Manx Club

Well, I always said that after I had the buggy up and running after having the major work done i would dive into doing work on it myself. so after a fun first summer the time has come. I am sending it in for paint so I am going to try disassembling everything for the shop ahead of time. for one , because it's cheaper, for two ,so i can start to see how it all works. For the most part it should be easy , the only major piece i will need to figure out is the hood. i don't think its a manx but its a darn close copy so i am figuring it is basically like most of yours. I was hoping to get a run down on what i will need to get apart , disconnect. wires,steering.tricks i might be able to use.things i need to watch out for. stuff like that. so if anyone could throw in their 2 cents i would appreciate it. Looks like we'll start sunday. My son (6yrs) is looking forward to it just wait till he hits his knuckles for the first time LOL- we'll see how enthusiastic he is then. thank all!

The first thing that comes to my mind is to check out your wiring loom and see if there is room for improvement. We've seen some pretty neat wiring setups from several here on the ManxClub and copying is allowed! Fuse blocks, quick connectors, neat and clean wiring layouts, what else...

My suggestion would be to lable ALL the wiring before hand, so when it comes time to re-assemble, it goes together straight forward with no suprizes or forgotten connections. You might also want to install automotive wire bus connectors on all the wiring before anything else. That way, when it's time to take it apart, all you have to do is disconnect a few plugs. Then when you put it back together, just re-connect the plugs and off you go. :rock:

The few pointers I can give that may or not be so wise are: Take a few minutes to get organized. Get youself a lot of goog baggies and a sharpie and label everything that comes off and try to remain as organized as possible. Take a lot of pictures of possible trouble areas for when the car goes back together. I have saved myself a good amount of trouble by being able to refer to a picture of how it was. Last but not least, make sure that everything on your body is fixed (properly) and prepped before it goes to paint. You will really get your moneys worth out of your paint job and you will be rewarded with a good shine for years. Miss this step and you will be bumming. Been there. I would strive to get your body back to as close to "new" as possible and with the way it's been running and the amount that you have been enjoying it will reward you three fold. Take some more pictures of how the car looks now from all angles, you can never have enough "before" pictures. Once you take the seats out, you'll really have a lot of room to get under the dash to inspect how your steering and dash are set-up. One other thing that you may not have realized is the light fixtures need to come off before you pull the hood off. I've made that mistake many times. If you need any manpower, let me know. What color are you going with?

ok, so going to pull all the lights first. seats, roll bar. steering column unbolts underneath and that should drop. unbolt the hood down the welting it looks like. at that point it looks like it will be mostly disassembled. then comes the fuzzy part. so the whole wiring bus needs to be disconnected? it must be the old 70s version, a bar with screws on top and bottom. i didn;t even think of how easy it would be to get under after the seats out! whew- a bright spot!.all i have is a light switch, speedo,wiper assy and horn pushbutton on the dash.so i guess disco all those. and at that point the hood lifts off? with the windshield. or should the widshield come off first?. does that about do it? since that'll be off i will hopefully get the tank filler chopped and will try to replace a new steering box. mines kinda iffy i think. and i'm going with the same bronze/copper color - with flake though. not sure how much or how big. going to go over that with the guys when i bring it in. something between the 'cherrywood' and 'brilliant copper' i am thinking. http://www.meadowbrookinventions.com/lo ... metal.html

You'll have to check your windshield and dash set-up, but usually the windshield needs to come off first.

Hey Mike, Glad to see you going to get some buggy experence . All the posts I read are right on. The only thing I would do different is I would re-wire everything. all new wires and connectors. I know your background and it shouldnt be hard for you to start from scratch. I have wiring diagrams I can send you. I used a vw fuse box but I know there are better ways to go. I have disconnects at every connection between the body and the rest of the car so it will be easy to remove the body later. If your steering box is Iffy I would replace it. Its alot easier to do with the body off. Spray all your bolts with WD-40 several times each day for about a week before you attempt disasembly. This will save you alot of grief later. I put every bolt in a can labeled with the part of the car it came from (front end, int. pan, etc.) Order what you need to replace now (pan seal, fender bead, windshield seal etc.) its frustrating to have to wait for a part when you feel like working on your buggy. Bring old parts with you when you go to the auto parts store to get new ones (like brake shoes). How far are you planning on going with this project? You might be suprised how you can get carried away... If you need a hand give me a call or IM me (wuzabug on AIM) I think I can still find your house... Good luck and have fun with your son.

Take lots of pictures of everything! Put them on the computer and put captions under them explaining why the picture is there. Replace all the nuts, bolts, flat washers, and lock washers with stainless steel. Years down the road you will be happy you did. Remember you can't use a torch, chisel, and sometimes not even a cutoff wheel to cut a rusty mounting bolt that is going thru fiberglass. I am presently working on a buggy body that had mild steel fasteners holding it together. The person I bought the body from just pulled the heads of the rusty bolts he couldn't loosen, thru the fiberglass Use stainless. Like I always say " It only cost a little more to go first class".

well i just wanted to thank everyone for the info. unfortunately i took your advice and started to take some pics just to see what was under the dash it seems my hopes of being close to finished with the buggy were pipe dreams LOL. And here i thought it just needed paint. But hopefully we'll have a lot of fun doing the work. found out what a mess my wiring is. looks like the hood and winshield will come off as one piece and that it is NOT attached to the body like , i guess, normally done. take a look at the radio mount! DAMMIT! who does that? what the hell were they thinking? i had no idea there was so much wire behind the dash. i guess i figured with everything pared down there would only be a few wires. thanks for the stainless info too. i see A LOT of rusty bolts/nuts. guess i'll be going over some of the old wiring posts to see what the best options are. the ugly wires

the windshield mount- not attached to the body. behind the dash- look at the freakin' radio mount!

Hey 90 Mine looked worse than that when I took my body off. Amazing what you can do with wire cutters in 5 minutes. Even cut that squeeky speedo cable in half. Start with a clean slate. :2cents:

The wiring looks great compared to some of the buggys I have worked on . But it looks like time to do it correctly. I would also consider fabricating a under dash cross bar to tie both sides of the body together and keep from putting all the stress on the dash and hood. Here is an example of a Manx cross bar.

Here is a picture of my dash/hood brace.

The nice part of this is that you get to do as much or as basic as you want. It will be your buggy, done the way you want. Have fun.

went over the car and made a list today. the messiest part will definately be the dash. looks like the hood is rather simple. i just had a question about the way you guys have the hood attached. is it nut and bolt? or just a screw? mine looks to be easy to remove because it looks like they are just screws tightened down holding it down. found even more rusted hardware too. ick so now we got the list and what i am responsible for and what my sone is responsible for and at least one of us is extremely excited about getting started! LOL. i'll give a report as we go along if anyones interested.