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muddysub's JHF buggy

Done messing with leaf springs and bodies, time to commit.
Overview Gallery Discussion
Ok, let’s get back to it! It’s been three months, I’ve built a deck, fixed a leaky roof, painted, fixed broken floor joists and cut down more trees than I can remember. The shop is done, I’m stuck home with covid this week and the buggy needs some love.

I’ve been out there once, gotten a couple small things done like hood trimming and mounting. I shattered a 4x8’ sheet of plastic meant for side panels, turns out I bought acrylic instead of polycarbonate. Even if it hadn’t broken while cutting it, would have broken the first time I bashed it into a rock. I’ll go ahead and weld on all the tabs and get a new sheet of the right stuff maybe later this week. I still need to mount the coolant overflow tank too, which I have a question about. Does the overflow have to be mounted higher than the radiator if the radiator cap is already the highest point in the system? With the capacity of my cooling system (10gal or so) I need a fairly large overflow, mounting it up high won’t look very good, I’d like to mount it down low if I can.

How about some shop photos to show what I’m working with these days?

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Ok, literally nobody asked for it so here it is... a buggy update.

Since September 2022, I fully assembled the buggy with wiring and plumbing. Then I tore it down completely to finish weld a few things and have the chassis sandblasted. After blasting my neighbors helped me carry it back inside and I threw 25 cans of grey Steelit paint on it. Once the paint was fully dry it was time to assemble for the last time. What a time consuming process... Everything bolted in pretty easily for the most part, the engine mounts spread a little during welding so those had to be adjusted some. Otherwise the big parts fell right into place. The Holley Terminator system made wiring and firing the engine super easy, A swithc-pros system serves as a chassis harness and all the plumbing on the car is Fragola AN, which has yet to leak a single drop. Many long days/nights in the shop later, on 2/8/23 I turned the battery switch and ignition on for the first time, on 2/12/23 I started the engine for the first time and i drove it under its own power for the first time on 7/5/23. Last summer was a tough one, work was busy, we lost our older dog in June and had some water damage in our house later that same month. When I first got the engine running I found a problem with the transmission, 1st & reverse were locking up due to a faulty valve body. (Hughes HP2211R) So the buggy's first drive was just around my property in 2nd gear and right onto the trailer to get the transmission fixed. One expensive billet valve body later, we were rolling! I wrapped up the body panels, skid plates and a few odds & ends and by September 2023 it was ready to hit the rocks, finally.
The first time out for it was a good one, private land a couple hours north of me with a bunch of other buggies. A crowd gathered as I unstrapped and unloaded the car, everyone knew me and what I was building so that was fun. everyone "oohed and awed" at the virgin buggy, not a scratch on it. It performed great that day and climbed everything I had the guts to try. A couple weeks later I took it to Iron Range OHV park in GIlbert MN for an event called Rockrash. That was a really good time, I drove some technical courses and made some new buggy friends. I melted a throttle cable that day and drove most of the day with a boot lace tied to the throttle body and pedal, which kept things interesting. By this time I had figured out some of the new car blues that needed to be addressed, I replaced the throttle cable and insulated it better, installed a new winch solenoid and threw a baffle into the exhaust to tone it down a bit.
In November 2023, my wife and I set out on a road trip, we dragged the buggy from MN to Las Vegas, NV to see my family for Thanksgiving. We wheeled Sand hollow along the way and melted another throttle cable. So once we got to Vegas I bought a new one and re-routed it altogether to avoid future failures. I spent Thanksgiving weekend wheeling Johnson Valley, eating up every obstacle I tried. I didn't get a chance at backdoor though, I got sick part way through the weekend and that place was a mad house every time i had the energy to try it so I steered clear. Next time. After JV, I spent another week in Vegas with family and wheeled Logandale trails with my parents. That was super cool, my mom loved riding in it. Overall the buggy kicked ass, I found a few more things that needed to be addressed but that's how it goes.
Since I got home from that trip, the car has been parked and partially disassembled, prepping for the 2024 wheeling season. New coil springs, a new fuel pump, some tuning adjustments, a lot of cleaning and paint touch ups are happening before April or May this year when it makes its first wheeling trip. Overall, I'm thrilled with this thing, it looks cool, sounds cool, goes pretty much anywhere and its comfortable.

stay tuned for photos
 
 
Desert_K5 said:
All bad ass pics but the high speed one on the lake bed is the business! Awesome ride!
Click to expand...

That was so much fun! My brother's girlfriend is a photographer, they go shoot roller photos of cars all the time on that lakebed and when the opportunity came up I had to jump at it. Everyone rode in it with me, we had a campfire and made smores. good times.
 
Well, it’s been 7 months or so, how about a quick update?

I’ve taken the buggy out wheeling a few times this summer. I’ve done some muddy rock bouncer stuff with it and some nice technical crawling, haven’t ventured far from home though. Back in may I was lucky enough to meet John Herrick of CRAWL magazine up in northern MN. Him and his buddies took a liking to my car and it ended up in the current issue of the magazine. I have to say, I’m pretty proud of this, I’ve been reading Crawl for 15 years or so and it means a lot to see something I built in it.
I took it to a car show a couple weeks ago, it was well received and I had a good time.
Currently, the front axle is partially disassembled while I wait for new ball joint eliminator bushings. Today I wrapped up installing a new muffler and next week I’ll have a new throttle body to install. The eBay/amazon/china throttle body on it now makes a terrible whistling noise even after porting the IAC passage and trying to tune it out. Trying to quiet this thing down both front and rear.

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