Build Your Own Dune Buggy – Isn’t It Hard (or Is It)?

You’ve seen some great dune buggies at the beach lately, and you’ve decided owning and driving a dune buggy looks cool. So you want to build a dune buggy because you’re good with your hands and you want to save some money.

However, before you do anything, you need to know where you want to drive your buggy and what you need it to do. There are basically 3 places that the dune buggies are driven, and each one requires a different build.

First is the path. Yes, you can drive a buggy on the road. But of course it needs to be street legal and doesn’t need many of the things that other dune buggies may have, like 4 wheel drive.

There are some very nice fiberglass street legal buggies out there that look great, and these are usually based on a VW frame and body and built from there.

Then there is the classic place for dune buggies, the dunes. Driving on sand is probably the most fun you can have in a buggy, but you need a buggy with specific features. For example, very light, with a good weight/power ratio. Huge sand tires at the rear and small slick tires at the front. Front brakes not required, but good quality rear brakes.

Then there’s the off-road buggy designed for the dirt. Maybe steep hills, mud and trails. They need a stronger frame and roll cage because a rollover can be more severe (hitting a tree, for example). The tires are different, the front brakes are much more important, and the frame needs to be stronger. The driving surface you will be on will be rougher and will require better suspension, longer travel, and mud and dirt tires.

So if you intend to build your own buggy, you must first determine your exact requirements. Frame, engine, tires, suspension, brakes, roll cage, bodywork if desired.

So is it hard to build your own buggy? Well of course it all depends on your skill level. If you’ve spent your entire life repairing, restoring and rebuilding cars, for example, then you might be in a good position to build your own buggy. However, if you haven’t worked much with cars before then yes, building a dune buggy is not easy. It takes skill, it takes money, and it takes time, and be prepared for many hours of frustration.

My first recommendation if you are thinking of building your own buggy for the first time? Buy a dune buggy kit or at least some high quality dune buggy plans to work with. Now, one kit does not provide everything you need. You’ll need to supply your own motor, for example, but it does provide you with some of the basics that are difficult to build yourself. For example, if you want a fiberglass buggy, fiberglass bodywork is not easy to do at home, so you can get a kit with good bodywork already provided.

But my number one recommendation if you are thinking of building your own buggy for the first time? Whose. Not unless you have supreme confidence in your own abilities. It’s not easy and usually takes longer than you imagined and costs more, and while you’re slaving away in the garage trying to build your buggy, everyone else is out in the dunes chopping it up.

There are very good places where you can find a good dune buggy for sale (or even a good dune buggy kit) for a very good price. Usually much cheaper than you could build one yourself.

So get yourself a second hand buggy, learn all you can about it first, learn all you can about building a dune buggy, and if you really want to, build your second buggy once you know what to expect. . At least you have the first one there to drive when you get tired of building.