Colouring the Freestyle Chassis

The Freestyle Chassis is officially being constructed as we speak!

I decided to have it powdercoated, and my ten year old daughter (bless) chose me the colour scheme. Yes you guessed it, all shades of Purple!

One interesting dvelopment was the powder coated didn't have the colour I originally requested, but they had a much darker colour which I think will add some... er... um... ok it's just a nice colour... well ok it's PURPLE!!!

It'll be different is all I can say! Anyway, I'm looking forward to picking it up on the 7th October!!

Stripped!

So I took a battered rusty old Mini, and full of optimism I though yes I could salvage this?

Ha, so i managed to salvage some bits for resale, I should be so lucky, even the chassis is in a right tangle! Glad I'm not restoring it now!


Out of virtually a whole mini, I have a complete set of window glass and some replacement panels, that's it! the rest is junk! (Apart from what I'm keeping of course!)

So Engine. Front Subframe. Electics (with some brute force). Steering wheel and pedals. All came out easy. Rear subframe, nightmare! a twisted wreck! But, I only need the rear hubs so I'm not worried. To be honest it came apart easy, just need to get rid of the body shell!

Rusty old doner in pieces

So I won the doner!
Payed almost double what I expected to pay for it but hey it's worth it! 4000 miles on the Engine (need to verify that) and most parts look ok, or will clean up nicely!
Anyway, thanks to Alan (An owner and club member) offered to help me out!



We picked up a trailer and collected the Mini!
My daughter came along too and bless she help us to load it on the trailer!
It was a long day, and I think she was grateful not to go with me and Alan to take the trailer back and pick up my car!



Anyway, on the way back we managed to pick up a 2 foot steel rod in one of the rear tyres (I dunno how either!) this prompted frenzied action to get the 4x4 off the road before the tyre went flat!
That would have been an absolute nightmare!




My next entry will be on deconstruction and I hope to be able to throw in a few piccies too!

Finding a Donor!

So, I messed about making a workbench and faffed about looking through magazines and it was finally time to bite the bullet!
I started by getting in touch with the owners club and thankfully a local member got in touch and invited me over to see his and another members buggies, it was great to meet them and see the buggies. It got me hooked!
So I seriously got looking out for a donor vehicle. Ebay was my last hope since all the usual places were showing up nothing!
I eventually found a Metro, and thought I could use that as a donor, but there was a bidding frenzy and it went for way over my maximum!
So back to square one, I gave up with Ebay and decided to get in touch with "Funbuggy Dave" the owner and manufacturer of the Freestyle buggy!
He was very nice an gave me the confidence to build a car even if it was from parts and I committed on the spot to buy the buggy space frame on the spot!
A couple of days later and a coupl eof phone calls and I was bidding on a new donor and sent off a deposit!

Playing Catchup

Ok, so I should've started this Blog a couple of weeks ago! Since I'm writing this a couple of weeks behind and playing catchup! anyway, read on...

So I have decided to begin building a Freestyle and whilst looking for a suitable donor, I thought it might be prudent to mention to my Grandmother that I intend storing a battered mini on her drive and building a car in her garage!

Phew! She has no problems with it!

Instead of placing my order, I decided the best way to begin would be to build a workbench!

I bought some wood, and my Daughter and I both began to build it!

It's now sitting in the back of the Garage and has no vice and indeed, no worktop!

That was 3 weeks ago, it's still there, no worktop!

...and so it begins.

So it all began with the wild notion that I could restore a classic motorcycle. Having seen Mark Evans restore a Classic British Bike on the 'Is Born' series I thought "I could do that?".
Didn't last long, although having passed my motorcycle test a few years ago, I've probably spent less than 50 hours hanging on for grim death! I'd love to own a motorcycle again but in reality, I don't think it's ever gonna happen? It's more probable that I'll become a scooter owner!
Anyway, I digress...
Having searched tirelessly for a bike to restore (one that appealed to my taste) I finally gave up! Every bike I like that was in need of restoration was really expensive, it seems you can't pay enough for a classic British Motorcycle! No matter of the condition!
So with that I gave up on the idea of restoring or building anything until...
This summer, I saw a strange little contraption on the road, a very small off road vehicle that looked a little like a steel version of the modern pushchairs you see these days. Obviously a lot bigger and having a motorcycle engine in the back, it looked like a lot of fun!
I thought, let's see if I can find out about this on the internet... nothing, it was remarkable the lack of information available (or so it seemed) but the possibility of building one of these critters seemed to be a fun proposition?
So I got to wondering, 'Kit Car?' Naaa, way too expensive, easily burn a ten grand hole in my pocket for another Caterham lookalike, nope not for me!
But I remain convinced that I'm throwing too much money at 'modding' my 12/13 year old Vauxhall Tigra and sure it'll let me down one day in the near future, I'm in need of something to draw my attention away from spending too much money on a street car who's sale value will never meet what I've spent!
So I do more internet browsing for buggies, not really knowing where it would take me, but now convinced that:
a) I no longer want to restore a motorcycle
b) I don't want the fuss of 'restoring' anything!
c) I want to curb my spending on a "modded" road car
d) I quite like the idea of owning a street legal "Fun Buggy"
Then I stumble upon a website and a picture of an ABS Freestyle. I still have a link to this guys website but his brief posting gave me the enthusiasm I needed to seriously consider building my own!
I was now on a mission, I wanted one of those wee beasties!