After much procrastinating I've decided to start my own project thread and show you guys what I've been up to with the rebuild of my Kestrel buggy. First, a bit of gen:
The story of how I came to own this car is (to me at least) very interesting. My friend's dad, an internationally acclaimed artist, decided to take a bit of a road trip down to Plettenberg Bay with his younger son. Unfortunately, they were involved in a terrible accident near Graaff-Reinet. They escaped largely unscathed, but the car was a total wreck. However, instead of throwing in the towel, they decided that they would buy the cheapest car they could find and continue with the trip. The car they bought was a tatty blue VW beach buggy. With the deal done and the paperwork sorted, they were on their way again, albeit at a much more leasurely pace. Although the car had been sold with a roadworthy certificate, it was anything but. Several breakdowns and close shaves later they finally arrived in Plett, with their lives considerably shortened. The car was parked up at a family home and they decided to return back to Jo'burg by plane. My friend made the trip down a few weeks later to recover the car with his sturdy Land Rover Defender.
Once the car was back in Jo'burg my friend started disassembling the buggy with the intention of building a sort-of rail car from it, and subsequently chucked away a lot of the rusty tin-ware and seats. However, a '68 Alfa Duetto Spider found its way home and the buggy was sidelined. Eventually, tired of the buggy being in the way, they offered it to me for a very low price, just to get rid of it. Sadly, I didn't have the readies at the time to even afford the bargain price and reluctantly declined. A few hours later they called me back and said if I was prepared to sort out the paperwork the car was mine. Naturally I accepted and a while later, on my birthday, the car was towed to my house. And this is what I got as a present:
I initially thought I'd do a quick fixer-upper in a 70's style, with orange metalflake paint and white steel mags, but after much head scratching and soul searching, I've decided to combine this build with my love of old skool (read period correct) hot rods. This means a solid, no frills colour, stock steel wheels, white walls and lots of period style accessories. Here's what I've got in mind:
For the colour, I've drawn inspiration from my beloved Honda Mini Trail (monkey bike) and decided to paint the car in the same Honda Phoenix yellow and VW Ivory White. The ivory white will make its way onto the windscreen, roll bar and some of the interior parts, such as the gear lever and seat frames etc.
The wheels will be standard steelies painted red, with Smart car tyres in the front and slightly widened steelies with 205's at the back, obviously with the obligatry chrome hub caps and wide band white walls.
Something like this:
So that's the plan. I'll post some progess pictures shortly, but if you've got any ideas, suggestions or helpful hints, I'd love to hear from you.
Ciao
T!M
Yeah, I am most definitely changing the Truck Lamps. That was number one on the agenda during the planning stages and I agonised for ages over what would replace them. All will be revealed, however, in due time, hehehe.
