Building Manxter DualSport to Race NORRA Mexican 1000

[Iguana]

Ok, I'm starting to get nervous for you. Starting to get a glimmer of doubt.

Pfftft no doubt just busy and can't type with a helmet on

[Iguana]

Well we are into it now, the boys arrived from Australia and before they had a chance to settle in we headed over to Meyers Manx to pickup the Manxter DualSport Kit, Baja Edition.



The Baja Edition starts life as a Normal DualSports Manxter and then gets an upgraded cage ( 1 1/2" 1020 DOM 0.120 wall ) and Tiw Welded with different rear shock mounts to suit the 2.5 Coil Overs. The rest ofd the modifications happen during assembly with additional internal supports and base plates.

The Kit like all Meyers Manx Kits comes complete with all the fasteners





Winnie goes through the kit and checks everything off the list.



The colour is a nice Orange that Winnie had made.





With all of it checked off we load her up and head back to teh shop.

[DesertGuy]

Ok, I'm starting to get nervous for you. Starting to get a glimmer of doubt.

...it has been done before.

Hope you guys make it but..... man..... you all have some 24 hour days ahead.

[Iguana]

Ok, I'm starting to get nervous for you. Starting to get a glimmer of doubt.

...it has been done before.

Hope you guys make it but..... man..... you all have some 24 hour days ahead.

Cheers, we hope we make it as well

We have made good progress and I think Paul has been Tigin for 24 hrs straight

The Tow'd is back from Sand Blast and it is getting love now as well.

[Iguana]

Tic Toc goes the race clock ...

[Leatherneck]

Super cool video, gotta love being able to work outside most of the year.

[Iguana]

Thanks for the feedback, the weather is great I guess that is why people put up with the Taxes.

[Iguana]

It has been together and apart many times.



We are hopeful of getting some paint on the chassis by end of the week and begin final assembly.

At the moment the Arclight CNC Plasma is going most of the day as we pump out all the stuff we need to keep welding out on the two cars.



Andrew got the short straw and got to cut the new fiberglass to suit the coil overs. With the 2.5's Sonny from Down South Motorsports setup for us we need a bit more room than standard.

[Iguana]

With the body cut and fitted we could get down to setting up the steering and front end. We are using a set of 4" over front arms and spindles from foddrill, 4 pot front calipers and hubs from Jamar Performance, 10" 2.5 Piggy Backs built by DownSouth Motorsports and a Fortin 2.0 Buggy Power Rack.



The 2.5 shocks will sit on the inside mount as we need to keep them under the body lines. The steering with run Rod ends in double shear on the outer and inner on custom tie rods.





With that all setup we could do full cycle and steering and work on front end braces.

Once happy we added them in



Inside the seat mounts were added, these are custom units to work with the seats we have from PRP and also tie into the floor and be low profile to get us down as low as possible.



Now is time to start welding out. Due to the cage design we need to weld out the primary before we add more additional bracing.

Luckily we can pull it out and roll it around to get into an easy weld position.



We also added some more rear end braces after clocking the box's to where we liked.



Then Paul got to welding, welding and more welding. We decided to Tig weld the entire thing and luckily for me Paul is able to work in places I could never fit.





We then pulled the body again and flipped it over.





Weld weld and more weld

[Iguana]

We mounted the Foddrill 2.0 Buggy Rack on the beam using the adjustable bracket we made. This let us position it in the best location for bump steer. Then using a straight edge and markers we managed to get 1/4" at 4' variation through full travel (14") so we are pretty happy with that.



We also finished off the knuckles and get them welded in.



With knuckles in the floor measurements could be taken.



Soon it would be looking like a buggy ..

[Spheromike]

I thought I would post a update on whats is going over at Team DSBE shop. I went over there to visit so I snapped a few photos of the huge progression that has happened over only 1 week
Enjoy

[Iguana]

we had a few Tow'd distractions to take care of and that kept Paul busy modifying fuel tanks and hooking up brackets. I hate to think about how we did all that before the ArcLight CNC.



Meanwhile I got stuck into making the custom wiring looms. For this conversion we will be retaining the factory ECU so I needed to do a few modifications.





Once done I use the drive car to plug them into and test run then while hooked to the Factory Subaru Brick. Doing this I can ensure everything is good to go and still works as it should.



Once it is done and tested then I box them, seal them and they are good to go. When they go into the car the only interface they have is through a panel mount 12 pin Deutsch connector so they are weather proof and out of the way.

Box's are made in house to suit the Meyers Manx Buggies. They fit in under the rear tray and allow retention of the factory grommets.



One down one to go ..



We also got a delivery in the form of our EJ25 Engines from Chris at SubiWorks. They have been inspected and cleaned up so we know they are health. Now what makes this delivery ever cooler is that fact that due to our time line it was 0100 when they arrived... now that's service getting your engine at 0100 a few days before test and tune, thanks Chris.





We still have to fit the manifold etc once we decide on the cooling systems.

[Iguana]

Paint booth is operation and the height variable platform makes it easier to paint all round.



Just need to let it dry, bolt up some bits, build some bits, buy some bits and them hopefully drive some bits



Paint dry got to love SOCAL weather.

Time to get it in, get it built.

Start with the floor ..

We gave it a coat or Armadillo Lining so it didn't rattle like a tin can. I figured since we were doing that we might as well add some quilting




Now it looks pretty time to get it bolted on, as you can see from the holes it has a few bolts





Damn just realised we ran out of Beer .. better get to the shop so the boys don't stop working ...

[DesertGuy]

I really hope you guys make it... if nothing more than to 'understand' Mexico, I think you will learn a lot about what doesn't work down there. Hope your not taking that skid plate off in a silt bed.... Keep at it

[Iguana]

I really hope you guys make it... if nothing more than to 'understand' Mexico, I think you will learn a lot about what doesn't work down there. Hope your not taking that skid plate off in a silt bed.... Keep at it

Thanks, we hope we make it to.

The skid plate is just the primary floor. The front and rear skids are multi section to allow access to stuff if we need to, hopefully we don't. Just in case I have built most things to be cassette removable so stuff like the motor and the transmission unplug as a unit and slide out using custom slides that connect to the barwork.

I will be the first to admit I have NFI what Mexico will be like and I agree in that we will learn a heck of a lot, in fact we already are