My Buggy (re)Build.

Ol'fogasaurus · Post by **Ol'fogasaurus** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 9:59 am

Ryan, after 6 timeouts and one ctitical error (phpBB with 4 discussions whay) you have a PM.

How close does that fancy gage panel come to your shifter? I thought about using one myself but I think/thought my dash dips too low in that area plus my CB is mounted there. What are you going to do about mounting your turning brakes?

RyanB · Post by **RyanB** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:10 am

Ol'fogasaurus wrote:Ryan, after 6 timeouts and one ctitical error (phpBB with 4 discussions whay) you have a PM.

How close does that fancy gage panel come to your shifter? I thought about using one myself but I think/thought my dash dips too low in that area plus my CB is mounted there. What are you going to do about mounting your turning brakes?

I still dont have a PM... haha! Feel free to email me at rbringel AT gmail DOT com.

I had to remove about 2 inches off the back of the console. I then removed the cross braces off the bottom and I 'tried' to use my grinder to cut an oval shape on the front so it would sit down over the tunnel better. It ended up more like a V shape though...

The front tip of the cluster sits almost right up against the dust guard for the shifter. I was also worried about how far down my dash came down but I actually have alot of room it turns out. I can take more pics if you like with the hood/dash installed.

RyanB · Post by **RyanB** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:21 am

Worked on the buggy rear suspension and I got one side re-indexed last night. I had to take out a bunch of the preload that I put in when I had the heavier type 4 motor in the car. I hope to get the other side done this evening and it will be that much closer.

Once that is done, it is a matter of some tuning on the Kadrons, figure out the fan belt issue, repair/paint the hood, put seats back in and button up odds'ends and she should be ready to go. Getting closer and just about there with riding season fast approaching!

Lee was asking about the center console. Here are a few pics. Showing the cut off rear and how close it is to the shifter...

And below is my finished rollcage. I added cross bard down lower at the body line from the rear hoop to the front hoop.

Post by **Leatherneck** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:39 am

Ryan, buggy is looking good, you might think about putting a plate on the center of the cage, that way if it does roll it will slide more then dig, have never seen it but heard about people having neck problems after there head gets jammed in the sand. Cage looks cool though nice job.

Ol'fogasaurus · Post by **Ol'fogasaurus** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 9:27 am

As long as you have about 4 inches of head clearance (that is the accepted figure for the sand at dunes here) you should be OK. I don't know how they came up with that figure but I have been told 4 inches of clearance many times. The guy who built my cage is the guy who modified many of the rails' cages out here after the one particular roll over.

Ryans top bars are quite often refered to as "T-tops" and are OK, an easy get in style cage. Since we have trees and trails in the dunes, the outer bars are often placed more outboard. This is to protect the passengers in case a (slow?) roll/slide into a tree. It causes you to have to fold in the middle to get in and at my age and shape, that is a full days work!

(Pan and cage minus body)

Entering the dunes at Saunders Hill.

Ryan, are you going to put switches on the flat part of the console or leave them on the dash. I am trying to figure out how I am going to do it on the black buggy. When you are strapped on tightly, it can be hard to reach the dash. I don't want a passenger to be able to panic and reach over and turn things off although in a wreck it may be necessary. Still debating that one. I would also recommend a mast battery switch if you don't already have one.

RyanB · Post by **RyanB** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 9:40 am

Ol'fogasaurus wrote:
Ryan, are you going to put switches on the flat part of the console or leave them on the dash. I am trying to figure out how I am going to do it on the black buggy. When you are strapped on tightly, it can be hard to reach the dash. I don't want a passenger to be able to panic and reach over and turn things off although in a wreck it may be necessary. Still debating that one. I would also recommend a mast battery switch if you don't already have one.

There will only be one switch. Which will be in the dash and this is for the windshield wipers. Otherwise, when I turn the key, everything gets power. The lights are always on which is really the only other thing that would have a switch on this car.

I did however consider putting switches on the flat facing surface of the console. It would be an easy thing to do.

My desire is to fill in all the holes on the dash except for the one wiper switch and the speedo. The reason for this is previously, I had _everything_ wired up into the dash and when I had to remove the hood for some reason it was a real pain in da azz! With the way I am doing it now, there will be 3 wires going up to the dash and the speedo cable. Before it was like 30 wires... Now it will be power, ground and fuel guage lead.

RyanB · Post by **RyanB** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 10:01 am

So... For some time now I have been dreading doing the glass repair to the front of my hood. It's something I have never done and was extremely hesitant. I have put it off over and over.

Well last night I finally buckled down.

And wow... What in the hell was I worried about. It turned out purfectly. I am tickled pink. No, I dont have pics yet but I will take one tonight I suppose.

With this repair, the car is nearly ready. I figure by the end of this week to pull the car out of the garage and drag the rail in and get it ready! W00h00!