With only one week left to have the Rock Bug ready for final engine tuning, the pressure of time is now officially on!  As we mentioned in our last weekend update, the focus over the past week has been on overall Rock Bug assembly.   Check out the video and photos below of more Rock Bug “work in progress” as we finish up all the final details.  A few more concept Rock Bug goodies still to be covered are gun drilled axle shafts, an ultra lightweight sway bar, and performance Spider 9 third member hardware.  Since this is all happening in about one weeks time, be sure to keep checking our blog for more updates to come.

With all of the talk lately in heat treating chromoly parts for the Rock Bug, we thought it helpful to post a hardness conversion chart detailing the relationship between hardness and tensile strength.  A few things to remember before using this guide in your next engineering project.  Tensile values provided in this chart are given as the materials tensile “yield” strength.  Because the relationship between hardness and tensile strength is inexact, actual yield strength may vary depending on the material’s properties.  Special thanks to Instron, the recognized worldwide market leader in the materials testing industry, for providing this chart to us.

Although this past week went way too fast, we’re happy to say the goals that were on the table are finished.  The main theme this week was running the electrical for the Rock Bug.  With the exception of a few finishing touches to be completed when the Rock Bug is rolling, Gerald King of Finish Line Racing has tied up all the electrical and as of yesterday is on a plane back home for some well deserved R&R.  Enjoy the video and photos below of all the finished work as of today.  Next week we will be focusing on more general assembly of the Rock Bug.  With the rest of the general assembly out of the way, we will be able to create a more precise task list for wrapping up the final pieces of the Rock Bug.

Consider this a “work in progress” update.  Although I planned on writing the next blog post when all the electrical work was completed, there is so much going on at the same time today I couldn’t help but post some pictures and video now.  Things are going as planned this week, with electrical being the major project to finish by the weekend.  Since our last Rock Bug update on the 19th, some of the progress has included, but is certainly not limited to, fabricating the control section for the dashboard, chromoly mounts for both the fuel cell and battery, intake routing for the Scat V4, and a custom chromoly brake pedal.  Enjoy the pictures and video here, but don’t forget there is more video at SpidertraxTV on YouTube and more photos in the Rock Bug Set on Flickr.

So no time is wasted, Tracy picked up the now fully assembled Scat V4 motor from Powerhouse Motorsports and drove it all the way back to our shop in Longmont, CO.   The underlying theme this week is having everything fabricated and installed so all necessary electrical work can be completed.  Today, Tracy is flying in his good friend Gerald King of Finish Line Racing to handle just about all the electrical work on the Rock Bug.  Finish Line Racing, which can be reached at (602) 576-8332,  specializes in electrical work for all types of performance vehicles all the way up to Trophy Trucks and has worked with guys like the Gieser Brothers & Dunebuggy.com.  In order for Gerald to do his job, we will be busy supplying him with everything necessary for electrical such as fabricating and installing the Rock Bug’s dashboard, battery, fuel cell, Scat V4 accessories, and anything else for that matter that has wires running to it.  We had a great opportunity weighing both the chassis and fully assembled Scat V4 motor during the assembly.  As of today, the chassis weighs in just under 230 lbs and the Scat V4 motor weighs in just at 221 lbs.  The Scat V4 is projected to produce about 300 HP, so the power to weight ratio as it stands should serve the Rock Bug well.