Thanks. I have to tell you that I am getting much better with my welding. I actually started some of the bodywork on the baja. I have been welding all the top parts where the cuts were made to make it topless. It doesnt look perfect, but its nothing that a little bondo wont fix, and it definately qualifies for baja bodywork!
Here is a shot of the kind of thing I had to fix

And here is a pic of that area with new metal welded in. Like I said, still needs some work but not bad for a rookie

Here are some more shots of the repairs on the sides

Got the rear fenders cut and on the car today. I ended up using an old set of front fenders a friend gave me. I cut the first one to shape then made a template so the other one would be the same. They ended up pretty small but look like race fenders. Dont know how much good they will be other than just looking like fenders

I hope you don't mind a little advice? I am by no means trying to downgrade your car but I wanted to give you some advice from experience. Your tree bars are not very strong looking. One good shot and they are toast. I don't know how much woods riding you plan on doing but you need to protect that rear tire. Hit a tree with the tire and it can get real expensive real quick. You may want to re-think your design and make it stronger.

Roy

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Buy the best and cry once.

Actually any advice you can give is appreciated. Thats the main reason for posting the build on this forum. I would much rather find and fix a problem before it goes to paint. What would you change about the tree bars? I was thinking of adding another crossbar about half way to the front. Should I make other changes? The bars are 1" .120 wall thickness. Any ideas are appreciated.

Yeah, I would add another bar halfway to the front and I would also add a another bar at the rear, right where the bend is at the tire. It could tie into the bar that is already there. If you had to do it all over again, go with larger tubing next time. It will take more abuse.

Roy

You do some beautiful fab work! I have a question/suggestion. Have you ever thought of running some tube in the middle of the door area? I realize that it would be a pain in the butt to climb over to get in and out but, the only thing connecting the front and the back is the upper and lower tubes. I'm no expert! But I would think if you roll and bend the upper tubes, say the front windshield area, will the two lower tubes, being that close together, be sufficient to keep the vehicle from collapsing or folding. That would not be good! Especially if the rest of the vehicle turns out as nice as the chassis. You said you were going to woods ride and in my head, woods riding is climbing big hills and sometimes rolling back down them. As I've seen Dean and Davehix roll, and I have yet to see Roy roll. Nice work!
Dave

Sorry this is the best pic I have of the area you are talking about

The idea of adding another bar across the door area has come up a time or two. I really kind of assumed that the two shorter angled bars would make up for one longer bar going all the way across. Not to mention that at 6ft 240lbs it is already kind of a pain to get in and out of now. I know that convienence is a really bad substitute for safety but there is also the matter of shoulder room. The seats are moved so far towards the doors that Im not sure there is enough room to get another bar in there.
This is my first attempt at something like this. And you guys probably have alot more experience at the type of offroading I plan to do with the baja. I do want the baja to be safe so if you believe I need to add another bar, then that is what I will do.
If you could give me a better idea of where you think the bar should go. That way I have something to work with.
Thanks again for your help!

Being a big guy I understand getting in and out. What if you ran a tube beside your seat at the same angle as the back then follow the seat bottom and go forward. Then you could brace that. Also I'm not sure if you plan to run this on the street, ( I would) but you should be fine on the street the way it is. What if you added another bar that was removable for offroad.

I have to say that after watching this video http://www.woodsbuggy.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=61 plus the ones that Roy posted the other day it really makes me second guess my cage design and fab skills If you remember, this is my first attempt at something like this. I am working on the previous suggestions you all had for the baja. But I have some new concerns after watching the videos that I would like you alls opinions on......

Heres how I plan to fix the door area you guys mentioned before.

My biggest concern is wether or not the roof section will be able to handle a rollover. Im worried about the top section folding over or twisting. I think this idea will do the trick but I wanted to get more opinions. I plan on going from the top where the roof section connects to the main hoop - down to the torsion housing - on both sides.

I was finally able to make it over to work on the baja again. Unfortunately it was the least productive day of work ever!

I cant do the xbracing the way I wanted because it will hit both of the seats and go right through the battery area.

The side bars wont work because the seats are too close to the door to allow a bar to go beside the seat without having to notch out my door panel.

And the batteries in my camera died before I could even get one pic of the problem areas

I am going to be able to brace the tree bars though once I get the body back off. Hopefully that will be today if I can get the dzus fasteners for the frontend mounted. So stay tuned, hopefully I will have some progress pics tonight or tomorrow.

I was able to get all the rest of the work done that I needed to do before I could take the body off.

After many failed attempts with lining up the dzus fasteners I finally decided just to mount them to the one-piece frontend, put the frontend on, and weld the tabs in place while they were on the frontend.

I cant tell you how many times I measured, tacked, and put frontend back on just to find out they wouldnt line up. This way was sooo much easier. Did start a small fire though

I also got the mounts made for the headlights.

Hopefully I will get the body off tomorrow so I can finish up some loose ends on the frame.

I managed to get some side bars figured out and tacked in. Hopefully this will do the trick. Because of the way the bug body bows out at the back of the door, there was enough room to get a bar around the seat right there. A little higher than I would like but its not bad getting in and out so it should be fine. My wife said if I just lost a couple pounds it would be no problem

I also managed to get the body off and work on some of the other things. I started on the extra bracing on the tree bars and got both the rear shock bosses in before I ran out of mig wire.

In the picture above you can see tabs on the rear cage area just behind the shocks. My plan is to put a piece of diamond plate there to protect the air filters from so many rocks.

I havent been able to figure out where to mount the oil filter because Im not sure if it will interfear with the air filters. I know I want it on the drivers side in front of the oil cooler. My question is... do you think the aluminum diamond plate will be strong enough to hold the oil filter assembly?

If I can mount the oil filter to the diamond plate then I think all I have left to do is finish up the tree bars and make some bump stops.

On your tree bars, the new angled piece is a good idea but the way you have it, it will still possibly fold in on you. The way I have done mine is to look at how a tree might possibly hit the tree bar and support that area the best you can. I will take pictures of mine and post them to give you an idea. Just trying to help you out here.

The Wild Kids

For the rest of the build go here:

http://www.woodsbuggy.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=291

Heres a little update on what I was doing while you guys were having fun at D&K.

After an extremely long day of sanding and painting I finally got the frame painted. I painted the frame Viper Blue and the suspension parts metallic silver. It didnt turn out too bad for someone with no experience painting Most of the stuff that you will see after it is all together looks ok anyway.

I painted the frame yesterday and had planned to spray the body flat black today. But when I opened the epoxy primer I saw that they gave me the grey instead of black So I guess I will wait till next weekend for the body.

So I ended up putting some of the baja back together today.

Heres a little closeup of the paint and a smoothed joint. Most of them ended up looking pretty good. Im glad cause I was really getting pissed about all the work I ended up putting into cleaning up the welds. They look good, but there is no way in hell I would do it again.

Looks awesome!! Now get 'er put together so you can scratch it all up and break it in real nice. It aint a woodsbuggy unless its got some wounds!

I'll say it again, that thing is gonna be killer lookin!

My buddies teased the hell out of me until I put mine on its lid and scratched it up a little. This weekend I got me some tow hook gouges in the front bumper, too, when the MSD box went south!

Glad to see you are back to making progress.

Larry

Thanks, hopefully I will be able to stay on it pretty good now. As far as the scratches go... well thats been my whole excuse for everything that doesnt look perfect. "Oh well, it will be all screwed up after its first trip to the woods anyway!"

I just had alot of doubters when I started this. Guys that thought that just because I had never welded, painted or built a frame, that theree was no way I was going to be able to do it. So I want it to look as good as possible when it is finished so I can shove it in their face before my tires throw dirt in their face

I love the Go to Hell attitude. I am not a real detail guy. Thats part of what I like about woodsbuggys. They are built to do a job. Not be in a show. Althought guys like Sharpshooter have figured out how to do both. We can't all be him.

Amen to that. I will say I have the last white buggy I will ever have (at least one I painted.) It looks good new, but after 4 years after re-painting it it looks like it was pelted by a shotgun, and then side swiped by a semi.

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