Hi guys, I've been lurking here a couple of weeks and decided it was time to introduce myself. I'm Michael, and I just made a deal for my 1st buggy. Hopefully the picture is showing below...its the red chassis in the foreground. The buggy seller is my cousin and he doesn't know much about it other than its got a type 1 bug IRS transaxle in it.....as you can see it does not have a motor, but otherwise it seems to be a complete roller in need of some TLC. Wheel to wheel it measures out 100" and was the only rail frame he had that had a long cage that would help protect the motor....I'm 6ft tall and figured I needed the longest frame I could get. So far the photo I shared is about all I've seen of the buggy myself, since my cousin lives 5hrs away and we made this deal by phone last week....Another buddy of mine is also interested in a buggy so he's trying to swing a deal for his own chassis....Once that happens we'll make a trip to pick them both up. In the mean time I'm doing all the research into buggies and motor options that I can, which brings me to this forum.
A bit of background is in order....I turn 55 next week, and have been married to the same mean, grumpy old woman for almost 30 years now and we don't seem to be able to run each other off yet...lol. I grew up around an old time "Full service" gas station/garage.....I'm a true gearhead and know my way around most any pre 1990's engine, with exception of VW engines....I've only messed with those a couple of times for minor stuff....most of our customers took their bugs to the local "Bug shop" so I know little about the all mighty veedub motor. I've raced in various motorsports over the years, but that ended with my suffering a massive heart attack during our off season from running 600cc Outlaw microsprint cars.....I was racing shifter karts when I had my heart attack.
Anyway, by the grace of God I'm still here, and now 17 years later my health has improved enough that I've decided its time once again for some sort of playtoy and I'd been looking around for a project when by chance I was talking with a cousin who mentioned he had some sandrails for sale that just needed motors and sent me a couple of pics....That peaked my interest enough to do some online research on them. Searching sand rails led me to find street legal sand rails....Ok, thats cool.....then I ran across these "Woods buggies" and thought, Ok, those suit my needs more then a sand rail even though I'm not really looking to do the hill climbing thing that ya'll do competitively...which looks way fun by the way...lol.
We live in the Ouachita moutain region of sw Arkansas, and are surrounded by the Ouachita national forest.....If you've ever heard of the Talimena drive scenic byway that runs 54 miles across the top of Rich mountain, Arkansas 2nd highest peak.....Well, I live about 4 blocks from where that stretch of road starts...or ends....depending on how you look at it....lol.....Every direction we travel is winding mountain roads thru the forest, and the forest itself is loaded with logging roads and all sorts of ATV trails. So my reason for building this buggy is to be able to have a street legal buggy that can run up and down these backwoods roads and trails. I do not plan on hitting really knarley offroad terrain since its just a standard vw suspension and I don't really want to tear stuff up when I go out since that would mean being stranded somewhere deep in the woods, and that wouldn't be good.
Anyway, I'm hoping you guys can give me help and advice as I venture into the world of backwoods buggy riding.....Once I get this buggy home I'll be tearing it down and doing some frame mods and then taking my time going thru everything on the buggy....I'm just a poor boy and will be doing this build a little at a time as funds are available.
My 1st question to you folks is this.....What motor options will fit the type 1 tranny that this buggy has and what do you guys suggest for me now that you know what I plan on doing with it....VW motors don't seem to be as easy to come by as they use to be, but I'll keep looking for that hidden deal...lol...Oh, by the way.....You folks have a great website and some awesome buggies.....I've been loving the videos, but would really like to see some onboard footage of just cruising thru the backwoods trails if ya'll have some that you'd share...I could watch that knda stuff for hours, but I'd also like to show the wife what we could be doing once the buggy is done....right now she just sees a wore out, broke down sand rail thats gonna be takin up space in the garage...lol
Heres what my buggy looks like that I'll be starting with....thanks in advance for all your help and advice.