I have nothing but good ideas. (56k/3g death)

So my roommate (martinipro) recently bought a new buggy, so his current buggy went up for sale... but before any of you guys got a chance to even see the thread, I bought it off him. (sorry) Its a PL comp xr+ everyone knows what it looks like, but i'll throw in a shot of it on the sand in wildwood. (martinipro in the background)


Its a great buggy, but those of us who use it know not having a backrest can be quite a pain, so I drew a few sketches with my roommate, then ran down to the hardware store and bought a bunch of scrap metal piping, stuck it all together, put some padding on it and this is what I got.




comfort level instantly jumped up around 1000%, lower back pain while flying de-power is a thing of the past, but I wasn't quite happy with it yet. Then suddenly an (AMAZING) idea popped into my head. So I stripped it down completely.



And took it to the nearest powdercoating shop. For anyone in my area who may be interested in doing the same, here's a link to their site: http://www.coast2coastpowdercoating.com/

For those of you who are unfamiliar with powdercoating, its basically like adding a plastic layer to any metallic surface. The color is very even spread, its very resilient versus just breaking out the rattle can (which means its less likely to get chipped/scratched by sand and/or when I flip it) Its the same type of paint that they use on stuff like bicycles.

So I got everything done in a gloss fluorescent orange to go along with my 10m Unity. Heres a shot of what kind of quality you get from powdercoating:



One of the few drawbacks from the process however, is that it adds quite a bit of thickness to whatever you're painting, which can sometimes be troublesome when trying to fit things together, or on screw threads and such. In this shot I had problems fitting the side rails into the back axle because the additional thickness on the outside of the side rails + the additional thickness on the connecting tube made it impossible to slide in.



So I dusted off the dremel and went to work.



A little bit of lubricant and...



Starting to come together now:

Cleaned off the tires while I was at it...



And put the tires onto the buggy...



Now its starting to come together!



Slapped a PL logo on the back axle (thanks martin)



Ozone decal on the down tube:



Now all i need is a FS decal for the reverse side..

And some final shots of it all together with the back rest in place. I replaced all the side rail covers with some nice foam pipe covers in black, I love the black and orange, I think it came out great. The little black disks from the footpegs I didn't bother putting back on, because I didn't like them anyway. We'll call it a project for another day. I'll also try to get some shots of it outside in the sun tomorrow if its a nice day.

Nice custom set up. Now no one will accidently get in your bug at the beach thinking it was theirs

Thanks guys I'm super happy with how it came out!

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Originally posted by Kober Aaron ...... you crazy ...... I can't believed you did that .... lol ..... .... looks awesome ..... ready to test drive the weekend ?????

Definitely, the color must make it faster right?

Love it! Nice colour too

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Originally posted by BeamerBob Not to rain on your great pimp work, but those footpegs are going to be a bit dangerous to you and others you ride with. Those black rings are to help keep your feet on the pegs and to make the end blunt so as not to puncture skin in a high force contact. You could do something like on the Flexifoil pegs which I liked much better. I've had both. I love the powdercoat work and have looked into it several times in the past. I'm also partial to orange! You could go places in this sport having good ideas and the know how to see it through mfg.

Yeah actually I had thought about that already. I was thinking grip tape, and making some sort of sling to rest my ankles to keep my feet from slipping off. As for the end of them, aren't the flexifoil ones just angled upwards and still pretty pointy? http://www.forces-of-nature.co.uk/images/images_forsale/imgp... I'm not so sure if those are safe either to be totally honest, but i'm definitely putting some sort of cap on it anyway, the screw holes which are still on the ends are an eyesore. Thanks for the concern

Quote:

Originally posted by distort Thanks guys I'm super happy with how it came out! Quote: Originally posted by Kober Aaron ...... you crazy ...... I can't believed you did that .... lol ..... .... looks awesome ..... ready to test drive the weekend ????? Definitely, the color must make it faster right?

In the car world a sticker is worth 50hp, so you probably gained a good 5mph bug speed at least! :singing:

Nice job, it looks great!!

For those wondering how the backrest is clamped onto the rear axel. Basically I I took a piece of rubber and wrapped it around the rear axle, then took a C shaped clamp, and bolted it to a piping ground plate which is then attached to all the other parts of the backrest.







The backrest itself is pretty much a collection of 45/90 degree pipe connectors, some T connectors, and short pieces of piping. Trying to connect them so they are arranged into a square was... fun to say the least considering piping is never supposed to be screwed together into a square.

All the parts for the backrest combined, cost around $70, but that's mostly because I picked out some really awesome foam padding for it. You can get the cheaper stuff and save around $20

The powdercoating considering the quality wasn't too bad either. Its more costly than say.. taking it into a auto body shop and having them paint it, but the quality you get, versus the quality you would have just getting it painted makes it worth it in my opinion, especially when you consider that given the nature of our sport, its pretty likely to get scratched up quickly. The check came out to $150 plus tax. Obviously this varies based on the complexity of the colors effects and such. The fluorescent orange is a 2 stage job, where they paint it white to start, so it costs a bit more. If you were going with say... dark blue/green or black, then it would cost you less.

Thanks for the pics and the info about the powdercoating!

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Originally posted by cheezycheese Quote: Originally posted by Kamikuza Meant to add - took me a while to figure out what "56k/3g death" meant :o I still can't figure this out... Care to enlighten the dimwitted among us (me)... :puzzled:

My brain couldn't get past "56 kilogram, 3 grams - uh???" for a while

Hey Tibi,

Yeah those are the clamps you're thinking about, but they don't really support any of the weight. Most of your weight leaning back is supported by the straps from the seat that I wrapped around the middle of the backrest. The c clamps really just keep the bottom of the backrest from slipping off the rear axle. When I first made the backrest, I actually over tightened one of the bolts and snapped it, and even with only 3 of the bolts connected, I was still able to put my full weight back on it and it held with no problems. Its very secure, and I'm confident it won't be an issue

I like the mods. Looks like a killer bee!! Orange and black are danger colors. Perfect!! I like the inner tube idea for the heel straps. But I was thinking the same dirrection for the foot pegs if there thick enouph. get some old school bike handlebar grips. Wrap double sided tape on the pegs, spray on some lighter fluid (like for a zippo type lighter) and slide the grips over. The fluid evaperates in seconds and the gripps are there till you wear them out or cut them off. Just an idea I had!