Vintage Barndoor Beach Buggy

[derRHDmeister]

For the rear wheels, I was faced with a problem: they had to be with 2" or so backspacing as the original set up had that. I tried to bolt on regular bug wheels or ones with "deep dish" but had backspace of 3" or up- it wouldn't fit and ended up rubbing on the homemade pickup bed.

It took me a while looking for the rear wheels, mostly old school welded ones. I finally found a pair nearby. Bonus, it came with old Mickey Thompson Baja tires, which looked awesome but I doubt it is roadworthy.

The 14" widened front wheels were with the bd buggy when I picked it up- it will stay that way. I am looking for proper old school tires for the front. maybe E78-14 tires? https://www.cokertire.com/sta-traxion-e78-14.html

Heres a picture after I mounted the rears on, It looks good to me but I will need to figure out the rear fenders next. It was missing when I picked it up.

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Ask not what your bus can do for you, but ask what you can do for your bus.

[derRHDmeister]

adding more progress pictures after a trip to Sierra Madre Collection to pick up a master cylinder from early 356 (direct bolt-in)

Taillight mounting holes were similar to 356 beehives, so I grabbed a pair from SMC.

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Ask not what your bus can do for you, but ask what you can do for your bus.

[LAGrunthaner]

Great thread, keep up the good work. Looking forward to a driving video soon
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[derRHDmeister]

Thanks for the interest. I know this project is somewhat an oddball but I think it deserves some type of documentation and research support. I think that's why I posted here, in case someone might chime in with their experience with baja'd buses from the early days.

Anyway, as much I'd love to have a driving video soon, this project hit a major roadblock. When I got it, the shifter managed to get in 3rd & 4th gears but never could get in 1st or 2nd gears. Let's see why...

It appears the transaxle case was not barndoor, as I looked for the stampings to indicate its origin. The nose cone had 29 series #'s which I assume is barndoor, along with the axles of course.

Cleaned

Oh crap...

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Ask not what your bus can do for you, but ask what you can do for your bus.

[TheRustySuper]

I don't own a Barndoor (or even a bus) but I've been following along since you got this thing. Neat seeing something like this getting put back on the road!
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My '72 Super

[nshaddox]

nice safety shoes. I wear similar in my shop.

you can always adapt a later center section in and just save the bd reduction setup. thats probably what I'd do. doesn't make much sense to spend a bunch of $$ for year correct trans rebuild on this thing I'm guessing.

Either go w/lollipop front mount or fab up a center mount or fab some of those drop mounts I've seen other split bus folks use. I was considering getting some laser cut myself once the weather turns and I can confirm measurements.

[djfordmanjack]

Most probably the water got in from the small vent hole, that's on top of the nose.
why not try to clean the crap out and try to get the 1/2 gear selector unstuck. the corrosion doesn't seem that bad and the gasket surfaces are intact. Let's not bury this tranny before it's dead !

I like the beehive taillights and loving how you were able to reuse the og master cylinger aluminium reservoir. that is way cool !
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63 1500 Notch, og paint Rubin Rot L456
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[derRHDmeister]

When we had to get the transaxle out, we were forced to remove the gas tank to access the coupler bolts from the top. This slim design made it possible for the fuel tank to be mounted right under the driver's seat. This tank was peculiar to the British era sports car, based on possibly an early MG or AH because of the side-mounted "smiths" sender and top filler neck, the other clue is its distinctive stampings on the top and slightly curved ends.

For the moment, I will check to see if the tank is of any good use and if the sender can be replaced. I will run them as it is if possible.
Anyone who may recognize this tank, please chime in. Here are a few examples I've found so far...

https://www.bpnorthwest.com/fuel-tank-mg-midget-72...gJF4PD_BwE

http://www.victoriabritish.com/features/mg/MGFTL.h...gLpBPD_BwE

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Ask not what your bus can do for you, but ask what you can do for your bus.

[derRHDmeister]

Quarantine Update:

with everything going on, I took a pause to focus on the kid's E-learning or distant schooling and I had issues with the nose cone on the rebuilt transaxle. Thanks to Vintage Warehouse for sending me the lollipop mount for the syncro trans, which solved the fit issue and pushed me to finish this phase. I had Benco swap the barndoor axles on a 4.37 pro sand unit I had laying around and flipped the center section, it should work ok with the 36hp and super tall rear tires.

Speaking of tires, I decided to go with General Grabber ATs, the fronts are 27x8.5r14 and the rears are 31x10.5r15 I think it looks decent. I painted the old buggy rims in L82 silver-white. I'm not quite sure if I will run hubcaps or not however that's not important right now.

Next item on the checklist to get the brake bleed, the gas tank hot dipped and see what repairs it will need, then wire up this bad boy. The engine is waiting for me to finish up the new seals all around and top-end assembly. Getting there soon.
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Ask not what your bus can do for you, but ask what you can do for your bus.

[BulliBill]

You and your supplier friends are doing an awesome job refreshing and returning this piece of early off-road history to the road/trail! It's exciting to see your progress, and like others, we are waiting breathlessly for the "first drive'" video! Keep up the great work!

Bill
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Mission VW - San Fernando
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Thanks for any help!

[TDCTDI]

This thing is awesome!


With the internals of the transmission in the condition that they were, did you open up & inspect/rebuild the reduction boxes?

Great job on the beast.
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[derRHDmeister]

[derRHDmeister]

not a barndoor but check this out!
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2385370
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Ask not what your bus can do for you, but ask what you can do for your bus.

[mr. warehouse]

[derRHDmeister]

Updates:

Put in the 36hp with the rebuilt 6v thin slot generator and rebuilt screw terminal 6v starter. I started to check off most items on the list.

I'm on a hunt for pair of an old fender, any kind, perhaps from a single wheel trailer or something- to fab some kind of rear fender soon.

Also, the gas tank is no bueno, the radiator shop told me it was too far gone to fix with thin spots due to rust. I guess I will have to figure out a low profile gas tank solution.

I had to get this license plate frame for this ride.

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Ask not what your bus can do for you, but ask what you can do for your bus.

[Peter_N]

Nice update, a pity about the gastank though
Really dig the plate frame
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My 1958 PGSG project topic

[derRHDmeister]

It's overdue for an update. Not much has been done but a major event happened. I packed up and sold our house in So Cal, moved to Eastern Tennessee near the Smoky Mountains. I sold almost everything VW I had except for the BD Buggy. I decided to stash it at my mom's cabin for a while before I could get a plan sorted out for this one.

After a while, a plan was hatched. Thanks to my good friend, Justin from Kombi Haus who graciously accepted the undertaking to finish up what I started, as I began to hit a wall regarding my abilities. I feel better now that it's in super capable hands, I hope to update this thread with a driving video in the future.

Here you can see him wondering WTF he got himself into.

(I could have sent this to any Baja/VW shop in So Cal but this is a Type 2 spec off-road vehicle, I couldnt think of anyone else)
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Ask not what your bus can do for you, but ask what you can do for your bus.

[derRHDmeister]

[EverettB]

Air George, I split off all of your posts about your Buggy into it's own thread here as it was overtaking this thread about this Bus:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=763643
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[derRHDmeister]

UPDATE:

It's alive! Jim Bass at Kombi Haus has been hard at work getting it to this stage. More to come with specifics but here's a video for now:

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CaiQuU_pgXD/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
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Ask not what your bus can do for you, but ask what you can do for your bus.