I once had a fiberglass dune buggy (pics below) that me and the family would cruise around in. I sold it a couple of years ago to a very nice older couple. They were going to travel around the world with it. If anyone has seen it or knows who owns it I would love to see any changes the new owners have done to it.
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Something worth spending money on for your Fiberglass Dune Buggy is having a top fabricated. I believe most are made from vinyl. From my experience you will want a top made with full zip out windows. Windows are great to have in case your are caught in the rain. Full zip out windows are windows that have the zipper around the entire window. I had a top made for my dune buggy and just the topped zipped with velcro at the bottom. Velcro has adhesive on the back and is not a permanent solution. The rain will also remove the glue and then your window is flapping in the wind! Also full zipped windows give a more detailed look.
I can also recommend you use white vinyl versus black due to the amount of heat it creates.
I found this article regarding the history of the dune buggy and thought I would post it to the blog.
The dune buggy did have an inventor and can trace its roots back to its Adam, an elemental machine called Old Red. The first vehicle that we know as the dune buggy was invented by Bruce Meyers of California in 1964, with a big assist from Dr. Ferdinand Porsche.
“It was the genius of his design that made it all possible,” said Mr. Meyers, now 81 and still building buggies here in Valley Center, about 40 miles north of San Diego. “The transaxle-rear engine placed all the driveline weight over the driving wheels. The air-cooled engine, with no radiator, simplified water worries. The trailing arm suspension, like on commercial airliners, allowed the wheels to move away, rearwards and up.”
Mr. Meyers took a standard Beetle of the era, threw away the body, shortened the frame, fitted fatter tires and bolted on a fiberglass tub with two seats. Voilà! — the dune buggy, which he called the Meyers Manx, was born. It was as simple as that. It would prove to be too simple, in fact.
“By what I did to it, I made it better five ways, all for improved off-road performance,” Mr. Meyers said. “I made it lighter and quicker, gave it a shorter turning radius, moved the people farther aft for more traction, and increased belly clearance.”
Still, it was just a Beetle then and no more than a novelty.
The Kübelwagen, the German Army’s version of the jeep in World War II, was based on the Beetle. Many models of the jeep weighed more than 2,200 pounds, but the Kübelwagen was less than 1,700. “The Kübel got twice the fuel mileage as the jeep,” Mr. Meyers said. “When a jeep got stuck, a tank had to tow it out; when the Kübel got stuck, four soldiers could bounce it out. It was just as good in snow as it was in sand.”
Mr. Meyers, who grew up in and around Newport Beach, Calif., knew the car was good in sand; he’d tested it in the desert of Baja California.
Motorcyclists ruled Baja then, setting several unofficial time, endurance and speed records running between various towns. The most storied accomplishment was a 1,000-mile ride in 1962, through roadless deserts, from Tijuana to La Paz by Dave Ekins and Bill Robertson Jr. on Honda 250 Scramblers. It took Mr. Ekins just under 40 hours.
Over the next five years, dozens of other motorcyclists, daredevils in cars and trucks and even automaker-backed efforts, tried to beat the record. Mr. Meyers figured his four-wheel creation was tough enough to do it.
“Here was the allure of unmistakable adventure,” Mr. Meyers recalled. “Add a certain amount of youthful exuberance, and my co-pilot’s wisdom of planning, and I thought we could do the unthinkable — beat world-class riders on factory motorcycles across open country. I thought it could lead to kit sales for my Manx.”
So, in April 1967, Mr. Meyers and his co-rider, Ted Mangels, an engineering and logistical whiz, got into Old Red with 65 gallons of gasoline, most of it in plastic jugs, and set out from Tijuana for a nonstop run to La Paz. They arrived 34 hours, 45 minutes later.
“Almost overnight we had 350 orders,” he said.
By November, the first Baja race (called the Mexican 1000 then) was held. Fittingly, a Manx driven by Mr. Mangels and Vic Wilson won that first race. The 40th annual Baja 1000 will be held this November, with Mr. Meyers and a Manx leading a ceremonial start.
Another memorable Manx moment: Steve McQueen raced one in a scene from the 1968 film, “The Thomas Crown Affair.” The Manx was on magazine covers and was the subject of do-it-yourself articles and technical treatises.
For a time, the Manx made Mr. Meyers a wealthy man. But he made one very large mistake: He failed to patent his idea. When he finally did, years later, a judge ruled it invalid because the idea had been in public use for too long by then, Mr. Meyers said.
Within two years, more than 70 companies, by his count, were building knockoffs. Even Sears offered a buggy called the Rascal. It has been estimated that more than 100,000 faux Manxes were turned out; about 5,000 true Manxes were made.
Because it was so simple to convert a Beetle to a buggy, almost anyone could do it. By 1970, the copycats had put Mr. Meyers out of business.
He had nothing more to do with dune buggies for nearly a quarter-century. But in 1994, after he was treated like a rock star at a motoring event in, of all places, Le Mans, France, Mr. Meyers said he started to think about reviving Old Red.
In 2000, he announced a limited-edition production run of 100 Manx kits for $2,000 each.
“I wondered if I’d sell any,” he said. Instead, he got orders for all 100 in the first month.
It seemed that fans of dune buggies were willing to pay a premium for an authentic one, built by Bruce Meyers himself. The very problem that had put him out of business in the first place — knockoffs — now made a real Manx a collectible.
But Mr. Meyers had new problems. He felt honor-bound not to make more than 100 to retain their value to collectors. He had also set the price too low and was scarcely making money.
Mr. Meyers solved his predicament by designing a new version, called the Manxter, which would seat four, not two like the original. The Manxter also has a trunk. And it would come complete, not in kit form.
The Manxter 2+2 appeared in 2001, at a price of $5,395. Mr. Meyers said he had built nearly 100 — about as many orders as a man his age, still working mostly alone, can handle. It is still underpinned by the same Beetle mechanicals. It is still essentially a version of Old Red, Mr. Meyers’ little creation that beat Baja, started a sport, and a new form of transportation.
The dashboard of the 1st floorpan model is made of ABS plastic surrounded by a steel frame inside the fiberglass hood.
The hood has a small bump on it’s nose, measuring 2″ wide by 2 1/2″ tall. This bump wore a silver and black sticker on the first 150 kits or so into early 1967, at which time the large black and silver plastic emblem covered this bump. Meyers Manx never had any other bumps, air scoops, ridges, furrows, or anything else on their hoods.
Two tubular steel struts may be in place to stiffen the lower edge of the body at either side of the license plate. This continued to the end of 1971.
The 1st floorpan model, produced into the 70’s, had stiffening tubes glassed under the fenders from the pedal bulkhead to the engine bulkhead. These were first made of cardboard tubes glassed in and later a few with 2″ vacuum cleaner hose glassed in place, but finally a fiberglass shape was tooled, which formed a tube-like structure under both fenders.
The 2nd floorpan model was called the Manx 2. There were a few hundred Manx 2 bodies produced from late 1968 to late 1970. Some of these were apparently produced while Bruce was still with the company. Those kits have serial numbers starting with “A”. Some of these kits had the stiffening tubes under the fenders. The Manx 2’s produced after Bruce left the country had 4-digit serial numbers and no longer had the reinforcing tubes under the fenders. All Manx 2’s are identified by a larger bump on the hood, the omission of the battery box sump and the spare tire well in the rear seat area - they were flat across the seat area, and the hood and dash were molded as one piece.
I usually suggest to people that they buy a used dune buggy when they are starting out. This way, you can get buy with simple hand tools. Building a dune buggy requires some specialized tools and a certain amount of specialized knowledge to do it properly. It’s going to be a whole lot easier, quicker, and cheaper if you buy a used dune buggy to fix up rather than starting from scratch. You’ll have the opportunity to learn about the vehicle as you upgrade and make repairs, and pretty soon you may be thinking about building one from the tubing up. At this point though you will have accumulated the tools and knowledge to know what you want and how to make it happen.
That depends of what you want to do with it. Generally speaking there’s 3 types of places you can drive it, on the Street, in the Mud, or in the Sand. You need to pick the type of Buggy based on where you will spend most of your time driving. It is possible to have a Dune Buggy that can be driven across all types of terrain, however keep in mind that a Dune buggy that is specifically built for a certain type of terrain will perform better in that environment.
Sand Rails
are lighter and have paddle tires to make getting around the dunes easier. They have smooth front tires and no front brakes. The roll cage is kept to the protect the occupants in the event of a roll down the relatively soft sand dune. The engines are typically very powerful making these vehicles extremely quick. Weight: 800-1100 pounds
Mud\Trail\Off-Road
These buggies are usually driven on harder surfaces or on rougher terrain. The frames are reinforced to better protect the occupants in the event of a roll or sudden impact with an immovable object. The majority have front brakes and tread on the front tires. Long Travel suspension and good shocks are important to get over the rocks and through the ruts. Weight 1200-1500 pounds.
Fiberglass
These vehicles are made from a fiberglass body that is bolted onto a shortened VW Bug chassis. The bodies were very popular in the 70s and new ones are still being made today like the Manxter 2+2 or Manxter DualSport. Some are driven strictly on the street, some are built for the sand and some are built for general off-road use. The bodies are somewhat fragile so some additional care must be taken when going off-road.
Looking for the right dune buggy can be complicated depending on the area you live. This is ofcourse you are willing to travel and pick up your dune buggy for sale. If you are one of the lucky few to have a dune buggy dealer near you than you are all set. However a new joyner dune buggy, sandrail dune buggy, offroad dune buggy or etc may be too much for your budget. Lets face it the cost of purchasing a dune buggy kit is not cheap! Personally I recommend purchasng a used dune buggy for sale.
Building a dune buggy can be a challenged in some areas. I have compile a list of recommdended books below:
Spend an exhilarating 90 minutes driving a buggy through the Nellis Dunes, outside of Las Vegas. There are awesome views of the Las Vegas Strip as well as Lake Mead off in the distance.
