KP - Badland Sabretooth Project

[KP92]

Hello again,

Another project added to my list - albeit part of my college course - and it should be a cracking good laugh.

Basically I (along with a group of 6 other people) have been given the task of building a Badlands Sabretooth buggy, from scratch, to earn our stripes and make more steps towards no longer being called "budding engineers". All good stuff.

Here is what one should look like:



Today me and one of our group started work, marking up and cutting our steel for the floor pan.
The pan is constructed from 40mm X 40mm x 3mm box section, and we have made a start to cutting it to size, which will hopefully all be ready to tack together by the end of Thursday afternoon or Friday morning.

Here's a quick snap of the plans and our slight alterations:



We have made our own revisions - the two 1613mm Tube spats are being removed to save money but also because they are plain hideous.

The saving is also on the main central strut which was 1750mm but is now down to 500mm.

So here are our ghastly first cuts (we're all noobs here):





And finally, here is the table we'll be drawing the plans out onto and welding its shape from:



Have to say I am very excited. I did have a 2.2 H22A2 VTEC unit to put in there but having said "yes" and then had second thoughts, the tutors decided not to let me do it. Arse!

Hope this isn't too mundane

KP

[MFrV1]

A Vtec! Not got a Toyota lump for it?

[KP92]

No, we have to now use some POS quad unit But I'll live with it for now. Will buy her off the college and put me own motor in it if its good enough.

KP

[Relentless Rob]

TDM850 is a nice compact punch lump. I used to race one in the Supertwins series.

[owelly]

Sounds fun Rob, lets see some piccies.

Does the workshop not have a mech saw or chop saw? There would be no excuses for dodgy cuts then. And I hope the marker pen is just for making the scribed lines stand out, you're not at nursery school now!
Good luck with the project.

[KP92]

Marker pen is mark out our work so thieving bastards don't nick it!

And now we don't have that sort of machinery unfortunately. We have to do this the old fashioned way - a lot of sweat and a hacksaw.

But we have to learn from somewhere, this is where I start, and I've every intention of improving from here.

TDM850 - I'll take a look into that, thank you for the advice Rob!

KP

[richw82]

This is great. I've always wanted to build a car from scratch, so I'll be following this!

[Relentless Rob]

I've dug out a couple of old photo's...

[url]|http://thumbsnap.com/cp93O61A[/url]

[url]|http://thumbsnap.com/zHho5fRX[/url]

...Andy Sidlow custom frame with a Tank Shop Aluminium tank, VFR400 racing seat unit, FZR1000 Ex-Up rear end, ZXR400 front end with progressive springs, ZX9R brakes and a ZX6R fender (mudguard), Hayabusa headlight (was the first bike to be featured in Streetfighter Magazine with a GZXR1300R headlight). Now the interesting part; the engine...

Mk1 TDM 850 Paris Dakar spec' block (thiner walls and widened oil and coolant channels), lightened ballanced crank, competition spec' bearings and rods with Mahle pistons bored out to 872cc, ported and polished head with bigger valves (possibly TDM900 ones I can't remember), Mikuni flatsides and a straight through two into one home made exhaust with a baffleless carbon can that used to set car alarms off at 200 Yards. The engine was built by Shaun at BigCC Racing, dyno'd at a respectable 128bhp (I think the standard bike was good for about 80-ish) and was good for eleven second runs.


I miss that bike.

P.S Sorry they're not action shot's I was too busy holding on and trying to keep the front wheel down.

[KP92]

As predicted, we have only two cuts left to do and the table is ready for us to start tacking the chassis together on, which will be done tomorrow. Then we move onto the tube frames which the two people who need to make those cuts were working on.

We should have this knocked out fairly quickly, and we have just had a Yamaha 600cc In-Line 4 donated to us including two 4-pot callipers and discs for the front, and a single disc for the back.

Better yet, we also have the sprocket so a day of careful drilling and filing should find the sprocket on a FWD Gearbox's diff, enabling us to keep the thing chain drive - Awesome.

The Gearbox hasn't been decided yet though, the obvious one in my eyes is the Toyota C52 because I have one and the shifter links etc however we don't know how to get a chain drive on there without oiling the floor... so back to the drawing board there.

KP

[KP92]

I've dug out a couple of old photo's...

[url]|http://thumbsnap.com/cp93O61A[/url]

[url]|http://thumbsnap.com/zHho5fRX[/url]

...Andy Sidlow custom frame with a Tank Shop Aluminium tank, VFR400 racing seat unit, FZR1000 Ex-Up rear end, ZXR400 front end with progressive springs, ZX9R brakes and a ZX6R fender (mudguard), Hayabusa headlight (was the first bike to be featured in Streetfighter Magazine with a GZXR1300R headlight). Now the interesting part; the engine...

Mk1 TDM 850 Paris Dakar spec' block (thiner walls and widened oil and coolant channels), lightened ballanced crank, competition spec' bearings and rods with Mahle pistons bored out to 872cc, ported and polished head with bigger valves (possibly TDM900 ones I can't remember), Mikuni flatsides and a straight through two into one home made exhaust with a baffleless carbon can that used to set car alarms off at 200 Yards. The engine was built by Shaun at BigCC Racing, dyno'd at a respectable 128bhp (I think the standard bike was good for about 80-ish) and was good for eleven second runs.


I miss that bike.

P.S Sorry they're not action shot's I was too busy holding on and trying to keep the front wheel down.

Thanks for posting these Rob! Looked pretty damn hot, and that sort of power in what weighs not much more than a bag of peanuts is only ever going to entertain two things - trouser filling and FUN!!

[Renrut]

Not sure if I've misunderstood something but don't you already have a gearbox in the Yamaha bike engine?

I've got a 1000CC bike engine with diff, driveshafts, hubs, calipers, wheels, fuel tank and steering rack if you fancy making it go a bit quicker. Hang on a minute. Where did you get those plans from?

[KP92]

Basically we are being given an engine by one of the tutors who wants to support out group - the 600cc motor. I don't have all the info on it just yet so we will have to wait and see what we get.

I'll mention you have that engine though! Thanks.

We have the floor pan tacked in certain areas, and most of it is filed/square and ready to weld. We also made a start on the tube frame, which will now doubt be cut, fish-mouthed and tacked onto the floor pan. Everyone's buzzed for this and we're making solid quality progress.

Jig made up and in use:







Roll hoop tubing:



Rear Section of Frame Partially Tacked and positioned, ready for welding:



Next session the Roll Hoop should be cut, bent and tacked in along with the front braces.

KP

[owelly]

I have a pair of buggy wheels and tyres for sale if you're interested? I'll dig them out if I remember!

[Relentless Rob]

Not sure if I've misunderstood something but don't you already have a gearbox in the Yamaha bike engine?

I've got a 1000CC bike engine with diff, driveshafts, hubs, calipers, wheels, fuel tank and steering rack if you fancy making it go a bit quicker. Hang on a minute. Where did you get those plans from?

I had a Google whilst thinking of your VTR and DVLA/SVA/IVA/NHRA points. Could stick a set of lights on there using the original bike loom and make it road legal with Quad brakes all round.

[KP92]

The two different sections of the frame centre and rear are now fully welded up awaiting a little grinding to neaten things up.

We also have many of the front bull bar pipes made up and the main hoop has been bent into shape by myself.

We are currently going very well and bang on target for each session, absolutely loving this project!




KP