The Iguana - MX5 Wisdscreen A/C and heating going in

[Iguana]

Re: The Iguana - It seemed like a good idea at the time ...

So that was Iguana 001 out the way. A lot of lessons were learnt and mistakes were made.

[Iguana]

Re: The Iguana - It seemed like a good idea at the time ...

So with Iguana 001 gone what is a car fan to do .. well in my case I quit the business and went away from it as 001 was a significant effort and I lost a lot of interest. Anyway fast forward 2 years plus and it is time to build Iguana Mk2 with the biggest difference being this is my own Iguana so I can build it how I like to the time line I like.

I wasn't going to do a build thread for my Buggy but since I have been getting such great support from several shops that do awesome work on VW's and others I thought it only fair to give them some credit.

Anyway after being away for a year or two it is finally time to finish off my Iguana Buggy. Not that it matters as so many things have changed anyway.

My Iguana is number 2 out of the mould and one of only 4 ever made.

The Build Specs:

Body - 4 Seater Custom Iguana
Chassis - Custom VW Tunnel witha heaps of mods
Suspension - A-Army front (A-Arm.com), CVD 3 x 2 rear, Fox 2.0 coil overs all round.
Engine - 2003 Subaru H6 3.0 EZ30D
Transmission - 2010 Outback Subaru 6 Speed with SubaruGears reverse cut Ring and Pinion
Tyres - 16x7 front with 235 x 75 x 16, 16x8 Rear with 285 x 75 x 16
Interior - Custom stuff everywhere, complete with climate control, Car PC, cable shifter, leather seats etc etc.

Build would not be possible without support from the following:

Custom Vee Dub - www.customveedub.com.au - Best Buggy Fabricators in Australia
A-Arm.com - Pete for the front end
SubaruGears.com - Without it I couldn't run the 6 speed.
Blitzkrieg Motorsports http://www.blitzkriegoffroad.com - Their work speaks for itself.
Baja Wes - Offroadvw.net - without Wes keeping my ideas in place I would go really stupid
My Mates - you can never have enough help.

Anyway enough blabin lets get fabbin.

Oh time line - Complete by the end of 2010 ......



As it sat just before I pushed it into the shed and sold off most of the bits... No real change till a few days ago.

[Iguana]

Re: The Iguana - It seemed like a good idea at the time ...

Then after we got Rack and Pinion working on the beam front end I went away and had a great idea to change A-Arm .. time to start drawing again for Wes as now I wanted Power Rack and Pinion Steering on my A-Arm front.



Then I had a nice near new EJ25T with RJES Bell Housing and fully built 091 box to go in..



But went away again and started driving a H6 Subaru .... mm it was nice .,..

So out with the EJ25T and in with the H6 ...

[Iguana]

Re: The Iguana - It seemed like a good idea at the time ...

You can't have a H6 behind am old 091 Kombi Box, it just wouldn't be right .. so out with the 091 and in with the 6 Speed.



Now we are up to date, I just need to get the guys at Custom Vee Dub to stop working on everything else and get my Buggy Finished.



6 Speed sitting in chassis, it will go forward aroun 100mm from this picture.

The Iguana was built to take a Turbo EJ and WAIC so there is room for most things. Didn't think of a cable shifter though .. luckily it will just fit.

[Iguana]

Re: The Iguana - It seemed like a good idea at the time ...

One of the issues I had with the A-Arm front end was with the original spindle design which used press fitted and welded VW style stub axles. These were never going to pass engineering so I had Pete make some changes and ship my uprights with a drilled PCD and no stubs or steering arms.

This allowed me to get some bolt on spindles and set the steering up to suit the power steering rack I wanted to use.

After looking around for a good quality spindle and hub provider I found http://www.blitzkriegoffroad.com/ - All I can say is WAY COOL ... Dennis and the Guys where great to deal with and their product is without a doubt the best I have ever seen. Fit, finish, Quality and great service.

Fitting pictures soon ....

[Iguana]

Re: The Iguana - It seemed like a good idea at the time ...

So now I had a 6 Speed I need to pull it down and get it to fit. As it was a brand new box there wasn't a lot of info out there so I decided to just pull it apart and see how it worked in there.

I thought a good place to start was by measuring it ... mmm she is a long one ..



Being the 6 Speed she also has these nice big wings on here which I am hopeing I can include in my barwork design to give extra stability and strength.



Along with the wings are the nice things such as hydraulic clutch and cable shift, should make for a nice shift setup if I can work out how to reverse it so I dont need cable which are 4m long.

[Iguana]

Re: The Iguana - It seemed like a good idea at the time ...

In order to get the gearbox to be shorter I need to remove the nose cone and centre diff from the case.

With the nose cone unbolted you can see the rear drive gear that would have driven the rear drive shaft in AWD Config.

No need for that anymore or the rear drive shaft





Looking into the box there is heaps of stuff I dont't need ..

Out it goes ... no need for a centre diff .. thinks of all the weight I am saving...

[Iguana]

Re: The Iguana - It seemed like a good idea at the time ...

mm now I wonder how much of this I need ... all of it I guess since I want to shift gears when I drive.



The 6 speed like most Subaru's I have looked at have a nice tabbed rear mount which I will try and re-use. I like them as they have tabs that stop the box from falling out should the rubber break.

If you look real close you will even see stick on weights which I am guessing has more to do with vibractions than weight

[Iguana]

Re: The Iguana - It seemed like a good idea at the time ...

Ok well I rushed home from work today as I had a need to make some chips and new that this would result in my stubs going onto my uprights for the first time, I was very excited about that.

When Pete at A-Arm.com made the kit for me he left the stub axles off and drilled PCD for me to bolt something to. When I eventually settled on the BMS stubs and hubs they arrived with a 5mm shoulder on the back. This meant that I would have to machine a round pocket on the uprights to take this. It also meant I would have to face it once done to make sure they sat perfectly flat.
So after having a chat to Dave at Custom Vee Dub it was decided I would need to do it in the Mill as it would be too hard to get it to fit in the lathe due to the off centre nature of the upright.

So into the mill it went for a pocket and a new face.

[Iguana]

Re: The Iguana - It seemed like a good idea at the time ...

I have also been thinking about the best approach to modify the 6 Speed to fit in the VW. After many hours of thinking and head scratching I have pretty much decide I will need to modify my torsion housing as unlike the 5 Speed the 6 Speed will have to stay 130 mm longer .

To make sure this was the case I dropped by SubiEvolution (http://www.subievolution.com.au/) and the Russell gave me an AWD 5 Speed to pull down to put alongside the 6 speed to check out the differences. As you will see it is very much the same but at the same time quite different.



Well not much progress to show. Spent most of the day coming up with crazy ideas and trying to sort out the best dash setup. Anyway after more than a few hours of distraction from Ben I have settled on using the Outback Dash complete with Sat nave and Climate Control. I wasn't going to bother with the climate control but since Wes had it I didn't really have much option.

[Iguana]

Re: The Iguana - It seemed like a good idea at the time ...

Ok so I have been away for a few days but the build continues. Due to time line intents I have a few things on the go at once.

So anyway I decided to fit the 6 speed and make sure all the linkages were going to work. After looking at it for a while I decided that I wanted to use the front transmission mount and keep the front bearing carrier. This meant I had to modify the florr pan a little to fit it all in.

First part done, still need to box it out and add some supports, but it fits.

[Iguana]

Re: The Iguana - It seemed like a good idea at the time ...

I also ran out of storage space to put all the bits as I strip them down. Not wanting to loose anything I smacked out a couple or parts trays to keep tabs on things, you have to love ally and Kemppi Tigs.



On the electrical front my H6 schematics should arrive next week and then I can skin the loom. I have also decided to run a couple of Motec PDM's instead on Fuses and Relays ... I must say after years of wiring buggies I am in love with the Motec PDM ... it is AWESOME...

[Iguana]

Re: The Iguana - It seemed like a good idea at the time ...

Well after recovering from the shock of giving up my dream to run PDM's I got back to work.

As I am too povo to have a set of slip rollers and to lazy to drive to Custom Vee Dub and use theirs I had to use the pan brake to bend up the tunnel cover plates. These are made from 3mm mild steel and are part of my re-enforcing plan to make up for the loss of strength from removing the rear torsion bars.

So I folder one up in 10mm increments and drilled an access hole which will get a cover later.





I then got distracted by some buggy owner in a bobcat digging out for my shed extension .... cool ... thanks Mick.




So once the excitement of a Bobcat had was over I got back into putting on my front hubs only to find they didn't fit my wheels as they had a 5/8" stud and not a 12mm like I needed. So I ended up driving into Custom Vee Dub anyway to use their Press to get the studs out and get some bolts in until I could get some 12mm studs made to suit.

Once all this was over I fitted the wheels and checked my turning circle with shocks out on full compression.





Ok so once that was done I got distracted again talking to a mate of mine who is also putting a Subaru Gearbox in his Beetle. Ended up pulling his box down a little and showing him what was needed. Was good to catch up so didn't mind losing some time.

BUT the show must go on and the engine was on the build schedule to be out TODAY .. so..

[img http://www.manxclub.org/uploads/forums/enginegone.jpg[/img]http://after he left out she came .... cool ....

Once it was out I needed to confirm in the sump was going to be an issue or not. Easiest way to do this was put a gearbox on it and take some measurements. Now I knew with the box in the car the bottom of the CV drive flange was 75mm from the bottom of the rear fork.

So I set it up level and on the concrete and took a measurement. It was 120mm so that meant the sump would hang down 45mm below the rear forks if the box sat flat. Luckily I didn't set it up flat so when I allowed for the angle I set the CV flanges came in at 95mm so only 20mm, I can live with that.

[Iguana]

Re: The Iguana - It seemed like a good idea at the time ...

Well what a day ...... I didn't get much time on the buggy as I had to make some spider webs to keep the ducks out of the pond.

Anyway I rushed out to the shed early as I was very keen to get the engine and gearbox into the Buggy so I could take some measurements and see where it would all sit in real life.

In my setup it will all work well. BUT ... if you had a VW gearbox then it would be too low. As the H6 doesn't have a normal removable sump you would end up with around 100mm under your pan which is to much.

In my setup but moving the box around, cutting some fibreglass and modifying some mounts I ended up with 40mm under the sump from the bottom of the rear forks. Not perfect but doable.

My wiring schematics for the H6 arrived as well so I started looking through them and the good news was that they match the loom in the car I have

[Iguana]

Re: The Iguana - It seemed like a good idea at the time ...

Oh I did get one other thing done, I picked up one of these ....