Dave's la(te)st buggy build...

X8GGY wrote: I gave myself the day off yesterday

It's been busy in the shop, and I've been working every Wednesday and Sunday on the buggy, so this Sunday I had a nice lie-in, cooked family breakfast, a nice long walk with the dogs, and then caught up with some other things in life, before having a nice steak tea, a few beers and a family movie night...

Back to it on Wednesday though! :woohoo:

Contrary to popular belief it's entirely appropriate to take care of yourself every so often.

Good day today... I was keen to get back to it, after having Sunday off



I started "quite quiet" Wednesday by cutting a 3" (75mm?) piece off the end off the snorkel steel 2.5" tube and sanded it nice, and then inserted that into the elbow in the airbox I fitted last week, and then mastic'ed and bolted it in place again...



I then added some more triangulation and some perforated steel plate, this will house the battery lead connectors - must order them! :ohmy:



The battery link cables are here though, so I laid them along the chassis rails front to back and ty-wrapped them in place...



Whilst lying under the buggy doing the cables, I remembered I hadn't fitted these yet... I've had them a while but not got round to them, but that's another "quite quiet job"



Front on, bit fiddly to get the radius arm bolts through, but nice fit...



And the rear... good job there's no oil in the "lunchbox" and TG HD shafts equipped rear axle yet!

Some debate on these on the forum lately, but these came up at a good price via James Priestly, who often sells JimnyBits parts, so I snapped them up, so almost a full set of JB guards now... front and rear shock guards and radius arm mount guards, fuel tank guard, repeater guards yet to be fitted, and now diff guards too... The buggy is running 30" tyres with just a bit (~1.5") of a suspension lift, so guards, lunchbox in the rear and pick my line well when following the bigger Jimnys in the group... lightness and that should get me through, if not the winch comes out to play :lol:



I then finished up tacking all the rear together and then heaved it out into the sunshine to weld it all up...



Not bad considering my failing eyesight! :lol: LOL



And all ready for a nice noisy Sunday with the grinder tidying it all up

Chuffed! :woohoo:

Nice Dave, its all coming together now

Aye, thanks, it is coming together...

Soon be out and about?

Yet more work towards the big finish, you'll be getting the itch to drive it now I guess?

Yup, definitely got the itch to get out and enjoy our beautiful countryside, in the buggy!

I keep thinking progress looks great, but then I remember I have still got the other side to do as well, i.e. the half-door, the back of the body tub and the bonnet / wing / A-pillar tubes, etc, so still plenty to keep me going whilst we (Wales) are still in lockdown...

Dave