Our project was a bonding exercised between my daughter's new partner (a mechanic) myself once a Technical High School Teacher (33years ago) and my seven year old grandson Kai.

I retired a couple of years ago onto acreage near Sydney and have been building up my dream shed and to say that I have been looking for a project to justified its existence and expense, would be an understatement.

In planning the project, Safety and fun were major considerations so we went for a buggy, very wide for stability and with good ground clearance and suspension. ( only for use on our property a combination of 5 acres of lawns and some bitumen roads).  I leaned heavily on my daughters partner for mechanical direction and procurement, the grandson for encouragement  and I did all design, metalwork and engineering.

Methodology  of construction. (Nearly all parts, apart from metal, seat ,  motor itself  and rims came from Cut Price Racing. Front wheels from Bunnings with rear from a Mini restorer.

We had a 6 HP 4 stroke high pressure cleaner  that the pump had failed on . The Daughters partner pulled it to pieces and rebuilt it with new values and springs, a new fuel pump and new carburettor along with a Torque convertor. After seeing what he had achieved it upped the stakes so I did not want to be outdone in my grandsons eyes.

Construction start to finish in 30 days. I researched Ackerman steering and built the front end by trial and error ( plenty of error) on a light but sturdy tube base.

We sat the grandson into it and chalked in the design around him ( with a little extra space for the construction teams trial drivers). As you can see from the photo's the rear is trailing arm that hangs off the seat compartment frame.

I machined up the rear axle and hubs (first for Toyota rims but then changed to 10" mini rear ( too quick for seven year old). Using flexible throttle and break cables made controlling the buggy easy as motor is mounted on the hanging arm.

The seat is actually air cushioned and adjustable for the drivers weight. (quite weighty)

It's been a great project for getting us together and a family unit. I think the photos show we made a fair go at a first time effort.