First off, im curious if anyone has fabricated their own suspension seats and how difficult is it... I am a budget builder that would rather make something myself if i can than pay someone else unless its a total pain in the... well you know. Second I would like some opinions on floor pan material, currently i have somewhat thick aluminum floor and it has taken a beating but seems to be a costly option, opinions appreciated on steel, aluminum, and cheese grater floors (stretch steel). Thanks folks

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Lifes journey is not to arrive safely at the grave in a well preserved body but to slide in worn out screamin WOW WHAT A RIDE!!

expanded metal (stretch steel) will do just like you said, act as a cheese grater. Lots of friction when dragging over something, and fling dirt up at ya.
Might try some Ultra High Molecular Weight (UHMW) Polyethylene, Some crawlers use it in 1/2" or 3/4". Really slick and super tough from what I hear. 3/8" thick supposedly fine for regular buggy though. Way cheaper than alum diamond plate. Always wanted to try some, just installin a different floor is way down on my priority list .

Never thought of Polyethelene since i work with it every day lol, My only thought with it is on occasion we go play in the dead of winter and polyethelene gets brittle at low temperatures. Exellent thought thought for overall weight and durability, i may look into it a little closer, was thinking the cheese grater for cleaning out, currently solid aluminum floors with sides takes forever to get all the Wellsville out of it at the end of the weekend lol.

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Lifes journey is not to arrive safely at the grave in a well preserved body but to slide in worn out screamin WOW WHAT A RIDE!!

I have a .063 alum floor on the race buggy and .100 alum floor on the woods buggy. The .063 is too thin, but the .100 looks promising

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Maybe you should chug on over to mamby pamby land....

Yeah, .100 AL is tougher than it looks. Put enough tabs on it and it takes more than you'd think it would.
I didnt do the uhmw when I first built cuz I just didnt think it would like right: a brand new shiny buggy that didnt have a brite new floor, but now after a couple years in the woods my buggy looks like a pile anyways, wish I wouldve tried it

We run 3/8" thick Dural aluminium for the floor, with some UHMW skidpans under the very front and rear of the buggy so we've got something we can throw away and replace cheaply when they get battered.
Floor's got it's fair share of dents and creases but it's taken some serious stick - the UHMWP under the car helps stop the floor being ground away as it slides fairly easily.

keep in mind a large sheet of uhmw
will expand and contract quite a bit
with temp. change

I do alot of work with UHMW in cold conditions, and dont see the cold having too much of an effect as far as makin it brittle. The sun however will tear it up!! If I leave a sheet or 2 out side in the sun, it becomes very brittle like glass after a while (6 months or so in direct light).

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Maybe you should chug on over to mamby pamby land....

Are there different colors of this stuff available? We add carbon black to our polyethelene and store it outside for years before it becomes glass-like brittle. As far as temperature is concerned we actually freeze our product and impact test it to see if it will fail at lower temperatures thats why i mentioned it. Some thoughts on color and plastic..... I have ran the cheap clear colored distributor caps and noticed a difference in how long they last.... my buggy is usually stored outside in the weather uncovered (laziness) and there was a big difference in length of time i used them. Seems the yellowish green one lasted a couple years, the blue one less than a season.

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Lifes journey is not to arrive safely at the grave in a well preserved body but to slide in worn out screamin WOW WHAT A RIDE!!

Yeah, you can get UHMW in black, it's a little harder and slides slightly better from the graphite they add for colouring.

ace let me know if you go with the poly floor ,i would like to take a look at it . im lookin to redo my floor . as for suspension seats have not seen anyone makin then but L.A has the race trims for 160 a seat . thanks jason

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Theirs no replacement for displacement !