Bud's Manx Restoration - Part Deux

[rzeller]

<excerpt/edited from the Manx Mania - Summer 2020>

In the spring of 2004, my wife Sue and I made a life- changing decision to purchase a turn-key vintage Meyers Manx dune buggy and then join the Manx Club. It wasn’t long after the buggy arrived at our house that I began the planning process of how to rebuild it to “make it our own.” It would take us ten years to complete this plan.

As fate would have it, five short years after the restoration was completed, it was time to initiate the second rebuild of our dune buggy. Some will read this and look at the before and after pictures and wonder “why in the world” did they completely change a perfectly nice-looking Meyers Manx dune buggy again? The primary reason for this decision was to ensure, as much as possible, our safety while driving and riding in our little fantasy ship. Turns out that some of the restoration work and the initial chassis shortening on our dune buggy was beginning to fail and break and needed to be fixed or replaced immediately. In other words, this would be a complete chassis do-over. As the decision was made to fix our buggy underpinnings, it also seemed like the perfect time to consider “future-proofing” our buggy as we prepare for our retirement years.

I reached out to a proven and extraordinary fabricator, known to me as Dr. Hans Zarkov of the renowned Saint Albans Institute of Nifty Tricks (SAINT), aka Joe Wheeler. The planning took months of conversations before Dr. Zarkov, and I finalized the build direction.

The powertrain on most of our funny little cars is based on vintage air-cooled VWs. While the aftermarket still seems to be able to supply most anything you’d want or need, the NOS and used original VW parts market has tightened up. If you have any doubt, look at vendors’ increased prices for German-made VW parts at swap meets and on classified ad sites and as most hobbyists will admit, the quality of many aftermarket parts is suspect at best.

Being faced with the need to rebuild our buggy chassis and a waning desire to spend my limited spare time tweaking my VW engine, I started looking at options to retro-fit a modern engine into our newly rebuilt chassis.

Subaru and GM Ecotec were the first two engine choices to come to mind. I found both of these power plants to have their mechanical pros, cons, and fervent fans based on my research. So what to do? Flip a coin? No. My decision was determined based on a financial and an experiential basis. The GM Ecotec engine got the nod and as it turned out, the parts sourcing, at least for the powertrain, was much more straightforward than for the chassis. A very satisfied former client of Dr. Zarkov’s was storing the necessary components in his garage. I was able to source a relatively fresh Ecotec engine and a zero mile (newly rebuilt Rancho) 091 VW bus transaxle. The plan was hatched.

What you'll see in this build thread is the months of blood, sweat, and (my) tears put in over this time by Dr. Zarkov. Enjoy.

Here is the last picture of our buggy before it went "under the knife".

[rzeller]

So, where did we begin? Disassembly.

Note, the one season's worth of beautiful NC beach sand stored nicely and slowly eating away at anything metallic. Our street buggy, while easily navigating the many NC beaches, would plow/burrow through deep sand.

[rzeller]

On to mock-up.

With the Ecotec mounted to the transaxle, time to set the body on to see how much the chassis needed extending/shortening. With a desire to drive this buggy in Baja, ground clearance and good skid plates were a requirement.

How do you measure ground clearance? With Mt. Dew cans, of course.

[rzeller]

Let the fabrication begin. Sit back and watch the magic.

Start with shoring up some of the existing pieces on the chassis that were failing and/or broken. In addition to the front beam being bent and ready to break (due to bad welds on the adjustors), we found that the original chassis shortening was awful and twisted.

There were many unfavorable surprises hidden under the bed liner.

[rzeller]

Part of this plan was to convert the rear suspension from swing axle to IRS. Additionally, and learned from a previous Subi conversion for a Manxter, we wanted to replace the stock torsion bar center with a Sway-a-way harden center piece (see the comparison between stock and after-market). The intent was to run Porsche 924/944 rear 28mm units @ 26" 9/16 long, torsion bars instead of coil-overs. This would provide adequate rear support and ride comfort. The hardened center piece was needed to avoid stripping the stock piece.

[rzeller]

Chassis adjustments and fabrication - after mock-up the overall length of the chassis was determined. Cutting, adjusting, fixing the previous mess, reinforcing (one of many places on the chassis), and putting Humpty Dumpty back together again.

[rzeller]

Another project requirement was to "do no harm" to the vintage Meyers Manx body. Meaning, no cutting (if at all possible). This requirement led us to a body lift. To the naked eye it looks like a 3" lift from front to back, but Dr. Zarkov is smarter than the average bear. This lift is graduated from 2" to 3" from front to back to maintain a clean body line. This is an example of just one of the hidden treasures Dr. Z built into our one-of-a-kind Zarkov buggy.

As mentioned, reinforcement has been added to every aspect of this chassis including stabilizing the front beam from any "lawn darting" that I may do in the future.

The horns were reinforced to handle the extra weight that the Ecotec brings (over an AC VW engine).

[rzeller]

Rear suspension - what were we going to use to mate up to those robust torsion bars and add a little extra wheel-base to stabilize this beast? IRS 3x3 boxed trailing arms with Beetle to Type 181 stub axles.

Since one of Sue and my many requirements included "future proofing", we wanted to add AC Industry's four-wheel disc brakes (with emergency brake). The standard mounts for the rear were not going to work on these arms, so Dr. Z fabricated his own mounts.

[rzeller]

Another hidden and professional touch to this build included "hidden" nuts (or whatever this is called) in the frame rails used to mount the body. This allows for completely sealing the frame rails (body lift) from moisture. This chassis/buggy will out last me and hopefully bring another two generations of our family a lot of enjoyment.

[rzeller]

Did I mention "attention to detail?" Here are two more gems.

Since the Ecotec was expected to provide a LOT more torque than a standard or modified AC VW engine we planned to use a Stage 3 Kennedy pressure plate. So where are some of the weak points and how will Dr. Z provide a little mechanical help to an old man's left clutch leg (we are not running a hydraulic clutch)? The clutch pedal arm was reinforced to handle the added long-termed pressure (from my leg) and the clutch arm (on the transaxle) was lengthened to assist my old leg in moving the "parts."

[rzeller]

Mock-ups. We've got your mock-ups.

It took two forklifts to carry the requirements documents for this build, but that didn't scare Dr. Z off of the build. Buried in volume 6, Section 141 under aesthetics, was a one line requirement that said: "ONLY as a last resort should the radiator for the engine be mounted on the rear/aft of the engine".

Enter Chase Bays who makes a custom radiator for Honda Civics rated at up to 400 HP. This smallish unit would be mounted horizontal to the passenger side of the engine and (remember the requirements documents) would allow for removal of the engine (as a unit with the radiator) without the need to drain and/or disconnect the radiator. "Smarter than the average bear."

Mock-ups were needed to ensure no interference with the trailing arm or any part of the suspension.

*** UPDATE: the radiator choice was changed after real-world testing. See page 3 of this build thread for the updated information.

[rzeller]

Signed, sealed, and not quite delivered (at this point):

Future proofing - most vintage VW chassis have a hidden, and scary secret living and ever present inside the tunnel. It's rust! Since it's out of sight, it usually means out of mind. However, Dr. Zarkov covers all the bases and seals the inside of the tunnel to prevent this unseen menace.

[rzeller]

What goes bump(ers) in the night?

Requirements continued - must have a winch and running lights (therefor a bumper to accommodate both); must have a trailer hitch receiver (and the rings for safety chains); must have nerf bars (or steps for the old man to get in and out of the buggy easier); must have removable skid plate(s).

To-date not one of Dr. Z's builds have had the same designs for any of the afore mentioned items, so our Zarkov will be another stand-alone. Here are the "during" and "after" pictures of these items.






The jig and the product:

[rzeller]

Protecting the bottom:

Personal touches and legacy are important to me and Dr. Z. Therefore when time came to fabricate the skid plates for our Zarkov, parts from the 2018 Puzzle Manx race car were used. You'll see dents, gouges, and scrapes in the skid plate material that I and my race teammates inflicted on the Puzzle Manx in the 2018 NORRA Mexican 1000. Parts of this race car were then added to our Zarkov to live on and protect us for years.

Note the transitions between each piece to make "skipping" across rocks that much easier.

[rzeller]

Roll cage and front protection.

Intending to re-install our intercom system and add a base UHF/VHF radio, Dr. Zarkov included mount points that ease the placement. Additionally, all the reinforcement throughout the chassis ties into one another to form a cage around the whole buggy. Bring on Don Prudhomme.