WackyBug - with Videos!
Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 7:35 pm
About time I posted up some info about the little buggy we've been making.
I picked up a pretty good little 1983 MY Wagon a few weeks ago. Bog standard, unlicenced. EA81 running great with slightly noisy lifters. 4spd dual range gearbox. $150 cash.
http://members.iinet.net.au/~carine3/IMAGE_081.jpg
Got it home.
Removed;
All doors, real tailgate, roof (cut off), interior (including dashboard), bonnet, guards, pretty much everything else not essential for driving.
Sprayed on some $2.50 per can gloss black paint here and there. (And some of Alex's leftover Gold paint haha).
Slapped on my old 14" wheels with 27" dualers to replace the 13" steelies.
And there you have it - a Subaru buggy!
http://members.iinet.net.au/~carine3/IMAGE_044.jpg
Test run #1 - white sand.
We took it out one night to the Pines to a lovely big sand bowl with some pretty good hill climbs all around it. It was pretty boggy stuff, a very good test for terrains like Lancelin, Wedge etc. The buggy absolutely dominates on this terrain. Because of it's lack of weight it simply does not get bogged. We drove right into the middle of the sand bowl, stopped dead. Normally you would be in trouble here when you try to start again but Buggy just drives out with no trouble at all! Bare in mine, she is still running a standard open rear diff.
It ran for probably near on 5 hours with approximately $6 fuel in the tank.
Test run #2 - very rocky.
We took it out today to the good old Powerlines treck in Mundaring. She did very well here too, tackling some fairly extreme rocky sections and still comming out the other side. Some parts got the better of her mostly due to the open rear diff I think. She also suffered from a little fuel delivery problem occasionally (stock carby with the car on a very wild angle).
Lots of photos from this trip below.
showthread.php?p=63553#post63553
Performance
Well, it feels almost like a race car. We have severely lightened the load from standard form and this makes a HUGE difference! It might just be a little EA81 but the car really moves well.
Body strength (or lack of).
Yes before everybody pipes up, we know there is nearly no strength in the body....she hasn't folded in half yet but we figured we'd just risk it for a couple of test runs first. There are a couple of kinks forming in the rear here and there.And one of the seam welds is comming apart. You can actually see the car physically twisting (look at the shape of the roof in some of those photos!). It actually helps with articulation =)
Obviously she is getting some good bracing soon, and a roll bar. Already have some box section metal standing by to make a good cage, it just needs to be welded up. This will be done very soon hopefully then she will really be ready to rock and roll!
EJ?
Well I have an EJ22 motor with loom and ECU, who knows maybe it will find a home in WackyBug sometime soon. We'll see how she goes with the cage inplace.
Theres still heaps to do, we've litterally only spent a few hours getting it to this point (destroying it I guess haha). Very cheap and VERY fun!
I picked up a pretty good little 1983 MY Wagon a few weeks ago. Bog standard, unlicenced. EA81 running great with slightly noisy lifters. 4spd dual range gearbox. $150 cash.
http://members.iinet.net.au/~carine3/IMAGE_081.jpg
Got it home.
Removed;
All doors, real tailgate, roof (cut off), interior (including dashboard), bonnet, guards, pretty much everything else not essential for driving.
Sprayed on some $2.50 per can gloss black paint here and there. (And some of Alex's leftover Gold paint haha).
Slapped on my old 14" wheels with 27" dualers to replace the 13" steelies.
And there you have it - a Subaru buggy!
http://members.iinet.net.au/~carine3/IMAGE_044.jpg
Test run #1 - white sand.
We took it out one night to the Pines to a lovely big sand bowl with some pretty good hill climbs all around it. It was pretty boggy stuff, a very good test for terrains like Lancelin, Wedge etc. The buggy absolutely dominates on this terrain. Because of it's lack of weight it simply does not get bogged. We drove right into the middle of the sand bowl, stopped dead. Normally you would be in trouble here when you try to start again but Buggy just drives out with no trouble at all! Bare in mine, she is still running a standard open rear diff.
It ran for probably near on 5 hours with approximately $6 fuel in the tank.
Test run #2 - very rocky.
We took it out today to the good old Powerlines treck in Mundaring. She did very well here too, tackling some fairly extreme rocky sections and still comming out the other side. Some parts got the better of her mostly due to the open rear diff I think. She also suffered from a little fuel delivery problem occasionally (stock carby with the car on a very wild angle).
Lots of photos from this trip below.
showthread.php?p=63553#post63553
Performance
Well, it feels almost like a race car. We have severely lightened the load from standard form and this makes a HUGE difference! It might just be a little EA81 but the car really moves well.
Body strength (or lack of).
Yes before everybody pipes up, we know there is nearly no strength in the body....she hasn't folded in half yet but we figured we'd just risk it for a couple of test runs first. There are a couple of kinks forming in the rear here and there.And one of the seam welds is comming apart. You can actually see the car physically twisting (look at the shape of the roof in some of those photos!). It actually helps with articulation =)
Obviously she is getting some good bracing soon, and a roll bar. Already have some box section metal standing by to make a good cage, it just needs to be welded up. This will be done very soon hopefully then she will really be ready to rock and roll!
EJ?
Well I have an EJ22 motor with loom and ECU, who knows maybe it will find a home in WackyBug sometime soon. We'll see how she goes with the cage inplace.
Theres still heaps to do, we've litterally only spent a few hours getting it to this point (destroying it I guess haha). Very cheap and VERY fun!