daily driver Manx?

[turtlebaja]

I already daily drive a class 11 look alike and enjoy every day of it, my question is can a Manx be made into a decent daily driver? A few guys were telling me as long as you get a decent roll cage they're no more dangerous than a Baja bug, does anyone agree or disagree?

Also I'll be moving from San Diego to Portland area so id have to have a good soft top made and maybe an auxiliary heat source but is it really plausible to make it a daily driver? I mean plenty of people drive old soft top jeeps all year which can't be much safer or more comfortable. Am I right or wrong?

Thanks!

[impaleale]

I plan on making mine a daily driver. If your worried about safety then yes, build a good roll cage and bumpers. heat is something to look at. Seat heaters are not a bad idea and something that can defrost your windshield. You will need a good soft top made along with making sure your wipers are good not just for looks. I drove a baja bug out there for a few years with no heat. It sucked but it was still fun.

[turtlebaja]

How well do the seat heaters work and do they suck to much power?
What's a good way to defrost the windows? I'm currently using the stock heat defrost in my bug so I've never explored any alternative options

[impaleale]

Seat heaters are awesome! The ones in my Jetta will burn your buns! Depending on your seats they go in under the fabric. You can also look on Amazon. There are a lot to chose from. If you have a stock 55 alt you would have to figure how much what ever else you have that draws as well. I'm going to run 2 batteries with electric heat. Won't need to leave it on constant in that little car I figure. If worst comes to it I will figure out a way to run heat the old stock way. The company I got my seats from make seat heaters to go in them. There are small auxiliary defrosters I have seen that would plug into a cigarette outlet. Don't know how effective they are, but like I said before, the buggy is smaller than most cars.

[wythac]

The problem driving a buggy in the PNW is that you have fog and/or water on both sides of the glass when it gets crappy. It can get rather treacherous in a commute environment.

Doesnt mean you can't address the shortcomings of an essentially open car, but I've never seen someone up here do that on a level that would make it a daily driver for you thru the 8 wet winter months (Sept-May,with every other June thrown in).

A Jeep has a huge heater core and and a blower for a car twice its size. If you kept the stock heater boxes you could duct some heat into the cabin, but I've not seen that on a buggy up here, I think most folks just put em away for the winter and haul em back out when the weather gets better. It's also a significantly more substantial vehicle than a buggy.

FYI, I put the insurance back on mine in early March when we had a spell of nice weather, and other than that first weekend, the weather has sucked ever since. Drove it yesterday AM with gloves, a hoodie and a parka and I was fine. Today I'd need scuba gear.

[impaleale]

You are right there! I grew up in Bremerton Wa then moved down to Astoria Or. You might need to run some duct work from the engine. I was looking at doing that but have not put a lot of thought into that yet. I've been deployed so much that I'm pretty sure every time I make a little head way I get sent off. Stay away from the rain-ex fog stuff. It will cloud up your windshield after awhile. My buddy waxed his but I was never around to see what happened with that.

[impaleale]

Just an after thought. If you ran an external oil cooler in the cabin during the winter/wet months you would get good dry heat not moist hot air.

[mtnroads]

You could always move to California, it hasn't rained here in like forever!!!
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pax
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished....

[ammocan]

I rode a motorcycle in Utah as a daily driver for two years from the beginning of March to the end of october. I know I know, it's not technically a daily driver if you can't do winters but 8 months a year isn't bad with minimal upgrades or modifications. A decent set of coveralls will get you through the worst days of those 8 months in utah. A buggy with an open soft top and widshield wipers and a coat is already better than a bike.
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skill comes by the constant repetition of familiar feats, not by one over bold attempt at a feat for which the doer is yet poorly prepared

[EVfun]

[turtlebaja]

Ive thought about using the stock heater in a dune buggy, can you put a manx body on a pan with heater channels still attached? Also isn't an external oil cooler basically a heater core of sorts?

I already live in California that's how i got bit by the vw bug but i don't plan on staying

[EVfun]

You won't have the heater channels as they are part of the Beetle body, not the frame. I have seen plenty of northwest buggies where they ran tubes from the heater boxes, forward over the rear suspension and in the back of the fiberglass body. From there they are ducted under the seats so the heat blows out from under the front seat at the back of the drivers legs.

That parts seems to work pretty good, but the defrost issue remains. I have never seen a good solution for keeping the windshield clear but I've seen plenty of people who keep a rag handy. Come to think of it, the defrost system on old Bugs with just the 2 end defrost vents isn't very good either.
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[impaleale]

Yes, the oil cooler would be a heater core of sorts. My thoughts would be run the hoses off the heater boxes through the step up that goes up to the "back seat". Yeah I know, put a couple holes in the body does suck. Heater channels would work if you made your own through the body riser. The only problem with the last part is, it will rust out unless you deal it with some heat resistant paint.

[weasel_ugs]

I was reading a thread here somewhere where a person tried using the oil cooler as a heater, he got no usable heat from it.

[Singerdude]

I drive mine every day I can in fine weather but would advise you to keep/get a bad weather car.

Manx bodies are very far from watertight, the risk of shorting wires/causing premature corrosion is high.

A bit of rain-x on the inside of your winshield as well as out can help a bit in de-fogging.

Buy heated seats. I did, bought a pair of infrared ones that plug in a lighter, best 100 bucks ever spent...

[Q-Dog]

[vincent9993]

I can't call our buggies daily drivers but we drive them a lot in all sort of weather.

[mstevens]

I bet you could rig up a gas heater from a bug into the rear parcel area pretty easily. I have one in my 61 rag and it puts out plenty of heat to keep all your bits warm.

This wouldn't really help the fog issue on the windshield unless you can rig up a pretty crafty fan set up. Which I could imaging in Portland a foggy windshield is going to be the biggest hurdle as a daily driver.

[wythac]

Here are your hurdles as I see them;

Will your buggy at least be parked under cover and warm when not in use? If it is parked on the street it will be wet inside all winter long. You'll have fog on the glass even when it is dry, until the balance of days are warm and dry, sometime in June.

You'd have to run stock heater boxes, not terribly common on dunebuggies but not a big deal to change out. Most buggy pans that have been shortened dont have the heater control cable tubes reconnected. If that is the case on your car you'd need to find a way to turn the heat on and off. You could do it seasonally...wire the boxes open in the fall and unwire them in the spring.

Ducting: Probably easiest (not easy mind you) if you had a lift kit to run ducts thru the kit near the rear torsion assembly. That will only get you warmth, but not defrost/defog. If not you will have to cut holes in the "firewall" of your package tray area. Heat will blow directly on the back of your seats.


Portland has colder winters than Seattle, being farther from the warming effects of a large body of saltwater. You'd want some agressive snow tires if you lived anywhere other than the flatter parts of Portland, as much to keep from running afoul of less prepared drivers.

I'm sure that someone out there has tried it, perhaps successfully,but I would question the wisdom of having a gas fired Ebenspacher heater in the cabin of a fiberglass bodied car.

A oil cooler as a heater core isnt that effective if plumbed properly for your engine. You need a thermostat block returning the oil to the motor without running it through the cooler until it is warm enough...in the winter, if your commute was 30 minutes, you'd be warm from that heater for about 5 minutes. I used one just like that in a baywindow and never got any heat from it when the weather was cold.

And here is a surprise: It is warmer on my motorcycle in the winter. Engine heat across my legs. A fairing designed for creating a bubble of still air behind it for the rider.

Occassional foul weather use is a different animal than using a car every day during a wet PNW winter. I drive mine in crappy to marginal weather all the time, because spring and summer holds no guarantee of sunshine. But, and here is the key, when I am done driving mine I can put it in a garage and fire up the woodstove and dry it off/out.

Not impossible, but it would require some work and dedication to making it happen. I offer this information up as a lifetime PNW resident. While it is milder here than many other places you might live in North America, there are few that are as gray, dark and often unrelentingly wet as where you are going. You might talk to folks about this last winter (very mild) but that is not the norm...100 days of rain in a row have been recorded several times in my life here.


Good luck with your move, we will be happy to have another bug/buggy owner in this corner of the world!

[mtnroads]

as far as keeping warm the best fix I have found is a snowmobile suit or motorcycle riding suit, both work very well. some have built in heat with a battery or lighter plug built in. very stylish!
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pax
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished....