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Archeological dig...

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Heck - I enjoyed the seller's write-up!

Doug
 
twas_brillig said:
Heck - I enjoyed the seller's write-up!

Doug
Click to expand...


Me too, especially this part:

"This untouched original California Bugeye Sprite"

It's really hard to find one with the factory bonnet hack job. :laugh:
 
Well, it wasn't completely untouched. There were a few, minor, mods (like what looks like an ammeter and black paint underneath - perhaps an undercoating). Not sure what the color is... though I seem to recall a dialog on that when it was first adverstised.
 
I looked at one in the neighborhood a couple weeks ago that was slightly better (no hardtop), that I could have had for $500. I still passed on it. Unfortunately, it had been sitting since 1970 (only two years less that the number of years I've owned Bugeyes) and while I expected it to look much better than it did, it would have been an enormous project. There was rust showing though the beading and the rear edge of the bonnet was as rusty as what you'd see in the floors, even though it'd been garage stored all these years. It was sitting on 4 flat tires and I could get close enough to it to inspect anything below eye level. It had a bad gearbox (why it was parked in the first place) and I'm sure the engine was seized up (couldn't open the bonnet all the way) When I was told it was garage stored since 1970, I figured it would be pretty decent, so I was pretty disappointed at what I saw.
 
So at 1/4 the asking price its a maybe??? I've gotten to the age that the least required looks best to me as well! Do kinda like the army drab paint though!!


Kurt.
 
I don't see it either. Original and fully functionally is nice, but this surely won't be very original once worked over. Too much to do for too much money (IMHO).
 
a bugeye is either redone or needs to be redone. if a bugeye hasn't been reworked and not a good daily driver it will still need basically the same amount of time money and labor to get in the above mention conditions. I view all used bugeyes as the same value since they all need the same amount of work to make into nice cars. this one does have the hardtop to add value.
 
This Bugeye looks identical to what I started with. I paid my last $250.00 in 1979. I then found out a new master cylinder was $375.00 so it went to the corner of the garage. It was stored there till 2010 when I pulled it out and went to work on it. On a car like this the only thing usable are the major steel components. Everything else will need to be replaced or restored. A lot of things that may not look too bad fall apart when you try to disassemble them. Years of rust wins out over penetrating oil. You get to the point where you hope it breaks off so you don’t have to fight it to the end. Past body work can be deceiving. My car had foil tape and bondo over the rust holes and looked pretty good until you started sanding. This car is way over priced but would be a good start. Like Gerard said they all have the same value but the sellers are not always aware of this.
 
Given what we see, I can well imagine the bring-boxes are badly rusted.
 
You have to put some good value on the factory hard top and good side curtains. That brings it up to my 1/4 the price estimate!!

Kurt.
 
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