Hot Wheels 2 - Pine's new Buggy build thread

[Chris]

The old "Kit Car Centre"

[Blitzkrieg]

To me, there are a few key elements that either make or break a buggy - and they are:

1. Colour
2. Wheels (large rear, small front - on vintage rims)
3. Headlights
4. Indicators
5. Tail lights
6. Steering wheel
7. Front bumper
8. Filler cap

True. And it's so sad that the norm here in SA seems to be LED TruckLamps, weird small sports steering wheel/ generic/TSW mag wheels that are more at home on wannabe hothatches, cheap sports seats etc etc

I do not like Buggies built to these specifications:


Yet Pine, you seem to have the right idea when it comes to building Buggies. Period wheels, accessories etc etc. And that is how a Buggy is supposed to be built..................

[Pine]

I know the buggy pictured above quite well. Thousands were spent on the engine, chassis and bodywork, and it ended up with a set of Fuchs, which really looked awesome. There is actually no 'right' or 'wrong' with a buggy - I personally prefer old Beetle tail lights on a buggy, for example, whilst others hate them. Some older designs were made to fit sports cars' tail lights like the Volvo P1800, and even Mustang tail lights are not uncommon on buggies.

Like the different Beetle 'looks' - (Cal, German, Rat, Rod, Resto, Baja etc.), there are numerous Buggy ideas also - not all my personal taste though, yet very interesting!

The original 60's 'Manx-look' is what I personally crave, although recent years have seen a total revolution in the buggy phenomenon - the Aqua, Kango, Iguana (pictured below) and even the latest Manxter are a far cry from the original concept, yet STUNNING.

A buggy is very much a reflection of the owner/builder's personality, ingenuity, creativity and sense of humour. Yes, it is possible to build a buggy over a few Saturday afternoons with parts bought at Midas, Autozone and Game. But that is not what intend to do.



HW1 was originally built by the PO in 1971 with a hacksaw, a hammer, an arc welder and a few spanners under a tree on a farm, and the purpose was solely to be functional (it was used for many years for fishing expeditions on the Mocambique coast). There were absolutely nothing done to it to to make it look like anything, yet I LOVED it the first day I saw it! (The pic below was taken a few hours after I first got it, by that time I have already replaced the black 'trekker' headlights with shiny ones)

[Blitzkrieg]

At the end of the day, I suppose that it all boils down to personal preference

I prefer the old school Buggy look, although the Kango does tug at my heartstrings

[Tony Z]

contact the cobra club...

[Pine]

To me, there are a few key elements that either make or break a buggy - and they are:

1. Colour
2. Wheels (large rear, small front - on vintage rims)
3. Headlights
4. Indicators
5. Tail lights
6. Steering wheel
7. Front bumper
8. Filler cap

Add to the list point 9: Exhaust system

[Pine]

It is at this point in time that I want to show you a pic of - a helicopter!

There is some resemblance between this helicopter and the buggy project. All will be revealed in due time though

[Blitzkrieg]

The plot thickens Agent Orange returns!

If you need help sanding all of that "Orange Peel" from the Buggy, please do ask for help

[Chris]

If you need help sanding all of that "Orange Peel" from the Buggy, please do ask for help

Please don't!!

[Pine]

No cellulite, no orange peel - no problem!

[Pine]

To me, there are a few key elements that either make or break a buggy - and they are:

1. Colour
2. Wheels (large rear, small front - on vintage rims)
3. Headlights
4. Indicators
5. Tail lights
6. Steering wheel
7. Front bumper
8. Filler cap
9. Exhaust system

So we are at point 2 (no, point 1 has not been finalised yet! ) - the WHEELS



HW1 came from her maker (the previous owner) with dead standard Beetle rims and hubcaps. I accidently wrote off the two front hubcaps durning the first off-road trip against stones on the side of the (off) road. I then fitted EMPI Sprintstars (actually two wide ones at te rear, and two Rostyles up front, for the blue period, as can be seen on the pic above). I sourced another two narrow ones in the time I did the rebuild, so the moment orange HW1 was moving on her own power, it was with Sprintstars plus trim rings on all fours for most of the rest of her days on earth. I had them sandblasted and powdercoated silver, and always wanted to do the correct black detailing, but never got to it!



After moving up to Gauteng I sold the Sprintstars and fitted HW1 with aluminium 14inch Puma rims (pic below) which I got for an excellent price from fellow Forum member Phantom. Although the Puma rims were very nice, I often regretted selling the Sprintstars and started the hunt to find another set. The buggy was written off with the Puma rims on, only two could be saved and I gave it plus two spare ones to a fellow Forum member who I hope will have a lot of fun with them on his buggy!



This model battery-operated Buggy (which dates back to the late 60's/early 70's) was the inspiration for HW1.



Although the actual model has different wheels, you can clearly see the Sprintstars on the box artwork!



So eventually I found another set of 5.5 inch EMPI Sprintstars (many thanks Chris and Andries), two of them have already been resprayed, and two still need to be refurbished. Fitted the tyres (thanks again Andries) on the two nice (rear) ones today:



BTW, those tyres are AWESOME! The white lettering (like the old 'RealRiders Hotwheels cars ) is done in the factory. It has some odd writing on the sidewall:

BF GOODRICH ALL TERRAIN T/A
Trigard 3-ply Sidewall
30x9.50R15LT 104S M+S

Coincidently the blue Sandshark buggy also came with BF Goodrichs, but the side only says L60-15 M/S. They are too wide for the buggy and rub against the spring plates.

As you can see on the pic above, I have fitted the left wheel with a trim ring (I only got one at the moment), the original Sprintstar center cap, and some nice shiny nuts. This is what I want all four wheels on HW2 to look like. I might consider widening the two 'ugly' ones with an inch or so, to go to the rear, but if the cost is too high, I'll leave it and just put them up front with smaller tyres.

This is a closeup of the Sprintstar cap, Chris from Lichtenburg is in the process of organising repros to be made, and once the machining for the 'mould' is done, they will be available already chromed from the company who makes them in Johannesburg at a very reasonable price. I had repros on the Sprinstars of HW1, but they were more like Rostyle caps, just larger -



The nuts are actually plastic caps I got from Brazil a few years ago, where they are sold for next to nothing in packs of 20. The problem is that they look very nice, but fit so tight over a wheel nut (for 19mm wheel spanner) that you destroy it when trying to take it off. I reckon they are regarded as consumables in Brazil, like valve caps. I will fit nice and shiny studs (with lock nuts!) on HW2 in the end



These are the stickers for the centre caps, I got them from IMPI who had it reproduced exactly like the originals. (Contact him if you want some) They are transparent, so you can only vaguely see the logo when they are sticked on - but how's THAT for attention to detail?



And that's the story of the WHEELS destined for HotWheels (2)

There are many more wheels that looks awesome on any buggy - even standard wide Beetle rims with a deep dish and hubcaps. If I could choose any rim, and money was no problem, I would probably go for the Torque Thrusts as in the pic below, to me they are the ultimate buggy wheel

[dubster]

blitz then your probaly not gonna like my buggy cos that exactly how i want my buggy...but its al up to taste...i cant wait to see what you do to your buggy...maybe get so tips for my sandshark...pine has yours got a number underneath the driver side fender?good luck with your build ive been working 6 days straight on my buggy and im tired... i polished my manifolds up to a mirror shine with a buf and sprayed some clear lacqeur on and it works..

[Tony Z]

dont forget to get a custom sticker made....

[Chris]

Very cool Pine,glad I could help.

[Pine]

maybe get so tips for my sandshark...pine has yours got a number underneath the driver side fender?

Hi Dubster

I had a look today, but couldn't find it. Can you perhaps post a pic of your number, would be interesting to see!
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This original Manx buggy is on display at the Henry Ford Museum in the US. Note the placembent of the filler cap, which is were I want mine as well.



There is a small well-known, yet not often mentioned, design error in the Manx-style buggy, which I only found with personal experience The petrol tank sits at a different angle than in a Beetle, the result is that a bubble of air gets trapped at the highest part of the tank, if the filler cap is at the left front of the car (pre-68 Beetles). Not really a problem, except for the fact that you lose about 5 liter capacity of the tank. HW1 had a '67 Beetle tank (with provision for an electronic sender unit), and the filler cap was at the standard position, as can be seen in this pic below:



The previous owner (John Watson, a nature conservasionist from Bloemfontein) brazed a small 'loop' to the original filler cap (that I had chromed a few months before the accident). By means of another loop on the filler neck, a small padlock was put through the small holes to prevent petrol theft, that apparently happened quite often at night when they camped on the beaches of Mocambique. This pic was taken of some of HW1's parts after the accident, note the extensive damage to the fuel cap:



In spite of the constant air bubble inside the tank of HW1, I also had numerous problems with the filler cap. It did not seal tightly, and if the tank was full, petrol would be splatted over the windscreen. I eventually cut thick round piece of cork and put it inside the filler cap, and it worked very well. Too well, to be honest. Sometimes when I drove, the engine would just cut out. It took me a while to realise that some air MUST enter the cap, to allow petrol to reach the carb, and only found that out when I opened the cap and a loud SCWHOOOOP suction sound would come from it. In the process the tank got damaged. It literally sucked a dent in the tank on te side, and made a small tear that leaked petrol. That was cured by some Pratley putty, and the tank never leaked again. I solved the problem with the filler at last cap by drilling a very small hole on the cap between the V and the W, through the cork - no leaks, and no engine cut-outs were ever experienced again.

Fitting a 'center' fuel cap to a buggy will mean that you'll have to relocate the filler hole on the tank, and close the existing one. I can only assume that the new hole will be cut in front of the sending unit, and there might still be a small air bubble at the highest part. IMPI has solved the problem very ingeniously on a previous buggy he built by welding a small metal pipe to the highest part of the inside of the tank, and let the pipe run all the way to the filler neck, very much the same as the breathing pipe in a Beetle. As the tank gets filled, the air in the bubble is pushed through the pipe, and out the filler neck. Of course this will only work if the filler neck is not lower than the other end of the pipe!

This is the filler cap I have at the moment, it was sent to me by a TheSamba friend from the States (I think it is from a motor boat). It has provisioning for 'breathing' already built into the cap. It looks very good, and is still brand new. I will however only use it if I can't find the Cobra 'flip-open' cap as posted earlier, and then obviously remove the little chain, as I don't want the cap to damage a new paint job when taken off