Buggy ID?

[bajaxp]

Thinking this is a very old Funco. Yes/No/Thoughts?

 

[NIKAL]

Not sure on the chassis, the body looks like a Funco style, but other parts of the chassis do not. The upper roll cage / roof was cut and raised up. You can see where the two original tubes were above the seat. Also I thought Funco's of this era, the A pillar was one tube from right to left, like the B Pillar is. What is on there now is not original, nor the original design.

 

[OldStroppeTeam]

Chassis could be, hard to tell with the body on. Cage has definitely been extended up though.

 

[Bro_Gill]

Funco SS2 with the cage raised in an ugly way. Bet if you look, you will see where they spliced in the new A-pillar just below the fiberglass of the hood.

 

[bajaxp]

Gill, I am think the upper cage could be fixed with some decent fab.

 

[Bro_Gill]

Yes. Lantana has just the guy to do it to perfection and he loves funcos. Or you could take it to Gil.

 

[bajaxp]

Thanks for all of the input. What is something like this worth, knowing that it would need a ground up resto to race? In the front pic, it looks like the beam and shock towers are stock yes/no?

 

[Ol' Curmudgeon]

Being a single seater with no provenance, I'd say value depends on the engine and transmission condition.

What's the story there?

It's a ball joint front end. Looks like stock arms and all, excepting stops on beam.

That means frame will not accept a link pin beam without modification, IIRC.

 

[bajaxp]

Thanks for the input. What mods need to be done to the frame?
The engine is an 1835 and it and the trans are supposed to be in decent condition, but I have been down that path before.
Typically do SS2's frames have all of the cross bracing necessary for racing or did they sell play frames with less?

 

[oldschool5er]

The Beam and spindles are Thing other then the upper stops they fabbed up. Thing front ends are worth some money unlike a stock Ball Joint set up. The last going rate I saw for a used one rusted was $500

 

[Bro_Gill]

I would say if the car runs and has a bus trans, 3-4k. If they say it runs but can't get it started or if it has a type 1 trans, knock a grand off that price. Bonus with this car is, if it was originally fitted with a balljoint beam and has the factory clamps for it, bonus. Put a bug balljoint beam on, switch the rear out to swing and build a 9 car that can run in the early vintage class at NORRA and still race anywhere in class 9. Sell the expensive thing beam to someone who wants/needs one for top dollar. The repair to the cage won't be that difficult or expensive and the body looks

 

[bajaxp]

Great info oldshooler and Gil. Very helpful. I don't think I want to go the swinger route, because if I were to race it in the MX1k, it would kill my 52 year old body. I would just move up to legend and let er rip. Hoping there is room for a 25 gallon cell behind the seat. BTW the trans is irs type 2, but I haven't seen it in person. Would the Samba be the best place to sell the beam?

 

[oldschool5er]

I would advertise it on Samba and the facebook classifieds like Strickly Baja and the other VW classified sites on there. If you want to appeal to even a greater group you can just offer the spindles and the arms for a little less and make it easier to ship. The Beam might go easier locally or somebody out east will offer to pay frieght for the whole setup. Just a heads up the torsion springs are also different than a stock bug as they are about 20% higher springrate, they also fit in a stock T1 beam the same as the thing arms, just info if you split it all up to sell. I ran sway away inserts in addition to the thing spring pack when I raced on them.

 

[bajaxp]

Great info, thanks. Wasn't there a Funco build thread somewhere? If so, I couldn't find it.

 

[Bro_Gill]

Lantana should have all the pics you need. There should be some here in vintage as well.

 

[bajaxp]

Lantana did you do a build thread?

 

[Rory]

Beer & Ice Cream Wild Hair Funco Build

 

[LantanaTX]

Dave Tilton (my uncle) in Redlands could fix the frame pretty easily. Dave preps the Malcom Smith/Bud Faldkamp iconic Bel-Ray bullet and also built and restored our car. Dave recently did some make frame repair on the Bel-Ray Bullet after a crash at the 2015 NORRA race. The car will be on display at the Hall of Fame banquet in Las Vegas next month when Bud Feldkamp gets inducted.

The front could be changed to accept a Link pin beam. This was actually done on the Bel-Ray Bullet in 1976 as it was originally with a ball joint beam. If it were my car, I would replace the roll bar hoops with chromoly and make it a correct high cage chassis like our cars. We also have the molds for the rear sail panels for a high cage SS2.

 

[bajaxp]

Mid 80's Raceco?

 

[Rory]

Redo the rear cage, not all of it, just shorten it back up and then redo the front bumper, then find the small wing panel that goes in front of the hood and that thing is LEGIT! I will build a 2 seat Raceco one of these days, mark my words.