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Sun Aug 31, 2008 4:42 pm

I recently bought a buggy on ebay for a project. I have researched and thought it was a Sears Rascal because of the ridge on the hood but now I think it may be a Glitterbug because of the larger dropped down area at the speedometer. The flat horizonta area under the speedo goes over about 6" and then 45 degrees back up and back horizontal again. The dash is fg and is fg'ed to the hood. It is gel coat the same red as the body. I can't id the rear because the hump has been completely cut off.
The swing axle frame was a rust bucket and the tunnel had been butchered by a PO so I bought a 1970 IRS to cut and install. I know that you usually need to cut 14.25" off of a Manx clone frame but when I measured I found I needed to cut 16". I measured od of the metal 70' frame and od of the fiberglass shell. Did the Rascal or Glitterbug have a shorter body? I am taking pictures of my build and will post when I get a little further along, Thanks. Brent

Sun Aug 31, 2008 6:18 pm

What is your wheel base?

Sun Aug 31, 2008 6:29 pm

kustoms wrote: What is your wheel base?

About 1.5" shorter than it should be.

Sun Aug 31, 2008 6:41 pm

I would still like to know what the actual measurement is from a tape measure. Center of front wheel to center of rear wheel. People do crazy things.

Sun Aug 31, 2008 6:47 pm

Another very important measurement is where front of body hits frame rib and where rear of body hit the rib in front of torsion bar....

Get frame cut length wrong and these two critical "joints" will screw up everything...

Dale

Mon Sep 01, 2008 5:36 am

There's no way that I can measure the pan frame that came with the buggy. It was a rust bucket and the tunnel was almost broken into from stress cracks at the pedal opening so I cut it up and hauled it off. I wanted an IRS so I bought a stock 1970 VW without the engine. The body had never been off and the pan was uncut.
I retired after 30 years in a custom metal fab shop so I know how to use a tape measure. I measured both buggy and frame Saturday and came up wiht the 16". Yesterday I had some help and sat the buggy on the frame lining the buggy lip to the front tunnel arch flush on the front and then measured the rear from the outside of the sloping pan frame to the outside of the buggy. I know anyone can make a mistake with a tape measure. Again 16". This morning after reading the post I went out in my pajamas and slid the buggy back trying to line it up in the rear and measure to the front. I can't get the buggy all the way back because it is hitting the torsion arm plate. I am going to fab a new pan frame anyway so it looks like I am going to have to move the sloping part of the frame up toward the front about 3/4". But to my suprise the buggy is about and inch too narrow in the rear. The stock frame was sticking out past the outside of the body about 1/2" on each side.
This is really no problem. I can build the 2x2 pan frame to fit. I was just wandering if any one has run across an odd ball size buggy like this before? Thanks for all the help.

Mon Sep 01, 2008 6:09 am

In the instructions for my Ocelot it clearly states to make a 15" cut which is outside the norm of 14.25"/14.5" so it may actually turn out you need to make a 16" cut. As long as the body sits on the pan correctly at the end of the day I really don't see an issue.

IIRC, there are a couple other buggy bodies that required "odd" cuts as well but I'm currently at a friend's house and away from my books so I cannot look them up right now.

Mon Sep 01, 2008 7:20 am

The wheel base would give you a general idea of the cut. It is not 100%accurate but it will be close. The pans could have been replaced and the rear pan wall could have been mounted in the wrong location. It sounds like the guy who cut the pan did not do such a great job. The rear corners of the pan should have been cut to accommodate the body. Ultimately, Replacing it completely sounds like the right thing to do. Before you cut it you should measure the side mount of the body and chassis to match correctly. Jim is right. There are lots of different cut measurement. The EMPI Imp is 12". It you go to the DBA (Link below) under build advice, I have a few set of build instructions. They are PDF files you can download for free.

http://www.dunebuggyarchives.com/forum/topic_show.pl?tid=901

Mon Sep 01, 2008 1:33 pm

fiberglass isn't an exact science... i ended up cutting 15" for my manx knockoff

If you have measured several different ways and still come up with 16".. I'd cut 16" out and go to town

Tue Sep 02, 2008 2:47 pm

Yeah, I am going to build the frame to fit the fg buggy. I knew that was what I was going to have to do but just wanted to get every ones take on the measurements. Now if I can just sale my Harley trike to pay for the project.

Tue Sep 02, 2008 3:25 pm

I got a chance to look through one of my books and it seems that a number of buggy bodies from Europe have wheelbase measurements of between 78.5" and 82.5".

So just like you've stated that after umpteen measurements you keep coming up with 16"...go for it.