[Spridgets] [midgetsprite] Re: Team Sprite Bugeye for Sale on Ebay

[Robert Bruce Evans]

Brian wrote: Correct heater valve knob, correct color.

The parts manual (AKD1575) shows a very different water control tap (ACA5455), which is as it was on my original Sprite (#26892). The parts book makes no mention of changes. Additionally, I still have the tap from my 1958 Sprite (#762), and it is also the same as #26892. Brian may have been misled by the red-painted tap show in Horler (p. 59), but that is in a HAN6.

Gas cap was painted body color, as it should be.

This has often been the subject of discussion, but there is simply no contemporary evidence that ANY Sprite came with a painted gas cap, Horlers assertion (p. 16) to the contrary. Yes, I remember that some people painted them to match the car, just as a girlfriend painted my hubcaps' AH with her red fingernail polish. Certainly, my #26892 came with a chrome gas cap. And when Frank and I visited the BMIHT headquarters in May, the chaps there told us they came with a chrome gas cap. Finally, all of the gas caps shown in Clausanger are chrome.

"Sliding pane side curtains introduced #8283 (Dec. 58)"

But the sliding side curtains were an option that was available ONLY with the hardtop which was made available after the Team Sprite car was built.  Indeed, the hardtop sliding side curtains did not work well with a soft top, and continually allowed water in. The side curtain on the Team Sprite car was a later after-market version developed by the company, and can be identified by the rubber seal that extended over the door.

Hopefully, Jay can add more regarding the originality issues.

Buster Evans