Dune Buggy
Well it all started when i got my first volkswagen when i was about 12. It belonged to my grandpa before he passed away. When I turned 16, my dad and I had the whole drivetrain rebuilt and then we painted it. It was and still is the prettiest orange color you will ever see. I drove that thing everywhere. I started to read "Hot VWs and Dune Buggies" magazine and I began to pay attention to the dune/rail buggies in there. I really wanted a dune buggy, but I didn't have the resources or the willingness to complete the project and I didn't think any more of the idea for a few years. So about three weeks ago Michael was on spring break and came down to the apartment in Athens to spend the night. We were surfing the web and came across a few pics of some dune bugs. We talked about how sweet it would be to have one and the more I thought and talked about it the more I wanted one. We decided that we should build one. So now I have the resources, time and money to complete the project. So this is the dune buggy page. I will post pictures during the project as we move along. This is going to be squeaky bad ass.
 04/28/03 - Dune Buggy Frame Ordered. This is a stock picture of the Berrien Warrior frame which we will be using for our project. It has a 95 inch wheel base. It will utilize a volkswagen beetle drive train and suspension. We are still in search for a donor car for our project. I ordered the knock down kit of this frame, which means it comes completely disassembled and must be welded together. I will post more pics as soon as the frame arrives. |
 05/01/03 - Dune Buggy Frame Arrives. Well here it is. This is our dune buggy. The pile of steel tubing there in front of us. It sure didn't take it long to get here. Ordered it on Monday and it was at the Overnite truck terminal on Wednesday. Me and my dad had to go down to Pendergrass in the GMC to pick 'er up. We are very proud of it. We actually made two complete welds on it this weekend. I used Jeremy's wire feed flux core welder a little this weekend and decided it would be well worth investing in my own wire feed welder. Now we just have to finish putting it together and find a parts car. I bid on a parts car on ebay just a little while ago. It is located in Athens. If I win the auction I'll put a picture of the parts car up |
 Box-O-Dune Buggy. |
 These are the large pieces of the frame that came tacked. |
 05/06/036 - Parts Car Picked up. Well as you can see I won the ebay auction for the parts car. It is a '66 Regular Beetle. I know it looks like a P.O.S. but it is a solid parts car and it was cheap. It has a balljoint front axle and a swing axle transmission in it. Me and Jimmy went this morning over to Athens to pick it up with the 'stroke and the 25ft equipment trailer. The ride down there was pretty uneventful. We got down there and the guys helped us push it up on the trailer. We weren't real sure how to strap 'er down cause we don't do much volkswagen haulin, but we got it. The guy told me he had the engine that went with it too. I wasn't planning on buying it, but when I saw it I couldn't pass it up for that price. So we threw it up on the trailer and tied it down with the bug. On the ride back we had to go through a dang tornado. It was raining so hard we couldn't see the road, but we made it all the way home. We got it to the house and rolled it up in front of the shop without hitting anything (it has no brakes) and I inspected it good. We put the engine in the loader bucket on the tractor to take it around to the shed. Michael came over after school to see it and he approved of it also. We are really excited about it. We have a lot of parts now to keep us busy for a while. |
 Here is the balljoint front axle that we will be using from the parts car. The '66 was the first model to utilize a balljoint front end as opposed to king pin/link pin. This will make for a smoother ride on the street as we will not be doing any serious off-roading in the dune buggy. This part will bolt straight to our dune buggy frame without any modification |
 This is the rear suspension of the car that we will be using. It is a swing axle. All bugs up to '67 had a swing axle rear as opposed to IRS. This part is not a perfect bolt up. We will have to cut the rear portion of the frame out of the bug so that we can weld it on the dune buggy frame and the rear roll bar of the buggy must be lengthened to be able to use it with the swing axle suspension, but that is no big deal. |
 Here is the tranny. It is a 4-speed as were all volkswagen Beetle transmissions. It seems to be in full working order, but they arent' hard to rebuild if need be. |
 Hey, it may look like a P.O.S., but it has a sunroof. |
 Here is the engine that i bought with the bug. It does run and appears to be in pretty dang good shape. It has a good fan shroud, distributor, fuel pump, generator and many other good parts on it. It is a 1600cc dual port. This is not the engine that came out of the '66 origionally, but that is not important. I have plans to build it and make a real hauler |
 Here is the back side of the engine. |
 05/09/03 - Today I began to take the bug apart. There are several parts that we will be using off of this parts car. I began by taking the front axle off. I had to remove the gas tank in order to access the tie rods and the clamps that hold the front axle to the car. I removed the tie rods and the clamps and slid the axle out. It is one heavy axle. |
 And here is the front axle after I removed it from the car. |
 I also removed the speedometer from the parts car. I am thinking about using it in the dune bug as well because new ones are dang expensive. |
 05/10/03 - Well after running several errands for my mom and sleeping late me and michael didn't get started til about 1. We started by taking the transmission out. The engine was already out so all we had to do was unbolt it and drop it out along with the rear axles. Karen came over shortly after that. She scraped all the gunk off the transmisson with a screwdriver. |
 Jimmy came to see us a little later and michael decided he needed to take a break and go for a ride in the loader bucket on the newholland. |
 The next part to remove was the torsion. It consists of all the rear suspension and the transmisson mounts. It is part of the frame and must be cut out. As you can see I am rather exited to be cuttin this bug up in little pieces. |
 This was actually ver hard to do. It had to be cut on the top and the bottom and then we had a lot of trouble getting it to come out, but we finally got it. |
 And here is the torsion after we finally got it out of the bug. |
 And here is the parts car minus all the parts. Hopefully we will soon find a permanent resting place for our donor car. |
Heritage Not Hate