Hello.

I wanted to introduce myself and put up some pics of my new buggy. I have been lurking here for some time, doing some research, watching other people's builds etc and looking for a buggy of my own for about 2 years now. A few of my friends have them and I instantly fell in love with everything about them. I have never owned a Beetle, and know next to nothing about them or working on them whatsoever. I used to own a 1976 Weber carb'd Scirocco early on in high school. I have also been doing some internet reading about the 6 volt system, brakes, and other things.

Anywho, I sourced this buggy on thesamba.com back before the New Year and it has taken this long to acquire it for various reasons and seller issues. Happy to have it home and looking forward to getting it on the road soon and enjoying it with my sons. Things I need to do: Install a new master cylinder, inspect and bleed the brakes. It has new rear shoes and wheel cylinders, not sure what the drums look like yet or what shape the fronts are in. Fix a fuel delivery issue (fuel filter is dry but the buggy with start on starter fluid, probably trash in the line?) along with a proper tune, install rear view and side view mirrors, re-wire the turn signal lever and re-install it, install some lap seatbelts, and generally go over the entire car to make it roadworthy safe and reliable.

A little about the buggy itself, its a Fiberfab Clodhopper, built on a '63 pan, with what I believe is a 1500 single with dual carbs. It is in the condition of it's original build, back in the late 60's, and appears to have been put together quite well. Dash just has the original speedometer, and fuel gauge, and the two white knobs for the wipers and lights. The original builder allegedly put a lot of miles on it while he owned it before passing away. It then became the property of his son, who did not use it and sold it to the gentleman I purchased it from who bought it back in October of 2010. So, its almost directly from the original owner in a way as he may have been the last person to drive it. The purple gel coat finish is in really good shape overall, with some minor scuffs and light scratches and minor edge wear chips here and there.

Check out some pics of when I picked it up and trailered it home late last week. The other pics are in the garage with my youngest son behind the wheel.

welcome
nice ride love the gel coat!!! grat to have the original finish.
I have 2 with original gel coat and they are great!!

Great Clod Hopper, Love the metal flake purple, Welcome to the DBA !!!                 Ken...............

Hey Todd O, it's funny that since I found this site about a month ago I never heard of a Clodhopper (which is what I finally found out I have) Since then I have seen two on EBay for sale. One sold and the other didn't but I expect to see it posted again. I think that the Clod's as I call them are one of the better looking buggies and yours with the glitter gel coat is very sharp. I wasn't as lucky with mine as it was originally red glitter but was painted when I got it so I stayed with it. I was wondering if you could post a picture of that front emblem because Iv'e always wondered what it looked like. also are the headlights just mounted to the fiberglass or is there some kind of support? Anyway, welcome to the club and here is something that I ran across that has helped me a bit.    http://www.fiberfab.us/manuals/clodhopper.pdf  Hope it helps in some way. Isn't the internet great?..............Gary H

Welcome fellow PAer

Gary,

Thanks for the link. I did see that too and will print it off and out it in a binder with other materials and ads and paperwork and whatnot that go with the car.

I'll post up some shots of the emblem and the headlights later today for you.

Todd O

Welcome to the Archives.
Beautiful buggy. We would love to use some of your photos for the Dune buggy ID section.
It's very rare to find them with the emblem intact.

Post some more shots of it!
John

OK, so later today turned into a month or more later, but here's the badge from the front of the buggy. I'll be happy to take some more photos of the car once I get it outta my garage under it's own power. Way too cluttered in there with everything else to take any real good shots right now. It's up on jackstands with all 4 wheels off working on the brakes at the moment. 

Here's better shots of the headlights that you asked to see.

The headlight mount looks a little week.  On my old FiberFab, there was a bracket that acted like the washer on the back side of the fiberglass and ran down to the shock tower on the beam with 2 bolts to hold it in place.  It added extra support and and it so the headlights didn't bounce of vibrate when the car was moving.  It was just made from 1/8" X 1" steel flat stock.  Sorry, I don't have any pictures of the parts.  Tom

I have a Martin,  and  as I am learning more about it I came across your post and my Martin is the same purple gel coat as yours. What I have encountered is that my buggy is a Fiberfab Clodhopper built by Martin Enterprises. I may have the long lost twin to yours. I will post pics soon.

Here is a restored emblem for your reference, spotted it on a Fiber Fab Avenger at Carlisle this year