TFA: the artcar 2002/06/15

The Artcar: 2002/06/15
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Grumble grumble. I've been sick, work's been busy and none of the parts go where they should. Well they do go where they should, the problem is that it's not obvious where they should go.

I'll go into greater detail when I have more time, but let's just say that it's a myth that you can buy a name-brand dune buggy frame and just start bolting parts on without any problems. I don't disagree with any of the design decisions Chenowth made, I just wish they'd have documented them somewhere.

So, lots of test fitting, taking things apart, going down to the guys at Bugformance to order a special part, calling Chenowth for advice (they've been great), more test fitting, etc.

The past few days of work have been taking apart the rear suspension bits pulled from the old bug, cleaning them up, making a few other parts, painting everything and so on. Check out my high-tech press for getting the bushings out of the trailing arms. One nice thing about the metric system -- if you need a 20mm press you can find a bolt with a 19mm head, attach it to a gear puller and press away. Yeah, you could probably do this with Imperial unit tools, but I'm always trying to figure out what the next size down from a 17/64ths pin would be. One size down from 20 is 19, no fractions are involved.

And finally, the first test fit of all the suspension bits. Things are looking pretty good at this point, I'm going to bolt everything up this week and start working on the mounts for the jet engine.