Manx Club

Ok so where to start … I guess the beginning was so long ago so I will skip to now. I moved to the USA in Aug 2012 from Australia and Winnie had Manxter 2+2 kit ready to pickup the week before I got here. Since then I have been trying hard to come to terms with the USA Buggy Building Market as opposed to the Australian Market.


It is funny I have built a couple of buggies before but when you sit down and think about it I realized that a lot of the things I did I did because that is all the Australia Dept of Transport would allow me to do. Now being in America a lot of the boundaries I had known my entire life in relation to Building Buggies now came into question.


I initially started off trying to just build what I was use to in terms of suspension, brakes engine etc but found funnily enough that a lot of the parts I was used to having ready access to where simply not available and if they were they were not cheap. So I began looking into new options such as A-Arm front ends, 3x3 rears, after market disc brake kits etc etc.


Anyway fast forward 6 mths and I am now ready to start the actual build. Like a lot of people if I don’t have a time line of sorts I will slip backwards and probably never get it finished. With that in mind the Manx Club Big Bear Event ( July 13) has been selected as my to be finished by event.


Luckily I have a Manxter 2+2 kit already here although Winnie was nice enough to let me vary a few things from standard but more on that later.


There is only one colour for a Manxter 2+2 to be if it is going to be mine ... blue of course  :D 





Sitting in the garage ready to start the build 





With the kit sorted and collecting dust it was onto the rest of the bits.


Engine would be an EJ 22 Subaru from an early 1990's Liberty / Legacy. I found a nice rusty one cheap with just over 300 000 miles on her so she was cheap and being a subaru still running like a top. 





I will be using the stock EJ 22 ECU, engine loom, steering column, wiper motor etc so buying a complete car made economic sense.


For a transmission I got a SubaruGears.com Transmission off Todd. It is running one of the proto type 4.86 Ring and Pinions on a subaru gear set. Should be interesting to see how it pulls the 33's. Todd shipped it direct from Australia for me in a nice wheelie bin, although the wheelie bin got hammered the box arrived in perfect condition.








So that gets me to about where I am. I picked up a floor pan local with current tags which is a 1971 Model and will allow me to go IRS / BJ although I don't need the BJ part as I got an A-Arm front end of Pete at A-Arm.com.


Parts wise Dan at Dans Performance Parts ( dansparts.com) has hooked me up with most of the other stuff I need but I will cover that as I get to unpacking the boxes and polishing the bling.


mmm buggy bling..

Prior to starting the actual build I have done some research, checked out some options and surprisingly enough changed my mind more than a few times.

As you may gather from my time line I haven't really allowed to much fat and my design plan is now locked it and parts are rocking up in box's this week.

So as a brief overview here are the basic specs I am going into the build with ( be interesting to see what pops out )

Body - Manxter 2+2 Standard Kit ( with special order options)

Roll Cage - Manxter Dual Sports 1020 grade DOM cage, unwelded ( I will have to modify it to fit the 2+2 body).

Lift Kit - UpYerBug 3" Lift kit (with one of the new steel front yokes so I can weld it on to help with A-Arm design.

Floor Pan - IRS / BJ rust free and 100% factory including mint original floot halves

Seat - PRP Competition in front, custom bench in rear

Engine - Subaru EJ 22 with factory ECU, SteelrArt Stainless Exhaust System, Meyers Manx Australian Offroad sump kit ( 85mm shorter), custom intake.

Cooling - Custom Radiator in Meyers Manx Rear wing, design TBA.

Transmission - Subaru Gears 5 Speed with 4.86 R&P.

Suspension - A-Arm front, , 3x3 Rears with microstubs, fox 2.0 coil overs, dual rate springs, hydraulic bumps.

Brakes - Jamar wide 5, 4 pot front, 2 pot rear with 2 pot e-brake, braided lines, Jamar Under Slung pedals.

Wheels and Tyres - Custom Rims with correct offset, 33" rear, 235 x 75 or so fronts.

Wiring - Custom loom from Meyers Manx Australia. Using Subaru Wiper motor and controls.

Dash - Custom Meyers Manx Australia integrated dash complete with ADR Compliant module, hazard switch, switches etc.

Steering - Rack and pinion using A-Arm.com parts and Subaru liberty parts.

I think that is about it, I will go into more details as I get to each part of the build and start taking pictures while it is all still nice and clean.

Special Thanks up front must go to the following guys who are making this build a reality:

My Wife - anyone who is married etc will understand why although she doesn't spin a spanner without her support the rest would be irrelevant.

Paul - SteelArt Creations ( www.steelart.com.au) great guy, awesome fabricator.

Ben - Meyers Manx Australia, buying my old Manxter 2+2 and helping out with wiring loom and other parts.

Bruce and Winnie - Meyers Manx Inc (meyersmanx.com) - Bruce, the man who started it all, without him there would be no Fibreglass Dune Buggy and Winnie, the great woman behind the man, without her no one would ever get an order filled.

Todd - SubaruGears.com, good to work with, great product well thought out and awesome customer support.

Dan - Dan's Performance Parts - (DansParts.com) - can't build much without parts and buggy bling.

Sonny - Downsouthmotorsports.com - awesome advice and shock supply, my Manxter would ride like crap without him.

I am sure there will be others along the way but I can only remember so much at once.

Buggy On !!!

Got the pan onto the trolley and started the awesome job of getting all that tar stuff off the floor pan and tunnel. Man was that a PITA.



I also started to unpack the box's Dan sent over with the brakes and stuff in from Jamar. I am going to try using a second circuit hydraulic system for my ebrake with a second calliper on the disc. This should mean I can do away with the brake cable.



Hopefully I will get a chance over the weekend to finish up the pan and send it to powder next week.

Fastforward to the weekend and I found some time to unwrap my transmission from Subaru Gears, it is great having rebuilt stuff as it is nice and clean ..





With the transmission out it was time to fit it into the floor pan. Now you don't need to cut as much out as I do but haveing been stuck working on more than one car where getting to the shift linkage is a PITA I like to make sure I have plenty of room.

With the transmission sitting in place you can see there is not much difference to a VW size and fit wise.



The nose cone and shift tube hit though. Usually I fit one of these smaller style gusstes and trim to suit.



In this case though I am running a hydraulic clutch and custom accelerator so I don't need either of the factor tubes so there is no need to retain them.

Because of that I used a much larger opening.





With it clamped in place I did a test fit and decided I could make it even bigger and give myself some more room.

So with a larger one made I welded it in.



The inside welds main purpose is to get ground back and well smoothed ensuring there is a nice feeling edge which is well rolled and friendly to access without catching.

With welding complete and everything nice and smooth I could again test fit the transmission, if you look closely at the left hand side you will see where I had to grind a bit out to clear it.

Nice work. Looking forward to seeing it at Big Bear.

Bob

  PS Welcome to America. 

Cheers .. it and I will be there .. ( I hope )

rights Big Bear .... what we got like 5 weeks and some change.

So I picked up my Powder Coating, well the stuff that was done and I am amazed, I have never seen anyone get runs in Powder. So in short the job quality was BAD, they then tried to charge me over double what I was expecting and things went south from there. So at this point in time lets just say I have my stuff back and the issue is not yet over.

Any that was a statement of cat not a lame ass excuse not to get my buggy done in time so back to building.

Since last I posted I have been pretty slack taking a trip back to Australia, doing a heap of work and dreaming a lot. I did mange to get my floor pan done with A-Arm mods, subaru trans mods, 3" UpYerBug lift kits fitted ( used a steel unit and welded it out on pan). removal of all the tunnel tubes and bits, shock tower mods for coil overs, EFI mods, tunnel mods, removal of the hand brake etc etc. So with that here are some pictures cause that is all anyone really wants to see.

Rear Coils needed to be set so I could chop the body and needed the lift kit in place to do the body chop but also needed the roll cage mods done. I have a Dual Sports Roll cage which I cut up to suit a 2+2 and allow me to do what I wanted with under slung pedals etc.



Front lift kit yoke uses the new UpYerBug DIY kit. The kit consists of an inner and out yoke panel (10 gauge) which you weld in place and then add the supplied strap. Cut, beat, take and trim to suit.

Oh and I did some more research on what wheels and tyres I am going to run. Couldn't get past big is being better so I found some nice Walker Evans Beadlocks with rubber. I think it will make it look kick ass.





Should give Todd's SubaruGears Transmission some dune cred when I start spinning these babies.

I am waiting to see how well it will do at 5,000 feet in altitude.

Very nice!  I'm impressed.  Looking forward to seeing it.  Not too far a drive from Oceanside so maybe I can try to sneak a peak before Big Bear. 

-Mike

jsturtlebuggy wrote:


I am waiting to see how well it will do at 5,000 feet in altitude.

What part ? The Subaru Engine with factory ECU and AFM ? I would expect it to do fine but I could be wrong and it could suck badly. If that is the case I will just have to work on the theory a badly running Subaru still has more power than most VW engines  or I can limp back to the RV park and go fishing 

The whole combination Brad.  I really want to see what it will do.  Your confidence is high.  Some may call it something else.
What is the highest place in Australia where you can drive?

jsturtlebuggy wrote:The whole combination Brad.  I really want to see what it will do.  Your confidence is high.  Some may call it something else.
What is the highest place in Australia where you can drive?

Some may call it what they like

In regards to altitude I have never had a buggy at anything worth mentioning. Where we live / drive max would probably be 1000ft. So I have NFI what the ECU in the buggy will think of BB. I am working on the theory that the Subaru's are very popular in high mountain areas but now you mention it I wonder if their is an altitude tweak / kit on thm .

I guess time will tell, at least if all else fails I will have a blue Manxter body to turn into a kids sandpit, my boy would love that. I could on sell it but as per usual I have cut way to many holes in it

I really like the color and from the parts and work already done it looks like it is going to be a really nice one Brad.

Randy

Surf58 wrote:I really like the color and from the parts and work already done it looks like it is going to be a really nice one Brad.

Randy

Thanks, I can only build blue buggies and I have an inability to use chrome if I can help it. In fact just got my head lights back from powder coating