Picked her up today.
As well as an entire uteload of parts.








Let the fun commence!!


Smiley

It's going to end up electric green in colour. 1600 twinport with twin carbs, Kombi box, two inch body lift, raised suspension, redo the cage and nerf bars. I can't wait to start stripping her for sandblasting.


Smiley

looks like a good score,does it have previous rego history?

You didn't happen to get a pick of that green bug in the second pic did you?

Looks similar to a bug i had which was on carsales recently.

It does have pervious rego history. Came with a massive folder of paperwork I've been sorting though. There's a letter from the transport department approving the change to a buggy.

VDUBXTC - Green bug? You mean the navy one that can be seen in the background of the buggies rollcage hoop?

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Made some good headway on the buggy on Sunday afternoon.
Brought all the spare parts and junk down from up the top that came with it and stacked it all in the carport ready to be sorted this week.

Rolled the buggy down the hill and began disassembly.
Seats, rollcage and, bonnet and body were all lifted off as none of these parts were bolted down.





Pulled the engine, then removed the rear body support frame and rear shocks.














Removed all the rear brake hoses and disconnected the handbrake and removed the lever. Undid gearbox mounts and spring plate bolts and pulled out the entire rear end, everything between the rear wheels.











Four bolts and two brake lines later and the frontend was separated.








Then proceeded to remove all the little things that were left. Remaining brake lines, master cylinder, pedal assembly, clutch and accelerator cables, gearstick and shifter rod, gearbox mount.











There was a bit of water in the tunnel cause it rained Saturday night plus heaps of dirt and scale and gunk. So I stood the pan on its end and flushed the tunnel out with a hose for a while, in both directions and with the pan both ways up.





Floorpan is now on stands waiting to go to blasters on Thursday, was meant to go tomorrow but the trailer I borrowed has no lights working so I'll have to fix that tomorrow afternoon.














I also spent about 4 hours sorting through all the parts last night, separated them into junk to throw away, stuff for the buggy and other parts to box and store. I also cut the nerf bars from the floorpan yesterday afternoon.

I am looking to buy my first welder this week so I can begin mods to the floorpan once I get it back from blasters.

Thanks for reading.



Smiley

Some before pictures of the buggy assembled before strip down began.

On the trailer and ready to head to sandblasters tomorrow. Note the powerhouse tow vehicle.









Smiley

Looks like a nice project. What mods do you have planned for the chassis ?

Depending on the condition of the floorhalves it might be getting two new checkerplate ones. Welded 2" lift kit, IRS conversion on the back, Kombi gearbox, framehead clearance for the long tie rod end. And seam weld all the spot welded joins.



Smiley

If you are going to do new checkerplate floors, then you will want a 3 inch c hannel lift kit.

You may also want to consider a clutch access hole and moving the gearstick back 3 inches.

Why would you need to move the gearstick back?
It's not that hard to reach is it?

And what do you mean when you say 3 inch channel?
Can you put up a description? Or pictures would be great. Could someone please let me know if I have to get a welded 2 inch lift kit engineer approved? Or do I chalk it down to floorpan stiffening as per the buggy manufacturers recommendations?



Smiley

On the K&L pans, lots of people like to move it back 3 inchs as it feels more comfortable to reach.

You don't have to do it, but when you talk to people that hadn't, they wish they had.

If you are going to do new checker plate floors, you can but weld them up to the c Channel. This has the added advantage of allowing all your bolts to remain inside the car away from the elements.

You use a 3 inch Channel in this scenario which is equivalent to putting a 2inch lift on to your standard pan that needs to be bolted down.

I don't think you need to get an engineer report for stiffening and reinforcing the pan (which is what you will be doing).

This work was done by CVD.




Another shot with a Galv coat.




For heaps of info and ideas on building buggies - WWW.MANXCLUB.ORG 

Time for an update, I've been a bit slack getting photos up over the last few days. I managed to get the floorpan on the trailer Wednesday night and up to the sandblasters at work Thursday morning. And they exceeded all my expectations by having it done before lunch!! I though I was going to have to wait till next week.

So I got the pan home Thursday night and got it coated in fish oil to keep the gremlins at bay.

A few things I noticed, the major one is that whoever did the pan last went crazy with silicone sealer on every seam, weld, hole and everywhere. Sandblasting couldn't remove all of this so I been doing a bit with a scraper and wheel-wheel on the 4" over the last two days.

It has one large rust hole in one of the floorhalves as well as heaps of other holes that must have been for seat mounts, seat belts, cage and other stuff.

I'm still not sure whether to replace the floorhalves or repair the existing ones. They are flat steel, not checkerplate, so has gotten a bit wavy. Plus having it stripped back this far I think I should probably build it right the first time. Dad seems to think that the old ones are good enough, but I think I should go the whole hog now so I don't have annoying little things nagging at me down the track.

Feel free to post your thoughts after you have a look at the pictures.



Smiley

The bare pan getting back to my place from the blasters.












Smiley

What wall thickness C-channel did you use? Is it strong enough? You don't need to put additional bracing anywhere else?



Smiley

Get rid of those box section pieces underneath. They will just hit stuff if you are offroading. Or if you do keep them - angle them so they don't catch on things and weld some plate on the ends to seal them.

If you remove the box sections and the pans aren't thick enough to support your weight, I would replace them with some 2mm checker plate. If they are, then they will probably be fine once you fix the rust and plug the holes. Then you can just do your 2inch lift kit.

Make sure you weld/seal up your outside rails at the back, as they will be a major rust spot.

The other thing to consider is your bolt and nuts will hang below the floor pan and could be damaged. You may need to push the bolt up from the bottom and put the nut on from the top, so you will be able to undo them if you ever need to. You will also need to ensure they seal well, so no moisture gets up into the side rail.

Also you could add extra gussets from the rear torsion tubes to the pan, but be aware of how your engine cage attaches that you won't impede it.

It's hard to see in the pictures but both pan halves are slightly rippled, which is why I'm leaning towards new checkerplate floorpans. And what thickness C-channel?



Smiley

On another note, does anyone know what kind of buggy mine is? I don't think I've seen one like this before. If you need pictures of specific areas let me know and I'll throw them up.



Smiley

Smiley the C channel we use is 5mm and as stated by Lovebuggy is 75mm high, although as your body is a J&S you will also benefit greatly from lifting the body to 100mm body lift as they are reknown for having quite a low front guard and as such without the 75mm lift you will be forever trying to reduce the front wheels from hitting the inside of the guards .
I personally would probabley lean towards redoing the floors now as from the photos i would say you have quite a lot of area's which have been modified by the previos owner and are lapped joints etc ( ie the box over the bottom of the floor ), all of which your sandblasting won't of been able to get at and are more than likley already rusty.
Just my two bobs worth but as you will quickly learn in the buggy world , build it well once and it will never let you down .

Theres one on ebay the same. Low nose J&S. http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320404119215&ss...

I have no sidepods. But that doesn't really bother me.

I've been thinking quite a bit about it over the last few days and I've decided to go the whole hog now so I don't have to worry about things later on.
- Kombi gearbox mounts and IRS conversion rear
- new 2mm checker plate floorhalves
- move gearstick back 3"
- add clutch access hole
- seam weld entire pan
- weld seat mounts between the lift kit and tunnel
- frame head clearance for long tie rod
- welded lift kit : would you guys recommend C-channel or Box section? and 3" or 4" if I understand what you were saying above?

Is there anything that I've missed?

Also, do people have links to tech/how to articles on how to do a lot of these things? I'm confident and willing to do them myself, I just really don't want to stuff anything up.
More specifically clearancing the framehead, moving the gearstick and the clutch hole. But info on everything would be good. You can never have to much information.

Thanks to everyone so far for their input.



Smiley

Also, when you say it's a J&S Buggy, is there somewhere I can get more info on it? Eg, production numbers, where it was produced, etc.



Smiley

The front end before I began stripping it down.





The beam mounted on the engine stand.





All the yellow bits gone. Shocks, steering damper and sway bar removed.





All the brakes and hubs removed.






This is as far as I managed to get.
Could someone please tell me how the hell do you remove the tie rods?
I tried hitting them out with a soft hammer but they didn't budge one bit. Are they pressed in? Or is there some sort of circlip or addition to the nut that holds them down?





Smiley

They aren't pressed in but are an interference fit - when you nip up the nuts in kind of presses them in place. But you will get them out with a hammer if you don't have a splitter (a tool that looks like a tuning fork).

First off though, don't hit the threaded sections with a hammer without putting the nuts back on to protect those threads! You'll have a mare getting the nuts back on otherwise....

Once you've put them back on to protect the threads, try hitting the side of the round section of the joint - they should pop out after a good few hits.

Impact engineering all the way!

Buy a $40 ball joint/tie-rod popping tool from your local auto supplier. It will make life easier in the future and you wont risk damaging threads or seals by mis aimed blows.

It's been quite a while since I last updated this post so i thought I had better get round to it. I've been spending my time slowly working on the floorpan and sorting it out. I've bought a welder which I have yet to try out. And got some checkerplate and C-channel to repair the floorpan with.



Smiley

The first picture shows the pan before I started cutting. and the next two and the bare tunnel with both halves cut off.












Smiley

I chiseled the breast plate off from underneath the bottom of the framehead at the front of the car. The metal on the bottom of the tunnel was quite rusted underneath so I decided to cut this piece out and replace it with new metal. I can see two lines inside the tunnel heading to the front of the car.










One is the old fuel line and the other appears to be a brake line? It exits on the RHS right next to the master cylinder. Can anyone confirm that this is a brake line? I thought all beetles had them run past the pedal assembly and up the inside of the car next to the tunnel on the drivers side. When I stripped the pan down the rear brake lind was run along the side of the tunnel inside the car, but you could tell it wasn't a factory line.

On another note, if I have the floorpan number will I be able to tell what year the car was? Or do you need the body number for that?



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