I’d always wanted a buggy. There’s something about them that captured my imagination as a child, probably the bright shiny colours and the loud engines. My first introduction to the VW community was a Baja Beetle, which was the closest thing I could find at the time. Unfortunately it was a white elephant, looking great on the outside to my untrained eye, but was really a heap of rust, mishap and woe. I kept the car for about 4 years, most of the time it was sat broken on my parents driveway or in various car parks. Eventually I had to sell it as I had to move to Cyprus with work.
Ah Cyprus! Perfect buggy territory you might reckon, and you’d be right! But it wasn’t till I was dragged kicking and screaming back to the UK 3 years later that I found my hearts desire. I’d spent quite a long time during the last few months of my time in Cyprus drawing up my plan for buggy ownership. My wife, bless ‘er, was understandably negative toward the prospect of my owning another Volkswagen. I say this as my last beetle absorbed quite alot of our hard earned cash, oh and it once tried to spit her out of the passenger door whilst we were traversing a roundabout in High Wycombe. So, scheming and plotting, I started my campaign. It started innocently enough with a casual “Nice out innit?. You know what would be really good? We could get a buggy when we get back to the UK to remind us of Cyprus”. It escalated to her coming home from work and finding a ‘How to build your own beach buggy’ book strategically placed on the coffee table, and ended up with a sustained “Can I have a buggy, can I have a buggy, can I have a buggy, can I have a buggy, can I have a buggy, can I have a buggy, can I have a buggy…”. She relented, eventually, buckling under the pressure and once we got back to the UK I went and bought my first beach buggy.
The buggy I had elected to go and have a look at was a blue metalflake, short wheel based Prowler. It had a 1641cc engine and was sitting on Wolfrace Katana wheels, 17inch on the rear and 15inch on the front. I’d found it by trawling through the internet. The buggy looked stunning in the photographs very different to the other buggies I’d seen. I managed to get my 
mate Bruce to give me a lift up to the Midlands, and armed with a bankers draft for 4K I travelled up to have a look. The buggy was being sold by a nice bloke called Mullet. Him and his mate Slug (they sound like a superhero team) had put the buggy together the previous year for a few shows and it hadn’t really had much use since then. Probably because it was freezing and the car had no roof. I was in love with it’s sparkly blueness at first sight and I had to have it. I parted with my money and drove the car home. Despite looking gorgeous the car drove like a plate of jelly. The steering was wobbly and clattery and the bonnet was bumping around all over the place. Maybe I should have flagged this up during the test drive, but like I said, it HAD to be mine.
Over the years I’ve gradually replaced and rebuilt the buggy. Upon closer inspection a lot of the buggy was pretty poorly put together. Holes weren’t planned and measured before they were made, the steering column support was a square bit of pine wood sprayed black, the bonnet wasn’t fixed down properly, and body mounts were missing to name a few of the faults I found. After sorting most of these out my first project was getting a hood made for it. I booked inwith Whiff’s’ Trimmings and Wireworks and got myself on the waiting list. A year later I dropped it off. I’d told Graham at Whiffs’ that I wanted the roof line to be kept low slung and to mirror the lines of the Prowler. I wanted the buggy to look as good with it’s hood up as it does with it down. Having a curved windscreen with no surround caused no end of headache, and backache for Graham. He’s knocking on a bit and managed to put his back out halfway through the fitting. I had to get hold of a folding hood frame from a Mk2 Austin Healey Frog eyed Sprite. The finished result is an amazing display of ingenuity and craftmanship, low, sleek, and very well made. It’s taken me a great deal of practice to get in and out of the car with panache and not looking like a newborn calf that’s just popped out of the womb.
I showed the car for it’s first time at the SDBC Beach buggy picnic at Merrist wood. I made lots of new friends that weekend and took home lots of ideas from seeing 
the many beautifully crafted buggies that showed up. I ended up replacing the Bobcat style exhaust, the exhaust while great for setting off car alarms, scaring horses and making small children cry, unfortunately gave me tinnitus for a while after each journey. I eventually bought a trimill Bobtail exhaust, bringing it back from San Francisco along with a load of billet parts in my wifes suitcase. She was warming to our second Volkswagen and didn’t mind, much. The exhaust looked great fitted but was very quiet, too quiet for my liking. I ended up replacing it a couple of months ago with a ceramic Manx Sidewinder exhaust. The new Sidewinder is a happy medium, emitting a deep bass growl without deafening me. I reckon I’ll still be able to set of car alarms but not rupture my eardrums in the process. I’ve also replaced most of the engine tin, popped in a Petronix billet distributer with electronic ignition, replaced the headlamps with some motorcycle lamps, and lots of other bits and pieces that would probably make me cry if I’d bothered keeping a tally of what I spent.
I took it to a few other shows including Bugjam, which I’ll never go back to. 6 hours to get out of the site followed by 3 hours sitting by the side of the road waiting for the AA, followed by a 2 hour drive home in the dark, in a deluge of rain with shorted out head lamps. I also took the buggy and my wife to the Swanage carnival where the SDBC were leading
the carnival procession. That weekend was amazing, although my better half said that she would not get in the buggy again until I got new comfortable seats.
With the help of the SDBC chairman Hunter I made probably the most drastic change to my buggys’ original appearance by fitting new wheels. I was originally looking at American Centerlines but decided I wanted something different and bought a set of American Racing Torque Thrust 2s’. I wanted a classic wheel that wasn’t too vulgar. I bought 15inch x 10inch for the rear wheels and had 275/65/15 tires fitted, and for the front wheels I went for 15inch x 7inch and 195/50/15 tires. I had to change the rear hubs and fit a disk brake conversion kit to get them to fit. The end result makes the car look like a proper buggy, really filling the arches, the rear end is now officially W I D E, and I love the way it sits.
I’m really happy with the buggy now and I think it’s near to being complete. I know people say it’ll never be complete but I don’t want to end up changing things for the sake of it and then eventually regretting making those changes. The last few future projects include rebodying the car, new seats (comfortable ones that don’t rattle your teeth everytime you hit a bump), possibly a more powerful engine, and a new interior.
