It's all MADRAM's fault...........

.......but that's a good thing!!!!!!

To explain my statement, here's a short back story. Feb of '12 we went to the Gorilla run In Hot Springs, figured this would be the closest chance for us to see the rock bouncers in action. We saw all the wild/cool rigs do their thing and we were quite impressed! But I kept noticing this green JK buggy and it really got my attention........ I had my YJ for sale at the time, thought I was tired of 4 wheeling, as it turns out, I was just tired of working on that rig. The morning we got up to come home Cole's rig was at our hotel, I looked it over the best I could and made up my mind I wanted to build one like it. So, parted out the YJ, bought parts as funds were available and we started bending tube Labor day weekend 2012. It took me awhile to find HL and I had a thread on Pirate, but been lurking over here much more now! So here are a few pics. Huge thanks to my buddy Bo (chassis help and the drool paint work) and Justin (CNC plasma stuff) for the help!!


Specs: 5.3HO, T350, Rocktrac t-case, Narrowed- 5 lug 60's, Detroit and Spartan, 4:56's, 37" PBR's on H1's, 7075 links w/ ruffstuff heims.
Starting chassis - 1.75, .120 DOM


Built the chassis and set up the susp and drive train at a Buddy's house, brought it home to finish up.


Mounting more stuff.


Ready for tear down and powder coat.


Powder coater turned it around in 24 hours.


Took it on a shake down run before the skins were done, couldn't wait any longer.......






DONE (for now....LOL)

Looks good, nice lil buggy


What highsteer arm setup do you have?

and

What size radiator? does it run cool? looks like a compact unit.

That thing is sharp! I like all the shiny black drool drool drool

You have much body roll with the 2.0 air shocks? Are you running a sway bar? (hard to tell from pics)

Coles rig is deff a tough mofo. I don't see the horn on the passanger t-handle though.

Wasn't sure what to expect when I saw the title of this thread. Buggy looks real good man. Glad I could be of some influence.

Looking good. The paint on the hood is bad ass. How are the Ford lockouts and outer shaft holding up? I'm building a 609 fornt using those outers and wondering how they will hold up to those tires.

What highsteer arm setup do you have?

and

What size radiator? does it run cool? looks like a compact unit.
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The arms are from a guy on pirate, fordtechguru is his screen name. He is a vendor there. He makes them for the SD fronts up to 04. Rad is 26x19 and is seems to do fine, I removed the t-stat.

I am running an antirock on the rear it's right below the fuel cel,(can see arm in pic) it is set on the softest setting and it feels pretty stable to me. But this is the first rig I've ever had that wasn't leaf sprung.

Cole said:

Wasn't sure what to expect when I saw the title of this thread. Buggy looks real good man. Glad I could be of some influence.

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It seems like I watched the walk around video of your buggy a hundred times......lol. Thx!

RustyC said:

Looking good. The paint on the hood is bad ass. How are the Ford lockouts and outer shaft holding up? I'm building a 609 fornt using those outers and wondering how they will hold up to those tires.

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only have 2 runs on them, but so far so good. Have a buddy that has ran his pretty hard and (knock on wood) hasn't broke them yet?..........

stano said:

What highsteer arm setup do you have?

and

What size radiator? does it run cool? looks like a compact unit.


The arms are from a guy on pirate, fordtechguru is his screen name. He is a vendor there. He makes them for the SD fronts up to 04. Rad is 26x19 and is seems to do fine, I removed the t-stat.

I am running an antirock on the rear it's right below the fuel cel,(can see arm in pic) it is set on the softest setting and it feels pretty stable to me. But this is the first rig I've ever had that wasn't leaf sprung.

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I was wondering if those were Weaver Fab (fordtechguru) arms, I'm considering sending all 4 of my knuckles to him (4 wheel steering). I need balljoints too, and the $1500 is holding me up a bit...

Good deal on the radiator, I'll need something the same size.

RustyC said:

Looking good. The paint on the hood is bad ass. How are the Ford lockouts and outer shaft holding up? I'm building a 609 fornt using those outers and wondering how they will hold up to those tires.

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East Coast Gear Supply has 10 Factory 35 spline stubs for the unit bearings for a good price (they use standard 35 spline drive slugs or hubs, so that's a non-issue)

stano, is a great guy!!! and the rig turned out sick!!!!!

Buggy looks way different than a YJ would!

Going to compete with it or just hit up trails?

Great job bud the first time I ever seen coles rig timmy was beating the hell out of it on cable . Wanted to build one really bad but didn't have a clue where to even start.my hats off to ya for knowing what u want an building it.

ridered3 said:

Buggy looks way different than a YJ would!

Going to compete with it or just hit up trails?

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Thx for the props guys, just gonna wheel it, dont have a big enough cash cow to compete......LOL.

Outstanding job! Looks like a fun lil' buggy.

sweet looking buggy. Good job.

That is a great looking buggy Always loved buggys with some actual skins on them like this and the M&M , Jim's etc..

Good looking rig man, nice job !

So is that a knock off of a knocked off knock off chassis ?! I like that it isnt EXACT and you did use your own thing here and there man. Nice work. Enjoy the ride and glad you didnt give up on the hobby man !

Going to events will cost you money because its like... got damn thats cool, I gotta build one ! laughing1

TN-CTD said:

That is a great looking buggy Always loved buggys with some actual skins on them like this and the M&M , Jim's etc..

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Yeah, looked at a lot of Jim's stuff and really liked em'! I wanted my stuff to look like a vehicle, so we put skins on it, now I just have to field the questions about "hey man what lift is on your Jeep?...." lol

P said:

Good looking rig man, nice job !

So is that a knock off of a knocked off knock off chassis ?!

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Well, being as we didn't have a chassis to pull #'s from, I printed pics off the internet and we used the SWAG method......... (Strategic Wild Ass Guess)