Beginner buggy build

LeeVW · Samba Member Joined: June 14, 2006 Posts: 1016

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I now have belts like this in my Manx, and I will confirm what Buggy Brian said about them not staying very tight. I was able to deal with the ends by rolling them up and using zip ties, but the belts still loosen up after a while. If you can fit retractable ones in, by all means go that route.

Lee

GS guy · Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 6:50 pm Post subject:

I got retractable 3-point shoulder belts from:
https://www.seatbeltplanet.com/

Several styles to choose from, many colors, hardware and great customer service. After riding in a friends buggy with 4-point belts - which he only ended up using the lap belt portion 99% of the time, it seemed like a nice "car-like" retractable shoulder belt would work great. Easier to use, self tensioning and pulls itself out of the way when not in use. Spent a lot of time working on the mounting points for comfort during use. I've only mocked them up and installed the mounting points so far, but they should work great.
Jeff
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70's vintage Deserter GS buggy - undergoing transformation to Super GS!

ammocan · Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 8:46 pm Post subject:

Thanks everyone for the replies on seat belts. You all have validated my initial inclination to get lap and shoulder belts however you have swayed me to get the self adjusting retractable ones. These will no doubt keep my wife happy and I do like the idea of the convenience.
I have driven in cars with 5 point harnesses and you can forget trying to salvage your spilled drink on the floor or giving your crying kid in the back more cheerios. They are very safe and have a cool factor but there are many real world drawbacks.
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skill comes by the constant repetition of familiar feats, not by one over bold attempt at a feat for which the doer is yet poorly prepared

ammocan · Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2015 8:14 pm Post subject:

So I picked up some polaris RZR seats from the local classifieds which were only 10 min from my house and only $150 for the pair in great condition. Pretty excited about these because the ones I have sitting in the garage are hard plastic and I desperately wanted a padded weather resistant seat. Anyway great find just have to pillage the adjustable seat tracks from the crappy plastic seats and I'm in business.

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skill comes by the constant repetition of familiar feats, not by one over bold attempt at a feat for which the doer is yet poorly prepared

joescoolcustoms · Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2015 10:08 pm Post subject:

I put black/blue/white RZR seats in one of my buggy's I built in '13. Very comfortable, but do not mount them flat. They need tilted back at a slight angle.

Sit in the seat on a flat floor, legs out, and rock the seat back slowly until you "feel" to position. Have someone measure the height of the front of the seat and mount it on that angle.

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Bad News Racing 2018 NORRA 1000 3rd in Class
Best Day Ever Racing 2022 NORRA 1000 2nd in Class and first All Female team to complete the race

Everyone is gifted. Some just do not open the package.

Looks like it was painted with a live chicken,polished with a brick and buffed with a pine cone

heywebonya · Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 6:23 am Post subject:

Definitely go with retractable belts. I used a set from a Dodge Neon. I would suggest trying to get Hummer (HMMWV) belts from Ebay as a better option.

I had the "carnival ride" belts and did not think I would fair well when several hundred pounds of force acted on them during an accident.

Great seats.
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If I knew what I was doing; I wouldn't be building a buggy!

ammocan · Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 1:16 am Post subject:

heywebonya · Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 8:39 am Post subject:

Those are the belts I suggested. They are likely surplus.

Here is the Samba discussion on them

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=590005&highlight=humvee+seat+belt
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If I knew what I was doing; I wouldn't be building a buggy!

ammocan · Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2015 6:11 pm Post subject:

So I did about 3 hrs in the garage and welded a plate to fill the gap just above the vin created by my rear frame support.

I also worked on my bat wing which is not going as I had hoped. The lower section of the tunnel above the bat wing section is the place I had some rust issues. I thought I had a good idea to fix it and it is not turning out but I do have a solid idea to get a nice finished product. It has been extremely frustrating and took way too much time but I will go over it once I get them done.
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skill comes by the constant repetition of familiar feats, not by one over bold attempt at a feat for which the doer is yet poorly prepared

ammocan · Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2015 6:32 pm Post subject:

So just an update on cost. I spent about $350 on supplies this week including more welding rod, chassis paint, 24' of 1 1/2" tube steel, wire brushes, fiberglass repair supplies, hurculiner bed liner kit, hardware for mounting body and seat belts. This brings my totL cost so far to a little over 5,200. I hate to keep reminding myself of the cost but I want this to be an accurate reflection of time and cost for those wanting to do a build.

I bought the Humvee (hmmvw) seat belts as per HEYWEBONYA's recommendation and thanks a lot for that. Any regular retractable seat belt would have cost me $65 each but the hmmvw retractable seat belts cost me $65 for a set of 4. I only need 2 but i know someone who is also looking for some belts. The hurculiner was a spur of the moment thing. I walked into Ace hardware on a day they were doing 20% off store wide and saw the hurculiner kit for $75 so I got a Gallon kit for $60.

So this week I am very excited because I have the whole week off work and I have permission from the misses to do 5 days in the garage after I get a small honey do list completed. Im hoping to complete the chassis this week and start putting it together so i should hit some good milestones this week.
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skill comes by the constant repetition of familiar feats, not by one over bold attempt at a feat for which the doer is yet poorly prepared

jspbtown · Samba Member Joined: January 27, 2004 Posts: 5157

How will you attach the shift coupler with no access?

ammocan · Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2015 11:58 pm Post subject:

I figured I would get asked. Check out the pictures. I did a little unorthodox rear frame support and decided to change up the access. The access hole is basically in the same location but closed off in the front. The fiberglass will match the frame and have the same access cut out with a small cover. The raised platform you see just behind the rear frame support actually gives me a much larger opening to access from the rear and it is going to get a bolt on cover with openings for the shifter and all the tubes same as stock to fit the stock dust seals.

I mentioned this briefly a few pages back and asked for feedback and no one said much about it. If there are concerns or an issue anyone can see I would love to hear it before its permanent.
_________________
skill comes by the constant repetition of familiar feats, not by one over bold attempt at a feat for which the doer is yet poorly prepared

t3sters · Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2015 12:43 am Post subject:

Where do you mount the top part of the retractable seatbelt? on the Rollbar? Im now considering buying them also! look like a great idea.

joescoolcustoms · Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2015 1:27 am Post subject:

Only draw back I can see, is if you have to change the shift rod coupler, you will not be able to get to it once the body is on. But, put a new one in, (not the Red Urethane crap piece) and you will not need to touch it for another 20 years.

If you are going to use one of the adjustable shift rod ends, it is going to be very hard to adjust it to length and radial twist.

Your work looks good.
_________________
Bad News Racing 2018 NORRA 1000 3rd in Class
Best Day Ever Racing 2022 NORRA 1000 2nd in Class and first All Female team to complete the race

Everyone is gifted. Some just do not open the package.

Looks like it was painted with a live chicken,polished with a brick and buffed with a pine cone

joescoolcustoms · Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2015 1:33 am Post subject:

t3sters · Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2015 1:46 am Post subject:

Good deal! thanks

ammocan · Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 10:22 pm Post subject:

so I finally got wise and made a rotisserie for the front end. before I was just picking up the front and rotating it by hand and setting it back on the horse. this became painful as I progressively added steel. this works pretty good however it does not have the rotating locks like I believe engine stands do. this was easy to make. only took me 45 min to do and just used some scrap 2" tubing to make it and some other scraps.
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skill comes by the constant repetition of familiar feats, not by one over bold attempt at a feat for which the doer is yet poorly prepared

ammocan · Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 10:43 pm Post subject:

ok so here is the deal with the b at wing problem. a long time ago I mentioned that I found some rust through in the frame head just above the bat wing and when I went to run a weld bead along the lower seam of the frame head to attach a plate for the bat wing I Kept burning through the wall of the frame head and it kept getting worse. I tried to weld a piece for small flat iron to it but i found it went up higher and it gut UGLY! Brick wall

I ended up finding a bad spot in the frame head that was about 3" long and went as high as and inch above the seam. you can see my original picture below of the rust I found and It got much worse!

so I ended up welding what i could to the remaining good metal and ran a fat weld bead to attach the new bat wing plate but when I was done it was strong but ugly and I had to address the hole from the rust so what I did was bend a piece of 3/4" angle iron to fit against the frame head and bat wing and welded it on top and bottom. this did not fix all of it but it covered a lot of sins. I then bent a piece of flat stock to fit against the frame head and welded it above the angle iron top and bottom which got me well above the bad metal and a lot (probably excessive) of reinforcement. so below you can see what i started with on the other side and the end result.

it turned out looking pretty decent especially since its almost never seen but I'm confident its a long term fix and should outlive me now.
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skill comes by the constant repetition of familiar feats, not by one over bold attempt at a feat for which the doer is yet poorly prepared

ammocan · Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 11:10 pm Post subject:

other than the issue with the frame head rust the bat wing turned out good. i welded the plate on at a slight angle towards the outside of the frame where I left a drain hole so it wouldn't collect water dirt and sand.

I also got rid of the heat control knob which turned out good. you all know what the before picture looks like

I then moved on to the floor pans. I got poster board and cut out 2 pieces to make my template.

then tracing the template, plasma cutting the steel, cleaning the edges with a grinder and tack welding it in place only took 30 to 40 minutes

like I have said before, the plasma cutter is the best investment EVER! well ok I guess I have to rate the welder pretty high up there too Very Happy

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skill comes by the constant repetition of familiar feats, not by one over bold attempt at a feat for which the doer is yet poorly prepared

ammocan · Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2015 12:46 am Post subject:


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