Hi All,  I've been over on The Samba since August when I bought my buggies.  Growing up we had a dune buggy which I now know was a Dune Runner Mini Mercedes.  Happened to bump into one for sale in AZ that had been off road for a decade and the nostalgia bug hit me.  Bought it, then bought a guys' manx clone project for parts.  It was a mess, but I thought I could make good use of the motor, front disk setup and other miscellaneous parts.  I was wrong.  So now midway through a restoration on the Dune Runner; newly rebuilt 1600dp longblock with Empi 34 pict3, all new brakes (lines cylinders, MC, front disk, new rear drums, everything).  Powder coated the US Steel 8 spokes and new rubber, changed out seats, added a roll bar and much more.  Getting ready now to start sanding and repaint when the weather warms up a bit.

Well hell, where did everybody go?  Is this forum dead?

There is a few of us still here.

Nice looking buggy, yes there are people on here, just not super active.  Still lots of good folks and help, just takes a bit of time, sometimes to get a response.  Welcome to the DBA

There's been some progress since this pic was taken but still needs to be sanded down and painted.  Original surface was red flake gelcoat.  Would like to carefully strip the crappy blue and primer down to the red and try to save it.  Anyone here have any experience with that?  Main goal is to keep the car as original as possible.