I am honestly surprised there’s not more action on the listing yet, as the opening bid is a paltry $4,500 with no reserve for two dune buggies and a parts Beetle to pillage from. While unfinished buggy kits are somewhat readily available, the seller has two slightly unusual offerings with a rare 1960’s “Super Shark” fiberglass body and a 1960’s “Balbo Lido” also on a Bug chassis. The whole kit is listed here on eBay and there’s a boatload of spare parts included as well. Thanks to Barn Finds reader T.J. for the find.
I do feel like dune buggy kits are very easy to acquire and far harder to complete. They also may look relatively easy to take on when you’re just staring at a fiberglass body and Beetle chassis, but I’m sure anything that arrives in pieces is far harder to put back together once life gets in the way. It’s like the easy part is going to the swap meet at Hershey where you strap something like this to your trailer; the hard part is staring at it for six months wondering where you’re going to find the time to complete it.
The seller lists a variety of useful spares in the auction description, including one 1600cc dual port engine; one set of floor pans; three transmissions; two wide 5″ wheels; fiberglass dash; and a spare steering column. Now, while spares are undoubtedly useful for projects like these, it does make it difficult to imagine anyone but a local coming to pick this whole kit up. And given the spares are a big part of the appeal, you wouldn’t want to buy this and only get the carcasses, right? So, it becomes a matter of figuring out how to get it all home.
The dual port is certainly nice to have, although the seller notes that it will need the exhaust manifold bolts fixed as a few are stripped and others have snapped. The Beetle does have a clean Ohio title, so that will make getting one of these buggies back on the road and fully legal an easier process. While the Beetle may be rough, it is chock full of parts and you may be able to recoup a few bucks if you sell off the spares you don’t use. Does this three-for-one auction seem like a deal to anyone else?
Run, run away ASAP!!!
I’ve never seen either of those bodies before.
Getting good money for a dune buggy is tough!
The likely reason these have not achieved even a single bid with just a day to go, is the cost of transportation for 75% of the US population will exceed the opening bid price. Transporting 3 vehicles to areas that have the weather to enjoy dune buggies on a regular basis, is an expensive proposition.
And another concern is storage. How many people have the room to store and work on an additional 3 vehicles?
Plus, these 2 bodies are fairly unknown to the vintage automobile hobby, and that reminds me of a favorite quote: Sometimes something is rare today because no one wanted it when new. Except for a few situations, this means there is little demand today.
That said, I find both of these bodies interesting.
The orange Lido body [by Balboa] has a front grill area that could possibly handle a radiator behind it, so perhaps the engine area could handle a Subaru flat 6 motor! The Dune Buggy Register lists only 4 examples. None of those examples show this upright grill, they look more like the Myers Manx front end.
The silver blue “Super Shark” body was made by Turchan industries for only 1 year -1965, and is also quite rare. The Dune Buggy Registry only lists 4 examples as well. In my opinion this body style is not very attractive, especially when the lower sides are installed.