woah! that new donk is gonna roar like a dragon!
great work man 👍, u know i'm jealous right?
(ô_!_/ô) (ô_!_/ô)
69' baja: kombi box, thing spindles, irs, disc front, type 3 rear drums, 2 inch lift kit, 31x10 rears. 👍
New engine in process: 94mm p&bs, 74mm C/w chomol Crank, 35.5x39 SP heads, turbo. Wierd combo, hopeful torque monsta!
I reckon your front tyres will rub on that bar you've put on.
65 Meyers Manx
68 Country Buggy (KO 367)
68 Country Buggy (KO 669)
68 Country Buggy (KO 789)
68 Country Buggy (KO 815)
68 Baja Bug
76 Baja Kombi Twincab
11CAB wrote:I reckon your front tyres will rub on that bar you've put on.
So do I. But only at full suspension droop.
And they aren't going to be a permanent deal. Just for the short(ish) term until I put a body lift in the car.
Smiley
😎If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
It wont be at full droop, the wheels move further back as the wheel goes up.
65 Meyers Manx
68 Country Buggy (KO 367)
68 Country Buggy (KO 669)
68 Country Buggy (KO 789)
68 Country Buggy (KO 815)
68 Baja Bug
76 Baja Kombi Twincab
These are the ones I have. They attach using the two large body bolts.
65 Meyers Manx
68 Country Buggy (KO 367)
68 Country Buggy (KO 669)
68 Country Buggy (KO 789)
68 Country Buggy (KO 815)
68 Baja Bug
76 Baja Kombi Twincab
Did you make them Graham or are they a VW part ?
Sharpbuilt V2, EJ25, Subaru 5 Speed, Falcon rear discs, Heater & A/C, Rack Steering
Neither, I think they were made by Custom Offroad at some stage. I bought them second hand for about $20
65 Meyers Manx
68 Country Buggy (KO 367)
68 Country Buggy (KO 669)
68 Country Buggy (KO 789)
68 Country Buggy (KO 815)
68 Baja Bug
76 Baja Kombi Twincab
A few small updates.
I got my bonnet and mud guard back from Steff in Gladstone a few weekends back. He did some super fantastic work yet again in repairing the fibreglass and repainting both parts.
The guard had a chunk ripped out of it while offroading locally at the start of the year. The the bonnet had a hole in it from where someone reversed into the front of my car 😬😬😬😬
Both are all fixed up now all pretty like. Steff seems to think that I need a carbon fibre Baja kit so I can't break it as easily.......tempting...
You wouldn't know that there had been a large piece missing.
All fitted and pretty again. I might have to wash the rest of the car to match the super shiny new paint.
I don't seem to have any pictures of the bonnet since it was fixed on my camera. I'll get some soon and throw them up.
Here's a couple of the damage I took when it happened.
Smiley 🙂
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
Ok. Now on to the fun stuff I've been up to today.
Here are the ports on my new engine.
And here are the ports in the new manifolds from the carby kit. Anyone else spot the problem??
I also noticed that the gaskets that came with the manifolds were completely the wrong size and far too loose a fit for my liking.
Smiley 🙂
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
So first things first. I made up some new gaskets for the manifolds. Both head end and carby end.
They are exactly the same size as the ends of the carby and marked for the side of the engine and orientation.
Once this was done they were bolted down onto the head and cut out to match the ports perfectly. I made super sure that the foam blocks were a tight fit to stop cut up bits of gasket paper getting into the engine. And cleaned any bits out that got on top of the foam.
Once this was done I blocked the manifolds to make sure they were perfectly flat. A spare sheet of glass is perfect for this.
Smiley 🙂
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
Next step is to mark out around the ports on the manifolds with a permanent marker or paint pen.
Then bolt the matched gaskets back on and scribe a line around the inside of the gasket. All that metal needs to be removed!!
I knocked up a super duper NASA spec porting jig. It's a piece of angle with some holes in it to bolt the manifolds onto. I also blocked the surface they bolt against perfectly flat.
In the interests or engine longevity and reliability I decided to removed the raised cast lettering on the manifolds. I think it looks better smooth anyway.
Smiley 🙂
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
Then you pretty much go to town with the die grinder.
The first bit I used was a carbide burr with a tooth cut for alloy. this was used to remove the larger sections of metal.
Then pretty much used small flapped wheels to clean up and tidy the rest of it.
I'll put some pictures of the bits up tomorrow as I forgot to take some.
The main thing I did was took my time and steady steady steady.
You can see how rough the casting is when comparing the ported and unported holes. I discovered a slight amount of porosity in the casting too. Which is unfortunate but not a major issue.
Both manifolds are completely done now, blocked flat again and have been thoroughly cleaned. I'll put some more picture up tomorrow. Thanks for looking 😀
Smiley 🙂
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
Ok. As promised here are some more pictures from what I did yesterday.
This is the alloy burr I used for the bulk metal removal. It did a very neat job and didn't jump around at all.
After that I just used small die grinder flapper wheels. I need to try and get some with a longer shank though, because there was a small section in the very middle of the manifold that I couldn't quite reach. Does anyone know where I can get these?
And lastly here is one of the manifolds completely ported and cleaned. Looking good 😀
Back to it!
Smiley 🙂
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
Nice job...... Don't leave the manifolds highly polished, better for turbulence and atomization if they have a rougher finish. ( inside of course)
Get a brand new flapper wheel with low grit number
And rough em up, sorta like a hone pattern you would have on the cylinders
Big ports ya got there!
Smiley wrote:After that I just used small die grinder flapper wheels. I need to try and get some with a longer shank though, because there was a small section in the very middle of the manifold that I couldn't quite reach. Does anyone know where I can get these?
Smiley 🙂
Smiley, just weld a bit of round rod onto the shaft of one of the flapper wheels you have there and extend it that way.
From your ole' mate Jeff
Thanks for the input chaps.
I'll get some new flapper wheels on Monday from work and rough them up a little.
Smiley 🙂
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
This afternoon I got stuck into the car once again.
This is what I started with.
About 15 minutes later we were at this stage. Got to love the ease at which a Baja comes apart 😍
Then not long after that.
And I can finally say goodbye to swingaxle!!! Hooray! 😀
More updates soon. Things are going to start coming together quickly from here I hope.
Smiley 🙂
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
Doing a good job of my engine set up there young man 😂 best pull ur finger out if ur going to make it to warrick, times running out!!!
Now remember i'm just about to board a plane to the uk for a month so try not to damage any more body work as i cant just fly back and fix it for u!!!!!!
have fun
steff..................
Life with out a v-dub is no life at all!!!!!
DubCrazy wrote:Doing a good job of my engine set up there young man 😂 best pull ur finger out if ur going to make it to warrick, times running out!!!
Now remember i'm just about to board a plane to the uk for a month so try not to damage any more body work as i cant just fly back and fix it for u!!!!!!
have fun
steff..................
Enjoy your trip mate. I hope things have settled down over there.
Smiley
🙂If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
After running into a few dramas with parts compatibility on the IRS conversion, everything is now starting to come together.
Had to redrill some extra holes in the superbug diagonal arms to match the Type 3 double spring plates.
Then I got stuck in and installed the new spring plates and torsion bars. Make sure you put plenty of antisieze on the splines to stop them rusting on there.
Also make sure that you apply a crapload of graphite (or talc) powder to the spring plate rubbers. I used as much as I could get to stay in there. You don't want to use rubber grease or any other 'wet' lubricants because these will attract dirt and dust and ultimately lead to wear from this contamination.
After a little bit of frigging around to get them to compress up nicely both sides were installed and bolted up tight.
More soon.
Smiley 🙂
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
Got a few more bits and pieces done for Alyce this afternoon.
I got my new engine set up on a milk crate (is there anything they can't do? 😀) And decided to throw the new clutch disc and pressure plate on.
But then I ran into a little problem with the flywheel.
Two of the holes for the pressure plate did not have threads tapped into them ❗❗ The ones at 1 o'clock and 3 o'clock in the next picture.
Fortunately I have to correct tap on hand and some high quality cutting compound, so threads were cut in a jiffy!
Smiley 🙂
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
So it wasn't long before the Kennedy Stage I pressure plate and new clutch plate were bolted in place.
Got my trailing arms all bead blasted back to bare metal today during a quiet moment at work. Primed them in red oxide then realised I don't have any more grey to match them to my wheels etc. So I'll have to pick some up tomorrow from Repco.
Installed a new rear main seal into the gearbox. Lubed the slide tube and installed the new throwout bearing. Gotta love all this fancy late model stuff. The bearing will actually stay in place and clips can't fly off everywhere 🤪
Thanks for looking.
Smiley 🙂
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
👍
Pretty grey to match my wheels.
More soon.
Smiley 🙂
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
Half way round the world and I'm checking on alyce! Starting to get there mate. Just need a body lift now :o)
Steff
Life with out a v-dub is no life at all!!!!!
Reminds me of that song...
"sex on wheels!!!.... " 👍 😂
(ô_!_/ô) (ô_!_/ô)
69' baja: kombi box, thing spindles, irs, disc front, type 3 rear drums, 2 inch lift kit, 31x10 rears. 👍
New engine in process: 94mm p&bs, 74mm C/w chomol Crank, 35.5x39 SP heads, turbo. Wierd combo, hopeful torque monsta!
Ok. A little more progress has happened.
Go the trailing arms all painted up.
Installed the new Delrin bushing kits that I bought from Meyers Manx Australia. I'm very please with the fit and quality of the kit.
I go the diagonal arms assembled up to this point until I discovered that the bearing kit that Repco sold me is for swingaxle 😬 So I bagged them up and I'll be getting the correct bearings tomorrow.
Smiley 🙂
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
Cleaned up my alternator stand today.
Sandblasted it and blocked the flat surface on the bottom.
I also noticed some casting burrs on the top of the filler neck where the breather bolts on. I don't think this was giving a very good sealing surface as I found some sludge (dust mixed with oil) on the inside of the filler neck. So I blocked this surface flat too.
Smiley 🙂
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
Then I fitted the stand, fuel pump and oil cooler to the new engine.
One last little question. Because my new engine is built on a universal case it has a hole in the flange where the engine bolts up to the transaxle. This is used for the sensor as a part of the factory fuel injection system fitted to the latter model beetles.
I was just wondering what people used to block the hold to stop crap getting into the bellhousing?? Any ideas?
I could just fill it with a blob of sikaflex but are there any neater options?
Thanks for looking
Smiley 🙂
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
Maybe a rubber plug - like a gromet without a hole in it.
From your ole' mate Jeff
