My bugeye is bent

[bugedd]

A year ago I bought my bugeye through the internet and had it trucked down. The owner told me that it had been in a front end accident once, but it was fixed nicely. Well, he is an idiot. As I looked at it, the front frame rails were offset to the drivers side about 1". And I had to pull the bonnet over about that much to line up the strikers and close it.

Now its in the body shop and the damage is pretty good. Turns out it took a hit on the drivers front wheel, which pushed the frame rail back and buckled the car by the inspection hole at the trans tunnel. The drivers front wheel is 1" back from the other side, along with the frame rails both offest to the side 1". My body shop guy is tugging on it, only to have broke the frame extension off and now trying to attach to the control arm to pull on.

Its not looking good, keep your fingers crossed that it pulls out. I've put a lot of myself in this car and would hate to have to search out a new shell.

 

[BlueMax]

Buying sight unseen cars is a dangerous game. Don’t feel bad theirs been a many a con regarding cars that supposedly have been fix correctly. Bugeye’s were one of the first to have a unitize body, the technology was in its infancy were by the structure doesn’t take well to stretching and pulling. These cars were design for replacing the panels instead of pulling. I’m afraid you’ll open up a can of worms if you try to pull this car. Most body shop guys had not even been born when this car was built, they have in mind that all unitizes body cars are the same. WRONG! So quit pulling and fix it right. We wish you well...

 

[drooartz]

Good luck with your car, and sorry to hear of the troubles. Wish I had some real advice for you, but this sort of work is well out of my league.

 

[smaceng]

So sorry to hear of your trouble. It sounds as if it may make more sense to get another body. If the buckle went all the way inside to the trans. tunnel, I think it is hopeless. That means it is out of shape half way back from the front. I don't have much hope. Even if the shop thinks they have it fixed, I think that you will continue to have issues on fit forever. I have been involved in this business for many years, and I think it is a write-off. Generally, a pull is done if the front or back is out of alignment. Here you have the built-up center of the car out of alignment, nearly impossible to fix, by any shop.
Sorry,
Scott in CA

 

[tdskip]

There looks to be a straight project on SoCal that was posted today. Sorry to hear about your discover.

 

[Hap Waldrop]

I've dealt with alot worse, we had to nearly graph on entire rear section of one the Spridget race cars, and then it took two visits to two different frame machines to get it right and through that all some things did get pulled loose and had to be reattached, it's all part of frame pulling. When we got through with all this, you could not even tell a major tub repair had even been done. Keep your hopes high, take your time and do it right, you'll get through this and you and the car will be better off for it. Good luck.

 

[Whitephrog]

I have a straight, mostly complete front clip from a 1960 Bugeye but transportation costs from Tennessee to California probably doesn't make sense.

 

[bugedd]

I brought the car home today, no luck so far. He wants me to pull the motor/trans so he can get in there and massage the wrinkles out of it and get a better handle on things. He is confident that he can get it straight. Bob is in his mid 60's and has been doing this all his life, and has done work for me before and its been flawless. So I have confidence in his abilities. So this weekend I will be pulling it apart and the letting him have at it. If all does well, I will have the battery tray replaced while its in there as its a bit crusty.
On another note, I found a 66 Triumph Spitfire for $1500. Its been sitting in a garage for 5 years with the owner's ambition to work on it disappearing. I'm going to check it out, see what kind of shape its in. I don't have room for it, but if its a nice car I'll try to find it a good home.

 

[markberry]

My bugeye had sufered the same fate at some point in it's life. It had been hit hard in the front right corner demolishing the shock mount/upper spring seat. [they] beat out the shock mount as best they could with whatever they had at the time then welded an 1/8" plate to the top of the shock mount and re-drilled and tapped the shock mounting holes to move the front wheel forward again. I dind't notice any of this until I pulled the motor out and saw the buckled frame. I took the car to a collision repair shop and was assured they could get it pulled back in a day for $500. Two weeks and $1500 later the car was ready! the owner/manager took digital photos and documented all the work they had to do to get it to the state it's in now. He said it was the hardest car his frame guy had ever had to pull! they couldn't believe how resistant to being pulled back into position that forward frame area was. Definately not designed to be repaired like that. After I put the car all back together and started driving it, I found it had a horrible bump-steer problem, obviously due to the frame being straightened but without that steel plate being removed. At the time, rather than take that plate off and try to return the steering angles to their original condition, I made shims to place under the steering rack mounts to level out the tie rods again and used offset upper trunion bushings to get the camber symmetrical on both wheels. All this worked well, but now the car is undergoing a full rotisserie restoration, so I've cut that plate off now and I'm going to reassemble the car without all that stuff on it to see how everything lines up. Anyway I just wanted to say I feel your pain Bro!
regards
Mark

 

[bugedd]

Well I got the motor and trans out today, all by myself in about 2 hours. Pretty amazing how easy it comes apart. The battery tray had a layer of metal put over the corroded part at some point, and I tore that off to find some nasty stuff. How can I remove that panel? I didn't really see any spot welds?

With the motor out I can better see the bends in the car. Again, keep your fingers crossed that I don't have to send this one to the scrap. She has about $2k into her after buying her, and I don't want to give up. Hopefully after I remove the battery tray tomorrow I'll haul it back to the body shop and see if they can pull her straight

 

[bugedd]

Oh ya, and if anyone in my neck of the woods knows of a donor, let me know.

 

[Trevor Jessie]

Here are some pics for reference. Do not forget that those frame rails do have an upward bend.

https://www.britishv8.org/Articles/BritishMotorHeritage-Midget.htm

 

[Spridget64SC]

Patience and perserverance! Find someone to repair the car that has the right attitude, skill and equipment. Hap's advice is right on! The factory put the cars together from bits and pieces of formed sheet metal. So can you. Donor cars and replacement pieces will do the trick. With proper preparation prior to welding it all back together, you can have a car as good or better than what rolled out of Abingdon! Make sure the frame repair shop doesn't take the "Anit-dive" out of the body! You can see the tilt of the front rails under the car. Quite a strange look to the car if you're not familiar with the feature.

Being a long time racer like Hap, not too much fazes us as far as a bent car goes. It can be fixed. The $'s, effort and time are a different story though.

Fix it and you'll be proud of the results!

Mike Miller

 

[60bug]

Hi Bugedd, you wont believe this but there's a 1959 bugeye tub at the Pick at Pull here in Sacramento, it does have a few dents here and there but appeared straight when I was checking it out, it's at the location on Sunrise Blvd. It appears to be an ex-race car.

 

[tdskip]

WOW - someone better grab that ASAP.

 

[60bug]

I tried but at the time they wanted $1300, probably less now as more parts have been removed but it had the front and rear suspension intact, smooth case transmission, engine sitting in the passenger seat(or where the seat was supposed to be). The wheels were there, all reinforced with metal plates welded to the backsides, the front brakes were still drums with lightened backing plates. When I first looked at the car the bonnet was dented but probably saveable, when I returned a couple of days later to try and talk someone into selling me the car for less some idiot had cut the middle out of the bonnet.

 

[bugedd]

wow, thats amazing. I'll give them a call and see what they say. My uncle happens to run a resto shop, and has been restoring British cars for 20 years. He actually owns a bugeye and has for 22 years, and is the reason I got the car. He offered to let me use his metal shop and his brother can help me off-the-clock. He made it sound easy...cut the weld here and they pull it back, weld it back up. This week he is going to come down to check out the damage and get me a qoute, but I think he will be gentle. But that one is Sac is very tempting. How were the floor pans?

 

[60bug]

The pans looked good, better than the ones in my car, there was some body damage but mild, the frame rails looked good as did the rockers although the passenger side rocker had some damage from them moving the car with a forklift. I figured for $400-500 it would be worthwhile, still has the roll bar as well(or did a week ago). I was surprised by how little rust there was.

 

[bugedd]

Any chance you are heading out that way any time soon? I'd like to see a pic of two, and don't want to make the 2 hour drive if its not worth it

 

[bugedd]

I guess I should ask everyone here, what is the difference between the 59 and 60 if any. I would hate to get a 59 shell and swap my 60 parts and not have things work out.