The Doon Beach Buggy is one of the most recent models of buggy to have hit the streets.

The following article, written some years ago, details how two friends came together to take on such a project and tells you about all the high and low points of such a build!

The Doon buggy has also featured in two build stories which I have written, the first for VW Motoring and the second for Volksworld. Click on the links for further details of each car.

The story of Doon 

Ok, so what happens when you've been driving kit cars - in this case Beach Buggies - for years and have got fed up with the shortcomings of your current mode of transport.

Well if your name is Simon 'Chad' Chadwick you start to think if you can do it any better. Don't forget that Bruce Meyers created the basic design for the Beach Buggy way back in 1963 and it hasn't changed that much over the years. A little tweak here, a little tweak there, but really not a lot has altered.

'Chad' who was at the time running a hybrid Buggy - part long wheel based Rat and part GP - got together with his office colleague Richard Crees (both work in the Traffic and Road Safety for Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council in the West Midlands and had been friends for many years) and the two of them began to think how they could rectify the situation.

"Around this time Rich bought his first Buggy, a very early GP" said Chad, "but because it was so narrow we decided to cut it down the middle and widen the whole shell by 4" and then to bring the back arches in to cover a pair of 10" wide rear wheels."

"Whilst we were playing around, Rich spotted an advert in Volksworld which said that a UK Beach Buggy manufacturer was for sale. The asking price was around £6,000 and so in May 1999 we decided to travel south to check out the moulds. At the time the company was owned by a chap who ran a menswear business and the moulds were at a boat builders down by the river."

"Unfortunately we were very disappointed with the condition of the moulds and we quickly realised that new ones would be required, so we decided not to further our interest. It was on the way back up the M40 that we decided 'why not build one ourselves', I can still remember it was as we crossed the M40/M42 junction that 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 logo. 

The next month Chad and Rich showed they really did intend to take their plans seriously, when they enrolled on an NVQ3 course in Business at Sandwell Enterprise.

During the Summer of '99 the intrepid duo looked at a few existing buggies and even bought a couple of old shells, the intention to do as most others have done before and ‘Frankenstein’ a few of the best buggy bits together.”

"We bought a very old Hustler, believe it or not, off a former RAF pilot who was retired from the service because he became afraid of heights" said Chad, “along with an original Vulture body which we collected from Peter Noon at Tatton Park."

"After we had a good look around, we decided that we would go our own way and build a 100% new buggy, so the two bodies were sold off to Lee at Oldbury based Volksmagic and we began to sketch a few ideas."

"We decided to base the car around Rich’s already shortened Beetle chassis of – what we thought was an identical size, a cut of 15 ¾ inches - to that used by GP. This would allow us to sell Doon's to folks who wished to rebody their ageing GP's, Britain’s most popular make of short wheel based Buggy"

Having built his own Buggy some years previously and been involved with the construction and restoration of numerous others, Chad could remember the good and bad points of the various designs.

“I wanted our new Buggy to be more modern”, said Chad. “It should have an opening bonnet –where the battery could be situated – the rear end should be wide enough to legally cover 10” wide wheels and the shell should be able to fit over an IRS rear end without any unnecessary cutting. Most importantly it should 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 also 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 added extra strength.”

Having grown up as a carpenter’s son, Chad had spent many an hour working with wood. The decision which medium would be used to produce the initial model was easy; it would be wood or MDF to be exact.

“The first chunk of MDF was cut on 16th August 1999” said Richard, “the initial attempt saw us begin to build directly onto an existing chassis, but we soon found out that this was twisted and out of true, so we smashed it up and started again.”

“Our second effort was much better, we set a large board – the same size as a shortened chassis – leveled it on my garage floor and built off that.”

The build progressed through the winter months with the lads getting colder and colder in Richard’s small garage.

“We learnt a lot about our materials, especially exactly how far you can bend MDF before it goes crack!” said Rich.

“We worked our way through two designs of front and rear arches, before we decided upon the style on the finished shell. The design actually evolved as we built it as we didn’t have any plans to copy, imagine an Airfix kit with no parts and no instructions!”

One of the worst problems the lads faced was that you can build a really neat piece of bodywork once, such as a lovely curving wing, but you’ve got to build it again in reverse for the opposite side of the car. Not easy! The trick lay in making two opposing pieces at the same time to ensure a true mirror image.

By August of last year the basic shell was complete and rubbed down ready for the first mould to be taken. At this time very few people actually believed it was still made of wood and not already in fibreglass.

“When we were happy with the shell, we once again checked it for measure” said Rich, “we found that it was only between 2 or 3mm out across the diagonals. We were more than happy with that!”

“Earlier in the project we began to look around for a company who might help us in producing our dream” said Rich, “but most companies wanted to see a mould rather than actually help to create one.”

“Then one day I phoned a speedboat manufacturer and talked to the owner, he told me that he had a friend (John Spratt) who had the type of experience we required and that he was sure he would be interested.”

Formerly a lay-up artist with Classic and Sportscar magazine, John has worked with fiberglass for a number of years and had recently spent time working for a company repairing TVR’s and similar sportscars, as well as completing an eighteen month spell with Westfield.

“John told us all about the pitfalls in designing something to come out of a mould versus something you like the look of!”

Over the last couple of months the lure of the sea has drawn him back down South, where he is currently working in Poole for Sunseeker, the makers of those very expensive motor yachts.

“John pointed us in the right direction as to what he would require if he was to produce our moulds and production shells,” said Rich. “He told us about sealing the model shell, waxing it up and what materials we should use.”

“Once the shell was sealed, we had to treat it with no less than 12 coats of release wax and from this we produced the first splash mould.”

“It was quite distressing the day we pulled off the splash mould, because we had to break up our original wooden mould (yes the very one they had spent twelve months creating – JC) to prise the two apart and then take the bits down the tip!”

Chad added “we learnt that how ever much you wax wood it still sticks to fiberglass, which led us to approach the finish on the bonnet and dash moulds slightly differently.”

The autumn months were spent completing the moulds for the bonnet, dashboard and flitch panel, at the same time making a minor alteration to the shell where the bonnet wouldn’t open or hinge properly. The return outer edge also caused a few problems and made initial mould construction more difficult.

The winter months passed quite slowly, the work began to slow down and it looked like work on the project would take forever. Around this time doon.co.uk was set-up and a basic web site went live.

“All I could say at that time was that if anyone else ever contemplated 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.”

Whilst all this work was taking place other bits for the kit had to be sourced.

The body to chassis bolts were found at a local Classic Car supplier, whilst a neighbour is actually manufacturing our bonnet hinges for us. The distinctive Doon badges were sourced via the Internet from a textile company who make T-Shirts.

“The screen’s come from a contact we made on the business course at Sandwell Enterprise,” said Rich. “ We had always been told that the biggest problem was finding someone who could make the screen and frame. As it was, he is on our doorstep, which is great because we like to keep all our business local if we can. The company’s main business is train and boat windows and they enjoyed helping us design the unique angled slot in place Doon screen.”

January saw the splash moulds taken from the remaining panels and then the first true fiberglass Doon was produced to create the plug. In February the plug was transported down to Volksmagic where it was sprayed up and checked for imperfections.

“I think it’s possibly the best looking buggy shell I’ve ever seen” said Lee, a former buggy and rail owner, who knows a thing or two about his VW’s. This later fact is quite relevant; as Volksmagic are heavily involved in the construction of VWM’s very own Project Doon Buggy.

The final production mould was then produced from the plug shell, which was used to build the blue dummy vehicle, which can be seen in the accompanying pictures. 

The next few months saw Chad and Rich working hard to remove all the remaining minor imperfections in the production moulds.

“Having seen other buggy shells” said Chad, “I wanted the Doon to be as perfect as we could get it and so we tried to remove every last imperfection, ripple and pin hole we could. Because of some of the strange angles and lips on the mould we even had to construct a few of our own tools to allow us to polish deep into the recesses of the mould.”

The mould was first rubbed with 800 grit, then in sequence 1000, 1200, 1500 ‘super fine’ grit, before being finished off with 2000 grit ‘mirror fine’. This process to rub down the whole body took an incredible eight weeks of weekends, nights and the odd days annual leave.

“To remove the really fine scratches we initially tried using G7 paste” said Chad, “but this didn’t touch them. Then John suggested a tip he’d used it the past, which was to use Autosol Chrome Cleaner diluted in water, this polished out the remaining scratches a real treat!”

Finally on the 30th July, John returned to begin the task of laying the first of the bodies up, a process which normally would take only a couple of days.

“The temperature was so hot that the gel coat was actually going off in minutes,” said John, as he toiled away in some of the highest temperatures of the summer.

The main areas of the shell are double gelled; with the edges being triple gelled to ensure they can’t polish through. The construction will be between 5 and 6 oz lay-up, with extra core matt strength in specific high stress areas. This extra matt will also be used to stop the area of the bonnet ‘sinking’, a problem seen on many Buggies.

“There is a thought” said Chad, “that the thicker the shell is, the more strength it has. But once you pass a certain point you are just adding additional weight unnecessarily.”

“The trick is in good design, as curved areas and changes in direction – like steps in the wings – add strength to the fiberglass. This was something John taught us from his days at Westfield.”

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, 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.

“A professional looking web site is also in the pipeline” said Rich who is an IT officer for the Council, “work on that can start in earnest now that the shells are imminent. This should go live very soon, but remember this two year Buggy build was only going to take ‘a couple of months’ to crack!”

The vision and professionalism shown by the boys over the last couple of years so impressed me that, I sold off my - nearly thirty year-old - GP MK1SWB body, as previously featured in VWM.

This rather well worn Buggy – with which a famer used to chase his sheep in Wales - was bought by me in 1999 to become a magazine restoration project , but whose underpinnings have now turned into VWM’s Project Doon Buggy, of which more will be heard real soon.

John Clewer – August 2001