Wow, you blasted the rear bearing carriers enough that they started to bleed!!

Haaa, yep, they took a beating.

Aaaaand p-coated parts. The arms are p-coated in chrome, and look better than expected. The black is a matte. Really just wanted to do the suspension parts, but figured I'd do the other brackets and such while I had the powder flowing.

Front a-arms will be chrome with red hubs.

Need to get past the fru-fru color stuff, and onto design...I know. :)

That looks really nice, great job!!

This buggy is going virtual...

I modeled this on Pro/E from memory, but planning to tweak once I get real measurements. The "pipe" feature is makes this a piece of cake!

Complete cage digitized...

Is Pro/E free? Which operting system's does it run on. I prefer to use Google Sketchup. It would be cool if someone would draw up a very accurate model of the frame, and than post the file on the site for others to download and use.

Some folks have been telling me you can go to the Pro/E website and download a student edition for free (?). Haven't checked it out, though. I've got 2000i^2 at home and Wildfire at work. And they're switching to Creo soon (newest Pro/E).

Once I get the dimensions in the model to jive with reality and get the rest of the little brackets and crap on it (most, not all), I can post an IGES/STEP file of it.

Well, I will not be using the LT250R front a-arms. Both lower arms have some rust cancer and some shotty repairs. I'm hoping to use the 22x10-r7 (3/4 offset) wheel/tires, hubs and brake calipers still. So, I will have custom 1.25 OD tube a-arms and custom spindles. I'm not sure if I want to use simple a-arm geometry, or if I want to do something more like the Revolt where the rear mounts are back further. Will have heims & mis-alignment spacers all around.

As for shocks, I've got a couple of options:
#1. Set of Fox 15" (E2E) coil-overs with rezzies, 3.5" travel
#2. Set of 16.5" (E2E) coil-overs with 5" travel

Putting the final tweaks on my Pro/E model of the frame with emphasis on the front end, so I can design this setup virtually first to get the geometry right. I'm guessing the Pro/E model should be accurate within +/-1/8th of an inch, but some geometry isn't exactly simple to recreate. Everything is based on tape measure measurements plus a few things here and there with vernier calipers.

As for Pro/E operating system, it's available in Windows and Unix...not sure about Mac.

-0- progress this weekend on both the real buggy and virtual buggy (ha), as I was Mr. Mom all weekend.

But, I did manage to get a bunch of old Suzuki Quadracer parts list up on feeBay, from which the funds may be used to buy a tubing bender and/or a couple round tubing die sets. Don't know why these bender dies cost so much -- what a crock. Hoping our resident machinst can CNC me a couple sets. Or I may even try to make a radius cutter on my lathe tool post to cut some dies. Or I'll build the bender and buy the dies. There's a cheaper way, I know it!

Alrighty...seems my build will take a tangent to build a JD2 tubing bender. The materials to make the bender itself were $67, and each die set will cost about $100 in materials...and this is all shipped to my shop via eBay. So, the material may even be cheaper locally (just not as convenient). Planning on making a die set for 1.5" OD x R5.5", 1.25" OD x R4.5", and 1" OD x R4" and capable of 180-deg bends. he bender will be mounted on an old bar bell rack I've got in my scrap pile, and if the price is right on a Harbor Freight air/hydraulic setup, I may automate this thing, too.

So for the price of the die-less bender alone (retail), I'll have the bender + 3 die sets. Maaaan, are those retail prices RAPE!!

Helps to have a full machine shop at work ran by an old-school NASCAR Engine machinst! =)

this is what i used to bend the pipe for my long travel i am doing..picked it up on sale for $150 you can use it wit the air or by hand and it worked perfect..if you go on you tube there are lots of home made benders on there as well..
http://www.princessauto.com/pal/product ... ipe-Bender

Yep, I've seen all the different benders on feeBay, Rorty's site, chopper sites, minibuggy, and youtube. I found the JD-Squared model 3 plans on the net *free*, and it can be made with some simple hardware and 2" x 1/2" hrs or crs and using fairly basic tooling. Only a couple dimensions need to be spot on, but everything else has a good tolerance.

I've seen those HF benders, but a lot of folks have referred to those pipe benders as "kinkers". What's your trick for staying kink-free?

Here's the manual JD bender I'm making...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EeFdjZPTMg, except the die will be slightly altered (will be 360-deg round with a different attchment method for the u-strap).

My 2" x 1/2" HRS stock arrived today.

My mini-lathe can only handle up to 8" diameter workpieces, so will be turning the dies at work on the 'big boy' machines. We made a cutter for .625 and .750 radii out of A2 tool steel to simply cut the full radii out of the 6061 aluminum slugs. Biggest cutters I've ever seen. The big lathe will have enough balls to turn w/ this cutter, too.

As soon as I get everything modeled in Pro/E to check fitment, metal cutting will begin. Will be a few hours at the drill press & lathe.

ALL THIS SO I CAN GET MY A-ARMS, SPARE TIRE CARRIER, AND TREE BARS BUILT...to where I can proceed to blast and paint the frame <sigh>...

Sounds cool,

Are your Big boy lathes old worn out work horses or pretty new with tight spindle bearings?

If they are old worn out monsters you might have a problem with that tool chattering?

that's a lot of tool to have buried in material at one time.

Tight, very well maintained machines and 4 to choose from. First, we're gonna run a cutter in at an angle on both sides (to cut a "V") to remove a lot of the material. Then follow-up with the radial cutter. So the chatter should be minimal, if any.

It's a Honeywell tool room...4 lathes, 4 bridgeport mills, surface grinders, kilns, band saws, sonic-mig-tig welders, drill presses, Instron machine, Thermotrons, chem lab, Engine dyno, etc. You name it, we've probably got one. Our tool & die guy is a 40-yr veteran, a little crazy, can dream up anything, and can build anything on a print you hand him. It's one of the perks that I REALLY missed when I left here, and one reason why I came back. =)

Very good,sounds like a nice shop.

I had a JD bender and it worked very nice. It is very pricey to buy the dies. I wish I could have made them myself. I learned a trick. If you spray the die down with WD-40 or equivilant where you are making a bend it bends a lot smoother of a bend. It keeps the tubing from binding or getting stuck in the die on a tight radius bend especially on larger tubing. I had no problems even bending 1 1/2" 4130 cromo .120 wall tubing.

Almost there. The 3D cad definitely saved a few real iterations.

The die will be a 360-deg die with a shoulder milled down to accept the tube strap. Still toying with the strap design though. The standard JD dies have that straight "leg" that the strap attaches to (weldment), and then has a tension bolt. Too complicated and takes more millwork to reproduce. I'm wondering if I can just put a pin there and use it to attach my tubing vice grips (?).

Also, the newer JD benders have a follow bar with Delrin inserts. To make the follow bar simpler to build, I'm going to simply take a block of Delrin and use my 1.5" hole saw to get a 4" long section of radius. Then attach that to a 4" long piece of square DOM tubing.

Tally thus far:[list] - Bender plans: Free
- 12" of 2"x12" HRS strap in 3' sections (shipping included): $80
- Aluminum T6061 T651 round bar, 9" OD x 2" thk: $49 each, shipped = Net $98
- Some .120 DOM tubing 1-1/4", 1", 3/4" OD: $32
- Bender stand: Free
- All pins: Free (misc parts & stock I have)
- Grade 5 bolts: $25
- Machine time: pro bono, of course!
TOTAL: $235 for a bender, stand, 1.25" die set, and 1.5" die set. Me likey!

Got all my steel bar cut yetserday. Nothing like cutting 2"x1/2" steel with a chop saw! ha Sorry 'bout the noise, neighbors! And got all the hole centers punched and ready for drill press. Have to pick up a 1" and 7/8" drill bit today at the tool shop -- stupid big box stores don't carry anything over 3/4" !!

Aluminum rounds and my DOM sticks should be arriving today.

If the die machine work can get done this week, I should be bending tube on St. Patty's Day weekend. =)

Got all my materials and awesome weather....

Had a run-in with some crappy-ass Chinese drill bits Saturday morning, so I made negative progress. Pretty bad when my HRS bar deforms the drill bit, even at only 350rpm and oil-cooled. JUNK!! Went and bought some pricey-but-worth-it MADE IN USA drills and a 3,000-lb rated steel shelf. Spent most of the weekend Five-S'ing the garage and taking care of my 3-mo daughter. Poor kid has an ear infection and is miserably awaiting the meds to take action. Sleep...SLEEP??? WHAT'S THAT???? lol

Also uncovered some extra parts I didn't know I had. That's what I get for hoarding. Found an extra CDI (Capacitor Discharge Ignition), extra rear fender, and enough parts to assemble a complete 2nd spare gearbox.

Now it feels good to open the garage door and see organization in action. It's all clean and neat and ready for me to destroy it.

Back to building the bender this afternoon, I hope...

Finally got to some machine work last night. Got the ratchet bar holes drilled. Got too much chatter trying to punch through with the 7/8" drill. So the holes will get finished with the end mill when I cut the slots. I cut one slot with a 1/2" 4-fluted helix mill, but got some wander on the 2nd one and stopped. I need to get some more t-clamps and blocks for holding my workpieces down.

Tell ya wwhat, this little $500 mill-lathe combo with the draw-bar end mill holders is a gem!

Progress on my sub-project....

Will have the apparatus done this weekend, then start the dies during the week.

Couple small hardware items to get, and ready for dies.