On the Road: 1959 Austin-Healey ‘Bugeye’ Sprite

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It’s a Bugeye being built on a budget. Working with a minimal amount of dollars, Ian Cassley plans to have his 1959 Austin-Healey ‘Bugeye’ Sprite on the road by Labour Day this year.

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And, in an effort to document his efforts he’s learning a new skill – filming and editing video to upload to his Econobox Garage channel on YouTube.

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On the Road: 1959 Austin-Healey ‘Bugeye’ Sprite Back to video

“I like to learn new things,” the Calgarian explains, and continues, “with Econobox Garage I wanted to post my progress, but also show others you don’t need the latest and greatest equipment to work on a car. There are ways to spend less money on a project.”

A self-taught mechanic and welder, Cassley first learned of this Bugeye Sprite in 2000 when he joined a new company. There, he met a colleague who’d originally bought the Sprite with his father in 1981 to restore.

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“It was driven for a few months and then parked,” Cassley says. “They were going to completely restore the car. The paint had been stripped, the windshield had been removed and the interior had been gutted. After that, progress halted and from 1982 to 2017 the Sprite just sat to the side. We were both car guys, and I’d always ask questions about the car. I knew they weren’t working on it much and in 2017, they were moving to Ecuador. That’s when I bought the car.”

Cassley didn’t immediately set to work. Instead, he focused on rebuilding the engine in his Ford Festiva, but in November 2020 the Sprite became his main priority.

Developed in England by the Donald Healey Motor Company, the Sprite incorporated unitized body construction to provide a rigid but lightweight platform to hold an Austin A-Series four-cylinder engine, four-speed transmission with non-synchromesh first gear and a live rear axle. At just 948-cc, the motor, which was also used in the Morris Minor 1000 and Austin A30/A35, made 36 horsepower. In the Sprite, however, the engine was equipped with dual SU side-draft carburetors and managed to produce 43hp.

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Introduced in 1958, the car presented itself with a friendly smiley-face grille and prominent headlamps, which were originally intended to be pop-up lights. To keep the car as inexpensive to build as possible, the lights became fixed in an upright position. This led the Sprite to be labeled the ‘Bugeye’ in the U.S., while in England it was called the ‘Frogeye’. Cassley knows his project car was manufactured on Dec. 3, 1959, and it left the factory four days later. It was sent to San Francisco, but from there Cassley doesn’t know much more of the history. It’s thought the car had found its way to Saskatchewan before ultimately arriving in Calgary.

Working in his oversized 14-foot by 28-foot single-car garage, Cassley has dismantled the car completely and mounted the body in a makeshift rotisserie. Searching Kijiji, he sourced a pair of used engine stands that had already been modified to hold a lightweight car body. Cassley further modified them to suit his Bugeye. His goal over the winter is to complete all the necessary metal work. Showing just 71,000 miles on the original odometer, Cassley says the Sprite has very little rust, but he will need to cut out and weld in patch panels in both sides of the floor pan.

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The ultimate goal is to just have a fun little car to drive around town or out to Banff for a day trip.

Parts supply is plentiful, Cassley says, and he’s had luck sourcing some of the needed components from U.S.-based suppliers Moss Motors and The Bugeye Guy. Other parts, such as a replacement exhaust system, have been found locally through word of mouth or searching Kijiji ads.

“I’ve got zero budget for this car,” Cassley laughs. “I’ve been funding it by selling extra parts, and I was fortunate there were several extra pieces that came with the project that I could let go.”

The engine seems to be in very good condition and Cassley plans to pull the valve cover to inspect the valve train and adjust clearances but he doesn’t anticipate any issues. Same goes for the transmission. He pulled the inspection cover and didn’t find any chipped gear teeth or bits of metal in the gear oil. He’ll clean both of these components and paint them. That’s his strategy for all of the running gear, in fact; repairing or refurbishing all pieces as necessary before spraying them the factory colour.

“Out of necessity, the plan is to do everything that I can myself, apart from things like resurfacing the flywheel or replacing the starter ring gear on the flywheel,” Cassley notes. “Even the paint on the body, when it’s warm enough to spray, I’ll do myself.

“The ultimate goal is to just have a fun little car to drive around town or out to Banff for a day trip.”

Greg Williams is a member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC). Have a column tip? Contact him at 403-287-1067 or gregwilliams@shaw.ca