Barnfind Buggy

I've been looking for a dune buggy lately, and right when I was about to drive 500+ miles to get one, I had someone contact me on Facebook about one their dad owned, about 5 miles from my house. I immediately called him, and we talked for a while. He invited me to come over and check it out a few days later. 
 This place was exactly like those spots you see on American Pickers, where you think "no way places like that still exist." Well, they do... and they're still tucked away out there, not far away from the big cities. His family had lived on this farm for 100+ years, and he had stuff in various barns from the 20s up. Just about everything you can imagine... model As, a 32 coupe body,  all kinds of equipment, 4 and 6 wheelers, a wall full of vintage outboards, vintage rifles, a small block Ford air compressor that used one bank as power for the compressor, and the other as the banks pistons as the compressor itself... even a Yugo, lol. All kinds of cool stuff. And the reason I was there... two dune buggies. He said he bought the one I was there to look at back in 2014 at a Manx club meeting, brought it home and never touched it again. Here are they pics I took of it buried in the barn, after moving enough stuff to get to it. 

He told me if I was still interested in it at our agreed price, to come back the next day, and we'd dig it out. So we did. Getting ready to see the daylight for the first time in 6 years!

It had no brake pedal after sitting, but after bleeding and adding fluid (still not sure where it went!) it came back up good enough for a drive around the property. It runs very poorly, but I already have parts on order to hopefully fix that... all new ignition, and a new carb, along with all new brakes, bearings, and seals (build thread to follow!) 

Oh... and the widest 15" radials they make were also ordered: 

We reached an agreement on price (delivery included!) and loaded it up: 

Brought it home, and my two daughters immediately hopped in and loved it. I had three people stop and tell me how cool it was as I was unloading/washing it (in the rain, lol.)  After my initial wash:

Now... you see my problem in this picture above.

I have a one car garage. It already has a car in it. 
The Fiesta is pushed all the way back, touching my work bench. Here is the front bumper of the buggy in the garage... wouldn't work if the Fiesta had its grill installed! 

And the rear clearance with the garage door closed? 
 

TIGHT! But... in there! 
 

After one night of cleaning, I'm pretty stoked!

From here, I plan to make it drive well, and then do some cosmetic changes to things I'm not crazy about... the seats, the steering wheel (I hate it!!) and column (mid 80s Ranger column in it) new tail lights (thinking 66-67 Falcon. I don't like the new LED ones in there.) and refreshing the chrome, and add some chrome to the engine, replacing the yellow shrouds. I know nothing at all about air cooled cars, but am about to learn as I go! I'm super excited. This is probably the coolest thing I've ever bought, lol. 

Congratulations on the purchase. Cleaned up nicely.

I'm happy to see the pictures of the garage, makes me feel much better about mine.

Nice score! Build thread or ban. 

Whoa, whoa, whoa, after that big tease about the other stuff, all we get is buggy?

It is a nice one.

very cool!

I could dig that sbf compressor.  

Nice find, and in great shape overall!

A friend back in the 90s had one of these with a turbocharged 1835... quite the exciting ride!

All you need is a different exhaust, and a slight change to the 'bumper' and you'll have no problem fitting both.  

Cool find. If they have Model A body stuff they want to get rid of let me know. 

I love it! I've spent quite some time in Tubs and it's amazing how different they all are. One thing that makes them all better though: new shifter bushing. A lot of ACVWs have old and tired shifter bushings.

I'd like to see pics of the outboards. 

Looks like a solid little buggy.  Nice score.

You've got a beaut there Clark.

That little single port would sound real good through a TriMil Bobcat exhaust. A single exhaust sounds better than separate in my opinion. It would shorten the length a little too.

Slot mags. Man, you hit the lottery with that thing.

Whoa, that is really cool! And it was just sitting in a pile of junk for years. Congrats on rescuing it.

Also, Fiesta! Gonna need to see more of that thing too.

Cool Buggy

is the yellow paint or Gel Coat ?

Nice! Any idea who made that body?

Very cool.  Is it a real Meyers Manx?

In reply to stuart in mn :

Nah, it's a similar style but not a real Manx. I'll try to figure out what it is, but it's a toughy.

EDIT: Digging through the Dune Buggy Archives, I have no idea. Finding that hood is difficult.

One nice looking buggy there. You'll want to check where the pan was shortened for integrity. And please put taller air cleaner element on there.

A tri mil exhaust would be a tighter fit. You'll get a bit more power also. ( a supertrap muffler or alike might also be in order) And speaking of power, if it's a concern, it's all in the head(s). So spend your money there. Add your piston\ cylinder to match. Because most heads use a larger cylinder( 85.5 mm is stock bore size).

Unless CBPerfomance still produced the 042 head. ( a factory performance casting with larger valves ) Change your cam by changing the rocker arm ratio and you won't have to split the case to get a more powerful and more efficient engine (especially if you add another carb). Lastly, supposedly the "answer" for sand rails is a turbo, 94mm piston and the best heads you can buy.

Way back when, there was a turbo buggie that used 4 round trailer light bezel on its rear flanks. Two with lenses and two open. One had the turbo exhaust protruding from it. The other had the turbo inlet behind the opening. Oh, and a full cage.

The tub looks like a Joe Poty Enterprises "Spoiler" to me...

If you want the Chaparral look, you can go with 63 or 64 Corvair rear lenses:

Your barn find is certainly nicer then mine I got a few months ago.

Needs moar stinger exhaust.

Cooter said:

The tub looks like a Joe Poty Enterprises "Spoiler" to me...

I'll second this. My mom has a Joe Poty buggy as well. My dad put a 2007cc turbo motor in it, and it was insane. Now it's back to a NA motor, because the turbo motor migrated to his Baja Bug for ice racing.

If this link will work it might help you identify your dune buggy:

http://www.dunebuggyarchives.com/decision-tree/BuggyId/

Really  didn't help me, seems to be more oriented to fiberglass bodies.

In reply to vwfreek :

All those words you used are great but even better in the order you used them. Ice racing Baja Bug with turbo 2007! I hand't heard of that engine size. So it's a thickwall 90.5 with a 78 stroke. Does keeping the stroke down to 78 have any advantages?