Louis' Manx Project

[louisb]

Today I picked up an original Manx II shell in exchange for a set of rims I had laying around. The shell is in good shape but has been sitting outside for several years. The car will be a late '60s early '70s look.

--louis

[Lee.C]

COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

[louisb]

COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

I am glad you think so as I am sure I will have some questions for you later. 

--louis

[Lee.C]

COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

I am glad you think so as I am sure I will have some questions for you later. 

--louis

Ask away dude - I'm always happy to help with a retro styled manx - My tip is Keep It Simple, But that should be quite easy with the way your doin it 

[louisb]

Right now I am looking at wheels and tires. I want to use stock style steel rims painted white but not sure of a good street tire combo. Any suggestions? My other thing is do I go Holley bugspray or stock carb on the single port? The engine will be stock 85.5x69 except for some cleaned up heads and a w100 cam and an extractor or glass pack style exhaust. (I don't want it overly loud)

--louis

[louisb]

Finally got the shell home today. Its pretty dirty but not in bad shape. You can see the modified rear fenders. Progress will probably be slow on this project since the '66 takes priority. I plan to work on this one when I have down time on the '66. First thing I want to do, other than soak it in some bleach, is to get the chassis done. (That is the '66 pan it is sitting on in the pics.)






















--louis

[Shubee2 (DSK)]

What Wheels did you Trade for it?    and What wheels are going on the 66 now?

[louisb]

I traded the repo gasburners for it. I picked up a set of Porsche pattern Erco's for the '66 that I am going to use.

--louis

[Shubee2 (DSK)]

I traded the repo gasburners for it. I picked up a set of Porsche pattern Erco's for the '66 that I am going to use.

--louis

Cool  were the Erco's Daniel Hoods wheels off the chop top? did you get them from Luke?

[louisb]

I traded the repo gasburners for it. I picked up a set of Porsche pattern Erco's for the '66 that I am going to use.

--louis

Cool  were the Erco's Daniel Hoods wheels off the chop top? did you get them from Luke?

Aye, it was that set. I am waiting on the big brown van to drop them off any day now.

--louis

[louisb]

Finally got around to doing something on the Manx. I need to get it to roller status because having 2 projects in a 2 car garage is making it a bit tight. So I decided to start on the chassis work. First thing up is replacing the frame head. My good friend Bobby and I spent the afternoon cutting the very rusty frame head off my '67 chassis and mocking up the new one. It is turning out to be not as difficult as I thought. Just a lot of measuring, measuring and then measuring again before cutting anything. I will weld it on when I get back from vacation.




















--louis

[Lee.C]

Good to see some progress dude 

[SlingShot]

Looks like your working hard Stay Hydrated 

[louisb]

lol, its mostly the humidity. With 90% humidity you can break a sweat standing still and it doesn't evaporate. But you do have to keep drinking fluids. (And beer doesnt count.)

--louis

[chopperdentist]

It's gonna be an hard and very long work!! GOOD LUCK!!!
which wheels you want use for the manx?

[Shubee2 (DSK)]

Looks like your working hard Stay Hydrated 

Louis Your Shortening the Wrong End  LMAO 

[louisb]

It's gonna be an hard and very long work!! GOOD LUCK!!!
which wheels you want use for the manx?

I have some stock solid 15x4s that I plan to have widened. I am still debating tire size but I think it will be 165R15s front and 235/60-15s rear.

--louis

[Lee.C]

It's gonna be an hard and very long work!! GOOD LUCK!!!
which wheels you want use for the manx?

I have some stock solid 15x4s that I plan to have widened. I am still debating tire size but I think it will be 165R15s front and 235/60-15s rear.

--louis

Sounds about right dude - mybe 225's though 

[chopperdentist]

It's gonna be an hard and very long work!! GOOD LUCK!!!
which wheels you want use for the manx?

I have some stock solid 15x4s that I plan to have widened. I am still debating tire size but I think it will be 165R15s front and 235/60-15s rear.

--louis

shoud be a great project!! let's know your progress!!

[louisb]

Rims came tonight. I also got the frame head and Nepolean's hat welded on. We started cutting the frame to shorten it 14 1/4'" but had to call it a night.

My rear rims from Rally America. 15x6.5. They will get painted or powder coated white. I am thinking of running them sans hub caps w/ black painted drums.










Couple of shots of the buggy after it had been washed by my friend Bobby.







Cut off those ugly rear flares. Going to be fun trying to reform this area.




And finally the progress on the pan. We should be shortening it this weekend.













--louis

[Lee.C]

Good progress dude - this is gonna be a COOL Looking manx

[vwcab]

Cool project and I like those rims.This is gonne be a fun car. 

[louisb]

Got the frame shortened this today. Took a lot of trimming and measuring but it came out nice IMHO. On to the pics:

My cutting the bottom the other night:







Cut lines marked. The one drawback I found to using this method is I will need to reweld the clutch tube bracket. Not a big deal:








I left a 5" or 6" lip on the bottom that I really think helped to line every thing up.




Last mockup with the body. I did this several times but I am paranoid so there you go.




I added these "V" cuts on each side to help everything line up.





Get it up on jack stands and make it all level.





How do you like that fit? 




Cleaning up the welds. And yes I need to clean up the garage but I would rather spend my time working on the car.










One area I am not happy about. But its the body that is warped not the pan. First time I placed the body on the pan after replacing the pan head I nearly had a heart attacking thinking I had welded it on crooked. Then I realized the fiberglass is warped. Not sure how to fix it yet.




Woo Hoo! IT FITS! I almost have a real buggy instead of just a fiberglass shell.




--louis

[louisb]

double post.

[louisb]

Triple post. 

[Shubee2 (DSK)]

Hi Louis Question when you cut the Pan did you just cut the tack welds on all the inner tubes and shove them threw to the back then trim them off?  of did you splice them somehow?

[louisb]

I cut where they were tacked in the back and shoved them through. Then cut them off and rewelded them to the bracket. There is a good description here

http://www.meyersmanx.com/garage/garage_shorten_p1.htm

on how to do it.

--louis

[Shubee2 (DSK)]

I cut where they were tacked in the back and shoved them through. Then cut them off and rewelded them to the bracket. There is a good description here

http://www.meyersmanx.com/garage/garage_shorten_p1.htm

on how to do it.

--louis

Thanks

[Neil Davies]

Looking good Louis! E-mail Rob at East Coast Manx, he might be able to mould up the rear arch sections you need and post them to you. He's a good guy and it may well be the sort of thing he'd do to fix an original Manx.

[Lee.C]

Looking good Louis! E-mail Rob at East Coast Manx, he might be able to mould up the rear arch sections you need and post them to you. He's a good guy and it may well be the sort of thing he'd do to fix an original Manx.

Yep drop rob an email - I am sure he will be able to help