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Previous Next Up Topic Public / Introduce Yourself and Your Buggy / Here's pics needed to id buggy (7462 hits)
By Chucks family dune buggy Date 2015-01-04 09:46 Edited 2015-01-04 10:33
Had to reregester to get logged back on with a name change! I try to get pics posted now

By Lloyd B 2301 Date 2015-01-04 15:56
Need a good picture of the whole dash, that will also help the guys to ID.
By Chucks family dune buggy Date 2015-01-05 00:52
Thanks Lloyd I put a better one on there!
By glassbuggy Date 2015-01-24 15:15 Edited 2015-01-24 15:18
This is a very easy one to ID. This is a Sears Rascal. They were made by Terra Buggy in Crawford Indiana. At Terra Buggy the body was called the Coyote.
Unless you had a Coyote sticker on the hood we just refer to these as the Sears Rascal. Sometimes we come across them with an actual sears sticker on the hood. 90% of the time there is no id on them whatsoever.
Terra Buggy made several changes to the body during production and that is a problem with your body as someone cut the design from the tail of your car.
Generaly with that dash design we refer to the Rascals as the 'early tail' or the 'late tail'. The early tail had a large square embossed design, the later was an actual box area over the carburetor. THE late, late tail bodies had the dash molded in black and bonded to the hood. yours being body color indicates an earlier version.

The late tail only came in four glitter colors and yours is defiantly the 'Fuschia'. I'm going to surmise that you have a late tail Rascal and someone didn't like the look of the box. Bart

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By glassbuggy Date 2015-01-24 15:25 Edited 2015-01-24 15:30
for reference here is a pic of a ''late, late tail'' rascal in fuschia with the black dash

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By glassbuggy Date 2015-01-24 15:27
And this is what the body looks like as an 'Early Tail' Rascal

By Chucks family dune buggy Date 2015-01-26 06:57
Thank you glass buggy for the info ! Do you have any idea what years they made the tail changes? And is there any where I can see a timeline on the rascal and what traits did the Meyers made rascal have? Thanks again! We are on our way to doing this buggy which is our first! Have had countless beetles over the years and built 5 rails so this will be a pleasure to do for the family of bug lovers! Appreciate your help!
By glassbuggy Date 2015-01-27 16:34
Meyers never made the rascal.
Sears wanted to sell popular products through their catalog as they did for many manufacturers. During the height of the buggy fad they used several suppliers to ''drop ship'' the bodies from. In the very beginning Meyers sent  some out but that was the last Sears and Meyers were partnered. The body was a regular Meyers Manx with no rib on the hood. There was a falling out because sears used the Meyers advertising literature to present the ''Go Anywhere Buggy'' I know of only one Manx/Rascal
Terra Buggy was the main supplier for the Sears Bodies after that. Terra Buggy has a history prior with several versions of their Coyote body. In 1969 heavily advertised in several magazines the Terra Buggy was featured and dubbed the ''Rascal'' if sold through Sears. Terra Buggy continued to sell the Coyote if you bought one directly from Terra Buggy.
In the advertisements at this time in 68-9 had the picture frame hole above the carburetor.
It is rumored that Sears customers complained about water getting into the carb. I have seen a body with an attachable box to remedy this
I would say 1970 would be a good guess as to when the Late Tail bodies started to be produced with the boxed area.
By 1972 the whole buggy thing was just about over, Terra Buggy was having problems with demand and quality and several other locations were used as drop ship locations - one was Spatz. Also have seen a sears ad with THE Berry Mini T advertised

Don't be upset that yours is not a Manx, I thought mine was as well until I did all this research. I like my own Rascal, I have a late tail myself.    Go on the forum link to the left and look up the ''Dune Buggy Model Discussions''. There is a section in there for us Rascal guys :-)
By Chucks family dune buggy Date 2015-02-01 06:35 Edited 2015-02-01 06:44
Thank you so much glass buggy for all the info! You have been a very appreciated help in this project! And we are not disappointed at all that it's not a Manx, we are VERY MUCH happy that it is a sears and plan on putting the sears blue emblem on it if available! As for its value diff between Manx and rascal , that is not an issue  because it will never be sold! I had promised my two boys one of these from the time they could say Vw ! I am a little late but both of them can't wait !They are 28 and 23 and both own vw's , a super beetle and a rail. We also have a mid engine trike in the works, single trans. Thanks again for the help, we are pleased with the outcome! It has been my pleasure talking with you and look forward to enjoying this hobby that we share! Thanks, Chuck Moran
Previous Next Up Topic Public / Introduce Yourself and Your Buggy / Here's pics needed to id buggy (7462 hits)

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