A little off topic, sand car fab pics.

[Sam]

I have been working on this thing for a while now, got it rolling last weekend, hope to get it where I can weigh it this weekend.
 Some of the pics are pretty bad.

Started with my old rail



Then I cut it in half and added 2 inches so my big @$$ wouldn't be so smashed in!




Next came A-arm front supension and torsionless rear




Custom trailing arms to use with 68=73 bus axles






Top hang trans mounts to save weight. They are assisted by a secondary bottom mount.

[Sam]

My old rail like my avatar weighed in at 1150 with 3 gal of fuel in it and some sand in the seats.  My max goal was to loose 100lb but realistically I would be very happy not gaining anyweight

Its going to be pretty bare bones striped down.

To loose weight I:
#1 ditched that heavy old torsion housing
#2 some of the tubes in the buggey were thick wall pipe, replaced with tubing, rear skid plate weighed 60lb alone, built new one that wieghs 20#
#3 swaped out heavy expanded metal floor for thin aluminum
#4 went with a single center tube like most the newer buggys are doing
#5 sold all my gauges except oil temp (didn;t ever look at them anyway!)
#6 sold 10 gal fuel tank and bought 3.5 gallon(I didn;t have room anyway)

I added some weight that wasn't there before, but increased safety where I did add. The roll bar is now .120 wall instead of .095, the tube that the trans hangs from is also .120 wall as well as the torsion replacement.

Hope to see this weekend where I'm at on weight. Hopefully I will be at the dunes in a few weeks sticking it to the V8 cars.  As it is pioctured in the last 2 pics I can pick up the rear still pretty easy, and the front of course, I'm guessing #600 or less, so I may come in under 1000lb!!!

[martin]

Careful with the floor being too light. If it lands on something hard it could injure your legs. I guess in the dunes, that's unlikely.

[Sam]

Got the rail ready to go test! I drove it around some in my neighbors empty lot. 
I can tell that the shock valving is too soft in the rear, the thing torques like a semi truck under power. Will take it out to the dunes this weekend.

I can hit a curb at 30-40 MPH and not even know i went over it.  I have some old tires on it for the street not my paddles!