We had a scheduled power cut yesterday here so I could do no real work, office work anyways. I got some work done on the buggy but it was one of those days where I was working all day and i don’t see much progress. I did get the rear light pods fibreglassed. My first attempt using real fibreglass mat and resin didn’t work, I made a mess of it. The second time round i used the P40 stuff and it work out quite well with the exception of one little spot where i didn’t work the fibreglass into so now i have a hole I’m going to have to try and fix from the back. I do like making life difficult for myself. When I moved to the other side everything went very well. I got all the gaps filled and the end result doesn’t look too bad. Thats the joys of a steep learning curve!! I’ll try fix it over the weekend.

I also had a problem with my wheels. The tyre place tried to re-seal the rims but they wouldn’t seal. Too much corrosion on the inner rims where the wheel seals. He made it out that it would be a disaster and the metal work continue to turn to dust if I sanded them. I did sand them and they didn’t turn to dust, now he has nice shiny metal to seal the tyres against. I dropped them up to him this morning so hopefully I’ll have them back before the day is out. I’m still waiting for the front ball joints to be re-pressed so fitting the front wheels won’t be an option until that happens. I need to get the front adapters machined anyways.

I also started fitting the ali checker plate, i had to cut out a few recesses for the pedals and I might have to trim some of the mounts but it will work. I also got my stainless steel bolts for the checker plate so that will be one job I can tick off the list soon. A little side rant, I was going to order the bolts from the uk but I found this crowd in Dublin www.inox.ie, they where a little bit more expensive but they offered free shipping which made them cheaper overall. I ordered the bolts Monday afternoon and they arrived Tuesday afternoon. To me that’s good customer service. I normally give out about Irish suppliers but i have to give credit where credit is due. I will order stuff from them again.

So thats where things stand today. I’ll do a few hours tonight after work. Hopefully I’ll clean up the mess with the rear light pod, then I’ll post pictures!! I’m tempted to try primer it over the weekend. I’m going to do a mock up build first before I paint it but i would be nice to have it looking some what ready rather that a multi colour item. Having said that, beach buggies did come about in the 60′s and maybe the buggy wants to keep its hippy routes for a little while. There will be no hippy look to it when its finished!!!