How to build in just 12 years: My Glitter..er.. KC Clipper

[B MAN]

has anyone heard from GA?

kinda miss that guy lol

[ObnoxiousBlue]

He is alive and well. His kids are in that magical age where things like play dates, and pee wee football require his time and efforts.
He is rather Bay these days too...

[B MAN]

good to hear

I liked him, kick me face first in the mud, but help me up afterwards lol

[Big_kid]

That's the feel I get from the group too. Give you a ration of crap while they're helping you out. It's a NY smartass kinda thing that you don't find elsewhere. Similar, but not quite the same.

[Big_kid]

Well, the time has come to give the Glitterbug a facelift, some neater wiring, new fuel line, and who knows what else. I gutted it and took it over to Chevynut's house to begin the work. LOTS of poorly patched holes done by the current owner, looks like he's never worked fiberglass before this. Not planning one any wild glass mods, maybe a recessed fuel door or something. I've waffled a few times on the new color, so I can't say it's final until it's dry. I'll try to get pics as we go.

Fortunately my pan seems solid (it's in my garage). I haven't crawled underneath to check the frame head lately, but I've been under it enough to know it had BETTER still be solid. I've only been out in the rain twice, and never even been offroad- let alone on the beach. Floors are 1/8 sheet metal with square tubing around the edge, done by the previous owner who is (was?) an iron worker. Looked good to me, but what do I know. I can spot the difference between bubble gum and a stack of dimes, that's about the extent of my skill. It's been a LONG time since I had any welding skill.

The body is up on a roll around stand over at Matt's waiting for him to work his magic. Soon, I hope. he has several irons in several fires right now.

[Raj]

Get at it Charlie.... ! Its been too long since we've seen any updates!

[Big_kid]

There WILL be progress now. I spray painted the shamrocks directly on the body for St patty's day so I couldn't put this off any longer, it really needed to be done.

Rear wheels: I picked up a set of hubcap clips at The Bug House, and then traded a bus transaxle for a pair of wagon wheel rims with 10 year old-zero mile tires. Turns out one of the rims is bent, but it's not too bad. I can live with it if I can't get it fixed. I'm still holding on to the original rims, I want to see it one day with stock or baby moons in the rear. I'm debating if I should play musical seats with the Astro van, it has some kind of Jeep seats in it that sit too high on the Astro bases, and they fit in the buggy. I bought a nice set of black leather power heated seats from an Infinity. They're too wide for the buggy, but they'll work in the Astro, with some fabrication and modifications. heated seats would have been a nice addition for those long cold rides back from the Outer Banks. bigger fish to fry right now.

Updates as they happen and time allows.

[Big_kid]

No big updates yet, we haven't started on the body yet. I spent some time on the chassis yesterday though. I scraped about 5 pounds and 48 years worth of weeped gear lube/dirt mixture off the transaxle, I found bolts that I'd never seen before. I also took advantage of it being up on stands and spun the L/R wheel to see what is bent, looks like it's the drum? I'm hoping it's not the axle, I wasn't planning on tearing into that any time soon. I'm hoping my luck holds on on that as I have a spare drum to drum assembly in the shed. That whole "if I keep something bulky around I'll never need it" thought process.

I ran a one piece fuel line from the frame head all the way back to the fuel pump, routing it where the old line was. It didn't cause me any trouble before, so I'm not fighting the tunnel to get it in there. I also started scraping crud off the steering box. the good news is that it felt fine when it was on the road, the bad news is that the plugs in the cover are missing and it's been open to the elements for who knows how long. I stuck a screwdriver in, and got some runny brown liquid out. I'm thinking it's time to clean it out and seal it up. Anybody ever used 00 grease in one? I have several unopened tubes of it. I'm thinking it doesn't seem too picky if they originally came with oil and the current trend is to use grease (according to a thread I saw on theSamba).

Plan for today: Steering box, reconnect new fuel line, remount voltage regulator, maybe address the piecemeal throttle cable tube(AKA replace missing section with a piece of 5/16 steel fuel line just removed)

[Big_kid]

June has been a REALLY busy month this year with graduations, a wedding, having to volunteer to sling beer at concerts (the big Boy Scout Troop fundraisers for the year). If not for Chevynut nothing would have gotten done on it.

If you click on the large version you can see the driver side front fender as it was for the past 3 or 4 years. I have VERY limited experience with fiberglass, and the resin started to cure while I was working it. I never went back to finish it properly.

This is how the hood looked when I last saw it Saturday morning. Driver side wart gone, hole cut for fuel door.


Fuel door and LEDs for the tail lights that I originally wanted:

When I last saw it Saturday:

A glimpse at what's going on the rear, I want something DIFFERENT. Everybody has VW, Mustang or Vega lights it seems. I want to make people ask "Where did they come from? I've seen them but I can't place them".


I've been SUPER busy lately so my pics are a few days behind. The whole album from the 2 pics I saw in the ad on Buggy Trader back in 2001 to last Saturday are here:

http://s249.photobucket.com/user/buggy_ ... t=3&page=1

edit: Forgot to mention I opened up the steering box and flushed out as much of what was in it as I could. I did manage to fish out half of one of the plugs from the cover. I got it back together after topping it off with 00 grease, I put a dab of clear silicone over the holes. I wasn't having trouble before, hopefully I just extended the life of this one. It feels ok as is, but sitting in front of a bare chassis is a far cry from actually driving it. Worst case, I'll get another one when the time comes but I don't really see that being necessary. At least I hope it won't be.

[Big_kid]

Cut & paste from my latest Facebook update (sorry, too long to retype, and wanted to keep the build thread up to date):

This is the pic from the dune-buggy.com ad that started it all 12 years ago. I saw it during a snowstorm and asked my wife if we should look at it. I was expecting a "yeah, right" or a "dream on" (I had been looking online at project buggies). I about fell out of the chair when I heard "Let's go". (notice the angle of the front fenders, I didn't at the time)



Add in another child, remove an income stream, and 10 years later I came out with this:


A neighbor helped me reposition the fender several years ago, but I never got around to finishing it up. I sprayed some Krylon on it and rolled with it. I got it registered for the first time the day of the first MOTB event. Being my first VW build (Chevy guy in the past), having zero miles on it, and tires from at least the 1980's, I wasn't comfortable taking the trip, even though it was less than 100 miles each way. ("Helper" from across the street)


How it usually looked at any point during the build:


3rd kid added into the mix (who is now 11)


Warped glass replaced a few years ago when we worked on the driver side fender angle:


The guy responsible for kicking me in the hind parts and making this thing presentable, Matthew, without whom I'd just spray more Krylon over the scratches and cracks and roll with it.
URL=http://s249.photobucket.com/user/buggy_ ... 3.jpg.html][/URL]

Working more of his magic:


Yes, this is the same hood- minus the wart where a previous owner put a fuel filler door.


Fresh start on the dashboard (practically nothing left before, I had to make a plate before this):


I FINALLY found LEDs that should work with the tail lights I've been wanting to use, so the big holes for the VW lights had to go.



The last time I really took the buggy out was for the Nags head St.Patrick's Day parade. I was almost ready to do the facelift, so I spray painted the shamrocks directly on the body to force me into finally doing the work it needed.


This, my friends, is the short version (believe it or not) of my buggy story.

[leo]

Keep up the great work and keep us updated with pics of course.

[Raj]

nice..... no turning back now!

[Big_kid]

More pics as they happen, and there's only one way to go from here! I can't wait to get this thing back together again, it's been too long and the weather is now too nice to have it in so many different zip codes. there's a fire under my ass to get it done now... again.

[Raj]

there's a fire under my ass to get it done now... again.

burn baby burn!

[Big_kid]

AAAannnd a hurricane comes in during the first week of July. At least it's supposed to hit before the weekend, and I'm on vacation this week. Queue up that Springsteen song again, lol. I'm just hoping it goes out to sea and spares us the aggravation.

[EDNCAROL]

Hope you and your family made it through the storm ok.

[Big_kid]

Slept through it- didn't lose so much as a single leaf off a tree. I guess since we prepared for it, it wasn't going to hit. I have a 10 year old generator in the garage still sealed up in the box, never opened. We gassed up and made sure we had several days of supplies on hand.

North Carolina's Outer banks took it on the chin- yet again. I took my son and 2 friends camping down there Monday. Tuesday we returned to the camper to find a notice to vacate by Wednesday noon due to the storm. We were leaving then anyway, so no change in plans for us. The OBX can't seem to catch a break though. I guess that's what happens when you live on an island out in the ocean, right?

Went over to my buddy's house and worked on the buggy some more today, just glazing low spots and sanding them back down. Nothing really noteworthy, it still looks like leopard spots. The first coat of primer has been sanded off finding defects. Time for me to get busy on the lights sanding housings and prepping LED bulbs. We're getting closer.

[Big_kid]

This was last week. The first coat of primer showed the low spots and areas that needed more attention.

We sanded it down again, Matt laid down a bunch more glaze, we sanded if off, repeat over and over and over.

Some dash repair that got another coat of glaze today:

My apologies for the original version of this post. I was on my phone, and it wasn't cooperating very well.

[Big_kid]

No new pics, just more glaze and sand, glaze and sand... seems like a never ending process sometimes, but I think the end is in sight. There were several structural cracks that have been repaired (one in each corner), I never noticed how wobbly the body was until Matt repaired them. It feels solid now.

I've also found some LEDs that work in the tail lights I want to use. We'll be painting the VW housings as a backup, but I think the Jag lights I wanted are going to work this time.

Pics when something looks different than it did.

[Big_kid]

Holy crap I'm a slacker... no updates since August? Not as much progress as I'd hoped for, but that's how it is when life gets in the way.

I finally settled on colors and flake, and what design to go with. We had the blue laid down, flaked, cleared and taped off, the orange laid down, and then the flake gun quit when the time came for the orange flake. AARRGGHH!! Lol shit happens. No other way to put it. We let it sit for 2 weeks so we'd cool off before touching it again, sanded it back down again, prepped it again, brought it back into the booth, yadda yadda yadda, let it dry overnight.

We go to pick it up the following morning, and the clear didn't stick to the hood. The same clear that was sprayed on the same paint in the same booth from the same gun at the same time as the rest of the body didn't stick to the hood. We sanded, wiped, tack clothed, and MEK'ed (or whatever that stuff was) the hood and the body at the same time, but it didn't stick for whatever reason. We left it alone while we cooled off, and in the meantime life happened. Between Dr appointments and hospitals, working overtime (our Richmond guy quit in December, still hasn't been replaced if anyone is mechanically inclined and near Richmond, VA) the buggy has once again taken a back seat.

These were taken the night it was painted:
That new dashboard above?

[Big_kid]

Almost forgot- I've since learned that this body isn't a Glitterbug after all. It's a KC Clipper- hence the third name of this thread. REEALLLY glad we didn't incorporate "Glitterbug" into the design anywhere (or the plates).

[ObnoxiousBlue]

Hey Charlie! A little less time on that Hyundai and your Merc, maybe we can see this thing rolling this summer?
I could use a summer trip to VB!

[Big_kid]

Hopefully I'll never have to work on that Hyundai again, I sold it yesterday. The Merc seems to be doing well, just needs an alignment. I've done a few of those in the driveway in the past (and hundreds on a rack), but not this time.

VB is here! Manx on the Banx is in October. A week of buggies etc featuring Bruce and Winnie Meyers. There's usually buggy activities at Dennis Andersen's place (Grave Digger monster truck) one day during the week. Past events include blindfold derbies (passenger navigates, driver has a bag over their head) and low speed drag races- Longest ET on the course without stalling wins. there's also lighthouse runs, they try for a beach run but the tides determine whether that happens, beach bonfire also controlled by weather, etc. C'mon down!

[Raj]

Nice to see some color squirted on there..... Now the fun part!

[Big_kid]

It's going in for color one more time. For whatever reason, it didn't stick to the hood. We went in the next morning to pick it up and the hood was a big paint bubble. Maybe by summer's end... I hope.