In this months visit to Volksworld’s Project Doon, we move away from dealing with all things mechanical and concentrate on the electrical side of a Buggy build, the part of building a kit which can really make or break a project. No matter how good any car looks, if it won’t start or the lights and wipers work only when there is a ‘Z’ in the month, well it’s no good to anyone!

As previously mentioned one of the advantages of the Doon kit is that the dashboard / under bonnet section is removable, allowing it to be worked upon separately from the main part of the buggy. In reality, this means you can move it to somewhere warm to work upon or at the very least closer to the kettle!

Whilst the Doon dash is designed to accept a standard ‘classic’ Beetle steering column, our choice of one donated from a scrap Polo Mk4 meant that the column aperture had to be reworked to accept the new cowling. Using slight of hand, a hacksaw blade and small amounts of fibreglass and gel coat, ‘Chad’ widened (by ?? ) and reshaped the opening to the required size, allowing the Polo cowl to slide easily into position.

The Polo Mk4 features dash mounted switchgear for the lights and so we chose to mount both the hazard and light switches low down to the right of the steering wheel.

Careful measurements were taken prior to the holes being drilled and then the switch spindles were fed through the holes, before the switch fronts were finally screwed into place.

Measurements were made to allow the fuse boards to be neatly mounted to the off-side of the under bonnet area, the holes were finally marked-up using a hole punch, before the shell was drilled and the fuse boards bolted into place. Much time and trouble was spent getting this part correct and each hole was only drilled ‘just’ big enough for the diameter of the wire which would pass through it. This prevents the wires having a chance to move around and possibly work loose, whilst also preventing the ingress of the elements. 

The feed comes into the side of the main board through a hole in the bodywork.

An old, but working, wiper motor assembly was removed from store, before being dismantled, cleaned and sprayed-up in satin black.

Before being re-fiited the assembly was  modified by grinding away part of the housing and then, using the correct washers and seals, the spindles were carefully passed through the holes in the windscreen scuttle and secured in place.

To fit the standard Beetle speedometer in place, requires the cutting of a 110mm diameter hole in the dash. Before letting the hole cutter anywhere near our pristine dashboard, a large amount of gaffer tape was used to mask and protect the dash from any damage. After much thought and a very deep breath (it takes a brave man to begin to cut a hole of that size in a dash!) the cutter began to slice its way through the dash.

Any rough areas were removed, before the speedo was bolted into place using Doon’s very own metal speedometer brackets, which are securely fibreglassed into place on the rear face of the dash panel.

On this particular Doon we decided that a pair of orange side repeaters would look very neat mounted on either side of the dash panels.

Once the position of the repeaters was decided, measurements were taken and transferred to the opposite side. A hole was then drilled at the centre of each location and the final shape of the locating aperture cut out using a Dremmel. The orange lenses were then clipped into place and the bulb holder fitted into position from behind. 

With all this work now complete, the dashboard section of the kit was returned to the Volksmagic’s workshop, where it was re-united with the rest of the buggy and bolted into position for the final time.

Whilst the kit had gained a split personality, being worked upon at two separate locations, the main part of the buggy had begun to sprout lights.

The front end had been treated to a set of ‘twinky-winkers’ (available for purchase from stockists such as Halfords), which are ideal indicators being both e-marked and of the specification and rating, to flash at the correct speed without the need for the fitting of any resistors.

The front wings were drilled for the fitment of the traditionally styled Buggy light units, the Doon having small recesses moulded into the wings to mark the locating points for the lights. Once the holes are drilled, the head lights are an easy bolt on job, not forgetting to use washers on both sides of the fibreglass shell to spread the load and avoid stress fractures.

Next month in the final article of the series, we fit the engine, roll cage and tidy-up all those little jobs which make the difference between a good and great looking Buggy.

Volksworld’s Project Doon Buggy was nearing completion and looking forward to becoming the star prize at the Volksworld Show 2005.

John Clewer – December 2004