Bad Bug

[slalombuggy]

[tcmia]

Well the radio and speakers are not from back in the day. It had an old Blaupunkt tape receiver and one tiny 4” speaker in the passenger foot area.

I forgot that the top also had a bunch of lines. Working on those today.

[tcmia]

Also added some lines on the pulleys.

[irvanm]

my favorite dune buggy ever.

[tcmia]

Thank you!

Today i am working more on the top. Finished carpeting the inside. Very hard for me. So many curves, but it looks good. Now i am trying to polish the paint. Lots of elbow grease but its coming along nicely. The tiny striping is really coming alive. I would not have been able to redo those.

There is some black guey stuff on the sections that sit on the body. Paint thinner is slowly dissolving it.

[slalombuggy]

[oprn]

That pinstriping is amazing! I just can't get enough of it!

[tcmia]

Thanks. The person that Originally did it, is a true artist. It also was and is my favorite part of this buggy. My dad calls it art on wheels.

This weekend I am working on the front ant (bug) neon sign. I have tested the neon sign with the transformer and it does light up. I needed to repaint the black covering on the tubes that are supposed to be dark. Waiting on it to dry. Polished up the clear front cover and got most of the haze off. I need to do the same to the rear plate make a new mounting for it that has some form of vibration damping just in case.

[tcmia]

Got the bug mounted. Not super happy with the bolts, but will get some different ones. Added grommets between the neon and the back plate and some grommets between the plate ant the hood part.

[tcmia]

Replaces some of the cracked high voltage wiring and connected the transformer to test it. It became alive. Cool!

[oprn]

That is a one off totally unique feature!

[tcmia]

Thanks.

This weekend I was going to work on the extra lights. So seats are back out, and more relays and wires go in. Originally it came with 30 some feet of real neon lights, but since I was not sure if I can get them to work I was going to replace all of them with LED's. None of the neon was working when I picked up the car, but I dissembled it all and stored it for later.

Now that I have the front neon sign repaired, I was curious of the other ones. I worked on the under fender lights and after replacing some of the high voltage wires, they lit up. So I polished the clear plastic outer tubes and reinstalled them.

I compared to LED somehow this real neon stuff is hard to imitate, a lot softer, so I am rolling with it as long as it lasts. Next trying to piece together the under chassis tubes.

It had 2 circuits, one under and one inside. 3 of the many tubes were broken, but I pieced together this set. One for inside and the other under and inside the engine area. I have to work out the high voltage wire routing to make this work with what I have.

They are not installed yet or polished. just under the car to see how it would look.

[EVfun]

I love seeing those '80's style VWs show cars brought back to life in their original glory. The aluminum, the paint and striping was something I remember from the VW magazines when growing up. Thank you for sharing your work bringing that wonderful buggy back to life. My first buggy didn't have any striping, but it had under body neon lights, including purple tubes up high under the sides like yours, where they can really project the light out to the sides.

Neon wiring can be treated a lot like spark plug wiring. The heavy insulated wire (typically black GTO-15) keeps the high voltage from finding a place to arc to ground. You should avoid securing that wire directly to any grounded metal for the same reason it is a bad idea with spark plug wires. You can buy the wiring and insulation boots from any well stocked sign supply shop. I don't know if I have posted this old photo before.

_________________

[Ulu]

When I saw that purple glow, I immediately thought of a rolling bug zapper.



I'm used to having insects collect on my radiator, but now that I've bought an air-cooled again, no radiator to plug up with dried wings and chitin. Now they'll be frying on my fins.

Anyhow, the pinstriping is outrageous and the whole car will draw lots of compliments.

And probably a big trophy with a chrome beetle on top.

So good luck!

[tcmia]

EVfun, that dash light is super! Thanks Ulu. I have been watching your build. Back in the day I went to see the showroom of the Gazelle vehicles in Miami. I was itching to build one, but did not think I had the skills to finish one.

This week i am finishing up the top and see if it still fits after sitting off the car for one year. The old surfboard may be beyond repair, but my sister is bringing me one from Virginia in a couple of weeks. I will try to repaint is as close as possible to the other one.

[tcmia]

Got some help today and put the top on. Rear fits pretty good, the front not so much. Will have to tweak something a little to get ti to sit right on the windshield and get to align the mounting holes.

[tcmia]

Also finished gluing i the third brake light into the oval rear window.

[EVfun]

[tcmia]

Thanks. Originally It had a neon tube in the back windows that was also the pink color, but it was broken when I picked up the car a year ago. It probably broke when they had removed the top at some point due to the thick wires hooked up to the tube. I considered another neon tube, but opted for the led silicon tube because it makes the wires easier to connect and the ability to use it for a third brake light.
the top on the trailer is part of the trailer. They had it made to haul all the stuff to set up for a show in it. It still has some of those items in it.

I think i need to loosen the window frame and hood bolts a little to shift it so that the holes align again.

The sides are actually brushed stainless steel panels an there is one on the underside too. The spinners used to be chrome, but it was terribly rusted and pitted. So i sanded them and painted them gloss black and added the Wolfsburg center cap from a current VW. I am considering getting black lugs.

I do like the idea of a long shifter. It would go with the theme. Now it has one of those empi reverse lock out things. It had a blue neon tube shifter know on it, but it was so bad I could not get it back to work. I leave the long shifter idea for a future upgrade.

[Ulu]

The little trailer is really cool.

Does the trailer hitch have a motor mount on the back?