Figured I'd start a build thread on this project since I'm a ways into it now, and it's not another big dreamer thread that dies after 2 updates.

Quick background story: I picked up this buggy from some guy who had it sitting in his yard for over a year. It's a 2006 Joyner 800 with an inline 3. Apparently not a lot of these models around compared to the mini vipers. They are close to the full size 1100's from what I've seen. The stock motor was seized, piston completely rusted to the block, and frankly, I couldn't care less. I got this buggy for two reasons. 1.) to learn some of the intricacies of the automotive engineering world 2.) to end up with a street legal turbocharged buggy with a 1.3L Suzuki engine.

Let's go.


Day 1. The buggy comes home and the gf approves. It's in rough condition.

Right off the bat, I threw on some automotive wheels. It took 4 guys to move that thing with flat/shredded tires.




Engine came out right away.




And the Suzuki 1.3L test fit was a success

This was a big part so far, fabbing the motor mounts. I bought a tig welder and this part of the project was really so I could learn to tig weld.

I made some cardboard mockups of the mounts, cut out the steel, and went to work.






The front right mount finished, and in place.



Part of the design for these mounts called for some more rigidity on the front left mount, so I added another motor block mount.



Front right mount holding on to the engine



Front left mount




And the 1.3L engine mounted and looking happy.

And now we're up to this weekend. Here's what I got accomplished.

Fitted Suzuki Esteem hubs on the rear. Why? Not a chance in hell I am trusting those cast aluminum hubs and bicycle grade disc rotors on a road-driven buggy. These hubs will ultimately accept the CV axles that I am working on at the moment.




Honda civic rotors (and a wheel spacer that converts from 4x100 to 4x114.3 bolt pattern...and yes I realize that rotor is backwards, just test fitting)







The front hubs got Honda Accord hubs and rotors, quite a bit larger than the rear rotors.




For the brake calipers up front, I'm going with the rear calipers from a BMW Z4. (They are just sitting there in the pic, I still have to fab the bracket)






Oh, and a big goody came in the mail today. MegaSquirt V3 with MS Expander...I'm a software engineer, so this is my game right here. For those that don't know, it's basically a fully programmable ECU that is capable of...everything.

Nice build, it should turn out to be a fun machine.

Oh and welcome to the addiction.

very nice

Weekend update

Took care of a few smaller things on the buggy this weekend, the main focus was working on the wiring harness for the MegaSquirt, but I managed to get the shift linkage set up, pulled out all the old wiring, and had some bushings made for the front hubs to sit a little happier.

So much wire.



Here's the shift linkage, just a 1/2" threaded steel rod, bent to match the angles. It actually works great.





I welded the existing Suzuki Swift shift rod to the chopped joyner shift linkage.



This is pretty unnecessary, but I had this Honda Accord e-brake lever and chopped it down and made it fit.



Fun fact: Rear Honda accord hub bearings fit the Joyner front spindles, the innermost OD is a perfect match, I added a couple bushings so it supports the entire hub/bearing assembly.




Tearing out the wiring. Side note: I cannot wait to get this thing hosed down and re-painted.



That's it for this weekend. I'll be out of town for Thanksgiving and should come back to a bunch of needed parts on my doorstep, so I anticipate a lot of progress the week after thanksgiving.

Back to business.


Had sleeves made for the cut axles made out of DOM steel. The tolerances on these sleeves were no joke. I almost maxed out my 12 ton press getting each end in, it was scary. But hey, I'll take that over some loose fitting sleeves that only rely on the weld to hold.



Got the axles sized up, sleeves pressed on and they fit well.




Welded up pretty nicely.






I decided on doing hard lines for the majority of the brakes. I would go with full braided stainless but I had this 3/16" brake line on hand, so I got the front and rear laid out.






Also got to start playing with the stuff for the custom exhaust. This is a layout of most of the tubing and the flange I'm working with. I have a box of 180 U-bends for the primary tubing as well. The goal is a Tri-Y style header. As usual, there is very little space to work with.



This is about as far as I got for cutting/sizing things up.




I ran into a bit of a snag with the megasquirt. Apparentyl a stepper motor controlled IAC valve is one of the hardest things to get to work, and of course that's what I'm using.




That's all for this weekend, I think I am going to pull the trigger on the majority of the engine internals that I need this week. That engine needs a good cleaning and it should be fun getting it set up.

I'm loving this project!

Can't wait to see the finished product!

Looks great.... Love the swaps...

Word of advice... The sleeve will not hold.... Even with DOM,tight tolerance, double stacked tig welds.... 4 pins... It still twisted on me....

Be sure you spec out those shafts before assembly

Best of luck I hope it does hold. Jomomma's did hold last I saw but he butt welded the shafts and then sleeved....

I cannot find a place that will make a set of shafts for less than 800....

For the short side.. I was able to use a Joyner long side shaft.. Have it cut down and resplined for the metro side...

Can't say I'm surprised. I originally was going to have the axles resplined, but thanks to Chinese CV axle manufacturing, the outer cv joints are apparently pressed and peened on (cut open a spare outer cv joint on an axle to find that out after breaking a cv joint puller). I'm using axles from a Suzuki Esteem due to the different hubs I have.

That being said I still have a couple ideas. For the failure point, did you have the welds snap, or the DOM tube twist and break? If it's the latter, I'm thinking several beads running down the length of the sleeve would help add some strength.

If that fails, I'm considering having an axle shop spline some steel bar to fit the OEM Suzuki CV joints I am using. They quote $65 per axle for splining service, so I don't see why they couldn't spline a plain steel round bar. If I go that route, I'll probably seek some hardening process as well.

Thanks for the input, let me know your thoughts.

Weekend update.

I pulled the engine out to start breaking it down and cleaning, then realized I should just take advantage of this time and get the buggy painted. So I pretty much spent the entire weekend prepping for paint.

Rolled her outside and power washed the crap out of it. I was surprised how light this frame is. The last time I rolled it outside, it was mostly stock, and I could barely get it pushed back in my garage.



Up on stands and taking off everything.




I put up a ton of plastic, because I really really hate getting paint on anything beyond what I'm painting. I even put a fan and exhaust filter to prevent overspray from reaching the cars in the driveway.




Since I would be spending hours in a giant balloon of atomized paint, I dressed appropriately for the occasion.



I ended up going in and out a lot more than I expected, so the "door" accumulated some masking tape.




After the first layer of primer. Top coat will be gloss black. I did some paint tests a while back knowing that painting over powder coat is shoddy at best. It turns out Krylon Fusion or Rustoleum for plastic adhears extremely well to this coat. Rustoleum sells their plastic primer in quarts so I got a couple to shoot on, then top coat with their generic Professional gloss black. I'm not going for a $5k paint job, just something presentable that I can touch up with a rattle can in the future.



I will probably shoot the top coat tomorrow after work, I would like to get at least part of my garage back.

Got the frame finished up. 1 heavy coat of primer and 2 top coats of glossy black goodness. I just have to do the shock springs, front shroud, and rear wing.

Looks great! Your going to paint the springs rather than powder-coat?

Thanks! Well I will probably be coming home with a powder coat system and a craigslist oven this weekend, if that's the case, the springs and a bunch of engine parts will end up bright red.

Not much to update from this weekend. Paint is still curing, looking decent enough for rustoleum, garage is still smelling borderline toxic.

I started cleaning some parts for reassembly, so that took most of the weekend. I did manage to get a larger brake master cylinder mounted, the e-brake set up, and I ditched the hard brake lines for a set of custom stainless lines. I'm a sucker for those red lines. I may end up using the hard lines for a hydraulic clutch, but we'll see how much trouble I get into once the engine is opened up.

Looks great so far. I love black and red. Nice job.

Thanks!

nice

Looking good! I hate waiting for paint to dry during winter.