Rob's Buggy Blog

Nipples n stuff

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 21:35:33 GMT

I dry-assembled the front suspension today to get the car rolling. Just need to mount the discs and wheels and that end is done. Had some fun with an angle grinder removing some unwanted bits (included the front tow point) to make it fit correctly. I also found that the grease nipples on the beam are right in the way of the mounting brackets, but have been assured that the grease will stay in if they are removed I will be designing some sort of bonnet lifting mechanism in the coming weeks so watch this space for some more CAd drawings The work continues...

Bought more bits

Sun, 27 May 2007 12:37:57 GMT

I have taken delivery of some new parts, some nice shiny 7" front lights and a brake master cylinder, both from http://www.coolairvw.co.uk/. Mmm free delivery I'm also thinking about engines and have decided to build one from scratch using a custom kit from http://www.vwspeedshop.co.uk/. Just finalising some details about the size of components to use to decide the overall engine capacity to end up with. At the moment it's looking to be between 1776 and 2017 cc, but I need to investigate torque levels and power curves some more. Any advice for something thats a bit beefy and has quick acceleration without going overboard (I like my gearbox unbroken), greatly received. Cheers!

French fibreglassing

Thu, 03 May 2007 20:33:08 GMT

Have today created a mould with Mel Hubbard to knock out some pods to house the rear lights. 'Frenching' them in. Also created one pod and it's perfect. Will be cutting it to size and begin chopping the rear of the buggy around to make them fit. Also had a crash course in glassing and will be attacking the sidepods (blending them in) over the coming weeks. Work continues, if a bit slower than I'd hoped (darn bathroom ).

New year, new parts

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 15:54:44 GMT

Well it's another year and I'm starting to rekindle the buggy build. I've been dreading venturing into the cold, windy garage, but bought some new parts to get me started again. After much deliberation, I have chosen the rear lights and bought them (not nasty LED ones, either!).

Mmm, clear indicators. I have also got some new wheel bearings and wheel bolts so I can eventually add the rims and get it all rolling. This will make working on it a lot easier as I will have more room wheeling it out of the garage. A minor setback, though. The front discs have been drilled to fit the wheels (6 holes at 12mm diameter *just* fit!), but unfortunately the pitch was drilled to 1.75, not 1.5. More holes to follow

The return

Sun, 13 Aug 2006 10:40:56 GMT

Finally, I have taken delivery of the completed chassis (well hired a drop-side and driven 6 hours to pick it up ). Now I have it all back, I'll be concentrating on sorting out my A-B car (audi coupe quattro) for the next couple of Months (damn bushes!) before starting work on the buggy properly. Depending on the financial situation I'm hoping to get it to a rolling state before Christmas to be completed mid -2007, but I'll keep you all posted!

Arrival of seats

Thu, 18 May 2006 10:33:22 GMT

Just a quick update for a few pictures of the seats I took delivery of today. Very chuffed

Seats ordered

Sun, 30 Apr 2006 17:52:52 GMT

After much deliberation over seat styles, colours and finishes, I have finally ordered some seats for the buggy. This will mean that fabrication of the frame can be completed once they are delivered. I decided I wanted some comfy, yet thin seats which would fit in the very restricted area in the car. I also wanted some seats without the typical side bars usually found on clubman or bucket seats. I found it quite hard to find something to match my criteria. The following are some corbeau seats I liked the look of, the last being the 'fall-back' option if I didn't find anything suitable. From http://www.corbeau-seats.co.uk:

Additionally, the following cobra seats were also on the cards. From http://www.cobraseats.com:

Ideally, recliners would have been perfect, but with some fine measurement, I found I was extremely limited by space. This led me to settle for the cobra roadster 7 seats (pictured last above). After speaking with cobra and thumbing through their sample swatches of materials (one which was suspicially like cheese cloth), I opted for a black and grey nylon finish without piping. Most images of these seats are with a vinyl finish, so I'll just have to wait and see how they turn out Images will be posted when they arrive in 7 to 10 days!

Frame almost complete

Sat, 22 Apr 2006 17:24:24 GMT

Sorry for the delay in posting, I have a couple more images of the frame in progress. All that is needed now is for me to buy some seats so that John and I can ascertain the positions for the handbrake, gearstick and pedals. More information on that soon.

Teasers

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 19:31:51 GMT

Some photos of the frame in progress. I've decided to keep the build photos a bit vague to work up some suspense. This way when it's all finished it should be a pleasant surprise to you all. Rest-assured I will still be uploading and posting, but you won't get to see it all till the end

And another one

Fri, 20 Jan 2006 18:51:34 GMT

Here's how the frame is coming along:

I'm hopefully seeing it in a week or so, so I'll get some higher resolution images. The beam is coming along nicely now I've decided to polish it up, too. I'm also decifing on some seats - cobra or corbeau recliners are the order of the day at the moment.

First frame pictures

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 23:11:36 GMT

So here they are, the first images of the new space frame. Unfortunately they are a bit on the small side! Larger ones will follow soon

Beam purchased

Sun, 08 Jan 2006 17:49:15 GMT

First of all, happy new year to you all. I hope you had a good Christmas . I've found a half decent front beam for the project at a cheap price, already with lowering adjusters welded in! It needs a bit of grinding work to make it as new, but it will do until I polish it up or spend a little more on a replacement. On the frame front, I've been promised some pictures of the construction progress within the week, so I should be able to post them here soon. Here's to a great 2006!

Things are a bit slow

Sat, 12 Nov 2005 14:44:24 GMT

Apologies for no new posts recently, things have slowed right down. It must be something to do with the nights drawing in early and the lovely english rain. On the build front, I'm on the lookout for a new front beam (with or without lowering kit) to replace the rotten one I have. I've been promised some images of the frame build, so should be able to post them here soon.

Links section added

Sun, 16 Oct 2005 14:21:56 GMT

I've added a links section to a few of my favourite beach buggy sites in the UK. The section is over here --------------------------------------------------->

D'oh! - comments buggered

Tue, 11 Oct 2005 16:03:35 GMT

Oh dear, it seems some of you have been having problems posting comments on my blog entries. This was probably due to the fact that some javascript has been broken since I launched the site The issue has now been resolved (I must think about properly testing my sites!), so please feel free to comment away!