TheSamba.com :: View topic

Mon Jul 02, 2007 7:36 pm

spent five months, rebuilding this car for a lady whos husband had built in the early 70s. it had been in his barn for the last 20 plus years broken and rotting.

http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/364297.jpg
i have found body styles like this one but the dash was different.
We stole the car from barn rebuilt it and gave it to him last weekend for his birthday. Kinda like "overhaulin". Thanks Phillip

Mon Jul 02, 2007 7:43 pm

I Don't know what it is, but that is a way cool thing to do..... :lol: :lol: :lol:

Tue Jul 03, 2007 4:00 am

these are some of the before and after pictures

Tue Jul 03, 2007 7:15 am

Real nice work! I like how you detailed that tranny red with the black outlining on the ribs, real cool.

Tue Jul 03, 2007 2:23 pm

Do you have a shot of the tail?

Jay

Tue Jul 03, 2007 2:39 pm

Does it have wiring tubes under the "doors" and above the transaxle? It look exactly like mine including the dash but I don't know what mine is :wink: . I would like to see a rear shot as well.

Tue Jul 03, 2007 4:56 pm

wiring tube are along the sides.

Tue Jul 03, 2007 5:02 pm

owner had cut plate box off.

Tue Jul 03, 2007 6:37 pm

Here's what little I know:

I've seen the dash before for sure. It appears a few east coast distributers either all got their hoods/dashes from the same manufacturer, or quite a few molded their hood/dash after one with a "flaw" in it.

I've seen this on Hunter Fiberglass products "Sand Tiger" (although they have a hood scoop), On yours which has a ridge, and on mine, which originally was ID'd as a MiniVolks. ( I think now may be a Ranger from Fiberglass Products in Lancaster, Ma) All three have the exact same dash "flaw". Now... On the Hunter Sand Tiger and my buggy, both dashes are plumb to the ground. You have a tilted dash as you look at it from the side. Normally I would think your buggy has no relation, but for the dash flaw!

Take a look at the dash. On the left side the corner cut out is nice and round. On the right hand side, the dash corner cut out is almost squared off. This is asymmetrical to say the least. The left cut out is taller in the corner than the right side, which was cut out less (lower cut out). On this buggy, it is easy to see, although partially covered by the aluminum plate, you can clearly see the right hand side lower and squared off in the corner. I can see most of the radius on the left side. This "flaw" is the same for both the plumb and slanted dashes. It seems strange that this flaw would be found on so many east coast dashes. There was a lot of sharing or copying going on.

Your body is not what you would typically see on an east coast buggy. Usually the east coast buggies have a fairly massive rear end shrouding the engine.

I'm not saying the hood/dash doesn't belong on this body though.

Sorry that's all I know for now. The mystery continues.........

Jay

Tue Jul 03, 2007 7:40 pm

oh well, what ever it is. thanks for letting pick your brains. i know it was fun to drive. the owner loves it and drives it all over the country side. i enjoyed driving it in the evening when the sun was going down and the east texas humidity is lifting, driving under the tree covered back roads and guess what, my wife says i convert her baja into one.

Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:13 pm

couple of final pictures. taking a week break from the backyard buggy shop, maybe build a new fishing pier cart. then on to the next project.

Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:08 pm

Did you ever figure out what kind of buggy you have? mine is almost exactly like yours & I would like to know also what it is.....thanks

Sun Aug 24, 2008 7:05 pm

i discovered the dash looked like a glitterbug but they were known for their pickup style bodys. maybe somebody changed hoods along the way but i found that glitterbug had a regular body style also. still kind of a mystery.