I have been working on a parts car for several months and after stripping it, I've been thinking it might be cool to make a buggy instead of sending it all to the scrap yard. Scraping wasn't going to give me much for the frame anyway.

It had been in a right side collision and was not a candidate for rebuild or fixing. I originally bought it for the seats, which were in much better condition than mine. The rear frame is pretty rusty, but I'll probably cut that out anyway. I pulled the wiring harness, but I don't plan on keeping the Rover engine at this time. The plan from here is to shorten the wheelbase and try to reduce the front and rear overhangs.

I spent last weekend separating the body from the frame, which was quite a project. Rust made getting some of the bolts out absolutely awful. After that it came off fairly easily.

Any ideas? I think a cage a la Roadkill Corvette Kart would be really cool, but that's a ways off.

 

Send it to the scrapyard.

 

Ignore the hate. I think it's an awesome idea! You could grab an older rover engine (carb'd 3.9) with the older hydraulicly shifted transmissions. Plop it right in, no cutting/welding required.

Smack a sheet metal floor pan and firewall in it and cart it like you say. Loved the vette cart. I always thought it would make an awesome starting point for a 4x4 buggy.

 

Alex_M, I really liked your idea with the bobtail rover. I started going in that direction, but the body was trashed to much on the back right side. I think the 4wd kart idea will be a fun long-term project.

That's a great idea with the carb'd Rover V8, that would be a great bolt-up option, and no finicky electronics. I'll see if I can find one around here.

 

Glad I could help get the wheels turning! I'd bet you could find one pretty cheap. What year was that one? Sh*t, if it was an '03-'04 you could even swap the rotating assembly into the 3.9 and have a 4.6! Pop a quadrajet on it, maybe a cam if you could get one cheap, Range Rover long tube headers are fairly cheap on Amazon. Buggies are awesome because everything is expendable/change-able.

 

I say find a spit or jaguar to go on top

 

It was an '03 4.6. Lower end should be good still, slipped sleeve did it in. That would be awesome with some headers. Car-part.com has a few old 3.5 range engines in the area. Most seem to have EFI though. I'll call around. Wonder what model years had the carb.

Or a Mercedes SL and call it The Excellent... Clarkson is hilarious! That would be a head-turner for sure.

 

Not sure what the bore is on the 3.5. Frankly, I'm not sure what the bore is on the 3.9 either. Maybe you can use the factory pistons with the 4.6 crank and rods. I know the 4.0 pistons can be used with them; they're just a little higher compression. No issues with hitting valves.

3.5 may do it. Even if it's fuel injected you can get a carb intake for it as long as it still takes a distributor.

 

Buick 215 Aluminum Intake Manifold OLDS 1358983 IHRA NHRA RAT ROD Vintage 4 BBL | eBay

Or if you wanna go fancy:

Edelbrock 2198 Performer Street Intake Manifold Rover V8 & Buick/Olds 215

 

So the bore on the 3.9, 4.0, and 4.6 are the same, but the 3.5 is smaller. I'll probably start simple with whatever I can find around. As you said the beauty of the buggy is it's so easy to switch stuff out!

Cool stuff! Thanks!