Fighting Buggy - Part 4 (An Oily Mess)

Onto pack B, where I'll be assembling the rear damper and the cool-looking external oil reservoir.

Getting the e-clip onto the piston shaft was a pain, even with the pliers.

OK, so I fill up the cylinder with oil ... piece of cake.

Unfortunately the same could not be said of the next part, where I had to "ensure the silicon tube is filled with oil before attaching to damper".

The problem here was that I could not attach the end of the tube to the damper without the oil being sucked back into the bottle! This happened numerous times until my hands (and the manual) got all oily. What a mess.

In the end, my solution was to disregard the steps in the manual. Instead, I unscrewed the damper's cylinder head with the hose attached to the oil bottle at the other end. Now I had the bottle, hose and cylinder head on one hand, and an oil-filled damper in my other hand. Then I squeezed the oil bottle until both the hose and the cylinder head was filled with oil, before quickly screwing it back on the damper. 

Voila!

Another thing I should have done was to cut of the excess silicone tube before pouring in the oil. Since I didn't, I had to find some way to neatly coil the tube around the reservoir, while being careful not to leave any kinks.

What's left of the oil in the bottle, secured by zip ties. You can see that some air bubbles have still formed in the hose. Oh well.

Close-up of the rear damper

Looks pretty cool! Whether it actually works is, of course, a different story, but I think this is really a unique design that makes the Fighting Buggy, and the Super Champ before it, stand out.

Fixing the roll bars

Time to take the blank slate that's the chassis so far, and do things to it!

The rear of the buggy is done! I like the look of it so far. I must say though, the Fighting Buggy has a damn heavy ass....