The journey begins....maybe

[bugedd]

I think I am on year 5 of owning my bugeye now, and its been quite fun, and of course frustrating. I bought my car from pics from a fellow some 9 hours away, and had it hauled down by someone who happened to be moving from here near the seller. About 2 years after owning it, I got sick of the panels not lining up and talked to a buddy who had a body shop. He put it on a rack and told me the car was quite twisted, and would take a lot of cutting of panels and pulling it back straight, then welding things back up to make it right. So being a stubborn person, I went and bought a roller bugeye. It's a retired racer from the 70's, and had been sitting in a barn since. It had surface rust, but no cancer. My goal has been to fix up that body and swap parts. Today I finally got the bugeye from a friends resto shop from being abrasive blasted and primed and got to see what had been under the paint. My heart sunk and right then and there I almost gave up. But its in the bed of the truck and I am thinking of projects I've seen on here and what amazing work has been done to save these cars. I am going to try and stick with the project, but the shell is much rougher than thought, though very little cancer was found which was great. The only welding needed are one full floor pan and a spot of another. Pillars, rocker, etc are all clean.
Anyhow, just thought I'd share some pics of what I've been doing, and what I am getting into. I included a pic of the color I think I am going with, Mexico Blue factory on Porsches. And did you know a bugeye fits in a shortbed Nissan Frontier?? Anyhow, I may be in need some emotional support, therapy, and beer in the very near future.

 

[markberry]

Dude that shell is in great shape! Dents come out a heck of a lot easier than old rusted through panels come off (and are replaced). My Bugeye turned out to be a complete rusted out piece of junk once I started digging into it. Bent frame, everything from the bottom of the doors down completely rusted through, rusted out spring boxes, wheel arches, bonnet was scrap. That was seven years ago and I'm just now almost ready for paint. Wow! I didn't paint a very good picture of myself or my judgement....did I ? Here's a link to my photo album. Take heart dude! Somebody needs to restore it...might as well be you! What else have you got to do with your time and money . https://www.spritespot.com/gallery/1960-bugeye-refurb

regards
mark

 

[JPSmit]

actually looks pretty good - doesn't seem like a huge amount of work (famous last words) we're here for you man!

 

[nomad]

As you mentioned it appears quite rust free. That's always what scared me. Being an old race car I think you would have to expect plenty of dents and to me it looks like a great project. You will need a little practice at shrinking metal but I would think you could get it to just a thin skin of bondo without much trouble. My BE had a hole cut underneath where the license plate would mount so that the PO could get behind the panels with a body dolly. I sealed it up with and inner and outer sheet of steel and a good bead of silicone sealer.

Kurt.

 

[bugedd]

Seeing stuff like that makes me think its not so bad. A couple things that hang me up are my lack up welding abilities, which I may have to learn, and a one car garage that already has a 6 bicycles, a bugeye, and now another bugeye. So I don't really have much room to work, or the money to pay people to do the things I can't. I'll post a pic of my garage later after some buddies come over to help me lift it out of the truck.
Anyhow, what you cannot see in the pic is the area where the wipers attach about 20 holes drilled in it for who knows what reason, the rear deck looks like someone layed on it and popped it in, then took a ball peen to knock it out, one fender that is pretty bent and may need to be replaced, 2 floor pans rusted, one good dent in each quarter, the rear license area knock in then beat back out very roughly, and random holes drilled all over that make me scratch my head and ask "why?"

 

[JPSmit]

answer #1 "Because it is there."

answer #2 "why not?' :grin:

 

[mightymidget]

not trying to distrube the issue, but you may consider a purchase of nice complete bugeye and sell your vehicles. If you lose intrest later after doing alot of work it will become a burden. you could always keep shell if you desire to keep a project.

 

[Jim_Gruber]

Holes were probably in there to pull out the dents. Most is us started with something similar. Bugsy II sitting in my single car garage right now is totally surface rusted as PO 30+ years ago decided to strip off the paint and never repainted. Or I should say he scraped part of the paint off. It's all rust other than one bright red door. Everything was removed other than front and rear axles and I need to get up in a rotisserie to finish some suspect welding work on the spring boxes. Am I going to quit. No way, it's reading this list everyday and getting support from this team that helps. Hey we're all in this one together. And as bad as Bugsy is as a starting point, my buddy Tim has one that is worse. Anyone got a spare BE rear end they don't need. I scored a set of springs I'm donating to his project. He needs the rest of the rear suspension. He's got a '66 Midget that will donate the rest if the running gear.

thus is how to get your BE back on the road. Ask the team. We're all here to offer help, encouragement, teamwork, and one of these days another O**** Gathering may happen once again. We've all been there and are willing to help.

 

[Jim_Gruber]

Ok censored by the list but if you gave not heard stories about the Buster Cluster, and the HolySprite you need to learn more about what the folks on this list and other Spridget Forums are willing to do to help.just ask.

 

[bugedd]

Thanks guys, appreciate the support. A buddy was just over with a few others to get it out of the truck....amazing what a beer bribe will do.....and he can weld pretty well and is will to help. I think the best way to do it is do an inventory of the problem areas, break it down to little areas to complete, and go from there. In the mean time, I'll keep working on my bent up car, restoring bits so they can be swapped over when the time comes.
Here's a pic of the garage with 2 bugeyes. Kinda cramped