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Birthday Buggy Build
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Mike_CNYBuggy
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 6:25 am    Post subject: Birthday Buggy Build Reply with quote

I'm building a manx clone for my wife. I'm about half way thru it. Her party is 4/22/2011. I do believe I'm screwed but I'm gonna try.

If you all wouldn't mind, I'm going to post questions here when I get stuck and maybe you guy's can help me pull this off.

The hard part is trying to keep all this from my wife. The project is at her brothers house and she thinks we are fixing it up to sell it.

The body is at the painters, and is supposedly going to be ready this weekend. I am no where near ready for the body, so now I have to store it.
-The painter only filled the holes on the outside of the body. Not sure what I'm going to do about that, might have to line the inside with something. I have a bunch of thin diamond plate, enough to line the entire inside of the body.

The color scheme will be a dark purple body and black chassis and frame. Going to try to restore the aluminium window frame, if I can't it will get painted black to match the chassis.

The chassis is a mess. about 50% done. I built a roll cage that the body sits in so that the kids will be slightly safer if something bad ever happened. I'm also putting the latch restraint mounts and anchors in the back seats so car seats can be used in the back.

-Need to finish welding on the roll cage and tree bars.
-Need to clean up the metal and get it ready to paint.
-Need to run the wiring
-Paint (rattle can or foam roller, might use bed liner) suggestions?
-install gas tank and steering.
-brakes seem good, all the lines are new and rust free. Looks like the previous project owner got as far as the brakes.
-Transmissoin(swing axle) is already installed.
- Rims are at the painter, need to get tires and mount
- need to install pedals and cables

I got 2 engines with the deal, one seems pretty good. I have a rail buggy with a 1680 dual port on it. I will likely swap it to the speed buggy to save time and use the 2 spare engines to buld myself another motor.

I'll post some pictures as soon as I can.

Question: Will this tank fit in a manx clone?
http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=VWC%2D113%2D201%2D075%2DAB
or this one
http://berrienbuggy.com/id116_m.htm#stock_vw_gas_tanks

The one I have is pretty rusty, should I take the time to try and clean and seal the one I have? (I'll post a pic of it soon)

Mike

EDIT: Added Pictures:

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Last edited by Mike_CNYBuggy on Wed Apr 06, 2011 8:08 am; edited 2 times in total
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jaymonkey
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 6:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Are you going to attach the latch system to the pan somehow? I'm in the same boat, I need to install a child seat. So far, I'm going to attach the anchors to the body, carry it through to the underside of the body, then fasten it to the pan some how.
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Mike_CNYBuggy
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 7:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

for the front seats I would just attach it to the seat itself, as long as it's anchored good, then mount a attach point for the upper the car seat anchor strap to the floor behind the seat.

In the back of my cage there are steel plates that are going from the rear of the roll cage to a support under the seat. I am going to bolt the latch rings thru the body and this plate.

It will make more sense once I post the pictures later tonight.
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Mike_CNYBuggy
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 9:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Here's some new pictures. The chassis is done and I've starting painting. T minus 3 days and counting. Not so sure I can pull this off but I'm gonna try my hardest.

Sorry for some of the low quality pictures.


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lbass
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 11:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I hope you pull it off! Sounds like fun. Keep posting - as you get time. Perhaps a wrap up after "B-day".

Good Luck
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wythac
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 6:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tick tock, dude, TICK TOCK. Are you going to make it? This is like one of those shows on tv where there is a deadline to build the car...on this forum, those deadlines usually follow one of these patterns:

Years; "sometime in 2012"

Seasonal; "this summer"

Event related; "I want to drive it to the Bug Jam"

Defeatist: "I will be buried in it before I get to drive it"

I give you kudos for setting such an ambitious timeline. Even if you don't make it before your wife's B-day, hats off to you for the amount of progress you made in such a limited amount of time.
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Manx102
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 8:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great story...great gift. I hope you finish it in time.
Good Luck
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Mike_CNYBuggy
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 24, 2011 8:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, I gave it my best to have it to her at her party on 4/22 but ended up having too many setbacks along the way (missing parts, wrong parts, the laws of space and time). I was about 1-2 weeks off target.

I told her about it, and she's excited and doesn't want to see it until it's done.

Here's how far we got Thursday evening. I wasn't able to work on it on Friday because I had to help set up for the party etc.

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I'll keep posting as we go along.

The color is NOT correct, there is some filter in my digital camera that is changing the color to blue, it should be a darker purple.

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Thanks to those that were cheering me on. I hope to have it to her in a few weeks.
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Mike_CNYBuggy
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 24, 2011 9:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Does anyone know what type of rims I have? I'm having a hard time finding replacement center caps. The empi ones aren't deep enough for the fronts and the holes don't exactly line up.
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Desert Moose
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 24, 2011 10:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice work.....

Love the bar work.
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Mike_CNYBuggy
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 25, 2011 1:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

This post has the same rims. Still no leads on where to get the center caps.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=359426

EDIT:

I think I found them right here on The Samba Classifieds!

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=893445

Can anyone confirm before I buy that these will fit?

These are the ones I bought before that don't fit
http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=C32-6603

EDIT: I bought these from the above classified ad and they worked fine!


Last edited by Mike_CNYBuggy on Thu May 12, 2011 8:23 am; edited 1 time in total
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Mike_CNYBuggy
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PostPosted: Wed May 11, 2011 7:40 am    Post subject: Update 5/11/11 Reply with quote

Still working on it.

The pace has slowed down some since the deadline has passed.

I'm about 80% on the wiring. I'm refurbishing all the brakes and should wrap that up tonight.

Up next: Modify the gas tank, install Berrien steering column mount kit, Install seats and floor, refurbish roll (halo) bar, mount engine.

The goal is to have the body mounted this weekend. I'll try to take some more pics for those interested.

Mike
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LouisB
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PostPosted: Wed May 11, 2011 8:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Looking really good so far. I like the cage structure.

--louis
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Mike_CNYBuggy
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PostPosted: Thu May 12, 2011 6:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Man, I need to remember to take pictures!

Last night I got the rear drums apart, cleaned up the backing plate and put new wheel cylinders on. I also ran the E-brake cables(after an hour of grinding down the factory ends so the would fit through the shortened tubes).

The wife is going out of town so I'll have Friday night, all of Saturday and half of Sunday to make some real progress, I've only been able to put in a couple hours a night, a couple nights a week because the project is about 30 miles from my house.

I don't want to bore with useless info, but I've got nobody else to tell that would interested, most of the family thinks I'm nuts!

More to come...
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touchdowntodd
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PostPosted: Thu May 12, 2011 7:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

a great project and an awesome amount of work in a short time..

LOVE the cage, wish i had somethin like that for mine
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Mike_CNYBuggy
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PostPosted: Thu May 12, 2011 7:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

This was the inspiration for the "safety cage"

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You can view the article here
http://www.eurotuner.com/featuredvehicles/eurp_1007_1970_meyers_manx_buggy/index.html
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ksshane
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PostPosted: Thu May 12, 2011 11:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

That is sahweet.

Keep us posted on your progress.
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Mike_CNYBuggy
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 11:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Update!

I've been busy lately with both life issues and building the buggy. Due to the project location and the cost of gas, I haven't been working on it much except for the weekends, and I keep forgetting to take pictures. I've currently got an engine that I'm working on during the week at my house, so at least I can make some progress when I'm home.

LAST 3 WEEKS:

The pedal assembly and brakes were a major stumbling point for me for about 2 weekends. I didn't have the original pedal set that came out of the buggy, so I took the set out of my rail and tried them, they were the more modern kind and didn't clear the floor so I figured that I needed an older set.

I got with a guy from my local VW club who sold me a rusty set for $15. Seemed like a good deal to me compared to the cost of a new one.

None of the manuals I could find or searches of the forums showed how to take them apart so I worked on them for a few nights spraying PB blaster on them trying to free them up, but didn't have much success. Eventually I found a youtube video of someone selling a replacement clutch pedal shaft that showed the location of the super secret location of the pin I needed to tap out. Once I bashed that out, I was in business.

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I primed and painted them, greased them up with some bearing grease and put them back together. Once I could freely move the pedals, I attempted to mount them to the tunnel..

Someone had replaced the floor pan and it was about 1/4 to 3/8 too high under the pedals, and also, the threads were all stripped out where the bolts went, so much so, that the bolt could just be pushed through the hole.


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- Problem


This wasn't going to work, or be safe, so I decided I would take this heavy duty pedal mount I had for my rail, and replace the tunnel. If I was doing it right, I would have also replaced the floorpan to the proper height, but I'm already over budget and over time, so I thought this was the best option.

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As you can see in the picture, because this bracket was designed to be stand alone, the master doesn't line up quite right, and I didn't want to modify the structure, so I just cut that part off.

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I lined everything up as best as I could and decided where I could cut into the tunnel.

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I welded the nuts to the back side of the bracket and also made myself a pedal stop. I drilled a couple holes in the 'floor' of the bracket and welded a couple of nuts under for the pedal stop bolt to go into. With nooblike wisdom, I put one of these holes under the brake pedal where I couldn't get to it once the pedals were mounted, but using just the one side seemed to hold the stop just fine.

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I cleaned up around the hole and got everything fitting as best as I could.

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I welded the bracket in hit it with the grinder and sanded it all smooth to match the tunnel. The pedal assembly mounted in fine, good, now I can start on the brakes...

NOT..

Because I had raised the pedal mount to compensate for the floor the brake push rod was binding in the master. It took me a while to fix this since I did not have the original push rod. After a Day of tinkering, I cut the push-rod bracket in half and offset it by the height difference and added some material in between for strength. It's kind of a 'Z' shape and it worked perfectly.

I already had the rear drum's redone with new slave, shoes and hardware. The drums on all 4 wheels were in good shape, no gouges or noticeable wear on the linings. I finished up refurbishing the front drums and began bleeding them. I won't bore with the details, but I'm alot better at bleeding brakes than I was when I started. It took about a day and a half of fiddling and adjusting before I got them good. They still aren't perfect, but they are good enough to continue with the build and I'll adjust and bleed one last time after the first SLOW test drive and they should be mint.

LAST WEEKEND:

before I test fit the body again, I needed to get the seats mounted so I could find the locations of the 3 point seat belt mounts. I got the adjuster rails mounted to the driver seat, drilled the holes in the floor and determined the location of the seat belt mounts. I welded the plate that holds the seat belt receiver to the sides of the tunnel by the emergency brake. While I was poking around in there, I realized that when the pan was shortened, they just cut through the clutch and throttle cable tubes and left them. I think I can fix this pretty easily, but it's just another thing I have to fix, lol.

I put the body back on to check a few things out and I got my berrien buggy steering column support installed. The roll bar I have is missing the mounting plate on one side, so I test fit that inside the body and got my mounting plate cut out and that's about as far as I got.

I'll take some more pictures and update again in the next week or so.. I can see the finish line, I just gotta keep on truckin.

Anyone have any advice on cleaning up the aluminum windshield frame? I'd like to get it shiny again, but if I can't. I'll probably just paint it black.
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crack monkey
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 10:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

looks great. keep up the good work
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Mike_CNYBuggy
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 9:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well folks, it's been a while since I posted anything about the build (over 2 months!). Sorry about that, I've been busy building a dune buggy Smile

I've been putting in about 20-35 hours a week on this thing, probably close to 60-70 in the last few weeks.

Here's a picture of my pedal mount welded in

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Here's a picure of the gas tank sitting in there before I had it modified

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Here's one after the modifications.

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And here's a picture of the relocation of the pickup

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I had a bit of an issue trying to find out where to cut the hole for the gas door. I tried putting a sharpie marker on a string inside the tank, then putting the hood on, and pulling it up and marking it, but I never felt sure where the center was, and I only wanted to drill it once.

Here's a cool trick I came up with. I stacked about 4 squares of 3M double sided tape on the gas cap, put the gas cap on the tank, then installed the hood and pressed down on the hood over the filler. The gas cap stuck to the inside of the hood and I just drew a circle around it, marked the center and drilled a pilot hole.

Here's a picture of the door and access hole.

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I put some adjusters on the seats. I didn't like the little chintzy wire that operated the lever, so I replaced it with some bicycle chain. Works great.

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While trying to take some of the play out of the gas pedal I stupidly tried to squeeze the bracket together and broke it off like a dumbass.

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Fortunately I have a friend who is not a dumbass that was able to repair it better than new.

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These are the tail lights I used. They are LED trailer lights. Got them at Pep Boys. I've got a lot of compliments on them, considering they are trailer lights.

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I cleaned up a lot of the wring since I took this picture, but you get the idea.

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This is the hole I cut out in the dash. I did this so I could remove the hood easier.

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This is the speedo I ended up with. It was black and had a bunch of adhesive on it. I used some goo-gone on it and the paint started to come off of the trim ring. I took some more goo-gone and a scotch brite pad and took the rest of the paint off. I like it.

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There was a lot off bullshit in between these pictures that I'm sure you are all familiar with so I won't bore you with all those details. It was a lot of sweaty days in the garage looking for the tool I just had 5 minutes ago, arguments with the wife, late nights with mosquito's, trips to the hardware store and plenty of mistakes along the way.

I was able to keep her from seeing it the whole time I was working on it. It was always covered except for the parts I was working on. Right before I gave it to her was also the first time I really saw the whole thing at once. Unfortunately I had to give it to her at 11pm in the garage under a few shop lights, so it wasn't as impressive as I wanted it to be, but she dug it.
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I gave it to her August 6th, 4 months to the day after her birthday. I had a few issues after giving it to her, mostly with the clutch and flywheel because I donated to motor off of my rail, and it had and IRS.

Sorry I didn't go into alot of details, feel free to ask any questions and I'll answer them. I have some more pictures of the buggy and I'll be posting them soon.

Thanks to everyone on this forum who answered my questions or answered someone else's question that gave me an answer I needed. You guys are the best!

-Mike
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