Welcome to the final section of the build feature on our very own project Doon Buggy, the car which one lucky reader could be driving away from this years Volksworld Show, as we’re going to be giving it away as the star prize in our raffle! 

In this months feature we will detail the last few parts of the build-up, the construction of the hood support bars and give a brief run down of the main parts of the build.

The braking system was completed by the fitting of two brake fluid reservoirs (sourced from a Bay Window Type 2) in the under-bonnet area, on the opposite side to the neatly laid out fuse box and relays - which will hopefully keep the buggy’s electrics well behaved! The ease of access, via the opening bonnet, will allow for the easy monitoring of the fluid levels, something not easily achieved with Buggy’s of old!

We chose to use a dual master cylinder system, so if you wipe a brake line off one end of the car, you’ve always got a secondary braking system to help you slow down.

Continuing to concentrate our thoughts under the bonnet, the fuel system was completed by connecting up our much modified tank using a standard Beetle fuel pipe and then bolting the whole assembly in place.

The battery is mounted in the centre of the under-bonnet area, held in place using the normal system of clamps. The connections (covered by plastic shields) exit to the rear, straight through holes neatly drilled in the shell. Everything is covered and hopefully as watertight as possible to avoid any problems with the electrics over the years to come.

The bonnet hinges are sourced from an old friend in the kit car industry (thanks John), believe it or not they are manufactured for the boot lid of the Quantum Xtreme sportscar and with the panels correctly aligned are an easy bolt on job. Whilst a neat touch is the use of a standard Beetle bonnet catch, which is slightly modified and enables the remote release of the bonnet – nice!

Rather than aim for the ‘Street Racer’ look utilising a full ‘cage’ to support the hood (sorry the hood is not included as part of the prize and so the lucky winner will have to buy one themselves or only drive on dry, sunny days!) Lee roughly sketched out some ideas on a sheet of paper, before custom building the bars, not an easy task as the main hoop requires no less than six bends.

Lee chose to build the ‘cage’ in ERW (Electro Resistance Welded) tube, a base level specification material which is normally used for the construction of non-competition roll cages. Effectively it is a four-point ‘cage’ with a middle hoop (where the Beetles original ‘B’ pillar would be) and a rear hoop at 90 degrees, which is braced and connected to the middle hoop with two stays.

Whilst the assembly was being constructed, the rear of the shell was covered in thick masking tape to avoid the chance of it being scratched and damaged, whilst the ‘cage’ was being lifted in and out of the buggy. 

The rear hoop neatly fits inside the body shell and also picks up the seat belt anchorages. The whole ‘cage’ is a freestanding unit, which can be unbolted as one and lifted clear of the chassis.

The ‘cage’ was coated satin black before fitting, which was carried out by bolting the hoop feet to the floor pan / buggy shell and adding reinforcement plates to the underside to spread the load. Metal tags are welded to the rear hoop and used to bolt the assembly through the shell for extra rigidity; once again extra reinforcement is used to avoid any star cracks appearing in the fibreglass. 

With the ‘cage’ in place we were now able to fit the race harnesses, which were four point Willans belts, bought from the National Kit Car Show. These were also bolted in place using reinforcement plates to spread the load.

It can’t be stressed enough that, when fitting the seats, belts, body and ‘cage’ great care should be taken to ensure that extra reinforcement is used to prevent the mounting bolts from pulling free.

The completion of the interior brought the build of the project to a close and it was time to roll ‘Project Doon’ out into the yard for some photographs, before it went to see the friendly man at the local MOT station.

Alas, as this was during the depths of the British Winter, our Doon’s debut was typically greeted with freezing temperatures and snow. No wonder it was Bruce Meyers in California who designed and built the first Beach Buggy and not a couple of blokes with a dodgy accents from Oldbury!

We hope you have followed, and enjoyed, our description of the build-up of Project Doon; perhaps it may even encourage you to think about getting in the garage and assembling your own Beach Buggy. There can be few finer summer VW experiences than driving into a show, on a sunny day, behind the wheel of a buggy.

As ever, we could not have undertaken this project without the help of various friends and companies, so a big thank you goes out to you all.

Doon

Volksmagic.

Street Style and Power.

Porsche Shop.

BF Goodrich.

Midland Wheels. 

John Clewer – January 2005