Ap's Vw Beach Buggy

[apmaman]

Bit of a story to start off.

I wanted a cheap form of transport to mess around with during the "summer" months and be easy to work on should anything go wrong. I originally planned to get a road legal quad bike, very cheap to run, but the insurance premiums were very high, and well, they're not that safe!

I moved onto looking at new road legal buggies such as quadzilla's joyners etc but again, insurance was through the roof and getting high quality product looked slim. Most had big issues and weren't cheap or easy to fix. That then led me to vw buggies.

Classic cars, easy to work on and cheapish to run.. Looked like a winner and the researching began.

A few months later and a lucky ebay win I ended up with my very first buggy!

It was a non-runner. Required a decent amount of rebuilding to get working but its running sweet as a nut now

Rust free (some surface rust but a quick wire brush will sort that) she was a bargain. It could do with a makeover paint and interior wise, but thats going to be saved for over winter when shes off the road and living in the garage.

It's a 1962 Short Wheel Base with a 1584cc Type 3 engine, adjustable coil over rear suspension.

So far I've been creating a "to do" list and a "want" list after roughly 60miles of owning the buggy.

To Do:

Fix indicator stalk, turns with wheel activating indicators when not needed DONE

Fix Rev gauge (works on idle)

Fix Oil Pressure gauge (works at ignition but intermittent failure while driving)

Fix Fuel Gauge (Worked on first fill up, but stuck at just above red)

New window wiper & blade for passenger side (Done)

Address battery charging issue, seems like the dyno isn't charging the battery (Done)

Convert side lights to T10, 501, W5W bulbs for LED's DONE

Address potential tracking issues. Rear wheels look "off"

Repaint engine bay tin ware and fan shroud

Label all wiring and carry out repairs on worn or dodgie looking connections & general tidy up.

De-Rust and paint drum brakes

Pressed metal plates Rear Done

CD player Done

12v Accessory port Done

Exhaust baffles Done

Oil Breather filter replacement instead of hose connecting to carb filter for neatness

Want:

Add single or twin "cooling fans" inside engine bay to cool while sitting in traffic

New indicator stalk

Re-Paint body

Re-Paint wheels

Re-wire

New Seats (heated)

New exhaust system, twin motorbike cans

New dash layout with illuminated switches

Alternator Conversion

Front brake disc conversion

Easy Access Jump lead connections

"Blower Scoop" intake for twin carbs

Strip gearbox, solve first gear niggle

Strip carbs and set up on rolling road (DONE, but no rolling road)

Convert all lights to LED or projectors.

New type 3 oil intake thingy mabober

Yellow distributor cap and leads

This is still a work in progress so I'll post when things get done!

[Babs]

That's very cool!

[Volvomeg]

Often looked at those on ebay and thought they looked like good fun

[apmaman]

they are very good fun.

handling is stiff and well.. terrible. the brakes are woeful and its so loud its boardering on embarrassing.... i love it! what more coukf you want! hahaha!

always got a smile when im in this. even when it rains...

[robk1]

That's really neat & saw a few of these during our time in the S East Vdub club (back when we still had our type 2 camper). The headlights really compliment the front end look and gotta say yellow does the trick. Suspect you'll have a lot of fun in her

[SNH]

This is so cool.

Will be following this

[apmaman]

[Robshaw]

I have always wanted one of these :(

[apmaman]

not done anything in these past two weeks apart from start to plan my shell off strip and where to go to get a minor weld done before the big winter strip down and zincify the chassis with rust proofing paint.

did pick up this for £10 though.. ahoooga! ahoooga!

[apmaman]

Nights are drawing in now and I've been slowly making progress when I have time on the re-wire of this. Took the window off, and the bonnet/dash as they're one unit tonight to reveal the wiring.... Oh no :(

Looks like I am in for a good few nights of figuring out wtf goes where!

I managed to get the easy stuff done.. My CD player, the horn wipers and washers as you can see with my little white labels on the wires haha.

Going to be a long haul to get this, but luckly i have this whole weekend off, and I am on nightshift Monday - Thursday so should have some spare time to do it then, along with all of next weekend off too...

The Rev counter and oil pressure guage have never worked, so I'm going to get rid of them and put in a Volt/ammeter and an oil temp guage. Since its air cooled its probably a good idea to make sure the oil doesnt get too hot and then ruin my day.

While that bunch of wiring does look a mess, and, well it is. 90% of it wont need addressed for a "body off" resto as if I just take the wires which lead to the engine bay out, and the front lights with the ground bar and fuse box the dash & body will come completely off.

I've found a few wires which were obviously hooked up to something, but have since been removed so I'm thinking about adding some neon/led lights under the car, or some mad footwell lights since I can just glue or double side tape them under the dash. Plenty of room!

In other news though, I've seen a set of banded steelies which are 15 inch 10j's for the rears. I might pick them up but I dont know what tyres will fit. I'm not going for the streched look with this, more an old school poser/drag machine so big chunky, but slick tyres on the rears with skinnys on the front.

Open to suggestions for painting the whole car, I'm leaning to yellow with a metal flake through it and white or silver wheels.

[nockmeister]

LMAO...i've never seen so many scotchblocks on a wiring loom!!

[apmaman]

Haha Theres not that many... About 4 I think, for the interior lights, side lights CD player and there was one for a ground for something. I think it was the washer bottle pump... The rest are just little blue connectors because thats all I've got...

Not really done much tbh. All the wiring is labled or at least I know what it does for the most part. Ma

de a few sketches of the fuse box, ignition, cut off's etc etc so I know where everything should go when it comes to taking it all out for the painting of the shell.

I got the fuel guage working as well which is one of the few visible fixes I've done. A small, but siginificant step as far as I'm concerend!

I've added a CSP Drag Shifter too, with reverse lock out. A common feature on these new fangled fuel injection cars, but with no real way to stop you selecting reverse instead of second it was a bit dodgie especially on the brisk starts...

aaand I've changed all the bolts holding the shell on to stainless steel ones so hopefully I wont get any sezed on ones anymore.

All I "need" to do now is

Strip the wiring loom out.

Take out the petrol tank & pump

Take out the roll cage

Take the shell off

Find somewhere to store said shell

Grind off all the chassis paint and coat in Zinc protection paint

Paint Chassis

Send shell, cage, bonnet and wheels to get painted

Find front end drop links

Sort the tracking

Bleed brakes, or get front disc conversion if I can

Put it all back together

Tune up the engine with a full service

Wait for it to be sunny so I can be "that guy with the beach buggy"

Doesnt sound too much..... Ha!

[apmaman]

Roll bar and bonnet are off.

I should have probably removed the bonnet before as its allowed much better access than balancing it ontop of a few axle stands! Getting there slowly.

I've ran out of sticky labels but I'd say 80% of the wiring has been mapped.

Starting to plan the body removal as I have measured that it will fit ( on its side ) between my garage and house wall so I can leave the shell in my back garden while I work on the chassis.

[apmaman]

Bit of an update....

The shell is ready to come off. All the lights steering coloum etc are all off the car. I'll hopefully have that done on Sunday. Then its time to buy a cheap angle grinder and bring the floor pans and chassis back to the metal to repaint.

[apmaman]

A few if my mates helped me remove the shell from off the chassis last night as we moved it out the road. I can now start to get to work on removing the paint on the floor pans to check it all out and see if they need replaced or not.

The Before shot..

Taps Aff!

My newest garden orament.

[VladSoilerOfCarpets]

That's stupendous! Totally at odds with the British climate, especially over the next few months, but hilarious all the same.

[apmaman]

The only one stupid enough to own one of these up in Scotland, a place where its either raining, or snowing.

[apmaman]

Not done much.. Been grinding out all the soft rusted metal in the floor pans and making my repair piece for the hole at the right rear...

Got most of the rust grinded out and looking pretty good, just a little more to do which I'll do today when I get a new grinding wheel for my dremel. (amazing tool btw)

I've also gave the shell a going over with 40grit sand paper on a mighty mouse to help prep it for the painters to save a little bit of money.

My little repair piece, slots in pretty well so I'll just need to rent a welder for a day or two to get some practice in before I go on the bug.

Just infront of the pedals there was a oddly placed metal square bolted though the floor pan to another square sheet underneeth... Obviously this meant it was rusty but it was pretty bad underneeth... Lots of small holes which I ground out to make one big hole and I made a repair plate I'll weld into the pan.

I think I'll weld this on on the bottom of the pan, then get a single neater sheet ontop so it looks a bit better.. Not that it really matters because I'll be carpeting it all.

[Fabia_19]

This is fantastic!!! Great project

[apmaman]

Fred Flinstone inspired Rust removal...

Patch work plate I made up ready to be welded into place. A few spot welds to hold it then zoom along the edges with the mig to seal it up?

Final mock up of the rear rusty bits and the plate I've made to weld into it and fix it up..

[apmaman]

off to drift in the snow.....

[stu_mcl]

Should just weld a cage around it like that.....would look like an areil atom on steriods

[grr666]

LOVE IT!

[Trev.]

Amazing!

[apmaman]

Should just weld a cage around it like that.....would look like an areil atom on steriods

An atom thats taken too many steroids and lost a lot of his "oomph" haha! This is fairly slow, I think the 0-50 is about 9 seconds, never got to 60 so..... haha!

I think its just the carbs needing set up on a rolling road, I'll get that sorted hopefully once its all back together!

New floors and the patch at the back done. I've ordered a new dual cicuit master cylinder for the brakes and some dropped spindles. Should lower the front by 2.5 inches or and make it look a lot meaner.