WackyBug

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AndrewT
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WackyBug - with Videos!

Post by AndrewT » Sun Oct 07, 2007 7:35 pm

About time I posted up some info about the little buggy we've been making.

I picked up a pretty good little 1983 MY Wagon a few weeks ago. Bog standard, unlicenced. EA81 running great with slightly noisy lifters. 4spd dual range gearbox. $150 cash.
http://members.iinet.net.au/~carine3/IMAGE_081.jpg

Got it home.

Removed;
All doors, real tailgate, roof (cut off), interior (including dashboard), bonnet, guards, pretty much everything else not essential for driving.

Sprayed on some $2.50 per can gloss black paint here and there. (And some of Alex's leftover Gold paint haha).

Slapped on my old 14" wheels with 27" dualers to replace the 13" steelies.

And there you have it - a Subaru buggy!
http://members.iinet.net.au/~carine3/IMAGE_044.jpg

Test run #1 - white sand.
We took it out one night to the Pines to a lovely big sand bowl with some pretty good hill climbs all around it. It was pretty boggy stuff, a very good test for terrains like Lancelin, Wedge etc. The buggy absolutely dominates on this terrain. Because of it's lack of weight it simply does not get bogged. We drove right into the middle of the sand bowl, stopped dead. Normally you would be in trouble here when you try to start again but Buggy just drives out with no trouble at all! Bare in mine, she is still running a standard open rear diff.
It ran for probably near on 5 hours with approximately $6 fuel in the tank.

Test run #2 - very rocky.
We took it out today to the good old Powerlines treck in Mundaring. She did very well here too, tackling some fairly extreme rocky sections and still comming out the other side. Some parts got the better of her mostly due to the open rear diff I think. She also suffered from a little fuel delivery problem occasionally (stock carby with the car on a very wild angle).
Lots of photos from this trip below.
showthread.php?p=63553#post63553

Performance

Well, it feels almost like a race car. We have severely lightened the load from standard form and this makes a HUGE difference! It might just be a little EA81 but the car really moves well.

Body strength (or lack of).

Yes before everybody pipes up, we know there is nearly no strength in the body....she hasn't folded in half yet but we figured we'd just risk it for a couple of test runs first. There are a couple of kinks forming in the rear here and there.And one of the seam welds is comming apart. You can actually see the car physically twisting (look at the shape of the roof in some of those photos!). It actually helps with articulation =)
Obviously she is getting some good bracing soon, and a roll bar. Already have some box section metal standing by to make a good cage, it just needs to be welded up. This will be done very soon hopefully then she will really be ready to rock and roll!

EJ?
Well I have an EJ22 motor with loom and ECU, who knows maybe it will find a home in WackyBug sometime soon. We'll see how she goes with the cage inplace.

Theres still heaps to do, we've litterally only spent a few hours getting it to this point (destroying it I guess haha). Very cheap and VERY fun!

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D3V1L
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Post by D3V1L » Sun Oct 07, 2007 7:38 pm

dam straight very fun!!
no more subarus


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Subafury
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Post by Subafury » Sun Oct 07, 2007 8:05 pm

o yeh. the aim was to spend nothing on her- or re coop the money thru selling of parts. i think the budget so far has been about $30 haha.

very fun buggy. it just goes anywhere!
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Bumpty
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Post by Bumpty » Sun Oct 07, 2007 8:45 pm

Jolly well done... Bugsta looks great!
when was it decided that bonnet should come off, or was that only on for first poser shot?

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D3V1L
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Post by D3V1L » Sun Oct 07, 2007 8:46 pm

lol..thta was there to stop rain getting into the engine bay 1 night :P
no more subarus


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AndrewT
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Post by AndrewT » Sun Oct 07, 2007 9:02 pm

everything thats not required for driving has come off really...we might make some kind of bonnet out of perspex or plastic perhaps.

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AndrewT
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Post by AndrewT » Thu Dec 13, 2007 10:56 pm

Small update on WackyBug - upgrades ahoy!
She currently has no motor, the EA81 now resides in Chris' Brumby (Subarino's brother).

This means she will be getting an EJ22 conversion very soon!

I have a 1990 Liberty GX automatic donor vehicle standing by. Will be pulling the motor, loom and ECU out shortly.

Gearbox;
Buggy will keep her 4spd dual range gearbox.

Clutch;
I'm dropping the clutch and pressure plate off at the clutch place tomorrow. Getting the clutch repacked and the pressure plate beefed up to Lib spec.

Flywheel;
I'll be using a round file to elongate some of the holes in the EA81 flywheel so it fits the back of the EJ22

Adaptor plate;
Alex still has enough Ally to make one more adaptor plate :)

Wiring;
Subarino has kindly put his hand up to strip down the wiring loom for me - Awesome!

Radiator;
Will be fitting the standard Lib radiator complete with standard Lib thermo fans - yes some crude brackets will be made and the radiator mounted somewhere approximately where the front bumper used to be.

Rear diff;
I've aquired a welded diff (Thanks Tim!). It just needs the ratio swapped to 3.7 and can be installed. I'll just be swapping ring gears and casings with the 3.7 open diff thats in Buggy now.

Clutch cable;
Anybody wanna donate an L series clutch cable? I've heard the MY ones snap under the extra pressure of a beefed up clutch.

Power steering lines;
I'll bring the EJ and EA lines in to ENZED hose fittings once I get the EJ ones out of the Lib and get them to cut off / solder on the ends which go into the rack. MY ends need to go onto the EJ lines.

Exhaust;
Probably just adapt the stock MY buggy exhaust onto the EJ22 headers for the moment, although maybe Buggy deserves a flashy muffler like Alex and Matt just got, gotta admit they sound nice!


Can't think of too much else at the moment, should be pretty cheap and easy I'd say!

(yes it still needs some metal welded in here and there for body strength - Vidler lemme know when you have some time...but I'll bolt some stuff in for the moment just incase).

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Subafury
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Post by Subafury » Thu Dec 13, 2007 11:11 pm

i have a suggestion or two.
with the diff what ratio is it? if 3.9 maybe you could have your 3.9 L series gbox back :p
cut n weld together some of those rusty zorst systems you hve out the back into a gnarly sounding exhaust system. no cat. no muffler. straight through goodness ;)
needs another paint job i noticed- i could get creative and make some stencils/decals to spray on yeh?
remember it still needs a ****ty stereo and spotties too
Image

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90brumby
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Post by 90brumby » Thu Dec 13, 2007 11:47 pm

wat about the P/S lines from ur L series since ur gonna b usin a lib rack soon will thoses work in place gettin more made


n also i believe the MY cables do snap mattack tried this
The New Owner Of hatchie
A 00 outback for doner car
2 door wrx being restored

owned plently of other subis before

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Matatak
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Post by Matatak » Fri Dec 14, 2007 12:30 am

u forgot the fuel sid of things :p u need to put a return line on theFiller neck to the tank and run one back to there. (not sure if thats needed with an Lseries or wether they already have one)
and obviously u no the need for EFI stuff lol.

the MY cable mount is a seriously weak point with the Beefed u pressure plates. so an Lseries cable will fix that.
depending on how hard ur pressure plate becomes...it may last a few pushes LOL
how beefy is the Lib spec ??
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Wagon is no longer....:(

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AndrewT
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Post by AndrewT » Fri Dec 14, 2007 1:33 am

90brumby wrote:wat about the P/S lines from ur L series since ur gonna b usin a lib rack soon will thoses work in place gettin more made
L series P/S line fittings at the rack are the same as Lib.

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chriSTIan
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Post by chriSTIan » Fri Dec 14, 2007 7:27 am

Andrew ,i have a suggestion for a "bonnet",how about using a roll of cling wrap?!
I can donate one since xmas is coming up...

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gx_rex
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Post by gx_rex » Fri Dec 14, 2007 7:55 pm

I have done similar things in the past, used to buy cheap unlic cars for $50 or so and spend a good day killing them at gnangara pines. worst one i did was an escort that had no air cleaner. at last minute decided on a bit of rag over carby with a rubber band. after about 4 hours of hardcore burnouts and thrashing the rag became soaked in fuel. car backfired and that was end of story. instant fireball out of the engine bay. pushed it into a clearing and within 2 minutes it was engulfed. damn it was fun though...

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AndrewT
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Post by AndrewT » Sat Dec 15, 2007 10:12 am

haha yeah that does sound like fun but it's not really the intent here. This is a very fun little buggy and I want it to last a fair while :) It should do with some good bracing.

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Subafury
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Post by Subafury » Sat Dec 15, 2007 11:09 am

the idea is its rollable. go hard, if she becomes belly up, push her over and keep going :)
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Bumpty
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Post by Bumpty » Sat Dec 15, 2007 12:02 pm

'rollable' haha... hey that is a word!
looking forward (not backwards) to seeing the future mods with some vids.

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Post by SuBaRiNo » Sat Dec 15, 2007 1:52 pm

If you want to make it "roll-able". Main thing u will need to look at is it's fluids. When Jonno rolled it was not a big problem... only thing was he had no brake fluide... no coolant in the overflow and needed to top up the oil. These things need to seal in so they can;t get out.

Dave
EJ conversion wiring harness cut downs available. Please PM or email (davem2000@hotmail.com) for details.

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AndrewT
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Post by AndrewT » Sat Dec 15, 2007 2:49 pm

I'll definitely look at those things.
Just to clarify...I certainly don't "intend" to roll it....thats just dangerous!
I just want the thing to survive easily in the event that it did happen at low speed.

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Matatak
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Post by Matatak » Sat Dec 15, 2007 2:57 pm

if it rolls u shudnt lose brake fluid :???: they shuld all have sealed caps. and if urs dont u shuld definetely look at that coz that is dangerous
the coolant overflow needs to breathe - if u think u shuld no why.
oil...well u dont really want ur engine running when the cars overturned neway.
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AndrewT
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Post by AndrewT » Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:06 am

Bit of an update on the EJ22 conversion.

- EJ22 motor is out of the Lib donor car and on the garage floor (thanks Dave, Alex and especially Matt for helping with this).
- Flywheel - I've started filing out the holes, hopefully get this finished in the next few days
- Clutch is still at the clutch place but sposed to be ready in a few days
- PS lines are at ENZED getting the ends chopped and swapped
- Lib wiring harness is in Subarino's very capable hands for cutting down

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