Winter Builds for 2019: It's All About Me Now.

[joescoolcustoms]

Over the past 4 years I have built a lot of buggies for others. I really enjoyed getting to spend other people's money, and learn a lot of new things that I would not have tried myself. Different Water Cooled buggies, piecing bodies back together, original period style builds, wild customs, heavy, light.

So after several years collecting parts, a stack of titled chassis, bodies out the wazoo, several early tagged Manx bodies, too many wheel combinations for one sane person to own in a lifetime, lost track of cool seat pairs, disc brake sets, lots of new fiberglass parts, pedal sets, Hurst Shifters, blah blah whatever. I have decided to not build for anyone else for several years. It is now time for me to build my stuff.

This thread is not about any single build, (I have several completed build threads on here already, a few on the Manx Club Forum website, and one on a FB page). This thread is just about my crazy ideas, what screw ups I get into, crap I flat out ruin, different looks, different build styles, complicated builds, bare bone builds, lowered, lifted, and whatever.

I have done all my imagination can with the Puzzle Manx, (Search "Basket Case Manx II" on this forum if you are interested), driven it across the US 4 times, to Alaska, raced the Baja 1000 with it, and I am done with it. I have parted it out, stored the body away because the wife will not let me sell it. So, I need a buggy to drive.

The first two builds will happen almost side-by-side. A mild bare bones, and a Lifted Water Pumper. Both will get sweet original Manx I tagged bodies I have hoarded. I need a buggy to just pound the street with, light weight, simple and it will get the Puzzle Manx's 2.2 liter engine. The other will be kind of purpose built for off road with the intention on taking me across the US again, but off roading the way across, so it will reflect that need.

Some Transaxles I have gotten built in the last 3 years. All 091s with the Bus-To-Beetle conversions. This puts the shift rod in the tunnel without tilting the transaxle, and has the better Beetle shift mechanism to make shifting better than a stock 091. All have a 002 bellhousing so they use a Beetle based starter.

One future build will be a custom tube chassis I am going to build to race, and will get this ACME Fiberglass floor I picked up in a swap meet.

2, 2.2 engines, but so drastically different.

First Chassis up, and on the chassis table. Pans have already been stripped off, and no need to post up the process of cutting them off.

First body up. This will be the street beater, light weight, slightly lower than normal and just simple.

I have to leave early Sunday Morning for a three week solid work stint out of town. After that, only one day a week of work, and the rest is Garage Time for me!
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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

[tgodber]

I need a job like that! Looking forward to your posts.
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My wife said I never listen to her.
Or something like that!

[AMAC1680]

[oprn]

Interesting!

What is the water pumper out of?

[hillmotorsports]

I have a feeling this will be at least a 2 bag show....
Joe's court is now in session!

Paul
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Rosemarie and Paul Hill
Morrisburg, Ontario

(With way more projects than spare time!)

[neohic]

[joescoolcustoms]

Some funny stuff guys!

I may not be as old as I feel, but at 53, I do not have retirement, so the one day per week gig is not a well paying career. But that Garage Time just cannot be beat!

Stay tuned Paul, the Towd may get started this year.

The Water Pumper is out of a '06 Cobalt if memory serves correct. I have it documented because the system gets direct programmed for the year and month due to on going updates GM does during manufacturing. Have been working with a programmer to get it set up. Since this is a later model with a style similar to the Cummin's common rail, it makes the fuel delivery system a lot nicer.

Ben, everything is for a time and season, as are we. The PM's body is not getting destroyed, just moth balled. Never know if or when it may pop it's head out for a breath of fresh air. Jeeps are cool too. I have had several and my daily is one too. But in no way do they hold a comparison to a buggy. Both are fun, just different. Keep the faith.
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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

[joescoolcustoms]

Finishing up for the day and getting ready to pack my tools for the next three weeks. but did get some things accomplished.

I am not looking for arguments on how or why I do things, I just do them sometimes because I want to, I can, or think it adds to a build's quality. The tasks I do are not a "OMG, now I gotta do that too or I will die" task. They are just going another step further in building something. You will be fine without doing some of these quirky things I do. Often they are just a signature of mine.

One item I feel is lacking on strength, or could be improved is the stock shock towers on a Beam. BJ or L&KP. VW stamped the shock towers, slid them on the beam tube and pinch welded the haves together. This does leave a lot to be desired. Sometimes they leave gaps for road water to get in and start the rusting process. Sometimes the pinch welds or poorly matched up/do not penetrate deep enough to be strong.

So I media blast the beams with the arms in it to keep the media out of the needle bearings. This cleans them up nicely for working on. (since I dislike blasting, when I do it, I try to lump in all kinds of future use parts and get the nastiness done at one time)

Then Grind the edges of the pinch welds down until the seams are even with each other and fresh metal.

Then weld the seams continuously all the way around except for the bottom drain hole. This makes the shock tower a lot stronger, sealed up against corrosion, and neater to look at.

And since I am so nice, I do it twice!

Well, off to Cincinnati for three weeks.
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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

[calebmelvin]

Can't wait to follow your builds! Thanks for letting us live vicariously though you.
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Caleb
'68 Tagged Manx | My Wanted Ads
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[hillmotorsports]

Joe, I'm sure I am not alone in the notion that there are times, when reading your build logs, that I truly am disgusted. With no intent, you manage to make us all feel totally inadequate with what we consider "good enough". Your build quality is spectacularly over the top, with redundancy after redundancy.

Thanks for setting the bar so high: gives us mere mortals something to look up to and shoot for, knowing full well that our best will pale in comparison.

Between you and Aussie Brad we have big boots to fill.

Paul.... with the greatest admiration intended.
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Rosemarie and Paul Hill
Morrisburg, Ontario

(With way more projects than spare time!)

[joescoolcustoms]

That is funny Paul! Tell Rosemarie Dar and I said hey. Missed seeing you two in '18. Hope to see you in '19.

As for building, I am THE bull in the china shop. My build experience has come about from breaking anything I have driven, ruined a lot of good parts, and in general, contributed to the recycling industry. So, I do not know how to build things, I know how not to ruin a lot of items, and how to "pre-fix" things.

As a funny side note, Last year when we raced the Baja, we did get a lot of sponsors, and had some good fun with it. One huge sponsor was Marty just outside of Saint Louis. Marty owns a sign shop, is an artist, and a fantastic friend. Marty printed all of our sponsor details and the Bad New Racing decals. In addition, he did the sponsor decals and numbering for the two DBSE's in our class, # 346 and # 302.

In appreciation for his fantastic efforts, instead of a photo and a thank you, we did something a little more personal and put some effort into it. Chris has a commercial art friend who made us a rendering of Marty driving the Puzzle Manx. Turned out super, and Marty loved it.

Just something funny and up lifting. Life is short, enjoy your friends.
_________________
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

[hillmotorsports]

Well Joe, it's like this: she-who-must-be-obeyed has decreed that regardless of how much we miss our buggy friends and the camaraderie of the events I am not allowed to sign us up for more until such time as I can get our Tow'd together to have our own buggy at said event.
And that is in spite of the welts on my back as she drives me to finish other things that she has prioritized as more important.

The good news is that the list is diminishing gradually. The bad news is that I have been conscripted to drive our sons' 18 wheeler race transporter occasionally, although I somehow was able to dodge the 6000 mile round trip to Laguna Seca last month. It would have been nice to witness their 3 cars finish in the top 5 both days, esp with the win on Sunday but being so close to Christmas made it a difficult choice.
Now the big distraction is #1 son's wedding in 2 weeks.

The joy's of family.... but wouldn't want it any other way.

Paul
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Rosemarie and Paul Hill
Morrisburg, Ontario

(With way more projects than spare time!)

[wythac]

I'll be looking in here more often with another "joebuilt" car coming up.

Joe, I have to admit I had the same reaction as others when you said you had parted your orange buggy, but then I figured either that you had completely worn it out (!) or that you learned a lot from it and decided to make (yet) another, better one. Regardless, like you said, you don't need to justify any choice you make to anyone but yourself!

I'm looking forward to see your water pumper build come together.

[oprn]

I am very interested to see how the two compare for weight. Air cooled vs water pumper.

[hillmotorsports]

So.... what's the latest news to report???
My popcorn is getting stale waiting....

Paul
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Rosemarie and Paul Hill
Morrisburg, Ontario

(With way more projects than spare time!)

[joescoolcustoms]

[hillmotorsports]

Things haven't exactly gone as planned here. As if the extreme cold wasn't enough we now have record snows to.go with it.
But I'm soon getting a break... sort of.
Tuesday Rosemarie and I head to Rd Atlanta Georgia with our sons' 18 wheeler with 3 race cars for an event next weekend. The forecast isn't all sunshine but it beats what we're leaving behind!
Hopefully when we get home I can get back to the honey-do list.

Paul
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Rosemarie and Paul Hill
Morrisburg, Ontario

(With way more projects than spare time!)

[slalombuggy]

After 10 years, 7 ground up builds on bugs, buggies and busses, and 10 engines, I ran screaming from the garage padlocked the door on the way out and I'm enjoying the winter working in the basement, playing with my model trains, I just don't have any more automotive juice left in my batteries......just the opposite of you Joe LOL.

I hope one of your future builds is on for the salt and maybe I'll see you there in 2020. This summer I'll start tearing my car apart to make some changes. Probably add more weight to the nose and redo the dash and electrical as well as some of the plumbing.

Always look forward to watching you builds, this post will be great as we will all get to see the little things than make your cars great (and the stuff that gets discarded) either way, we all learn. Thanks for that.

brad

[SiggyManx#33]

I can't wait to see what works of art you put together when you get back to it.

[karu]

I sure will be enjoying your build!!!