I want a Rail, talk me out of it!

[Firecat1981]

I keep toying with the idea of buying a street legal Sandrail of some kind to fix up and have fun with. I live in central Florida and there are no sand dunes here, but there are some backwoods trails that jeep, ATV, and side-by-side guys seem to enjoy. Can a rail go places these guys can within reason?

Most of the rail's life will be spent on the streets cruising around. I may even use it as a daily driver from time to time. I have some mechanical experience, but I've never even sat in a VW before. I usually do my own auto repairs (brakes, oil changes, A/C work, minor motor and tranny stuff.....), and I build my own boats, but I don't know how any of that will translate into the VW world. I thought about a Fiero dune buggy since I am very comfortable working on them, but they just aren't as cool and I don't think they can really take the abuse of offroading. I also don't know how to weld, but I might be buying a MIG soon to try out.

So the basic plan would be to buy an old street legal rail, clean it up, maybe build a glass body for her, add a cheap 2500lbs winch and have some fun. Possibly down the road stretch her out to a 4 seater, or buy a frame and swap over the gear.Someone please tell me this is a bad idea for my area. Talk me out of another project that my wife will kill me for!

[Dale M.]

What are you nutz.... You want something that is fun to drive, and go where ATVS and 4-wheelers go, gets attention in parking lots and at ice cream shop, something not many other have, and all the chicks in the world want to ride in....

Dale
_________________
“Fear The Government That Wants To Take Your Guns" - Thomas Jefferson.

"Kellison Sand Piper Roadster" For Street & Show.
"Joe Pody Sandrover" Buggy with 2180 for Autocross (Sold)
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All suggestions and advice are purely my own opinion. You are free to ignore them if you wish ...

[DHale_510]

You have the fun parts right.
I drove my retired desert Wampusskitty on the street for a year and some during Carter's phoney gas crisis. 40+ mpg 40hp motor in place of the 2180 race motor... We even drove it from San Jose to LA for BugIn. Never got so sunburned in my life... It ran best [and fastest] when drafting 18 wheelers, but they objected. Had to run pretty close in you know. The steering brake was very interesting on asphalt!

I can give you the downsides too. Buzzkill. Anyway, the problems;
1. I was as invisible as a motorcycle to trucks and blue-hairs in Buicks. The plastic Manx type buggys seem to have none of this problem.
2. It was the wettest ride ever. You drove right into your own rear tire spray all the time. I had the desert side and nose panels on the car, and a windshield. My motorcycles were drier. The water just hit us in the chest and landed in our laps or on the back of the windshield then on our legs. We were young and laughed it off, but it was really surprising. Small rocks did the same, not so fun without helmets. Again, the plastic Manx type cars are much better for this.
3. It "inspired" crazy Walter Mittys. They went int their own Ricky Bobby mode it seems. It all ended when a guy in a Volvo rammed into me on the freeway and flipped me upside down one morning. Hit and run. I coulda/shoulda just let him slam into my side bars and hammer his doors permanently shut, but instead I braked and he clipped my front wheel and sent me 30' up and over. The side bars are leftover from a couple of years as a Sprint Buggy racer at Ascot [OK, follower], good old days....
4. Cops just loved to pull me over for no fenders. Some really just wanted to talk about the car and the fun, some wrote fix-it tickets even when I showed them the copy of the vehicle code than exempted the lightweight and early car, same rule as for streetrods. They don't have a quota you know, but their raises are based on their "results".

I still have the car, we ran it at Pismo as a sand car for years until they started charging entry money and used that to fence most of it off and hire "ranger" cops to "enforce the new rules. To protect the broken clam shells from some long ago Indian beach orgy apparently. I kept the street plate on it mostly to frustrate the Rangers who started writing tickets on anyone driving up the beach to the gas station or restaurant without a plate, as if there were any other people or reasons to make that trip. Again, no quota, but the results are carefully monitored... I stopped with the plates when we were required to buy insurance to get a plate, even though the car had no street use any longer and the insurance company wanted nothing to do with such a machine.

Enjoy the ride.

Dennis

[Sandjunky]

If you have any degree of mechanical ability then pretty much everything you need to know about VWs is available online or in print. If you think you want to learn how to weld then make sure you really know how to weld before you try to stretch a chassis from a 2 seater to a 4 seater. I would recommend buying 4 seater if that is what you eventually want or cut your teeth on a 2 seater and then when you are ready then buy a 4 seater chassis and transfer all the parts. You could probably resell the 2 seater chassis if it is in decent condition.

On another note, if you really don't know whether you would like a buggy then buy one that is drive able and reasonably cheap. That way you can tell if it is something you want to put time and money into (that you likely will never get back) before you sink too much into it to get it running properly. This way if it isn't everything you had hoped then you can sell it and hopefully break even.

Learning is half the fun and you will learn a lot so don't worry about what you don't know yet. I'm betting you didn't know how to build boats before you picked up that hobby.

Good luck!

[Firecat1981]

Lol you guys aren't making a good case against buying one. How reliable are these aircooled motors? I don't mind wrenching, but I don't want something that will leave me stranded all the time.

[2RL]

[Axitech]

Yeah, you probably better not. They're not a lot of fun, and little kids won't think you're cool. And hot chicks won't stare at you in traffic. And people will never take pictures of you while you are just driving down the road with a huge grin on your face. Yeah, you should probably just get a puppy. It's cheaper.


Bwahahaahahahahaa Of course you should get one! EVERYONE should get one. Hell, I'm thinking I should get another one!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2JLLuv0YHg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WYPZYpdilM

Yep, street rails SUCK!! Bwahahahahahahaaaaaaa
_________________
He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. Luke 22:36


The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.-Thomas Jefferson

[[email protected]]

[dustymojave]

Yeah...As to the reliability question...

My Baja Bug has only made it to 800,000 miles with more than 1/2 that as a Baja Bug. Always as a daily driver. The original engine went 365K miles. The next engine took it to 725K miles. It's now on its 3rd trans, but I converted it to IRS and had to take out the getting pretty worn 2nd trans.

So is a car with VW mechanicals reliable? I've never driven another car that was as reliable as any of my Bugs.

Talk you out of it?...Go to some rice burner's forum or Mustangs forum to get talked out of a Buggy...

I've only owned my buggy for about 40 years.
_________________
Richard
Offroading VW based cars since 1965
Tech Inspection 1963 - 2012 SCCA/SCORE/HDRA/MORE/MDR +
Retired from building Bajas, Fiberglass Buggies and Rails in the Mojave Desert. Also Sprints & Midgets, Dry Lakes, Road Race cars. All types New and Vintage
SoCalBajas Member
Kicked Cancer's A$$...1st and 2nd round...Fight ain't over yet.

[Firecat1981]

Well you guys have done a pretty good job of convincing me to try one out. Just a few more questions. How big are they? I'm 6'3", and 240lbs, will I fit ok in one? Also what's with the roller gas pedal I keep seeing?

[Axitech]

6'2", 280 here. You might need to drop the seat a bit. Easily done. GET GOOD SUSPENSION SEATS, unless you want a wrecked spine.
_________________
He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. Luke 22:36


The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.-Thomas Jefferson

[Firecat1981]

Thanks for the heads up. I'll start looking around. Any thing I should be looking g out for?

[[email protected]]

I live in Central Florida and have had a rail.
As long as you have a second car, it is great.
Not fun in rain or on wet roads.
Get some sort of roof for sitting in traffic

Make sure you can get a legal tittle (not one that says VW beetle)
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1974 Standard Beetle to Baja Bug
http://picasaweb.google.com/fvee1234/BajaBug02#

[DeMinimis]

Sounds like a great idea to me! If only there was a bare Chenowth 4 seater chassis in the off-road parts classifieds....if only
_________________
Yes Virginia, beer can make you smarter.

'78 SB CEII In Progress.

[Axitech]

[dustymojave]

The throttle pedal is an old VW idea. Some years of Bugs had an arm like you see with a small roller on the end of the arm. Then a flat pedal with a hinge at the floor. The flat pedal had a curved track on its back side that pressed on the roller to make a smooth operation.

This was inspiration for somebody over 40 years ago to ditch the flat pedal and put a bigger roller wheel on the arm. I bought my 1st roller pedal about 1974 when the original flat pedal in my '65 Baja broke at the hinge. I quickly got so that driving a car with a flat pedal felt odd. All of my VWs since then have gotten roller pedals. It works especially well offroad. Not a big concern of yours.

The Chinese ones these days are not as well made as the older American ones, like many things (don't go blaming the Chinese, I learned from working with them on products that they are perfectly capable of making high quality if the customer is willing to pay more for it and checks the quality of the products they receive). So sometimes you have issues like in another thread where he has too much side slop. Washers of the right thickness will fix that issue. I really like roller pedals. You may not. There are many options out there for various throttle pedals.

BTW, that 1st roller pedal I bought got transferred to my '58 Baja and is still in there and still works fine over 425,000 miles later.
_________________
Richard
Offroading VW based cars since 1965
Tech Inspection 1963 - 2012 SCCA/SCORE/HDRA/MORE/MDR +
Retired from building Bajas, Fiberglass Buggies and Rails in the Mojave Desert. Also Sprints & Midgets, Dry Lakes, Road Race cars. All types New and Vintage
SoCalBajas Member
Kicked Cancer's A$$...1st and 2nd round...Fight ain't over yet.

[Firecat1981]

Don't get me wrong, the main reason I want it to be street legal is so I can drive it to offroading sites instead of towing. Not many are near by so I'll have a ride to go have fun. Pretty interesting about the pedal. I'm gonna start looking g around for a cheap drivable rail and see what happens.

[Firecat1981]

Hey VW, where in central fl are you about, I'm in the lakeland area. Where do you travel offroad?
Why not titled as a beetle? Is there some legal hang up?

[Sandjunky]

[Firecat1981]

I appreciate your view on this, but if I have to deal with another trailer then I won't be buying a rail. The reason I want a street legal rail is so I can quickly jump in it on a wim and go out for an hour or 2. You worry about your broken rail getting stolen, well I'd rather the rail then my new Tacoma getting broken into. Nothing against guys using trailers, I've done it in the past with atv's and dirt bikes, and still have boats, it's just not what I want anymore.