Great stories, everyone! I'll throw mine in just for the heck of it. I saw a FG buggy for the first time back in 1993. I saw it at the Mobil station (now a Pilot) at Kramer Junction (intersection of highways 395 and 58, in the California Mojave Desert). That weathered little blue buggy looked very cool, and the guy who owned it was very nice, answering all my questions (not that I could comprehend ANY of what he was telling me!). Bitten by the Bug In 1995, a co-worker told me his Dad was selling his two seater rail. It had an 80" wheelbase and a tired 40HP engine. I bought it, and embarked on a very steep and difficult learning curve. I broke just about everything that could be broken, spent far too much money on it, and had some of the best times of my life. There was no turning back now, I had VW buggy fever! The end of an era In 1999, it was time for a change. Most of my friends had gotten married or found other ways to keep busy, and it was getting hard to find a weekend where everyone was free for a desert trip. I could usually get one person to commit, but it was really better to have more people, so someone could stay and watch base camp. During that last year, the buggy performed flawlessly, but the trips were so few and far between I couldn't justify the amount of work or the cost. Something that could be driven on the street would give a lot more bang for the buck. I had not forgotten how cool that little blue dune buggy at the Mobil station was, so I decided to sell the rail and build one of my own. I sold the rail to a couple guys who drove from Sacramento to Tustin just to see it. They paid me $800 more than I paid for it originally, and I had put nearly $10,000 into the project over the fours years I owned it. That's the price of education these days! Starting from scratch I read the history of Bruce Meyers and the Manx, and decided that I had to have an authentic Manx. It was my dream to be able to build a Meyers Manx from an original kit. I imagined what it must have been like to be the first one to drill a hole in a new body. I realized that I missed the boat, having been born during the heyday of the FG dune buggy (or so I thought). I realized that a restoration was the only way to get a true Manx, so I started what I thought would be a long and difficult search. I saw an ad for a Manx in Sacramento (do you see a theme here?) that claimed to be in the Manx Registry. I emailed Dave Helland and asked him to check to see if it was in the Registry. He replied that it was, but if the deal didn't work out to check with Bruce and Winnie. He said they were making 100 'Signature Series' Manx kits, and some might still be available. I checked with Winnie, found out they were, and placed my order that day. I lived my dream for the next two and a half years, spending every weekend and every evening building my Manx. The new dream was to explore the desert with it and camp along the way, but that's a set of stories for another thread!
Speed Buggy and HR puffinstuff here . Re introduced a year or so ago the day I went to some dead guys house on permission from his son that was just to busy to haul the 10 cars he had off the property . 6 mazda Rx 7 s , a gremlin , manx , ford van and a box truck . I am just about done with my manx it is at the electric wiring guy . Just found another buggy blown motor but complete and in very good shape .
My dad had always wanted to build a Manx with my brother and I, but unfortunately, he died suddenly when I was a teen (back in the 70`s), and never realized his dream. I became involved in muscle cars, and blew tons of money building fast street cars. Then real life set in, the local economy went south, and had to sell all my toys. Fast forward about 30 years...No longer with my money hungry, credit ruining @#^%^*$ ex wife, I had my heart set on finding a 1957 Chevy pick up to restore with my own 10 year old son. We looked at several, but most were just too far gone, or the price was way out of line. A neighbor told me about one he saw for sale nearby. We went to look at it and it was just the project I had been searching for...but he sold it 10 minutes before I got there. That`s when I noticed an old weathered buggy next door, and had an instant image of my own fathers dream. I went and knocked on the door and enquired about the buggy. The guy had plans of someday getting it running again, and wasn`t sure if he wanted to sell it...but his wife coaxed him into letting it go. Plus, he could see the stars in my sons eyes while looking it over. We bought it on the spot for $200.00, and towed it home. It`s still a project, and a great learning experience for my son. My dad would be so proud to see his grandson working on this buggy. I`m no longer searching for a pick up. It`s funny how old VW`s can infest your mind, and alter your thinking process. An old Baja Bug also followed me home a few weeks ago...not that I really needed it, but 50 bucks for a `65 bug seemed like a deal to me. I`m hooked...I`m doomed...
The quest for unusual transportation. In mid '02 I started the process of importing a Lotus Elise - which was then not legal in the states, but there were way of getting it done. My research led me to rumors of Lotus federalizing the car as an '04 or '05 model. In 1/03, Lotus made the official announcement; shortly thereafter, I placed my deposit with an estimated delivery of 6/04. By 2/05 I still had not received the car & had money in the bank.... so I told Lotus to shove it & bought a house (there's a longer story there, but I'll spare you). Being in L.A., houses set you back a pretty penny... I still wanted a toy but certainly could no longer part with $50K. I'd always thought that buggy's were super cool & my previous air-cooled VW experience ('75 914) proved to be a good one... so I started the search. So far, it's been trying, but I'm hoping there is light at the end of the tunnel. I've pretty much replaced the entire fuel system in my buggy (that I've now had for a little over a month) in hopes to keep it running for more than a few miles & am still waiting on the registration to go through.
[font=Comic Sans MS]I got interested in the Manx style dune buggies after visiting our older friends over in Quartzsite, AZ. Ross was a retired Border Patrolman and had moved over there after retiring from the Del Mar Racetrack as a Security Guard. He told me that he had built "Old Asis" back in the early 70's as his daily driver. He also drove it around the CA, NV and AZ area in his quests as a Gold Seeker. [font=Comic Sans MS] [font=Comic Sans MS]We had gone out to stay with them during the winter of '91 when I first saw "OA". Ross cruised us around the desert that weekend and we really enjoyed the open ness of the buggy. [font=Comic Sans MS] [font=Comic Sans MS]Came back out the following winter and was told that "OA" was OOC. I asked Ross what had happened to it and he stated that the grandkids came out after our last visit and wrecked havoc on the buggy. Carb was all gunked up with dust and the brakes were all but gone. I asked Ross that if I was to help fix her up, could I borrow it and go driving around in the desert. He said no problem. So, we went out on the weekends that season and got the buggy back on the road. [font=Comic Sans MS] [font=Comic Sans MS]Ross and his lovely bride Rosewood came over the following spring and stopped by the house for a visit. He asked me if I wanted to buy the buggy. Jo Ann said that my jaw just about hit the floor. [font=Comic Sans MS] [font=Comic Sans MS]I asked him about what his kids would say and he informed me that none of them have been fixing the buggy and not to worry about them. I asked him what he wanted for it and then fell off of my chair when he told me the price..... $200. [font=Comic Sans MS] [font=Comic Sans MS]Well it took a few hundred more to get her back into shape to where she is totally safe to drive on the highway. Her paint is faded, exhaust pipes are rusty as all get out and I couldn't help but smile when the neighbor's 16 year old daughter saw it in front of the house after they moved in and called it "Tight"..... [font=Comic Sans MS] [font=Comic Sans MS]And now, I'm teaching my 4 teen age grandkids how to drive her when they come for a visit and we're having FUN, FUN, FUN!!!!!
For me, Speedbuggy caught my attention as a kid. Then one day, the local mall had a raffle where if you could match the serial number of a dollar bill to a list they posted once a week for a month in the summer, you won a dune buggy. I would have my dad bring us down there every week and try to match up the numbers of every dollar bill we had in our pockets (and in the mid-'60's, that wasn't very many!). Not winning the dune buggy, my dad went out and bought a boat. So we spent the next 15 years water skiing. Flash forward to 2001. My neighbor bought a dune buggy and started to work on it. During that summer, he invited us to go fishing up in June Lake. Almost immediately after we pulled in, five or six buggies roared out of the same campground. After a few hours, they roared back in (towing one back on a trailer ). The camp nazis (hosts) were pissed that they were there and hadn't paid their "extra vehicle fee" and set out to make everyone's life misserable . My wife was very interested in these colorful things (looked like a bag of giant MnM's spilled out all over the place ) We walked up to look at them, met some of the people, talked about what it would take to run one of these contraptions..., and my wife was hooked! After a few days of fishing, we headed home, talking about buggies the whole way. Six weeks later (after looking at a numerous buggies online), we bought our buggy from an E-Bay auction. We drove down to Anehiem and bought a trailer, then drove up to Sacramento and picked up the buggy, and the rest is history :rock: .
WOW! Are we all that old ? As a kid growing up just outside of Cleveland in the 60's I built a lot of model cars and I mean A LOT! around 200+. This happend to include 2 manx and a 1Towd and as model cars go these were really GROOVY . Fast fordward to a few years ago , when my mom passed away and I went back to help clean out the house , she never threw away any of my stuff, It was still all in the upstairs room allmost as I left It in 1974. All the models were in the glass case or put away neatly in boxes including the two manxes and the towd. During the estate sale someone bought all the model cars and the manxes were gone but still GROOVY. ( and this must have stuck with me) Moving on to Last year and after owing around 12 pontiacs off and on I finally sold my restored 1970 GTO JUDGE , and in the 19 or so years I owned It I put around 10.000 miles on it, I had invested to much in it and worried to much about it to drive it ! and Having just gotten a Motorhome the year before I found out that when we got to a campground we were stuck there unless we packed up everything and drove some were. BY NOW YOU CAN SEE WERE THIS IS GOING , I wanted something light , small, cheep and fun that I was going to DRIVE and BEAT THE C*&P OUT OF ! and OH YA GROOVY! I have never owned anything VW powred or something you could do anything you wanted to with it ( If you ever restored a car to show you know what I mean) I try to drive my 1970 desert fox spoiler that I bought from someone off the website last year as much as I can. :driving: IT IS ALL FUN,FUN,FUN,
:hello: I have been into off-road my whole life, starting with a mini-bike when I was 10. Then motorcycles, threewheelers, quads and finally buggies. As I tell my younger friends who want me to get another quad, I have one, it has a rollcage! I really like the freedom a Manx gives you, very few boundries. I live in a state park, where offroaders are looked upon as trouble makers. My buggy is a true off-roader but to most is just a beach criuser, so my tree hugger friends are cool. But my off-road friends get out of my way, or try to catch up. I also love boating and mix the two at our river house on Martinez Lake, near Yuma. Its the best of both worlds..............:driving:
How i got interested in the Meyers Manx, Bruce came to our Crateing shop in Costa Mesa,Ca. in 1964 as close as i can recall to see about crateing up his cars for his customers, our Company Name is Pre Fab Crate Co. which is still in Business today in Santa Ana, it belongs to my brother Bill, i sold my interest to him in 1979, my Dad designed the crate and crated the first one, he took me to Bruces shop to show me how to crate them, from then on i did all the crating and after a few days Bruce gave me (a 24 year kid a key to his shop) which i could not beleave someone would be that trusting, but that is Bruce, i was building 5 crates a day and crating 5 cars + parts,wheels and any extras the customers bought, i also made a jig to route out the backs and seat 5 at a time with a routter from 3/8th. plywood and was soon selling them to Teds aircraft Interiors,who was putting the upolstrey on them and selling them for all the cars, one of Bruces Distribetors let my brother and i drive a left hand drive Manx from Costa Mesa to Laguena Beach one afternoon, i had never drove a left hand drive car or a Manx buggy,what a ball we had, i was hooked but for some reason (too busy crateing to build one)HA, i sure wish i had not only bought and bilt one, how about buying a 100 or so brand new for about $168.00 and putting them in a warehouse, i think thats called hindsite, well i did buy a glass buggy in 1987 it was a el-lobo, orange with full white top and side windows i drove it for about 3 years and gave it to my son in reno, he keep it for 2 yrs and sold it. well now i have my first real Meyers Manx it is on a 1964 pan,stock 1200 eng,was 6 volt i just switched to 12 volt,added front bumpper and a few things ,have ordered a new cloth top, and have joined the club,will being going on my first trip real soon,will be looking forward to meeting all of you soon. hope you enjoyed my story Crate/man
I guess the shortest version would be; If it had wheels, I wanted to alter it. As a boy we built upside down bicycles, go carts, minibikes. Got a car one day, messed with it. A friend had an old DeSoto and we made into a buggy. Basically we took the car and removed everything that didn't look like a buggy. We'd point it toward the brush and start driving. That was wierd. But hey! It had a Hemi and Fluid Drive! Various hot rods and motorcycles ensued, got married, lost the cars and motorcycles, raised a family. I have always liked to fish, so the plan became to find a buggy to tow behind the camper so we could follow backroads and camp and fish. Finally found a buggy. I started looking for info on how to make it go. After all, it was air cooled and foreign made. This was all new to me. I found a few Club Sites. Found out almost nobody goes fishin' in a buggy. They all go to the desert. So, now I guess I'm goin' to the desert when I get it runnin'. Not much glamour in this story. But, I ended up with a buggy, and I have a plan.......................Any good places to fish in the desert? C-Ya,
This just might be the best thread ever!!! To keep mine short and sweet. As a young boy age 6 to 8 my father owned a 1969 Dune Buggy. It was heavy metelflake red. I do not remember many details about the car except of all the cars my father owned and rebuilt it was my favorite. I used to play in it for hours with our 180 lb St Bernard dog names Whiskey(thats another story). My father was bigtime into drag racing at the Summerset Drag Strip in PA. We had big block Cameros, a 1965 GTO and a 1966 Vette. We were the house all the guys hung out at who needed perfromance built into their cars or who just wanted free beer. At this time I had a mini bike and we also had 3 wheelers. Well in 1972 or so my father bought the Dune Buggy kept it about 3 years then sold it before the ugly devorce from my mom. In 1976 mom moved us to Florida and I never saw that buggy again. Last year I was surfing ebay and came across a listing for a Dune Buggy. This got me thinking about the old red buggy so I started looking. I found a red buggy just like my fathers only 20 miles from my home. I made some promises to the wife about selling my restored 1985 Trans Am so she would let me buy the buggy. The rest is history except for the Trans Am. (I still have it)
Seeing a Manx type on a TV show back in the early 70s got me interested,,,, we were well behind you guys,,, i guess things picked up on the buggy scene in UK at around the time it eased off in USA,,, Got my first one around 73-74 then the novel starts,,, so best i stop now and just say what a load of fun its been driving them over the years,,, THANKS TO BRUCE
[left]Back in 1974 I was working for a guy cleaning pools after school. He had a [/left] Tow'd that we would take to the desert on weekends. On one of these trips we were out on the lake bed (El Mirage) doing donuts and he pushed the steering brake when he should have pulled, the next thing I remember we were crawling out from underneath the Tow'd. I don't know how many times it went over but the front end was bent, the exhaust was smashed into the pullys and the roll bar was bent. So he buy's another Tow'd frame and transfers all of the good parts over and I bought what was left. Over the next year I tried to rebuild the bent tow'd in my garage. Not having a clue as to what I was doing I found a local shop that not only worked on VW's but had a real offroad racecar a Funco Hustler that he raced. I would work Saturdays for free and he would help me get the Tow'd running. I started going to the races to help out and during one of these races (SNORE 250) he got dirt in his eyes and had to get out of the car on the second lap so for reasons I don't remember I got to drive the remainder of the race,where we finished 2nd. Well one thing led to another and I spent the next 15 years first working for a couple different offroad shops building racecars and eventualy opening my own shop called Off Road Enginerring. I closed the shop in 1987 to go to work in the aerospace industry. So 30 years later I am back where I started with a Tow'd in the garage.
Greg & Jeanne Lewin
Member 2805
Tow'd 1679
Dual Sport DS-025
First saw Dune Buggy or Beach Buggy as we call them in England in a British car magazine (Cars & Car Conversions) in 1968, when I was twelve (you do the Math) and was knocked for six by the look of it, but had to wait a year until I saw a real one, a Manx inspired MkI Volksrod in the padock/ pit area of my local racing circuit (Oulton Park). I remember it was yellow and it had had its stock Beetle wheels reversed to give a wider track at the back!!! It came as mana from heaven when in 1970 my next door neighbor's son dragged home a perfectly solid, mint condition 1956 Oval Bug as a basis to build a bright yellow GP Super Buggy out of. At fourteen years of age I became the perfect apprentice (it was before I discovered girls, booze, nicoteen and other distractions...) learning how to make tea, going to the store, overhauling Beetle brakes, wiring, and clearancing the bell-housing to fit the 1500 transporter engine we fitted, etc. I even got to ride in it when it was done!!! I guess it was down hill all the way after that, I've had a string of VWs, Buggies and other odd cars since then...
"Wise men talk because they have something to say, fools because they have to say something." (Plato)
About 10 years ago, I decided that I needed a sports car again. I had already had my red mid life crisis sports car in the form of a Fiat 2300S (the poor man's Ferrari). I looked at MGs, Triumphs, Fiats, Mustangs. Cobras etc. and decided that I was being asked to pay too much for very ordinary cars that needed a lot of work. I saw an ad for a Manx, and bought it, without realising that it was a Fibretech Glitterbug. That worried me until one day Bruce rode in it and said that it didn't matter. I spent a few years getting it the way I wanted it and regretfully sold it to help finance my Manx SR which is not far from being completed. I still want a buggy so that I can go off road and having just bought a 74 beetle, which I have Herbied, I am planning what to do to it. I think that I am a lost soul. I will want a buggy for as long as I can drive or continue to afford fuel, whichever comes first.
The end of an era In 1999, it was time for a change. Most of my friends had gotten married or found other ways to keep busy, and it was getting hard to find a weekend where everyone was free for a desert trip. I could usually get one person to commit, but it was really better to have more people, so someone could stay and watch base camp. During that last year, the buggy performed flawlessly, but the trips were so few and far between I couldn't justify the amount of work or the cost. Something that could be driven on the street would give a lot more bang for the buck. I had not forgotten how cool that little blue dune buggy at the Mobil station was, so I decided to sell the rail and build one of my own. I sold the rail to a couple guys who drove from Sacramento to Tustin just to see it. They paid me $800 more than I paid for it originally, and I had put nearly $10,000 into the project over the fours years I owned it. That's the price of education these days! Starting from scratch I read the history of Bruce Meyers and the Manx, and decided that I had to have an authentic Manx. It was my dream to be able to build a Meyers Manx from an original kit. I imagined what it must have been like to be the first one to drill a hole in a new body. I realized that I missed the boat, having been born during the heyday of the FG dune buggy (or so I thought). I realized that a restoration was the only way to get a true Manx, so I started what I thought would be a long and difficult search. I saw an ad for a Manx in Sacramento (do you see a theme here?) that claimed to be in the Manx Registry. I emailed Dave Helland and asked him to check to see if it was in the Registry. He replied that it was, but if the deal didn't work out to check with Bruce and Winnie. He said they were making 100 'Signature Series' Manx kits, and some might still be available. I checked with Winnie, found out they were, and placed my order that day. I lived my dream for the next two and a half years, spending every weekend and every evening building my Manx. The new dream was to explore the desert with it and camp along the way, but that's a set of stories for another thread! 
In mid '02 I started the process of importing a Lotus Elise - which was then not legal in the states, but there were way of getting it done. My research led me to rumors of Lotus federalizing the car as an '04 or '05 model. In 1/03, Lotus made the official announcement; shortly thereafter, I placed my deposit with an estimated delivery of 6/04. By 2/05 I still had not received the car & had money in the bank.... so I told Lotus to shove it & bought a house (there's a longer story there, but I'll spare you). Being in L.A., houses set you back a pretty penny... I still wanted a toy but certainly could no longer part with $50K. I'd always thought that buggy's were super cool & my previous air-cooled VW experience ('75 914) proved to be a good one... so I started the search. So far, it's been trying, but I'm hoping there is light at the end of the tunnel. I've pretty much replaced the entire fuel system in my buggy (that I've now had for a little over a month) in hopes to keep it running for more than a few miles & am still waiting on the registration to go through.
. My wife was very interested in these colorful things (looked like a bag of giant MnM's spilled out all over the place 
) We walked up to look at them, met some of the people, talked about what it would take to run one of these contraptions..., and my wife was hooked! After a few days of fishing, we headed home, talking about buggies the whole way. Six weeks later (after looking at a numerous buggies online), we bought our buggy from an E-Bay auction. We drove down to Anehiem and bought a trailer, then drove up to Sacramento and picked up the buggy, and the rest is history :rock: .
I have never owned anything VW powred or something you could do anything you wanted to with it ( If you ever restored a car to show you know what I mean) I try to drive my 1970 desert fox spoiler that I bought from someone off the website last year as much as I can. :driving: IT 
