Lots of things as usual have been happening here at the workshop over the past couple of weeks to I thought it best that I get this post put out about all of it to let everyone know what is going on. For many decades one of the vehicles that has always been on my wish list to own has been a dune buggy. I have looked at, drooled over, and dreamt about owning one of these awesome little vehicles what seems like forever. Well this past week this dream has finally come true. For my 65th birthday which will be coming up soon I bought my dream machine.
I came across this beautiful little buggy on eBay this past week and watched the auction that took place as only one person had placed a bid on it. The "Buy It Now" price on the car was a bit higher than my limit so I did not place a bid to even start with the auction. I waited to see what would happen at the end of the auction just to see if someone else would buy the car and I could put it out of my mind once again. This was not the case.
The auction ended with only one bid that did not meet the reserve price and with no one pressing the button to "Buy It Now". I thought about the car the next day and just for the heck of it I contact the seller, enquired about the reserve price and made an offer on it. We talked on the phone that same day and agreed on a price that we could both live with and soon this little beauty will be parked in my garage. I think mainly because like anyone else this time of year the car would be stored away until next spring and that is why the car did not sell on eBay in the first place.
So with my luck at being able to acquire the dune buggy of my dreams in the first place has been amazing to me to say the least. This brings me to the second part of this post. Another new project. The dune buggy will take at least a couple of weeks to be delivered to my house here in Wisconsin from Florida. This has given me time to make room for it to be safely tucked away in my garage until winter has come and gone and time to think about the new project that will be made for the little car.
As you can see from the photos above the dune buggy is set up with only two seats. This is exactly what I want so with that and everything else in it I will be very pleased to be able to call it mine once I get it into my hands. The project I have in mind for the dune buggy is to make an enclosed compartment that covers the area that is behind the seats. This will make a nice storage area that can be locked if I have something with me that I want to protect when I am not with the car and it is parked somewhere without me.
Here is what I have in mind for the enclosure covering the back of the dune buggy. I modeled these images up using Blender 3D over a year ago so they are coming in handy now as reference material for the real thing.
I like the idea of having blisters that are shaped just behind the seats. I thought it looked really good. The big issue of this project is being able to go around the roll bars that are mounted in the car. The enclosure would obviously have to be made in sections in order to accomplish this task. The fact that the dune buggy does not have a roof shows that this vehicle would not be taken out on a rainy day. I do the same with my motorcycle so that is the plan with the dune buggy. With that being said the cover that goes over the back of the car would not have to be water tight. This makes things a bit simpler for the project.
This all looks good at this point but I will not be able to lock the design down until I get a mock-up made to fit the back of the car and then build it all in fiber glass. I want to be able to have fairly large opening in the back to get things in and out of the enclosure and also be able to lock it securely it when it is parked. A lot of planning will have to be made to get it all worked out but I think it can be done.
So that is the plan so far and I have the winter months to work it all out. I will post more about the dune buggy and this project once it is in my garage and I am ready to tackle it head on. Should be another fun project to work at. Have a good day on your latest project.
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