Ken has 9,000 miles under his belt towing this car behind his motor home (shown below), without issue.

This month, Ken and Sandy piled their dogs, luggage and a bird into their RV and drove from North of Chicago to our door, for a new windshield and rear disk brake upgrade, done while they slept in our front lot!

A rear disk brake upgrade ends leaking rear wheel cylinder issues forever! (click to read more in our catalog)

Once the car was complete, the crew headed south to the Florida Keys with their much improved Bugeye in tow.

Many have asked if you need to remove the driveshaft to flat tow a Bugeye, and even UHAUL tells you this is required, but that seems to only apply to automatic transmissions. Ken reports no issues, after towing this Sprite all over America, driveshaft in place, without trouble.

Ready to head South for the winter!
Filed Under: Bugeye Basics, Bugeye maintenance

Bugeye Sprite LED lights

January 25, 2019 by

Here’s another former Bugeye owner (had one in the 60s) who added a new Bugeye to his life! This is Mr Walker and his new Bugeye “Miller,” a car you might have seen recently for sale on our site. In the photo below, you see him with son Scott.

The two Walkers came to visit us in Scott’s new Tesla Model 3, all the way from North of Toronto (see below).

It’s fascinating to me that they came in an electric car, particularly since all modern electrics require some extra thought to use. They needed to charge-up three or four times along the way on their ten hour trip. Tesla’s software and mapping makes that easy, but life with an electric car requires active participation and thought in a manner similar to interacting with an old British car.

Driving around in a classic English car, one inevitably knows about what could go wrong and how one might fix it. Driving in a Tesla, one has to know where you could run out of juice and how to string together charging stations. While the two cars couldn’t be more different, life with a Tesla today is actually a lot like life with an old English car. It’s an active relationship. So I found it fascinating that father was getting back into Bugeyes, while son has found his passion in a new Tesla. There are more similarities to the two categories of vehicle than I initially might have thought.

“Miller,” before, with tail lights on and original factory bulbs

We are fitting out Miller for it’s trip to it’s new home in Canada and I wanted to share a “before” and “after” photograph of the new LED tail lights we are fitting to Miller. In the photos below, you can see the stock lights on a Bugeye, and then the new LED lights on another car. The difference is quite striking, and as more and more people seem to be paying less attention to the road, those brighter lights might just save your life.

A different red Bugeye, with tail lights on and LED tail and brake lights fitted

You can find our LED kit by clicking here.

Filed Under: Bugeye maintenance, Bugeye Restoration

Our second electric conversion starts here.

January 18, 2019 by

This is not a particularly special Bugeye (at least not yet).

We are about to make it special with an electric drivetrain. Welcome to our second electric conversion. With 0-60 times at about 10 seconds (about half of the original), 100 mile range, and smooth torque whenever you want it, this is exciting, for us, for the car, and for the customer!

We’ll dress up the interior and make it look like a nice stock driver. Under the hood will be a powerful electric motor with gobs of torque, along with the high tech batteries to power it. In it’s new guise, this car will go from garage furniture to a reliable and fun machine.


Everything you see below in the engine bay will be removed. It’s all pretty worn out anyway. Nothing against restoring cars in this condition… we do this every month. But this particular car would cost a fortune to fully restore because of prior rear end crash damage. As an electric FrogE, that history is no longer a liability. This is the perfect platform for conversion. We have not removed a concours car from circulation, but instead taken another Bugeye out of hibernation.

We’ll use proper parts in the interior so that it still looks authentic. For example, we only use analog gauges, so that the interior still looks accurate. Our goal is to preserve the DNA of the car, while upgrading the powertrain.

Stay tuned! You can see a walk around video below.

Filed Under: Electric Bugeye

Don’t do this to your Bugeye Sprite.

January 18, 2019 by
Don’t cut corners.

It is forever a challenge to get your car right before it goes to paint. And in the case of the car pictured, the builders made an unfortunate mistake.

Look closely in front and behind the rear wheels and you’ll notice that the fender and rocker tips are clipped. These should be a nice fair circular curve. I suspect the fabricator who restored this sheet metal didn’t have reference photos for this piece of the project. Too bad, because so much of the rest of the car looks like it was well thought-out.

Snip, snip.

Here’s a picture of the correct terminations on the ends of the rocker and rear fender bottom. This is also a problem on the front of the rocker panel on many projects, although not on this particular car.

The owner of the leaf green Sprite has repaired this issue, which meant welding-on extensions and blending the paint. He gets credit for trying to make it right and for helping the rest of us try to find these flaws while the car is in primer, not after the paint has dried.

“Original Sprite” by Horler is a good reference tool if you want to see pictures of what is correct. We also have tons of posts on this site, as well as a concours DVD and digital download, to help people avoid similar mistakes.

Follow the circle around the rear tire, this sheet metal is correct.
Filed Under: Bugeye Restoration

Bugeyeguys and Bugeyegirls Wanted

January 18, 2019 by
Shiny new

Our addition is nearly finished!

In the photo above, you can see how we extended the back of the Quonset hut with a new building and driveway behind. We are right on the Amtrak line (8 miles East of New Haven) so if you are traveling by rail in the NE corridor, look for cool cars in the driveway on the North side of your carriage!

This new space will allow for more projects, ranging from electric conversions and kits to new restorations for gas-powered classics. As we fill this space, we need help. We are growing and are looking to add a few more people to our team, on a part or full-time basis.

We need help building electric Bugeyes, managing our catalog, helping with odd jobs and more. Don’t be shy, if you have some time to spend around our cool cars, please get in touch. If you are a retiree looking for some part time project management work, an electrical engineer, or anyone with experience with automotive parts catalogs, please send an email!


Filed Under: Around the shop
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Contact us at David@bugeyeguy.com or call (203)-208-0980 during business hours