I was enamored with buggies while in high school, I never
had a chance to build one though. Of course, I had the obligatory Cox
.049 powered dune buggy (gold flake) that my father and I converted to
radio control (he was into R/C airplanes.)
Even though I had a couple of bugs over the years, I
never had the chance to build a buggy...I, with my father's help, did get to restore a '66 Vette
though. Then in 1996, almost a year after losing a kidney to cancer and
needing a project, my wife made the "mistake" of telling
a co-worker about my 4 wheel addiction. This co-worker's husband just happened to have a non-running bug in their driveway that
she wanted gone! Well, some things you don't need to tell me twice!!! A
buddy of mine and I went down with his trailer to pick up the sad bug,
floor pans pretty much gone, 4 flat tires and missing numerous engine
parts (seems a neighbor was enjoying the "free parts store."
After getting the chassis back, I started on the
suspension parts, engine, etc. All the while looking for a body.
I happened on an ad
for an early Manx body. I talked Susan into going to look at it. Man was
it rough. It looked like the guy who owned it had a love affair with a
sabre saw and drill! But it was an early Manx body.
Knowing what I
know now, I'd have looked harder for a new body. Many hours of
sanding, grinding and 'glassing later, I had a pretty good body. Off it
went to Autowerks where Zig shot it Honda green.
The Specs
1776, dual Kads, 009, high-lift long duration cam, 4
into 1 exhaust with quiet pack muffler (stinger for special occasions)
from aircooledparts.com
Graffeo "worked" Type 1 trans 4.12 final drive
Cragar S/S 15x6 front, 15x8 rear. Radial T/A rubber
205x60 front, 275x60 rear
Fiero seats covered in leather with Manx Logo,
Formuling France steering wheel, EMPI trigger shifter, VDO gauges, stock
4-wheel disc brakes from
Hawkeye buggies
Of course, the buggy has and still is getting mods. She
now ports a 1776 built by David O at
aircooledparts.com and
someday I hope to put a Hawkeye chassis under it. Enjoy the pics and
remember, it'll be finished...someday.
As soon as I got it to the house, the dismantling began.
And the old adage is true, burgers, beer and 4 good friends can get the
body off the chassis...we were rockin' now. I did quite a bit...no, one heck of a lot of clean up on the chassis, removing what was left
of the floor pans and grinding away rust. At least the inside of the
tunnel was still good. I then had Ed Brown at Classic Coach update in
Dallas shorten the chassis. (Ed restores 60's muscle cars when he's not
maintaining light aircraft for his customers.)
From the projects
beginning I had been collecting an array of gauges, VDO oil pressure, fuel
and volts as well as a rebuilt VW speedo from BFY. I drilled the blank dash
using my dad’s Shop Smith drill press and used a combination of the wiring
diagram in the Manx archives as well as my own concoction. I used 14 gauge 3
wire outdoor extension cord for the running lights and 14 or 16 gauge for
just about everything else. Darn if it didn’t actually work once I got power
to it. I did have the turn signals backward but hey, the other guy should
know where I’m going right? Yes, I fixed it. Now I wanted to use Fiero seats
and after a long wait a pair finally showed up in the want ads. They had
been recently recovered with marine vinyl as part of a restoration.
Unfortunately the guy’s daughter totaled the restored Fiero, no one got
hurt, but about all that survived from the car were the seats.
Now, for many reasons, the story so far has taken most of
5 years. It finally came together when my wife said, "it runs or it goes."
So, out to the garage I went, poured about a 1/4 cup of gas in the carb and
fired it up. To my shock, the stock engine, which hadn't run in about 12
years fired up. Black smoke so thick you needed radar and some scuba gear,
but the thing was running....a reprieve! In May, 2002 the green Manx was
selected by Bruce Meyers as Manx Club buggy of the month, what an honor!
