My Buggy (re)Build.

[Leatherneck]

Ryan where are your pics?

[RyanB]

I am still sorting out issues with my domain. It got moved to another server and I guess not everything came with it. I've been without mail through it for almost 2 months.

Trying to fix the broken links... >_<

[RyanB]

Ryan where are your pics?

It looks like I have the problems worked out. At least with the web server.


the buggy is another matter. It seems the electrical system decided to go belly up. Nothing is working properly. Very disapointing. I am going to tear it all apart and make it as absolutely simple as possible. Like no more then 6 wires.

[Leatherneck]

Do you have a thread started in the electrical forum? I know not complicated with 6 wires but might be some guy out there who will have his questions answered. Besides we like seeing pictures.

[RyanB]

Heh. Naw, no post over there. Too many problems all over the place. The car sat in the rain a week ago and I think that had something to do with it. Give me an excuse to yank everything off the hood so I can repaint it and then re-do the wiring.

[RyanB]

So, this past weekend was beautiful for a winter day... I ended up out in the shop all weekend. I got alot done but didnt take alot of pics. <sigh>

I used my tubing bender for the 1st time. With a little coaxing, the jack started working. I didnt find out it had an issue though until halfway through my 1st bend. I was a bit disapointed that I had to back off, pull the jack out and put more fluid in it. But, I got it all back together and ended up doing all the bends I needed to.

Like I mentioned, it was my 1st time bending. So I had to wrap my head around how much the bend was going to take up in the bar for length and whatnot. All in all, I did 'mess up' my 3rd bend. For some reason it was alot higher then the other side. I musta fell alseep or something I dunno. You dont really notice unless your standing in the right spot though I suppose.

I also finished up about 90% of my re-wire (not including turn signals). It's a redneck job I suppose but, hey it seems to work....

On to the pics...


Here it begins. I had to create a couple of footers for the tube to weld to.



My very 1st bend. It was a little nerve wracking. Tube isnt cheap and I didnt want to have to buy more!




Second bend... Both at 90 degree's! Woohoo!



This was an interesting "problem". I needed to make a bend in the other direction... Had to put the bender up on my bench!



OK. Forward hoop that I just made is in! Got it clamped into place.



Forward and rear bars are now welded together. Starting to look like it should! This is as far as I got this past weekend on the rollcage.



After cleaning up the mess of wiring I had before. This is what I was left with to begin my new "Redneck Wiring" session....



Ok. At this point I had installed my positive and negative strips. Also, the 30amp inline fuse it bolted on and you cant see it in the pic but I have new wires coming from the back for everything and this time they are tightly wrapped in electrical tape.



Here, I have installed the 2 relay's and cleaned up the passenger side wiring.



Here I have pulled all the "Turn signal crap" onto the steering collum. Who needs turn signals on the sand???


Here, I have installed my Battery holder. The wrapped wires coming from the back have been brough up as well as the positive cable going to the starter. It looks a bit messy because the wires coming from the back are loose. I have actually finished routing all those. I just forgot to take a pic of it....


So, this is all where I stand on this car at the moment. I want to get some 1" tubing and bring it across lower down along the sides for the roll cage. Once that is done I can pull it out and finish fully welding the footings and paint that sucka!

[Leatherneck]

Ryan, man I am jealous, new bender nice looking bends you are "Da Man" How did you figure out where the bend needed to be or was it bend it measure and cut excess off? Looks good!

David

[RyanB]

Ryan, man I am jealous, new bender nice looking bends you are "Da Man" How did you figure out where the bend needed to be or was it bend it measure and cut excess off? Looks good!

David

The Sad part is the "new" bender isnt new. I think I've had it a year now...lol

Mostly, it was a "Guestimate" of sorts. The CLR of the Die was 8". So I added an inch to that. I then measured from the end and took off 9" from the total height I wanted and marked. Then I set the beginning of the die to that point and started bending. Worked out pretty good.

[petew]

good work on adding more cage. the first thing I thought when I starting reading this thread was, 'I hope he's adding more cage'. Single roll over bars are just not adequate. I was on the dunes recently and one of the guys flipped his manx at very low speed when his front wheels dug into a soft spot in the face of a dune. the windsceen did more to stop it than the single roll bar. BTW, I reckon the bus box is worth the work. but I guess you'll get round to it in your own time.

[RyanB]

So, I did some more cleanup of the wiring and installed the center console. Here are a few pics... I have also put on my Kadrons. Need to tune them a bit...


Wiring is complete. Ive welded in a bracket to hold the center console. Wiring into the console is wrapped.


Console installed and wiring connected.

[Woobie]

Hello Ryan,

I am brand new to this board and have noticed that we appear to have the same Thunder Bug body. I recently started a complete overhaul of my '59 based ThunderBug and am tracking my (slow) progess here: http://mbarrett.dyndns.org.

I haven't seen too many of these ThunderBugs around - I understand that there were not that many made. I didn't have any clue on the make/model until just recently.

Good luck with your build, and I will be keeping an eye on how the car turns out!

Michael

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Ryan, looking good. Two things; did you gromet the pass throughs for your wiring? Did you mark on the bender the start of the bend (mold point)? I had one to use for a while (I didn't get to use it though) and it had a notch made at the start of the bend. I was told to put a sharpie mark there to be able to see it better.

Are you going to build a body lift too? Looking forward to seeing you at Horsefall. Unless I break it in a couple of weeks, I will drive down to visit at Horsefall or at the beach. I PM'd you the other day, did you get it?

[RyanB]

Hello Ryan,

I am brand new to this board and have noticed that we appear to have the same Thunder Bug body. I recently started a complete overhaul of my '59 based ThunderBug and am tracking my (slow) progess here: http://mbarrett.dyndns.org.

I haven't seen too many of these ThunderBugs around - I understand that there were not that many made. I didn't have any clue on the make/model until just recently.

Good luck with your build, and I will be keeping an eye on how the car turns out!

Michael

Hi there Michael! Yea there are not many of these around. I am not bringing the car to show quality as my wife uses it in the sand. So I expect it to get beat up. I'm doing my best to make it "look good".

I should have an update this weekend for the rollcage. I have it all welded up and painted. It's sitting in the car now, just needs to be bolted to the floor.

I'll have to go check out your build!

On a side note, looks like my domain may be having issues. Have to check out what is wrong.

[RyanB]

Ryan, looking good. Two things; did you gromet the pass throughs for your wiring? Did you mark on the bender the start of the bend (mold point)? I had one to use for a while (I didn't get to use it though) and it had a notch made at the start of the bend. I was told to put a sharpie mark there to be able to see it better.

Are you going to build a body lift too? Looking forward to seeing you at Horsefall. Unless I break it in a couple of weeks, I will drive down to visit at Horsefall or at the beach. I PM'd you the other day, did you get it?

Hmmmm. I did not receive a PM from you. Could you send it again? Maybe the site had a hiccup or something?

I do have a grommet in the pan back where the wires go through.

As far as the bending. I have not marked the die, however I understand that the actual bend starts about 3" back from the front of the die. So I factor that i nwhen making my measurements on where to position the tubing.

Would love to meet up with you when we are down in Coos! sounds good! re-send me that PM!

[Woobie]

Hi there Michael! Yea there are not many of these around. I am not bringing the car to show quality as my wife uses it in the sand. So I expect it to get beat up. I'm doing my best to make it "look good".

I should have an update this weekend for the rollcage. I have it all welded up and painted. It's sitting in the car now, just needs to be bolted to the floor.

I'll have to go check out your build!

On a side note, looks like my domain may be having issues. Have to check out what is wrong.

Sounds good Ryan! In my case the car is going to be mainly a street car with some light off-road use. At this point the car is mostly disassembled as I need to do a lot of clean-up/restoration work to get her back to her former glory.

FYI, my site is currently just hosted on one of my personal Linux PC's so there is always a chance that it will be shut down when you access it. I'm going to be moving to a hosted site soon, so that will change.

Tonight I am going to have a look at the transaxle to see what kind of shape it's in before I rebuild the engine. Should be fun! I've never worked on a Vdub tranny before....