It's been about a year and a half since I got the utility, so I figured it was time for an update.
You may remember that about 9 months ago I left the Utility with David Barrett, intent on having David build one of his Condor Manx Chassis lifted frames that I could use as a Baja Camper Buggy.
Soon after I dropped it off, I got severe sticker shock on the cost of building a Type IV, or even a Type III, turnkey engine. And, right after that, Doran, during one of his late-night Craigslist searches, found a pretty cool, running, Claim Jumper at an Independent Volvo shop in Pasadena, CA. This buggy was built on a 60's Con-Ferr automatic Corvair chassis and it was a pretty good buy. In fact, it was obscenely cheap. Like, what's-wrong-with-it cheap. It even came with a brand new rebuilt Corvair automatic transmission (which my Corvair Burro needed), a brand new Corvair block, still in the box, another 140HP Corvair engine and a ton of other parts, like carbs, exhausts, heads, you name it. The minute I saw it I thought this should be the platform for the Utility buggy. So, I bought it, and since Doran had been toying with the idea of building a Corvair buggy, I gave him all of the other parts (except the transmission) as a "finders fee".
Here's how it looked when I got it:
This is when things got weird. Right when I bought the Claim Jumper, David moved Manx Chassis from Sanger, California, to Mohave Valley, Arizona. He was fine taking on the challenge of mounting the Utility to the Con-Ferr Chassis, but it was going to have to wait until he moved his entire shop the over 400 miles one -way to it's new location. That's not the weird part, the weird part is I originally bought the Utility less than 40 miles from his new shop! Anyway, I eventually dropped off the Claim Jumper at David's new place a few weeks later.
Shortly thereafter, David's neighbor in Bullhead City, Tow'd enthusiast Mark Landon, took my automatic Corvair Burro and dropped in the rebuilt automatic transmission I got in this deal. (I made that sound easier than it was, Mark had to remove and reinstall the drivetrain three times to get everything fitted.) Mark does terrific work and The Burro runs like new now. I even took it to Big Bear this year for its maiden voyage.
Finally, this weekend, I picked up the Utility. I am thrilled with the transformation. David raised it a couple of inches, cut off the Corvair front end and grafted on a VW Link Pin unit, and did a host of other well-thought out changes to make the chassis fit the Utility like a glove.
In these photos the body is only held on by seven bolts, as I'm pulling it off to have it either re-gelcoated (preferred, if I can afford it), or painted, in the very near future. But it really is a great feat mating these two together.
Here it is, the Baja Utility:
Picking it up at Manx Chassis with David Barrett
I really like the stance.
Corvair Power! The rear view
It'll need 31.5 tires to fill these wheel wells
Front view, rear hatch open.
Inside the hatch, theres a ton of room. Also, there's a hinged floor area to get to the engine.
Here's the view looking through the hinged floor and down onto the Corvair engine. It'll need really short air cleaners.
Con-Ferr Chassis. You can see the mounting bars for sliding seat brackets. I'll be going with PRP seats.
Windshield & Barrett-built Stainless Steering Column ready to be installed.
The rollbar is installed in this photo. Sitting under the Monocoque and a bunch of vintage tires, waiting for gelcoat.
More to come ( and hopefully the next update won"t be a another year and a half from now!)