I have come to realise that I have never put a build post of my Doon on these pages and thought as its 21 years this year since I built my buggy I should celebrate its coming of age..

So where to start? Perhaps not where you may think.

Let me take you back to 1992, as that is when the story really starts. I left University in that summer and my daily driver Cal-look, 2 tone peppermint and white beetle was starting to look the worst for wares.  Therefore I needed a new run about whilst I took my poor well loved and abused beetle off the road to repair it. I couldn't afford anything too special as I was getting married in the September and has just bought my first house.

Well as it turned out the guy that lived 2 doors up from my dad's had started repairing a beetle chassis with a super reliable (so he said) 1200cc engine whilst looking for a body to replace the one that he sent to the scrapyard – it was the early 90's. 

However as many are wanton to do, he lost interest or run out of money or run out of his wife's patience or any combination of the above and the chassis and engine came up for sale at the grand old price of £75. As you may have guessed, the next day the chassis was sat in my garage whilst I looked for a body to mate it with.





Then on one of my many visits to Kingfisher Customs at his old place in Middlemore Road in Smethwick, to either pick up another spare for my beetle, or just pop in for a cuppa whilst visiting a 'site' during work hours I happened to see a faded note in his shop window saying 'beach buggy shell for sale – comes with hood - £150 o.n.o' and a phone number – landline of course in those days.

What came next was two weeks of daily calls to the number with no answer, when I came to the conclusion that this was bordering on the verge of insanity.    One final call a couple of days later for luck and the guy finally answered. He had been away on holiday for a fortnight and had arrived back from Spain the night before....remember no mobile phones in them days so when you were on holiday, you WERE on holiday.

Consequently after a trip the following Saturday I became the proud owner of a Rat MK 2 in Dulux satin mustard yellow and chalk board black paint, with a black fur interior and 'well used' hood. It had the bonus of original Rat side pods. The guy was selling the body to replace it with a speedster kit and because he had been waiting a while to get rid of it I haggled him down to just £100. 









Now at that time I knew a few folk with beetles from my first club 'The Young Ones' but not anyone with a buggy, so having nothing more than a rudimentary knowledge of VW beetle servicing, I made the firm commitment to Ruth that it would only take me 8 months to build it, starting straight after we got married in the September (1992). 









Well move forward 18 months, spring 1994 and I was finally ready to drive my newly painted turquoise, own built, own wired, heavily modified Rat MK 2 / GP MK 2 hybrid buggy, with Renault 11 GTS seats recovered by Ruth (she is very talented my wife) and Renault 5 rear lights. Not knowing any better at the time I also cut the side pods up into pieces and through them down the local tip (oops). I also made teh whole of the bonnet hinge forward for better access to the wiring - now there is an idea 





My beetle was now well and truly very holy and primer paint patched (rat look before rat look was a thing) and so it was nestled in the garage for some TLC. The excellent Laurie Pettit built twin port 1500cc (yes I know, but he was a genius and it was an amazing engine) was transplanted into the buggy and all was well.

The truth is the buggy became my daily driver for the next three and ½ years and the beetle shell was stripped for parts, the empi 8 spokes, W deck lid, pre 67 bonnet, American spec headlights etc were all sold off and the rusty bits were binned. The chassis was lent on its side in the garage and stored away for a future life.....more on that later.



The buggy went through a couple of iterations from white to black highlights, different wheels, different interior coverings, new dashboard and a second full rebuilt after many trips racing on the beach at Cleethorpes with the national Buggy Register.












I kept and used my Rat until 2000 when it was finally sold to help finance my next giant step into the world of beach buggies in designing, building and marketing my very own buggy design, the Doon, along with my very good friend Rich 'Sic' Crees.

I really loved my Rat, completing nearly 60,000 miles in the 7 years I owned it including several trips to Europe, making many many new friends and heading down the rabbit hole to beach buggy world where I doubt I will ever return from.



More to follow....

Loving all the old photos.

Enjoying this one . . . . .  More please . . .

The story now moves onto late 1999.  We had just started the Midland Buggy Club that month and my really good friend and work colleague Rich 'Sic' Crees, who I had known since he was just 16 and famously threw up on his first day at work due to nerves (hence the nickname), had bought a MK1 GP that needed quite a lot of work. Sic had been into VW's nearly as long as I had and we had shared some great times in his old beetle with its moulded in super wide wings and grey primer paint and super slow, normally running on just three cylinders, engine which gave it its nickname of the SLUG...... Anyway I digress !!

Rich wanted to get 10 inch wheels beneath the back of his MK1 GP so we spent a good few hours literally cutting the shell down the middle at the rear and opening it up like a letter 'V', moving the rear inner arches back inwards and fibreglassing it all back up. Then one day Rich saw an advert for the sale of the GP Buggy moulds and business (maybe in the back of VW Motoring or Volksworld – I can't quite remember now) and after a quick conversation, we contacted the owners and arranged a visit to view the moulds.

The moulds were owned by a boat manufacturers somewhere down south and after a really excitable trip down discussing how many millions we were going to make by relaunching the GP brand, our dreams were quickly shattered when we saw the state the moulds were in. In truth they were beyond use and the LWB had a great big repair in the back which would produce a rather interesting pattern and step across the rear.
At that moment we made a decision that not only saved us the £5000 fee but also would be a turning point in my life; basically with much sadness, we walked away.

On the way home we talked and through about some ideas and then I said 'why don't we design our own buggy kit?' We both loved buggies but hated some of the flaws associated with older kits we had built and after a 3 hour journey back we had already completed a 'must-have' list for our new design. More importantly we had also decided on the name, our new Kit would be called DOON. Why Doon?  Well those who know me know of my deep Black Country roots and Doon is simply how we say dune up old Dudley way. Also I already had the logo in mind with the two middle O's becoming the wheels in the logo.



So we had a bunch of ideas and a logo but absolutely no idea how we were going to do it.



Attempt 1:

We bought a couple of old buggy shells (the original GP Mk1, a Hustler with cacking acrylic paintwork and a rat). The ide being do what so many had done before us in the 1970's and make a new style by Frankensteining a number of the 'best' bits together. This was short lived and we decided early on our kit was going to be an all new design with no DNA from another design.
































I am pretty skilled with wood work, being the son of a carpenter, and so we decided we would make a new plug out of MDF and bodyfiller.


Attempt 2:

We would build the kit on Rich's original GP length SWB chassis. This turned out to be difficult in ensuring the design stayed square and level due to a slight twist in the floorpans.




Attempt 3:  Final and successful attempt

We decided to use an 8 x 4 exterior ply 18mm board, cut to the size of a GP SWB chassis. This would enable those with old GP kits to rebody with a Doon if they so wished. The board was cut symmetrical and levelled in all three dimensions and fixed to the garage floor. This then enabled us to cut 2 pieces of each pattern piece exactly the same (but mirrored) and using stays and formers off the board, ensure both sides of the kit we exactly symmetrical and positioned correctly as we went along.

The first pieces we cut from MDF were the front bulkhead, inner side panels and angled front panels. The only other dimension other that the overall length that we 'borrowed' from the GP was the height of the inner side panel at the point where it meets the rear arch, every other dimension was bespoke to the DOON.

Remember I mentioned the 'must haves' we decided upon for the DOON. Well these included;

• Wide rear arches to cover 10 inch wheels
  Opening Bonnet
  Wide draw angle on the sides to provide wider cockpit area so two fat blokes could sit side by side without rubbing shoulders
  Rear cover over the alternator connectors and space for twin carbs but also covered
  Battery compartment under the bonnet
  Under bonnet flitch panel to stop stop wind onto legs and strengthen / lock in front to stop body shake
  Remove the headlight stalks and inset the fixing points in the wings
  Extra moulding and swage lines in the kit to provide strength with no more weight
  Slot in windscreen slot to stop water ingress beneath the screen
  Sunken in and angled speedo and headlight / hazard switch moulding to meet IVA requirements
  Return edge around the body for strength and IVA
  Moulding to cover back of steering column boss for neatness
  Moulding lines to direct rain water away from entering the interior
  Use of standard beetle petrol tank without the need for any modification
  Strong four point fixing steering column support bar to take classic and modern alternatives

All in all it took Rich and myself around 18 months to build the full model out of MDF, bodyfiller and expanding foam, working many nights and most weekends. We had some welcome advise along the way from a guy called Jon Spratt who worked for Westfield Sportscars in relation to things like how to form the return edges and where to place changes in direction to provide the best strength.

A couple of interesting facts;

• We learnt just how far 6mm MDF will bend before it snaps (hence the radius on the back wings and inner arches
  mixing a touch of fiberglass resin into body filler makes for a really smooth finish.
  All the radii between panels are formed with either a 2p or 10p coin
  We did use some skirting board to form a part of the side of the buggy, see if you can spot it.

We had three different versions of the front wings before we were happy, 2 dashboard layouts and 2 different bonnet designs but we got there in the end. We tried hard to design a buggy with modern lines whilst retaining the ethos of the classic beach buggy.








































Eventually we were at the point where we primer painted the completed wooden mould but we had to move it from Rich's garage to my own 2 miles away where Jon from Westfield was going to make the first plug mould for us. Now any sensible person would of simply hired a trailer to move a priceless piece of kit they had worked over 18 months of immeasurable hours to perfect.

What did we do?  Strap it to Rich's SWB chassis and 'A' frame it back to my place, including a scary trip around Birchley Island next to Junction 2 of the M5 which carries nearly 900,000 vehicles per week. Obviously we made it home as I now have my own Doon buggy, but clean underpants were required.




Once back to mine we then spent many hours waxing the wooden model in preparation for Jon to come and do his magic and produce the plug mould for us...............the next giant step in our Doon Buggy journey.

This is fascinating stuff and I love it.

I particularly like the requirement to allow '2 fat blokes to sit side by side'   

I like the MDF prototype version too. Reminds me of the good old classic joke - My mate has a wooden car. It has wooden wheels, wooden engine, wooden seats and wooden wheels. Guess what? It wooden go.

The old ones are the best.

Quote from: Cornishdave on February 04, 2022, 02:18:41 AM
This is fascinating stuff and I love it.
I particularly like the requirement to allow '2 fat blokes to sit side by side'   

And having been to Holland and back in that Car, I can only reiterate how much space there is in there, because I am not exactly what you would call "petite"
That design is Spot On 

Brilliant read Chad - More please 

They are really great pictures and very interesting.   Thanks  for sharing Chad.  Its a great buggy that you created and because of your design, one of the few SWB buggies I can really fit in without any trouble.

This needs to be a proper publication Chad....


mixing a touch of fiberglass resin into body filler makes for a really smooth finish.............................

That`s a "top tip" ..Why didn`t you tell me about this 50 years ago ??   

Had a go this morning using polyester resin and it works a treat...   

Quote from: Paul1953 on February 04, 2022, 01:38:33 PM
This needs to be a proper publication Chad....


mixing a touch of fiberglass resin into body filler makes for a really smooth finish.............................

That`s a "top tip" ..Why didn`t you tell me about this 50 years ago ??   

Had a go this morning using polyester resin and it works a treat...   

We always used to mix both plastic and fibreglass filler if we had erm.... large areas to fill. Sands back easier than just fibreglass.

Sorry a bit of delay getting Part 3 written but the more I wrote the more I remembered 

CHAD's DOON BUGGY BUILD PART 3

It appears people are enjoying my Doon built diatribe therefore I had best get on with the next instalment then, so.................

By August of 2000 the main bodyshell model was complete and rubbed down ready for the first plug mould to be taken. At this time very few people actually believed it was still made of wood and not already in fibreglass.




We were now very happy with the way the bodyshell had turned out and one of the most important things we wanted to do at the very start was to make the kit as symmetrical as possible. This is because due to the way buggies were designed and produced in the 1970's and 80's many of the more traditional kits out there can measure very different between sides. For instance the width of the rear wings on Rich's original GP MK1 differed in size by nearly an inch. Therefore we once again checked the dimensions on the model as we had moved it between Rich's and my own garages, and were very happy that it was no more than 3mm out across the diagonals and all wings measured the same on both sides.

Early on in the project we began to look around for a company who might help us in producing our moulds and kits but most companies at the time just wanted to see a completed mould rather than actually help to create one. Then one day whilst phoning a speedboat manufacturer, the owner said he had a friend called John Spratt who had the type of experience required to help us and that he was sure John would be interested.

It turned out John was formerly a lay-up artist with Classic and Sportscar magazine but had worked with fiberglass for a number of years and had recently spent time working for a company repairing TVR's and similar sportscars, before completing an eighteen month spell with Westfield Sportscars, (which were no more than 5 miles from where I used to live).

John helped us with advise along the way at taught us all about the pitfalls in designing something to come out of a mould versus something you like the look off but gets stuck, Although not actually involved in any of the actual design of the Doon kit, John provided valuable experience and imparted knowledge in respect to what would be required to produce plug moulds and production shells. He provided information about sealing the model shell, waxing it up and what materials to we should use.

Therefore to ensure we had fully sealed the wooden shell, it was treated with 12 coats of release wax before it ready for John to come and do his moulding magic. Now we all probably know how fiberglass resin smells when being applied but normally it from messing around doing minor work and repairs and the smell soon dissipates.

Well my garage was a double length garage which was part of my house and connected though a door straight into my kitchen. Well a full 50 litre barrel of resin was delivered to my house and it took John a full 2 days of laying up to produce the first 'Splash' mould (as we found out it was called). By now I presume you have guessed how much smell was involved and how much it penetrated every surface in my house and how it took 2 months for the smell to go away and how popular I wasn't with my wife....




So after a day of curing the time came to remove the original 12 layered release waxed wooden painted model from the splash mould. The model that had taken over 12 months to complete, with unmeasurable number of hours to put it together. Did it just pop out the mould? Did it hell; the wood had seemed to have sucked the resin into it and in the end the only way we could get it out the mould was to smash out. The result was a huge pile of firewood that was once a wooden model and the original splash mould.




Basically we learnt that however much you wax wood it still sticks to fiberglass, which led to a slightly different approach when we finished off the bonnet and dash models for taking moulds off.

Now the first plug mould was complete it was time to produce the first ever Doon shaped fibreglass bodyshell. What was odd was that we knew the original plug mould would be full of imperfections as, however hard we had tried, the wooden model would have minor imperfections in it. Therefore we also knew that once the first prototype buggy kit was produced, the plug mould would also become redundant.

After a couple of days of laying up fibreglass in the new plug mould, on the 9th August 2000 the first ever fibreglass shaped Doon was born, in a satin black finish.






Before we did any more work on the main bodyshell prototype we spent the autumn months of 2000 completing the wooden models for the bonnet and the combined dashboard and under bonnet panel. This is when we also learnt the original shell design would not allow the bonnet to open properly and therefore we had to make a minor alteration to the fibreglass prototype shell.










As a key part of our design was to have a return edge around the main tub John explained that this could only be done with a two part mould. In addition due to the slots and shapes in the dashboard panel this would need to be a 4 part mould, and the bonnet mould would also need to be in 2 parts as it needed a return area to take the original beetle bonnet catch mechanism.

This took a while to sort out and make sure there were mating flanges at each joint in the mould which we had to put onto the original wooden model pieces to form the plug moulds.










Eventually in January 2021 the bonnet and dash plug moulds were once again made in my garage and once again I was not a popular man with the family. I even tried to seal the door between the garage and the house with thick pond liner material but the smell still got through. And once again we ended up with a pile of firewood after digging out the wooden model pieces form the moulds. It was hard to believe that nothing of all our original wooden models remained.




Around this time we needed to find companies that could supply or make the additional bits for our kit. We needed a windscreen and frame manufacturer as a standard Manx / GP type screen would not fit our dashboard moulding. We designed the dash to have a slot in bit sides and across the top for the screen to literally slot into. One of the things that has always irked me with other kits I have built is the way rainwater always finds it way between the bottom of the screen frame and the top of the dashboard and hence why we made sure on the doon the screen would slot down into the dash to stop water ingress at this point. The other thing we wanted was for the screen to be angled back for both looks and 'aerodynamics', as much as a buggy can be anything more slick than a brick travelling through the air.

Because both Rich and myself wanted to approach this business properly we signed up for a free NVQ level 3 owner business course run by the local council over a 12 week period (we both passed I should add). On the course we had access to list of local companies and one of the contacts, which turned out to be Just 3 miles away, made aluminium frame train and boat windows, namely C&J International Windows Ltd.

One of the great benefits of Living in the Black Country, basically where the industrial revolution started, is that there is a huge wealth of local manufacturing companies on the doorstep, with an industrial estate every 500 yards. Despite its grand name, C&J International Windows Ltd was owned and run by Clive and Joan Cockram, an elderly couple with a wealth f specialist knowledge. As soon as we went to meet them with our ideas they jumped right in and enjoyed helping design the unique angled slot in place Doon screen. Clive suggested the unique welded in angled aluminium strengthening bar at the bend joint and all the glass was properly to BS and stamped accordingly.




After looking around the National Kit Car show we found that the oval boot hinges on the Quantum Xtreme kit would be ideal for the Doon bonnet. Even better was that at the time Quantum kit cars were based in Stourbridge – again on our doorstep – and they were happy to sell us pairs of hinges as and when we needed them.




Finally we also found another small company just a couple of miles away in Cradley Heath that made our lovely Doon metal oval bonnet badges and our kit ID plates from a nickel alloy, with the DOON lettering embossed and polished off accordingly. When designing our kit we always wanted to supply it as a complete kit with main bodyshell, bonnet, dash panel, hinges, windscreen, steering support bar, front and rear badges and unique ID tag plate.






The first prototype bonnet and dashboard pieces were made from the respective plug moulds and there we had it, the first complete fibreglass Doon SWB prototype. As stated previously these panels accurately copied every imperfection in our wooden model pieces and therefore it was now time to employ some professional help to bring them up to a point where the final production moulds could be made.









So in February 2000 all 3 of the prototype panels (Bodyshell, Bonnet, Dash) were transported down Lee Sotherton at Volksmagic in my home town of Oldbury (Jcn 2 of the M5). Lee did a fantastic job flatting, filling, flatting again, prepping and final painting the panels in a nice deep blue 2 pack finish. Essentially, Lee did a proper full paint job on the panels and the final result was simply stunning. A very talented man indeed.






We took the opportunity to drop the painted kit on Rich's SWB chassis, (which we had also been completing to be our demonstrator), to get some first prototype photos to give people an idea of what our new buggy kit would look like.








Over late spring and summer 2001 the now painted prototype panels were once again returned to my garage to make the final production moulds. John came back round to make the moulds and once again I was resigned to the fact that my house would stink like a resin factory for the next couple of months. This time, the prototype panels released easily due to the two pack finish and were stored away for late reuse on something else.

However we wanted the finish on the Doon kit to be top quality. As the shell had a return edge and the bonnet and dashboard panels also had joints too, this meant we could not mould the doon kits in sparkly metalflake as each joint had to be rubbed down and polished out after moulding. This can easily be done with solid colours but would rub the flake out of metalflake finishes. Metalflakes can cover a lot of sins but solid colours, especially dark ones, show every tiny little imperfection. 

Therefore we worked hard to remove all the remaining minor imperfections in the production moulds as we wanted them to be as perfect as you could get it. Because of some of the strange angles and lips on the mould we even had to construct a few of our own tools to allow us to polish deep into the recesses of the mould. The surface of the production moulds was first rubbed with 800 grit wet and dry, then in sequence 1000, 1200, 1500 'super fine' grit, before being finished off with 2000 grit 'mirror fine'. This process to rub down the whole series of moulds actually took us eight weeks to complete. John also gave us a great tip he learnt at Westfield. Rather than using Farcela polishing compound, we used Autosol Chrome Cleaner paste diluted in water as a final polishing medium, which resulted in an almost mirror like finish to the production moulds.

Finally on the 30th July 2001, John Spratt returned for one final time to my garage to begin the task of laying the very first true Doon fiberglass kit, SWB S001. The first shell to be produced was Rich's  very dark green example, which proved to be a little reticent to free itself from the mould. It was finally prized free on Sunday 5th August 2001, allowing less than one week before we debuted it at Beach Buggy Bonanza 3 / West of England Kit Car show at Malvern Three Counties Showground.












The main areas of the bodyshell were double gelled; with the edges being triple gelled to ensure that we wouldn't be polished through during the finishing process on the return edges. The actual fibreglass construction was a 6 oz lay-up (approx. 6mm thick), with extra core matt added in specific areas to add additional strength in specific high stress areas such as the bonnet, front wings and rear seat areas. The extra matt was used to stop the area of the bonnet 'sinking', a problem seen on many older Buggy kits.

There is a thought that the thicker the shell is, the more strength it has. But once you pass a certain point you are just adding additional weight unnecessarily. The trick is in good design, such as curved areas and many changes in direction, which add strength to the fibreglass without weight. 

This was the basic thinking behind our Doon design and why there is the distinctive steps in the front and rear wings, why every single panel has at least a slow curve in it and why the bonnet is compound curved and has the additional disappearing step mouldings at the top. The central bonnet ridge design also passes 'through' the screen and is continued onto the dashboard design down to where the speedo on the dash is housed, angled towards the driver in its very own recessed area.

Rich and myself designed the Doon for ourselves, not for anyone else and it's fair to say in the early days the design was met with some 'dislike' and disinterest from certain quarters in the classic VW world and unfortunately I have to also say by some of the older traditional beach buggy builders from the 'day'. Conversely, however, the design was met with rave reviews in the kit car universe, resulting in fabulous feature articles in both Complete Kit Car and Kit Car Magazine.

Now we had the first Doon Kit out in the world, it was clear we could not carry on producing kits in my domestic garage. For one thing I would probably be divorced due to the smell lingering on anything and everything made of material but also John Spratt had accepted a job at a top luxury cruise yacht company on the south coast. The search was therefore on for someone to lay up Doon S002, which would become my very own bluegreenytoruqouisey Doon kit.

More to follow.........

Chad I wish my Rat mark 2 had an opening bonnet because it would have been fab and so easy when we had to remove the fuel tank several times when we first bought the buggy, a brilliant idea. Cheers Deb

Great reading. Must have been terrifying and soul destroying in equal measures when you had to smash the wooden model from the mould. 

Autosol has always been my preferred choice. Takes a bit of effort but brings stainless steel to a mirror finish.....

Next installment coming soon, if I can stop falling asleep in the chair after work and me tea. 

So where did I get too?  Oh yes a quick recap....

Now we had the first Doon Kit out in the world, it was clear we could not carry on producing kits in my domestic garage. For one thing I would probably be divorced due to the fibreglass smell lingering on anything and everything made of material but also John Spratt had accepted a job at a top luxury cruise yacht company on the south coast.
The search was therefore on for someone to lay up Doon S002, which would become my very own bluegreenytoruqouisey Doon kit.

John was moving onto to a new life down south but was fully aware we still needed someone to help us fibreglass our Doon kits moving forward. Therefore with his contacts in the kit car world he introduced us to a guy (who's name I can't recall), who owned a large fibreglass operation down in Cradley Heath – you may just of heard of Cradley Heath if you were ever into speedway as its was the home of the Cradley Heathens. Anyway, getting back to the story, it turned out this company was next door to where they made the Lomax Kit Cars and was where Lomax's fibreglass parts were manufactured'

After a quick conversation facilitated by John Spratt, our moulds were delivered down to the company who set about making not one, but 2 DOON SWB shells within the following week.

Another little side story: Another very good friend of mine from work at the time, namely John Clewer (or JC to everyone) was also a part time professional motorsport and vehicle photographer and also a regular contributor to VW Motoring magazine at the time. JC had always had vintage VW and when he heard both Rich and myself were building the Doon hew was there at every opportunity with his camera. Knowing the Doon was a new buggy for the new millennium he struck a deal with VW motoring to do a full Doon buggy monthly build article for himself, with most of the work being done by Volksmagic in Oldbury.

Therefore before I knew it sometime around August 2001 JC bought a rough as backsides GP MK1 that had been used by a farmer as a sheep chaser around his fields but it was correctly registered. JC dropped the buggy off at Volksmagic fro a complete stripdown and rebuild and promptly ordered a SWB Doon kit for the article.

Hence why the company were now moulding not one but 2 SWB kits in the following weeks. These would become S002-01 (mine) and S003-01 (JC's). It is probably the right time to discuss the numbering system of the Doon. We decided right from the start to number all our kits to help both keep an accurate record of all the kits and colours sold, but also give all our kits a unique identity – infect you still see Doon owners still using the ID's as login's or in discussions with each other. The numbering is simple really. The letter S or L denotes SWB or LWB, the next 3 numbers are the next numeric number of the kit moulded form the start of moulding and the last 2 numbers are the year the kit was built.  Hence S002-01 is the 2nd SWB kit ever moulded, manufactured in 2001.

The next important choice was colour. THE colour of my buggy has bene a long debate in the buggy world and once caused confusion when Dave DnD once used it as one of the questions for joining the forum. My original cal look beetle was jade and White and I just always love Jade / Turquoise / mint / bluegreen colours. My first buggy was known as turquoise so it was no surprise that my own Doon was going to follow in the same vain.

Now to final settle the argument on the colour of my buggy,
Is it blue? Is it green?  No its actually BS16-E-53 😊

JC decided he wanted a blue similar to the iconic Gulf blue and opted for BS20-D-44 (light blue).

As the factory was a large commercial enterprise with separate teams for preparing moulds, lying up, finishing off, removal and trimming and the final polishing, the 2 kits were ready in just 7 days from ordering and effectively became know as twins being born effectively in the same week in September 2001.













For information JC did do a number of build articles for VW Motoring before it unexpectedly stopped trading after many years of printing. I finished off the build of S003 over the next 2 or 3 years then after just a couple of hundred miles of driving, JC moved jobs down to Torbay Council and his buggy sat in his garage with little use. A few years later and after a buggy event in Paignton, Dave C (as see on TV) got bitten by the buggy bug and, knowing of JC's buggy not being used I introduced the two and the rest is buggy history. Dave C bought S003 and has since covered thousands of miles and anyone who is a regular visitor to these pages, or the BBI facebook or MBC pages will know the car very well.



I now had my very own fibreglass, immaculate, shiny bluegreenytorquiose Doon bodyshell just waiting for a lovely new chassis to be fitted to. Luckily I still owned what was now left of my original Cal Look beetle that I put away to restore when I build my RAT buggy. By now all that was left was a sorry looking chassis and gearbox with the shell long before being cut up and disposed of (and the US Spec lights, Long W deck lid and Empi 8 spokes being long sold to help fund the Doon project).

Around the 2000's there was guy well known in the classic VW world that changed his name by deed poll to John Volkswagenbeetle and although having a ridiculous name on his passport was a fantastic chassis restoration specialist with a proper chassis shortening jig. After a conversation or two I took a trip down south and dropped off my sorry chassis to him for a huge dose of TLC which would include shortening, new and halves, new fuel and brake lines and importantly conversion to IRS.

Considering what had occurred over the past couple of years the winter of 2001 was quite quiet whilst I collected bits for my new chassis and buggy build and waited for John to do his magic on the chassis.

I had decided to go all out on my own Doon as I knew I intended to use it as a demonstrator for our emerging Doon Buggies company.

At the time I went skiing every year with a large group of friends and friends of friends from work and one of the friends of friends (Ian) was actually owner of the PorscheShop in Halesowen. After doing some research I knew that with a little custom work, Porsche 944 rear IRS arms, with the Porsche rear disc brakes, would fit on the beetle chassis. I also wanted my Doon to have a more modern feel and therefore also decided to utilise Porsche 17 inch wheels which naturally come in 7inch front and 9inch wide rears.

So after a bit of wheeler dealing with Ian I became the proud owner of a pair of Porsche 944 turbo rear arms which are aluminium, pair of Porsche adjustable rear swing plates, new rear bearings, new rear discs and callipers and a set of delivery mile only Porsche Boxster Turbo Twist alloys 7x17 front and 9x17 rears.









Now those who know me know I do as much of everything myself and love wiring buggies, building buggies, making bespoke bits for buggies etc etc. But One thing I have no interest, and have little knowledge of, is black art of the internal workings of the VW engine. All I hear is blah blah blah engine, blah blah blah cam shaft, blah blah blah pistons etc. Don't get me wrong I can build up a short block, set tappets, do the timing, etc but inside the case, there be dragons.

Therefore I commissioned Laurie Petit, VW engine builder guru extraordinaire, to build me something special. His twin port 1500 (yes I know) he built for my cal look beetle was an exceptional engine which needed little to no maintenance and never let me down.

So A long phone call with Laurie (they were never short) and lots of blah blah blah I didn't understand, I had come away being told I was getting a brand new case, built to 1980something cc Type 1 with new waterboxer 2 litre crank (counterweighted in the factory apparently)with BWM main bearings, upgraded oil pump with external oil cooling system, torquey but not stupid Engine 120 cam (I think), twin 40 dellortos already tuned and jets set for the engine as he worked regularly with eurocarbs, bolt down swivel feet rockers and electronic Petronix ignition. The idea was I wanted an engine I could cruise Europe with and sit all day long cruising on motorways rather than something that was stupid acceleration but not pleasant to cruise with. Don't get me wrong at 2litre it is no slouch abut I really wanted a reliable big CC motor.

In addition, I also knew I wanted a BAS full stainless exhaust system. Ever since I saw a BAS for sale at the Euro Buggy Event in Holland in 1998 I knew one day I would have one. A the time it was £800 which was eyewatering expensive in 2001 but 20 year on it is still on the car and all I have changed is the two silencer boxes and that was only because I wanted a change of look not through ware and tear. The BAS is an exceptional tuned exhaust system where all 4 pipes are the same length to balance the exhaust gases which come 4 into 1 before splitting back into 2. This helps balance the engine and help it breath the most efficiently (apparently so I have been told 😊).





So here I was now in limbo until the chassis returned and the engine appeared. I couldn't wait to actually start the build of my Doon......

More to come.