May '01 Buggy of the Month entry #1

Dan MacMillan, Val Therese, Ontario, Canada

My name is Dan MacMillan. I am located in Val Therese, Ontario Canada. For anyone who knows Ontario, I am just outside of Sudbury which is about 4 hours north of Toronto. I found my buggy as a result of a wedding my wife and I attended. Between the wedding and the reception we had about a 3 hour wait so we stopped at a local coffee shop for a bite to eat. Just as we were leaving a guy drove up in a yellow Manx replica. I went out to check it out and asked how much it would cost to put one on the road. He said he had one for sale for $400.00 without an engine but had a convertible top and glass seats with leather covers. He called it a Volraro {rare Volkswagen I guess.} I searched the net for a Volraro but could not find one. The closest I found was a Vokaro, a 2 seat sporty kit car. I immediately called him up on his offer. He mentioned to bring a chainsaw with me as a tree was in the way. Well the tree was about 10 inches around and growing up through the engine compartment but had overlapped the glass for about 5 inches and was holding onto the body. The car was a basketcase. It had been stored outside without a cover for at least 10 years. Snow, rain, wind, sun and the local children all had a hand in damaging the car. The body had the texture of sandpaper and was black from dirt, rotten leaves and tree sap. Almost all the metal parts had corroded away with the tunnel, rear susp and the front beams still intact. Even though it was so rough I just had to bring it home. Boy was the wife upset. She just could not see the potential in this wreck I bought. Well after about 6 months of hard work going through my "junk" I collected over the years I now have what turned out to be a 1968 Dean Jeffries Mantaray II Kyote. It was built on a 1966 type 1 link/king pin chassis 1600 dp stock Front seats are from a 85 Honda CRX Rear seat-homemade Floor- Mirrored aluminum diamond plate Raised rear floor-Mirrored aluminum diamond plate for storage Front bumper- Aluminum and stainless License plate reads KYOTE 1 There is no paint on this car other than the black areas. I managed to restore the original Green Metalflake Gelcoat.