Project "Naughty Finger"

I am beginning my build thread for my new buggy I named "Naughty Finger". Long story behind the name. At any rate, I built a 100? dodge truck and was sick of trying to wedge that fat beast around the trails. I was also pretty sick of the body damage. The next logical step is a buggy. I have a bender, welder, plasma cutter etc.. So there are only a few tools I will need. I still need a tube rotation gauge and a tube roller.

The buggy will be custom. I am diving in with both feet so to speak. For parts I have and will use the following.

Dana 70 rear with Detroit locker and 513 gears
Dana 60 front with 35 outers, pucks and Detroit locker with 513 gears
727 tranny with all Kevlar clutches and a low stall speed torque converter
Engine is a very built mopar 400 that's fuel injected and puts out over 425 horse and over 500 foot lbs of torque. Exact numbers are unknown. It was dayno'd before head work but even then it was in the 425 / 500 range
Steering is PSC full hydro
Transfer case I have is a mated 203 but I would like to find a 205 to make a doubler. Motor is sensitive and jumpy in rocks and more gearing from a doubler will make it less likely to launch itself.
All msd ignition
39.5 tsl on h1 wheels with pressed in centers
Tom woods drive shafts
15 gallon fuel cell with internal pump and return line
Other crap....

Needless to say I have most of what I need except shocks and links. Here is a picture of my dodge before I tore it down to a pile of parts.it was like driving an elephant in a closet.

Good luck! No doubt sheet metal and glass do get in the way.

I don't wanna bash the dodge or " Gary" as it was named by my friends. It was heavy at just under 6000 lbs. It was wide. My tires were even with my sheet metal so if my tires rubbed something then that something was also destroying my body. All the glass stayed intact somehow despite my aggressive driving style ( or lack of driving skill ). That big truck managed to go where I pointed it. It did UA alley at Gilbert among other trails. It NEVER came out on the strap. Even on its last run which was also at Gilbert, I broke the steering arm off the knuckle and drove it out using my winch hooked up to what was left of the knuckle. 2 mph, in to turn left, out to turn right. Somehow it worked. I towed a lot of rigs back to camp since I was the big heavy truck with a lot of motor. Sorry, sentimental about it... Truck was good to me.

On the plus side it will live again. I gave the frame, suspension, roll cage and body to a friend that is going to rebuild it.

I put in an order with SWAG today ( love their stuff ). I have the hydraulic ram adapter for my tube bender as well as the gen 4 base for my porta bansaw. I have the Milwaukee base for it but it made it into a chop saw which is fine unless you want to cut anything other than 90 degree angles.

Next up is a tube roller. I love that HULK roller.. when all is said and done it's $350 more ( approx ) than getting the HF roller and buying the swag components. Money is unfortunately and issue with a baby due here in the next week or so.

I sourced out a 205 for my doubler yesterday as well.. It was a good day. I posted on our club facebook looking for a chevy or dodge 205 and within 10 minutes I had a message and a 205. I am torn however on which doubler to get. I am between ORD and NWF. The NWF will allow me to run the 205 I have without machining the case for the larger bearing. Does anyone have any experience running the NWF doubler kit and how big of a deal is it not upgrading to the larger bearing?

For anyone living in Minnesota, My neighbor works for a steel company that MAKES steel tubing and sells it steel distributors. I get an amazing price ( can't name one because it fluctuates constantly ) but the down side is I have to buy a lot of it. Like 20 22 foot sticks. If you are in my area and in need of some 1 3/4 steel then let me know because I will sell it for what I pay for it. I won't need it all and I can use the money for other parts. Just PM me and I'll let you know when I get it and what I paid per foot.

The "Going Buggy" is a new thing.. up until a week ago I was going to use a Dakota and make a truggy. Then after i stripped it i noticed the 3 piece frame ( don't like that ) and the worst part was the front of the frame was over 40 inches wide... Talk about screwing up my turning radius. Figured i would build a new frame... then why build a frame only to put a cab on it ... hell with it.. build a buggy. below is my $300 dakota. Stripped and now gone. I still have the frame, engine and tailgate, pedal assembly and a few other parts. Yesterday I got the frame out of the garage and on the car trailer so my garage is clean, clear and ready for the buggy. if you look close you can see my pride and joy engine all wrapped in plastic in the background. I also threw in a pic of the dodge being awesome...

There is a 203/205 doubler setup listed in parts for sale that was in Bug_EJ's red SRRS buggy. Said he would sell without the 205 attached.

Thanks for the doubler info. A member of the club I belong to ( mn go4 wheelers ) had one for me.

That's a shame. You don't see a lot of old dodge crawlers.

narrow the front clip and back half it. Full size cab trucks are

Nice to see another dodge. My buddy has the frame, body and suspension. He's building it back up. Here is a cool trick. I used stock rear ramcharger springs in the front and it moved my Axel forward 4 inches because of the offset. It equaled about 4.5 inches of lift. Flexed better, rode great. It also eliminated the tire rubbing on the cab. Oh, also had 6 inch shackles with home fabbed bushings. If you look you can see I shortened the frame 7.5 inches in the middle. I also cut down the best bed. It had a 108 inch wheelbase.

Brown Santa is dropping off my swag stuff tomorrow and my notcher from summit... I hope.. Won some money on pull tabs tonight so if my neighbor is home I am gonna try and make a steel run and get some sticks. Its finally gonna be warm... Over 30 degrees!

I found that you need a longer front shackle to get full flex. I had diy4x 6" front shackles. The shorter stock 4" shackles would hit the frame before full flex. I will try to get picks of suspension this weekend. Its just a frame with suspension. I also had to relocate the front spring mount forward about 2.5 inches.. The longer shackle, longer springs and the sag from the big block and cage all made it work awesome together. If you ever need a tailgate I have one in perfect condition primer black. I also have a rebuilt cab that is powder coated flat black sitting in a garage in Connecticut. FYI, a hydroboost from a 2001 dodge 2500 will bolt up and use your stock pedal assembly. I had awesome brakes with that setup. As you can see from the pic it also worked well holding up during a rainy memorial weekend in dresser with

Here is a dodge I always liked
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QSIBYIOBTo

Saw his build thread a few years back.. A lot of hard work..works real well bit to me looks like a turtle.

Naughty_Finger said:

I found that you need a longer front shackle to get full flex. I had diy4x 6" front shackles. The shorter stock 4" shackles would hit the frame before full flex. I will try to get picks of suspension this weekend. Its just a frame with suspension. I also had to relocate the front spring mount forward about 2.5 inches.. The longer shackle, longer springs and the sag from the big block and cage all made it work awesome together. If you ever need a tailgate I have one in perfect condition primer black. I also have a rebuilt cab that is powder coated flat black sitting in a garage in Connecticut. FYI, a hydroboost from a 2001 dodge 2500 will bolt up and use your stock pedal assembly. I had awesome brakes with that setup. As you can see from the pic it also worked well holding up during a rainy memorial weekend in dresser with

Click to expand...

yea pics would be great

Happy to say my Woodward fab notcher came in today. This should make notches much better than using my plasma cutter like I used to make the roll cage on my dodge. My swag stuff is in Oregon last time i checked. I don't expect to see that till next week. Hopefully I will be bringing home some tubing this weekend. With the baby due any day now I can't really plan anything.

I went by Winnick today for steel to build a "jig" for my buggy and after taking two minutes to look through their rust outside covered in snow I drove another 30 minutes south to Discount Steel in Minneapolis. I love a steel place with good prices ( .50 a lb on cut offs ) AND they keep their cut offs indoors. I manged to pickup 72 feet of square tubing and some nice round plates to use as a base. It was well worth the drive.

Unfortunately I have had to change my direction on the buggy. $$$$ is a HUGE deciding factor. As much as I fell in love with "Dirty Girl" which is currently being built ( there is a thread on it ) I just can't bring myself to spend the $$ on a good tube roller setup. I'm gonna make do with my bender. On the plus side I can go back to my Bend Tech Pro and use it to design the whole thing. Can't use that software if you use rolled tube. "Dirty Girl" is absolutely gorgeous ( except the GM motor.. YUCK ) but for the wheeling I do with my friends I need better visibility than a rock bouncer has, I need a 3rd seat ( baby about to show up anytime now ), and I need room for a cooler ( um.... beer? ).

As much as I would like to, I can't have everything

i'll put up pictures when I finish up the stand or "jig" which should be by next weekend.

Fear not, I am not one of those people that starts a build thread then disappears. Actually I am proud to announce the arrival of the soon to be first ever 1st place overall winner of King of Hammers. My "lil Goat" as we have been calling her since she eats like she has 6 stomachs. Born Friday, Jan 3rd at 3:04 a.m... If you ask my friends they will tell you she already drives better than I do.

Congratulations!!

I purchased Bendtech-Pro to design Naughty Finger and to be honest its a good program, the tutorials are a little lacking and when I set out to start designing I was lost. Where to begin? I entered my material and tools but when it came to using the program and actually designing it was frustrating to say the least. I did some research and found a website where fabricators share files. There were a couple chassis on there but none excited me.

After lots of fumbling around I finally figured it out. My design is not done but I did figure out how to do it. For those thinking about designing and building a buggy for the first time I am gonna help you out. In the next day or so I am going to create a kind of tutorial using software I have that enables me to record my screen and add narration.I am not a pro by any means but maybe seeing some of the challenges I am facing, how I use the program and all that crap will help others. I have seen some awesome build threads but never seen one that shows how they started from a computer created design. I will do multiple videos so I can break it up in parts.

The biggest and single most important thing I learned is find some rigs and measure everything! Everyone knows to measure the basics like wheelbase, length, cab with etc. But also measure things like engine length, tranny length, tcase length, distance from front of engine to tcase mount, engine height, rear sump distance from front of engine, engine width, tcase width, distance between front edge of seat and firewall, distance between seat and roof and the list goes on and on. It ends up being more math and dimensions than anything else.

I'l be checking out this build.