Here Comes the MARK V

Been rebuilding the bug since this last weekend. Bent the side rails, made a new clamp box with 2 flip latches, and removed the axle clamps from the old frame and attached to the new. Sorry the pictures are rather junky - were taken with my IPhone instead of a real digital camera - my old camera got sand from the beach in it and was never the same afterwards.







I should be getting the seat material tomorrow - so part of the weekend should be spent sewing - we'll see.

Cool

Definitely will be cautious about these latches. The loops are about 1/8" thick bent rod - not of the highest quality. This is really a test of an idea that I had a little while back - so far they are working, mind you they haven't been given a proper shake down, but I'm also not nearly done. I plan on replacing them with some custom beefed up versions of my own making - I'm just focusing all my attention on getting the rig together. They are right on the surface of the clamp so they can be easily removed. Just looked at the photographs up top again and realized that they really don't do the latches justice - here are some design specs.

The wall thickness for the plates coming in contact with the side rails is a 1/4" the top and bottom plates are 1/8" thick





They are pretty tight when coming together so there is no slop in any directional movement when the latch is engaged.

Not stainless - 1 1/4" mild steel with a 3/16" wall thickness. Was $38 for 20' - stainless was quoted to me for $12.50 a linear foot. That would have been roughly $250 for the full 20' or $125 just for the frame. I opted for the $19 steel.

The forks are from the old lazy boy, which used 1 5/8" bearing housings with proper rubber seals. These are solid nearly bombproof bearings that I picked up from VXB bearings.

The side rails are heavily tack welded to the axle clamps for the time being - I will finish those welds tonight and post the picks. I haven't been able to do any stress test because of this - I did lean on it a few times and she's got a pretty hefty feel to her already.

Here's some earlier shots of the flip latch - I had welded on part of one of the latches to reinforce it - subsequent to the photo it has been cleaned up.

Very nice. Heading for the steel yard today for my 2nd. Might even get a go on the venom tomorrow, too.

Here's what I got done today - finished welding both the rear axle clamps to the frame, and finished welded the headtube clamp to the frame.

Axle clamps tacked -



Welded -



Cleaned up -



The Down tube clamp welded and partially cleaned up - I was getting tired -



And some of the frame all together - I did a stress test - ready for dropping off a roof -



And here's a shot of the seat fabric I got today - 330 Denier Supplex Cordura - waterproof, durable, and kick ass matt black -

I am curious about all this filling with sand and air etc, are you guys just bending without and kind of machine, yes I have done that sort of thing before when I have had to bend a copper tube, I was making a coil for a heat treatment machine, but thats the only time, I am not using anything hi tech in my garage just a portable hand hydraulic bender, I have never had any problem with kinking sched 10 and certainly not sched 40 tube.

I use one of these, it was dead cheap brand new




One thing I used to get though and have sorted that problem out was, I slight indent on the back of the bend where the tube had been forced against the two black stays. I got around that by finding some offcut pieces of tube the next size up from what I was bending, cut pieces about 100-150mm long, and then cut the tube in half length ways, until you have two half pieces of tube...clean them up .

Now you have two formers to place between your tube and the black stays, and guess what....no more dints in the tube.

Quote:

Originally posted by flexiblade

I reckon you shouldn't leave your smuggled diamonds lying on your stealthy black cloth before taking pics but that's just me

Nice work

sand works for copper, that is the only material that needs it.If you are kinking the pipe you are not using the bender properly. Air will not work as it can compress. All benders will distort the pipe some ,unless you use one of those newfangled cpu controlled compression roller bender. But they are thousands of dollars, but ya get what ya pay for.
Roc, that sounds like a tubing bender you are using, it is for conduit and copper plumbing

FB, I see you have been busy. Me too, I just about got my stainless bug finished. ( will post pics later)
Back off of the amps! Your weld is burnt,that means carbide precipitate is in your crystalline structure. NOT GOOD,A proper stainless weld wil be a goldish/ reddish color w/ some bright blue is ok( will go get a pic) , but when it gets that dark dull look is is burnt and what we call "crystalized". Stainless takes way low heat and as it gets hotter you have to turn down the heat some more. Never let the parent metal get over 400'F degrees ,at that temp the carbide thing starts to happen. Remember LOW AND SLOW. Sorry for the criticism, but it will make you better.
I had to do the same thing to my dies cause they were scarring up the pipe.It is not the best bender but w/ a little patience it can get r done.
heliboy, fill w/ sand and tamp it good. The idea is to make the pipe semi-solid, so it will bend but not get so out of round. Don't even waste your time w/ compressed air. Besides the obvious danger , it won't work.

You could always get one of these. Lovely machine.

Very nice. But if I had the money to RENT one of those mechines I could buy a buggy!! Don't get me wrong. I enjoy building things. But I primarily built my buggy from scaps I had in the yard because I didn't have the expendible funds to buy one.
But I could have some fun with those tools. And a better welder like a tig would be sweet!

OK - so I've been a tad busy - first I want to say I am not a seamstress and that trying to make my seat may have been a mistake. How much were your seats from buggybags Popeye? I'm sure they were much more reasonable than the horrible time that I've had. Here's some pics of what I've been up to. -

Started the seat with the customary stiff craft paper model - this worked well letting me do small adjustments to design in a safe way, that and its just paper and tape.



Next used my paper patterns to make the cutouts of my seat material. This was actually 3 pieces with the side panels sewn on to maximize my material - minimizing waste.



Then I laid out the reinforcement material, in this case seatbelt strapping, and sewed them onto the seat material. Immediately following the straps were the female clips which are just looped strapping sewn into the reinforcing material.



At this point I started laying out the foam pads, which are a rubberized foam - nice and soft with some girth to them to help really pad out the seat.



This is were I ran into a problem - trying to sew the surface of the seat (the second cutout of the original patterns with the foam sandwiched in between) became a real hassle - I am going to try some tests at work tomorrow with some industrial silicone - bonding the pad to the fabric with the reinforcements and then siliconeing the surface pieces of fabric to the foam and the other half of the seat material. I then just need to work on binding the seat rest to the side panels and finish it off with a boarder sewn with strapping. Hope this works.

Here's the frame so far with some personal adaptations for compacting a race buggy into something that can fit into my Honda accord trunk. And yes Weldingod - I burned my welds again - am just not that patient a welder - I did turn down the amperage (110) but held the weld for too long trying to minimize work time. When it comes down to it though this thing does not take the pressures and strains of say a car frame - so any crystalizing deformation that may occur from my burned welds has not really compromised the strength of the structure - I was literally jumping up and down on the down tube clamp and the frame and all are solid.

Here is the back rest bent and then welded in place.



The next step was a little tricky to do at this stage. I cut the frame with a chop saw right behind the seat, taking off the the 2 parts of the frame going down to the axle clamps. I then used 1' pieces of 1/8" walled pipe that sleeves perfectly into the frame tube. Drilled a hole on the seat side of the frame to be able to permanently attach the sleeves by welding the sleeve onto the frame through the hole.



I then drilled a hole through both the frame and the sleeve near the end of the sleeve heading down towards the axle clamp. Into the hole in the sleeve a put a bolt with a nut on the interior - I then welded the nut in place and backed out the bolt completely. Now I can take the whole back end of the buggy off with only having to remove 2 bolts instead of the 4 from the last buggy. The bolts are much easier to access than the mark IV design.







The Axle comes apart in a similar manner with a sleeve and a bolt. So to set it up I start with first putting the axle halves together and tightening the sleeve nut. The axle clamps from the frame will stay clamped onto the axle at all times unless I need to do some maintenance to them. I then slide the frame sleeves into the axle clamp ends and tighten the 2 sleeve nuts. The front end then slides into its clamp, which I will probably be changing to a 2 bolt clamp with the bolts on the underside of the clamp, the Flip latches did end up loosening up and moving while in a locked position - oh well later on a will have to make some heavy duty ones. For right now I just want to get this thing done.

So the silicone was a bust - nothing stuck. I put everything together even with the foam pads and I really didn't find it very comfy, until I put the original "Lay-Z-boy" foam seat into the new seat. Was amazingly more comfortable. So, I'm going to core out a bit of the foam from the original seat and use it right on top of the seat that I made - I will add the second layer of cordura that I already have cut out on top of the webbing. It may not look like the classic "race buggy" in the end but I'm in this for a smooth comfortable ride. I did get a little bit done today though - it helps outline what I was doing with the split frame and axle.





That is a primer brown, but I kinda like it, we'll see if it makes it into the final version. I didn't get photos but I have all the side rail foam cut and taped on - just need to make side rail covers.

Here she is with wheels on - Screwy, I got a hold of a guy that works at the golf course across the street, he's going to be hooking me up with some rims, thanks for the advice.

OH thank the gods we got that figured out. I was realy getting worried we might have an uprising.
Now lets figure out how to get the federal budget strieghtened out!!

I think I'm really confused - it was 1 3/4" with a tape measure measuring the outside of the pipe. All in all it's a big pipe.

Well I got the clamp redone today - I have forgone the flip latch (may make an appearance in the future, but not today) in lue of a 2 bolt clamp.





OOOOOh! And it's all silvery and shiny!

Seriously though it's a beast, clamps real nice and tight with easy access compared to the four bolt setup which was a pain and time consuming. So on the Mark IV there were a total of 9 bolts needing tightening - the Mark V has only 5. 1 on the axle 2 on the frame split and 2 on the down tube clamp. The real trick from here is making the front end come apart in a timely manner that won't make me go crazy.

Yea, I believe the comment of starting over was more sarcastic than serious....in a way, somewhat flattering to your ingenious designs Popeye - meaning that it was such a great idea that now things must be changed. LOL

Although I don't really enjoy the criticism on our Ivanpah buggies, I always try to listen to see what others have to say and also what to possibly consider when the next run of buggies comes up. There are some great ideas and others that well...don't really sit well with our overall plans - but they are all welcome.

FB, you have an awesome buggy and I am looking forward to seeing it at NABX. Keep up the great work and keep up the new ideas. New ideas help push the limits of this awesome sport.

Popeye, your inspirations do more than you realize for this sport and all of us. Believe me when I say that when you speak, many people listen - including myself.

Found a place in Japan to powdercoat motorcycle frames - taken in all prepped, you're looking at US$1,000 for basic black guess what I won't be doing

$1,000 for powdercoating black??? That doesn't compute at all! If you have access to an oven that will hold your largest piece you can powdercoat it yourself for a fraction of that cost....and own the gun to do it with.

You won't want to use your home oven as powdercoating puts off a pretty strong odor when baking and will leave your food tasting funny afterwords...but most junk yards have an oven that works that you could probably get for nearly nothing.

Here's a link for a powder coating gun & system:
http://www.eastwood.com/hotcoat-powder-coating/powder-coat-g...

Starting at around $200.00 for a full kit including basic powders. You just supply the oven.

The only hard part is finding an oven that is large enough to do a rear axle. I did some searching online and came across a link to build your own oven but it appears that it is no longer working....but if you search around you should be able to find something.

Quote:

Originally posted by rocfighter Every time you think of or see something new you will want to do a mod.

Or you end up like me, w/ the garage full of buggy this and buggy that. And 3 complete buggies, w/ a 4th hanging from the rafters.

FB,I hope you don't mind if I drop a preview of what I have been messing w/ for about a year. All 304/316 SS, every piece hand cut,shaped and welded together. Still got a butt load of polisin to do.

See there is the bennefit to being a Rat rod guy. Nothing shiny or chrome. All flat black or red and a little rust just adds to the charactor.
But WG it does look sweet just the same

Quote:

Originally posted by WELDNGOD FB,I hope you don't mind if I drop a preview of what I have been messing w/ for about a year. All 304/316 SS, every piece hand cut,shaped and welded together. Still got a butt load of polisin to do.

Difficult to tell from the photo WG, but there looks hardly any room to sit in there with the back rest where it is...I can imagine the work in the swan neck...nice job

a peter lynn seat fits perfectly.It was made to fit me alone. The back rest is right where I can push back w/ my legs and lock myself in tighter. It is 46 inches betweenthe footpegs and the backrest. I had the seat installed when I located the backrest.

Got some BLING in the mail today now I can finish the axles

@WG, interested to know why you have put the rail bends behind you, (more along the lines of a Sand Yeti Buggy) the bend normally is great for bracing against and is forward of your armpits, with the kite around a 45 degree angle from you, this make a great support.

I just went to measure mine from the back rest to the pegs, out of interest, and its around 51" and I'm only 5'7" but I like to lay down more.



But I like the fact you are making something different from the norm....we're the same breed bro

Here's the finished foot pegs with their straps.



That's a 5/8" bolt on the back



and fully mounted



I gave it a shakedown yesterday in a very lumpy muddy field and they did spectacular, never twisted, bent or slipped the whole time. Will be a true pleasure at the beach.

Yo you're doing something wrong with that kite buggy ...!
Dang it rolls nice though don't it!