It took about five months from the time we first learned about the Bugeye body shell in Michigan until we finally got the car delivered to our home in Florida! The travel arrangements got a little complicated but the important thing is that the we now have the car in the garage to begin work. The delivery could not have happened without the assistance of best friend Gregor Henricks who lives in Davison, NC. Thank you, Gregor!

This short Bugeye Restoration Video Forty-eight provides a little coverage of the delivery of the car to Florida:  https://vimeo.com/874909698/b7163d46c5?ts=0&share=copy

After some time away from home to attend family events in Virginia, we were able to complete a visual inspection of the “new” shell. It looks remarkably good and we are quite pleased with the purchase. However, we are a little puzzled at one aspect of the car. The gearbox cover is missing the mounting holes for the gearbox mount. The reinforcement metal is there but the holes on either side are missing. The inspection hole for filling the Sprite gearbox is also missing. This is not an issue as we are using a Datsun 210 five speed and would not find the access hole useful anyway. We will have to figure out how to properly measure and drill the two gearbox mount holes. Upon consulting with a few knowledgeable contributors to the Austin-Healey Experience Sprite Forum, we are thinking that the gearbox cover may have been replaced with a later 1500 MG Midget cover? That cover would be structurally the same but without the holes we are missing. More research will be done.

The following Bugeye Restoration Video Forty-nine doesn’t include any restoration work. It is simply a “walk-around” inspection of the shell: https://vimeo.com/873995797/369cff0121?share=copy

Now the fun begins!