Franken-Manx

[neohic]

[joescoolcustoms]

Wow! This poor body has had to have suffered a hard hit in the front. Then fell into the hands of a hackasourous. The front section, in front of the fuel tank has been "repaired", but has broken loose. All the repairs were done on top of the original body, so they "lifted" the surface higher. All the former repairs will have to be removed before I can even see what is what.

The leading edge of the hood has metal installed to keep it stable. I will order a new hood from Winnie.

At Marc's workshop:

Last year, 2013, wvbowtieman and I made this same trip, on this same day after a Halloween Friday to pick up his Moss Green Manx from Marc. Wonder if this will happen next year?

Loaded in the rain, (rained on us when we were loading David's body, and cold) and readied for the trip to WV.

At home in WV, just a few shots of the severely beaten front section, firewall, hood and under the body lip. The tubes are in place, but looks like someone ran a fuel line under the lip too. Wow!

_________________
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

[karu]

Joe. Looking forward to seeing you work your magic on the body!!

[Buggy Brian]

[grinNbarritt]

I love Joes builds! Thanks for taking the time to do the thorough posts that you do. Wish I lived next door, I'd gladly be your shop flunkie just to learn how you get soooo much done. Hope ya do keep it Fushia, I think its kinda cool color. Jim

[Pinboss]

[joescoolcustoms]

Hello Joe! Thanks for the compliment.

Those Firestones are almost as hard as my garage floor and have more cracks in them than the great wall of China. They look good at 50 feet, but have given there best effort long ago. I think they may be so hard I will have to cut them off of the rim to avoid damaging the rims.

I look forward to making some progress on this Manx and hope to do so next month.

Happy Thanksgiving!
_________________
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

[Pinboss]

Ok Joe, Thanks.

I really like to looks of those old R.W.L. Good Years. I mount them on some vintage wheels and display them in my garage. They are cool to look at.

Joe

[joescoolcustoms]

Gave some love to Ole Frank this evening. Pulled the body off of the chassis. It was bolted on with carriage bolts, that had rusted. Please never use carriage bolts to hold a body to a pan. They are a PITA to remove if they rust.

But anyway, here are some pictures:

It did not take much effort to "cut" the formerly added side sections off the body. Very poor work.

The rear half is really not in that bad of shape. The battery well and spare tire well have been hacked, but they will get put back to original. The strengthening/wiring tubes can be seen as also the "lift" block to pull the body from the mold.

The front, well, that is a whole different story. It has been hit hard enough to buckle the front to the point I can see where it flexed at the start of the tubes right at the firewall. Split, crushed, ripped, torn, glassed over, metal screwed in. Really beat and hacked.

Kind of like "deja vu all over again"

I like a challenge, but I think this body will push me to my limits. I can put the body back together fairly easily, but that front end will be the test. I will have to wait on the front section until I get a new hood from Bruce and Winnie to establish how wide so the gaps come out correctly and line up well.
_________________
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

[didget69]

[neohic]

You're a brave man, Joe. A huge tip of the cap for this one!
_________________
-Ben

I like to build stuff...

[joescoolcustoms]

Been a while with this thread.

I have all but finished my third Ecotec buggy build that is going to chase the race in Baja. It just needs a couple tweaks and the soft top installed. So, what the heck am I going to Chase? Or who am I going to chase?

Time to build another Baja Racer. Since I have not used this Franken Manx body yet, it is perfect to build a racer out of. It is already beat to death, but savable. So, put it back together, lay on some super wild flake design to hide any body work, slip it on a custom tube chassis, and go have some fun!

What I learned in 2018 running of NORRA in my Puzzle Manx, is travel and shocks are needed to maintain the buggy. Not so much to win, but to survive. The current plan is shaping up to around 20 inches of rear travel and about 18 in the front, on paper. Should be able to hit that to within about 5% variance once done. Rear Engine, (not VW) and front beam.

Bad News Racing is Back for another adventure with it! And we are teaming with ACME Buggies in New Cumberland PA to make it happen. I am working with Owner John at ACME to build the chassis and I will build the body onto it.

Our new Logo:

In an interesting twist, I am friends with a lady in Florida that has aspirations to run Baja, and has since she was a child, like when I became interested. Talked to my team, and we approached her to join BNR. We could run two teams out of the East, share a lot of effort and expense. Doc accepted. Doc also had a sponsor on board, the American Cancer Society, which she is interested in running for Breast Cancer Awareness. She formed a female team, and is on her way too. Almost anyone around has been affected by Cancer, me included with my mother and sister. She is building a DSBE buggy, (Dual Sport Baja Edition) with water cooled engine and long travel suspension. Class Act Racing was born, and here is their logo:

I will be showing the progress on this thread as it progresses. Hope you guys follow along and enjoy the adventure with us!
_________________
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

[neohic]

Can’t wait to see more, Joe!
_________________
-Ben

I like to build stuff...

[hillmotorsports]

Oh boy... another build from Joe!
I'll get new cases of popcorn and soda.
Beats all the reruns on tv...

Paul
_________________
Rosemarie and Paul Hill
Morrisburg, Ontario

(With way more projects than spare time!)

[GS guy]

[joescoolcustoms]

Thanks Fellas! I am glad some of my ramblings help.

This weekend I am finishing up on my Chase buggy with the Ecotec engine and 15 inches clearance. 1 week to perform my annual garage cleaning that is running 4 years behind schedule, then onto prepping for NORRA. Christmas is my goal to have it done so our team can get in it and start getting used to driving the Monster.

First step is to pull these body pieces out from under the car port, photo document it, and send off to have Bruce and Winnie Certify it as a Meyers Product. The class our team will be racing in is the Evolution Class, and in the Meyers Division. The only class rule is it has to be a Meyers Product, no drivetrain limitations, no suspension limitations, just the body.

The next step is to put this body back together in a similar fashion to how I did the Puzzle Manx. Bolt the biggest piece to a known flat chassis, then start glassing the pieces onto it using the chassis as the guide. And just like the Puzzle Manx, this body will get stretched and widened.

Having three other Manx Bodies currently, every time I looked at this poor buggy, I could not muster any motivation to even make a plan to work on it. I had several times considered just throwing it away, and would have if it would have been easy to get to it in the stack of bodies I have. But now, I am super excited to work on it!!!
_________________
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

[manxvair]

[joescoolcustoms]

[Gary0302]

[manxvair]