Syracusesanddunes.com

Got started on this last weekend, took me 8 hours from bare frame to get it where pictured.
Front cradle and arms are DandSracing.com (DSrace on here) , I'm doing trailing arms in the rear, kindof a copy of the cars at sandfever.com


Bare Frame


I have my tabbed torsion replacement tacked in, front tacked in, roll bar tacked. Frame is all cut to hell because I'm widening it 2 1/4 inches so i can fit in it better!

Homebrew tube notcher. I made this "jig" to notch tube in my drill press, works much better than a chop saw.



Here is the rear torsion replacement I made. It has bushings in it, but I may switch to heims so the arms will be somewhat adjustable.



Goal of the project is to increase wheel travel and also reduce weight. I see so many guys who convert to longtravel and some of them end up adding 300+ lb. I wieghed in at 1150lb to start with, goal is to weigh about 1000 when done. The front suspension i added weighs the same as a aluminum linkpin beam if not less. I didn't build my buggy initially so it had some heavy pipe and stuff in it that was very unnessassary, but I plan to strip it down pretty hard when it goes back together. The floor section I cut out weights 3x what I put back into it due to a 3/8 steel plate that was welded in to bolt the pedal assembly to. Some of the cross bars were black pipe, not tubeing.

The torsion assembly is very heavy also, so I hope I can shed 40 or so lb getting rid of it and hanging my trans from the top.

My rear under engine and back cage was made of some heavy wall tube, its getting rebuilt with thin wall. It weighed 42lb by itself.

I'm not going to run any gauges anymore, just dummy lights, ect

I wish my engine and trans didn't weight 315lb by itself! but i don't think there is anything I can do to lighten it (with out loosing HP or going motorcycle power)

I will be happy if I end up at the same weight or less so that is the ultimate goal. Its gonna cost way toomuch $$$ if I have to add any more power as I have more already than a stock 3.8 chevy, subaru, ect

Forgot to mention, wheelebase was 101 to start with and after some measuring, would be 101 still if i put stock VW suspension back in. When I get busy on my rear trailing arms will let you know a final wheel base.

Looking good so far. Keep us posted on progress.

looks real good!

I got my floor tubes in this evening (went to wichita for weekend) and have been working some on where to place the trans.


The tube above the bell housing is just sitting in the frame if it looks crooked to ya.



I did buy a 4x8 sheet of water damaged treadplate aluminum for my floor and stuff this weekend in wichita, only cost me $45, will see if i can get it polished up.

I got my trans mounts done, the rear is double shear on the back side. Ther front is just a tube with a plate and 2 holes in it to mount to the bus trans.

I did some work on the rear trailing arms, they use stock t2 axles 183/4 inches, cvs and stubs, flanges.
WIth the stock 18 degree CVs it will do 12" travel/ I should get about 16" with the race prep T2 cvs that do 25 degrees. or about 18 inch travel with the 28 degree 930s.




Looks like I'm gonna have some pretty sweet ground clearance. I have 20 in the front and about 18 in the rear under the cage under the engine. If you mesure to the bottom frame tube (same tube as the front) its 24 inches off the ground.

the trailing arm looks crooked in the pic, I thought it pulled when I finished welding it, but it bolts right up to my tabs. Its not done, only has 3 tubes, no bracing an no 4th tube yet.

Trailing arms are staying light so far, my heavy econ0 disk brakes are weighting them down, Anyone want to trade me for some of the lightweight disks?

You guys need to come buy some of my old stuff so I can have more work space, and more $$ for my project.

That is really looking good.

samt so how did you finally make that 1st trailing arm jig? looks like your getting some work done by the way!

A friend who did long travel conversion a few years back showed me some pics of him doing his. I put tire on it and sat the carrier on a jackstand untill I had it where I wanted, tack, check, tack, check.

More pics. I took some time off to work on my project rail in the classified, but I'm back to work now!!

Trailing arm Jig, I made this jig to build the second arm



Here is a shot with one tire on the back, This is the approximate ride height, should have about 4 inches of droop left from here.



This thing is a little more massive than I thought it would be when I first started, but as long as it is light I'm gonna be happy. Wheelbase comes out to 101, I ended up making my arms more wider instead of longer, it would be more like 103 if it sat lower. I believe I measured 88 inches wide in the rear. I guess if it ends up heavy I could always put some longer trailing arms, 930 and longer axles on it and put a LS1 in the rear!
Thats the great thing about this rail, it can be converted to something bigger very easy, longer arms in front and rear and it could pull travel in the mid 20's!

Got some work done yesterday afternoon...
Here is full droop,

This is almost bottomed out on the skid plate, it probably has 1 inch left if i pulles the jack out


Here are some shots of the CV's I only hit 15 degrees when suspension compressed due to the skid plate and stuff
AT full droop I'm at 25 degrees




I Also got the shifter mounted, not worth a picture!

Today I guess I will be doing some more work, mostly welding in bracing and such, I need to flip it over and do floor mounts and weld the bottoms of all the tube joints.

Sam,
Looks awsome, I'm in ulysses trying to do a a-arm on the front, could u maybe give me an idea or two? would like to hear your ideas on it, from what i' ve seen