2006 Monte Carlo to Epic Buggy Build (maybe)

So I had an idea a couple of years ago about having an off road go kart. My wife and I would use it while spending time at a boarding stable. This stable is 56 acres total area and is not a great deal of fun walking all over this place, so go kart seemed perfect. I came across a Joyner sand viper that had been rode hard and put up wet from a friend of mine. And it was fun for a while, then the newness wore off. We quickly became aware that it was severely underpowered. So, I started thinking bigger. Maybe a motorcycle engine? But we'd have to shift it. Still thinking bigger, how about a turbo? Sounds cool but also has its drawbacks. Still thinking bigger, how about a car motor? Oooh! Now we'er getting some where. This chassis is too small for that. Ok, lets build one from scratch. And I was off.......

I found this premium quality one owner on craigslist and bought it for $500! Running, driving, and with only 250K miles what could go wrong. Drove it home and leaked all 4 qrts of oil out on the way. But I knew it had a busted oil pan when I bought it. It sat out in front of my house for a few days and someone ran into it. So another $150 later at a pick your part place, I moved it into my garage and got to work. I took everything I thought I would need and gave the rest to a friend, who would take it and practice using th jaws of life on it with his fellow firefighters. Seemed appropriate. Got to building a rectangle tube frame, came across a roll cage for cheap, and kept building.20160924_171822 by Jason James, on Flickr20180114_175810 by Jason James, on Flickr20180224_180818 by Jason James, on Flickr20180401_181032 by Jason James, on Flickr20181021_171923 by Jason James, on Flickr20181103_113545 by Jason James, on Flickr

Awesome!

When I first started reading I thought this would be a stripped down monte carlo chassis with some tubes welded overtop, but you sir have far exceeded my expectations. 

Oh my yes.

Please tell me that there will be tons of travel....

Also more detailed pictures and write ups please.  I have long thought about this. 

I had some things left over from my car that was wrecked a few years ago. I salvaged the brake pedal/master cylinders and the fuel cell. With the fuel cell, I decided to use an in tank pump. I bought a walboro 255 and a fuel filter with a built in regulator. The lower frame sections are 1.5x3" mild steel rectangle tubing, the cage sections are mild steel 1 5/8 x .134 wall, but all of the control arms are 1 1/4 x .120 wall chromoly with 3/4 heim joints. I retained the factory spindles and brakes to make things easier on myself as well as the factory cat converter and muffler to keep things quiet. I also had a friend come over and work some HP Tuner magic and deal with all of the security issues. 20190109_183912 by Jason James, on Flickr20190112_151639 by Jason James, on Flickr20190112_162604 by Jason James, on Flickr20181205_143134 by Jason James, on Flickr20181205_143144 by Jason James, on Flickr20181205_143214 by Jason James, on Flickr20181205_143205 by Jason James, on Flickr20190413_174237 by Jason James, on Flickr20190112_162623 by Jason James, on Flickr20190413_174102 by Jason James, on Flickr20190728_175641 by Jason James, on Flickr20190728_175704 by Jason James, on Flickr

While waiting on my wife one morning, I started playing around with my s-pen that came with my phone. I wanted to see some progress, cause I look at this all the time and am not always seeing all of the small progress that adds up over time, and also so my wife could visually see what this thing could look like when it's done. I don't like the blue but it gave me a picture to see. It'll probably be a titanium grey color, but I haven't decided just yet. But it is coming along and I am starting to see huge progress. Starting to look like something cool.Screenshot_20190713-112540_Gallery by Jason James, on Flickr

I kept all of the parts from the donor car that I thought I might need. So instead of having tons more fab work on this thing, I kept the factory knuckles and brakes, no need to reinvent the wheel. I simply build bracket to bolt onto these knuckles for 2 reasons. First... it was easiest. Second...if anything happens the the factory parts (ie. knuckles, hubs, brakes, brake hoses) I can just round up oem replacement parts at a pick you part or and auto parts store. Hopefully these thing will save me some grief in the future. I fabbed up some easy flat engine and trans mounts from some of the tubing that was left over from the frame. At this moment I and working (very slowly) at being able to add body panels and a tinted roof panel.2019-09-01_01-56-46 by Jason James, on Flickr20190901_111950 by Jason James, on Flickr20190901_111533 by Jason James, on Flickr20190901_111726 by Jason James, on Flickr20190901_111635 by Jason James, on Flickr20190901_111602 by Jason James, on Flickr20190901_111414 by Jason James, on Flickr

So it's been a little while since my last post, life has been non stop around here. There has been a little bit of progress on this build. I acquired some old street signs from a friend and fashioned up a floor. I have the small one under the battery and the larger one underneath the motor to install. I have some bracket installed in about half of the body to attach body panels. A dash is also been in the works, got to have some place for switches and such. And while we are on the dash subject, I tried to figure out a reasonable place to put the shifter. It seemed that no matter where I put the factory shifter, it was incredibly in the way. I started searching for a smaller/different type of shifter. I looked at all kinds of floor shifters, from billet units to polaris stuff and everything was crazy money or just as bulky. But as luck would have it, some inspiration rolled across the google. I don't need a floor shifter, why can't I go back with a column shifter? So that's what I did. Rounded up a couple of heim joints and a 1/2" piece of tubing. I bent it up with the help of a torch and with a couple of tabs later, it was in place. I found a shifter lever from a broken transmission core at work and drilled the hole to fit the tube. ( By the way, these shift levers and available at most auto part stores. You don't need a trans just laying around.) Clipped the factory shift cable end on the shift lever, set it in park, and while holding the shift lever where I wanted park to be I tacked the lever to the tube. And just like that boys and girls, a homemade shifter. Now I don't have a reverse lockout, so that may come back to bite me later. But it's way up out of the way, we'll see. I have completed all of the wiring with the exception of a headlight and brake lights. A friend with HP Tuners came over several months ago and turned off all of the security in the PCM. And with all of the wiring complete, I was able to turn the main power on, ignition power, and fuel pump and press the starter button. This was so rewarding!! After a little more than 2 years, all of this work, all of the planning,......Today it paid off! 

With things winding down on the to do list, I'm getting closer and closer to having to pull the motor out to finish some welding that I haven't been able to reach. I've been putting this off because it feels like its gonna be a chore. I also swapped out the fuel cell for a much smaller one. And doing this allowed me to shift the rack over the middle and have equal length tie rods. It feels like body panels, a little welding, a bigger set of tires along with some mudflap/fender and I'm almost ready to drive it. I'm sure there is a ton of little stuff that I'm forgetting, but I'm close.

20200315_184510 by Jason James, on Flickr20200315_184528 by Jason James, on Flickr20200301_184406 by Jason James, on Flickr20200117_182625 by Jason James, on Flickr20200106_185152 by Jason James, on Flickr20200105_192923 by Jason James, on Flickr20191228_194151 by Jason James, on Flickr20191225_121253 by Jason James, on Flickr

We are still making progress here, slow progress but progress. So finally, I have almost run out of stuff to build, time for the motor to come out. Pulled the motor to complete the welding on the back end. Only body mount panel tabs to weld on from here on out. I removed the electrical panel to paint then it got riveted on to make it permanent. I put the motor back in after a little spray paint. All of the lower floor frame is some semi gloss black. All of the round bars are going to be this bright ass silver. should be pretty nice. The Mrs. and I are going to halfway put this together and go try it out. We can add the panels later. We can't wait!! 20200419_142528 by Jason James, on Flickr20200419_142522 by Jason James, on Flickr20200419_181823 by Jason James, on Flickr