Welcome to the first part of our series on building a buggy, in this case we’re building a Doon Buggy, the very same one which was displayed earlier this year at the Volksworld Show and which you can win in our free to enter competition.

Before we get into the build-up, let’s take a quick look at the two guys behind Doon and the reasons behind why they undertook such a project in the first place

The story of Doon

Simon 'Chad' Chadwick and his office colleague Richard Crees have been driving Buggies for years and had got fed up with their many shortcomings. Don’t forget the origin came from a Bruce Meyers design in 1963 and the basics have not really changed that much over the years

'Chad'  at the time running a hybrid Buggy (part Rat Mk2 and part GP MK2)  in which he covered an amazing 60,000 miles as a daily driver, got together with Richard (both work in the Traffic and Road Safety of a West Midlands local authority) and began to think how they could improve the situation.

“After much thought, which even included the possibility of buying the old GP moulds as a basis” said Chad, “we decided 'why not build one ourselves', I can still remember where we came up with the name Doon Buggies and also our distinctive logo.

“The name Doon coming from the Black County pronunciation of the word

Dune (!), as well as allowing for the design of the distinctive company logo. “

"After we had a good look around what was available, we decided to  go our own way and build a 100% new buggy, so we began to sketch a few ideas."

After many hours of handy work , a buggy was created in MDF, foam and body filler and from this the initial splash mould was produced.

“I wanted our Buggy to be modern”, said Chad. “It should have an opening bonnet – where the battery could be situated – the rear wide enough to legally cover 10” wide wheels and able to fit over an IRS rear end without any unnecessary cutting. Most importantly it had to be as waterproof as possible, with panels to keep the rain from running onto the back of the radio, instruments / wiper motor and a rain channel around the main shell.”

“We decided early on that we would have a return lip on the outer edge of the shell to remove that ‘unfinished edge’ look. As well as looking tidier, this also added extra strength without increasing the weight.”

The first shell produced was Rich’s olive green example, which proved to be a little reticent to free itself from the mould. It was finally prized free on Sunday 5th August 2001, allowing less than one week before the kits debut at Beach Buggy Bonanza 3 / West of England Kit Car show, which shared the Malvern showground during the second weekend of August.

“If anyone else should ever contemplate such a project” said Chad, “they should make an estimate of the time they think it will take, add the age of all your family members to it and then double it. This will be close to the number of hours you will actually spend in the workshop.”

Chassis

As befits any self-respecting buggy enthusiast ‘Rich’ just happened to have an old chassis, complete with logbook, tucked away in a lock-up and it was this, which would become the basis for our ‘Project Buggy’.

Originally to be found keeping his cousins 1971 orange 1200cc Beetle from scraping its belly on the floor, this chassis had seen better days but was deemed ideal for our new project car. This will be a short wheel base version, requiring the existing chassis to be cut and reduced in length by 390mm.

Whilst the condition of the floors was very poor, the chassis backbone was in good condition and if you looked hard enough you could see, it was going to be possible to make a silk purse from the proverbial sows ear!

Once the chassis had been moved to the Oldbury premises of Lee Southerton’s company ‘Volksmagic’ work could begin in earnest and it wasn’t long before ‘Chad’ and Richard – using a selection of air-tools as well as good old brute force - removed all the rusty bits of floor and consigned them to the skip.

The bottom of the existing frame head had, like the floors, also suffered badly from the onset of the dreaded tin worm and so after more rusty metal had been cut away; a new panel was sourced and welded into position by Lee.

With the chassis now reduced to just its backbone, the proper restoration work could commence, but first Lee had to carry out the dreaded chop to shorten the chassis in readiness for the new shell.

After carefully marking up the section of tunnel which was to be removed, don’t forget the old adage ‘measure twice – cut once’, a cutting disc was used to open up the top section of the tunnel in the shape of a backward ‘V’ (“this cut gives a greater strength of weld”  says Chad), taking care not to damage the conduits which carry the control cables. The heater cable tubes can be cut through, followed by the tunnel sides and, ensuring both ends of the chassis are fully supported, finally the bottom. A cutting disc was used for the original cuts, with a hacksaw being used to accurately trim back the edges.

The two half’s of the chassis were then pushed back together, checked for alignment and tack welded. During this process the alignment was checked – for both measurement and level - numerous times, before the final welding took place.  

In a neat trick, the handbrake mechanism was cut out and welded back into the tunnel at a slightly lower level. This also allowed the chassis to be seam welded from the inside of the tunnel, adding some extra strength to the all important joint.  

To go into greater detail of these modifications is outside the remit of this feature and for further information I strongly recommend you take a look at James Hale's excellent book "How to modify Volkswagen Beetle suspension, brakes and chassis for high performance.  

Street Style and Power provided the new floor pans, which were then cut and welded to the spine and once again the chassis reverted to that familiar VW look. 

Once the chassis had been repaired, all the dimensions were checked and re-checked, before finally being confirmed as correct. Measurement across the diagonals was used as the final check. Any remaining rough edges were removed with a grinding wheel and the pan was then sent for shot blasting back to bare metal and given a coating of zinc. Another nice touch was the rounding of the rear corners to the floor halves, which produces a neater look and also fits the shape of the Doon body shell.

Once returned to the workshop the chassis was mounted upon a specially constructed gig, made out of an old frame head and gearbox cradle. This allows the chassis to be worked upon at waist level and also enables it to be rotated through 360 degrees.

After all the seams were treated with a modern spray sealer, the chassis was given two coats of primer, with any poor areas being rubbed down between layers! The chassis was then completed by the application of a couple of coats of two-pack satin black.

The restoration of the chassis was now complete and ready for the fitting of the running gear.


John Clewer – July 2004