Dsrtrcr01
Member
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2022
- Messages
- 31
Well... I do not have a whole lot of pics of the build but @dose Shared a few since we have come to find out he built it originally after he saw some pics I posted.
Pics from Dose:
I had my long travel Toyota and the in-laws had a simple stock vw suspension buggy. They would pack a lunch and a cooler of drinks to go from the blu inn to blowsand... That was a long trip for them. Once I started going with them in my Toyota it would take something like 5 minutes to get there. So they wanted something a little more capable like my long travel Toyota but wanted a buggy because that is what their friends had.
A friend of a friend knew of an A arm manx sitting in a garage that needed work (Would not stay running (Toyota 22r), Trans issues (VW Bus trans), Missing seats, Missing gauges, messed up radiator, Cracked fiberglass body) so I grabbed my father in law and we went and checked it out. Ended up dragging it home for a really good price and that's where I started working on it for them.
Things I did with no pics:
1) fixed the trans by Upgrading it to a 5 Rib or whatever Bus trans (A little stronger then the standard Bus trans in it)
2) We put on new tires 33x10.5 Fronts with 33x12.5 in the rear. Both BFG AT's
3) Diagnosed an issue with it running. It would run for 3ish minutes then shut off. Ended up being the coil pack being mounted on a plate mounted to the valve cover. Once the motor warmed up I am assuming the rubber gaskets would swell making it so it did not get a ground and would shut off (You can see in the 8th pic below). I ran a new ground and the thing ran fine. Burned oil... So we rebuilt the 22r
4) Upgraded to an aluminum radiator with metal radiator lines (Had a plastic one from an audi or something similar that was cracked and leaking and long rubber hoses)
5) Ordered 2 wide boy PRPs for the back and 2 standard for the front
6) Got 5 points from PRP for all 4 seats
7) Added some new and some used gauges
All this got the car on the road and in the dez (Random pics in random order):
The car worked well but the 3x3 arms seemed too much for the torsions and rear single 2.5 Sway a way and bump. She sat low and would hit hard on wash outs. I wanted to upgrade to coils and bail on the torsions but FIL did not want to mess with it. It worked better then any stock suspension vw based buggy he had so did not really think it could get better. Well we were jamming down San Felipe and he was following me. I hit a cross wash and the Toyota sucked it up no big deal. He hit it and the rear hit really hard. In my mirror I thought they were going end over end but it came down. Came down so hard it compressed my MIL spine. That convinced him to go coil over in the rear. Car works extremely well with the coils now. MIL is all good now
Front end always had screaming brakes and did not work well. They would screech and scream. One trip at superstition the front spindle snapped. Ended up pulling the coil over loose and using a ratchet strap to lift the a arms as high as possible and 3 wheeled it back to camp:
Ended up upgrading the spindle to a larger one for more strength and upgrading the brakes to larger discs more suited for the size/weight of the vehicle.
Got an all stainless steel roof rack at the Curt swap meet for $100. Smoking deal. Added that to the Manx and built a tire mount on the back of the roof.
New exhaust in there at some point... Got a shorty header into a small muffler
Fixed all the cracks and holes in the fiberglass and painted it bright green:
Mixed in there I did a lot of aluminum work under the body to seal it up so you were not blasted by wind while driving. Added rubber base board material from Home Depot below the windshield to block that 2/3 inch gap (You can see it in the dash pic above) and Had the side aluminum panels line X'd on the inside to stop rattles
Pics from Dose:
I had my long travel Toyota and the in-laws had a simple stock vw suspension buggy. They would pack a lunch and a cooler of drinks to go from the blu inn to blowsand... That was a long trip for them. Once I started going with them in my Toyota it would take something like 5 minutes to get there. So they wanted something a little more capable like my long travel Toyota but wanted a buggy because that is what their friends had.
A friend of a friend knew of an A arm manx sitting in a garage that needed work (Would not stay running (Toyota 22r), Trans issues (VW Bus trans), Missing seats, Missing gauges, messed up radiator, Cracked fiberglass body) so I grabbed my father in law and we went and checked it out. Ended up dragging it home for a really good price and that's where I started working on it for them.
Things I did with no pics:
1) fixed the trans by Upgrading it to a 5 Rib or whatever Bus trans (A little stronger then the standard Bus trans in it)
2) We put on new tires 33x10.5 Fronts with 33x12.5 in the rear. Both BFG AT's
3) Diagnosed an issue with it running. It would run for 3ish minutes then shut off. Ended up being the coil pack being mounted on a plate mounted to the valve cover. Once the motor warmed up I am assuming the rubber gaskets would swell making it so it did not get a ground and would shut off (You can see in the 8th pic below). I ran a new ground and the thing ran fine. Burned oil... So we rebuilt the 22r
4) Upgraded to an aluminum radiator with metal radiator lines (Had a plastic one from an audi or something similar that was cracked and leaking and long rubber hoses)
5) Ordered 2 wide boy PRPs for the back and 2 standard for the front
6) Got 5 points from PRP for all 4 seats
7) Added some new and some used gauges
All this got the car on the road and in the dez (Random pics in random order):
The car worked well but the 3x3 arms seemed too much for the torsions and rear single 2.5 Sway a way and bump. She sat low and would hit hard on wash outs. I wanted to upgrade to coils and bail on the torsions but FIL did not want to mess with it. It worked better then any stock suspension vw based buggy he had so did not really think it could get better. Well we were jamming down San Felipe and he was following me. I hit a cross wash and the Toyota sucked it up no big deal. He hit it and the rear hit really hard. In my mirror I thought they were going end over end but it came down. Came down so hard it compressed my MIL spine. That convinced him to go coil over in the rear. Car works extremely well with the coils now. MIL is all good now
Front end always had screaming brakes and did not work well. They would screech and scream. One trip at superstition the front spindle snapped. Ended up pulling the coil over loose and using a ratchet strap to lift the a arms as high as possible and 3 wheeled it back to camp:
Ended up upgrading the spindle to a larger one for more strength and upgrading the brakes to larger discs more suited for the size/weight of the vehicle.
Got an all stainless steel roof rack at the Curt swap meet for $100. Smoking deal. Added that to the Manx and built a tire mount on the back of the roof.
New exhaust in there at some point... Got a shorty header into a small muffler
Fixed all the cracks and holes in the fiberglass and painted it bright green:
Mixed in there I did a lot of aluminum work under the body to seal it up so you were not blasted by wind while driving. Added rubber base board material from Home Depot below the windshield to block that 2/3 inch gap (You can see it in the dash pic above) and Had the side aluminum panels line X'd on the inside to stop rattles
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