R1 buggy build and our Advanced body kit by Sonic Offroad

[Sonic Offroad Andy]

Hello everyone. *Its been a while since my last post but we have been very busy lately. *I just wanted to post some pics of a work in progress here at Sonic Ooffroad Inc. *We are building an R1 engine buggy for a customer and much hard work has been put into the design and the look of this buggy. *We are mostly excited about the body work. *We spend almost 250 hours building the molds, but the outcome out weighs the time spent.



Once we achieved the rolling chassis we disassembled the car and began the body work. *To cut some corners we used felt and resin to get the basic shape and to define the body lines.



Next we went through 25 gallons of bondo and spent the next two weeks shaping the body. *





Next we applied the primer, polished, waxed and laid up the fiber glass to form the mold



Lastly we used our molds to make our body pannels. *We still need to make an aluminum roof, aluminum side panels for the front box and rivet the NACA ducts along the sides. *







Buggy specs:
Our new Advanced Body kit
Durable design made for racing
Fox Racing 2.0 coil over shocks
18 inches of suspension travel in the front
16 inches of suspension travel in the rear
High quality alloy steel Aurora rod ends
Double A-arm suspension front and rear
Wilwood brake calipers front and rear disc
Tilton master cylinders and mechanical brake bias
Master Craft Seat
Quick disconnect steering wheel
ITP Tires
Candy Blue Power coat frame and a-arms
2004 R1 Engine 180Hp
Porsche 930CV joints and Axles
Adjustable pedal block
4130 Chrome molly frame and A-arm construction
1 ¼ .095wall roll cage construction
5 point harness
5 Gal Fuel cell
780lbs

To finish the project we are going to powder coat the frame candy Blue, paint the body yellow and either do a decal or airbrush blue flame and Sonic Offroad emblem across the body.

I will try to keep posting on this site because we are into some pretty interesting projects but you can always check out our current projects page to see what we have going on.
[url=http://www.sonicoffroad.com/currentprojects.htm:mrqskvef]current projects page[/url:mrqskvef]

[renegadespec1]

sonic,
that body is a great acheivement, are there nerf bars under the body to support it in a side impact? *

[Sonic Offroad Andy]

The nerf bars will wrap around the outside of the body so the sides won't get impacted. *We are going to offer the nerfs as an option for customers that are going to be racing. *The side pods are amazingly strong. *You can stand on them they won't brake. *We have also played with the idea of placing some strips of carbon and Kevlar in the body to give it better impact resistance and then the side bars won't be needed unless you get landed on of course : )

[Reflex]

Buggy looks great, I like the how it looks so short and nimble.
What do you mean you can stand on the sidepods?

[masterfabr]

I've done a lot of f/g fabbing but I've got to say that felt thing is great.Good work.You shoulda kept that fab trick a secret!

[Sonic Offroad Andy]

You can stand on the side pods to enter the buggy meaning they are strong and won't brake easy.

We got the idea from watching one of those Pimp Your Ride shows. *Its the same process that they use to build speaker boxes.

[masterfabr]

I built fiberglass panels for my dragster similar to that.10 layersof 4 oz. cloth with very little resin retained in the panel.Very flexible and strong. Nearly indestructable.Paneks are only.100 thick and take 180 mph blasts.

[sicksand]

what is the buggy going for without the body?

[Sonic Offroad Andy]

The sides are a little thicker then that in some spots and I don't think we really even need the side rails. *They will absorb the impact and plus with the correct amount of Zeus fasteners it will distribute the loading over a few different mounts.

This car has sold for $30,000.00 with the advanced body kit, the wing, Engine upgrade, long travel, and coil over upgrade. *The body upgrade is 2,000.00 so you are looking at about 28,000.00 with tin or Lexan instead of the body work. *We do have a pre owned Ninja 600 buggy for sale if your interested. *We raced it a few times... It was only ever beaten by our 929 car. *we will let that one go for 14,000.00.

[sicksand]

any pics?