Maruti Omni based Dune Buggy- to do or not to do?

[prabhuav]

Guys, the fiat 1100 does not have a chassis in the true sense. All it has is a cradle for the engine, called in street lingo as the half chassis

[mclaren1885]

prabhuav » Mon Dec 28, 2009 12:03 pm[/url]]First of all, what chassis are you guys talking about. The omni is a monocoque , so once you chop the top off.. You have nothing . nada...

I keep forgetting its a (mono) hen .

[turbodiesel]

Once the roof is cut off think of whats remaining as this - a rectangular paper plate with wheels on 4 corners and an engine. There will be no stiffness what so ever, go over an uneven surface at some speed and that will bend the floor pan. To counter this some really good re engineering and trussing etc must be done.

Also radiator etc are placed under the car, not ideal for beach use.

Consider a trekker Lighten it, tune it a bit, lil bit wider wheels etc and you got a better beach cruiser. No need of chopping up it's already open.

[Ripper]

how much stiffness can the paper thin roof be giving?
cant the a pillar and b pillar be substituted by roll cage bars?
both of them are less than 7 cm wide.
most of the metal in that monocoque is in the floor, and if the rest of it that is removed can be replaced by the roll cage.... will it work?

@crank- no trekker! is it even in production these days? I hate HM.

the thing about the omni is, after all this chopping, it should be light enough to be towed by 1 or 2 people even if it gets stuck. it is not very wide, and the wheel base is short, it turns on a dime. it should be good fun.

the strengthening I'm not too worried about. or should i be?
how hard can it be to re inforce it to stock levels of rigidity?

I'm more worried about relocating the gear levers, the steering and the ABC(that part shouldnt be too hard)

@pawan- 1000 dollars just for the chassis. extra for the engine and other mechanicals
then the hassle of getting it down here. mounting the esteem engine. i'm not sure i'll be able to pull it off.
at the end of it, i get a track vehicle. not sure if its worth it. my nearest track is in CBE-200kms away

[ImmortalZ]

Umm, if you cut off everything above the floorboards in an Omni, you'll have two completely separated pieces of Omni the first time you go over a bump. You're not giving enough credit to the monocoque chassis.

Build a Locost7. You'll get a far more capable (and safer) car out of it.

You are also over estimating on how hard a fully custom build will be. Without a fixed chassis for you to fit the engine into, you will have a much easier time building the car up. You are not bound by anything.

There are a couple of builds over at the Honda engine forums I frequent where people have built these things with Honda engines powering them. Ariel Atoms being built in backyards! I can link you to them if you wish to go down that route.

[greenhorn]

wasnt nikhilv12 making something similar in tvm?

[ImmortalZ]

Wrong tense.

He made one. It had the Swift petrol engine. Suspension wasn't properly sorted and it was a murderer waiting in the wings. It's currently idle AFAIK.

[turbodiesel]

rippergeo » Mon Dec 28, 2009 5:45 pm[/url]]how much stiffness can the paper thin roof be giving?

cant the a pillar and b pillar be substituted by roll cage bars?
both of them are less than 7 cm wide.
most of the metal in that monocoque is in the floor, and if the rest of it that is removed can be replaced by the roll cage.... will it work?

@crank- no trekker! is it even in production these days? I hate HM.

the thing about the omni is, after all this chopping, it should be light enough to be towed by 1 or 2 people even if it gets stuck. it is not very wide, and the wheel base is short, it turns on a dime. it should be good fun.

the strengthening I'm not too worried about. or should i be?
how hard can it be to re inforce it to stock levels of rigidity?

Quite a lot. Don't see it as a roof, it's part of the chassis, it completes the box, provides structural rigidity.
You'll gain most of the lost chassis stifness if you get a proper roll cage done and anchor it on the floor plan where it should be anchored. But then you'll need quite a lot of seamless pipes to build a roll cage then you got to get it welded, normal arc welding won't do, and the weight you's lost by chopping off the roof will be back on the vehicle and possibly more. You will get wind in the hair beach vehicle but still it'll be heavy.

Consider this:
A Dolphin, available in blore for 6k or so. Strip off the fibregalss body, add a roll cage (or maybe just a roll over bar), junk the 10" wheels and install Maruti 12" or 13" wheels. There you have a beach buggy.
Power boost option: Retain the GB and change that engine for a 1.3 liter carb esteem engine. There you have it a fun to drive a rwd beach buggy.

[Ripper]

Ok! I'm all ears. Where can i find a dolphin for 6k in blore? And if it gets an esteem engine, how is it going to go into the engine bay and how is it going to be hooked up to the RWD transmission.
Fine, if thats done, what happens when i break the transmission? I mean spares wise! Has anyone done this before? I really dont mind throwing 6k at a dolphin to kickstart this experiment. If it doesnt work, thats fine. Atleast it'll be an inexpensive lesson

[mclaren1885]

rippergeo » Mon Dec 28, 2009 10:12 pm[/url]] how is it going to go into the engine bay and how is it going to be hooked up to the RWD transmission.

Bobby uncle had put in a TC'd esteem engine into their dolphin. So let me talk to Sharan and see what info I can get on the project.