Hot Wheels 2 - Pine's new Buggy build thread

[Pine]

Pine is that what you were holding when I shouted at you I take back my words, that will look good on the Buggy

Nope, I was actually buying you a gift for the Fasty...

[Ron&Gill]

That looks good, Ron! Does it have LED's to illuminate the license plate?

I have found a Karmann Ghia license plate cover/housing (?) at Ferdie's yesterday, will see if it works on the buggy

No, it has some glass tube bulb thingy. Don't know what I would do if it ever doesn't work, but then I guess it will be years, more like decades, before I find out... I very rarely drive the buggy at night and when I do, I'm face the other way from the number plate light. I will wait until I get notification from the traffic police.

The Ghia thing will look nice, but I think you must have it chromed. I am a big fan of chrome on a buggy and putting lots of VW items on. Old school, I guess they call it...

[ChrisG]

I can't believe I haven't read through this thread yet, better then most novels and cheaper! A truly inspiring build and I can see a lot of effort has gone into every last detail. Good luck finishing it off pine!

[Pine]

The Ghia thing will look nice, but I think you must have it chromed. I am a big fan of chrome on a buggy and putting lots of VW items on. Old school, I guess they call it...

Yes, that is the plan but EISH - zee chroming in Zouf Effrika eeees veeeeery veeeeery expensive

I like this look

Good luck finishing it off pine!

Thanks, Chris

[Ron&Gill]

You're already chroming the rear light cluster bases, so adding that piece won't make that much of a difference, will it? I know it is very expensive. Jurgen told me the price for the bumpers on the Notch... Eish...

[Pine]

I have started removing the paint of the Ghia housing with a wire brush on a drill, but it is a bit harsh and leaves scratch marks... I wet-sanded a small bit out with 1000 grid paper and then polished it, the shine is quite amazing, but it is a helluva lot of elbow grease. Dunno what it is made of though? Aluminium, or some kind of pewter?

[Pine]

The yellow NAM buggy I bought last year did not really donate a lot of parts to the HW2 project, the chassis was so rotten it was cut up and thrown away, and the bodyshell and other usable parts were put in storage.

However, this afternoon I removed the little pipe from the bottom of the yellow buggy's fuel tank to see if it is still usable, and found this :



Like a marine archaelogist, I carefully wirebrushed the part that fits in the tank, I eventually saw what it is - some previous genius brazed two u-shaped wires on the pipe's end - probably to prevent 'large' pieces of junk from blocking the tank!



Dont fear, my dear friends - HW2 will get the proper strainer inside its tank

[Dutch_Diver]

What's wrong with that? I'm sure the engine can handle the little bits this doesn't stop

[Pine]

What's wrong with that? I'm sure the engine can handle the little bits this doesn't stop

Uhm... well HW2 is supposed to get a Boxer in the rear -

NOT to be confused with an Osterizer

[Les]

Great stuff Pine! Jou projek lyk baie goed!

Les

[Pine]

The Ghia license plate cover is taking a lot of time to get clean - I first used the wire brush on the electric drill, but that was a bit too harsh and I had to sand out all the scratches, starting with 600 grid, then going to 800 grid and then 1000 grid sand paper.... almost done, but there are still a few pit marks at the bottom that needs to go

[Klaus]

LOOKING GOOD

[Pine]

Dunno how many have noticed it, but almost every single detailed aspect of this project has changed somehow from the original idea over the length of this build, and the end is not even in sight!

Take, for example the center-mounted filler cap, which is from a Triumph Spitfire - it was destined to be on the bonnet of HW2, but now it won't go there anymore...



....because I found THIS one today



Dunno what car it is from (Mini Cooper, Cobra?), as the bottom says 'England' - but I LOVE it! It is not perfect though, and will most probably need a full rechrome (Can you say $$$?)

As for the rest of the build, slowly but surely things are getting into place, but the Buggy is still a long way from being finished. One of the biggest obstacles in my way was the fact that the steering shaft mount in the body is not straight over the axle of the steering box. The Lolette bodyshells are moulded with a very specific place where the steering tube passes through the 'firewall', and there is not a lot of space on the dash to move the steering column mount around. This has the result that the steering shaft runs at an angle in the length of the car from the steering wheel to the steering box. In other words, the steering column will not be parrallel with the transmission tunnel, and an imaginary 'North-South' line drawn from the front to the rear of the buggy. I am not very happy with this idea, as it will also mean that the steering wheel will not be parrallel to an imaginary (West-East) line drawn from the left to the right of the car, when placed in the centre of the driver's seat. An angled mount will also put strain on the coupler between the steering box and the steering shaft. My idea was to use two steering knuckles, like this setup in a 1303 - the top one brings the angle down, and to the left and the bottom one justifies the angle to the right.



After going through my parts stash a while ago, I found the top steering knuckle and shaft (which I forgot I had ), and found the bottom one on a 7-series BMW at the scrapyard this morning. This is the 'dry' setup, looks like its gonna work!

A safety advantage of the setup is that in a head-one collision (which I really, really hope an pray never happens!) the steering shaft will hopefully break 'away' to the side, instead of making a Pine skewer





I had the two front widened steel wheels sand blasted, to see if they can be saved. The rust damage didn't look too bad, and they were given in at wheel repair shop to have the wheel nut holes welded smaller (previous guy probably drove with his nuts loose - no pun intended - and the holes were damaged), and the slight buckle in one removed. One of the rims has this pressing, which I have never seen before?



It says 'Ruberowen Metal Press - Made in South Africa'



I had to give the wheels in with the Golf pcd adapters, as the balancing machine at the Wheel Shop can't fit the wide-5 Beetle pattern! Let's just keep our fingers crossed they come back they way I want them...

But summer is in the air, the sun comes up early in the mornings and goes down later, so hopefully this project will pick up speed soon - stay tuned!

[Blitzkrieg]

Pine what happened, are you no longer rocking the Sprintstars?

[Pine]

This is a Manx Monocoque, one of the first 12 fibreglass buggies ever built by Bruce Meyers - the more I look at it, the more I like the 'less is more' principle, although the BIG Beetle steering wheel is not quite my cuppa. HW2 will thus be completed initially with wide white steelies and hubcaps, and might get the Sprintstars again a bit later



(or 356 smoothies )

...but my ULTIMATE buggy wheel is the American Racing Torque Thrust II