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

It will need to have Yellow wheels, Yellow mudguards, and a Yellow steering wheel. Also, you'll have to wear some Yellow clothes and a Yellow Hat/Helmet and Yellow gloves and get a Yellow Winch Rope .... and don't forget to wear clean Yellow undies.

Well that's me caught up then. Haven't looked for a while so I got to binge read a few pages worth.

Some very nice work there dave, looking forward to more updates

LOL

Back at Buggy HQ though...

I ran out of welding gas on Sunday, so went out to get a new bottle yesterday, Tuesday... Day off today so I was planning on welding up everything on the rear... Nine o'clock came and I said to the missus I was off to self-isolate in the garage for the day, and she said she thought I was going to have a proper day off, which I had said I could do with... But I went home, put my scruffs on, found our eldest daughter working in my study which is on top of my garage... So, I thought I'd better keep the peace and have a quiet day... So I did a couple of maintenance jobs in the shop and then went out to the garage and thought, "what can I do quite quietly" ?...



So I thought I'd have a look at the snorkel... I'm still waiting for the 2.5" bent steel (exhaust) tube to arrive, but most of the other parts are here... 2.5" ID convoluted hose, a Southdown (Defender) snorkel top, jubilee clips and a K&N air filter...



My first job whenever I fit a snorkel... block the drain hole in the air box!



Next, I worked out the angle the hose needed to leave the air box, and fitted a drainpipe elbow into it, mastic'ed well, and drilled and bolted four times...



I then spent a considerable time working out how to make the brackets to support the air box and the main fuse box... remembering the wings have been removed and the bonnet / engine bay narrowed to make it more buggy-like... so it's a bit of a squeeze!



All in though! But... it doesn't leave any room for a battery So it's either locate the battery on the other side, or run with just the big winch battery in the rear... still thinking about all this...

The hose is just loose at the moment... I need the bent metal 2.5" tube yet to cut a small piece off to go in the air box outlet to reduce it down so that it fits inside the convoluted hose...



Under the wingtop... you can see the tabs bolted to the underside of the "bent" box section that makes the edge of the engine bay...

I still need to make a bracket for the charcoal filter (?) thing too...

Good timing!...



I wonder what it is?

Lovely work Dave,

Re the airbox drain, have you considered using a vernay valve, so that you retain drainage capability, without the possibility of flooding getting in at that point?

Paul

Hiya Paul! (Where have you been? )

Had a Google, and think that equates to a one way flow valve?

A bolt and a load of mastic is cheaper?

It's just not worth fitting a snorkel if the air box can fill up with water through the drain hole! I wonder how many people have fitted a snorkel and not plugged the drain hole?!...

Also now looking at the charcoal filter canister I mentioned above as needing a bracket made to support it... it would seem that would need some kind of connection to the breather / snorkel solution?



(Thanks to Martin for the diagram and advice, and Riccy for advice too)

This is the Suzuki FSM test for the charcoal filter... it would seem that COULD also fill with water if the vehicle was left submerged for a prolonged period?...

The snorkel tube arrived with a carrier this morning, so after tea (8:30pm in our our house as the shop currently shuts at 8pm), I slipped out into the garage with a can of Stella and my camera... funny how bemused wives and daughters look at this point?! They simply don't understand do they fellas?!

I had to check it all lined up okay, didn't I?









Held roughly in place... Yup, chuffed with that... good measuring by me and good bending by Tom the "pipe-bender" on eBay...

It will obviously have to sit forward of there once the A-pillar tubes of the "roll cage" / tree protector bar goes in, but you can see rom that that the angles are ok, the tube follows the line of the windscreen in both plains, and then kicks out a little to match the angle of the Southdown snorkel top, as it's designed for the rake of a LandRover Defender windscreen !

As mentioned earlier this is the intended position of it coming through on the passenger side* though -



Just under the "bent" box section of the bonnet slam area, and just behind the front wheel arch... so we look on target for that, and it obviously needs cutting to length to suit, the snorkel head is only a quarter of an inch onto the steel tube for demonstration purposes...

It's 1.5mm thick walled steel tube, so should hold up nicely to the rigours of T&S (Tight and Scratchy) greenlaning that I eventually intend to return to, with Brett and the rest of his little group... And the snorkel head is "only" £24.50 to replace if it gets broken or stolen by those pesky trees that tend to jump out in front of us!

* Brett asked why it's on the passenger (Alan's!) side rather than the traditional driver's side on a Jimny... I explained that it's because (1) I didn't want it in my line of sight, (2) most other 4x4s are on the passenger side, and (3) it was only after constructing the driver's (my!) side of the reshaped bonnet and "wing" that I thought about the snorkel!...

I'll probably carry on with the snorkel on Wednesday next week when I have a quite quiet day to save disturbing our eldest daughter who works from home in this pandemic, so Sunday I'll hopefully return to welding up the back "trayback" hoop section of the buggy...

More soon

I did intend the snorkel head to be half way up the windscreen / just above the top of the mirror, as by then the half-doors would have let the water in and Alan and I will be disappearing under water!... so I think that would be high enough... time will tell though!



So just after the 10 degree kink in this photo...

Or like this...



(Sorry I don't "do" photoshop, I'm 52!)

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!

X8GGY wrote:

(Sorry I don't "do" photoshop, I'm 52!)

Don't worry about it, I can't see where the photos been edited

Your snorkel solution looks neat. I quite like the snorkel head which looks better proportioned than the ones I have seen on the mass produced moulded snorkels. Nice work, can't wait to see it finished.

Just be careful if it's in line off site
you'll be able to hide a double decker bus behind it