Birthday Buggy Build

[Mike_CNYBuggy]

Here's some more pictures. The color is way off in the pictures. After researching it I discovered it's because purple isn't a real color, and certain shades of it are not reproducable using RGB methods (like computer monitors and iPhone screens).

http://deron.meranda.us/ruminations/purple/

Some of you may see the pictures as blue, while others might see the true deep dark purple. Supposedly if you print it, it will look closer to the color, depending on the quality of your printer. The ones we printed on out Kodak photo printer look just like it.. weird.

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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

[Mike_CNYBuggy]

We entered the car into the buggy class of the Central New York Volkswagen car show.

The wife cleaned the buggy all up, added some finishing touches and even made a poster of the build process. The car looked great and got tons of attention.
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She took 2nd place behind a Deserter. It was one of the happiest days in my life. My wife loves her buggy and is driving it all the time. She gets lots of attention with it and seeing her driving it makes all the countless hours I put into it worth it.
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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

[GTBRADLEY]

Nice build Mike. I bet the kiddo's enjoy it just as much.
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Thunderbug by Bugformance 1969

[hcallaway]

Great story and a super nice build. She sure looks pretty happy!!! It is great that she is really using it.
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Share site with additional pictures.
http://berriennostalgiadunebuggy.shutterfly.com/
http://s83.photobucket.com/albums/j289/hcallaway/berrien%20dune%20buggy/

[LouisB]

Good job. That is a buggy to be proud of.

--louis
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Louis Brooks
'67 Manx II

Old people at weddings always poke me and say "Your next." So, I started doing the same to them at funerals.

[wythac]

Very nice work. I am sure your wife didn't mind the extra time you took to make it so nice.

My car is purple and I have the same issue with reproducing the color in pictures. No two look the same shade. Try taking a few pictures near the end of the day, just after the sun goes down, with and without your flash from about 20 feet away...adds a balance of blue and redshifted natural light that seems to reproduce the color more faithfully.

[Mike_CNYBuggy]

2012 Season Update (Posted Spring 2013)

Well, It's been a LONG while since my last update but I got a bad case of DBF (Dune Buggy Fever) and I'm starting to plan my 2013 modifications so I thought I would document the stuff I did last year.

After the buggy suprisingly took 2nd place in it's class at my local VW show I started working on it again, finishing up some of the things I put off. Because we would like to take the kids for rides in it, it needed a back seat and seat belts.

My good friend Steve and I (Mostly Steve) started making some seats for it.

Steve is a cool guy. He spent some time in his past doing upholstery work on horse drawn coaches, A different kind of buggy lol
The seats turned out awesome. We might add some details to them in the future so they match the front seats, but for right now, they're perfect.

The next thing was repainting the buggy.

This took a lot of convincing from Steve to get me onboard with this. Our friend Shawn, The one with the Deserter that took first place at the show, had used this metal flake glitter stuff on his car, and we really liked it. I bought a few jars of different colors and Steve ended up repainting his buggy green and using the green flakes over the top. It doesn't show it well in the pictures, but it's a beautiful paintjob and really sparkles in the sun.

Since I had some other things that I wanted to fix, and because Steve's car came out so nice, I decided to go for it.

Before we start painting, we needed to fix a few things on the buggy. The first time I met my buddy Steve it was at a VW Cruise in. We were standing by my buggy and chatting and he goes "You know your windshield is on backwards?" I was like "no shit, no wonder I couldn't get that damn thing to sit right". Well in order to get my windshield to fit backwards, I had to do alot of extra work drilling holes where they weren't needed.

She looks pretty sad here..But it's all for the better.

When I bought the pile of parts that I now call a buggy, there was this scrap of fiberglass that the PO had cut out of the back of the body.

When I had the body painted, it got left at the guy's house, He was going to glass it back in, but then I decided not to due to the cost at the time. I figured after a year since I had the work done it would be gone but I called the guy up and for some reason, he decided to save it.

Steve and I (Again, mostly Steve) took the scrap and widened it, shaped it, and made it a removable cover instead of molding the scrap back into the body.

Painted it to match the car. It get's held on by some allen head stainless buttontop screws with wing nuts underneath.

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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

[Mike_CNYBuggy]

Now for the scary part, at least it was for me. We wet sanded all the paint so we could bling it out with our flake.

Here's the flake we used from paintwithpearl.com. They now have an indigo purple that I might have liked better.

The wet sanding was alot of work (Mostly Me, Steve watched alot of this part). We had some issues with the paint gun and the flakes didn't come out so even in places, but for a dune buggy, it still looks pretty good. We get alot of complements on it.

We got it done before Carlisle 2012. This was our first trip to Carlisle and we had a great time and met alot of awesome people and we can't wait to go again!

That's her on the right!

We even got to get a few pictures with Bruce!

We did a few touch-ups before the 2012 CNY VW show. Mostly cleanups and painted the sides with some matte black paint. There was some awesome competition at the show, especially Steve's car, which I thought would win for sure but somehow we ended up with.....

1st place!

Here's a few pictures of the car from over the summer.

This little car has become a member of our family and I can't see us ever parting with it. It will always be part of my kids childhood memories and has brought us so much enjoyment over the few years we have had it so far. Through the hobby we have met so many great people and found a reason to get out of the house and just ride. We take it to car show's, Cruz in's, out for ice cream and to family events and it's always a focal point.

I love this buggy.
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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

[Mike_CNYBuggy]

I forgot to add this sweet pic of Farmer John from Carlisle 2012!

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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

[FarmerJohn]

Mike , that is one very nice buggy , and yes my sister was jealous that I was in a purple buggy
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Now I Drive A Hard Top Buggy !

[ElijahTurtle]

Very cool!