Cheap Thrills? $1,000 1973 VW Dune Buggy
I remember when dune buggies were all the rage. I marveled at how easy it was to disassemble a VW Bug and go through the motions of swapping the body. In reality, reading about it was a lot easier than doing it but there was still a certain allure to it. I haven’t thought much about dune buggies or the Meyer’s Manx, the dune buggy’s dune buggy in many years so I was intrigued when I can across this example. It is located in Rochester, Minnesota (not exactly dune buggy country) and is available here on craigslist for $1,000.
Years ago, my cousin and I were going to dismantle his brother’s ’66 Beetle and convert it into a dune buggy. Being teenagers we were all about the images and idealism and pretty short on reality and $$$. We started to disassemble the VW but the bug-a-boo was having to remove fourteen inches out of the platform, behind the front seat and then, figure out how to join the two halves together. OK, well that’s not going to happen and it didn’t. Somewhere later on the Bug got put back together and that was that for that project.
The seller’s details on this buggy are light – been in the family a long time, was going to finish it but stuff happened, rolls but barely, missing seats, it’s a project. The exterior has a stars/flag motif and the fiberglass appears to be in sound shape. Seller states that he has no paperwork on it so there is no indication of who made the body – perhaps a dune buggy aficionado will recognize it and can make an identification. He also states that it needs tires and the rims should be refinished. I’m not sure I’d bother refinishing chrome-reverse wheels but the Goodyear Polyglas GT tires will probably hold some interest for the collector of something else. There is a seat of some sort haphazardly tossed inside but the seller says that seats are among the missing parts.
When I first spied the engine, I thought it was Honda-powered until I realized I was looking at the seller’s lawn-mower motor and not the dune buggy engine. Anyway, it’s a 1600 CC VW, flat-four, based on the alpha code, and when running, it develops 46 HP. Well, it’s not running, it is not seized but does not start. The seller adds that the carburetor and distributor have been rebuilt and he has some minor spare parts but no word on what’s really wrong with the engine. It would appear that the alternator (generator?) pulley is missing and I can’t say what inspired the Sawzall cut-out in the rear above the engine.
That’s about the extent of it. A dune buggy can be fun if you have a place where you can use it. Years ago, a friend and I built a make-shift one by removing the body from a VW Bug and fabricating a roll-cage that was good for many things but not handling a roll-over – it was bolted together so that gives you an idea of its architectural design failure. Anyway, we converted a .50 caliber ammo can into a remote air cleaner, hung it from the roll cage, and somehow “found” a Louisiana license plate and dubbed the buggy as “registered” (no, we didn’t live in Louisiana and it turns out the plate was hot but that’s another story). We used the buggy mostly to climb piles of aggregate at a quarry until we got kicked out. It had an old set of worn-out G60, bias-ply tires so off-road traction wasn’t its strong suit and the wheelbase was really too long. We couldn’t figure out, once again, how to get rid of those pesky fourteen unwanted inches. It was a lot of fun but we were 19 or 20 at the time, so go figure. I don’t want to relive my youth but if any of you are interested, or are living it now, here’s a chance to do it on the cheap. Such a deal, huh?
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Comments
I too, remember when dune buggy’s were all the rage, even though, we had no sand dunes in Milwaukee, but we had VW’s, and lot’s of them. People found out, dune buggy’s were more of a California thing, Wisconsin, not so much. They faded pretty quick, but an offshoot of dune buggy’s resulted, the Baja Bug. They were enclosed and anyone with a sawsall could make one. Life was simple, how did we ever lose our way?
The closest I got to a dune buggy was the model car I built. Jim, I got a chuckle out of your dune buggy experiences — sounds like you were a dune buggy wanna-be. I also used to “engineer” projects in my mind, but that’s as far as they ever got.
I guess for the right person there might be $1000 of value here.
1000$ is a gift… I’ve completely refurb one two years ago. And now poeples offer me 25k and more for my berry mini-t. Is the nice buggy when refurb.
You should have made a LWB dune buggy. Or 2+2.
I remember the dune buggy craze on the east coast. Everyone cobbled one together and headed to the Outer Banks and had a lot of fun. Then the state and local govt stopped it, requiring a license that only property owners could have. When that didn’t work/raise revenue, they just outlawed unlicensed vehicles on most of the beaches, claiming they were causing the beach to erode.
Before they killed it, some guy made a fortune with drive thru beer stores, called the Brew Thru. Outlawed that, too.
Brew thru’s are still around.
I tore up the dunes of Pensacola beach (they are long gone now thanks to hurricanes) in the mid 70’s and there is a photo of me flying over one Dukes of Hazzard style in the high school yearbook. Statute of limitations? It was a Corvair powered , metalflake green Meyers style buggy with huge slick rear tires, as a dragster would have. First time I got caught in the rain, it broke loose and did a 360 in the median of Pensacola Blvd at 40mph. . Lots of fun at the beach though
When I was a teenager, my friend & his Dad.built one. His Dad was really good building things & had everything needed do all the work. When he took me for a ride I asked him were the spare was. He said there was no place for one. Besides that it was so light that if you let all of the air out of the tires (keep in mind they were bias ply) & you couldn’t tell the difference.
The rich kid across the street was given a dune buggy when he was 15 years old. He wasn’t allowed on the road with it and just drove up and down the 4 car driveway. The battery was too weak to start the engine, so he gave us younger kids rides if we would help push it to start it. After a few weeks most of the kids got bored with pushing the dune buggy to start it. The kid saw my Dad driving home from work and asked him for a boost. My Dad never knew much about cars but happily offered to give the kid a boost. There was a loud explosion as my Dad’s 12 volt battery just totally destroyed that kid’s 6 volt battery!
Similar to Howard: I grew up without dunes, except I was in Northeast NY (7 miles from VT.) Only one family had a dune buggy in my small town. One.
And it didn’t look like much fun when it was 20 degrees outside.
As a little known fact, the Manson Family built a fleet of attack dune buggies to help them survive the race war they believed was coming.
“Helter Skelter”,,,never knew that about the dune buggies, apparently, Mansons “Command Buggy” was wrapped in furs. That guy sure had a couple wires touching in his head.
https://jalopnik.com/charles-mansons-evil-plans-involved-a-crazy-dune-buggy-485497751
I love this one! I also dig the Honda lawnmower behind it – possible engine swap?
This is a Kellison dune buggy built in Lincoln California. I believe it was called the Tiny T. They built a few different models as well as a actual kit sports car. That got closed down due to government issues. Pretty neat little buggy and I love the flag motif.
That might be a Berry Mini T, a friend and I bought one that was metalflake blue for 200.00 bucks , It needed to be finished , that never happened, I have no idea where it wound up, he sold it to an eager guy. This was back in the late 60s. Previous to that excursion into the dune buggy world I bought a dune buggy body from a co-worker for 100.00 bucks and used my Dads hand me down ’64 VW Beetle to make my dune buggie, that one was a blast to drive, I had the floor pan shortened by a friend. That one wound up in Las Cruces New Mexico where my kid sister went to college, it was a metalflake orange , had Corvette Rallye wheels , the body was typical of dune buggies of the era but had a sort of cut out area to get into and out of for the passenger & driver, no doors. but nicely finished. She wound up trading it in to a VW Dealer out there for a VW van with all the windows. Didnt have much use for a dune buggie in New York.
berry mini t & kellison mini t appear identical, google it and see.
I built a non bodied buggy in high school, bought from the most generous and cool auto shop teacher. Taught myself to weld and shortened the chassis myself. Had no roll bar or any other protection. Was great till a buddy busted it in half. Guess we thought we were invinceable. Fast forward to about 10 years ago, finally found a rust free floor pan and a body, I thought that this would be fun to run around with with my grandson. Then I got looking at it one day, this thing would be a deathtrap if I got in an accident, like driving a potato chip. Sold the parts off. Guess the years change your point of view. Sorry, OT but Thought you guys would enjoy the story. Stay safe.
Cheers
GPC
I thank Murray is correct about the manufacture. In the early 70’s the “street Rod” movement was gaining momentum, and I think these were built to capture a market fo a cheap Street Rod, I even think they got some press in some of the magazines. However, most of the Hot Rod guys, said not in my world and the VW T-Buckets faded away. I also remember, Tom Medley had one, so having had the opportunity to meet and talk with Tom (Stroker McGurk) I certainly will forgive him for that. In fact I had one too( a dune buggy), my excuse I paid 50 bucks for it, got it running, drove my kids around the block and sold it for $200.