Manx Club

Found a real tuff tub t-style 4-seater original red metal flake gelcoat. made by perfect plastics company of Penn. they were thick well built bodies. this one had many available options, adjustable bucket seats rear seat and vinyl top. original deep dish slotted wheels with wide bias ply tires. paid $2000.00. Known issues; bad floors broken front trans mount, hand brake only, titled. upon inspection of floor; was patched with no parking sign and silicone caulk. in order to fix front trans mount, you need to pull motor. after full body off restoration,replacing new parts only when needed. new floors replaced, interior re stitched, poor condition roof left alone to be used as pattern. engine cleaned tuned repainted. the restoration took 8 months all work by me.sold to buyer who complained about slightly faded gelcoat condition,and poor condition of roof even though he admitted planning on never using in the rain or wanting a top. he acted as though he was buying just another used car, and I had misrepresented the condition(which I had not). I got him to admit he had never seen a dunebuggy before and knew nothing about vw's. he offered a very low figure, which I declined. he called the next day and bought it at asking price of $5500.00, as he admitted it was the only buggy he saw advertised as not needing work. this story is to show newbies what may need to be done to a buggy even though seller felt it only needed little work. It needed a lot of work.

These are very typical stories often happens to new buyers. When we builders build nice cars from wrecks we know every inch of car and we do try and represent it as best we can. Problem is everyones looking for a deal ( even us ) so we dig for problems to get price down. But we know its always as is. Newbies or even old Rodders that are just getting back into the fun of old cars don't know or remember that they are old cars. Not many Resto Rods, buggies drive or run like new cars. I always tell people they are never done and always need tinkering. Even when you put away running fine it may not run again without some love.

I do think parts are way better than when we were kids and old Buggies with new parts are always better than when they were first built.

The fun is the hunt and build...IMO