The resurection of Froggy

[Vezdekhod]

Back in the '80s, my friend Chuck owned an old Attex that he affectionately named "Froggy." He was beat up, had bent axles, roached bearings, no seals to speak of, but he ran and the plan was to rebuild him one day. When Chuck got divorced in the mid-90s, his now ex-wife forced him to sell Froggy. We thought that he was gone forever.

After I retired from policing in 2012, I took a civilian job at a local County Jail. While working there, (I still do) I met a lady who teaches the inmates how to sew and upholster. She and I got to talking one day about how I like AATVs and she said "Oh, I've got a Froggy." Small world and too good to be true. In November of 2014, Chuck and I bought the vehicle and moved it back to his place in Southern Ohio...

More to follow. Stay tuned.

[Andyman]

I am glad you are going to save Froggy, keep the updates coming

[Vezdekhod]

The two photos above show Froggy the day that we picked him up back in November of 2014. Chuck's obviously thrilled to death with the re-acquisition. The vehicle had been sitting outside for God knows how long, filled full of leaves, debris and water. Everything rusted solid and seized. We had to push, shove and drag it up onto the trailer.

After getting it back down to Chuck's place, we cleaned the hull out as best we could and then heavily oiled everything. By Sunday morning that weekend, we had the vehicle rolling, at least, on four tires that held air.

No photos to show of either one of us doing any work on him, but by mid-July of this year, Chuck completely dismantled the entire running gear - which I'm sure as many of you know is no small feat with a vehicle in this kind of condition; most everything is either rusted solid and/or gaulded together. Nonetheless, I brought Froggy's bare hull back home with me the last weekend in July. I began the ABS repairs the weekend of August 5th. Here's what it looked like, and most specifically some of the really bad damage - and this is after sanding and grinding off layer after layer of paint, one of which I believe to be Imron, as it was tougher than anything to get off:

[Vezdekhod]

As you can see in the photos, someone (not either one of us) at some point in the vehicle's life had tried to repair it with fiberglass & resin. it was still wet underneath most of this stuff and every bit of it had to come off. Almost the entire lower hull - at least where new ABS stuff was going to go - had to be sanded or ground down to bare yellow ABS.

I have spent the last two weeks working on the hull. Not only did the repairs where they were needed, but tried to "beef him up" in all of his weak or vulnerable spots. The following photos will take you through all that I've done to date. Still work to do, but he's getting there. Couple more damage shots first:


Okay, here's repairs:


The photos don't really reflect all of the really detailed fill work that I've done with thick, thin and medium-thickness goo. The hull is really strong now, especially around the axle mounting holes and where the freeboard of the lower hull rolls out and forms the sponson. It is especially strong there now.

[Vezdekhod]

Just wanted to add that even though the finish is pretty smooth, the plan always was to paint this vehicle OD green again, so he's far from perfect. I completely understand why now why you guys are always saying "don't paint them" as it makes for a real pain when doing repairs, especially in ABS. Mine will not be painted.

I have to say that the ABS goo is pretty fun to play with. I've got a good bit of experience with Urethane resins, but this is a whole different animal. Being able to make different viscosities of the stuff really opens up all kind of avenues. Going to have to repair the hull on mine and Froggy has been a great learning curve on how to use this stuff.

[Nick O.]

What a great story! It's always good to see a 6x6 come back home.

[JoeMeg]

Looking good! Yes,the ABS goo is so easy to work with. I'm sure the areas that where "reinforced" are now much stronger than original. The addition of the fiberglass makes a big difference.

[Vezdekhod]

Thanks you guys. Yeah, we're both pretty stoked about getting this vehicle rebuilt and refurbished. On top of the fact that it'll be cool to have it up and running, it's kinda like "nyah-nyah, nyah-nyah-nyah!" to the ex-wife that forced the sale in the first place. LOL

I'm hoping that Chuck (Cirrus 6) will chime in here to give you all the low down on what all he has done and/or plans to do to the driveline. It's his vehicle and he has done all of the real work to it. I'm good with bodywork and plastics... that's why I offered to help with these repairs.

[Canadian_Zuk]

great story!