Dirtbox Venom mini-buggy upgrade/rebuild!

[mysteryboy28]

she put in a good 2+ hours for me last night. didn't complain once, even when she sliced through the glove and knicked her knuckle a little bit.

 

[mysteryboy28]

lots of grinding done today. front a-arms ground and polished, rear trailing arms ground, ready for polishing. more ginding done on the buggy. i "grinded" till my arms and hands became retarded and i couldn't squeeze the grinder trigger or barely even hold the grinder any more.

decided i wasn't happy with the rear wheel alignment. when i had moved the bearings to the inside of the trailing arms, the angle of the wheels shifted, and both of them were leaning in on top more than i wanted. so i hacked off the outer bearing plates, ran a 1" bar through the trailing arms to make sure everything was aligned perfectly, then welded the plates back on. perfect alignment. yay!

bought another pair of jack stands. i was sick of propping the buggy up on milk crates and pieces of wood. lol. hydraulic floor jack and jack stands are just way cool to have.

 

[greaser]

Looking great man.

 

[mysteryboy28]

spent a bit of time prepping the fenders for painting, and scrubbing all the grease and grime off the sled motor mount. fenders needed to be sanded and uneven edges leveled off. motor mount had years of sludge built up in all the nooks and crannies.

will need to touch up the fenders in a few days after the paint cures (otherwise the paint will crinkle up), but otherwise the fenders and motor mount turned out pretty good! Also painted the back side of the roof and hood. Now I need more green paint!

 

[greaser]

Looks like they came out pretty well.

 

[mysteryboy28]

polished up the trailing arms, and gave those and the a-arms their first coat of paint.

scrubbed the tire rims clean with a wire bush attachment. then hosed them down, and dried them off with compressed air and a rag. then painted the rims pretty silver. will need to scrub off some over-spray on the tires. can only get them so perfect with my template i made with a trash bag and duct tape.

got a bunch more grinding done on the buggy the night before, as well as welded on the 4-point harness mounts.

for future buggies i will be using colored plastic for the fenders/roof/hood. it's actually cheaper than the plastic and paint method i've been using, will save time, and will probably be more durable. there aren't as many colors to pick from (basic colors), but i think i can live with that. 4x8 sheets are available from a race car supply website, delivered locally for about $40 after tax and stuff. i was paying about $25 a sheet for the white stuff, and so far i'm about $35 in the hole for green paint!

 

[greaser]

But it looks great, I can't wait to get it all muddy.

 

[mysteryboy28]

buggy polished and ready for a bath (followed by a thorough towel drying). then it's paint time! Sorry for the dark pic. i dragged the buggy out of the garage to have it ready for it's bath tomorrow.

 

[mysteryboy28]

frame painted and drying. a few more little things to paint (spindles, tie rods, hubs, etc.), re-assembly is next!

 

[greaser]

nice.

 

[Desertduler]

Lots of work! Looks good man.

 

[mysteryboy28]

got the extra items painted. then i realized i had forgotten to weld on the mounting tabs on the buggy for the rear brake light. so i got that done in the dark, just as it was starting to sprinkle. sprayed a quick coat of paint on and around the mounting tabs, and threw a tarp over the buggy.

today is cold, wet, and miserable. tomorrow will be raining, the next day will be 55 degrees, then hopefully nicer weather after that!

 

[mysteryboy28]

weather starting to warm back up a lil bit. yay.

last night i took the shocks apart and cleaned and painted them. here's some nice dark pics for ya.

meanwhile i'm trying to find some replacement grub/set screws for the bearings, as about 1/2 of the ones that came with the bearings have either gone missing or have been stripped when i was trying to crank them down nice and snug. my local nut and bolt place had the larger grubs for the CV's, but not the smaller ones for the bearings, which hold the axle stubs, sprocket/rotor spindle, and wheels in place.

 

[mysteryboy28]

so today was spent getting the shocks back together, and making a handy-dandy hydraulic shock compressor. the threaded compressors from harbor frieght were'nt working out for re-assembly (totally messing up my paint job, and couldn't compress the fully extended springs, and couldn't squeeze the clamping claw parts in between the springs on the smaller shocks), so i knew i needed to come up with a solution.

the threaded compressors took forever to tighten, and i thought it would be way cool to go hydraulic. at first i thought maybe i'd make something to utilize my floor jack, but decided it would be better to have something a little more sturdy (and not have wheels on it that could slip while under lots of pressure).

here's what i came up with. worked great, did minimal damage to my paint (a little touch-up paint fixed that). and yes, the slotted plate is crooked on purpose to accomodate the angle of the springs better.

 

[landuse]

Very clever

 

[greaser]

that should make life easier.

 

[mysteryboy28]

some progress.

 

[mysteryboy28]

lots done today!

 

[fowler]

It's a Kawasaki!!

I like the spring compressor

 

[mysteryboy28]

It's a Kawasaki!!

I like the spring compressor

Yeah, I actually angled the plate the wrong way on the spring compressor. Lol. From the front of the shocks the angle would have been correct, but from the rear it's the opposite angle. Still got the job done, and will be an easy fix before the next buggy is started.

The green color is a good match for both kawasaki and arctic cat, supposedly. I think its a pretty green, although way too expensive, and nearly impossible to get a nice good shiny finish on the plastic fenders without using a ton of paint - which I wasn't going to do at $7 a can. Lol.