Jimmy's build along buggy thread

[bgredjeep]

Today I got the transmission ready for the buggy. I picked up the top shaft from vanquish instead of trying to modify the stock shaft. I pulled the trans from my Phoenix. I got that during trucks of Freedom so it's fully built, machined gears. I added the lightweight front gear while I had it open.

Once I'm able to get back to the shop so we can get the welding finished it should start coming together. I started printing some of the interior parts just to see how they would come out. The bambu and the pla cf do not disappoint. In person you can hardly even see layer lines (not nearly as much as you can in the picture).

 

[01tj]

Looking good Carey. Just incase you didn't realize it there is another 1 piece dash/interior in the package that has more room for moutning electronics.

 

[bgredjeep]

Still slacking on getting any progress to these but its still in my mind. Planning to run a set of vp shocks I have, and thinking about using mini-t springs so I drew up these spring cups last night.

 

[bgredjeep]

Finally got some work done on the chassis. When we left off Cole had tacked the skid mounts on each chassis, but the fixture melted a bit and the mount ended up crooked. I tried to pull it straight and broke the tacks.

To address the heat issue I made some aluminum stand-offs the width of the skid so Cole could just do a light tack in the fixture, then remove it and bolt in the aluminum spacers to hold the mount for welding. This worked great and now the first chassis is ready to fit the trans and axles. I'm going to get these installed before adding shock mounts to make sure i get the height right.

And in big buggy news, my new front axle is almost complete.

 

[bgredjeep]

This has been a long time coming. Still loads of work to do, but seeing the buggy on axles is a nice boost to stay motivated on this build. These pics look pretty close to my planned ride height.

For now I'm using the vrd axles, no rear steer. Not running rear steer meant the upper link interferes with the motor so I needed to bend the link a good bit for clearance. This pic shows the extra compression the bent link allows. I need to swap the servo mount to the bta mount and the front will come down a lot as well.

 

[Ruff11]

So cool! I need to get a 3d printer

 

[bgredjeep]

Big progress this weekend. We got shock mounts on my chassis Saturday and I went ahead and basically fully assembled the buggy, less all the panels. I went off script again with the rear shock mounts. The design in the build package had the rear shocks much lower than i wanted them. I used the very front dock mount tab as a template and cut 4 tabs to use as the rear mounts. This put the ride height right where I wanted it.

I made an update to the dash panel to mount the fusion switch into the dash. These pictures show the buggy assembled, running, and driving. All shift linkages are done and working properly. All that's left to finish on the chassis is welding the panel mounts, and paint. From there I've got a bit more printing (grill etc) and it'll be on to final assembly and crawling.

 

[Saltrock]

Great looking welds, really sweet chassis and the rest of the build is pretty sweet too.

 

[JatoTheRipper]

Nice work! That's awesome. I bow to your fab skills.

 

[bgredjeep]

Nice work! That's awesome. I bow to your fab skills.

I'm just doing the fab equivalent of paint by numbers. Josh did all the hard work so I can bend and fit tubes together. My buddy is doing all the welding (tig brazing). I was gonna just mig it. Lol

 

[bgredjeep]

I've been tweaking the design on some of the printed parts, and designing a few new ones for myself. I tuned down the shift servo mount a bit more to allow for a much space as possible for a battery. Still probably going to be limited to about 1000mah, but hoping i can squeeze a little more in there. Just in case, i also made a quick release hood mount that I'll use instead of the weld on mount that is part of the kit.

Also Cole put his wraith parts onto his chassis and it did not fit well. I drew up a quick link riser for the chassis side upper mounts that should be closer to the wraith geometry and clear properly. I'll also design a bta servo mount for his axle to get the servo lower on his rig. I'll probably bring his bone tomorrow so I can do some work on those items.

Link riser

This should be the final shift servo mount

And a quick video of the hood mount. The aluminum hood that's part of the kit will bolt to this frame.

https://imgur.com/cdNF4fu

 

[Gula]

Beautiful!

 

[bgredjeep]

Yesterday I went to Cole's place to try and sort out his suspension. He's using parts from an old wraith for the axles and links, so far from what the chassis was designed for. I want to work through all the issues and make sure both cars are 100% good to go before finishing the welding and paint.

My first attempt (guess) at link risers didn't work out, but proved i was on the right track. I brought Cole's car home with me and drew up a fresh skid plate and new link risers to test. I also drew a bta servo mount since the chassis was sitting on the servo. The bta mount required new upper links which i was able to make with parts I had on hand.

Once i had the link risers and bta (3d Printed) parts tested and confirmed they were good I made them from 6061 aluminum. I was going to order from send cut send, but I didn't have enough parts to make the order minimum so I just made them myself.

I don't love the portal setup on these axles, but that's what he has. Depending on how it sets up in the end we might change it back to straight but not there yet.

Here's shots of the progress. First are the parts I designed to make the wraith stuff work

Quick mod on the dash to fit around the 3 gear.

Test fit a 550 to see if the fusion se will fit. I'll probably need to trim a small amount of the plate on the b pillar. This fits but I don't think the fusion will (literally 1mm longer)

Aluminum parts installed

Current width on this car as narrow as I can possibly get it on the portals is 11.5". Cole ordered some carbon wheels that might bring it in a few more mm.

I threw some wheels on for a side shot to see how the suspension sits at bump (lowest possible)

 

[bgredjeep]

Side note, my hood mount worked out great.

 

[01tj]

I think I have some old stainless Wraith links if you guys would rather use those than the red ones.

 

[bgredjeep]

I think I have some old stainless Wraith links if you guys would rather use those than the red ones.

I'm down for that. I think Cole might like the red. Lol.

 

[bgredjeep]

I think I have some old stainless Wraith links if you guys would rather use those than the red ones.

On second thought, I might need those links. I'm looking at trying to use the intended rear motor mount with the 3-gear if I can get the trans mounted properly to line it up.

 

[01tj]

On second thought, I might need those links. I'm looking at trying to use the intended rear motor mount with the 3-gear if I can get the trans mounted properly to line it up.

Let me dig them out and I’ll send you a message on FB.

 

[bgredjeep]

Well, someone in the fb group was asking me about the fusion install in the Jimmy's, and asked if I was covering the motor. I wasn't, but the seed had been planted and I had to do a sloppy edit on the motor files to see if it would be possible. Here's the first version, very quick edit.

Seeing that it could be possible, I put in some time to tighten up the dimensions, fill in gaps that my butchery was causing, and try to make it actually look decent. I also needed to carve out some clearance for the driveshaft since I'm not running rear steer for now, and I added several vents in the cover to hopefully avoid heating up the motor. For now i printed in pla, but I'll probably do the main body in petg once it's all nailed down to handle whatever heat the motor puts off.

Added a shroud to conceal the wires

With all that coming together, last night i printed the rest of the motor parts I'll planning to use (intake, exhaust, and turbo) and got those bolts on this morning.

Now i just need to rework the trans mount for the 3 gear buggy (already in the works) so we can use the rear motor mount because this came out sweet.

 

[Gula]

Are you not concerned with motor temps? Or are you adding a fan? I'm Fusion, Pro illiterate, (the esc's) although I just picked up the 2300kv flavor for me H10 an hour ago. I haven't ran any of mine yet. Also own the 1200kv, as it was bought on a aliexpress sale for cheap, but it's sitting.