Owner:
Gavin Thomas
Car:
'72 Volks Tourer "Buggy"
Colour:
Blueprint / Silver bars
Specifications:
Custom trim, custom bar work, custom dash, standard 1600cc, twin system (pipes), 15 inch B45's, sweet stereo (two 7x10 bad boys and an amp to run them just nicely which is all neatly run off my I-river), disc brakes, 'bug eye' headlights, wrap-around bucket seats and 4-point harnesses. It's a great cruiser.
History:
It all started when I was a little tacker, my Dad bought an old red beach buggy for a year or so, it was a nice ride and had the looks. When he sold it I didn't mind that much because I knew I had enough fun in it and it was time to move on.
Some 16 years later, to my surprise, a neighbour up the road has a 2 acre block and had just cleared out some trees in the front and I could see down to the back and under a tree was a maroon buggy looking thing, after driving slowly up and down the street a few times I started to realise what it was. Eventually I walked down to have a close look and see, I discovered that it was a Volksy beach buggy, very similar to the one my Dad had many years ago. She was in a pretty poor state because it was full of leaves and pine cones and hadn't moved for some time. I approached the owner of the house - he said it had been sitting there for at least 3 years and after a lengthy discussion he said that the only thing salvageable is the fibreglass shell, so we agreed on $300 for the lot!! Little did he know I saw what was underneath all the leaves and muck and all the potential. I told him there would be a tow truck there tomorrow for it. And so it begins!!!!
I got this new toy down to my Dad's panel shop (that's gonna help a heap) and started cleaning and disassembling. Shortly she was down to a rolling floor pan and a fibreglass body which I'd removed for prep and paint. It didn't take long to get the rolling floor pan a driving floor pan, which I must admit is really weird to drive in the car park at the work shop. The body, well I rubbed it back and primed it, then rubbed it again and at this stage I still didn't know what colour to paint it. I've always liked blue so blue it was going to be. Blue-print that should look good I thought; so blue-print here we come!
When that was all painted the body went back onto the floor pan, then that went onto the hoist were she sat for about six to eight months, when I did all the finishing things - like reassemble the front end and change it to disc brakes, fully rewiring everything, fitting "bug eye" headlights, fuel tank, bonnet, windscreen etc. Then it was time to make an interior of some description: four point harnesses and wrap around bucket seats would be the main eye sore, I chose silver for all the bar work - being the roll cage, sidebars and font and rear bars. All other areas were I couldn't decide what colour they ended up black. Cutting in the dash was a bit hairy; I wasn't sure what to do so I thought I'd make it up my own way. I found some nice looking gauges at Autobarn and in they went along with a fully sick monster tacho, the usual stuff also.
By this stage we're nearly there, apart from some trick looking wheels. I looked everywhere for wheels to suit V-dubs but nothing that caught my eye. So then I decided to change stud pattern to the classical 4-100, little did I know that offset would come out to bite me bad. I again looked at numerus sets of wheels and I couldn't find any that were either price, looks or size, about now I'm starting to get a bit impatient and so is my Dad with the hoist with a beached car that can't come off it. I ended up borrowing a set of B45's off a mate which were supposed to be used to push it around the workshop but to my surprise they fitted like a glove and actually looked the part, so they stayed on for a little longer and eventually I asked if he wanted to part with them and so we agreed on price and they stayed on the bug.
Now I could test drive it and fix a few running problems and take it to the exhaust place, the nice twin system was suppose to be the finishing touch but it was still missing something, I had a small storage area behind the back seats and I thought it would be the perfect spot to put two 7x10 bad boys and an amp to run them just nicely which is all neatly run off my I-river. By this time we're all ready to go with about a week to spare for massive Eastside unveiling which was at the Good Guys dyno day where she pulled a massive twenty-eight kW! (Never mind it looks good anyway). It was a successful day and it made a lot of heads turn. Overall I had a challenging but fun 18 months building this great little buggy and I look forward to having more fun times in my little cruising machine.
Cheers Gav.
