France's new Manx Kickout SS build thread.

Post by **vincent9993** » Sun Jan 08, 2012 2:32 am

We started to work on France's new dune buggy.

We finaly located a donor with current tilte, an abadoned Baja project.

Tried to convince France we were done with the project... she did not buy it.

She vowed to help... Pull!!!

Work starts...

France pulls the shell off the pan.

A few suprises from the P.O.

Some cutting.

Pan comes off...

Working in the cold...

Typical North East survivor...

I think there was an accident the PO may have neglected to tell me about...

Another casulty...

Metal work...

New parts start to come in...

New head end.

Re-taped...

Re-welded brace

Cleaned rear floor bracket area

Showing off head end

Sandblasting in the cold...

All cleaned.

Mounting rear brackets

POR-15 begins

France making good on her promise to help.

More to come as work continues.

FulsGld · Post by **FulsGld** » Sun Jan 08, 2012 5:35 am

WOW! That's some amazing stuff! Keep posting pictures, I love it...

Ed-Chenal · Post by **Ed-Chenal** » Sun Jan 08, 2012 8:17 am

Nice work.

Nice shop.

Post by **vincent9993** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 12:19 am

Preview of what we're trying to accomplish...

Ed-Chenal · Post by **Ed-Chenal** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 7:26 am

Too bad you are so far away from the Southwest.
We still have a good number of donor VWs with far less rust than what you have to settle for in the Northeast.
Good luck with the project.

Post by **vincent9993** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 1:29 am

Making progress on 2 fronts...
Got a hold of Stewart Transport and we may be able to get the body shipped... More on this later as we work out the details.
France made good again on her promise to help out.
We got the floors welded in and we're happy with the result.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abnE6qH-E_A[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riWOmbq__GQ[/youtube]

Got some more work done today.

Sanblasting maching did not want to cooporate in -25°C temp... It kept getting clogged up and I'll have to try that again when weather cooporates a little more.

I still fixed the bump stop holder and got the bearings removed and cleaned the housings.

Machined the head of a bolt round and smoothed it out

Drilled through the mount and welded the bolt from underneeath.

Here are the installed floors

Post by **vincent9993** » Sat Feb 04, 2012 11:42 pm

Got some more progress done today. Invested in some dry new sandblast material and the warmer weather helped getting the rear suspension arms all cleaned up. France was on deck again lending a hand.

We're happy with our progress. Now we need more parts to continue...

Test fitted the new caps, those are bad ass!

Post by **vincent9993** » Mon Feb 06, 2012 12:05 am

A few more pictures of this week-end's progress.

Ed-Chenal · Post by **Ed-Chenal** » Mon Feb 06, 2012 5:25 am

Good stuff...

Post by **vincent9993** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 3:49 am

Got our seats today...

Lets hope they fit...

manxter26 · Post by **manxter26** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 11:20 pm

Your project is looking great. It sure makes me appreciate living in a dry climate. Which # is your Kickout SS? My 14 year old son and I picked up my SS, #26, this last weekend at Winnie and Bruces. Who made your torsion bar caps? What are they made of? Keep up the good work.

Jay and family in Colorado

Post by **vincent9993** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 12:22 am

manxter26 wrote:Your project is looking great. It sure makes me appreciate living in a dry climate. Which # is your Kickout SS? My 14 year old son and I picked up my SS, #26, this last weekend at Winnie and Bruces. Who made your torsion bar caps? What are they made of? Keep up the good work.

Jay and family in Colorado

Well at least we don't have an excuse not to be working on our buggies. It's not like any of us are going for a long cruise in -30°F!

We just ordered the Kickout and we don't have a S/N yet. France would have liked #27 (for her birthday) but we are not really picky. As for the torsion caps, I got them from this guy advertising on TheSamba: Billet Aluminum Spring Plate Caps They are polished aluminum. Have you started your build? Got pictures to share?

manxter26 · Post by **manxter26** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 4:46 pm

I'm in the gathering stages right now. My original plan was to do an IRS, balljoint chassis like you are doing. And then came along a guy that had stripped a wrecked 1964 Porsche 356C. So now I'm on doing a linkpin, swingaxle so I can utilize all of the Porsche parts. Not to hi-tech, but it worked pretty well on the old porsches. The 356C was the first year for 4 wheel disc brakes and the 911 style bolt pattern, which is the wheels that I've wanted to run. The decision now is to use a cut down VW chassis or order one from Dave Barritt. The body is as close to "Slate Gray" as we could get. This is the color of the Steve McQueen 911S that recently sold for 1.25 million plus fees. The only other SS that was at Winnie and Bruces was Jons #19, although Winnie was talking about orders for a few more. We placed our deposit in May of 2009, but wanting #26 to match our other cars, and then deciding on the color is what took so long. I'll try to get some pictures up of the progress. Keep up the good work.

Jay and Family in Colorado

Manx Club #403

Original Manx-No Tag

Signature Manx #26

Manxter #26

Kickout SS #26

Meyers Manx Surfboard #26

Meyers Tow'd (Sold-Heading for France)

Manx II (just a rough body)

Couple other clones

dcamomanx · Post by **dcamomanx** » Thu Feb 23, 2012 3:25 am

Jay,

I love the idea of running 356 parts on the kickout. I can't wait to see pics of the body.

BTW tell us more about the tow'd heading to France. Yours is the third one that I have heard of being shipped there recently. Are tow'ds reproducing there?

Hmmmmm

Doran

manxter26 · Post by **manxter26** » Thu Feb 23, 2012 6:43 am

Doran,

Yeah, I'm thinking the 356 stuff will fit the car. I've been doing some research and it appears that I can use a VW trans with the 356 axles and disc brakes. The benefit there is all the mounting will require no fabrication and if my wallet is deep enough, I can do the Berg 5 speed. This car had rolled, so almost no body pieces, but when he stripped it, he kept everything. I've got the discs front and rear, torsion bars and spring plates in back, steering box, tierods, Koni shocks, instruments, etc. I also had the engine, but it was worth to much and about zeroed me out when it sold. This car will have a Bad-Ass type I VW engine. NO WATER. I'll get pictures of the body soon.

Now the tow'd. If you remember, I bought it right before Big Bear. Between your car and Gregs, I was really jazzed about doing it. I've been realizing that I have to much stuff, and to little time to finish and had been thinking about trimming the fleet. After loosing my mother on Jan. 3rd, I'm starting to feel the need to complete a few of these and quit gathering so much. I put the tow'd on the club swap area with zero interest. I had taken pictures and decided to throw it on ebay just to see if there was any bites, not expecting it to make reserve. We were on are way back from picking up the SS when the auction ended. I checked it from my room in Kingman, AZ, and realized it was going away. The buyer, a female I believe, that struggles with English, has paid for the car and now just waiting for it to be picked up. Hard to believe that you can pay the price and the shipping and still need to restore the project. We're not the only crazy ones.