My "Wampuskitty"

dhale · Post by **dhale** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 5:52 am

I sort of have figured out the secret handshake to log on. Need an 8 year old to get it done maybe. Anyway, my name is Dennis Hale and I have been fooling around with Bugs and buggies for a very long time. I currently have a class 5, long travel prerunner sort of '61 Baja, a very old school '61 convertible Baja
[it was done in '67 and has only the nose and hood, always had cut down rear steel fenders for the fronts], a '68 low riding pink Baja we made for my daughter in high school, and an oval window project with a crazy quilt of components. My Buggy started out as a Baja race car built from a "fresh kill" '68 for the Baja
and Mint that year. It was a maybe real, maybe not real Wampuskitty. It then graduated to the Fremont/ Ascot sprint buggy wars for several years. The funky Wampuskitty a-arms broke and it was converted to a beam axle then. I turned it into a street buggy in 1974, drove it to Bug In 15 in fact, got rolled over on the freeway one morning by a Volvo freak, then turned it into a Pismo toy. It has mostly sat in the shed for years but currently is stripped bare and is coming back together.

FulsGld · Post by **FulsGld** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 2:05 pm

Glad you could make it here with a great story and great buggy. Really happy to see a survivor from the old days. Will we see it on one of the runs?

dhale · Post by **dhale** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 4:05 pm

I am not sure about putting it back on the street. That freak in the Volvo that rolled me for no reason other than the look of the car was pretty bad, and there was continuous hassle from cops over the lack of fenders. I doubt that cops have gotten nicer, they are no fun to argue with. Now that I have to insure it to run a license even though it never sees a public road is just wacky.
Then again, I have intentions of off roading it this year again. I took my Baja Bug to Dumont Dunes last Christmas and have since torn the buggy completely down, repaired the rusty areas, replaced all the brakes, and am installing a Warrior beam and Rack steering now. I hope my old paddles will still work. My Bridgestone Alligator desert tires have turned to wooden museum pieces.
So, sure, somehow.
Dennis

towd-dude · Post by **towd-dude** » Tue May 18, 2010 9:42 pm

Dennis,
I don't blame you for not wanting to go through the hassle of getting it licenced for the street. I ran a Tow'd around Cal for 10 years with no fenders. But, I carried a copy of the California Vehicle Code section 27600 with me. As far as I know this section of the code is still current. It states, "A vehicle registered before 1 Jan 1971 and under 1500 gvw does not require fenders".

Bob

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d12/vc27600.htm

dustymojave · Post by **dustymojave** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 12:08 am

Very cool Dennis. The best chassis of its day. Brother to the Beam axle Bandito, which is the inspiration/blueprint for buggy frames to this day....45 years later. As much copied and imitated as the Meyers Manx fiberglass buggy, if not more so. Yet, unlike with the Manx, almost all copying the Bandito since 1970 have no clue what they are copying or even that they are. Funco themselves are still building buggy frames and chassis and still lead by founder Gil George.

It seems your car had the front frame converted by Funco, as the beam brackets appear to be Funco pieces. What is the lettering cast in the clamps? It's a good frame with the a-arms or the beam, but it's sort of a shame it no longer has the a-arms as they are so rare now.