Building a Manx-Style Dune Buggy

Рет қаралды 53,053

2 жыл бұрын

On today's video, I show the process of renovating an old 1964-vintage dune buggy! This project took most of Summer 2021 to complete, and it served as my daily driver from mid-September to mid-November this year. I cover all the steps, including improvements to the VW beetle chassis, design and construction of a custom roll cage, implementation of a custom EFI/HEI engine control module, preparation and painting of the fiberglass body, and finally the assembly and testing of the new buggy build!
The referenced chassis improvement video can be found here: • Dune Buggy Rollbar Sys...
The referenced fuel injector throttle body build video can be found here: • TBI Fuel Injection for...
Audio clips from NCS are as follows:
Elektronomia - Summersong 2018 [NCS Release]:
• Elektronomia - Summers...
Unison - Aperture [NCS Release]:
• Unison - Aperture | Pr...
Thanks for watching!

Пікірлер: 62

@sck7458 Жыл бұрын

You make building dune buggys look easy 😂.

@Ernesto1070867 2 жыл бұрын

Can’t wait to se the revision of the custom fuel injection!!

@JMKGarage 2 жыл бұрын

Nice work on the build, the buggy turned out awesome 👏

@Biokemist-o3k 11 ай бұрын

Really great!! Thanks for sharing!!

@Thee_Finger 2 жыл бұрын

What a fun video. Awesome!

@user-vn8pv3yd3c 2 жыл бұрын

This is very cool John did more than wonderful there is a great effort in this video

@JackLangenkamp 2 жыл бұрын

I have really enjoyed your videos! I appreciate the effort you put in to explain what you are doing, how you are doing it, and even what tools you are using. This is excellent content and I am subscribed for more!

@aliasmari Жыл бұрын

❤I love this buggy so much , I have the French copy of meters Manx , Savran LM1

@customprints9358 Жыл бұрын

Awesome build you inspired me to build my own

@SuperiorTuning 2 жыл бұрын

I saw you on rural the other morning. I had the off road Volvo wagon xc70 in blue. Was me and my girlfriend. Going north from the 60. Knew it was you. Goodjob on videos bud

@DielectricVideos 2 жыл бұрын

That's awesome! Thanks!

@nickdifilippo4055 2 жыл бұрын

Glad to see a new video. The production quality is awesome and maybe the best so far?

@onepairofhands Жыл бұрын

great job sir

@eugenpaustian5211 10 ай бұрын

Awesome job! ❤ Respekt 😃👌

@aliasmari Жыл бұрын

Great job great buggy

@MLFranklin 2 жыл бұрын

Fantastic build video. Among the best I've seen. I especially like the attention to detail, including tube sizes and even the brand of the penetrating spray used to unstick the new engine. With that kind of detail I'm guessing you're an engineer. Now I'm trying to figure out if electrical or mechanical. Maybe electro-mechanical. :-) Congrats on the excellent build! (I'm a mechanical engineer, but in grad school I designed and built a few PFI engine control systems, from scratch [well, PC-based, with prototype cards] to support my research or generate a little cash).

@Miley_00 2 жыл бұрын

NICE, old BTC shirt over the seat! I hope you have some coins as old as that shirt! Awesome video btw!

@FedericoGi 2 жыл бұрын

Stupendo. Bravi

@t.s.tractorworkstrickland5828 Жыл бұрын

The old buggy is sweet the new Tesla is for nerds lol. Nice video

@savagecustoms541 8 ай бұрын

Great video. I just picked up a buggy with this same body style. Any guess who the manufacturer is?

@noanyobiseniss7462 2 жыл бұрын

Upvoted immediately just for the bitcoin shirt!

@chriscunningham9892 Жыл бұрын

Could you do a V8 conversion on the Tesla next? That would be REALLY interesting.

@DielectricVideos Жыл бұрын

You should check out Rich Rebuilds' "ICE T" build! He actually did swap a V8 into a Tesla, and it's really cool!

@kpaven72 2 жыл бұрын

Hi. Enjoyed the video. I just inherited my dune buggy from Dad after his passing. Still drives good, brakes need some work. But would you do restoration work for other people?

@DielectricVideos 2 жыл бұрын

For the time being, I'm pretty much fully occupied by my day job, so I wouldn't be able to do a restoration for hire. I do highly recommend doing as much of the work yourself as you can, as it will really give you an appreciation for the car that's hard to get any other way. If you do ever break down, it's also very useful to know the car on a very detailed level in order to repair it in the field quickly

@jamesarmstrong-jones5082 2 жыл бұрын

Dude, incredible work. what kind of ecu is that?

@DielectricVideos 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! It's a custom board that I designed. It uses an Arduino Nano for the main microcontroller. For fuel control, it uses similar control logic to the prototype I showed in this video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/odBiZ8yI0rPDgIk.html The board also controls ignition timing using fixed-dwell HEI coil control. I'm using a single low-impedance "spark plug topper" coil with the original cap and rotor to distribute spark to the cylinders.

@jamesarmstrong-jones5082 2 жыл бұрын

@@DielectricVideos thats badass, would you do an update on that part of the build? find that very interesting and thinking about doing something similar on my landcruiser

@jaylittle7192 Жыл бұрын

Can I ask where you purchased the seats for your buggy?

@DielectricVideos Жыл бұрын

You can get them on Speedway Motors here: www.speedwaymotors.com/EMPI-62-2881-0-Low-Back-Roadster-Style-Seat-W-Polished-Vent-Grommets,294376.html?sku=1412881

@michaelcrosby6071 2 жыл бұрын

Nice work. The land of red lights. Lol

@DielectricVideos 2 жыл бұрын

Hahaha, that pretty much sums up all the surface streets in Phoenix!

@markwilliams8892 Жыл бұрын

Do you have any idea what the curb weight is/was before the enhancements started?

@DielectricVideos Жыл бұрын

I'm not actually sure of the curb weight either before of after the modifications. According to Google a stock 1964 beetle weighs 1609 lbs, so I would expect the (roll cage) + (fiberglass body) - (original steel body) would probably have a similar total curb weight, but I'm not sure.

@markwilliams8892 Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the reply about the weight.

@xpatsfan72x Жыл бұрын

What type of headlights?

@DielectricVideos Жыл бұрын

These are the ones I used: www.amazon.com/Zmoon-Headlights-Wrangler-Motorcycle-Davidson/dp/B07T28C69B/

@joehoupe8874 11 ай бұрын

@DielectricVideos are the headlights working as expected? What buckets did you use? Did the lights fit in the buckets without any adjustments?

@davekent20 2 жыл бұрын

What paint color is that ? Thanks Dave

@DielectricVideos 2 жыл бұрын

It's called Sublime green, here's where you can get it: www.summitracing.com/search/brand/summit-racing/part-type/paint/primary-paint-color/green/manufacturer-paint-color/sublime I used a bit over half a gallon to cover the whole body.

@hotrodaallbbaa2343 2 жыл бұрын

What size are the front tires?

@DielectricVideos 2 жыл бұрын

The front tires shown here in the video are 165/86R15 Discount Arizonians. The rears shown here are 30/10R15 Rage Thunders. I just recently upgraded both the fronts and the rears, and currently I'm running 185/65R15 Sumitomo Ice Edges on the front and 31/10.5R15 Milestar Patagonias on the rear.

@hotrodaallbbaa2343 2 жыл бұрын

@@DielectricVideos Thanks for the reply!! Looks great 👍🏼

@bigghoss4402 2 жыл бұрын

Nice buggy! What headlights are those? I really like the built in turn signals.

@DielectricVideos 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! These are "ZMoon" brand halo-style headlights from Amazon, and can be found here: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RXXT2XJ

@KingTMD 2 жыл бұрын

@@DielectricVideos How do you like these headlights? I am wanting to put these on a 1967 VW buggy, I like how they have turn signals built in too.

@DielectricVideos 2 жыл бұрын

@@KingTMD I really like them! The turn signals are definitely a nice feature, and I like the way the DRLs look as well. They're also quite a bit brighter than the stock incandescent headlights, and the cooler color temperature seems to improve visibility as well. They seem to be reasonably reliable, as I've driven several dozen ~45 minute drives to work and back with the lights turned on and have not had any issues. Granted, I only have the low-beams wired up, so they might wear out faster with the high-beams on. The current draw on these lights is really low as well; I recall measuring about 1.5A per headlight on low-beam and 2.5A per headlight on high-beam, which is way less than the stock incandescent ones.

@KingTMD 2 жыл бұрын

@@DielectricVideos Thanks for the quick response, you did great on your buggy. Is it still the same housing for the lights or are you using something else?

@DielectricVideos 2 жыл бұрын

@@KingTMD It's the same housing. The ZMoon 7" lights should fit into any 7" round headlamp holder, which I believe is the same for the Beetle as for the housings I have.

@josephcivita1450 7 ай бұрын

Nasty looking welds.

@MisfitGamingOfficial 2 жыл бұрын

Why does this dude sound just like spencer reid from criminal minds

@joemuncie9187 2 жыл бұрын

Now that you mention it, they also look alike!!!

@Chris_A_ Ай бұрын

Sorry bud, the roll cage that you have constructed is Sub Par. The forward "Roll Bar " WIIL NOT provide roll over protection. Yes, it looks nostalgic yet provides ZERO protection. Review the most current NHRA or SCTA/BNI rule books to gain the knowledge of safety cage requirements. I do wish you a safe and enjoyable experience. The Mailman