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Dune(ish) Buggy

plym49.2

plym49.2

Sasquatch49.2
Joined
May 20, 2020
Member Number
550
Messages
405
This thread will be about my brown 1962 VolkswagEn dune buggy as debuted in GCC. I caught a lot of crap over there for calling it a dune buggy. Well, too bad, this thing identifies as a dune buggy and if you do not respect that it is a felony hate crime, so there.

I don't think I've ever visited this dark corner of Irate. Sceep suggested I do this. He is right like .011% of the time, so I am doing it, even though he never sold me his Willys wagon.

This thang came from a farm in south central Texas where the owner has had it forever and never got around to finishing it. He bought it just as it sits. It's full of farmer metal and farmer welds and farmer cleverness, and IDGAF. In fact, I find it endearing.

I've always wanted a dune buggy since I was a kid and the Meyers Manx came out. Circumstance never accomodated and many, many years later this one was too inexpensive to pass up.

My plan is to get it going and street legal. It will be a FADD and I'll also use it to shuttle around the property at the range. It will get kitted with gun racks/rifle scabbards/whatever, spot lights, ammo cans, and whatnot. I'll be able to use a lot of odds and ends I've accumulated.

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Yep, the roll bar is fugly but that will be easy to fix.

Getting it home was an adventure; read all about it in GCC.

First order of business will be to get it on at least 2 good-ish tahrs. The front wheels are 15" with the 4-bolt VW pattern. The rears are 14" with some uptown wheel adapter to a 5-lug small bolt circle pattern. Smaller than Chevy (4 3/4"?). Maybe MoPar? Not sure.

Plan is to remove the wheel adapters and dismount the front rims and tires. Use the 15" wheels on the rear. For shoes I'll use two of the 245x45 R15 tires I saved from my trusty Lumina minivan. I purchased these tires in the 90s. So far I have had them on a Jag XJ-S 5.3 HE, a Jag XJ6 Series 3 VDP, and the minivan. I removed them from the minivan about a year ago. They're still good and two of them will go on the back of this beast.

Then, I'll strap it onto my tow dolly and bring it to the range where I have access to a garage and shop and storage on the lower property.

My plan so far is to slowly just deal with it as it sits. Free things up, lubricate and adjust, address some rust in the floor pan: like that. In the meantime I'll keep my eyes peeled for a motor. Gonna be a flat four air-cooled VW. I don't care the displacement or single or dual port or if it leaks or burns oil. If the lower end is sound that's all I need.
 
Pulled the front wheels. Tomorrow I'll take them to the local Flat Fix to dismount what's on them and mount my 285s. Then they will go on the rear.

Pulled the rear wheel adapters. They use three of the four VW lug bolts and an uptown offset stud for the fourth.

Question: can trailer tires be used on a steer axle? If so, what is the nun & orphan index?
 
Front end on this thing is solid. No play anywhere. Needs a new rag joint.

Has a single master - when did VW go to dual circuits?

Can this number on the transaxle help ID its year?

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The belly pans that used a ball joint front beam (66 and newer) would of had a dual circuit master cylinder from the factory. Dual circuit master cylinder were in use by about 60 "I think". 1968 Should of been about the last year for the swing axle in the bug.
 
Ball joints? Swing axle? What is that abortion? I think the was a 1 year only combo, like 68? Dual circuit MC's were super beetle stuff.
 
I would think you have a Type3 chassis. Square Back, Fast Back etc.
 
I think 67 was the only year of the ball joint front and swing axle rear. For a beetle.

I agree it looks like a type 3 pan. The funky welded seam non tubular front beam is the giveaway.
 
SKULLYOTA said:
I think 67 was the only year of the ball joint front and swing axle rear. For a beetle.

I agree it looks like a type 3 pan. The funky welded seam non tubular front beam is the giveaway.
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You guys are good.
 
Got some prep work done today. Got my old minivan tires mounted on the 15" that were on the front and put them on the rear. These are 4 bolt wheels - not sure if VW or something else - and they took different size valve stems. Weird.

Moved the adapters to the front and bolted on the 14" VW rims that had been on the back.

The front beam is definitely assembled from stampings. Also, I think that is a dual master - just dunna look like a proper US design.

Ordered a new rag joint for the steering. This need is gonna need some work on that chassis with reinforcements and triangulation and modification of the egghead roll cage.

Got it all strapped down on my tow dolly. Ready for me to take it out to the range where it's better to work on it.

At this point I may not be doing much on it in the short term. Will mostly be scrounging parts.

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THen strapped the whole shit onto my tow dolly, using the old front tires as cushions under the front rims.

Now I am all set to tow this thing to the range. I'll likely keep it on the tow dolly for now.

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Replaced the rag joint today. Ten bucks from Amazon. Replaced the 4 bolts with SAE fine thread replacements.

Crawled underneath to see if I could find the VIN. Tons of surface rust. I only had a rag and some brake clean - wet the area by the shift linkage access and scrub a dubbed. Could not really read anything - next will hit the area with a wire wheel. Here's a pic - assuming this is the right spot, does it seem like there is something stamped there??

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And I am planning to make a lot of changes to the cage. Will add reinforcement under the pan, flat top the roll cage, and triangulate.
 
The vin should be under neath where the back seat would be, on top of the pan.
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SKULLYOTA said:
The vin should be under neath where the back seat would be, on top of the pan.
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I had first taken a look up top but saw nothing but where the original owner used a cutting torch to create channels for the cables for the cutting brakes. Then figured it would be underneath. Oh, well. Gonna have to take a closer look up top.
 
mobil1syn said:
stick a motor in it and peel out. it survived all these years as it was built, leave it that way
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I will def get it running as is. But I will need to do something about that top hoop. Maybe I'll just cut and flip the top bar. Will also add a triangle or two here and there.

In the interim, I found the VIN.

What would you eagle eyes make this out to be?

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