Finally the garage caught up to us.

On Thursday Steve and I both had the whole day off together.  We finally finished cleaning out the garage that needed it so badly.  Now we have some room to work on the dune buggy.

                      

Elwood is a fantastic supervisor for this project.  He really holds us accountable and makes sure we don't get distracted.  LOL

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We ended up taking the front suspension, tires and wheels apart and took them into the garage to start the cleaning process.  We are going to clean each piece and then paint it so that it doesn't rust during assembly.

 

Steve is attempting to take off the two cross bars in the front.  It makes a lot of noise and a lot of sparks.  It will take a while for this as the air compressor has a difficult time keeping up.

Here I am cleaning the metal with a wire brush attachment.  This is taking forever too.  The drill batteries also had a hard time keeping up so we decided to call it a day.  Elwood was pooped anyway.  :)

No Turning Back: more progress on the donor car....

Well you'll all be happy to note that Steve's welding lesson went well, he did not burn himself and he is actually getting pretty good with some practice.  Our next task in the project is to take apart the donor car and separate the parts we need and those we will not be using.  Yesterday Steve and I attacked the body of the car to remove it so that we can get to the guts of the car, which is what we will need.  It took a while, but we finally got the pieces separated.

You'll note that we felt victorious when separating the pieces.  Steve got the engine running pretty smoothly again after that so the next step will be to take the engine apart and clean it and prepare it for fitting on the frame.  At some point we will also have to get on the welding of the frame.  Lots of work to come.  Hopefully it does not get overwhelming.   By the way, we are going to attempt to sell the body since we do not need it anymore.  It is in good condition.  If you know anyone who is interested have them send an e-mail!

I bought a dune buggy from a guy at a truck stop...

Berrien Buggy had a scheduled delivery to Fisher Buggy in Tampa and we managed to get our frame on that truck, saving a bundle in shipping. As such, I met Dave and Sue with Berrien at the Flying J truck stop in Dade City where I took delivery of our new Cruiser frame knock-down kit and a variety of other parts. Dave and Sue are the founders of Berrien Buggy and couldn't be nicer people. They are now in their 40th year of building buggy frames; they estimate that they've made somewhere in the neighborhood of 50,000 frames in that time. We've now got lots of parts; should keep us busy for a while!!!

We Did It!

Tonight, Steve and I finally did it.  We ordered our dune buggy frame from Berrien Buggies in Berrien Springs Michigan.  We got a smoking deal on shipping and we did so just in time.  They are sending a truck down to Tampa from Michigan on Sunday.  Our parts just made it on the truck.  Here is a list of items that we purchased: A Cruiser 4-seat frame, Frame horn supports, Solid Rear Transmission Mount, Triple Bend Tree Bars, A Chassis Brace Kit, Torsion Cap Kit, Tabs, and a Pedal Plate Assembly.  Here is their website if you want to check out our parts.  http://www.berrienbuggy.com/id58.htm

The truck should arrive in Florida this Tuesday.  Hooray.  We can almost get started on our project!

To Weld or Not To Weld, That is the Question...

I decided to go out on a limb and purchase Steve a welder for Christmas.  Neither of us know 

how to weld, however in order to complete the dune buggy project, we will need to weld. 

 There has been great debate about whether or not to buy a frame fully assembled or purchase a kit and take on the challenge to weld it ourselves.  Steve has been doing extensive research on the "art"/"science" of welding.  For those of us who know Steve well, we know that studying is not his favorite thing.  He is quite passionate about learning this new skill.  He has even found a neighbor down the street who is willing to give him a few welding lessons to get him started.  I have purchased my beloved two books on welding and he has absorbed everything he can from the internet on the subject.     

 Now we just need to practice.  It's a little scary cause the plug is one of those big ones that plugs into the dryer outlet.  I've been told the the temperature of the weld is 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit so uh, it's hot!  

We could very easily hurt ourselves very badly by taking this on but we are going to take every precaution and hope for the best.  If anyone reading this has any tips for us, please don't  hesitate to comment!  Steve's first welding lesson will be this Sunday evening.  Keep him in your prayers as I will be at work and unable to supervise.

The Schmidt Project 2008

Steve and I have decided to build a sand rail style dune buggy this year.  I've decided that I want to learn a little about cars and how they are put together and Steve couldn't be happier to teach me.  We are very early in the project.  So far, we have purchased a donor car from which we will pull the engine, front and rear suspension, brakes, and entire drive train. The 1969 VW Bug has a 1970 Type 3 motor in it.  The body of the car is a cute red convertible (which Steve keeps warning not to fall in love with).  We are thinking about getting some seats for the interior, fixing up the brakes and driving it around until we purchase our sand rail frame.  Note, it has no doors, no pedals and needs a steering wheel and windshield.  We know the brakes need work but once all that is done, it's drivable.  The car does not have a battery or a gas tank either.  We did get the engine started in the back yard last night so that was exciting.  Keep checking our site to view our progress, see our frustrations and hopefully witness the satisfaction of finishing this project without killing each other!