Buggy is a rather unusual vehicle. In fact, a buggy is a car from which all parts of the load-bearing body were removed, and then transferred to an open chassis and equipped with large wheels. All this is required in order to prepare the car for off-road driving, in particular on sand dunes.
The first buggies were assembled in the USA (under the name “Dune Buggy”) and the UK (the British called this proud car “Beach Buggy”, that is, “beach bug”). In general, the word "buggy", that is, "bug", came from there - the first models were made from obsolete Volkswagen Beetle cars (that is, the Volkswagen Beetle), and since the new models were less lighter, the sharp-tongued Americans called the results bugs .
Since then, buggies have been used almost everywhere where there is no road - in deserts, where they have become practically hits, both in sandy and icy ones; on remote farms where they provide a cheap alternative to traditional heavy pickups…
Even the US Army uses buggies based on light jeeps - when equipped with such a clumsy-looking machine gun, you can get a highly mobile firing point that will pass even where an armored personnel carrier cannot pass.
In this article, we will consider the process of building our own buggy based on an old Soviet car that was undeservedly forgotten and sent to the dustbin of history - ZAZ 968, that is, the classic forty-powered Zaporozhets.
Part 1. Design
You will need blueprints. This is an axiom. Of course, you won’t be able to comply with them 100% - after all, you don’t work at a factory, but in a garage, but the drawings will still be needed. The basis of the buggy body is metal pipes, which should form the most rigid structure, which must be calculated in advance.
However, if you are too lazy to do it yourself, or you don’t have enough knowledge, then there is always the opportunity to assemble a buggy according to the drawings that can be found on the Internet - there are many sites of fans of such cars and most of them share their experience quite freely. We used drawings from the Soviet magazine Modelist-Constructor, and the buggy itself is called AB-82 in it.
Part 2. Building the base
It’s worth starting with the assembly of the frame, on which other parts of the car will then be installed. The material from which you will perform this can be an ordinary iron profile pipe, it is also an “iron profile”.
In most cases, it is enough to support the weight of the engine, the rest of the car body, as well as the rider with the load. However, if you want to "show off" - you can use stronger and more expensive materials.
Worth thinking about suspension. In our case, we used a VAZ-based front suspension - it is relatively cheap and at the same time quite reliable. Here is what has changed in the process of its processing and fitting to the buggy:
The lever pipes are from the rear suspension of the VAZ Classic. The one with silent blocks. Or silent brooks, as old motorists aptly call parts of this quality abroad.
The ears for installing the blocks had to be made independently from metal 2 mm thick.
Fastening the ball joint from below is a piece of the VAZ front lever.
Above - the VAZ relay tip, which replaced the ball tip.
The camber adjustment bushing is welded to the upper arm (I had to turn to a turner, but such a strengthening of the structure was worth it). The same turner helped to adapt the upper ball joint to the tip - they have different cones.
IZHP-4 shock absorbers were used ... but they should not be used - they are too weak. Later they were replaced with paired shock absorbers. A little advice - when building the suspension, try to make sure that the kinematics of the levers make the contact patch of the tire with the road maximum. 
The rear suspension was made according to the method of a combined hodgepodge of several VAZ ones with a belt limiting its travel.
The front wheels were originally VAZ, but the rear ones were planned to be used from Zaporozhets. However, later it turned out that the ZAZ drum brakes were to hell and the turner ordered bushings for VAZ wheels and VAZ disk brakes, respectively.
Part 3. Installing the engine
If you continue to follow the instructions and drawings in this article - it's time to try to install the engine and gearbox. In our case, we used "native" mounts with a little "finishing with a file."
Since the drawings were not followed perfectly. Ideally, they should also stand on their relatives. A native generator relied on the motor, but it did not justify itself and was later replaced by VAZ products. Pedals are original.
An important point is that in the vase the motor is reversed, so in order to have four gears forward and one reverse, it is worth deploying the differential gear. This trick is only possible on forty-horsepower motors, so be careful. Carburetor - VAZ through an adapter.
Part 4. Making the bucket seat
The drawing of the seat was honestly "stolen" from the Internet. It is made of 8 mm metal.
Part 5. Welding and installation of the bottom
The bottom was welded from a sheet of metal, 0.8 mm thick. In principle, you can do without it - the first buggies did just that, but with additional protection it is calmer. The first option was attached to self-tapping screws, but they did not justify themselves. As a result, the bottom was spot welded.
Part 6. Buck
The tank was installed in the form of an old five-liter canister. Later, he acquired various sensors, a beautiful hatch and other amenities.
Ready. Key to start!
It is worth noting that this design turned out to be a purely test one - the Zaporozhets engine died rather quickly and ingloriously, after which it was replaced by a VAZ with frame alterations. But the gearbox through the transition frame still feels fine ... but it was replaced by AZLK 2141 due to the higher reliability of the latter.
The seat was also replaced with an ordinary, soft RECARO GT1, and a full-fledged upper body with a dashboard was also made.
After these improvements, tests were carried out that showed an average off-road speed of 53 km / h, and a maximum recorded speed of 146.7 km / h.