My name is John

My name is John. For 35+ years I was an import car mechanic. The first car I ever worked on at my first job in a garage was an Austin Healey Sprite. I retired early because of a failing back and now I make knives. I really thought I was over the car thing, but a few years ago a garage owner friend of mine was retiring and selling out all of his accumulated junk. I couldn't help myself and I bought four bugeye sprites and two full shelves of parts. It did put some stress on my marriage but now that I have one car restored and my wife has ridden in it we're OK. I'm working on my second now, which I cut in half and added five inches to better accommodate my 6 foot 200 lb frame. I think I'll call it an Austin Healey Sprout.

welcome! I think we have another knife maker around here somewhere - would love to see the cars.

John, are you adding the extra 5 inches into the door area or where? Sounds like a good project and we want pictures!
Jerry

So here is the Sprout in process, Got the idea from Bugeye Guy's Youtube channel

Hello John

Welcome to the forum.

That is a great idea adding a few inches to the length of the car. As I do not work on Sprites my self I am not sure if they have a separate frame. If they do how did you address that?
I have seen photos of a TR3 that had some added to the width of the car. Looked good.

David

The Sprite has no frame. I don't know if it was the first unit-body car, but it was at least one of the first. The area that I chose to cut and lengthen is all flat steel or simple curves. No compound curves means I can add the sheet metal without special metal-working skills. Bugeyeguy says the extra length actually makes the car more stable on the highway.