Partially Committed Racing #006 another trail buggy build

[slravenel]

Figured it was time to start another build thread – try to get some good old fashioned tech back onto the boards! This will be build #006 and will be built as a full turn key.

We finished #004 for Todd about a year ago, and he has been riding it for a while – has it really dialed in and can drive that thing up pretty much anything he points it at. We were really happy with how these chassis have been performing, and its really cool to see them do so well in the rough rocks.

For those that didnt catch the last build thread....Todd's is a (slightly bigger) clone of my personal buggy. In any case here is the completed #004 turn key build:

Just for reference, here is my personal buggy

and here is the other full turn key that was built at the same time as mine - it is very close to the same as mine...just a lighter weight version, pretty much:

Had another guy in our group approach us about a new build that will be a little different than the last 3, but still retain the key design features that (in my opinion) make these buggies work so well. When combined with some proper shock tuning, these chassis wake up even more and our experience with that lead us to make a few slight changes on the suspension on this one – mainly the trailing arm setup in the rear, and the extra 5+" of uptravel both front and rear. Other than that, the suspension geometry is the same as the other 3 and that should play out well. Anyway, on to the build!

Some basic info:

-57" wide chassis, 2" DOM tube with a mix of 1.75" and 1.5" as fillers. Combination of .120 wall and .250 wall in the high impact areas, as well as some 7075 aluminum slugging in the rockers and the trailing arms. Rear radiator setup on this one to shoehorn a massive 35"x19" CBR radiator in there, coolant flowing through the chassis rails.
-14 bolt axles front and rear
-43" SX stickies
-416ci LS powerplant Holley tuned
-TH400
-Atlas 3.0
-2.5" Radflo coilovers
-2.0" Radflo coil carriers, 2.5" Radflo bypasses, 2.0" Radflo air bumps
-room for a family sized cooler

We started laying out tube in a simple jig which was nice to use and let us get things moving along pretty quickly. We ended up with a base chassis in in 2 work days, which was a little faster than before.

Things started falling into place pretty quickly after that and parts started showing up. You can get an idea of radiator size compared to the 31"x15.5" that is a pretty popular trail buggy size radiator. The 35x19 is more in line with race car sized, but we didn't want to ever have to even consider cooling being an issue on this build.

 

[slravenel]

Built a simple plate style radiator mount, this will be captured and shrouded in from the top as well. Sway bar tube is incorporated into the radiator mount as well and from there, we filled in a majority of the main chassis support tubing.

We knew going in that we would be doing the rear of the chassis differently than the previous ones. We did this for 2 reasons… first being the obvious difference of the massive rear radiator taking up some real estate back there, but the 2nd , and probably more important reason being that we wanted to make sure that uptravel was maximized back here to really take advantage of the shock package. Too many folks build buggies and spend all this money on shock packages…and slap them on a setup that looks like they were designed using crayons and old newspaper. We are maximizing smooth travel numbers, keeping shock angles ideal through travel, and will work extensively on the tuning to make sure that this thing reaches full potential. The different rear section adds an additional 6" potential uptravel over the "trail buggy" version on the previous 3 buggies (4 chassis are built with the same design, and this 5th one will be the first using this rear setup.

 

[slravenel]

Then we got to the fun part! The biggest difference you will see on this build is the body. The owner wanted something different, and settled on the Fybr Concepts bronco body. They redesigned the normal bronco body and came up with a highline fender setup – we had some discussions with them and got the 2nd set coming out of the mold with the understanding that this was still somewhat of a prototype body and there may be some edits needed. They were needed laughing1 The doors needed to be completely changed to match the new body lines, and there is no tailgate…but that is OK, we will make our own there. Beyond that…they are nice heavy quality glass that should put up with some decent abuse.

First thing was to get the drivetrain in place to see what we were working with. And then start laying out the front end glass – which turned out to be a lot easier than we thought it was going to be!

Then we moved on and started to lay out the rear to get a feel for what needed to be trimmed up there. Couldn't help but to see what it would look like…should turn out looking NICE!

 

[slravenel]

Another big difference on this one compared to the others will be the exhaust setup – in order to get the most uptravel we possibly could up front combined with driveshaft angles and keeping the suspension geometry ideal through all of that travel, we decided to give ourselves a little extra room and remove the standard drop down and around exhaust setup from the equation. Over and back we go! These are obviously not done yet – There are some edits to the driver side header that we will make (original plan was to use stock style fuel rails, so we had to leave room for the side entry fuel line…but we moved to a flow through rear entry billet style rail, so I will make some changes to the driverside header and it will match the passenger side shaping a bit more) from there they will be cleaned up, TIG welded, jet coated, and then wrapped. Heat shielding will go between the headers and the intake, and the collectors will get V-band clamps on down to a true dual exit out the side/back of the belly like the others.

Moved on to get the back end laid out some more. Got the fuel cell mounted and in place, got the beer cooler rack mounted and in place. Started on the chassis supports back there, and once we get axles we will lay out the suspension on the buggy and get the rest of the supports all tied in with the shock mounts.

Then we jumped up to the front end to get the winch mount / sway bar tube laid out. Winch and steering/trans coolers will all be behind the grill like the rest of the buggies – this one will also have the minimalist front bumper look like the others, but will have a small push bar out front to keep the fiberglass all in line as this thing gets beat up and crashed. It looks a little strange at the moment, but its missing all of the rest of the supports and tie ins. It will all flow together when its done. There is a plan! ???? You can see where the coolant will come out here as well.

And that gets us up to how it currently sits – we will get started on the interior here next as we wait on axles to be finished and once those get in, we will make this thing a roller! We are pumped to get it on its legs and get into the real fun part of the build.

 

[417chevy]

You don't run into any problems running the exhaust over the fuel rails like that?


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[wizzo]

Looking damn good as usual. Can't wait to see it get down to the details and get to be a part of this build!

These chassis really work well. It's very impressive to see what they do!

 

[slravenel]

You don't run into any problems running the exhaust over the fuel rails like that?


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By the time they get coated, wrapped and heat shielded i wont be the slightest big concerned about them. they also arent quite as close as they look - there is enough room for a heat shield in there with a few inches on either side of it. the shield itself will also be coated, so between that and the air gap should have no issues whatsoever.

here is an idea of what the heat shield will look like

 

[slravenel]

Looking damn good as usual. Can't wait to see it get down to the details and get to be a part of this build!

These chassis really work well. It's very impressive to see what they do!

thanks man !!

 

[smbroady82]

drool

I need one of these in my life

 

[jmf]

Nice work. How much time do you have in the headers?

 

[cbrjeeper]

Subscribed

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[Bebop]

Stuff like this makes me want to burn mine down

Absolutely badass !

 

[slravenel]

Nice work. How much time do you have in the headers?

thanks guys

i have about 9 hours in them so far, but probably 2.5 hours of that was just figuring things out initially and messing around with the tough placement constraints on the DS. now that the biggest constraint is removed over there i will go back and remake the DS header mostly and it will follow the same-ish pattern as the PS one. i have about 3.5 hours in the PS header, and expect about the same in the "new" DS one.

then maybe an additional 3-4 hours to go in the final stages of them before they are finished completely

 

[P]

Man I love these chassis. Simple clean design tradition looks and badass packaging ! awesome job

 

[1TONTJ]

Lookin' good. I like that heat shield idea for the headers.

 

[slravenel]

test

 

[wayne86]

test

Sooo, any updates?

 

[slravenel]

Seems that I can finally post here again, maybe the new ownership is getting stuff fixed up

We are still chipping away at things - lots of stuff that takes tons of time but doesnt look like youve done anything, but its moving along.

We got the rear suspension laid out and put together and we are really excited about the 20+ inches of wheel travel it will have back there. About 8-9 of that being up.

We are using TMR parts for the rear links, and these things are beef. 2 5/8 .25" wall tubing stuffed with 7075 aluminum, true uniball with wobble stoppers at the chassis, and a 1.75" TMR heim at the axle

Got the double shear stuff knocked out already, and you can see here how it all will tuck up under the radiator. We will need to change the sway bar to come in from behind the axle, but that is OK. Plenty of room back there!

Then we slung the front underneath so we could get that placed. Should have about 8" uptravel up here and still have plenty of room. Doing the exhaust up and over has really opened all of that space up and made this go really smoothly

Now i need to clean the shop.....

 

[slravenel]

then we laid out the front shocks and got them where we wanted. the original plan was to leave the hood intact and not come through it with the shocks, but we wernt able to do that and not hinder the performance of the shocks, so holes are getting cut! after getting everything laid out though, it actually will look better that way and the hoops wont come too far through the hood, so it will be all good!

these obviously arent completed yet, they will continue on down below the fender tubes on down to the main rails both front and rear as well as some plating and gusseting to tie everything together. the CBR trans and steering coolers will also mount in here just about like a radiator would.

very soon this thing will be a roller and i can finally clean the floors

 

[kmcminn]

Looks good man.