Thursday, September 21, 2017

Bounty Hunter Dune Buggy


Designed in 1968 and finished in 1969, Bounty Hunter Dune Buggies used a body produced by Glass Enterprises in Burbank, on a short wheel base using the same length chassis as the Manx, and in this buggy, the seats were designed by Steve McQueen’s company, Solar Productions, and the interior is by Tony Nancy. It was featured in the January and December editions of Rod and Custom magazine in 1970

While many buggies were copied or took strong styling cues from the Manx, the Bounty Hunter was a completely original design.

In late 1970 or early 1971, in his garage at home, Mel Keys worked on a fiberglass dune buggy project for about three months with an assistant, Brian Dries. That dune buggy would later go on to become known as the Bounty Hunter, one of the few dune buggies that didn’t directly knock off Bruce Meyers’ Manx. Unfortunately, the dune buggy business was tapped out, and not many were made, and Mel went onto other things

Who is Mel Keys? He is a Art Center College alumni, who worked at Victress, then started a company called Fibercraft to produce fiberglass-bodied cars, and also participated in making the model of the Star Trek Enterprise used for the original tv show. He is now about 88 yrs old.



Similar buggies have auctioned at 4 thou, due to rough use, but this one might auction for 20-30 thou

https://lamodern.com/auctions-2013/auctions/?auctionID=55&view=AuctionLotProfile&inventoryID=26010
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=449633

4 comments:

  1. Copies of that body shell are still knocking about in Europe certainly. The front end always looked a bit too Triumph Spitfire for my liking, but saw one recently that someone had remove the headlamp pods and it looked amazing. The rear end and profile on them are great. Heres a not very pretty one for sale in Sweden https://www.blocket.se/angelholm/Beach_buggy_74804866.htm?ca=1_8&w=3

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  2. While the head lamp arrangement my have that Triumph look to it, I think this is one of the best looking dune buggy designs I've ever seen. There was something called the Shaliko too that was a hard top with doors. Somewhere I have a MPC model of that kicking around.

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  3. This story isn't accurate at all. I know Mel. Geez. Do some research.

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    1. oh? You spell it out then, what's the story? What did I get wrong about Mel?

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