Dave DND and my Hustler GT

[Steve]

Lucky you found an Acewell to fit the hole in your dash.  Almost looks made to measure.   

[Dave DND]

After the trophy we received from Swanage 2010 for the size of our tent, I decided that maybe we should actually go for something a little bigger. I quite fancied a trailer tent, but of course, that would involve the fitting of a towbar - so thats exactly what I did.

Looking around on the net for VW towbars, there are a few diferent styles and types, and they also appear to attatch to the car in different ways. I managed to track down one from a Karmann Ghia that had two big U-Clamps that go around the rear torsion bars, and then bolted to the rear of the car just underneath the bumper. I knew I would have to fabricate something and this seemed a good place to start. What I hadn`t envisaged though was the sheer length of the bar - I know the backend of a Buggy is shorter than a Beetle / Ghia, but that really did stick out a long way.




With the U-Bolts clamped around the rear torsion bars, I wanted to find a way of bolting the bar to the frame horns, but also wanted to make it easily removeable should I ever want to take out the engine. An angled plate was welded to the gearbox bracket and a bar welded across the towbar frame so that it could slot into place and then be bolted up. To remove the towbar, the bolts are removed and the whole thing slides back an inch before it drops.




Next up was to chop off nearly 15 inches of overhanging bar, and reduce the length to something more aesthetically pleasing.




Here we can see my good mate Bill, from Powercraft Engineering cleaning up the towball before re welding it back on to the frame.




One refitted, we jumped up and down on the bar a bit, and I was a little concerned that the bar felt like it was flexing a little under my weight. Probably would never have been an issue for towing, but I soon saw the reason for it. The distance between the new rear gearbox mount and the towball was far greater than the original distance between the original towball and rear bumper mount, and put very simply, a long unsupported bar is going to flex. There was a very easy remedy to this, and it was to weld another mounting plate between the rear cage bars. This isn`t going anywhere now !!




And here it is, cleaned up, painted, electrics fitted and the obligatory tennis ball put there to drive peoples dogs into going "nuts" when they see it.

[Dave DND]

After a quick trawl on the bay of E, I found a guy down the road in Plymouth who was selling a Combi-Camp trailer tent for £200, so I took a quick trip down there to pick it up, and it made its debut here at Hazels Bash NEWS 2011, Malvern. I was surprised how nice and easy it was to tow, and although I only have drum brakes, I had no issues whatsoever.



The top flips open giving a two berth area over the top of the trailer, a large living area in the middle, and another two berths in the front - and this can be erected in literally just a few minutes.



There is also a framework section for the side to give an even larger area, but you don`t have to fit this bit if you don`t want to. This bit can take a while, as with any frame tent.



I cannot recommend these tents highly enough - they are brilliant !!

[Dave DND]

I put quite a few miles on the Buggy in 2011, and certainly made use of our trailer tent - but it was after we travelled down to Swanage Carnival that things started to go wrong.

The journey down there was fine, as were the cruise and the carnival itself - and it was so hot that Liz and I decided to stop at one of the campsites on the way home and stay for an extra week. The car started to misbehave a little, just the odd pop and bang here and there from the engine and a quick clean of the (very sooty) plugs seemed to cure that one.

The steering was starting to get heavy, and felt "notchy" and I soon discovered that the weight of a full tank of fuel was starting to cause the front of the car to droop a little. The bottom of the tank was hitting the steering dougnut. A few swift belts with a hammer allowed me to drive around with a half tank of fuel, and I knew that I could deal with it when I got home. I didn`t have any front supports for the body, but knew it wouldn`t be too difficult to knock something up.

And so the problems of that week away just kept coming - I started to notice that as the car was now baking in the sun, that I could smell fuel - and what was worse, if I tried to remove the fuel cap, it would fly off in my hand. For some reason the tank appeared to be pressurising. A couple of tmes, I tried removing the cap slowly, just to allieviate the pressure, and in doing so could produce quite a fountain of fuel from the cap. I initially put this down to the exceptionally hot sun and a half empty tank, but it was niggling away at me, as this really wasn`t a good thing to be happenning.

I`d like to say that it ended there, but it didn`t. At the end of our holiday, we hitched up the trailer and set for home. But the Buggy decided it wanted to stay, and started to leave bits behind, namely the baffles. Usually, I would have driven home with no baffles, but there comes a point with so many things failing at once, that you just have to rely on the AA to get you home.

 

[Dave DND]

The car sat in shame in the garage over the colder months, having let me down, but during the spring of 2012 we had a few sunny days, and I decided to drag it out of the garage and start to put some things right. The exhaust baffles were now bolted in using locknuts, as anything else seemed to vibrate loose after time (pop rivets included). I set to work on the front end body support.

Because I had not been involved with many Buggies, I was unawares of the front body support that is often used between the top of the torsion bar and the bodyshell. I certainly didn`t have anything similar on mine, which is why my front end had now drooped under the weight of the tank bouncing around for the last few thousand miles. With the bonnet off, I couldn`t see an easy way to fabricate a bracket without taking the body off completely, which I really didn`t fancy, so I instead made up two supports that bolted to the bracket where my front bumper was.



Maybe not the prettiest of brackets, but they were functional - and lets face it, my car is never going to be a show winner anyway. I bolted them on and did the obligatory jumping up and down on them, and they held just fine. I put the car back together, and went to reverse out of the garage.

Now you know how it is when you get that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach that something has gone wrong - well I got it within six feet of reversing the car. I had no steering. No, I mean it, I had NO STEERING, the wheel was firmly locked in place and would not turn at all. After inspecting my handywork, I didn`t know whether to laugh or cry - but there was a definate air of "Oh Bugger".



The little arm on the bottom of the steering box was firmly wedged against my new bracket, so it was a case of out with the grinder and cut a small slot for it to travel in. It worked, and steering was now a possibility again.

Whilst everything was apart, everything was given a good going over, engine serviced - plugs, leads, rotor arm, all the usual bits changed, and I took the Buggy for a drive round the block. All seemed well, and I assumed that it now had a clean bill of health.

 

[Dave DND]

Purely by chance, in 2012, a friend of mine who breaks E-Types and Aston Martins, told me of an E-Type he had just taken in that had ridiculous wheels on it - and couldn`t fathom why anyone in their right mind would do such a thing to a classic car. Turns out they were Wolfrace slot mags on a Jaguar stud pattern.

I know my 13" front wheels are way too small, they came with the shell - but a set of Slot mags? Obviously I couldn`t resist, and I think I was salivating as beer tokens were exchanged.

The rear tyres were around 335 on a 10x15 rim and despite all my attempts to get them under the arches, it just wasn`t happening. They were sold to a guy on here who was as pleased as anything to get hold of them. The fronts were 265x50x15 on 8x15 rim and fitted on the back of the Buggy just perfectly. The tyres were sold on and replaced with some brand new 275x60x15 BFG rubber. I was quite pleased, but still had to find something to match the front.

There are various types and styles of slot mags, and differing shape holes, and whilst trawling through the internet on a friday night looking for a matching pair for the front, I was amazed how many wierd and odd sets people had - three of one type and two of another, and none of them were fetching much money due to them either being mismatched or in poor condition. With a beer in one hand I placed a few silly and cheeky cheap bids on some of them that I came across, not thinking for a minute that I would get any of them. After logging in to the computer on Monday morning, I realised that I had won a few pairs of wheels - and let this be a lesson to anyone who goes online after having a few beers - I had 32 wheels turn up - I had won the lot, every single set I had bid on !!

 

Split them up, matched them up as correct pairs and stuck them back online - luckily I made a killing on them, as I wasn`t sure who was going to kill me first, Lisa or the Parcelforce driver !!



But as a result, I achieved my goal, and ended up with a set of 7x15 Wolfrace Slots for the front and a matching pair of Cooper Cobra 235x60 tyres. Whilst not to everybodies taste, I think you will agree that they are a dramatic improvement over the tiny Wellers that were on there.

[Big Clem]

Still one of my favorite classic buggy wheels

[Dave DND]

In March 2012, we had a very rare and sunny weekend, and the local VW club were going off for a cruise down to Exmouth. Despite the chilly cold weather, we decided that even at six degrees, the impending 100 mile cruise accompanied by some VW enthusiasts would be a great way to determine if all was running well.



We made it to Exmouth seafront, absoulutely frozen, but the car did not miss a beat 

[BuggySteve]

I recognise that photo Dave! 

[Dave DND]

I recognise that photo Dave! 

You certainly should - that great T-Shirt you made from this picture is a constant reminder of a really happy day out.

 

[Dave DND]

All in all, things seemed to be going very well, the Buggy was looking good, and even starting to lose some of its "knackered" appearance. And this was a good thing, because coming up was NEWS2012, and if the last one was anything to go by, Hazels bash in Malvern was certainly up there with my favourite events.



What is it that they say about the calm before the storm?

 

[Manxrod]

Made me laugh when I read about your E-Bay wheels but what a result they look great on the buggy makes a huge difference buggy really looking cool

[Dave DND]

Thanks -

Yep, those wheels were certainly a talking point amongst a few people 

 

[Steve]

really enjoying this thread Dave 

you havent updated the garage one for a while, unless I have missed it 

[Dave DND]

Cheers Steve, nice to know someones enjoying it 


We headed off for NEWS 2012, and whist it felt like the end of the world as far as the weather went, the Buggy lapped up the miles throughout the torrential rain. During the cruise through Malvern, I lost all engine power, albeit breifly, and then it burst back into life with a thunderous BANG! and it was fine. A few miles down the road, it did it again - it was though someone had switched off the ignition switch, blew a raspberry and then turned it back on again. The weather was so atrocious at this stage, I dismissed this as nothing more than some water in the electrics.



But it was the drive home that was a killer. With around 100 miles left to go, I was on the motorway hard shoulder. The car would start, and as soon as I got up to about 50mph to join the main carriageway the engine died again. It would start almost immediately on the button, but as soon as I got up to speed it died again. This happened for the next 70 miles or so, and I soon worked out that the slower I went, the longer I could travel between breakdowns - almost managing 5 miles at a time !! But each time I stopped, my achieveable top speed was slower than before. By the time I hit Torbay (not known for being flat!) I was trying to go up hills, towing a trailer on nothing more than tickover. The minute I increased the revs, the engine cut out. But I did manage to make it home under my own steam.

Sadly, the Buggy had died.