Bluetorch Buggy Rebuild

Harrison · Mar 14, 2014

Way back in 2007 I decided to build a Bluetorch 4 seat Buggy, It took me a year to finish the original build. Over the years I have grown tired of jumping in and out of a buggy, I had also fell in love with the rolled tube roofs Wide Open Designs was building so why not cut the roof off and add doors.
A little about my rig: Bluetorch 4 seat Fusion chassis, 114 wb, 24" belly height, High Pinion 60 Front, 4340 axle shafts, CTM joints, Detroit locker, 4.56 gears, Stak 2 speed, Shaved 14 bolt with Detroit locker, LS1 with custom ground Comp Cam, PRC Stage 2.5 LS6 heads, Melling High Volume Oil Pump, Canton trap door oil pan, built TH-350 trans, Hughes Stall Converter,Edelbrock headers Saw Coil Overs, Fox nitrogen bump stops, Beadlock Specialties wheels, 40" Maxxis Sticky Treps, and a Bunch More Stuff
Chassis setting in my small garage back in 2007

2007 Build Photos

At my friend JT's shop in 2007 he set up the suspension, added the trusses, and basically turned it into a roller

Fast Fwd Several Months in 2007

Had all the floor pans and interior sheet metal Rhino lined.

Wiring

Lets Fast Forward to Dec. 2013

I will post more tomorrow.

Haulin4alivin · Mar 14, 2014

Looking forward to this build. It was sweet before!

EsPowell · Mar 14, 2014

Are you doin anything other than new roof and doors?

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Harrison · Mar 14, 2014

So over the seven years of wheelin hundreds of milesI have changed several things, done several rebuilds, and broke a couple parts: Several drivelines, broke a TH-350 case, several sets of skins, I'm on LS1 #2, several axle shafts, several sets of tires, front stinger was replaced after meeting a tree, several bent links, and a lot more that I have forgot about. The things I wanted to change on the rebuild are: Doors, A more up to date roofline, Rock Sliders (Nerfbars) to help save the skins, and to fix or replace the Stak 2 speed that has jumped out of gear since it was New. I'm three months into the rebuild and will be finished in a couple of days. I work 50+ hours a week at three different jobs plus have two small kids so time is hard to find.

Here are a couple of past wheeling pictures to give everyone an idea where I wheel.

Clayton

Smorr in Seymour, MO

Disney, OK

Hot Springs, AR

Harrison · Mar 14, 2014

So around Thanksgiving of last year I called and spoke to Adam at Wide Open Designs. Adam told me to bring it to Tennessee and he would take on the challenge of adding doors and redoing the roof on my buggy. So I stripped the skins and several other things off of it and took it to Tennessee. I left the drivers seat and rear seat in as he wanted to check for headroom.

A 10 hour drive later and it was parked in Wide Open Designs shop. Adam is a busy guy but he took the time to listen and take notes on what I wanted done.

A couple days later Adam sent me these to ask what I thought

Harrison · Mar 14, 2014

Rocky, Adam, and the rest of the crew at Wide Open were great to deal with. They sent me updates as they were working on it

slikwilly · Mar 14, 2014

I love the colors!!!!! :dblthumb:

Harrison · Mar 14, 2014

On it's way home to Arkansas to be torn down in my garage.

Back home and I started building rock rails.
Measuring and figuring how to make them look good.

I tacked angle iron pieces under the rockers to hold the tube up so I could keep them level to weld them to the rockers.

I do not own a plasma cutter so everything I cut is with cut off wheels or a torch. I then use files,flap wheels, and a DA Sander to clean up the cuts.
I angle cut and filled in the end of the tube with 1/4" thick flat strap. ground the welds down and sharpened them to points with a flat file plus a little sanding.

I built tabs for the back of the sliders, Cut them out with a cut off wheel and shaped them with a file.

ridered3 · Mar 14, 2014

Cool to see a rebuild! What crazy color combination you going with this time?

Harrison · Mar 15, 2014

Synergy Green on the Skins, Hood, and Grille
I normally paint my own stuff but my two year old sons bedroom is above my garage so my painting is limited to pretty days with the garage door open. We haven't had very many warm days this winter so I have a friend spraying everything at his shop.

Harrison · Mar 15, 2014

I cut all the skin tabs off and welded new tabs on with nutserts so removing the skins to replace them or work on the buggy would be easier. I used .063 aluminum for the skins cut them with a jigsaw, smoothed the edges with a file and sand paper.

All my tabs are equally spaced on both sides of the buggy so I can use the same front skin on either side of the buggy. It allows me to keep one spare skin that will fit the driver or passenger side. It's
not as easy to do as it sounds.

The rear skins I hand roll the radius on the back to fit the tube.

1TONTJ · Mar 15, 2014

Lookin' good man! I like seeing makeovers like this.

stano · Mar 15, 2014

So, I'm guessing I know what part of AR you are in by the screen name? I'm in NWA and BTW, Sweet buggy!!

Harrison · Mar 15, 2014

I decided to change the back of the buggy a little since I'm not sure if it's a Bluetorch buggy or Wide Open Designs buggy now.
My last name is King and the Inspiration for the change came from my garage floor.

I drilled the circles, cut out the rough shape with a cutoff wheel, and shaped it with a file.

nealcj8 · Mar 16, 2014

Looking sweet!! :popcorn:

Harrison · Mar 16, 2014

Cleaned up the doors to ready them for Chrome. I metal filled all pin holes and grinding marks.

I built door handles out of flat aluminum stock using a half round file, flat file, and more sanding. I need to finish polishing them.

EsPowell · Mar 16, 2014

You do good work. Them doors gonna be blindin folks on the trail lol

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Harrison · Mar 16, 2014

One of the most time consuming things I have done is skinning the roof. I used .125 aluminum and around 125 tabs, A friend of mine owns a shop that does millwright work for feed mills and he helped me make the panels since I don't own a metal brake. The amount of math and time involved in forming just one panel was crazy.

My Friend Johns little 320 ton press brake.

It sits 6 feet under the shop floor these pictures do not make it look as big as it really is, It will brake 1/2 plate.

We used his metal shear also.