Vintage Holiday Buggy easy front damper mod and others

[Dadio]

I've been slowly restoring a vintage Holiday Buggy/Sand Rover and I was planning on doing some period possible upgrades , now improving the rear suspension is pretty easy by simply fitting coil over rear shocks instead of the fibre glass leaf spring however up front its much harder , much like the Grass Hopper its very hard to fit any good coil over shocks in the space there is . Now my chassis had the typical cracked top spring mounts and I could  have just chopped them off and replaced them with a taller mount to fit decent length coil over shocks but I was determined to make my life hard so I repaired the chassis with steel reinforcements carefully fitted , shaped and painted to be visually not too obvious . Now that I'd repaired the chassis I tried to offer up a pair of AYK Super Trail shocks (very like SRB shocks but come fitted with coil springs ) but no matter how I looked at it I could not find a good way to fit them , I looked at inboard with bell cranks , mono shock and even laying them down inline above the trailing arms but none of it looked good or would work right but then I had a daft idea ! now if your in my generation (I'm in my 50s) then you may remember cassette players with "soft eject" or for younger people soft closing Toilet seats , both these mechanisms use a highly viscous fluid in the axle to slow their movement , now you might see where I'm going , I happen to have some 500,000 weight diff syrup to use in a crawler front diff and had the bright idea of packing a few drops into the pivot of the front arms , now I know it won't stay there forever , it will eventually leak out but then all the early 80's shocks leaked anyway LOL but the point is it works really well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqGbOkIgmGc    

[KEV THE REV]

Very interesting idea . I've restored a few HB's and often thought about the front and rear damper upgrades , but stuck to the original set up for originality as duff as it is ( or quirky - if you like ) . I looked at fitting SRB rear arms to open up options but that doesn't work . I've been tempted to get a broken chassis tub to do an SRB front and rear end graft in conversion , which is now on my bucket list .  I'll look at front damping again at some point as a sympathetic mod to a good chassis tub  . Watching this thread with interest .

[HUGHS1E]

This is very clever, I'm currently rebuilding my dads old holiday buggy and need to make something for the shock towers as one is snapped and the other has a hairline crack 

I was thinking of a way off adding longer shocks but I'm unsure what shocks are slim enough to clear the arms, currently leaning towards like a strut brace across both, once I've designed something I may be able to get it made up 

[Dadio]

If you look on thingiverse there is a front suspension repair part that's a free download for 3d printing. 

While on the subject of 3d printing I'm designing parts to fill the holes in the Sand Rover re re body to make it fit the rear body mounts , also a gear cover for both 380 and 540 motors . I'll pop some pictures up in a few minutes. 

Edited April 18, 2023 by Dadio
pictures added

[Dadio]

[Dadio]

540 gear cover

[Dadio]

380 gear cover

[Dadio]

The 380 gear cover is a free download on Thingiverse for anybody interested.

[Dadio]

Body fix is also now a free download on Thingiverse for 3d printing .

[HUGHS1E]

These look brilliant I'll have to find someone on to make them for me. 

I have seen some front mounts on thingiverse. 

If I can get the drawings for them I could probably get them made from thin aluminium like the motor mounts. Tempted to fit the shocks to the rear.

Is there a specific mount/shocks people use? 

 

[Dadio]

I've fitted AYK Super Trail front shocks to the rear of mine ,not the best but very period and similar to SRB but with coil springs standard, the mount it going to be replaced with an aluminium one , I just printed one to check the correct fit .I'll probably use the slot for the fibreglass leaf spring to mount a fake engine .

[HUGHS1E]

That looks brilliant, I could probably get the mount made up if you are struggling out of aluminium my friend made me the motor mounts easy. 

[Dadio]

5 hours ago, HUGHS1E said:

That looks brilliant, I could probably get the mount made up if you are struggling out of aluminium my friend made me the motor mounts easy. 

I appreciate the offer but I have a pretty extensive workshop to play in and a nice bit of 6061 aluminium, if you have the fabrication skills what I did to repair my chassis front spring mounts was cut shape and bend a piece of 0.8 mm sheet steel to fit beneath the broken part , then I used both JB weld and two M3 screws to secure it , looks much tidier than the Thingiverse part , I'll dig some pictures out .

[Dadio]

Once painted its very subtle. I used an SRB shock gromet and top hat spacer Bush instead of the squashed rubber tube , if Tamiya had done this originally then most chassis would probably never have broken in the first place .

[KEV THE REV]

On 4/21/2023 at 7:47 AM, Dadio said:

I've fitted AYK Super Trail front shocks to the rear of mine ,not the best but very period and similar to SRB but with coil springs standard, the mount it going to be replaced with an aluminium one , I just printed one to check the correct fit .I'll probably use the slot for the fibreglass leaf spring to mount a fake engine .

That looks great . I'll be trying this idea myself at some point 👍

[KEV THE REV]

3 hours ago, Dadio said:

Once painted its very subtle. I used an SRB shock gromet and top hat spacer Bush instead of the squashed rubber tube , if Tamiya had done this originally then most chassis would probably never have broken in the first place .

I only use the grommet set up . It works better than the tube . Don't know why Mr. T didn't design it like that. Good repair there . 

[Dadio]

39 minutes ago, KEV THE REV said:

That looks great . I'll be trying this idea myself at some point 👍

If you want the stl files for the mount and bottom brackets let me know , just saves you measuring .

[KEV THE REV]

Thanks for the offer . I'll let you know if I get involved in it . This will be while down the line yet 👍

[Dadio]

Quick shot of the body in primer after the holes have been dealt with .

[Dadio]

Really chuffed with this , I'd always planned to make side pods that fit under the body sides , you see them on full size beach buggys  , I nailed it first time .

[Dadio]

[Dadio]

[KEV THE REV]

Nice work , looks great 👍

[Dadio]

Bit of paint , first chrome , then some fine flake , several more steps yet though .

[Dadio]