So I am at work pondering ways to have fun and for some reason sand rails pop into my head. I start thinking about how I have always thought one would be fun. Around here it could be fun for tearing around the mountains and the places trucks go mudding and off roading.
In passing I ask a guy here at work if he has an extra VW motor laying around. He has a spare water boxer with a ton of parts he is willing to part with.
I really need to learn to NOT voice my crazy ideas...I already have the Cutlass that needs finishing and the Invicta that hasn't even been touched.
I'd make it street legal and annoy the crap outta the local shiney happy's 
I have wondered what it would take to make one street legal
Lights, turn signals, possibly windsheild. Does it have a VIN of some sort?
In reply to Gearheadotaku:
The picture is just inspiration. Would have to build or find a frame then attach various bits. More than likely I won't bother with the making it street legal, to much trouble I am sure. Hell doubt I could even get around to building one I can't even find time to finish my dang Olds. Though a couple guys at work said they would be interested in helping on a buggy.
What I was offered is a VW water boxer motor to power said beasty.
damn this isn't that far from me...$1000 for basically damn near everything I would need AND a trailer
http://boise.craigslist.org/pts/4215948640.html
In my opinion, a water boxer would be useless for that. The whole point of the bug motor is that it's light and air cooled. The wb is neither of those.
Now that I think about it. You can machine off the water jackets and make it aircooled. These guys should have the information about that.
http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewforum.php?f=37
"Dune buggy" is one of my saved CL searches. So much fun, but I can't accept the VW front suspension. Still, one of these days...
In reply to rustyvw:
How much more would the waterboxer weight over the air cooled? Is it really more that the additional hp wouldn't make up for it?
That CL ad I just posted says there are motors that come with the rail so in honesty I more than likely wouldn't even need the waterboxer.
In reply to Keith:
Yeah the VW suspension has its draw back but heck it is cheap lol. There are some really interesting home builts out there.
I have almost bought a sand rail twice, and regretted each time not buying it. Especially the first one, as it was already street legal and tagged. I was young, so it really would have been a perfect fit.
That looks like a fun way to die. 
yamaha
PowerDork
12/12/13 8:20 p.m.
In reply to Appleseed:
That was my reaction as well.....
Looks a lot stronger than a regular beetle body. Regular old beetle would collapse if you hit anything larger than a cocker spaniel.
Appleseed wrote:
That looks like a fun way to die.
Who wants to live forever 
Funny thing is the wife is all for it...should I be worried she secretly took out a life insurance policy on me? lol
1,2, you know what to do.
I have had several, and though I haven't checked lately it used to be well worth it to buy a new "knock down" chassis and finish welding it yourself. Then you know the welds are decent, there's no mystery rust or unexplained bent tubes, and you can run wires and such the way you want. For the $500 the kit costs it's well worth it.
In reply to oldopelguy:
$500 for the kits? Where do you get those?
Never mind I found a couple...hmmm interesting ideas are brewing.
Once upon a time I had a crazy idea of putting a Type 1 engine in the front of a Fox.
Then I did a little research and found that the inline four weighs about the same as an aircooled. Back to the drawing board.
What the hell is a water boxer?
In reply to DILYSI Dave:
Volkswagen failing hard at being Subaru.
Kenny_McCormic wrote:
In reply to DILYSI Dave:
Volkswagen failing hard at being Subaru.
I don't know why they didn't just buy Subaru engines. Subaru already pretty much built a watercooled version of the VW engine.
Wasserboxers are the only engines I've ever seen that leak coolant from every possible orifice. They even drool from the cylinder head fasteners. (it should be noted that I've been around a lot of Caddy 4100s)
I was driving home from work a couple weeks ago on I-270 in Rockville MD. Traffic going about 70, cold out. I see some really odd looking headlights closing from behind pretty fast so I jump out of the left lane and a dude in a sand rail - wearing a motorcycle helmet - blasts by.
Made my day.
my current project
