If you did it again, what would be different?? Wisdom???

[MURZI]

If you built another buggy, what would you do different?

I would start gathering parts, restoring them, painting them etc before the buid.

I would establish a rock solid budget in cash so my project would not drag out.

I would start witha new chassis from berrien or the likes.

I would powdercoat what I could and skip the paint.

I would use a narrowed beam and drop spindles. Disc's all around.

Build a small displacement turbo motor and match the tranny to it with close ratio gears.

Use ford or chevy pattern disc's to keep the wheel costs down and open the window for more choices in offsets.

I am sure I forgot some....

And oh, I would keep the damn thing after I spent two years building it.......
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62 vert
2276
Tim’s welded heads
45 Dells
A1 sidewinder
Fk44 cam

[SiggyManx#33]

you can't use a narrowed beam with the berrien chassis without some serious modification.

I would put a lot more money in building the biggest possible engine I could. Some say a 2332 is overkill, I say in a car as frivilous as a buggy, there is no such thing. Matched trans would be nice.

Word up on the chevy discs.

If I had the opportunity......... metalflake gelcoat.

Besides that, Im happy.

[buggyblues]

If I had a garage with heat and electric when I got the buggy It sure would have been a different build but I've got to learn alot over time and hasn't hurt money wise as bad so I don't regret anything I've done but I will second

quit cutting up the bugs and buy a nice solid new sturdy berrien chassis and detail to the max

some people in my opinion thou don't know if I want to go there as mine might look bad to some Find a good looking body some of the buggy bodies I see are just awful and not gel coat wise contours of the body

if you want a full length buggy wait and find one don't try lengthening it


if you want dual carbs buy a buggy that fits them don't just cut the back end off

I would have powder coated the chassis

and don't sell after you finish

I bought alot of used parts to get mine on the road and replaced them with what I wanted later thou I somewhat regret doing this it was what I could afford at the time and ended up selling the parts to help pay for the new ones and in some cases it more than paid for the new ones so I guess it wasn't so bad an idea after all.

That's it for my opinion
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www.sticklestowingpittsburgh.webs.com
towing east coast

[MURZI]

I think this is a 4 inch narrowed beam on Scott Sain's car. He is using a Berrien chassis. Did he modify the chassis??

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

[Elwood]

Nowhere near done but I have a few things already that I wish I had done differently.

Not used brazillian pans or new frame head. Would have, should have just cut the entire rear end off the chassis and constructed a new one with frame rails out of 2X3 1/4 wall tubing and sheet metal floors.

Not use one of those shitty Stamped sheetmetal lift kits, see above.

Not spent haf the morning planning to build seat mounts with modified sliders only to decide to check the price on a set made for the seats. $50 so much easier then the couple hours to build them and the material cost.

Things I am glad I am doing :

Stetching the Body 'cus I can do it.

Not buying a new body, so I can make it my own and not choose from their color choices. Although it would be so much easier, but Nostalgia is Masochism.

[Rbake]

1. wish i found this forum before i was 3/4 done.

2. realized after finding this forum that i'm only 1/4 way done.

seriously,

should have bought a new body instead of spending a lot of money haveing the old one prepped and moulding in side pods.

should have flipped the rear irs arms for less neg. camber when lowed.

[welsh619]

could be wrong here but the reason that beam works is cause its shockless and the towers on a narrowed beam are what'll give you issues.

[vwracerdave]

Built a full NHRA legal roll cage instead of just a roll bar.
Sprayed the floor pan with truck bed liner
Built my own wiring harness using all new wire.
Different seats mounted lower on pan
left the windsheild wipers off
Larger engine.
Converted 4 lug VW wheels to 5 lug. They just look cooler.
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2017 Street Comp Champion - Thunder Valley Raceway Park - Noble, OK
2010 Sportsman ET Champion - Mid-America Dragway - Arkansas City, KS
1997 Sportsman ET Champion - Thunder Valley Raceway Park - Noble ,OK
Featured in Dec. 2001 HOT VW's Magazine page 63

Watch my racing video's http://www.youtube.com/user/okvwracer/videos

[90volts]

buy a complete buggy rather than a project.

[SiggyManx#33]

[didget69]

[HeidelbergJohn4.0]

I wish someone east of the Rocky Mountains would manufacture a long wheelbase, full pan buggy body. Shipping one from any of the manufacturers in California to the east coast almost doubles the cost of a new one. If I could keep my wife healthy long enough to get a decent enough amount of cash together I'd consider making molds and selling them myself. I've wanted to coat the entire body with LineX, but the possibility of making a mold of a good stretched Manx clone has kept me from doing it.

Good chassis are few and far beteween around here. There's a lot of junk in a few "collections" around here, but finding a title is a problem. I won't hack down another solid chassis for a short pan, and titling, registering and insuring a Berrien Chassis around here is a nightmare.

I have my long body, but it needs a total refinishing and It has been a large stumbling block to finishing my project. The body is structurally very sound, but the hood is a mess of bondo, fiberglass patches and all that. If there's a location for a fuel fill, this one's had it at one time or another. If I bought a new hood it might get me going faster. One of these days I might get the engone back in it.
I regret selling the 944 rear end I had when I needed cash. Could have gotten the same for some plasma.

I've had to do the hunt and gather route out of necessity, then have taken steps backwards when changing ideas. I'll third the chevy pattern. I have adapters I use, but they really screw up the offset. I'm definitely gonna go with the ten hole discs that CIP 1 is selling as soon as I can afford them. I hate drum brakes.

I would also stay off of Volksrods.com and the Samba I can't keep my eye on the ball and get torn between my buggy project and the ever changing volksrod project. Chop top sedan or a truck, or an open roadster, or a slammed full fendered rod.

That doesn't even take into consideration my boats that take up a lot of my time.
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71 LWB Manx style dunebuggy
71 Beetle
71 Volksrod
Machette Speedster
2012 Passat TDI SE (sadly sitting in a buyback parking lot somewhere waiting for it's heart to be ripped out.)

[scottsain]

[AMAC1680]

Build more motor than you think you'll need.
I did a stock 1600dp for starts. Great motor until I asked it to swing tall rear tires.

Less than 2000 miles and a replaced it with a 1776. Problem gone .

AMAC
_________________
www.SEGS4VETS.org

[AMAC1680]

[joescoolcustoms]

I am in the middle of building my 13th buggy. These are the lessons I have learned from building mine, buggies to sell, and others buggies. Their feedback on what they liked and did not like about a buggy before building for them.

1. Spend money on good suspension parts, find German Ball Joints and top quality tie rod ends. The cheap stuff is stiff and makes the front suspension stiff. Adjuster in the beam make is very nice to change the buggy later as a person's taste changes.

2. If you have to use the red urethane rear spring plate bushings, (aftermarket plate or adjustable plate most times do not match up to the rubber bushing holes) trim them to fit the pockets of the torsion housing and the plate cap, then use liberally the Prothane grease to keep from squeaking longer.

3. Do not use the crap China wheel bearings, seek out good SKF, FAG, and other top shelf wheel bearings.

4. After too many failures on powder coating, I have stopped using it all together and I only go with paint and Bed Liner.

5. Build a larger engine with good parts. The extra power is nice while driving the freeways and Mountains if you ever plan on traveling in your buggy.

6. I prefer Speedhut gauges. They are thinner for more room with a wiper mechanism. No cable drive to go dry or break. Very accurate, excellent warranty. But ask for weather tight seal.

7. I prefer flaking over painting a old body.

8. Again, if you plan on driving it much, or traveling, a top of some sort is a big plus.

9. If performing the fiberglass repairs on old bodies, buy good quality resin, not the cheap stuff from a FLAPS store or Lowe's/Home Depot. It will work easier, repairs last longer.

10. If you plan on traveling in it, get a quiet exhaust. 8 hours on the road with a loud exhaust droning in your ears gets old on the first day.

11. I like to widen the bodies down low to allow for a more comfortable seat. And I do not set the seats too low because of the pedal angle advantage it changes. Too low and you loose the advantage angle and you are pushing the pedals straight forward and it can become awkward and fatiguing lessening the ride quality.

12. I go simple on mechanicals. Easier to fix on the road. Hydraulic clutches are nice, but if it has a failure, you are less likely to find parts, or carry all the items needed to make a road side repair. Fancy stuff is nice until it breaks hours from home.

13. When shortening the shift rod, I have always used the weld in adjuster. It makes up for a smidge off shift rod and can be tuned right dead on for smooth shifting.

14. I do not solid mount the transaxle. For traveling, it lessens the vibrations and sound to mount in rubber. Use a rubber backed strap if you have to have extra protection.

It is the small details that add up and make the buggy a pleasure to drive and not wear you out after a few hours in it. If it is not easy to drive, a person tends not to drive it as much.
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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

[slalombuggy]

I've only built 4 but so far I have learned:

Custom chassis open a world of posibilities a sliced and diced floor pan doesn't. Need wider seats set back further and lower, not a problem. Need to move the shifter back a bit, angle the front beam back for more caster, push the rear torsion housing back a couple inches, run IRS rear, link pin front, all easy to do when you start from scratch.

Plan as much of the build ahead of time as you can. Figure out wiring routes and components, fuel systems, lights, gauges controls. The more planning ahead of time the fewer surprises later on.

Make sure you are comfortable in the car right from the get go. Don't build it and think you'll get used to some small thing that makes it awkward be in, you'll just end up hating it. I always start with mounting the pedals, then the seat, then the steering wheel, then the shifter. Even with legs full of metal plates, screws and pins and a bad back I can drive in my buggy comfortably for hours and if I'm building a car for someone I spend a lot of time making sure it's the same way for them.

Make sure you can reach things, like switches, handles, radios. Nothing is worse than building a car, putting on your belts and realizing you can't start or shut off your car because the ignition switch is out of reach, or having to lean over to adjust the radio. It's a buggy have fun with it think outside the box.

Think about maintenance. Think about how you are going to fix things before you weld pipes, tubes and brackets in place or bolt some component like a fuel pump in the nether regions of the body only to have to tear half the car apart to replace or fix it later. Make your electrical system as accessable as possible. Nothing is worse than being upside down with your feet over the headrests, flashlight firmly clamped in your teeth trying to replace a fuse or trouble shoot a short.

Make your electrical system as waterproof as you can. Heat shrink and solder are 2 of my favorite things. And buy the best electrical parts you can, cheap toggle switches that fall apart in a year can be really frustrating sitting at the side of the road.

And speaking of maintenance. If you are building a chassis or modifying parts, Make everything nice and smooth and rounded. Bumping your head into a rounded corner on the suspension is a hell of a lot nicer than banging it into a nice 90* corner. You have to work it, be sure that when you do, you don't come out looking like you serviced a running mixmaster.

Buy as much as you can ahead of time and have it waiting even if it means delaying the start of the project for few months or a year. Having what you need when you need it lets you mock everything up before you commit to it's final placement and make sure it will do the job you want and fit with the other parts (a HUGE issue). It also gives you lots of time to return or replace parts and not have you sitting on your but waiting for a $.99 cent widget to keep going.

Don't stop. IF you are tired of working on one aspect of the build, switch to something else. Keep working even if for only an hour at a time. IT all needs to get done so even small tasks move the project ahead and keep it from stalling.

brad

[SiggyManx#33]

[aquavette]

#1) Finish it.

[cdnltded]

Walk away

Just kidding
maybe the second one would be easier. i have been working on mine for like 4 years i think. really not bad if you use this great place i found THE SAMBA Lots of great guys and great advice
so far as mine has not hit the road yet i dont know what i would want to do different