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Project Fun Buggy 4x4 Rock Buggy Build Windshield & Wiring - D.O.T. Fun BuggyWindshields, Wires, And Rock Buggies From the March, 2009 issue of 4Wheel & Off-Road By Fred Williams Photography by Fred Williams
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On the trailer on its way... On the trailer on its way to being assigned a VIN by the CHP. Can you believe it has been about four years since this darn Fun Buggy was started? Like the Pyramids, it has taken countless manhours to finish. Truth be told, it's still not finished, but then again, projects rarely are. In the last installment, I showed you some bodywork. This month I'll touch on more bodywork, some wiring, and a few steps to try and make this thing street-legal. Yes, I'm really going to make it street-legal. The problem is that many of my favorite trails are in states or counties that don't allow crazy trail buggies on the street (Moab), which is fine when you have a truck and trailer. But sometimes you just want to get in the thing and cruise down to the local Foster's Freeze and get yourself an ice cream cone. Better yet, when all the old guys in their fancy hot rods are sitting around outside of Denny's, I'd love to come rolling up in Fun Buggy and blow their minds with what us dumb kids are building these days. In addition to that crazy idea, I'm also planning to enter the '09 King of the Hammers (KOH) race in late February at the Johnson Valley trails outside of Lucerne, California. This means that not only am I trying to make my buggy street-legal for California (one of the strictest states in the nation), but I also need to prep it for around 100 miles of rockcrawling and high-speed desert as per the official rule book of KOH. The race prep will be covered in a future issue. For now it's time to finish the buggy, get it running, and go get some seat time. Check out the latest, and stay tuned for the continuing saga of the buggy that's never done.  1. In many states you need...  1. In many states you need a complete safety-glass windshield to be judged street-legal, though in other places you can get away with a 6- or 8-inch-tall windscreen. I went with a sheet of glass custom-cut to fit in an aluminum frame. First we built the frame to fit the chassis and then cut out the opening for the glass. The handles on the side have a twofold purpose: easy removal for extreme wheeling, and semi-strong brushguard when wheeling with the windshield in place.  2. We used a simple two-part...  2. We used a simple two-part gasket to lock the glass into the 1/8-inch aluminum frame. After the addition of windshield wipers from Kaiser Willy's Auto Supply, the same kind that are used by old Jeep restoration guys, the Fun Buggy was another step closer to being street-legal.  3. I stewed over the wheel-covering...  3. I stewed over the wheel-covering dilemma for months and really wanted to come up with some sort of collapsible tire cover that could be easily stowed when arriving at the trail. Unfortunately I didn't get that figured out, so I went with my second idea: tractor fenders. I had noticed that Caterpillar Telehandler forklifts had large plastic fenders, and I thought they would be perfect for the buggy.  4. We carefully cut the center...  4. We carefully cut the center from the windshield frame with a plasma cutter and used it as a template for the glass. It would have been easier to use a common windshield from a Jeep or Samurai, but they weren't the correct size for the chassis, so I had Jefferies Hot Rod Glass cut me a custom piece of tempered safety glass to fit.  5. I tracked down the fenders...  5. I tracked down the fenders at Peterson Tractor Company and ordered up the whole mounting kit. Junior fabricator Rob Peterson from Poly Performance devised a system whereby the fenders would attach to the top steering arm of the Dana 60 axles. This allows them to follow the tires when they turn and the suspension moves, but to still be easily removed. The fenders don't clear the body under extreme articulation, and they're not the sexiest part, but they'll be fine for street driving and even most gravel roads.  6. Wiring the fun buggy was...  6. Wiring the fun buggy was another project I was dreading like the plague. I even considered hiring some hi-zoot trophy-truck wiring guru to come finish the job, but then I realized that if the wiring had an issue in the field, I should know how to fix it. I called the guys at Painless Performance and ordered up their 20-circuit waterproof wiring kit, and boy was I glad I did. The wiring harness was very easy to install, and the instructions were filled with simple step-by-step details.  7. Here is one reason why...  7. Here is one reason why the Painless kit is so great. Every wire is labeled along the length of the wire. This tells you what fuse it runs to and what accessory it should run to. For example, this wire is part of the tail section of the harness. It is wire No. 949, a number you can cross-reference with the instructions (which also are online if you lose the originals), and then the insulation is marked "Left Turn (Brake)" to help designate it even further.  8.Another product is this...  8.Another product is this split braided wire sleeve from Painless. I hate that cheap plastic wire-loom covering that you get at most auto parts stores, but this nylon weave is great for cleaning up your harness. It is available in 1/4-, 1/2-, 3/4-, and 2-inch diameters and can be purchased as a combo kit for doing a complete vehicle. Here you can see how it cleaned up the wires to the Nordskog gauges.
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