Berrien Buggy Review
Berrien Buggy Review
I would like to build a classic style "Manx" buggy (shortened chassis) to go along with my Manxter. Since we cannot buy them from Meyers Manx and I don't want to buy someone else's headache (I have enough of my own) and I don't want to do all the sanding and painting of a "found in the weeds" Manx I am looking at the Berrien Buggy Nostalgia for about $1200. Does anyone have one of these and what do you think?
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167luckycharm
- Posts: 52
- Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2005 9:00 pm
Hi Mark, While at the Las Vegas Bug In earlier this month, I met up with a fellow named Randy. He had just finished his car, a blue metalflake Berrien body on it, all sparkly and nice. Upon talking with him, he mentioned that he was not happy with the all the flaws that came with the body. He showed me the dimples in the hood and the raw edge of the fiberglass exposed on both sides of the hood, below the headlights, where the fenders meet the hood. He had to use thick fender beading foam material instead of the VW beading. Most of the dimples were quarter-sized, but several were larger. The car looked great from far, but get up closer than 6 feet and all the blemishes show up. He mentioned that his original body was a Manx II but caught on fire when he did some repairs to the front end. Gas and sparks don't mix...fiberglass adds more fuel...and the end was not pretty. He had to purchase the Berrien body to replace the Manx II, since the Siggy's are not available. He was not happy. There were other similar buggies at the Bug In, you can see some of them in the message I posted earlier. I'm not sure if Randy's car was an isolated 'birth defect', I didn't examine them if they had the same flaws. The pic is number 62 in my message from the thread "More pics of bugs..." It's in the photobucket link. It's a pic of Randy (blue shirt) talking with me. I've got my best side to the camera 
Best of luck!
Best of luck!
ind out. Any more? Good or bad. This one looks OK.-
DIESELDOOG
- Posts: 265
- Joined: Thu Feb 24, 2011 6:00 am
- Location: Northern Illinois
There was a post on here months ago about a used clone in upstate NY. Well I drove up and bought that car. While I was there I met James. he was selling the clone because he got a nostalga Berrien tub. He showed me the many flaws and explained how when he called Berrien, they only offered him some touch up paint. That was it. To compound his frustration, the "new" tub he ordered came in on the top of a trailer stacked with other tubs. This caused chips and scratches as well as the blemishes.:2cents:
Berrien huh?? I just bought one back in May of this year. Is it show quality? No, but is miles ahead of what I had. I too have several spots that I am not happy with in the finish. I am particular, very particular, but paid less for this whole body, dash, pods combo than a good paint job on my other car. The car referenced in the above pic belongs to a good friend of mine and has been painted with polyeurathane paint. It has one of the nicest paint jobs I have seen, but he sacrificed many, many , many weekends priming and block sanding that puppy to achieve this. The pics really don't do it justice trust me!!! My experience has been that if shine and imperfection is your goal, paint what you have. It will come out nice if you pay $$$. If you could be satisfied with some imperfections go with Berrien. Overall on a scale of 1 to a hundred, I would rank my berrien body about a 90. It has some dime sized imperfections on the hood, some swirl marks---deep swirl marks, and even one area on the front fender where there is pinholes in the mold/body. To sum it up I still am way satisfied with my car for the price I paid. Now if I would paid 2-2.5k for the car I would have demanded more qaulity. I guess if you really wanted to you could buy a berrien, shoot it with some high fill primer, block it out and shoot it the color you want. Shine costs $$$$. My two cents. check out my "buggy pics". Oh yea, one more thing, if you are going for the slammed look the berrien rear fender sits up about two-three inches higher than other bodies which requires more "slam" to get the right look. It is like they added more material to the bottom of the tub. The pods are longer too and hang down below my VW pan. Pissed me off. MURZ
"I mean did harbor frieght buy out Sears ????????" I believe Kmart did.:drinking: As far as quality and pricing, they offer well made products. I ordered my side pods from Berrien and was very impressed with the quality (Nice thick fiberglass and a nice gelcoat finish with no imperfections.) they do hang about 2" lower than the pan but It helps to add to the lowered street look of my buggy which is what I wanted. I agree with MURZ, if you paid 2-2.5k you would demand more qaulity, but for $1200 its a good deal and good quality and would cost you at least that much for bodywork to get a used body fixed and painted.
There is Vegas Buggiesif it is not to far away, they appear to be the same quality as Berrien (appearence from their web site). I do like their custom frame though.
[QUOTE="mark2manxter"]Checked out Fiberjet. Not too thrilled with the look of the hood.[/QUOTE] Just to clear up a possible misunderstanding, the pics on the website are of their other offerings. I bought a Manx clone. I included a old pic of mine amidst the mess of my garage. Its not the best view but you can see the hood is not at all like that of a Lobo. 
I talked to Danny, the owner, about the mold he produced this body from and he said that he and his dad made it from a Manx way back in the day. Cost is about the same as most other places too.
I talked to Danny, the owner, about the mold he produced this body from and he said that he and his dad made it from a Manx way back in the day. Cost is about the same as most other places too.