my 1st pipe car build
Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2016 5:00 pm
Howdie all
Thought I would post my build, let me know what you think any input would be great.
I started with this old rust bucket which was donated to me from a client
The bus was pretty far gone, rust holes in everything no interior, not running. was contemplating trying to restore it, but then I remembered I have no patience.
so we stripped out everything we thought we would we need, cut out the front and back suspension
Next was the piecing it together, we had a technical drawing, which was drawn with crayons so ill rather not post it.
took a bit of beer and we finally started welding
started on the frame, we used a 48.5 x 33mm mild steel tube, went pretty thick, was looking for strength as planned to be able to jump and roll the car every other day, took a while to square up, luckily I have a big welding table and was able to make a plan, so its pretty close to square.
couldn't really decide on what wheel base to go with, decided to go small 1,73m, just in case we wanted to drive it in competitions.
I had a spare set of 31" muds laying around(actually winter tyres for my jeep), we put those on and realised that the jeep has a 114PCD and the Vw a 112, so seen as we had no plans to drive the car on the road, I figure it should be ok, would have preferred the correct pcd with a great offset, but ya...
Next was time to find the seating position.
we also tied a stinger into the sub-frame, hopefully will keep us from front flipping when doing steep declines, or help with high steps.
we moved the seating position above the rear suspension torsion bars, we did this to keep most of the weight to the rear of the car, after all, cars that wheelie are just cooler(and yes it does), so after some trial and error and a very large scrap metal pile we started making progress.
took a lot of attention to the side cage, afterall that would keep us safe when we roll down a dune sideways.
from there it was time to mok up the roof cage and add some bracing, decided on 32 and 42mm x 2mm for bracing.
Then finally a complete rolling chassis, wooohooo!!
left out a lot of steps, brakes, steering suspensions tweaking etc, but will add and edit when I get a change again...
Thought I would post my build, let me know what you think any input would be great.
I started with this old rust bucket which was donated to me from a client
The bus was pretty far gone, rust holes in everything no interior, not running. was contemplating trying to restore it, but then I remembered I have no patience.
so we stripped out everything we thought we would we need, cut out the front and back suspension
Next was the piecing it together, we had a technical drawing, which was drawn with crayons so ill rather not post it.
took a bit of beer and we finally started welding
started on the frame, we used a 48.5 x 33mm mild steel tube, went pretty thick, was looking for strength as planned to be able to jump and roll the car every other day, took a while to square up, luckily I have a big welding table and was able to make a plan, so its pretty close to square.
couldn't really decide on what wheel base to go with, decided to go small 1,73m, just in case we wanted to drive it in competitions.
I had a spare set of 31" muds laying around(actually winter tyres for my jeep), we put those on and realised that the jeep has a 114PCD and the Vw a 112, so seen as we had no plans to drive the car on the road, I figure it should be ok, would have preferred the correct pcd with a great offset, but ya...
Next was time to find the seating position.
we also tied a stinger into the sub-frame, hopefully will keep us from front flipping when doing steep declines, or help with high steps.
we moved the seating position above the rear suspension torsion bars, we did this to keep most of the weight to the rear of the car, after all, cars that wheelie are just cooler(and yes it does), so after some trial and error and a very large scrap metal pile we started making progress.
took a lot of attention to the side cage, afterall that would keep us safe when we roll down a dune sideways.
from there it was time to mok up the roof cage and add some bracing, decided on 32 and 42mm x 2mm for bracing.
Then finally a complete rolling chassis, wooohooo!!
left out a lot of steps, brakes, steering suspensions tweaking etc, but will add and edit when I get a change again...