When you go out on buggy excursions with friends who have buggies who can really perform you can’t help but to do a bit of buggy dreaming. One day over a few beers with Kurt and Gunter (Volksmod) we dared to dream aloud. Before we knew it our little blue Dune buggy was sold and on the way to Tassie.
It was the beginning of 18months of ‘Project Nemo’. Our aim was to build a decent looking car, that could perform off-road .Our budget was always going to be tight so we had to save, save, save as well as do as much as possible ourselves At first it was all about collecting the right bits and pieces, including a good pan and a Genuine Manx shell. The very first purchase believe it or not was the Personalised plates. Swap meets were marked on our calendar and we set about gathering our buggy bits. We sourced parts and bits from all over the place. Our seats are Mazda MX5 seats which were hard to track down this pair came from Adelaide. Our gauges are from the States a sweet set of Auto-Meter ‘American Platinum’: Hot Rod Series set off the dash nicely. We set about choosing our colour and having it mixed to our own specifications.
This whole project has been a huge learning experience for us. We have learnt about Buggies, VW’s, Spray painting, how to use various tools, not to mention the value of good friends. We have learnt that if you don’t understand to ask lot’s of questions and always be prepared to give something a go. We surprised ourselves with some of what we have achieved on the buggy. However we had excellent teachers and a lot of credit must go to Kurt and Gunter who are truly the experts when it comes to building great buggies.
Believe it or not the major part of the buggy construction really happened in the last 8 weeks. Once we had all the bits all cleaned up and ready to go, it was go,go go!!!! Our deadline was the Fraser Island trip and we all worked our backsides off to get the car ready for then.
We now have our dream buggy and it is built the way we wanted it! We can be really proud of what we have achieved and we can do all those great outdoor things we love. But now we can keep up with our mates!! We even made our deadline and got to fraser Island. So what about the budget???? Let’s not mention budget. I don’t know too many VW folk who know how to stick to a budget do you???
