Thinking about Building

[Hammond]

Hi,

I have been interested in building a buggy for a number of years now and just come across the muddybuggies.

I am interested in having a go at building the freestyle buggy but was wonder if you could give me some more information on how much you reacon it would cost me to build to the road legal spec?

What is the build like? is there any more advice/ recommendations you have?

Many Thanks!

Ed

 

[Phaeton]

Hi Ed,

Welcome to the forum, it's quite difficult to put a price on building he buggy as it's available in so many forms. But to give you an idea, I bought the deluxe SVA kit with powder coating. I renewed all the bearings, every suspension component & fitted all new internals to the braking system. Then there was the cost of the donor plus various other bits, it came in somewhere around £3.2k but have since spent another couple hundred on it.

There are people who have done it cheaper including somebody who claims to have an on the road buggy for £2.2k not sure how to be honest.

As to reccomendations throw away the build manual, search the forum & it you don't find the answer ask a question.

Not sure where you're based but there will be a couple of buggies at Exeter show, doubt I will be there though. Or ask if you can go look at one local to you & ask as many questions as you want, we're a friendly bunch.

Alan...

 

[Hammond]

Hi Alan,

Thank you for the advice. As I am still a student I dont really have the extra funds to purchase the deluxe kit as well as the other components, i was just going to get the basic SVA kit, would this be sufficient?

Can you get away without replacing all the bearings, every suspension component & all new internals to the braking system at the start?

Many Thanks,

Ed

 

[RichardG]

Our build costs finished up just over £3k. Then need to add cost of SVA, Insurance, tax etc. On the road cost came to £3.5k.

We bought just the basic chasis kit and sourced everything else ourselves. The cost of re-furbishing the Mini donor parts ended up around £400.

And it is well worth every penny - just got back from another 30 minute blast round the local country lanes with another big grin :lol:

Still seem to be suffering some over heating issues but sure that will be sorted out soon.

Richard

 

[Phaeton]

Hi Alan,
Thank you for the advice. As I am still a student I dont really have the extra funds to purchase the deluxe kit as well as the other components, i was just going to get the basic SVA kit, would this be sufficient?

Basic kit is good, the rest of the kit, probably bar the nosecone can be sourced from anywhere you want, shows, eblag etc.

Can you get away without replacing all the bearings, every suspension component & all new internals to the braking system at the start?
Ed

That all depends on the donor car that you start with. I must admit I replaced certain items that would have been okay, but I wanted a datum to start with. Also at the time the budget was ringfenced & I thought I may as well do it as at the time I could sfford to.

Alan...

 

[Danny]

Hello Ed welcome to the forum

Danny

 

[Hammond]

Thank you

Im just looking at the best way to get a freestyle buggy. Is it easy to pick up some unfinished projects? Where would be the best place to look?

Thanks for all the help

Ed

 

[Danny]

we all would like to find a nice unfinished one but I think they must be like rockking horse poo

Danny

 

[iank]

I think the cheapest way, IMO would be to buy an accident damaged registered buggy (like the one currently on sale), get a new frame from Dave and 'repair' it by transferring all the bits. Have the full build experience for minimal expense and as a bonus don't have to bother with an SVA.

 

[collie]

Can I add that I'd been looking for a project to build for a long time and almost settled on restoring a motorcycle, but I can honestly say that this is probably the cheapest (and most fun) self build car I have seen on the market.
And the most "remarkable" part to me was that when you build it'll be stamped by your own personality since I've not seen any two the same!

 

[R1FREESTYLE]

Just to chip in on the bike engined variants........

there are two being worked on, one of Daves friends is building a frame with a rear chassis that will be very similar to the mini subframe but will allow the install of a bike engine. This allows the builder to keep some of the mini components, such as suspension arms ect and keep the cost down.

The other is mine, which is the standard frame which has a rear chassis based on a Jedi single seater race car. Very time consuming to make and requires a lot of bespoke parts and parts fom other vehicles. Not so cheap.

Overall if you are after simplicity of build, whilst keeping the cost down start with the mini based kit. There is still plenty potential for adding your own touches to the build and absolutely miles of smiles to be had (so I have been told)