Hi guys been a bit slack starting a build thread so here goes
The specs will be
Manxter 2+2 Body Kit supplied by MMA
Semi auto chassis- Ball Joint/IRS
2 inch body stiffener
Thing arms and stubs
Possibly notched spring plates to suit lift at front
Vw 1916 motor with dual kadrons (already have this from previous bug)
Type one gearbox with 4.37:1 ring and pinion and a mix match of the stronger parts from various swinger/irs boxes (until I can afford a sweet subarugears box)
Wheel and tyre combo still to be decided, probably sunrasia's from MMA with some nice BFG All terrains 28" upfront and 30" at the back
930 cvs and axles
Discs all round
Thats all I can remember now..

So the donor body has been removed and sold to a guy who is restoring his dads old beetle that was lost for years then found again.., pulled out the horrible semi auto box and all related bits, pulled the front beam, gave the pan a bit of a wire buff, one floor half will go again but the non battery side is quite well ventilated and will need to be replaced! Had a productive day today, went out and bought some engine stands which I then modified to become a bug on a spit!
Stripped my old spare box to replace the ring and pinion that I destroyed on the street one day in my old bug
Went to my local Vw shop to pilfer parts out of various gearboxes he had there and managed to get enough good bits to build a reasonably strong type one Irs box. Which will have to do until I can afford a subarugears box.
Thats about it for this weekend will post some pics up when I figure that out!
Cheers

Body ready to come off..

Sweet! New buggy build.

love the look of the manxters

Body going to its new home! Naked floorpan looking like a lot of work.. and dodgy previous repair to floor and some brazed up holes... this will be getting cut out.

The bug on a spit! Chassis sitting on my modified engine stands. Will make life a little easier.

Nice look forward to it

Thanks guys getting all excited now! Cant wait to get really stuck into it.

looking forward to see your build progress . as Nils says manxters are a looker

So I went down to the local dub shop and borrowed their press jigs etc to get my gearbox sorted out, took it all home again to clean the cases etc and probably get back down there on the weekend to slap it all together with my 4.37:1 ring and pinion.

With the gearbox guy unable to give me a hand this weekend I started to tackle the shitty left hand floorhalf. I had bought just a floor quarter section but after cutting out the hole for it then trying to weld it in it seems to be made of some form of brittle cheese... so shelving that idea I just got into it and drilled out the 150 spot welds holding the pan half in, removed the jacking point from the new half, and trimmed and tacked the new piece in place. At least I got something done on the buggy this weekend. Trying to make sure I do something every weekend at least.

Are you going to reinforce the side rails with rhs? Or are you adding a cage?

Cool looking project.
Can I ask what you've done with the autostick parts, could you PM me as I'm am interested to build my parts bin.

I had sold all the autostick parts to a guy but I haven't heard from him.. Feel free to shoot me a pm about them.

Cool. Keep at it

Finished my gearbox on the weekend, isn't shimming diffs fun??? Also finished welding in the floor half and got a second hand manual pedal cluster to replace the semiauto one, no photos yet as it just looks like a gearbox and a floorpan! Will start stripping down the beam, rear arms and torsion bars for some new bushes etc this weekend.

Hi guys, got a bit more done on the buggy on the weekend, stripped the rear arms out, they were a major PITA, the pivot bolts were seized into the collars... after much cursing and head scratching I cut as much of the bush away to get some vice grips on the collar and turn the pivot bolt, two almighty cracked later they eventually were worked free.
On their way out though they managed to tear the first thread on each side of the chassis So after searching high and low I couldnt find my 14x1.5 tap.
I then seen my box of helicoil taps and a 12x1.5 is the same OD as the pivot bolts! Score! Ordered some goodies from MMA so I can finish the rear arms and start on the front end.

Oh yeah I also bought a Cranky Kit from Fit Turn and Tech, AKA Manxiberty, (Subaru starter motor with a adapter to fit a type one box.)Really good looking bit of kit, very well priced too when Its only a bit more than some were asking for a reconditioned VW one. Cant wait to spin it and get rid of my heavy dual battery setup!

Here's my pretty rebuilt gearbox with 4.37:1 r/p, 930 flanges and crankykit all fitted up! A tiny bit of crankcase flashing had to be filed down to let the adapter sit flat, but other than that was stupidly easy to fit! Gotta love how good machined alloy looks too, got some nylocs for the 7mm nose cone mounts and some for the diff covers as well, also had to buy an adapter to get the three bolt nosecone to fit the two bolt chassis..

And here is a piccy of the crankykit, so much lighter than the old clunky starter too. And no more dicking around with starter bushes!!

Supercheap had a special on spray guns on the weekend so they were bought with a heaps of associated paint stuff so I can get ready to throw some undercoat at this naked pan, also welded up the holes where vw smashed those stupid tacks through the pan to hold the body seal down
I also took the liberty of sending the other jacking point to the scrap bin too.. maybe I wont loose any more blood on them..

Wish I could build my own g.box

Ha ha I'm a motorbike mechanic too so I have a little head start, its not actually that difficult its just nuts and bolts but there are a lot of special tools needed, I was lucky enough to be able to borrow them from the local dub shop.

Just a quick update, didn't get much done on the buggy this weekend, got sidetracked rebuilding my gas gas 300 (dirt bike), and repairing my mates bike after his expansion chamber lost an argument with a tree... Also rebuilding the bosses Karmann Ghia motor, he bought it as a project car after the fire that went through the engine bay whilst the previous owner was getting it tuned at the local mechanics!
On a side note hoping Brad can answer this for me, are the chassis holes on the front corners of the chassis (very close together possibly 10mm holes) used on the manxter kit? They are the ones on the edge of the napoleons hat. If not I was going to weld them up as the seem like they would trap moisture and rot out that part of the frame.. Anyone else feel free to chime in too! Cheers!

Not sure brad spends much time on aussie dubbers anymore. try him on the offroad section on shoptalk forums

Sweet I've posted on manxclub as well, thanks mate will do.

Hi guys, took the trailing arms to work and pressed out the old axles, got them all ready for a clean up and paint, anyone modified the lower shock mount so it doesn't hang down so low? doesn't look like too much of a drama to gain some ground clearance?
Also re-shimmed my motor to bring the endplay back into spec, I blamed this wear on stupid younger me flogging the hell out of it.. Thankfully the thrust bearing is still rock solid in the case. Ill squeeze a few more k's out of it yet! The torque tool/dude is such a fantastic tool made it a piece of piss job!
Bought a fancy breather box to route the breather hoses into, and some Guido spec gold pushrod tubes 2 piece to fix a nagging oil leak. Wish they had another colour! Got a cool CSP linkage for the Kad's and a BMW R80 airbox from work to attempt to make a airbox system to shut up the induction noise.
Thats all for now until the kit arrives.. not long now!

Yep the shock holes in the arms can be drilled up higher and the bottom of the shock pots cut off , just cycle the suspension to full up and make sure the shocky doesn't bottom out before the arm hits the bump stop , obviosly all done with the rear torsion bars removed .
With your now gained down travel of the arm ie the shock dosn't run out of travel when extended you can also either notch out the spring plate or grind the cast down stops ( I would recomend notching the spring plate ) to get a bit more droop , again check that you haven't gone to far and your CV's don't become the limiting down travel as they won't hesitate to make a mess of everthing if you pull the centres of them out .