Shawn's 68 buggy

[68buggy]

I started on my buggy in January of 2009 had it but together and street legal by July. My wife was pregnat at the time so I had alot of free nights to work on it while she was in bed early. So alot has gone on since last year as you all know these cars are never truly done some can be considered done but not many

So after driving on the street and doing some off roading even with its street tires and super low I decided I wanted to go to the dual sport side and raise it and have more off road fun.

Since then I have had lots of fun and I have got back in the garage to make more upgrades and changes I will post some pics of my 1st build and then I will start making new post of the current upgrades.

So it looks like my body is a B&N Terantula
http://www.dunebuggyarchives.com/forum/ ... l?tid=1458

here are my original build pics

The body looks to be a Terantula


I decided to take my baja bug and make it a glass buggy. I do not have any pics of the baja on this PC.

So I bought a buggy that had a chasis that was rusted and simply junk and stripped the body from it.



here is the chasis not a close up but you may be able to see it


So I stripped my baja


cut it up.



Bought a IRS rear section aligned and welded it on


Reinforced the pan with 1.5 squar tubeing all the way around tied it in to rear torsin and front frame head this thing is solid as a rock.


painted it


Fabed up some seat frames and did the brake shortend lines installed trans and engine new brakes all the way around disc in the front new rear wheel bearings and a whole lot more

but it all together


sent it to Texas buggys to build a cage since I am not able to do that


well after all that I painted the roll bar got some seat belts mirros and buch of other small stuff here are some of the pics when it was close to being street legal.

I always liked these pics



This was the almost finished lower version of my build.







So as much as I liked the lowered street version I had sooooo much more fun off road


So I raised it

Here are those pics they are current but I did not wash it so its dirty

[68buggy]

I cant access photo bucket from the work PC to add new pics so I will need to do that from home. So I have been copying pics from my build thread on the samba.

As I said I have been making new upgrades recently I did the dash with a set of VDO cockpit series they work great. I need to get out and calibrate the speedo but I need seat belts 1st

I pulled the body off and I cleaned the old glue off the inside were carpet used to be preped and painted it inside all black to make it easier on the eyes tell I get the paint and body done


after i painted it
[/quote]

Then I did the dash work


put my new beard suspension seats in man makes a world of differance

[68buggy]

So I relized aftre putting the seats in my new set up made for new problems for one I used to have the battery behind the passanger seat pushing the seat up some. Well on the few times I was in the passanger seat I did not like the lack of leg room so my new seats are both all the way back.

I needed a new place for the battery I also could no longer use the same method of seat belt anchoring so the seats had to come back out to weld in new seat belt anchors.

I thought this would be a good time to but in low profile beard seat ajusters. So I pulled the seats so I can weld in new belt anchors and put the ajusters in.

Also I ordered a metal battery box so I can weld it to the rear torrsion tube and make a new battery trey to go under my body when the body gets done this winter.

I also did some cool electrical work making conectors for my dash harness and my column harness os I can tear the bugyy down with out un wiring anything

[68buggy]

I will put some more pics up as I go with the seat belt anchors and the new seat tracks. Also will get some pics of the battery trey once its in. These parts should be in today so this week I will put it together.

Once that is done I will drive the car over the summer and tear it down in the winter to get the body completely done.

The only other thing I plan to do this summer is get a sombreo made at a local upholstry shop the sun will beat you to death in south Texas got to have a bikini top

[Mook]

what did you end up using for the gauge bezel? is it sheet steel? and what did you use for cutting it?
the guages turned out nice.
good to see you finally got some bigger tires, it was looking goofy with the little tires and the lift spindles

[68buggy]

I went to home depot and bought a piece of sheet metal that was like 4 foot by 2 foot I used tin snips to cut the outside and to cut the guage holes I used a body saw worked real good.

A hole saw just messed up the metal I used some extra meal to test the hole saw it was bad the body saw cut real clean and acurate.

[BrianB]

Good looking buggy Shawn. Keep the updates and pictures coming. You should bring it out to the Round up in September.

[blackthree4me]

get a sombreo made at a local upholstry shop the sun will beat you to death in south Texas got to have a bikini top

yah but its a dry heat

Nice job on the pan all that extra work will pay of in the dirt.
couldent tell from the picks if you welded up the heater cabel slots next to the E brake if not Do it this summer. Ive seen them crack undr hard use in the off road.

[68buggy]

Brian I was just looking into the round up ( have to check work scheduel and look to see if there is a sitter avalible for the 2 kids 5 and 1 over the weeked) but the wife would love to get away just me and her on a trip to th show so maybe, we will see, I hope so.

Thanks for the tip on the heater channels will do tonight

[Bryan Porter]

Come over to KAR parts this sat. and shoot the bull ChrisK and I will be there for sure.

[68buggy]

grrr I work 8-5 this Sat.

What time is it goin on?

[BrianB]

grrr I work 8-5 this Sat.

What time is it goin on?

8-5

[Bryan Porter]

We don't use four letter words like (work) on this forum.

[68buggy]

Well after over a year of mainly off road fun I have decided to go street and stay that way. With that said there has to be some changes got to look sharp and neds alot more HP since VW HP seems to be fairly exspensive these days and I am the shop forman at subaru I have decided to put a 2.2 in the buggy and paint it.

I am still hunting for the propper donar car to buy have not found one yet so while I hunt for that I started on the body.

Going with a cobalt dark blue heavy metal flake with white racing stripes (thinking about doing the cage and the windshield frame white not sure yet)

Relocated my gas fill and lowered the car back down and lowered the seats all the way down.

Filled the old gas tank hole and filled the rear tire and battery well.


Body off for prep


Lowered the chasis put the drop spindles back on


making progress on body


I started working on relocating the gas tank filler also lowered my seats

Decided to go with JB weld on the tank instead of welding I read some peaple had done this. I checked it after it sat for a day it is hard as a rock so hope it works since this is a low stress area I think it will be fine.



[/quote]

So I will put some more pics up when I make some more progress

[Vee Dub Nut]

I'm digging your chassis and roll cage set-up. Everything is looking good!

I've seen your posts over on the samba, but didn't realize your "local"

[Texasbuggys]

Shawn, looking great man. That body is perfect for the low look with the wide rear tires. Your doing a great job on the re-construction! Keep up the pics!

[68buggy]

Hey thanks alot

I have been messing around with flake paint latly I tried subaru blue with cobalt flake looked real good but the flake blended in to much stripped it down and went with a dark blue base and the same flake looks lot better the flake pops out now even in the garage.

subaru blue






midnight blue






I will put more up after I do the body and polish it up