First Desert Mini Buggy Build

[Damien]

Here are some pictures of our first mini buggy build. *We've been talking about building one for a couple of years now, and are finally getting to it. *I modeled the suspension on Mitchell then drew all the sheetmetal in 2d with autocad. *I made a few mistakes with the fit up because I didn't draw it as a 3d assembly. *Most of the sheetmetal is 14ga. 1018cr the rest is 12ga. * *I drew all the parts so they key together, with no slop. *The fit turned out good everything just tapped together, although some parts were over constrained so the keys had to be filed a bit. *The plan was to have the whole front bulkhead self jig, I think it worked out pretty good. *The tube is 1.5" dia .095 wall DOM. *I know its a bit overkill but we wanted to make it conform to the new SCORE rules so we could race it in the sportsman class if we want. *The motor is a cbr 929 with a RPM gearbox. *We'll see how it turns out.

[Gene]

Damien,
Welcome to the site.

Looks like you have somethin' goin on for sure. I sure like the dimple die and wish my laser shop had that capability.

My shocktower is similar in that it is tabbed. Where the shock mounts mine has three layers plus shoulder bushings for shock bolts. I don't expect any deformation and I don't care about a few extra pounds over reliability. What are you doing at that end?

Now that you have teased us with the bulkhead how about at least a rendering of the finished car!

[Damien]

More pics of the progress, we only work on it about 1 day/ week so progress is a bit slow. *Hopefully this weekend we'll get to making the cage, and bracing the front bulkhead. *The front hub/spindle centerline will intersect the lower outer A-arm pivot, so the lower A-arm inclination will govern the wheel recession. *The lower arm inclination is about 12 degrees, and the upper is about 19 degrees. *This gave 4 in. of wheel recession throughout the 20 in. travel while maintaining about 10% anti dive, (based on a few assumptions) *It unfortunately also produced lots of caster gain. *Its kind of a test bed so we'll see how it handles. *The lower arm inner pivots are on delrin bushings, the uppers will be rodends.

[Damien]

Gene,
The shock mounts are 14 ga. and will have 12 ga. doublers at the mounting bolts, only one side is welded as of now. *As far as the rendering goes, I'm embarassed to say I don't know solid works! *I have a copy and keep meaning to learn it but havent yet. *Really the only optimization/ engineering (term used loosely) is in the suspension points, I'm really very interested in those, and the dynamics of the car, which is where I've spent most of my time. *the rest We are going to make up as we go along. *

Damien

[Gene]

Damien,
No need to be embarassed. I know nothing of Solidworks or CAD and members have helped me with my build. That said your car is fascinating. Nice work on notching and beautiful welds.

Please keep is informed. It apears there is a substantial shop in the background. BTW, what dirtbike is in the pic and geographically where are you?

[Rorty]

Welcome Damien. That's a really nice looking bulkhead. I'm curious to know why you fitted an upside down front-steer rack rather than a rear-steer rack.

[Damien]

Rorty,
I couldn't find a rear steer rack, I figured they were universal if you just flipped them over. *I still need to make the bolt on piece that holds the tie rods in the correct position. *Do you have any suggestions of a better rack, this one is fair but not great.
Gene, I bought a set of dimple dies from mitler brothers, I know light racing makes some heavy duty ones as well. Then just laser cut the right size hole.

[Rorty]

It's difficult to seal these racks 100% at the best of times and I just thought the lip on the top of the Latest Rage rack would trap dirt and eventually it would work it's way inside.

Have a look at these:
Saco racks, in particular, their [url=http://germanauto-saco.com/germanauto-saco/catalog/cat1.asp:h6i9x2j0]64-1021 rack[/url:h6i9x2j0].
Dans (probably a Taiwanese import) [url=http://www.dansperformanceparts.com/buggy/susp/buggysusp%20rack&pinion.htm:h6i9x2j0]14-425155 rack[/url:h6i9x2j0].

[Kludge]

Hi Damien,

Looks good so far. *I wish I had an Acorn Table like that.

/Frank

[Damien]

Gene-
We are in san luis obispo ca. and the shop is great compared to the two car garage its like the "garage-mahal" its my friends shop who I'm building the buggy with. *The bike is a dr-350 which is also his.

Rorty- those racks do look nicer than mine, I wish I had known about minibuggy.net when I started collecting parts for my project. *I didnt think about that lip collecting dirt but it probably will. oh well!