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Epona project

Bebop

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2013
Messages
2,156
Hi guys,

For those who don't know me, I'm one of the moderators of pirate4x4 board in France (no affiliation with the PBB) which is a great and friendly extreme offroad forum. This position allowed me to meet the nicest and most talented individuals in the sport along the years in my country, and even if I'm not living there anymore (moved to the USA), I just wanted to share with you a great thing happening in over there right now.

Just so you know the full story :

Marie is the GF of a good friend of mine (Pedro) and she has had the bug for extreme offroad since she met my buddy and he dragged her into this world.

She wanted a buggy for quite a long time now, and as a present, Pedro offered to help her building a ride.

They both are acquaintance with Fabrice, the boss of the french offroad shop GoldenCoastCustom and when that guy heard about the project, he offered to set up one of his "1 week, 1 buggy" deals. It means that with a team of good helpful forum members, they're going to build Marie a turnkey buggy in 7 days.

This buggy is named EPONA.

For those of you who don't know him (and I figure that's a bunch of you), Fabrice is a top chassis builder in France, and came up with quite a few rides in the past years. This is only a small portions of his work :

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His personal bouncer :

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Let's get back to the Epona project.

After the whole deal was done, Pedro gathered parts for this build (Mercedes V8, Tranny, Tcase, Axles from a G Wagen, shocks, steering, yada yada) and on monday, the whole team met up at Golden Coast Custom shop, located in the middle of nowhere in Burgundy, surrounded by wine and old castles...

A small part of the team :

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From left to right : Fabrice, Pedro and another buddy of mine, Matt

And they started right away :

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Some food stops and fireworks later :

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It's already day 2, and the first tube is bent and tacked :

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Exhaust, anti-rock support, links, etc... is all done by tuesday night, right when Marie arrives. And, she's not here to watch, she works here too :

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Wednesday they installed seats and steering, plus started the B Pillar :

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The nice couple :

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And a buddy dropped by to give some of his fine artwork to the cause. Custom, hand filled shifter knobs :

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He made them on the spot !!!!

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At 2.22am, they were still working :

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Still up at 3.15am !!

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I think I caught up by now.

If you wanna see more pics and explanations (in French, but google translator might help) head over to : http://pirate4x4.fr/showthread.php/18268-Epona-by-GoldenCoastCustom
This topic is gonna be updated, go check it out often.

All of the progress can be watched live here : http://www.saintetherese4x4.com/epona.jpg (since the internet connection is shitty, they just broadcast a pic every 30s. Refresh for progress)
Just remember with jetlag, they're 6 hours ahead.

You can also check out the Golden Coast Custom facebook page for more updates of the project : https://www.facebook.com/GoldenCoastCustom/?fref=ts
You'll also find there pictures of his previous work.



You guys are inspirations for us little frenchies, and Fabrice is even making sparks with a Madram11 sweater.

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All of the previous "1 week, 1 buggy" builds :

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joho75287 said:
Do you think they will make the 7 day deadline??

No doubt. If they have to they will call in some reinforcement and they won't sleep at all. They already completed successfully 3 buggies using the same process

It's taking shape :

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Also, just so you know, we don't use tubing benders like you guys do.

We use high end "pipe kinkers". All the tubing on this buggy has been bent with that bender you can see on the pic in my previous post.

The secret is to have a really really good die.

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Under-carriage :

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Happy owner :

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And I know that people in the USA usually like old buildings, this is Fabrice's shop/house :

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paradisepwoffrd said:
I'd like to see a set of those tires here

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

Easy, I can get you some. But :

1) With shipping and customs that won't be cheap
2) They only size up to 37", not bigger

zukimaster said:
Does French fries really come from France?

Nope, Belgium. But the french speaking part of Belgium, which might explain the confusion.

However a bunch of good food and wine comes from my country... :stir: Might not be the best forum to talk about that tho... ???
 

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