My name is Paul & I live in Long Eaton (half way between Nottingham & Derby) I'm 55 years old and I'm retiring early at the end of August. The buggy is a retirement present to myself, should keep me from under my wife's feet and keep me sane in retirement.

Bought the Predator on Saturday, a nice 3 hour drive home + a not so nice 1 hour queuing on the M25.

Day 2 Sunday, out came the tool box. The bonnet was catching on what you would normally call the slam panel, a jig saw + electric sander and an hour later the offending fiberglass had been trimmed back and shaped to perfection. Next I replaced 250ml Evian bottle that was being used as a washer bottle with something more substantial. Now time to see why the speedo had stopped working, yes the cable had snapped. Ordered one up + a carb to inlet manifold rubber connector that was split. Next I tightened up every nut & bolt I could lay a spanner on. Replaced the battery strap with a nice wide webbing one with clip buckle for easy removal. Finally the ride had been hard so I checked the tyre pressures (way too high) reduced them to 17psi front and 22 rear and now its smooth.
Day 3 Monday, Lowered the seats by 2 inches, and raised the seatbelt top guide by about 10 inches.

Day 4 Tuesday, Supplies arrive. Fitted the new speedo cable also rerouting it through the bulkhead so that there were no tight bends or kinky bits. Now the first bit of extravagance, I'd bought one of those surfboard rear view mirrors from ebay (27 quid) and it had arrived, so it just had to be fitted.

Hoovered out the inside, then washed a polished the outside, rerouted, tidied up and tied back all the engine wiring so non of the wires could touch any hot surfaces, then a 50 mile drive just for fun.
Day 4 Wednesday. The buggy came with a fiberglass pulley guard but it wasn't fitted because the exhaust was in the way, out came the jig saw & sander again, marked up where to cut and an hour later it was ready to fit, I even managed to make an extra bracket to anchor to the carb bracket.


Next replaced the rubber inlet manifold connecter + fabricated and fitted a piece of engine tinware that was missing. Painted the heads of all the bolts that came through the sides of the tub with matt black hammerite to match the black fiberglass (there weren't many and were hard to spot but I new they were there). Made a slight adjustment to the carb & got it running smoother on low throttle. Another evening run out !!!! Having a few days rest now might do one more job on Monday.

Excellent  stuff

Quote(there weren't many and were hard to spot but I new they were there)

A man after my own heart.....its a pain isnt it 

Looks very cool I think you are going to enjoy your retirement 

Looks brilliant. You just need a soft top and doors for the wet weather that we get.

a few simple jobs and a bit of tweaking to suit you, looks good now enjoy the summer weather.

Had time to do a few more jobs on the Predator,   Fitted a full flow oil pump with filter, an extended oil sump, made up some new orange silicone HT leads and finally fabricated a hot air intake from aluminium and orange silicone tube, all turned out looking quite nice.





At the front end I fitted a fuel filler flap so now I no longer have to lift up the bonnet to fill up with petrol, The flap was one of those alloy ones that had been advertised on the forum, I removed the magnetic latch, fitted a cam lock and then sprayed orange. You'll also see I've grafted some Mk2 Cortina stainless wiper arms to the VW splines.



More jobs & upgrades planned over the next 10 days, the biggest one being wheels and tyres.

happy retirement, maybe see you arround my area.   its all good fun.

Its been a busy 2 weeks on the buggy, I've now fitted a fuel gauge, an oil temperature gauge and a manual choke, I also whipped out fuel sender to shorten the float arm and calibrated it so that when the gauge reads empty it has 1 gallon left.



I've also put together an emergency kit that all fits nicely in the void behind the rear seat, there's a tool kit, a foot pump, a can of puncture repair gunge and the type of puncture repair kit that enables you to insert a plug into the tyre to repair a hole. there's also a set of points, some wire, electrical connecters and cable ties. The seat bolts back into place and you wouldn't know any of it was there.




and finally I now have wing mirrors.

Very neat job indeed 

Looks great well done 

Very nice 

Looking good. Might see you about if you ever over in Lincoln way

New front wheels but they took 2 whole days of laborious paint stripping, buffing and polishing, I'll give them 1 more coat of orange paint on the edge of the slots and then they'll be ready for tyres. I'm glad the rear wheels came buffed & polished already, and yes that is the kitchen table!!!!!!!

Quote from: Merscury on November 12, 2014, 10:07:55 AM
and yes that is the kitchen table!!!!!!!

Standard procedure mate! good work!

Wheels look great too!!

Looks fab. Where did you get your wing mirrors