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

Busy week last week as the missus was helping out in the theatre, so I pulled most of the shift in the shop and Post Office, and then Sunday I just fancied a day off... lie-in, walk the dogs, cooked breakfast, lounge around and then drink beer Back to it today though!...



The Odyssey PC1200 winch battery had FINALLY arrived, so I test fitted that in the Offroad Armoury cradle I've had for more years than I care to remember... it was destined for a previous project but finally gets a home on this one!



That sits on the back next to the winch and solenoid, keeping some weight over the back axle...



Keithy's previous comment about CAD "Cardboard Aided Design" leads to the use of plastic pipe... easier to make a mistake in cheap plastic waste pipe before finally cutting the expensive seamless tube when I'm happy with the fit of the plastic one!



Spreader plate



And the other end... the other spreader plate. The smaller diameter tube comes through the roof skins and will be plug welded into the main X brace which is bigger diameter and will be butt welded up to the spreader plate, with the smaller diameter tube inside, so nicely braced in a couple of ways... (The smaller tube will be holding the tree scrape bars that will surround the roof line like my old Blue Jimny had... to lean on trees and push them out of the way!



Happy with the fit using the plastic prop, I began cutting the seamless tube to length and shape...



And mocking up the other end... it's a bit cock-eyed yet but I didn't want to tap the smaller diameter tube in too far for fear it wouldn't come out again!



There, the main brace is in...



Happy with that I tried it the other way and then copied it to make another one... the second one will need cutting in 'half' and fishmouthing around the main brace yet...



Some box section will then be used to make a small back wall up to the level of the back of the half-door where it rises up, that will then give the buggy a 33" wading dept up to the level of the lower section of the half-doors, should be plenty?! It's well known I'm not keen on DEEP water!

Hmmm, all this started from starting to mock up a base plate to hold the spare wheel up! I needed to see what angle it could sit at to get it as low as possible for rear vision, both in the mirror and turning round to reverse, etc... With the cage in place the spare can be angled back against the X to work out where to make the base plate for it... the Y ratchet strap also arrived last week too...

It's coming!.. Slowly

Yes, windscreen and the front soft-top section...and the half-doors too... it has to be suitable for the British weather and the odd stream / river fording...

Still hoping it looks close to the yellow one pictured earlier...

Hmmm, yes, more exo than the blue Jimny was though... it'll have tubes from the roofline tree scrapers down to the top of the wings... there's some 60x60mm box section to go in front of the half doors yet, and the windscreen tubes will disappear into the top of them...

Love it

Riccy wrote: Love it

Why thank you sir

That's a huge compliment given the quality of your own builds

I’m still aiming for something looking fairly close to this...





I’ve always wanted to build a buggy, bucket-list item now after my illness last year, fancied a Polaris RZR for years, but can’t afford one, and as one of my 4x4 mates pointed out - the Jimny has bigger tyres so more ground clearance, and as I’ve always modded Suzuki’s it was a natural basis to use a Jimny....

Ooh, another delivery... Screwfix...



I managed to wreck my old 38mm hole saw yesterday... so I also ordered a 44mm for the bigger diameter seamless tube...

IISY?

That will be one AWESOME Jimny

gv42 wrote: That will be one AWESOME Jimny

Thanks!

When it’s finished you can point at the front recovery points and say “they were mine”

You'd be very welcome!

I often get new and old Suzuki friends dropping into the shop