Hecubus's Calgary Rascal Build

[Hecubus]

I started on this project in the fall of 2009 and as life is busy and my garage in Calgary is unheated progress has not always been as fast as I was hoping it would be. At the start I had essentially no metal working experience so everything I have had to do has had a huge learning curve.

Here is what the buggy looked like when I brought it home. It looks to be a direct copy of a Manx but I have no info on where it might have come from

The pan is a 1965

My intentions are to make a completely street buggy. I have flip flopped several times on if I should keep it looking classic or more modern and if I should put a full cage in it or just a roll bar.

I shortened the pans using 1x2 1/8" as frame rails and a 16 gauge flat floor. Getting the whole thing square and level was much harder and more tedious then I had expected. I assume there are some good trick to help that I just didn't know about at the time.

Before welding the floor on I need to figure out how I was going to mount the body to the pan and at this point I was not sure if I was going to go for a full cage or not but I wanted it to be an option. What I ended up doing is using 3/4" diameter round bar and drilled a holes through 1" long sections of it and then taping the holes to accept a 10mm bolt making 1" long threaded inserts.

Then I drilled 3/4" diameter holes through the 1x2 frame rails so that I could weld the threaded insert top and bottom. This way once I welded the 16 gauge steel floors onto the underside of the frame rails the bolt holes would be completely hidden.

Before I welded in the floors I decided to sand blast the tunnel and frame rails to get them good and clean. There is a place here in Calgary that has stations for you to do sand blasting your own projects. It took about 25 minutes to get it all blasted and so far I think that was the best 45 dollars I have spent on the buggy. It would have taken me a long time with a wire wheel to get it half as clean.
Before

After

Since I am fairly new to metal working the tools I have available are very limited. What I ended up doing for the floors is I cut out a cardboard template and traced it onto the 16 gauge steel. Then I used a jig saw to cut them out. I had expected it to take a very long time but with steel this thin it worked really well. I then drilled 1/2" holes around the outside edge to plug weld to the frame rails and used stitch welds to attach the floors to the tunnel

At that point I used Chassis Saver silver to paint the complete sand blasted pan I knew I would still be doing a bit of welding on the pan before it would be complete but since the metal was super clean I wanted to seal it up and prevent future rust problems as much as possible.

I was then able to re-install the beam and transmission. The beam needs a lot of cleaning up yet but I would like to see everything assembled with the full weight on the suspension before I tackle that project. I am planing on putting adjusters in it and and might remove some of the torsion leaves but I will not know exactly until it is all together.

[Mike_CNYBuggy]

Looks like you are off to a great start!
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http://CNYBuggy.org - Central New York Dune Buggy Club

Kristen's Buggy (UltaViolet) Build Thread

VW Club of Central New York

[Wetstuff]

Wow... Reminds me of the evolution graphic; going from a pile of scrap, and no prior experience to off and running. On top of it, surrounded by snow machines, not even close to 'Buggyland'.

I have this project, "Cold Fusion", I like you to work on..

Jim
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Manx #2614

[don't_bug_me]

Now I don't feels so bad starting with my body...

yours

mine

[Hecubus]

Thanks for the complements. If my speed on this project is any indication I should have cold fusion figured out in about 10,000 years.
Yeah the body is pretty rough I am sure with enough cases of sand paper it can be repaired but as an easy way out I have been looking for a body in better shape to speed things along. It is quite unlikely I will find one considering where I live. Glasser (aka Brent) has offered to help me with tube bending for a cage and there are only a couple things I need to get done yet before that will be possible. At that point I will be committed to Fixing what I have.

Thanks
Kent

[Hecubus]

Since the body I have is in such rough shape I have been keeping my eyes open for something better to work with. Earlier this week I was given the phone number for an older gentleman who had a buggy body for sale in Edmonton (3 hours away). He did not use the internet or a smart phone so all I knew about the body when I went on a road trip to check it out is that he bought it brand new and had never used it. It has been sitting in his back yard for who knows how many years with out having even one hole drilled in it. I left very curious of what I was going to find.

When I got there it turns out he had what looks to be an early Sears Rascal in blue metal flake. There are definitely signs of age, small spider web cracks in the finish and some random scratches. It had a pretty good layer of dust and dirt on it so until I get a chance to wash it off I will not know exactly what I have to work with. My first impression is that I will be able to clear coat it and and leave the body original at least for now.

If anyone knows anything more about the particulars of the body or top I would love to here it. I have seen a similar top before but I do not know if they were specific to Rascals.

[bruces]

the old body would probably look better if you took a pressure washer and got rid of the white paint .Your new body looks great ,but cleaning up the old one might get you a few extra bucks when you want to get rid of it .

[slalombuggy]

Nice score!!!! This will definitely speed up your build with much less body work to do.

brad

[Rome]

Impressive work on the chassis, Hecubus!

Your first body looks just like mine. Does it have reinforcement channels glassed into the underside of the front fenders, going outward? Mine does. I sent away to the Manx Club with many photos, for authentication since I was convinced mine was a Manx even though it did not have telltale holes above the tunnel/rear seat face for the B.F. Meyers ID tag. I was disappointed when they responded that it was not consistent with the Manx build. This was mainly due to the shape differences of the wiring tubes along the top underside of the fender sides.

Will you concentrate on the Rascal body, or stay with the original body?

[Azsilverbug]

that was a great find.
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65 Drag Bug
62 Bug
68 Bug
65 Dune Buggy

You can tune a piano but you can't tune a fish

[Hecubus]

I am going to be cleaning up the yellow body and trying to sell it. It is definitely not a real Manx as it has a sticker where the Manx ID badge should have been saying it was made in Ontario. I like that the Rascal will not need any body work and it is original gel coat. The roof was a bonus and I have not decided if I will use it or not yet.

[Hecubus]

I have now cleaned 40-50 years worth of dust and dirt off of my new Rascal body. It cleaned up really well I am definitely going to look into getting it clear coated in the next couple of weeks.

Here it is wet after washing it sparkled really well.

It is by no means perfect there are spider web cracks on random places and there is one spot that got damaged beside the one headlight mount.

It also came with bumpers and a windshield frame. I am not sure if I am going to use the bumpers or not yet. I will have to mock them up and see what they look like installed. I will not be using the windshield frame as it is just to square besides I do not know how it is even meant to be installed. It must be missing some pieces there are bolts sticking out the sides near what I assume is the bottom but no arms or brackets to attach it to the hood or top.

[bruces]

the body might be an Irwin Manx ,they were made in Scarborough Ontario by Irwin boats .Can you read anything else on the tag ?

[Hecubus]

There are no tags that I can see and I have never heard of an Irwin Manx. Does it have the hood ridge and small tail box? Those are the two things that pointed me towards the Rascal. With how much these things were copied who knows where it might have come from. Do the roof, bumpers and windshield frame look familiar to anyone?

Does anyone have any experience clear coating an old gel coat body to bring back it's shine?

[bruces]

I meant the old body ,isn't that the one made in Ontario?

[Hecubus]

Ok Yes the Yellow body looks to have been made in Ontario. I have only ever heard of one other body made by the same company.
Here is the tag attached at the same place you would expect to find the Manx id tag.

[tlcurtis]

Nice score on the Sears Rascal, you can check mine out it still has the original gel-coat it's very faded not sure if it will need to be repainted good luck with your build

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Check out my build:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=528623

[Hecubus]

Tlcurtis. Your Rascal looks great. Has your dash been painted white or is that it's original colour as well? My dash is black but it has just a small amount of red metal flake in it. Almost as if they sprayed the black gelcoat at the same time as someone else did a red metal flake body near by.

After cleaning it up I put the rascal body on my pan. I was a little bit nearvous about that since I had made the pan specifically for my old body and I know every body is a bit different. It turns out my concern was very justified it fits perfectly on the frame rails but like I have noticed in other Rascal builds I am going to need to add at least 1" of body lift. Right now the body is resting on the transmission and front shock towers so it will not quite seat properly. It is too bad since if I had had this body from the start I could have used 2x2 for the frame rails and had the body lift built right into the frame.

[Glasser]

Yep total score on the body!! Got to love a find like that and you now have more of a story to add to your build which is always cool.
Don't sweat it about the cage, your ready when you are ready. Snow is almost hear so wont have a place for my stuff that is in there anyways.... You aren't going to get away with making me put my buggy out in the snow while we work on yours.

She's coming alone very nicely!
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Brent
My build up http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=265364&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
Project#2. Neighbors build up. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=327008

[Hecubus]

I wouldn't dream of kicking yours out in the cold. I was hoping to get the cage done before the snow started to fly but the new body put a definite set back on that plan. Plus before we can do a cage I will be needing to make a real decision on if I am going to mount the top or not as that will have a huge affect on the cage design.

I had a hard time this summer deciding on if I should spend time and money on the buggy or on getting the garage insulated and heated. I picked the buggy and am starting to regret it already.