The Road to Mexican 1000- Building a Manxter DualSports

The Manxter 2+2 & Dual Sport. Created as an answer to the limitations of the classic Meyers Manx.
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Brad
Posts: 165
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2015 6:41 am

The Road to Mexican 1000- Building a Manxter DualSports

Post by Brad »

BuggyBrad, post: 1647633, member: 45741 wrote:Wow what a week, it started quiet enough and then I got the new I had been waiting for ... the NORRA Mexican 1000 Rules where release for 2015 and we had a new class.

Category VMeyers: Genuine Meyers Manx vehicles
This category is for any model of genuine Meyers Manx vehicle. Meyers Manx vehicles of any age (including new) may enter this vintage category.

After reading it with glee a few quick phone calls where made and the decision was made to enter in our first Mexican Offroad Race. I say our as it wouldn't be much fun without my mates along for the ride.
Looking around the shop I had a collection of Buggies to choose from but they were all lacking one thing or another. Then an idea began to form, with the new class aimed at making it easier to Meyers Manx Owners to Race and enjoy the experience maybe we should do a ground up build using all the Meyers Manx Parts including one of their New DualSport Pans.

A few more phone calls where made and a deal was stuck, we where going to build a Manxter DualSport Kit from start o finish and get it to Tech Inspection on 24 April 2015.

Ordering a Meyers Manx Kit was is an easy process, I filled in some paperwork, selected the options I needed to make it happen and handed over some $$$. The DualSport Kit should take 6 - 8 weeks and I will post a copy of the purchase agreement when I get it back with dates and serial tag number etc.

With time ticking it was kit ordering day today so I went and visited the nice people at Meyers Manx. Ale was hard at it working in the office but managed to stop long enough for a quick chat and to take my first piece of official path to Norra Paperwork, yep my Manxter DualSport Kit Order.

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Brad
Posts: 165
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2015 6:41 am

Re: The Road to Mexican 1000- Building a Manxter DualSports

Post by Brad »

There are two different orders here and I will upload them once processed and I have my number.

Order 1 - Manxter DualSport DIY Kit - This is the Fibreglass Body, Bonnet, Windscreen, Dash kit, 6 Point Roof Support, side intrusion bars, lights, underslung pedal mounts and Seats

Order 2 - Manxter DualSport Rolling Chassis - this is the floor pan, front beam and a few other bits TBC this week as I am working with them to decide exactly what it will include.

In regards to the rest of your concerns about the 18 hr day thing I hear you on that. The majority of my Build Team don't arrive in USA till 3 April so that gives us pretty much 3 weeks to get it done. Prior ri that it is planning and parts collection.

Luckily for me the Meyers Manx DualSport kit is very complete and once we finalise the floor pan inclusions I think we should be ok. I am also fortunate in that I have a lot of god friends with a great deal of experience who are willing to help me us out if we need it. A lot of those guys have been racing Baja since before I was born and hove no doubt forgotten more than I will even know.

Personally I have never even been south of the border yet alone raced so it should be a very interested journey for us.

Hopefully I will have the design finalised this week and then I will publish full details.
Brad
Posts: 165
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2015 6:41 am

Re: The Road to Mexican 1000- Building a Manxter DualSports

Post by Brad »

It looks like we will have the Race Number of 00 which we thought was fitting since it was the first time this class had raced and in the case of the team the first time most of us have even been to Mexico yet alone raced there. Thankfully what we lack in experience we make up for in enthusiasm and mentors.

So the wheels are turning,

It looks like the Meyers Manx DualSport Chassis will begin its life on the fabricators bench on Monday so although not technically part of this build I will be sure to cover what goes into it and what benefits it will offer over most floor pans.

We have also hooked up with a few quality suppliers such as PRP Seats (PRPSeats.com) and Down South Motorsports (http://downsouthmotorsports.com/) so we are happier knowing that both our rear ends and the buggies will be properly suspended and setup by some industry leaders.

As we start getting parts in we will make sure we cover exactly why we have gone the way we have and what goes into prepping the parts to Baja Edition Level.

Should be an exciting ride and some of the parts we have are fresh of the release table so have never been seen before :shock:
Brad
Posts: 165
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2015 6:41 am

Re: The Road to Mexican 1000- Building a Manxter DualSports

Post by Brad »

Well he count down is almost on, I say almost as I never did like large numbers so figured I would wait till it hit double digits.
Winnie was to quick for me though and with 103 Days till Tech Inspection the Floor Pan for the Manxter DualSport arrived.
It is a VW Type 1 Super Bug pan and it will be getting submitted to the special Meyers Manx DualSports Over Haul which has been the result of months or research, weeks of planning and decades of experience.
Looks like it will at least need a pressure wash, I don't want dirt on the jig table ..
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Brad
Posts: 165
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2015 6:41 am

Re: The Road to Mexican 1000- Building a Manxter DualSports

Post by Brad »

so I took the pan over to Gonzalez Media Blasting today. I can't recommend them enough they did a great job and being what I call wet blasting it removes grease as well as all that horrible tar paper stuff VW's have. Louis and the boys have done a lot of pans for me and I have always been very happy with the result. I make sure I get the inside of the tunnel done and flushed as well.

It was to dark when he finished to get a picture but here is a link to his page and a quick video of some of the others he has done for me :

https://www.facebook.com/Gonzalezmediablasting

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p97LbAsxaw[/youtube]
Brad
Posts: 165
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2015 6:41 am

Re: The Road to Mexican 1000- Building a Manxter DualSports

Post by Brad »

Got a chance to go and Visit PRP Seats (prpseats.com) today and have a chat to Aaron and the Team about our needs for the Manxter DualSports Baja Edition Build. It was a refreshing change to find a business that was receptive to our ideas and since PRP Still makes their seats 100% in the USA getting some custom changes was an easy process.

PRP was able to offer us a great range of custom fabrics, styles and trims. We got to walk around the show room and test fit the models that they had and discuses what would work best for the 2000 plus mill Mexican Trip we will christen the car with.

We got a heap of pics and videos of the seats being made and we will get it edited up and loaded onto youTube. It was very interesting to see how they did it and I was impressed by the variable height rotating fixtures they use to make the seat frames. By setting up each of the welders with a ergonomically sound work station it was plain impressive to watch them pump out quality welds join after join. The Fab shop itself was very well laid out and probably one of the cleanest setups I have seen in a lot of years.

Anyway we are starting to get very excited now as at least we feel like we are moving in the right direction as the days get less and less.

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thesandbug77
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Joined: Fri May 28, 2010 5:00 am
Location: Oceanside, CA.

Re: The Road to Mexican 1000- Building a Manxter DualSports

Post by thesandbug77 »

Subscribed. I'll be watching and rooting for y'all. Cheers.

md
~~~~~~~~~~~~
-Mike
#470
Brad
Posts: 165
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2015 6:41 am

Re: The Road to Mexican 1000- Building a Manxter DualSports

Post by Brad »

Plenty of seats on display to sit on and test feel ..

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I can see I am going to need a hand from someone a bit less colour challenged to pick from this lot and more ..


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Nothing hidden here, Jason was more than happy to explain how the seats were built and the way in which PRP have achieved one of the most comfy suspension seats on the market.

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PRP Also make a lot more than just seats with a full range of just about any sewn products you can think of.

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The steel fabrication side of the seat building process was pretty cool, the fab shop was very well setup and oh so clean. It gives you a good understanding of what it takes to keep quality in place and seats moving out the door.

From Shelf stock

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To CNC Bent Stock

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To Notched Stock

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To Shelf Stock

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To be continue ..
Brad
Posts: 165
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2015 6:41 am

Re: The Road to Mexican 1000- Building a Manxter DualSports

Post by Brad »

So the pan has started .. seems to be weighing less each day lol

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Brad
Posts: 165
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2015 6:41 am

Re: The Road to Mexican 1000- Building a Manxter DualSports

Post by Brad »

So I had big plans today, then I had to do some real work and the day passed me by. Not wanting to feel really behind I thought I should at least update my build thread

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Brad
Posts: 165
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2015 6:41 am

Re: The Road to Mexican 1000- Building a Manxter DualSports

Post by Brad »

Days are certainly moving quicker than the items on the to do list. I did get to tick off another item though with picking up my PowerCore Buggy Air Cleaner from Dans Performance Parts (http://www.dansperformanceparts.com/).

We have heard more than a few horror stories about Dust and Silt and people killing engines. With that in mind we started doing some research into all the options available. The end result of that was selecting one of the 3 stage Powercore Filters Dan has on offer.

I must say when I finally got it in my hands the wait was well worth it and I was very impressed with it. At well under $200 delivered I will certainly be using them on my other buggies in the future.

The entire assembly is only around 15 " long and 8" high, it is very compact and has a pre filter, primary filter and finally an oh crap filter.

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To service you remove the top section and simply pull the cartridge backwards to disengage the huge rubber seal.

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Once you have the cover off you can remove the primary filter and see the final line of defence. This means that if you do happen to pull the primary in a dusty environment the final line will stop anything getting in.

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Lastly all apart, nice seals everywhere, high side intake to avoid issues

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The quality is exceptional and it can be mounted on any of the 3 sides. This one is designed to mount vertical but there is also a horizontal model as well. The horizontal model is accessed through the end not side.

I think it will go well on the DualSport and I will make sure I get some pictures of it in use and how much ust we get out of it. Hopefully on some of the shack out runs we will run some grease on the up stream side to test its effectiveness.

Big thumbs up to Dan for helping me out with it, another thing off my list.
Brad
Posts: 165
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2015 6:41 am

Re: The Road to Mexican 1000- Building a Manxter DualSports

Post by Brad »

With the wheels moving on multiple fronts I was time to get the engine sorted. For the Mexican 1000 I will be running a Subaru EJ 25 SOHC Engine from a 2001 Subaru Outback. With some help from Chris SubieWorks at Temecula (http://www.subieworks.com) I will be using the Factory ECU and Loom. Chris has a wealth og knwldeg and experience and is also the same building the Subrau Transmission for the Manxter.

I picked the car up off CraigList for $500 with a suspected blown head gasket. It still runs fine and doesn't leak any water. Chris said he would do the head gaskets and check the heads out when he went through it. I will also get a new water pump and cam belt while it is apart as well as anything else Chris finds it needs.

By using the EJ25 it has a MAP sensor not a MAF meaning I can go straight from the throttle body to the Air Cleaner without issue and there is no dealing with a hot wire which would stop any sort of oil filter.

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It looks almost to good to wreck, oh well it will give its heart, loom and steering so a Buggy can live and a dream can be made.

The all powerful EJ 25 SOHC rated factory at 165HP :)

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Brad
Posts: 165
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Re: The Road to Mexican 1000- Building a Manxter DualSports

Post by Brad »

I got some pictures of the Manxter DualSport Baja Edition today.

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As you can see she is not quiet ready to race yet but at least the mold is looking sexy as ever.

The bodies are made at Newport Laminates and unlike a lot of Kit Cars they come in finish colour Gel Coat. That means that there is a lot more handling required to keep them clean as many of the colours and metal flake in particular is very unforgiving.
Brad
Posts: 165
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2015 6:41 am

Re: The Road to Mexican 1000- Building a Manxter DualSports

Post by Brad »

Well we had a great weekend out in the Desert playing around and testing new things. One of the main aim was to get some bench marking of the suspension in the test Manxter and see how hard we could push it till it got hot and started doing bouncing things.

End result of that is after talking to Sonny at DownSouth Motorsports http://downsouthmotorsports.com we have certainly settled on the 2.5" Piggy Backs from Fox. I looked at going with ByPass and the likes but it all gets a bit tight and the budget has to stop somewhere. So we will run 10" front and 12" rear with some custom valveing which Sonny will set up for us when we get him out to the test session towards end of April.

The other thing we wanted to test was the new LED headlights from HeadLight Revolution http://www.headlightrevolution.com after talking to the guys there about what we were after we settled on some JW Speaker 7" Round LED in black. They had some impressive specs and hardly any power draw relative to standard stuff. They also come with a Lifetime Warranty and are Dust and Water proof.

Before everyone jumps in with HID this and Light Bar that please keep in mind that we are only looking at DOT Approved options and we want to improve all the lighting so both high and low beam not just high. By going with a DOT Approved version such as the 8700 Evolution 2 we achieve that and get to use a USA Solution with great support from guys like Chris at Headlight Revolution.

When we swapped them into the Manxters 7" Headlights the difference was amazing not to mention only 2.5 Amp power draw. As soon as you turn them on you are left under no doubt it is a great headlight. The bolted straight in and apart from realignment due to the light beam they fitted with easy. The previous H4's which were a 90 / 145 bulb where always HOT to touch, not these.

For full specs check them out at - http://www.headlightrevolution.com/JWSP ... tion2b.htm

When we did the test we also shot some video with the GoPro of driving a loop with the H4's and then the JW Speakers. It is very impressive to see the difference and I hope to get it posted on YouTube this week.

For now here is a quick happy snap.

New look

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Low Beam Test, no adjustment just fitted and switched on.

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Best part is the DOT Approved cause it just makes one less issue to deal with and gives us a Low Beam upgrade as well as a High Beam.
Brad
Posts: 165
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2015 6:41 am

Re: The Road to Mexican 1000- Building a Manxter DualSports

Post by Brad »

With my plan on making this build a reality I am not stupid enough I can do it on my own. I was lucky enough to get a recommendation to a good exhaust shop so went for a drive to RPM Mufflers at Oceanside (http://www.rpmmuffler.com/) .

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In the past I have always made my own exhausts as nothing I could find on the market was what I wanted. When you are running a Subaru Engine in the rear of a Manxter there are a number of issues to take into account and the fact that it is on full display is just one of them. Getting it to look right and work with the SteelArt High Clearance sump ( 3 1/2" shorter than factory 100mm more oil ) means the headers have to be tucked well up without creating flow issues. Take into account I also want to use factory STI engine mounts and you begin to see why none of the on market ones will work.

Anyway after a few minutes of talking to Richard I was more than happy I hadn't wasted my time and we were soon talking exhausts and I was very pleased to see he shared my need for quality and a well thought out design rather than just slapping some crap together.

Richards shop is well equipped to handle the task and with a Mandrel Bender in house and many years of experience I am sure the end result will speak for itself.

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I will post pictures of the end result when I pick the car up next week.

But so far it looks like I can tick EXHAUST off my to do list .. yippy ...
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