Another buggy being saved

[Ken]

Got a lot of the undercoating off, and welded up about 50 misc. holes in the floor. Put a bid on a bottom plate on EBay so if I win it, I'll tackle that next.

[Ken]

Also ground on and dressed up the original Arc welds from when it was shortened. I probably should have ground it all off and re welded it, but they had good penetration and were solid, so I was o.k. with just blending and smoothing them out a little. Once some fresh undercoating or bed liner is put on, they won't be seen at all, and should last another 20/30 years.

[Dale M.]

Something I do and you may want to think about it is where cut and weld in on tunnel I put about a 3 inch wide strip of steel over original welds to stiffen them, I wrap full top and sides of tunnel and bridge the weld on bottom... It stiffens tunnel and at least I know the extra material will make up for bad welds original builder had done.... Material I use is section cut from tunnel when we shorten chassis but anything about same thickness will do...

Have seen at least one buggy with crack across top of tunnel and starting down sides right next to weld and he was still driving it.....

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)
============================================================
All suggestions and advice are purely my own opinion. You are free to ignore them if you wish ...

[Ken]

I did something similar. Using 16 gauge I broke then I shrink/stretched a strip about 2 1/2" up the tunnel, and along the floor right at the edges of the bead dimples in the floor. I then dressed the welds up and smoothed them. I know grinding welds makes you a "grinder" not a "Weldor", but I didn't want the beads poking thru the paint or carpet depending on what I use.
Never thought about going around the tunnel. Guess I'll look into that.

[Ken]

Also flipped over the body to look into 'glassing in some PVC tubing to run my wires thru, as I've seen people mention that for cleanliness of the wires and added strength.
It's already been done though, and some extra reinforcements in the rear too. The lay up is roughly 3/8" thick, so all in all, I'm really happy with this body. Just wish I could confirm the maker, oh well, it's not that big of a deal.

[Deh Shark]

Great job! Just some stuff u can do while ur welding. Put a extra weld on the transmission mount. Help strengthen and prevent breaking it. Also.. I would cut open a 3 inch square hole in tunnel on the opposite side of the pedal system and weld down the clutch cable tube which known to be broken apart from being seated properly. A muddy of mines had that done to his chassis this past weekend. I thought I would share that with you guys.
_________________
AH TIYAD AH DAT DEH BAI!!!
Organize folks are just to lazy to look for stuff!!

55 3 fold Ragtop
Manx Dune buggy 2387cc

[Ken]

Been a busy few weeks. Took a trip to L.A.for the roadster show, then took Bella to Disneyland, and then hung out at a couple of HotRod guys' houses to BBQ and hang out and talk HotRods. Once back home, Bella had a Spinal Chemo injection procedure done, and I've been working the usual overtime, but squeezed in some pan repairs between all that. Had a little more rust than I expected, but I cut it all out and replaced it with clean fresh steel.

[Ken]

Cut out the bottom head plate, and cut, formed, and welded in a piece of .175 plate in place of it. Thicker than the original, so wasn't worried about it not having the strengthening beads in it. Then cut off the bottom of the tunnel, wheeled a replacement piece 2 and a 1/2 feet long, bead rolled it, and fit it into place.

[Ken]

Finally after fitting and welding it in, I sprayed on some DTM primer, then I used sprayable bed liner, and brushed it on, instead of using the Schultz gun, and used the bristles for texturing. Let it kick 20 minutes, for it to get tacky, then brushed on a second coat and textured that. It needs to cure for 8 hours, then I'll flip it over and do the interior side. Then onto rebuilding th suspension. The pictures do not look as good as it does in real life for some reason, the bedliner turned out great, and none of the repairs are noticeable.

[BL3Manx]

Very impressive

[Ken]

Just bumping this up, from a couple of years ago. Lots in life has changed, some good, some bad. When I first started restoring this, it was/is with my little girl. If you read thru the original post it mentions of her battle with Cancer. I posted pics of her on here working on the buggy, and posing with the buggy. I recieved an email from a moderator mentioning that posting pics of my young daughter was not a good idea. I don't remember if I deleted them or he did, but to an extent I understand why he mentioned that. So even though I think it's really cool/fun that my daughter is involved I guess I won't post her....anyways, since that time, I lost my career/job welding aluminum because I wasn't able to deal with my daughters diagnosis and came unglued at work. My fault, but a learning process. That was the incentive for me after my daughter was healing up to find & get a job in So.Cal. (where I'm originally from and wanted to live). I did that, packed ALL my projects up into my shop, my daughter came home from the hospital, my wife resumed her old job, and I headed to Irwindale, Ca. where I was hired as an R&D guy for header production of new cars at Pertronix/Dougs Headers. I loved it, everything was finally falling into place in our lives and was planning on buying a house and moving the wife and daughter down after a year. Then I was diagnosed with Prostate cancer!! The wife couldn't handle it, since we were still treating our daughter, and after a hard decision I moved back home to Spokane, Wa. Which brings me here to update you, if your interested. After my surgery, I am currently Cancer free, my daughter as well will be celebrating one year Cancer free on Aug.,19th and I've been working my ass off on the Buggy. I work part-time at a local HotRod shop, and while my boss at Pertronix wants me back, I just can't go through that all again. Here is what I've been up to with the buggy. Probably tooo much info from me, but sometimes I read posts that are inactive and wonder what is going on, so I figured maybe others wondered too??

[Ken]

I never did like the look of the original nose on it, soooo, I took a skin from another buggy nose, sliced, diced, cut to hell the original nose and came up with the primered version you see. There was a 4" width difference, and 6" length difference between my original nose, and the skin, and a couple of other noses I measured, so I wasn't able to easily just put a nose from another buggy on mine. I had to make one to fit. Turned out exactly how I wanted it to, but no one will realize the amount of modification went into it to make it look like an average, ordinary Buggy nose. I also reinforced it, filled in the dash area where the whole center had been cut out, and sunk in the fuel filler cap.

[Ken]

I also wanted a hardtop for the cold evenings in the fall and spring here in the PNW, so I got one, but am also building a lowered Street Buggy, so I took out 6" from the sides, as well as 7 1/2" out of the windshield frame. I'll be lengthening the top so that it reaches the rear, 'glassine in a bottom and rear window, and hinging it to,flip up in front to get in. The windshield frame is mounted backwards and I shaved the front lip of the top off. I'll add a spring loaded pin set up to latch the front down into the frame groove, and with an aluminum frame work on the lower perimeter of the top is where the hinge will mount and I'll put small gas struts to hold it up.

[Ken]

This is just a picture of what a DuneBuggy looks like in "my head" as my dad built one in '72 when I was 5. That's me in the passenger seat when he first got it running, and me in mine 44/45 years later.

[Ken]

One of our Buggy friends from the Manx FB site, Barb Thompson, had a sticker made and put it on her buggy during a Cancer run in honor of Bella. Buggy people are very nice. Barb and Dave Barrett also bought and donated a gas tank for the buggy. Unexpected and unbelievably nice of them.

[Ken]

I'm also kind of a "nerd" for era correct things. Back in the 70's wide bias plies with whitewalls was fairly common, today about the only wide bias whitewall there is are Cheaterslicks that are more appropriate for HotRods, not Dunebuggy's. So I got N50x15's, some fake "thin whitewalls, (port-a-walls) and combined them to get that 70's look.

[Ken]

Along with bias plies, there were 8-track players, so I'll be using one of them.....but, I still like modern music as well, so with a hidden cd changer coupled with am FM antenna modulator I'll listen to my cd's thru my 8-track player. I'll also be hiding an amp and speakers so as to not take away from my 70's theme. Was going to use the underdash one with just a radio in the dash, but decided on the indash one instead.

[vwjetboat]

I read the beginning.. saw the date then saw 2nd page.. and then was thinking o shit.. she passed away.. then read the update and went o shit hes all messed up then finished and damn near shed a tear of joy for you both.. Great build .. and so happy to hear..
Greg

[Ken]

Awe man, sorry about that. I tried to type it in a way, and proofread it just so that kind of reaction wouldn't happen. Definitely don't want people to think I'm fishing for donations, free stuff, or anything like that. Just wanted to fill in a 2 year gap in posts. But I do appreciate your thoughts/tears of concern and happiness for us!!!
While we are currently both "Cancer free" she'll be checked for the rest of her life. She gets a spinal fluid and blood draw monthly, then it will be bi-monthly and so on until she is only checked anually. I'm being watched for 6 years. Her's was so rare, when she was admitted into the hospital for treatment, we were advised to get things in order as she was not expected to survive. That's when I lost it and it cost me my job. Drinking, anger, etc., I just couldn't handle it. Somehow she pulled it off and came out and is doing pretty damn good!
Anyways, back to buggys. I've got a bunch of pictures to post, but I need to crop them, then download them here, and then post them in this thread. I'll do that in the next couple of days.
Thanks, Ken

[vwjetboat]

chop man.. do not worry about my reaction.. I am a very emotional man when it comes to things like that.. and cats.. and dogs..