ok guys not sure you are all going to like this as it doesn't contain any beetle bits 
I have always liked the idea of a beach buggy, time and circumstance has finally come round that allows me to build something
a short list of things I think I would like
swb
rear wheel drive and probably front engine
a vee engine of reasonable capacity,( I have always subscribed to the eight is great theory )
wants to sit on a modern chassis that can all mod cons like power steering, abs brakes, traction control etc
wants to bear some semblance to a beach buggy but upto date looks and dashboard etc

quiet an ask really but always up for a challenge, so heres the body I have decided on, street hoppa,






so I had a chat with the guys at hoppa and a deal was struck, next time I was passing Devon I called in and picked a nice new shiny body in white




a couple of pics of the way the guys at hoppa produced the moulds for the body

next was what to sit it on, was trying to avoid having an iva so what ever I used needed to stay mainly unmodified
Suzuki vitara was what I had in mind, wheelbase is 2200mm whilst the buggy was intended for a 16" shorter than usual beetle floorpan which is 2000mm I think
so theres my first hurdle

vitaras can be 2 or 4 wheel drive, the 2 wheel drives just have the front axle and driveshafts missing like the picture above
however the engine still sits up high to give axle clearance, now I wanted a fairly low bonnet line so the engine needs to come back and down a bit like this

clearly that's a rover but I  was planning on keeping it all Suzuki and using a 2.7v6 out of the vitara xl7, nearly 200bhp and all alloy,
intending to use the whole wiring loom as well to keep it simple
but before we get that far we have some body issues to take care of, not only does the body need stretching 200mm it needs widening up a tadge to as a vitara is quite a wide animal,
so before I got the trusty angle grinder out I made up a whole bunch of moulds of the existing shell so I could make up patch panels to aid the stretch

now stretching the length was the easy one the width is a lot more involved
I staggered the cut to help with the realignment, the result was pretty good you cant tell where it was cut,
looks a little longer which oddly make it look faster even when its sat on the bench lol

This is looking very good. Like the idea of the hopper with a modern chassis

hi

so the length was easy to alter to match the vitara chassis, however the width needed a bit to,
first to  get the body to sit better over the tyres as they were protruding a bit to far for my liking










secondly it needed widening as when I dropped the seats in they touched in the middle leaving no room for a propshaft to make its way to the back axle

and thirdly I needed the body to span across the front suspension towers so it would sit lower 











splitting and widening the body throws up the windscreen, how do you widen a fiat 126 screen by 5" lol

with out stating the obvious as it was rear engine and aircooled as designed it dident need a front grill, but I do

Looks like a Chrysler grand voyager grill

Quote from: Shaggy on June 04, 2017, 06:18:10 PM
Looks like a Chrysler grand voyager grill

close, its Chrysler PT Cruiser,    grill curvature is the same as the hoppa front end, which means the bonnet is also and following that on the windscreen too !!!

That will look awesome when it's done 😀👍

Anything that requires the destruction of a PT Cruiser to build it is ok in my book.

PT Cruisers are pitifully awful goddamned creations that should be burned with Thermite.

Quote from: ben_w on June 04, 2017, 08:27:35 PM
Anything that requires the destruction of a PT Cruiser to build it is ok in my book.

PT Cruisers are pitifully awful goddamned creations that should be burned with Thermite.

Ha Ha  I haven't met anyone yet with a good word to say about cruisers yet, must be one out there somewhere 

Looking good!

Liking this build a lot especially when it involves thinking outside the box!