Throwing in the towel - my MarsFab buggy build

Some of you may have seen my build thread on the Sami buggy I've been building for over 3 years. Well, I threw in the towel and gave up on it.

The build made good progress when it was at my buddy's shop getting the chassis built and into a roller. Once I got it back home, the snail's pace started. I gained, lost, gained and lost motivation as time went on. I'm a decent mechanic but I'm not a fabricator. I spent hours/days to make minutes worth of progress.

After years of not wheeling, I honestly got fed up and was over the build process. Offered to pay a couple buddies to finish it for me but they didn't have the free time due to work/family commitments. So I reached out to Chris at MarsFab and spent a few hours at his shop discussing what I wanted.

I stripped down my Sami buggy and took Chris a large trailer load of parts so he could get started. The plan is for him to build it out to a fully plumbed roller. I'll bring it home and tear it down for paint then reassemble it. Still undecided on the wiring, may try to get a few buddies together for a weekend or may just take it back to Chris.

Here is the Sami buggy torn down. I reused alot of the parts from this in the new build. The Sami chassis went to a guy in Indiana.

So after I dropped off the first load of parts, Chris got started.

These pics are where we are now. Chris just finished the front link mounts, ram mount and front shock mounts.

I like it

man it looks great!!!!!! Love the upper link mounts on the chassis! So can you re-cap what parts are going in this?


Edit: Are the lower link mounts on the chassis and the skid plate one pc? Hard to tell from the pictures. All I can see for sure is that there is a plate sitting under the chassis. REALLY liking his work....as always great job.

Suzuki 2.0 with 4-speed auto, Suzuki to Toyota t-case doubler. Trail Gear Tacoma width front axle, IFS width Toyota rear axle, 4.88 gears, Sway-Away air shocks, 39.5 sticky Iroks on KMC beadlocks.

Yeah, he built the lower link mounts into the 1/4" plate belly. The belly plate is part of the chassis and isn't removable.

Chris does great work and it's turning out even better than I thought it would.

Looks awesome! What's the plans for skins/body?

Chris will be doing the skins, roof, dash and floor out of aluminum.

untchabl said:

Chris will be doing the skins, roof, dash and floor out of aluminum.

Click to expand...

Drooling already just reading that since he's known for his tin work (among other good things too).

Loving this! I'd love to have a simple buggy like that!

any updates? I now come here daily looking for updates on this build.

Chris was on vacation last week but is back on it this week. Waiting for more tube to come in to finish the rear of the chassis, it should show up in the next day or two.

Chris got back to work on it this week. Working on stuffing 10lbs of stuff in a 5lbs box with the fuel cell, toolbox, cooler and some extra storage space all in the rear.

Fuel cell mounted. It will have a remote fill out the driver side between the B and C pillars.

Toolbox and cooler are mounted. Will have extra storage space on the driver side of the cooler and in the open space in the rear.

Also got the mounting tube in the chassis for the TK1 swaybar.

Looking good. What size is that fuel cell?

When I built my cooler mount I also built a Jerry can holder to attach to it. Just a thought in case you like some of the bigger parks like windrock