Ians Buggy Build

[Drivermod]

After some thoughtfull consideration I decided to part out the CJ and use as much of it as I can to put together a full tube buggy. Todd at Shotgun Fab will be helping immensly on this build and is the one who finally convinced me to go for it. I sold the frame, tub, and steering to a local guy. Here is a picture of what is left, minus the engine, wheels and tires.
(the chassis you see in this pic is another one Todd put together with a friend of his on Monday and Tuesday. He's been busy.

I took some time to sketch out my ideas in AutoCAD before getting started just to keep the scale of it in check. I picked up a stack of tubing from Carwash last week and started bending on Wednsday. Got the main tubing of the chassis together yesterday. We got to try out his new Baleigh tubing notcher on my chassis and it worked really well. Much quicker and more precise than his old setup.




In the pics the chassis is sitting at ride height but the axles are not in the correct locations. We put in two 15 hr days but got alot done. So far I'm really liking it. Roughly 114" wheelbase, with a 21" belly, 51" wide at the belt line and 68" to the top of the cage. I'm using the SBC 400/700R4/Atlas drivetrain out of the Jeep along with the axles (Dana 60/70) tires (39.5 TSLs) and wheels. Using 17" Bilstein 9100 series coil overs to suspend it. Next big purchases will be heims, steering components and seats. Have a double ended ram but need to locate an orbital. Not sure what to go with yet. Seats will be Kirky Pro Drag 16" wide (I'm a scrawny guy). I'll continue to update as things progress. Realistically, I hope to be riding by Memorial Day weekend. With 6 kids at home finding time to work on it will be the biggest hurdle. Big thanks to Todd for motivating me and helping out as well as the garage space and use of tools. He has a great setup for fabrication and is working on a new chassis for himself to move out of the single seater. It's gonna be pretty radical.