Kestrel Buggy Rodification

[piesang]

I initially thought I'd do a quick fixer-upper in a 70's style, with orange metalflake paint and white steel mags, but after much head scratching and soul searching, I've decided to combine this build with my love of old skool (read period correct) hot rods. This means a solid, no frills colour, stock steel wheels, white walls and lots of period style accessories. Here's what I've got in mind:

For the colour, I've drawn inspiration from my beloved Honda Mini Trail (monkey bike) and decided to paint the car in the same Honda Phoenix yellow and VW Ivory White. The ivory white will make its way onto the windscreen, roll bar and some of the interior parts, such as the gear lever and seat frames etc.


T!M

speaking of colour, interesting how poeple's taste differ!

I had the yellow and white but want the 70's bottlegreen with glitter

This is what mine looked like when I got it

[Retro13]

speaking of colour, interesting how poeple's taste differ!

I had the yellow and white but want the 70's bottlegreen with glitter

This is what mine looked like when I got it

Haha, I noticed that too. I've been following your project with much interest and thought it was quite interesting that I was changing to a simple yellow and you were going from yellow to the metal flake. Great work by the way, the green looks really good.

[Bossie2004]

Hey Retro,

about 18months ago, the "Skoonpa" and I got our hands on a buggy as well, it was a tad shoddy, but looking beyond the previous owners' grandchildrens first attempt at a Camo job, there was potential.

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After much "Stripping, Swearing, Sanding and Spraying" the Potential POPPED!

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Even the rear end does not look like a "BEEG ASS MOMMA", rather nice & tight....

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Rims, roll bar & cages powdercoated, got a pair of seats from Bennie in the "VuilDriehoek" re-upholstered, got some lekke LED taillights (57mm - courteousy if Midas) in, she is at the Autelec to get the wiring sorted, soon the engine will swing and then them tyres will start singing a New Hymn.

Enjoy the build.

Cheers,
Marius.

[Retro13]

Hey Marius, thanks for the comms, that looks unbelievably good. Just goes to show that a diamond can often be found in the (very) rough. Your build certainly gives me a lot of hope for my machine. I'm intrigued by that massive rear seat contraption that it had when you got it; I'm guessing your buggy could have been used as a sort of game viewing vehicle. Keep us posted when you get that blue beauty running; really looking forward to the finished product.

Bennie is the man! I got a few groceries from him as well and his pricing was very reasonable. When I got to his place he immediately made my friend and I feel welcome. Top man.

Will put up some more progress pictures a bit later; things are starting to look good. Stay tuned...

Ciao

[Retro13]

Update time...

So once I had the pan at my friend Dave's house I started welding all the little holes and cracks closed with the oxy acetylene torch (my first time) and I must say it is rather different to arc and MIG welding. After a few practice tries I started getting the hang of it and proceded to fix all the little problems. I also did a bit of brazing to fill in some non-structural areas, which worked out quite nicely. Once I had the welding done, I stepped back to admire my work. Damn, but that old rubberising really looks crap. I asked Dave for suggestions on how to finish the pan, although as soon as I mentioned that ideally I'd like to have it sand blasted, he mentioned that he had a contact that could do it for me for a quarter the price I'd originally been quoted. Result! No more wire brushing for me. The pan was picked up two days later and was returned the following Monday. I had to act quick if I didn't want the pan to rust so I shot through to Dave's house straight after work to lay down some etch primer. The best bit? When I wanted to pay I was told the job had been done for free as a good gesture. Epic result!

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While I was prepping the pan for primer and cleaning out all the sand, I found something unusual hiding in the tunnel:

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I'm pretty sure this old buggy must have seen a lot of fishing action in its day.

While I had the camera out I decided to snap the chassis number.

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Would any of you guys be able to help me identify what year model my car originally was? From the info I've gathered so far I'm guessing around '65 - '67, but I've been known to be wrong on many occasions

More to follow shortly...

[Retro13]

With the pan in primer I decided to tackle the massive hole in the front bulkhead. After a bit of head scratching I decided to first pull out the indented piece of metal and then cut out damaged centre section.

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I then made a new filler piece out of some scrap 2mm steel and shaped it to fit.

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Once the patch was welded in I tackled the broken off stud that once held the front suspension in place. Holy cow but these things are tough; several industrial strength drill bits lost their lives in the persuit of its removal.
The benefit of all this, however, was that I could finally start doing this:

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Well, that's where I am with the project so far. Can't wait for the next free day so that I can lay down some paint on the top side, after that I'll coat the underside with some stone chip and then the reassembly can commence.

Stay tuned...

[piesang]

well done. You oaks on this form make me for only spraying the body and not rebuild the whole buggy like you do, but ones I have the body the why I want it. I recon it would not be to much to take it of and give more attention to the rest.

[Retro13]

Piesang, you can be proud of the work you've achieved on your car, its looking fantastic. When I started, I was just going to paint the chassis as is, with all the bits still attached because it was a running car. I only decided to strip it completely because it needed a lot more work than I first thought. It's hardly concours.
And as you say, you can always pull the body off at a later stage and give the chassis a makeover. Keep up the good work meneer.

Hopefully this weekend I'll get a gap to finish painting the chassis, will keep you all posted.

Ciao

[Retro13]

Quick Update...

So over the long weekend I managed to find a few hours to shoot through to my mate's place to lay done the last bit of black on the pan. I must say, even though the pan is not as straight and perfect as I'd like, it didn't turn out too bad.

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Now I just need to get it back home. Once it's back I'll paint a coat of stone guard on the underside and then I can start putting all the bits and pieces back on, which I'll paint as I go along.

That's it for now, stay tuned...

[SouL]

Nice friends you have that allow you to make a moerse mess of his bricked paving!

[Retro13]

Nice friends you have that allow you to make a moerse mess of his bricked paving!

...and let me use their equipment. I'm very greatful for all the help he's given me so far with the rebuild.

Come to think of it, it was his idea to do it there (it's the storage area for his electroplating plant), so I just threw some water all over the ground to stop the dust flying around.

[Retro13]

EISH! I disappear for a little while and suddenly everything is broken. Something seems to have happened to all my photies and I can't figure out what. Even my avatar has been replaced with a little red cross.

Does anybody have any ideas what could have possibly happened or how I can fix it?

I've uploaded all my pic by selecting the "Upload attachment" tab, then browsing for the file, selected it and then clicked "Add the file".
Fom there I click "Place inline" which then puts the file name between the square "attachment" brackets.

Am I doing something wrong? Please help.

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[alvetro]

I can see the pic.

[Retro13]

I can see the pic.

Thanks Alvetro. I can see the test pic is working but everything else is gone, even my avatar.

Me, I'm very much confused???

[Retro13]

Okay, got my avatar back. I had to resubmit the damn thing. Looks like I've got some housekeeping to do and will have to resubmit everything. Bugger.

Seems like I'm not the only one though as I've noticed a few people's avatars have also gone awol. Wonder what's going on?