BIRTH OF A BUGGY CONTINUED

[Paul1953]

Getting there. The clutch operating lever not yet removed as this is much easier bolted on the horns. getting the lever off the arm can be a real pain especially if someone has tried in the past and hammer the spline ends. make it easy and have a 3 leg puller, (small one), and a bit of patience because this is a job where three hands would make things a cinch. Centre the puller as squarely as possible on the shaft. Legs will be askew because of the shape of lever etc. One puller is half secure wind in slowly and the shaft will pull off. Have photo`s of the seals, washers and stuff showing where each piece should go. Some were missing on mine

[Paul1953]

All back together.

[Paul1953]

Here is the pan back together. A real milestone which will have you smiling and forgetting the trials and tribulations to get here. This is now where I made a major mistake which still chews me up. Having sprayed many cars in the past I should have known better. Again back to to 70`s when you could get proper Enamel Coach paint that could be painted directly onto cellulose paint without an issue. The red primer was put on to prevent rusting as this was early in the year and very damp. Talked myself out of using 2 pack epoxy as this needs to be used up in one go at an ideal temperature of 20oC and not then falling below 15oC for the first 24 hours. Opted to use the modern equivalent of coach paint.. "Synthetic Enamel". This uses chlorinated thinners and it still didn`t click. This type of thinner is very aggressive. Strangely this paint didn`t react with the cellulose and went on easily with a brilliant glossy finish and became very tough. However I found soon afterwards that it does not bond at all with cellulose based paints. It just forms a tough skin. Had I read the instructions on the web site I would have seen the warnings. Correct primer required. No exception. Then another surprise.  You cannot overspray synthetic enamel with cellulose or acrylic. Reacts madly instantly. Odd that it didn`t the other way round. So if you want a tough covering go 2 pack epoxy. (Note well not to be confused with 2K paints. This stuff needs a vented workspace and an clean air fed mask at the very least. Gives off cyanide so that should be a heads up).

[Paul1953]

Final alignment checks using laser level.

[Paul1953]

 Cooling shroud undergoing refinish

[Paul1953]

Think there may be a clue to the body colour here 

[Doon L001]

Great choice

[chrisbarker]

Think there may be a clue to the body colour here 

dustbin lid blue by any chance

[Dave DND]

The gap in the fence clearly shows GREEN   

[Hugh]

The gap in the fence clearly shows GREEN   

Dave that's why we have fences - to keep the undesirables out !

[Paul1953]

Another one on the bins. Didn`t realise that I depended on them so much. Beam refurbished. Still empty of torsion bar strips. Looks like I`m missing a shocker bolt as well.

[Paul1953]

Fully painted chassis. Bit on the glossy side maybe. This toned down well when the Dinitrol was applied and over-painted. I am not a fan of the old style rubbery underseal or Schultz. Dinitrol goes on a treat with air feed. Takes a while to cure but has a good strong adherence and is a tough resin. The swing plates still needed to come off here. Bought adjustable plates as a replacement but the doughnuts are of differing inner diameter and as far as I can determine only urethane versions available in the UK. Have had a trial fit with the urethane and adjustable plates and I think this was maybe the best part of £200 spent unnecessarily. My first dealings with urethane bushes and am not impressed. The ones I have are far too soft in my opinion and can be squashed easily in the hand. This, and maybe my ignorance in fitting, resulted in an issue that I will come back to and ask advice from you guys. I may be wrong here but I wonder now why I didn`t just plan on refitting original plates. Another bit of hard earned advice here, and again just my experience and opinion. Repeating myself but... Get your donor chassis and get the body before any cutting. I didn`t so spent a long time cutting, chopping and painting only to find I needed additional welding, which meant removing nice shiny paint. Hot grinding sparks all over the place which love to bond into painted surfaces. I wanted to get along as far as possible before ordering the body due to space issues,. In reality just caused myself more work in the long run. Won`t harp on about this again as the best of plans fall by the wayside when building from scratch I guess. Just don`t get wound up. At each setback take a break have a cuppa sleep on it you get there. Bit at a time is the way forward. ;-)

[Manxdavid]

While you've still got the paint out you may want to cut those jacking points off. They're useless on a buggy as you'll just lift the front up when you try to use them, plus they're ugly and they'll get in the way if you decide on side spats/pods. Jus' sayin'...

How did you end up with a late style front trans mount on a K&L pan?

[davydoff]

While you've still got the paint out you may want to cut those jacking points off. They're useless on a buggy as you'll just lift the front up when you try to use them, plus they're ugly and they'll get in the way if you decide on side spats/pods. Jus' sayin'...

^^^^^THIS

just ask me how i know

[Paul1953]

While you've still got the paint out you may want to cut those jacking points off. They're useless on a buggy as you'll just lift the front up when you try to use them, plus they're ugly and they'll get in the way if you decide on side spats/pods. Jus' sayin'...

How did you end up with a late style front trans mount on a K&L pan?

Hi Dave... Yep they are coming off. They came with the pans and I thought might as well have them on. Then realised pods may go on, probably mean will and pods have brackets with them  to secure  in the pan hollow section, and I will need bracing for seat belts and the roll bar. (Have a problem also in that I have 6 year old grandson who is desperate to get this on the road. I cannot get a definitive answer to the legality of a child of his age\size wearing a harness. Am told this will all most certainly have to be 3 point retractable with reels that operate at any angle, Angles and heights critical. Angle of across shoulder diagonal. Lap belt must cross leg bone not hip joint area and each mounting must meet the 3 tonne criteria). Long way to go with this as we are talking road legality with a child on board and not just iva. Floorpan... A mystery. Donor imported from South Africa 1995. Registered correctly with DVLA etc and has a legitimate V5C.  However as the original was built at the Utenhage plant I cannot get any details from them or from VW museum at Wolfsburg. Chassis is swing\king\link pin so post 66? Shell id plate gives VIN number relating to 1975. I know that South African builds used anything available and often do not match normal expectation but this is unusual in the extreme unless it is a mix of more than 1 vehicle. Floorpans came from justkampers as supposedly correct for 1965 however when they arrived it looks like they were meant for left hand drive. cost a whopping £500 Transmission mount Your guess as good as mine. I can see no evidence of non original external welding or internal welds that are not original. It has another oddity also but need to be sure this will not drop me in it so to speak