I looking for a VW Sand Rail frame or even a beat to crap/trashed sand rail for sale in and around Massachusetts. Really don't need the front beam, trans, tires, wheels, shifter, seat, steering, gas tank, or trans, I already have all of that left over from my FIRST Fiat 600 project that got crushed by a tree. Seriously ! Just need a repairable tube sand rail frame, but I'll obviously take whatever I can get !
I have a Fiat 600 shell in desperate need of a chassis and figure that an old sand rail frame would be the best way to go. Easier to cut and weld tubing than shorten and narrow a VW pan.
Anyone know of something around, PLEASE let me know?
Best to post here rather than an email as the email listed here isn't working at all.
Thanks ! ! !
I met a guy in Connecticut who has a couple of them. Not sure if I still have his contact info but I know where he lives. I’ll see what I can find out.
In reply to Woody (Fautor Forum) :
I'm in Kingston, about five miles North of Plymouth Rock. Southern Shore on the coast.
If you can find the sand rail guy info please let me know here. I'm not looking for much, he may well have something decent or something that he didn't think anyone would buy, but HERE I AM ! !
The email listed is wrong and I don't remember my Pass Word to change it.
Thanks !
This is Lloyd Mosher's Little Giant killer from the 1970s ,
Had the Fiat frame under it most of its life , Later Lloyd cut the fiat frame to put a tube chassis under it , but that never got done , and it stayed in the rafters of his shop for decades ,
We saved it , sent it to Belgium and put the Fiat chassis parts back on it , its back running as if it was the 1970s again !
And yes its chopped !
I had one within four hours of being finished when a tree fell on it and crushed it into the ground. It had a shortened and narrowed VW pan under the Fiat 600 body. Too much work to do it that way again, reason that I'm searching for a sand rail tube frame this second time around.
I have one and a half Fiat 600 bodies and all of the necessary VW and race parts need to put one together, EXCEPT for the tube frame.
Sounds like you should be building a custom frame to fit under a Fiat body.
I figure that by starting with a tube sand rail frame I'm pretty much more than half way to a custom frame, everything is in place. front and rear suspension brackets all set, side collision bars and roll cage just need "adjustment." I want to run a VW drive train in it, the track width will facilitate the wide-style Abarth flairs that I already have, the wheelbase can be adjusted/shortened down in an afternoon and I already have a Freeway Flyer transaxle, tube rear trailing arms, a set of MGB floors, and a disk brake front beam. Honestly, the modified sand rail frame shouldn't take more than four days to get together. WAY easier than a home made custom frame, and the geometry is done for me.
In reply to notsafeforwork :
Here’s one I just saw on Marketplace for $100.
Thanks, saw that one but WAY too far to go ! !
Nothing seems to be tuning up at all locally or within reasonable driving distance. I think that I might opt for one of the many go karts and motorcycle powered off-road thingies and combine that frame with the front and rear VW suspension clips. Maybe run some 2x4 rails front to rear as a starting point. Never thought that scoring an old sand rail frame would be so difficult . . .
Check out thesamba.com in the classified section. They pop up on the east coast fairly regularly. I did have to consider selling mine for a second but I'm too deep down the rabbit hole not to finish it.
I have been poking The Samba, nothing but finished rails and all of them in California or Texas or Florida it seems. Nothing at all in New England to be had at all. Where the HELL did all of theses unfinished/trashed/broken/abandon things go ? ! ? ! ? !
Try checking craigslist. I think there's a few frames on there in the Hudson Valley NY and NJ area. I look every now and then when I get bored
Are they letting people into New York again?
I've been there a bunch to pick up parts. Never had any issues. It is New York though so I do try to stay out when I can
I know i'm swimming against the tide...
I'm still big on building your own frame. Been down that road. Most rail frames are for off-roading, so the floor will be as high as the enginge crankshaft. I picture your Fiat body being like 4 inches off the pavement. Rail frames will place seats rails, etc. too high in the body. And a lot of rail frames are wide in the driver area, don't think that Fiat body will drop over the side rails.
I'm thinking by the time you cut up a rail chassis, you could have built a custom one for that neat body. Just saying.
As always... YMMV
I have a front beam and stock VW front pan section to mount it to, I have around twenty feet of 2x4 steel, and old roll cge from a busted stock car, and I have a rear VW suspension clip from the torsion tube rearward. Even so, this will only give me a ladder frame and a bit of extra support to begin with and a VERY heavy one at that. If I use tubing rather than the 2x4s I'm running into good money and a LOT of math to end up with what a sand rail frame would provide.
I still figure that cutting and re-welding light weight tubing, be it to narrow the frame, shorten the frame, or lower the floor pan section is just SO much easier. A right angle grinder with a cut-off wheel, a tubing cutter, a yard stick, and a welder and I'm a Saturday's work away from done . . .
But still . . . gotta score that tube frame. Luckily I have my Mini to work on in the mean time. Just ordered up the sheet metal to begin the rust repairs, and a shiny new 11 slat aluminum grill to look at and keep me enthused, so I have something to do in "tiny car town" to keep me busy until a rail frame surfaces.
I'm with purple frog....a frame is very simple and the time you spend measuring cutting fitting rewelding someone's old project or buggy (not to mention fixing damage, rust repair, etc) would likely be the same amount setting up and building your own. Plus it would be new metal and you won't have any of the compromises you would likely have with adapting an old one.
I remember when the pink panther mg was torn down to rebuild it I thought that he should just start from scratch as not much would be left of the car and sure enough, everything was replaced. Had he just started from scratch, he would have had two cars for the same price!
tldr: I predict the same amount of time and likely money to build your own and you'll have a brand new, no-compromise build
In reply to lotusseven7 (Forum Supporter) :
I saw that one and checked the distance from me, still WAY too far to go. Too bad as there are a couple more in New York but I'm hoping for something closer as I only have a home made trailer and would be towing it with my Mustang. Like to keep the ride to and from as short as I can, don't want to damage my daily driver. I can wait, no rush. The front bars on that frame look like things are bent inwards on the passenger's side as well, as is, too much and too far away, for what you get.
In reply to jfryjfry (Forum Supporter) :
"Had he just started from scratch, he would have had two cars for the same price!"
That's EXACTLY what I thought ! ! Nothing that he's done makes any sense to me though . . .
I have time to wait for something to come along for the Fiat. I have two VW pans if it comes to that, easier than starting from scratch with a home made frame, just a lot of work that I've done once before and don't want to repeat if I don't have to.
