Dave's la(te)st buggy build...

Thanks Riccy

The original pull rod is still there you can just see it inside the door skin...



I've cut the door skin to get it out and will mount it below the lower part of the door through the new aluminium chequer plate 'door card', it still works fie at that angle...

It needs half doors for wading... :woohoo:

Surely it will be a Dukes of Hazzard style entry?

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Are you going to be making some kind of weather shield that fits the top half like a caterham?

mlines wrote: Surely it will be a Dukes of Hazzard style entry?

That’s probably possible on the passenger side (although my usual passenger is a bit of and old scrote to jump in like that!) but on the driver’s side it’s a bit tight between the big comfy bucket seat and the steering wheel... but if we ever get stuck it will be possible to clamber out without opening the door...

The half doors are having a chequer plate step in the lower dip of the door to look the part though...

Lambert wrote: Are you going to be making some kind of weather shield that fits the top half like a caterham?

Good God, No! :lol:

It’s a vehicle for some summer fun / ‘laning... I’ll be getting a (Suzuki) motorcycle jacket and crank the heater up to full! :woohoo:

Half a day today

1) I ran out of gas
2) My missus booked an appointment... on my day off?! :ohmy:

Ah well, I'm now off Friday afternoon as well, so I'll have to go and fetch a replacement bottle of Argoshield!

So today I planned to fill in the rear driver's side of the cab...



This is the other half of the 4"x2" (100mm x 50mm) rectangular box section that was used to cap the top of the half-door... you can see it has the seam down the middle of it, but no matter as most of it won't be seem anyway as it will be obscured by the rear lorry wheel arch...



The easiest way to copy a panel shape,, cardboard and a hammer! Simply tap all around the edge...



And there's the outline on the other side, cut out with scissors...



And there's our profile!



Box section cut and manipulated to shape...



And welded in place, as much as I could before the welding gas ran out



Taking shape though!



I managed to get the outside done, round the sill and back up to the floor, so there's just the inside to do, and some corrections to be applied to the outer skin... grinding back shows where I've missed a little bit here and there... :blush:



Quick play... this is the oval tube that will be used to form the back support... it will look slightly like the original shape of the Jimny soft-top but also a hint to the EX Ford Concept Buggy I've admired for may years -



You can hopefully get an idea from that what the back of the buggy will eventually look like... sort of based on that... but with the front and mid section based more on the yellow buggy -



Also in the last photo you can see the beginnings of the X seamless tube strengthening for the roll-bar's structure, poking through the outer skin is a smaller diameter piece of seamless tube, this will be plug welded into the bigger 50mm X bracing and will come through to hold the roofline's tree scraping bars similar to my old blue Jimny...



A little time to kill as I tidied up, so I put the blank badge-delete vent in that James had recently swapped for a ZookBOB product when he called to deliver a pair of seats (destined for my old blue Jimny as the new owner can't get in and out of the bucket seat!)... I've got a new style Suzuki S badge though to go on the opposite side of the lower grill to mirror the donut fairlead's position...

More on Sunday then, as the wife is out working in a theatre for the day

Bit more today... after walking the dogs along the river to check on what Storm Dennis had thrown at us... flood alerts for the second weekend running!

An embarrassing story first... I had some time off on Friday and drove 12 miles to my nearest BOC agent to get a new bottle of Argoshield Lite for welding... I took the old bottle out of the car, the guy scanned the barcode on it, gave me a new one, we loaded that in the car and then went inside to do the paperwork... "BRRR!" went his computer, and he had to call BOC, and they said Bits4Vits had ceased trading and therefore my account had been closed! Shoot!... Anyway, it worked out better in the end, they supplied me with gas from an alternative supplier with just a deposit on the bottle rather than BOC's rental contract, so it will owrk out cheaper...



Finished welding up, and then sanding down and some body filler to make it all look nice, including blending the top of the fill-in piece back to the main 'hoop' of the soft-top body...



Ends up looking nice, an even gap on the lower panel where it kinks in slightly, following the line of the bottom of the door...



The door has all been fillered and smoothed back too...



Including the improvements to the door jam area



And I blanked off the top of the cutoff door above the mirror, where the window channel has been filled with tube...



Being as the filler was out, I also fixed the welding warps in the outer skin of the bonnet and then work down the grades of sandpaper until final finishing with 'wet-n-dry'...

Some red-oxide primer should arrive early next week to paint it all and stand back and check it all once again...

Next job is to carry on with the rear, finishing the winch tube mounts off, make a spare wheel well above the fuel tank - a Y-shaped ratchet strap was ordered from Damar yesterday to strap the spare in place behind the seats / X-shaped roll hoop strengthening...

Then I'll push the buggy to the other side of the garage and do the passenger side door. bonnet and incase the rear of the body tub the same as my / driver's side...

It's coming!

Love reading about all this stuff - its better than a good magazine article! :silly:

Thank you - keep it coming,

Hope the floods don't happen. Stupid weather.

It's been so windy here in the Cotswolds - we've seen some weird things. This is what happened on my way to work this morning...

Great to see it coming along!

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Oooh... look what the Hermes driver delivered today!...



New number plates!

THANKS to Martin (& James!) for buying the "S200KYS" plate off me, the funds from that were used to buy this more-apt plate for the buggy!

I've been looking at it on the DVLA website for ages... it suits because -

The donor Jimny is an X reg already, and it kind of hides the age a bit too,,,
And it's therefore an ex-Jimny
It's loosely based in the Ford EX concept car
It almost says "Buggy"... almost! If you close one eye and squint with the other one :woohoo:

I can think of worse things to spend money on!

Some more bits arrived today!...



A Damar Webbing Y shaped spare wheel ratchet strap, in yellow of course!... and an Odyssey PC1200 deep cycle winch battery I ordered THREE weeks ago?! You can imagine the feedback they’ve just received!!!

Nice use of CAD.....Cardboard Aided Design!

Looking good!