new car.....

[grinch]

Well we did it. We cut up Jake Mechams comp Tj and started over.
Major Thanks to FTM on all the help so far. Im learning alot of cool fabrication tips on this build up. They have been a damn good shop to work with so far.
Here are a few pics...
This is of Jake and me at the last St. George event.... (arnt we cool)

All the body and cage has been removed to the frame rail....

Begining of new cage (Ide have been lost at this point of it wernt for FTM)

More cage

Still fooling around with the rear of the cage so it looks good but still falls in the specs of the semi modified Uroc rules. This is how it sits as of now but I belive it will change a little.

 

[grinch]

Still alot left to do so I will post more pics as we progress.

 

[Caleb]

cool, looking good so far...

 

[grinch]

cool, looking good so far...

Thanks its going to be built loosely after FTM's rockforce chassies. WE still have to make it work with frame rails and body stuff.... I dont know if Jake is keeping what it is going to be a surprise or not. If he isnt I will let him tell everyone what the new car is going to be..... Should be one heck of a rig once its done thoagh.

 

[Shawn]

Oh my,,,,, That second pic scared me... But the last pics makes it look much better..

Good job!

 

[Skitz]

Thanks its going to be built loosely after FTM's rockforce chassies. WE still have to make it work with frame rails and body stuff.... I dont know if Jake is keeping what it is going to be a surprise or not. If he isnt I will let him tell everyone what the new car is going to be..... Should be one heck of a rig once its done thoagh.

Do you think it will work better than the rest of there chassis out there? they seem not to be doing very good in the competion scene. It not all about looks if you know what I mean. I do like there Chassis and there work down there at FTM but they cost to much for most of use broke ****ers in this sport. So they most be giving you a great price on helping you do this build up.


Skitz

 

[James K]

why?

did it get destroyed in comp or just changing things?

 

[grinch]

why?

did it get destroyed in comp or just changing things?

Both... We needed to lighten it up to stay competitive and it was getting trashed to the point where we needed to start over.
As far as their cars not doing well Bart Jacob's just won the arena rockcrawl in Ogden... They are usually in the top half of the comps with their rigs.... And yes they cost but its a cost well spent... No offense but do you really want a shade tree mechanic building a comp rig???? I have the abilities and tools to build a buggy at home but would rather have experts point me in the right direction. I have and still build my own trail rigs/buggys and alot of friends trail rigs/buggys. Comp cars is a different story thoah. This is coming from someone who has worked at a jeep fabrication/install shop himself...
Im excited about the project I guess. Its been a slow prosess to figure out the best way to build it around the rules but its going to be better than what we had before. Im 100% certaine of that.

 

[Cody]

hmm, well, can he refinance it now?

 

[grinch]

hmm, well, can he refinance it now?

No but I sure wish he could pay off the TJ part of it now now that its gone... lol

 

[Skitz]

Both... We needed to lighten it up to stay competitive and it was getting trashed to the point where we needed to start over.
As far as their cars not doing well Bart Jacob's just won the arena rockcrawl in Ogden... They are usually in the top half of the comps with their rigs.... And yes they cost but its a cost well spent... No offense but do you really want a shade tree mechanic building a comp rig???? I have the abilities and tools to build a buggy at home but would rather have experts point me in the right direction. I have and still build my own trail rigs/buggys and alot of friends trail rigs/buggys. Comp cars is a different story thoah. This is coming from someone who has worked at a jeep fabrication/install shop himself...
Im excited about the project I guess. Its been a slow prosess to figure out the best way to build it around the rules but its going to be better than what we had before. Im 100% certaine of that.

What top half of comps sportman event how about the Pros your the UROC west series . Not to knock FTM buggy they have finshed in the mid 20s and 30s in most of the UROC event. Bart Jacobs and Parker have done alot of changes to there rig and have had to learned to drive it the best they could I think. BUt I would like to see one in the top 10 our so soon before I spend my money on one.


Skitz

 

[Billforceone]

It is looking cool. I hope it work out for you guys. I seen Scotts new FTM buggy at Prorock last week but it was on the trialer the nexted day, what up with that? Somthing about the fuel getting to hot! maybe someone will learn how to fix this someday. Good luck guys hope to see you guy at the next event.


Wild Bill

 

[Andy]

No offense but do you really want a shade tree mechanic building a comp rig???? .

So is that your general opinion of anything that's working well in competition? I think with a little thought anyone can build a competitive buggy. Looks good can't wait to see it finished.

Andy

 

[grinch]

So is that your general opinion of anything that's working well in competition? I think with a little thought anyone can build a competitive buggy. Looks good can't wait to see it finished.

Andy

Not all rigs. There are quite a few capable home fabricators out there. But on the genral whole it seems that way. I know plenty of people who claim they could build the best buggys around but I have yet to see them produce. Its mostly talk. We arnt seeing many home built rigs placing top 5 anymore things have been changing in the sport way to fast. Not saying it cant happen and wont be done. Im not knocking my own fab skills. I am doing a lot of the work on this build up myself, Its a team effort. I hesitated before I posted this thread on saying where it was being built in the case that it might get a bit of a negative spin but I feel FTM deserves the credit they are due. There seems to be a lot of negative presumptions on this board toward FTM but in my experience they and one or 2 other shops are the only ones in the valley I would consider capable of building a competitive comp rig. Yes, even after its done it will need to be tweaked and bugs will have to be worked out. I don't know of one single car around that has been built ((((perfect))) the first time around. The whole point of the post was to show the build up not to start another political shop thread.....

 

[BlackSheep]

The whole point of the post was to show the build up not to start another political shop thread.....

and lets keep it that way guys. This is a great opportunity to see this buildup and I don't want to see it messed up with political bs. If it starts to go that way more than it already has, you can count on those posts being deleted.

I'm excited to see this buildup as I also have a tj. Keep this thread on track with the buildup info and comments directly related to the buildup.

Looks good so far, keep the photos and technical info coming.

 

[Billforceone]

Not all rigs. There are quite a few capable home fabricators out there. But on the genral whole it seems that way. I know plenty of people who claim they could build the best buggys around but I have yet to see them produce. Its mostly talk. We arnt seeing many home built rigs placing top 5 anymore things have been changing in the sport way to fast. Not saying it cant happen and wont be done. Im not knocking my own fab skills. I am doing a lot of the work on this build up myself, Its a team effort. I hesitated before I posted this thread on saying where it was being built in the case that it might get a bit of a negative spin but I feel FTM deserves the credit they are due. There seems to be a lot of negative presumptions on this board toward FTM but in my experience they and one or 2 other shops are the only ones in the valley I would consider capable of building a competitive comp rig. Yes, even after its done it will need to be tweaked and bugs will have to be worked out. I don't know of one single car around that has been built ((((perfect))) the first time around. The whole point of the post was to show the build up not to start another political shop thread.....

Cool I would like to see more pics of your build up. It is looking cool I just hope it work better than before.


Wild Bill

 

[grinch]

More info on the car is......
I have alot of torching and grinding to do. We are going to drop the motor a few inches to lower the hood and increas visibility. This will also lower the center of gravity.
I also need to torch off the front suspention mounts so we can set up a new link system....
There are rumors of the new walker evens air shocks (similar to the Fox shocks) to take place of the coils...
As of now we are keeping the 3 link rear....
And I need to get off of my but and get some stuff done so we can get new progress pics and get this build up going agian....

 

[Ohms]

I will agree with that...you fellas need to get that POS outta my shop.
I'm sick of looking at it
For the record, the project is going very well and RME will see some great things come out of Jake and Brian's hard work

 

[Greg]

It'll be great to see that thing up & running with all these new mods. Are you guys going to be ready for the next UROC event?

 

[Bart]

Just my 2 cents worth here. The 2 (out of 10) events last year, that we finished without major breakage were a 12th place finish at the last RCAA and a 15th at SuperCrawl II.

This year the technology really changed with the new buggies, especially in suspension design and weight. I can only think of one other competitor running the same rig as last year in the Pro Nationals, Super Mod class. We are having a hard time breaking into the top 20, but we're moving in the right direction with a 22nd in Tennessee. I believe it would be highly unlikely we could break a top 10 finish in Super Mods this year. We're just too heavy. We did take first at the Ogden Arena Crawl and that was blast.

Now, as far as the classes go, apparently if I swapped in regular axles and put in regular steering with ram assist I'd qualify for Modified class. I think that we could do some serious damage there.

I think your rig will work well in the Modified class. Good luck with the build up. Let's see that thing finished soon and out on the trail here shortly for some good seat time. Good luck.

Bart