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SXOR single seat buggy build

31K views 203 replies 19 participants last post by  Hokie_YJ 
#1 ·
I haven't been on this board much at all since I sold my old YJ a few years ago. I was just looking at my old thread reminiscing and I thought I'd share my new build here too. I hope this is the right place to post this, it doesn't really fit anywhere else. I'll copy/paste the build so far from another board, but I'll try my best to keep this thread updated.

I've been gathering parts for this build for almost two years. Progress will probably still be slow, but I'm going to copy my build thread here. Hopefully somebody will get some entertainment out of it.

I found a deal on my favorite chassis design that was just too good to pass up. I picked it up as a rolling chassis. It's been built for several years, but it's never been finished. It will most likely be a slow build as I plan to keep my other buggy for now also.

I've been in love with this chassis design ever since I saw this buggy several years ago.



Hopefully when it's done it will look something like these. The first pic is actually the same buggy as above, it's just been updated and re-skinned.




Specs:
-'05 SXOR rear engine, single seat chassis
-empty flipped 609 housings
-3-link front, 4-link rear with .250 wall links
-14" SAW air shocks
-New SXOR Liberty hood and lexan skins

Here's a couple quick pics. I'll get some more detailed ones up soon.



 
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#53 ·
I just had a couple hours to work on this thing today. I made a couple tabs and got the light bar mounted. It's a 20" flood/spot combo from TrailWorthy Fab. I started to bend up some tube to protect it, but I ran out of time.



 
#57 ·
Thanks man! I've had to cut the motor mounts and move the motor toward the drivers side just a little bit. I haven't nailed down the final position yet, but I may not be able to use those headers now at least not without cutting them up.
 
#60 ·
I've been off work this week so I finally got to work on this thing a little bit for the first time in a month. I've had a lot of other stuff to do so I haven't made as much progress as I'd like though.

I cut and moved the tube that was hitting the right front shock when it was flexed out. The joint is slugged with 1.25" tube.



Then I added some reinforcement to the chassis side track bar mount and made it double shear. Before it was just a bolt threaded into a bung in the chassis.



Most of my time this week has been spent redoing my screw ups though. I had to cut all the drivetrain mounts and angle everything toward the drivers side a little more. Luckily I had only tacked everything. I got in too big of a hurry the first time around and didn't leave enough room for the driveshaft. It's still SUPER tight, but I think it will work now. After I got everything relocated I bent up a skid plate for the engine. I tied it into the motor mounts and used tube flanges to make it removable.







Hopefully I'll be able to get a little more done this weekend.
 
#61 ·
Got a little more done today. I got the passenger side header and "muffler" fitted up. The headers are OBX turbo headers. I cut off the v-band flange and tacked on a 30* bend and Vibrant Performance 3"x5" race muffler. I have a feeling this thing is going to be a bit loud, lol. I added the miter cut on the end just for the heck of it. Also added a bung for the O2 sensor. Everything is 304 stainless and I plan to have it all ceramic coated.











Here you can see what I'm up against on the drivers side. I had to pretty much cut the whole collector off just to get the header bolted up. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I'm gonna do here.





After I hit the wall on the exhaust I moved on to finding a place for the oil accumulator. I used some trick tabs with the threaded insert to mount it. I still haven't decided whether or not to run a solenoid valve off the ignition for pre-lubing, or just run it with no valve at all. Any opinions about that?



 
#62 ·
Nice work, its looking real good, tight to.

For the drive side header could you remove that 1.5" frame tube and re-install it with a bend or maybe further up the main rails? The only other option I see is to dump the exhaust tubes down under the motor and then a 90* turn out towards the Rad.

Jason.
 
#63 ·
Yeah, I thought about moving that tube. I wish I would have done that before I cut the header up. I've got a guy that's supposed to come by Monday and look at it. He's a header guy for drag cars, I'm hoping he'll have some ideas. If he doesn't I guess I will move that tube and get a new collector and start over.
 
#64 ·
I worked on this thing for a couple hours yesterday. I got the transmission cooler and steering cooler mounted. The transmission cooler is a Griffin double pass, and it is huge, should keep the Powerglide good and cool. Right behind my head is the only place it would fit, and it barely fits there.





The steering cooler is a Derale Electra-Cool. I decided to move the battery box and put the cooler where it was. I didn't really like the battery there anyway because it was going to be hard to get to. Still have to come up with another spot for the battery.



 
#65 ·
I piddled around on this thing for a couple hours yesterday afternoon. I mounted the steering reservoir. I had to mount it behind the radiator because I'm running out of space in a hurry. It is higher than the pump though and I should be able to make a nice sweeping feed hose to the pump. Hopefully I won't have any feed issues.



After that I mounted the window nets from PRP.





After I got the nets mounted I sat in the buggy and made engine noises because who doesn't do that? Lol. Lets's just say it's a good thing I'm not claustrophobic. I'm a big guy, and it's a tight fit. But it really closes in on you with the nets up.

Like I said I was just working on piddly stuff. No real progress. A lot of what's left is just piddly stuff, but it's the stuff that eats up a lot of time.

It's been a while since I posted an overall shot so I took a few so you can see what it's starting to look like.







I think I've decided on color. I'm going to paint the chassis with Rustoleum Hammered Copper, and the skins with satin black Plasti-Dip. The axles, links, and wheels will be satin black as well. I'm hoping that will look pretty good.
 
#68 ·
I guess I need to update this thread. No major progress, but the new Staworks wheels did finally come in last week. they're 17"x9" with 3" BS, I got them without rock rings, but had the 1/2" cold rolled ring added to the inner and outer lip. They weight in at about 60lbs a piece. They came powder coated a semi-satin black. I left the outer half of the wheel black, but on the face of the inner half I lightly sanded the powdercoat and painted them with Rustoleum hammered copper. I think it turned out pretty good. The wait for the wheels was a long one, I ordered them in April. But i knew up front it would be, I'd still reccomend Stazworks wheels if you're willing to wait.









Last night I finally got the last wheel and tire put together, and got them back on the buggy and got it back to roller status.









I know this isn't much of an update, but I guess it's better than nothing. I'm still trying to slowly plug away at it, and figure it out as I go. I swear one day i will finish it.
 
#71 ·
In case you were wondering this build isn't totally dead. Lol.

I have been working on it a bit lately when I have the time. I've gotten a few things done Moscow it hasn't been very pic-worthy though.

I did finally get the driver's side header fit up. It's really tight, but it's in there.





I know the angles don't really match here, but it's as close as I could get it with the way the motor sits in the chassis at an angle.



After more consideration I decided it would be best to try to move the steering reservoir. This is what I came up with. It's a little higher than I would have liked, but I had put it there to get a good flow path to the pump. Where I had it mounted before on climbs the pump would have been trying to pull fluid uphill from the reservoir, now gravity will be helping. Hopefully this will work.



I've gone back and forth on where I was going to put the battery box. I've mocked it up a few different places. But I finally decided to go back to the original spot under the "dash" just in a different orientation. Everything just works better with it here. I had a steering cooler in this spot, but I'll find a new home for it.





And last for this update I bent up some sliders/steps to help protect the chassis and skins and to make it easier to get in and out of the buggy. They're 1.5" .250 wall tubing and I added some treads with dimples up for traction.



 
#72 ·
Woke up this morning with about 8" of fresh snow so I spent a few hours of this snowy day in the garage. Doesn't feel like I really got a lot accomplished, but it's better than no progress at all.

Obviously I already have a 20" light bar mounted on the roof, but I wanted to put one down low also to use as headlights. So I picked up another 20" bar from RedneckLights. I wanted to mount it just below the hood line, but the hood extended several inches past the end of the chassis so I added a little tube to have somewhere to mount the light.









I tinkered with a few other little things, but nothing really pic worthy. I spent a lot of time sitting on a bucket brainstorming and Googling. Trying to figure out some of the issues I still have to work out. I'm off work until Friday night though so I hope to make some good progress this week.
 
#73 ·
Your exhaust is a work of art. Any rear engine buggy I see I always like to see a clean exhaust shows the builder pays attention to detail. Or maybe cause its such a pain to route it the just look dam sexy, lol.

As always looking real nice, maybe one day I will see it in person at RC.

Jason.
 
#74 ·
Thanks man! I really think it's just because it had to be ran like that. It was a pain in my ***, but at least it's in there. I take no credit for it looking good though. Pure luck. Lol.

I would definitely like to get up there and wheel one day.
 
#75 ·
I crossed a couple more things off the mile long to-do list today.

Storage space was pretty much non-existent on this thing so I wanted to add a place to carry a tool bag, cooler, recovery gear, etc. So I picked up a Baja basket from Poly Performance.

Here it is sitting in place while I was figuring out the mounting.





To mount the front I added a tube between the two c-pillars and used tube disconnects to make it removable so the engine can still be pulled.



To mount the basket to the tube I used some large trick tabs and the hood pins that have the hard rubber bushing to hopefully help cut down on the rattling.



The back is mounted the same way off of the radiator hoop.

Here's it is installed.











I kinda wish it didn't sit quite so high, but I think it still looks ok and will serve the purpose. It took me way too long just to mount this thing. I fought with it forever trying to get it lined up perfect, but with this style chassis hardly nothing is square from side to side. Even the c-pillars are at slightly different angles and lengths because the belt rail on the chassis from the b-pillar back is angled in more on the left side than the right. I finally just eyeballed it from every angle until I thought it looked good, said screw it, and welded it.

After I messed with all that for most of the day. The only other thing I got accomplished was finding a place for and mounting all my vent/ rollover catch cans. The smaller ones with the breather on top are PSC catch cans with a ball bearing rollover valve. The bigger ones are just normal overflow tanks that have the vent straw that extends up to the top of the can.

These three will be the front axle, transmission, and transfer case.



These two will be the rear axle and the steering reservoir.



This one will be the PCV catch can to hopefully keep oil out of the intake. The two valve cover ports will be tee'd together and tied to the inlet of the tank, and then the vent straw will go back to the nipple on the intake.



And this one will be the radiator overflow tank.

 
#76 ·
I haven't had a lot of time in the garage over the last couple weeks, but I've piddled around a got a little bit done when I've had the chance.

The more I looked at the tubing I had added for the interior panels the less I liked it. So I cut it all out and will start over on that. When I originally did it I wasn't thinking ahead and just threw it in there. But I realized that if I didn't make it removable that the only way I could ever pull the tranny or t-case would be to pull the whole drivetrain. So when I re-do it I'll use tube couplers so it can be removed and the tranny or t-case can be pulled from the inside.

I worked on mounting the ECU. This is a BinksFab ECU mount that I modified a little bit to work for me. I added the three bolts on the top to mount my TAC module to, and changed up the mounting bracket a little bit. I just plugged the wiring harness up to make sure everything was going to reach.







I also got the intake sorted out. Just waiting on the filter to show up. The filter I originally ordered was too long so I had to order a smaller one. I just used a 4" short radius 90 and cut each leg as short as I could. The filter will go right on the end of the MAF. I know that's not ideal for the reading, but it will have to work.



After seeing JohnG's post about the Race Mirrors I decided I had to have a pair myself.









One of the next jobs I'm going to try to tackle is setting up the 3rd members. I've never done gears before, but I've been doing a lot of reading and watched a lot of YouTube videos and I'm pretty confident that I can do it myself.

After that's done it will be time to turn this pile of stuff into some driveshafts.

 
#77 ·
I had a little time today so I re-did the interior tube work. Each piece of tube has a tube coupler on the chassis end so it can be removed if needed. The panels will be .100" aluminum.













And the new air filter came in today so I threw it on to see how it fit. It tucks just inside the chassis.

 
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