My Manxter 2+2 Build Thread

[sbussard]

I was planning on powder coating the mesh black. The underside of the body is already painted black, but I should rattle can the nuts for the seat bracket black also to make them disappear. I'm partial to the middle one also. I'm still not sure if I'll be using an oil cooler, but that would be an ideal place for one.

Joe - I had never thought about debris getting through it and it makes sense to me if I don't use an oil cooler to put something behind the mesh. Thanks for the suggestion of HDPE. I've used that once before in a sled for my table saw. It was was much more expensive when I bought it years ago. I'm thinking maybe some bright yellow might look good contrasting the black smaller mesh. And it might bring out the some of the gold in the metal flake. I ordered a sheet tonight.

Thanks.
Scott

[Tom_Kathleen]

Scott - you had asked a question about windshield wiper clearance on a Manxter in the Kick-Out SS build for France. I will answer it here to keep that thread on track. Yes it will be tight for the wiper arms. It will be a balance of dragging on the rubber surrounding the windshield and scraping on the hood, unless you don't let the hood close all the way. You may want to wait on the rubber hood hold downs untill you work this out. You will have to use the adjustment feature built into the wiper pivots to move the arms in & out. Tom
_________________
Manxter #16, 1968 Meyers Manx & Kick-Out SS #16 (WIP)
Manx Club & CVA

[sbussard]

Thanks Tom. I already attached the hood hold-downs, so I may have put the cart before the horse. Once the weather gets a little warmer, I'm going to try to get the motor assembly mounted. It sure does look like the blade arms will be tight, very tight. One way or another, it will get figured out, it always does.

Thanks,

Scott

[jsturtlebuggy]

I have wipers on my Manxter DS.
A 1973 and later wiper assembly from a Super Beetle I found in the PicknPull yard to use.
It did have to be adjusted to fit as it made for a little more curved windshield then the Manxter.
The instructions are good is showing demensions on how to mount.
For wiper arms both are left side Super Beetle arms and 11in wiper blades.
I think I did have to narrow arm were blade sets. A little belt sanding worked.
Right side wiper arm does slightly rub on windshield rubber. More work with belt sander on the arm made it better, still some rubbing.
Wipers only cover to middle of windshield, not to the top. It kind of a compromise, but being a Dual Sport the body sets 3in higher and I not looking through the top of the windshield.
I have thought of using a longer wiper on drivers side.

_________________
Joseph
Fair Oaks/Orangevale, CA
Elrod Motorsports
Motion Tire Motorsports
Having fun with Dune Buggies since 1970
Into Volkswagens since 1960

[sbussard]

Thanks Joseph, the pics help. I do have a super wiper assembly that I bought on the Samba and cleaned up. I bought 2 new wiper arms for a super, they are different lengths but appear to be the right ones. For blades, I bought 13 inch. I think I'm going to need to clearance the lower side of the blade arms at the base in order to keep them from rubbing on the window seal. The belt sander idea should work.

Thanks,
Scott

[Iguana]

Looking good, you still on note to make MOTB 13 ?

[sbussard]

I'd like to think I'm still on track for MOTB 2013, Lord willing and the creek don't rise.

I haven't had much physical progress over the winter, no heat in the garage. But I did manage to collect lots of parts and plan on starting when the weather breaks. I have about 95% of what I need to do the wiring, minus a few grommets and wire loom. I also have the rear view and side view mirrors, just need to mount them before I start wiring. The rearview mirror has a compass, temperature, map lights, and is self dimming.

The side mirrors have amber leds for marker/turnsignal on the front and red leds rearward facing for turn signals. Took me hours of searching online to find ones I liked.

I also picked up a set of Miata seats from Craigslist. Long story short is I pulled them myself while the owner was at work, I never met him in person. I left the $150 in the glovebox of the Miata he was parting out. I'd rate them a 90 out of 100. There are a few stains and one spot on the driver's bolster that is slightly worn, but other than that they are in great shape. I plan on eventually recovering them.

Only major thing left to get is a motor. I have 2 already. One is a 1600DP with an old solex. It runs good but has been in a woods buggy for the past few years. It's clean but needs an exhaust. The other is a 1641DP with a 2BB Holley Bugspray. When it ran it had some pep. But water got in it and it is currently froze. Nothing that can't be fixed. Or the other option is to buy a turnkey. The two engines I have aren't show quality, but would get me on the road sooner. Decision time soon.

I can't wait for warm weather! I hope things go as planned and I can drive it this summer....

Thanks for asking,
Scott

[TimG550]

Awesome mirrors. Where did you find them?

[sbussard]

[joescoolcustoms]

That's the kind of detail I like Scott. Will look great after dark on the beach this fall.
_________________
Bad News Racing 2018 NORRA 1000 3rd in Class
Best Day Ever Racing 2022 NORRA 1000 2nd in Class and first All Female team to complete the race

Everyone is gifted. Some just do not open the package.

Looks like it was painted with a live chicken,polished with a brick and buffed with a pine cone

[sbussard]

Thanks Joe. When I first saw the rear bumper, the 3rd brake light was the first thing that popped into my mind. I sure hope I can get her to the beach this summer.

This weekend the weather was great, so I spent most of it in the garage.

Started on the wipers and wish I would have paid more attention to jsturtlebuggy's post. I mounted the wiper assembly where the indents were in the fiberglass. If I paid more attention, I would have noticed that jsturtlebuggy's picture showed the driver's side much, much lower. I have tons of clearance issues. I had to change the spring on the wiper arms out because the setup on the stock ones sat too low and rubber the window seal. I also had to hog off a TON of the bottom of the arms. I also had to move the pin lower for the short side of the arm hinges. I used springs from a drum brake kit I had, I think it may have been VW, but am not certain. I still need to clean the arms up and touch up the paint.

After pulling and adjusting the assembly and arms about 20 times.

Next "opportunity for a creative solution" will be figuring out how to get the hood latched. This picture is with the hood NOT latched. When I latch it, the hood is touching the top side of the wiper arms. If I adjust the wiper motor assembly away from the hood, the arms will rub the window seal again.

I've come to the conclusion that I need to redo the latches and move the pins toward the front of the buggy. Any suggestions on how to hide the holes when they previously were mounted?? I'm thinking I might make a backer plate that is larger than the pin base and big enough to cover the old holes.

I need to move the pin to where the hole is in the rubber latch in this picture, only straight forward (not where the hole is in the picture, but lower so the rubber is not twisted).

And then the last engineering riddle to solve will be to shorten the cam for the wiper motor. The length that it is now has the blades going off the window quite a bit on the high side.

Vincent-->> Was your cam originally this long?

The other 2 hours of the weekend garage time was spent mocking up the dash. Headlight switch, wiper switch (with pump switch), idiots lights, speedo, tach, and starter switch. Power adapters will be mounted under the glove box.

Is there anything glaringly obvious that I am missing that should be on the dash? I'd rather find out now before I start cutting the real dash.

Oil light needs to move up 1/4" or so on the final dash.

From the back of the mock up.

And how it should look front the driver's seat.

Thanks for looking,

Scott

[MURZI]

Scott what I do on my cars is print full size images of the gauges and then stick and place them on the dash. Makes it easy to see exactly what is going on. Just a tip.....

_________________
62 vert
2276
Tim’s welded heads
45 Dells
A1 sidewinder
Fk44 cam

[vincent9993]

[sbussard]

[jsturtlebuggy]

This is Bruce's dash

This Brad's dash. He used a larger piece of aluminum for the dash

Mark's dash from both sides

My dash

_________________
Joseph
Fair Oaks/Orangevale, CA
Elrod Motorsports
Motion Tire Motorsports
Having fun with Dune Buggies since 1970
Into Volkswagens since 1960

[sbussard]

Thanks for the pictures Joseph, they help. I can see things can be a lot tighter than I thought they could, and still look great.

Scott

[jsturtlebuggy]

Scott,
I did install the speedo and tach in the dash panel before bolting it to the dash tub. It has to be flexed to fit the contour.
Like you I started with cardboard to see how thing would fit.
Also for the top outer mounting bolts of dash panel there was nothing to bolt to. I made some L brackets that bolted to sides of dash tub. The L brackets are made out of 1/2in wide flat strap. Can be found at most hardware stores ACE, Home Depot, Lowes are where I have found it.
I used countersink #10 bolts to hold them. Left side is covered by dash top and right side is behind the glove box door.
Never have taken any pictures of what I did.
Most all hardware used is stainless with antiseeze on threads. Stainless is soft and gauls easily.
_________________
Joseph
Fair Oaks/Orangevale, CA
Elrod Motorsports
Motion Tire Motorsports
Having fun with Dune Buggies since 1970
Into Volkswagens since 1960

[sbussard]

It's been a while since I've posted, but I've been busy on the buggy. I started on the wiring a few weeks ago and I've been much slower than I thought I'd be. I had to re-think the 3/4" conduit, were I ended it on the front would have dumped the wires out in the front wheel well and the route to get to the dash tub was less than ideal. I ended up drilling into the conduit to allow the wires to come out underneath the side pods. Much better now. All of the wiring is zip tied for now and grommets are used any where it passes thought the body. Once everything is pulled and terminated, I'll dress it up. I'm still thinking about using 12-ply lacing cord.

I received the seat covers also, Wet Okole. The fit is good considering they go over the factory covers. I also opted for the seat heaters. I like them.

I started the wiring by mounting the battery and running the cables for the ground and starter.

I then started on the ground scheme. Rather than tap multiple places on the chassis, I epoxied ground bars in 3 locations; rear firewall, front dash tub, and very front (will be under gas tank.) Each tinned copper bus has 2 1/4" bolts and 10 screws. I also routed the power to the front and ran the feeds for battery and ignition. I mounted the amp under the glove box and got the power with inline 40A fuse, ground, and speaker wires in. Each termination is no-ox'd, crimped, and heat shrunk.

All tucked in behind the windsheild.

Got the horn mounted and wired. Windshield bottle is mounted.

And the reverse lights now work!

Next up will be parking and headlights, but I'm waiting to get the dash powder coated, and then I can get the switches all mounted.

I'm making progress, but know I still have a long haul to get to MOTB.

Thanks for looking.

Scott
_________________
Manxter #122
First time, garage built, and living out the childhood dream of owning a life-size Hotwheel!

Check out my build thread-->My Manxter 2+2

[Muskrat]

how long did it take to get your Wet Okoles and how are you planning to mount your seats.
i also just scored a set of miata seats and was looking at the Wet Okoles and trying to figure out the best way to mount them.
also...sweet build. the little woman just looked at it and asked why ours doesn't look that good.
-k-
_________________
Manx clone 62 pan 1500 single port
83.5 westy w/2.1 wbx...RIP

[sbussard]

The seat covers took 29 days from order to doorstep. I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to mount the seats yet, but need to come up with a plan soon. Here's a thread I started about the seats. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6026020&highlight=#6026020 . Tom has an interesting picture posted. I like the way he did it, but I already have my pans finished, painted, fake rhino lined. I'm going to attempt something like he did, but with a strap side to side that the mounts will be welded to, then the straps bolted through the floor.

And thanks for passing on the wife's compliments. Let her know I've been building it for going on 3 years. Your buggy looks really nice and you've got a huge advantage to where I started. All she has to do is give you the ok to open up the checkbook...

Here's what I had to begin.

Thanks,
Scott
_________________
Manxter #122
First time, garage built, and living out the childhood dream of owning a life-size Hotwheel!

Check out my build thread-->My Manxter 2+2