She is going to be one of the sponsors vehicles for the Galway International Rally. I’ll see if i can get her some TV time!!
George’s Cars
site to keep track of what george is doing with his cars at any particular point in time
Well i told most of ye i bought this but didn’t put pictures up, i finally got the van today after a saga with NVD but I won’t get into that now.
I did what i tell everyone not to do, bought the van without seeing it but the timing was bad, it was bought the same week we had Triona and there was just no option to get over to see it. So it was a gamble, thankfully its not a bucket of shit but there is one or two extra things on it that i didn’t see in the photos and the seller didn’t tell me about but nothing major.
Its a 87 Doka, running a 1.9 DG engine (for now), lowered 70mm.
The plan for her is to clear her up, cut out the rust, weld in fresh steel, repaint in red and tweak a little to suit the style I like.
I haven’t decided if i’ll post progress pics or wait for the unveil at the end. I’ll see. It will be 2 weeks before I start it as i have a few jobs to finish first. Hopefully it will not be a 5 year restoration, 5 months would be nice but as ye all know, these things have a habit of taking a mind of their own!!
The buggy has been sitting in the garage for the last few months, there was a few problems with her, most of which now have been solved.
The first problem was the suspension, it was too low and the tyres where scrubbing on the wings, the dropped spindles where removed and replaced with the standard one. Now there is plenty of clearance but now there is another problem, the tyres on the front wheels look miserable, i have larger profile ones in the garage so when i’m getting the car tracked i’ll put the larger profile tyres back on.
Next problem was the carburettor, it wasn’t running right, it was fine when going flat out but she wouldn’t idle properly, i cleaned the carb and gave the idle jet a good cleaning, seems to be running fine now.
Last problem, which i haven’t fixed yet is the indicators, they are shorting out someplace and melting my flasher unit.I don’t know whats causing this but i’ll look into it. Can’t be anything major except a short someplace.
I brought her for a spin afterwards, not too far about a 20 mile run, man its cold driving a beach buggy in this weather!!!
My son is mad about Thomas the Tank Engine, so i decided to do make him something nice for Christmas. He was getting to the stage where he was big enough for a big boy bed. I made the bed but Alma painted it. The bed is made out of 6×3 posts and 4×2 rails.
And my little boy ready to help daddy in the garage!
Just hosting photos for a member of brick-yard. This van is for sale if anyone is interested.
I haven’t posted in a while, I lost my internet connection for a while so I didn’t have access to the site, also I haven’t been doing much work on my cars lately. I have slowly been building the parts required to build Evins mini manx. For those who don’t know this is a miniture version of my own beach buggy. Its very close in style but not perfect. Its also red but not 100% match either but I don’t think i’ll go down the route of spraying it, its close enough for a childs toy. I’m sure it will end up with scratches and will probably be resprayed down the road anyways!!
As reminder this is now my buggy looks.
This is Evins body.
And this is the donor vehicle!!
The original plan was to use a kids mini quad for the engine and suspension parts but the more I look at it the more I want to use all lawn mower parts. When I aquired the current lawn mower I didn’t want the engine so the engine on the one I have is not worth repairing. So i’m looking for a ride on lawn mower engine if anyone out there has such a thing!!
There is no real deadline on this project but it would be nice to have it ready for his 3rd birthday.
No not me, the headlights on the buggy dipped on the way into Galway city today. Well the passenger side did. When I got her into the garage i found out the bold for the headlight broke. Yes thats right, it broke. It wasn’t over tightened but it only lasted about 100 miles on the buggy. Its an unusual bolt, it has a square head and is hollow on the inside for anyone who hasn’t seen one.
Since there is no place around here to get a new one and the weather is too nice to leave the buggy sitting in the garage so I welded it. I actually think the bold shattered, when i went to line them up they wouldn’t, even the edges where not a match.
I know its not 100% straight, but it will hold until i can get my hands on a new one. I want to drive the car tomorrow!!!!
Its been a bit quite around here lately. I finished the buggy, mostly, there are a few jobs to be done but I have had to prioritise my family again for a little while. In the next few weeks i’ll start getting back into the garage again.
The pictures of the blue beetle where for a fellow member of the Eircooled club who was interested in buying her but family circumstances wouldn’t allow it at the time. I’m half thinking of doing her up over the winter but ssssh, don’t tell the wife, if Alma hears I’m thinking about starting something else I’ll be divorced. As you can see it needs a heater channel on one side and generally just a good clean up and tidyup. Its a good car and goes great.
I have got approve from the boss to do one project over the winter, I’m hopefully going to start Evin’s mini -manx, basically just like my beach buggy only 1/10 the size!! It will even be powered by a aircooled motor but he is only getting a 50cc one!! It will be another year or so before he will be able to enjoy it fully but I want to have it done for next years shows so we will have a little and large!! I’m having a little trouble getting my hands on the mini-manx body but hopefully I’ll be able to get one before I’m in the UK next month.
