Marc and Jenn's Sand Rail buildup

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It all started in July of 2000, when Jenn planted a thought in my head when she saw a Manx style dune buggy at Oceano Dunes SVRA and said that it was cute, and she might want one someday. Well, me being a gearhead and currently lacking a project that I could work on with minimal money, I latched onto that thought and was looking for buggys no less than 48 hours later. After much searching and talking, we decided that a Sandrail type buggy might be better. We also decided that we were looking for a project - something with potential, but that required some work to get going. Jenn wants to learn about vehicles and work on it herself, so this should be a great way to do it.

Fast forward 3 months, and I found a buggy that looked promising. '70s Hi-Jumper frame, cool paint, good components, decent price. On September 22nd, 2000, we drove the 250 miles to Vandenberg AFB (from San Jose) and picked it up.

Upon getting home, we tore into the various boxes of stuff and found that while much of the parts we had been given were useless, a lot of it was good. Neal brake and clutch assembly with a hydraulic clutch, Neal turning brakes, pretty nice paint in a great color, rear disc brakes, a transmission that I was told was built for sand (regeared, etc.). It remains to be seen how that pans out. Here's what the rail looked like when we got it:

After really going through it, here's the list of stuff that needs to be done before we get this sucker on the dunes. Note that this may be a slow process, but I will update this page as we move along, and as time permits. When I start to work on one of these mini-projects, the title will turn BLUE, and it will link to another page, or it could be YELLOW if there's no link but I've added a note.

Wow, I have been slacking off, let me tell you. The rail has migrated to Steven's house, ostensibly to get the engine put in, but probably more so that I can mooch off Steven. :) He has been helping out a lot, as has Jake, my brother in law. It is really coming together. I've updated a few sections below - see the Engine section, and the miscellaneous sections in particular. We've actually been working pretty continuously, doing a little bit every weekend, but I just haven't been updating.

Replace all tie rods and tie rod ends. (Done)
Wow, I didn't even know that tie rod ends could wear out as much as these ones were. We decided to do a little experiment and replace the ends with Heim-type rod ends for durability.

Tighten up the front suspension. (Done)
Not sure exactly what needs to be done here, but I can see that the linkpins are loose or the linkpin bushings are shot. I've been told that the linkpins can be tightened, so I'll give that a shot first.

11/27/00 - This was pretty simple. Just tightened up the link pins and wheel bearings. The passenger side king pin is still very slightly loose (worn out), but I'm not going to worry about it until it gets worse.

Seating issues. (Done)
I may get some highback poly buckets from my brother, or we'll clean up the ones that are in it right now. They are a little tight on us, er, large-framed folks, but we'll decide what we want to do when my bro decides what to do with his seats. :) The seats also need to be moved forward. I don't know who was driving this thing, but we set the pedals over the mounting holes and I tried sitting in the driver's seat, and I was a solid 4 inches from the pedals. I'm an even 6 feet tall. We also need seat belts, and new roll bar padding, lest we knock our noggins on the tubing.

07/21/2001 - The seats are in (been pictures of this up for a while), seat belts are in, I can reach the pedals, life is good.

Install Transmission straps, clean transmission. (Done enough)
My friend, Steven, had some extra of these, and said that I'll need them unless I want to crack the transaxle. We don't want that.

02/06/2001 - Someone who knew this rail in a previous life told me that the frame had been sandblasted with the tranny installed and no axle boots on, so it will need to be torn apart and cleaned. Maybe just flush it with a bunch of gear oil? I dunno, we'll see.

07/21/2001 - Cleaned the tranny out (sorta), it's all strapped down now too. Leaking out of the driver's side axletube though. Doh.

Mount up the pedals and cutting brakes. (Done)
Once we move the seats around, we'll need to place the pedals in an appropriate location, find somewhere for the cutting brakes (right now its a huge reach to them), and bend the lines for the hydraulics.

Fix the sloppy shifter. (Done)
While I can find the gears since I drove a Scirocco with an absolute slushbox for a while, Jenn moved the stick around and looked at me helplessly. I'm hoping that if I can stabilize the shift rod, it will tighten up the feel of the shifter. The rod seems to float around a lot, although I can feel the tranny snick into each gear qute nicely. The shifter itself seems to be a nice Empi unit.

07/21/2001 - I don't know why I never updated this. I fixed the shifter with a replacement bushing from bugpack. Nice polyurethane item, bolted in and made a world of difference.

Repair steering shaft.
Looks like the rag joint broke at some point and it was replaced with a 1/2 inch universal joint from a ratchet set, welded in place between the steering box input shaft and the steering shaft. Yikes!

Engine. (Done)
Since the engine that I got with the deal turned out to be mostly useless, I'll be using a 1641 that was recently pulled from Steven's rail. He put in a 2180. I'd rather have the 2180, but hey, you can't have everything! the 1641 will go in until we build an engine of our own.

01/28/2001 - Well, we now have two other choices for engine - a 1983 Starion Turbo motor (160 hp - woohoo!) and a 1991 Toyota 22R-E. The Starion motor would be great for the power, but the only adapter is made in Australia. The 22R-E would be nice too. Hmmm...

07/21/2001 - The Toyota motor was a bust, and I can't find an adapter for the Starion motor. That said, the 1641 is bought and paid for, and Steven even helped put it in and got in purring like a kitten! I may pull off all the should-be-shiny bits and give them a once over though.

Tires and wheels.
We'll need some paddles for the back, and wide wheels to go with them. There are already 5 rib agricultural tires on the front, but I'd like to get some spiffy spindle mount aluminum wheels to mount them on.

12/20/2001 - Got new calipers - lucked out and ordered the right ones even. 1971 Kharmann Ghia fronts.

07/21/2001 - Built a new gauge panel, brakes are installed, installed some cool off-road lights... See the pictures!