1960 Austin Healey Sprite Mark 1

Bugeye Convertible

948

Manual

AN5L 23594

Clear

Gasoline

Here's a project car that has been stored inside since 1981. The car was sitting in a garage since then, waiting for restoration. The owner realized that he was never going to get to the project, so he called us at bugeyeguy, traded this car plus cash for one of our drivers called Little HUNY, and now a driving Bugeye sits in that very same garage! (I love these stories of instant garage transformation!) So we now have "Francine" (named after the wife) for sale for anyone looking for a Bugeye project car. Her lower extremities are rusted--she'll need front floor pans, rockers, lower rear fenders and A pillar patches (all of which we have in stock). That said, the middle section of the car is better than many barn finds, and this is a good candidate for total restoration. The worst rust is in the driver's footwell and door hinge area. The center of the car is surprisingly good given how much of the rockers rusted away. Some floor repair will also be needed around the rear leaf spring mounts. This is a big project but we have restored cars that also have needed this type of repair and also needed much more welding along the rear bulkhead, which this one doesn't require. So it's a project, but we have restored Bugeyes in much worse shape than this, and now that Bugeyes are getting more valuable, many more Bugeyes in this condition will get restored. The nose is quite good, and shows very little prior damage, mainly an old dent in the lower left front that has been repaired. The contours are all quite straight, and the body lines are good, with only a few dents. Nice to see the rear deck is good and not all rippled and faceted, as in the case with many of these project cars. The car is complete, with an original 948 engine and smoothcase transmission in place. The engine is stuck, but you might be able to free it up. 948 engines are readily available should you need a different one (we have those too for sale). One particularly nice feature is the crayon vin number still visible on the back shelf. You can see this on most of the well- preserved Bugeyes, so it's nice that this remnant of the factory floor is still visible. This is a project, but the cars are simple and we have all the parts you would need to bring this car back to life. They're appreciating nicely. We would restore this car if we didn't have such a full plate of Bugeyes in production. Make a bid and let's get Francine back on the road! You can see a slideshow with more pictures by clicking hereOn Mar-31-13 at 19:56:01 PDT, seller added the following information: I forgot to mention that the original seats also come with the car. I removed them for the photos. They are rough, but the frames are original and there. I will add a photo tomorrow. Also, this car has not been disassembled which makes restoration easier, rather than trying to figure out someone's pile of bolts and bits. Also, these are the original floor pans, note the proper gussets and stamping. They have not been cut out and replaced with flat sheet metal. We have the correct floor pans in stock to restore the forward footwells with the correct stamping. The car did have a luggage rack at one time, which I don't have, but everything else original to this car should be there.