The Meyers Manx: A Reluctant Photo Thread

Hey, Ryan;
Thanks for putting this out there(here).
Brought a good smile to my face. .
These are as fun as the VolksRodsT's like Kent Fuller, Dode Martin, Tom Medley, Steve Archer, & others built.
Once you get bit by that "bug"(no pun intended), it never goes away, hibernation maybe, but... .
Years ago, a friend was building a manx-type, w/a ford flattie v8(front engine). Put a lot of work into it, some kids destroyed it before it was finished, n then rolled it down the hill behind his house(~late 70's). Never got rebuilt/finished.
& the COX dunebuggy was the only one I didn't like. Probably still have the engine/worm-drive somewhere.
Marcus...

 

They're on ebay right now for 29 and some change.....

 

I guess sometime around 1970 my family and my uncle's family and all us cousins rented a house deep in on Martha's Vineyard, MA one summer. I was 10-12 and already a car nut. My dad was just a nut...period. The Vineyard used to be a car nut's dream land, with the rich people driving around their daily's which ranged from Model T's and A's to vintage Packards and high dollar antiques. It's not that way as much these days but about 15 years ago I had my kids on the island biking and I heard this roar coming down the street and stopped all the kids as an Allard rumbled by. I nearly shit myself. Anyway, back to when I was 12 in 1970 or so...we were in the "town" on the island where there was a car rental place that had a dozen or so Manx's on the lot. I PLEADED with dad to rent one and being the idiot he was, he did it. We tore the island up in that thing, looking for every dirt beach road/trail we could find. It was unbridled hoodlum fun that could never be duplicated in anything but a Manx. Dad driving, we were tearing up a dirt road by a cornfield on the island when dad stops the car and yells at me to get out and jump the fence to the cornfield to steal some ears for the clambake later that day. Picture me ripping ears of corn off the stalks and heaving them into the Manx 20 feet away while my dad is laughing maniacally. We practically pissed ourselves we were laughing so hard on the way back to the house. The corn turned out to be feed corn and inedible but made for a great story. He even let me drive the Manx for a little bit. I have absolutely LOVED those little buggies ever since and have always wanted one. Dad was a hoodlum, a jerk, an alcoholic, unfaithful to mom whenever he got the chance (which she truly did not deserve) and just an all around asshole. Horrible to thing to say now but I don't miss him one bit. Loved the heck out of him when I was a kid as kids do but spent my entire adult life running from his example once I figured out what he was all about. BUT...the Martha's Vineyard Manx Adventure was really epic, no doubt. Still love those stupid little fun-machines. Thanks Ryan for stirring up old (and mostly good) memories. Lol.
Andy

 

V-Dubs are the gateway drugs to early Ford hotrods...*cough* *cough* I knew a guy with this problem

 

What's interesting, is that, like early fords, & other hotrods, incl customs, proportion *is* everything. & it's easy to get wrong, harder & more time-consuming to get right. But it is easy to see, once you know what you're looking for.
Marcus...

 

I can play this game! This one hangs out in my garage and photo bombs my hot rods pics from time to time.
I gave it an off road look but I do drive it on the street quite a bit.
This is my "not a Manx" "Fremen" edition Dune Blaster. Let's see a sand worm catch this!

With winch

TT's and T/As

SW gauges, quick connect moon wheel, "boat deck" style tach mount that I had to make since @Moriarity didn't have one in stock. Wipers, signals, and lots of KC highlighters.

Dual 48's, big bore block, aluminum heads, dual springs, MSD, remote oil filter, custom exhaust ceramic coated by Russ Meaks. Oh, and blue dots...of course!

SS Beer cooler, padded roll cage, halon extinguisher, blue tooth sound bar, dune flag, all the necessities.

And some custom engraving I did with my dremel tool

You don't have to have a sense of humor to own/drive one of these... but it helps.

 

I'm close to 58 years, and I can tell ya with my generation...Dune bugs either as toys or models and several cartoons thru the years WERE a gateway to hot rodding!!!! You can forego the VW bias considering how many were built with Corvair or Porsche engines! I also love those Volksrods! But, I won't stir the pot.....

 

In 2020, I got a call from a guy wanting a drag race legal roll bar in a VW buggy, and he flat towed to my shop for me to take a look. He had bought when he was 15, and had it 25 years, and had yearn to see what it would run in the 1/4. It was so clean and highly detailed, I took the job and let him work with me. It now runs 13.00 at 100 MPH.

 

YES.....growing up in the late 50's and early 60's in the Midwest.....I was always "California Dreaming". Most of that involved hot rods....Bonneville cars.....dirt track roadsters.....drag strips etc. But.....any of the Hot Rod magazines I could find would always have some dune buggies.....and to a Midwesterner they looked even better in the sand....by the ocean....with bikini girl passengers !! As close as I got later in life was a basket case Porsche 356 with a hot Corvair in it.....sure wish it was still in the barn.

 

Meyer Manxs and a Meyer Towdster (Towd with Fenders) Ryan you might want to Google Alex Dearborns Deserter GS series 1

 

The young man was finicky, we had the hoop set in place and looking good, and he politely asked, could we shorten it a half an inch. And we did. Thanks.

 

only about 10 series 1 GS's were built

 

Never had a glass buggy, but had a couple of rails, one a shortened pan, the other was full tubing. What a blast, on and off road!

There are a couple of glass bodied buggy’s running around here, a red and a blue one. They’ve changed hands a few times, but are still here close by. One of them has a Sears body! Yes, at one time you could order a kit or just a body from Sears, Roebuck and Co! They even had a special catalog that was just dune buggy and VW stuff. I think it’s the blue one I see around here that is a Sears kit, it has a stamped tag stating sold by Sears and has their part number on it. I drooled over that catalog a lot before I got drivers license, but never could find one locally I could afford back then. My rails came later in my 20’s from some guys getting out of them. I remember swapping engines between a buddies car and my rail in 20/ minutes, with both running at the same time. I loved my VWs until I burned out on them…

 

I made a damn good living wrenching on VWs for 24 years. Eventually had to quit because I couldn't stand working on wet ones.
The first week I made more $ at the indie VW shop than the previous week doing general repair on everything from Cadillacs to manure spreaders. Being able to specialize in one brand, we got really good at them, plus the dealer was a crook.

I got lotsa stories ....

 

My Dad had this one built in 1969. It’s a Manx spinoff that was made by Spatz in Wilmington Delaware. We had a lot of fun with it over the years. I gave her to my son about 5 years ago :

 

In the vein of dune buggies… here’s a Gotcha that I plowed around in as a kid. Gave it to my grandsons a few years ago. The other two pics is a 1973 version of those OT 911 things in back burner project form:

 

As a kid growing up in the mid 60s ,we had a buisness called Meyers Manx of Michigan 2 blocks from my house. I remember the shiny fiberglass tubs stacked and stored outside. As I recall the shop was there for a few years before moving.They had a corvair powered one that would do wheelies when they side stepped the clutch.As a kid the only time I saw wheelies was at the drag strip.Three years later when I got my drivers license we went all over in a manx .It was very versatile and it seemed like it could do anything from running the dunes and trails to autocross.It had the steering brake and it could turn amazingly tight. Adjust the torsion bars for ride height and we could run the local autocross events.I miss that car.

 

Hello,

We were in So Cal when the big fad came rolling in from Newport Beach. It was a wonder to see such a cute little creation for another VW motor use. By this time, we had plenty of time in and under a VW powered sunroof/semaphore VW and commercial/window vans. But, never a shortened frame under a fiberglass body.

The So Cal coastal beach scene was just ripe for such a cute little car and fit the outdoor, coastal scene as if a new convertible creation was made, just for the area. Sunny days, wide open coastal drives and even tires that allowed driving on some sand. The ease at which the modifications to a simple motor removal started it all. And, once the fiberglass body was on the modified frame, it was all ready for what ever you wanted as accessories to the motor.

As my brother and I were now in a different mode far away from the drag racing scene, hanging out at the beach from early morning to late at night, we saw the potential for this booming fad.

In the time we owned and drove the 1965 El Camino all over So Cal, coastal trips to northern California and down into Baja, Mexico, it had never faltered or required any mechanical work to keep it running. We used it for hauling our desert racing motorcycles 100s of miles into the inland areas, 100 miles South past the Baja, Mexico border, and a longboard to shortboard in the So Cal waves, everywhere.

We even hauled architectural parts of buildings back to our house for the decorating sprees. Old stained glass windows, old doors, and metal ceiling plates. We had plenty of room in the back to haul those things, then we refurbished them to use as wall decorations in our eclectic decorating mode.

We had used the El Camino bed for its primary purpose, load stuff to move from one place to another.
One of the major things that fit in the El Camino bed was this 6 foot tall metal structure with wall hooks built in place. It slid over the existing concrete walls of any of the industrial buildings in an area of Fountain Valley, near the 405 Freeway/Euclid intersection. The building could be seen by 1000s of motorists going north on the 405. It was located next to the Guitar Center business.
The place was once famous for its occupants and production facilities. It certainly was a multi-million dollar business. But, by the 70s, it was closed and the whole place was empty for months. We drove by the place and saw it every time we went to Long Beach for a visit. It stood out like a sore thumb. It certainly was a good advertising plan. They even kept it plugged in for several months, so, at night, the yellow plastic sign glowed in the dark.
The huge sign on the tops of the building, facing the 405 freeway, was the lit up Meyers Manx yellow sign. That in itself could have had folks pulling into the next off ramp to get to the property for a viewing or two, ever since its inception.

Today, the building is a non descript white building with no insignias showing anywhere. Other than the new construction company logo on the office section.

What used to be the view from the surface streets (Mt. Baldy Rd. )and the fast 405 freeway traffic. Now the old shop at the end of the cul-de-sac is a construction company.

But, back in the heydays of Meyers Manx, there were two of the big signs hooked on the building roof lip. One facing Long Beach and the ocean to the West. While the other facing directly towards the 405 freeway. I had to ask permission of the property manager and he said to go up the fire ladder. So, my trusty nylon rope was long enough to encircle the hooks and then I cut the electrical wires for access to the wires for power, when I got it home.

It was a comedy of errors as the weight of the whole sign was a little heavy, but my double lines secured and then released slowly with clips. The harnesses allowed me to lower, inch by inch in the direction of the ground. It was sometimes a leg against the roof wall to get to the next lower level. Gloves were a necessity allowing for the slipping slack in the lines.

After what seemed like forever, the heavy steel framed sign was leaning against the wall at ground level. I had to still keep it tied to the roof structure and climb down the emergency ladder. It was the only way I could move the big sign to the wall where I could drive up and load it in the back of the El Camino.

I unhooked one side each and then I lowered the nylon rope down to the ground. The red 65 El Camino was waiting on the ground. Did it fit? Yes, luckily with the tailgate up, I could easily transport it back to our house. But, first, I had to slide the huge sign in flat, through the open tailgate. The property manager thought I was a crazy person doing all of that work, just for a sign that lit up. He had no idea of the historic location of Meyers Manx Company and its rich So Cal history.

Then one more trip up the emergency ladder to get the original nylon straps still tied to the roof support structures. And finally, one more trip down the skinny ladder. It was a good thing it was 1970 and not today… HA!

Jnaki

So, one day, I thought it was a good thing to have as a collectible item and also, I was going to change the logo to our photo business, just for a “thing to do…” activity. It would glow in the hallway/stairway of our small house and be a part of the decorating items. Plus, I wired it so it would light up our hallway. The original Meyers Manx painted logo would get a lightweight aluminum frame and get put up on a huge wall that was empty for decorative artwork.

The downstairs hallway location. A friend was moving from his house to a small apartment and wanted to know if we could store his large 7-8 foot tall custom original artwork for him. We had just the place down this long empty hallway. When he came to pick it up a year later, that is when I found the Meyers Manx lit up sign and it was wheeled down the hall from the carport and plugged into the wall. We did not need the original hall lights, but turned on the switch for the tall Meyers Manx yellow sign.

If it were still around, these days, it would look right at home at @Ron Funkhouser with his varied, fun, house/garage compound. Even lit up remotely or with a wall switch. After several design decorating changes, I gave the lit up sign to a friend’s local Dana Point VW/Porsche repair business with the same size flat roofline and lip. They have yet to put it up. Probably using it as a home decorating item to show their friends… a moment in So Cal history, for them.

But our plan was to get two signs made for the sides of the 327 powered 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery for our business adventure. It was a nice plan, but plans and lifestyles change…

 

Chip Foose Myers Manx, Porsche powered. HRP

 

I never noticed this before, but the logo for Shelby's ranch/race-team looks somewhat similar to the Myers Manx logo. Were they trying to tease Bruce? Hmm...

 

That is one cool story
Dan

 

Dune buggies are awesome as well as all air cooled VW’s. Picked up this old project buggy last summer.

 

Ryan, I think all of us are giving you permission to pursue this for your Hawaiian home hot rod project.

 

If any non US built make fits the vibe here it has to be air cooled German engineering
There’s a kid cruising around here with an old buggy.
Hat turned backwards and a big ole grin
One of the baddest rides that cruised through town was a vw rail with a stout 914 engine.
Worked on a lot of air cooled Porsches. Something cool about a ride with 3 oil gauges
I remember asking what the crap is druck pressure

 

Well, I like this stuff but seems weird being able to discuss here. I have honestly only messed with one VW of any sort and I suppose it would be within at least the year range on-topic here. I played with a little 62 beetle with a slide back roof about 30 years ago. I bought it to be an economical commuter to college about 30 miles each way but couldn’t leave it alone. It ended up lowered, Porsche 356 hubcaps, scallops, etc. Oh, and it made a crappy commuter car also. It was a blast around town but not for highway driving back and forth to college… Ended up trading it for a 55 F100 and some cash.

Curious to see where this whole idea of an off-topic area on the HAMB goes…

 

Shirley Meyers worked in the ad department at R&T. One of the many jobs Bruce had was delivering the LA Times in Newport Beach using a mini truck. Throwing papers was a lot easier after he cut the top off the truck! He then developed DIY kits for all the mini trucks on the market. I bought one for my Plymouth Arrow, installed it in four hours and it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.