plans for your buggy/baja/off roader

what are your realistic short - medium term plans for yours. long term we could all say 18" travel, wrx motor and g50 trans, see you at finke/aus safari.....
but what is actually likley...

when i stop punishing mine

i aim to rebuild it stronger and meaner than b4 (and hopefully take it round OZ).. nothing too serious, aircooled, reliability and self fix is the basis.. home build 1835 or a bit more (1915) whatever; a single carby type 1, ajuster king and link pin front, dual link irs (irs) with ajuster and 2-3" body lift, reglassed & reinforced body, alli hard top, soft sides, twin batteruies, alternator, glassed in waeco spot, glassed in mapping GPS spot wired in, uhf, ect, ect, maybe a solid roof rack to roll the swag out on outta the way of the creepy crawlers.. you get the idea.
haha

PS.. last couple of weekends after getting home from going for a fang, i've had ticks crawling around, sometimes hours later whilst watching TV!!. spose you baja boys miss out on this bonus from buggies too.


(buggies cant go too deep for too long.. but i love how easy it was to get going again.. wait till i've made a crank handle.. nothing will stop me..)




(no engine cover and too much tyre pressure)


that'll teach me for following 4wheel MC tracks)

I have had my buggy for 6 months and it has not even seen a gravel driveway! I will go bush when I am happy that it is reliable, until then it only gets used in motorkhana. This is my first dub and I was on a pretty steep learning curve for a while. I still need to rebuild the link pins and replace all the wheel bearings and fix the stalling problem (carb rebuild and heated manifold).
A decent roll bar and harnesses are on the to do list, as well as replacing the towel racks on the sides with decent nerf bars, and later on a decent motor. Gotta love the simplicity of a type 1, I think I will build a 1916 or an oxyboxer in the next couple of years, and maybe megasquirt injection.

A few pics:




Gotta love the fun per dollar of buggys.nn[ Edited on 21-7-2005 by tinsfci ]

I plan to take out the back seat and put a platform in there so I've got plenty of space to put a spare, recovery equipment and some luggage.
Some more sound proofing would be nice too. Long term plans include swapping this body for an oval with a flash kit.

really short term: finish re doing interior, (finish sanding and painting, new door cards. rear platform and storage unit.) bash plates (front and rear). adjustable coil over rear shocks. (already have some gotta get them out of another baja i have and into my driver) wide rear guards, paint bullbar and engine cage white. repaint wheels white. UHF radio, Whip aeriel and orange dune flag, roofrack with removable spotties, need to pull down my spare engine and rebuild top end to 1641. paint engine and tinware, twin kads thunderbird exhaust and whack that in the baja.

longer term: visit custom offroad for new offroad adjustable front beam, IRS with 1600 kombi box, raised rear, new wheel bearings, brake linings, wheel cylinders and soft lines.

Nick

My 13 year old son(bajaboy) has been off-roading in the creek behind our house and having a ball. But after a couple of failed attempts at a 40deg bank He,s keen as to get his 58' baja to "climb any mountain" .So Bajaboys pocketmoney for the next 4 years will be sunk into 'rocky' to make it the most offroad capable baja in oz.Everything will be done in stages but we'll skip to stage 3. .........Bay kombi front and rear ends ,tied together with chromoly rollcage and bracing. 2 litre box with short1st and2nd .Diff lock. Custom I.R.S.reduction box conversion.2275 single carb with low boost variable nozzle turbo.16inch offroad rims with internal beadlocks. Little 33inch all-terrains for the street and sand. 35inch interco boggers for bush play time. 3inch body lift kit . Twin adjustable rancho's per wheel. YEH YEH I KNOW this kid better go out and get a job. The trouble is this kid has been watching the paris-dakar videos and reckons high speed long distance racing looks fun too.........might ditch the reduction boxes and turn up the boost.....:alien

woo hoo.

let him cut his teeth on the finke and the aus safari first so we can see, first hand, a 58 custom baja race. then let him sort ou the PD. haha

oh, and sandy bring on the mega off road oval, with the style and panache' of a flash kit. haha. excellent

My new clone Manx body will be here Monday....🙂

so my plan is to drive it.............lol

I got to see you behind the wheel of one of these Chris :P

Man what is it with all the 1915s? Go get yourself a cheap liberty and rape and pillige it. I cannot tell you how awesome my buggy was on the dunes the other day. I love aircooled motors but at half the price and double the Kms subies looks soo much better. I'm not just stirring you guys up. Seriously, see if you can score a drive of a 2.2l liberty and then imagine that motor in your car pushing half the weight with double the exhaust note.😎nn[ Edited on 23-7-2005 by pete wood ]

BTW, my plan is to go up, as far as I can. Lot's more ground clearance and all my mechanicals stock as they are at the mo, shouldn't need anymore power. Maybe some stiffer torsion bars in the rear too. And some wider tyres for the dunes of course...😏

helterskelter400 wrote:oh, and sandy bring on the mega off road oval, with the style and panache' of a flash kit. haha. excellent

Yeh, black and with working semaphores. :thumb I'll give it a few years first though, gotta get some fun outta the one I got hey😁

My dad's building a herbie/baja and he is gonna cut up our old baja.
Luckly for $100 i have managed to buy it off my dad and will be putting my old 1200 motor in it. (if i dont put it in the bay panel van. Floorpans stuffed but have got a spare floor

1600 Donk

And the interoir

nice baja bill. i like that kit. i wish i could get my hands on one! my bug eye kit has the skinnyest guards on it. but it looks like ill be using a wide eye kit with the bug eye nose cone. this will give me 2 sets of lights 🙂

Yeah well sadly rust has completly destroyed the pan/
Battery area has disappeared and a large piece of steel has
taken place of battery area. My dad's plan was to cut it up with
an oxy and setalen torch. BUT i said no and saved it for $100.
Have been given a floor of a 58 and want to save this little jem.
As it's been in the family as long as i have.(13 Years!) I also learnt
to drive in it. I have orginized with a couple of mates to rebuild
it on the weekends and rebuild it to Baja Specs.Today i have brought it back from our shack and me and my dad pulled the horn,radio,wiper motor,and genreal stuff such as wiring,speedo cable etc.And put all of it on the 64 Herbie Baja. Sad to see the baja in such a bad state but a bunch of 13 year old kids and a tonne of baja parts should work majic on "old fathful" Cheers Will.

Oh by the way i found the remainders of an oval beetle front end today sitting on the side of the road! Future oval project.......nn[ Edited on 25-7-2005 by billholmes ]

My plan is to get the thing on the road!

.



What could I Possibly want that isn't there already...????



















Fill Tank, get in, turn key, DRIVE.....!!!!!


It's ALL been done baby, and I like it just the way it is....!!




.

a roof

yeah, a roof 🙂

WAbaja, you've got plenty of height, but quite frankly too much height for me. Once you've higher than 4WD diff's you're usually high enough. Any higher just makes the car unstable, get heaps of body roll and dangerous on side angles. Just my opinion, no offense :thumb

I still have to get my thing front end in. Not for more height, just to get some drop travel back. A thing front end is much plusher than a raised stock front end.

And of course get my air-con in. I agree with Pete, don't bother wasting money on the VW motors, especially in something so un-original as a buggy / baja. My V6 has been in for 2.5yrs now and it's been perfect.

I just get in and drive it. Get it dirty every now and again, and then just remember to clean it before the next show.

I HAVE a roof thank you...
And you can't get too high in a Baja...
Anyone that says you can, is Jealous....
This car has been running like this for some time now, and I have No probles with stablility, conering,side angles or blah blah blah....

I knew that post would start trouble 🙂 People are welcome to believe what I say or not.

Cars that are jacked up too high, or use suspension that is too stiff like kombi front and rear ends, do not have enough usuable suspensions travel left for smooth offroading on articulated type surfaces.

The problem with being jacked up that high is there is very little drop travel left. This causes a wheel to be lifted very early on even ground. Trust me I have watched and driven a lot of offroad vw's on this type of terrain.

And kombi front and rear ends are simply too stiff and lead to the same problem of lifting a front wheel early.

Sure you can get up anything with a bit of speed, but that doesn't prove vehicle ability. My brother can take his pulsar up alot of hills (in reverse for more grip), but it's because he drives like a nutter, not because the car has any capability.

WABaja, I am not trying to offend you. You're baja is cool and the height looks impressive. But I think it's go just as many places if it was 2inches lower.nn[ Edited on 27-7-2005 by Baja Wes ]

Cool, off road pulsar.:thumb My wife's got one of those, I may take it out for a strap this weekend instead of the baja. 😁
Travel is more important than lift, but if you can get both you're laughing. Since I put my long travel front end in even the roughest track is smoooth.
You must be a busy fella Wes, you were talking about putting in that thing front end in ages ago, or are you just like me and sick of working on the damn things🙂

yes I have been a busy fella. Mainly doing stuff with the house and putting the baja at the bottom of the list.

For the thing front end I just need some new ball joints from the US and I should be right. I've also been assisting in the new customoffroad caliper brackets for thing front ends. They are drum brake only stock. The first set of brackets have been CNC machined and look great.

btw, you car has absolutely awesome front end travel. It is not too stiff like many quickly raised front ends. It has probably the best articulation / travel at the front I have seen. And I'm sure you know it helps. I've attached some pics of sandy's car as it's front end works really well and you can see the articulation it gets. It is as high as you really want or need to raise a baja.nn[ Edited on 27-7-2005 by Baja Wes ]

my plan is to get one 😠

Buggy Brad wrote:my plan is to get one 😠

I know someone that can Help.........lol :P

Buggy Brad wrote:my plan is to get one 😠

Hoarding everyone elses in ya workshop isn't the right way. 😀

pete wood wrote:

Buggy Brad wrote:my plan is to get one 😠

Hoarding everyone elses in ya workshop isn't the right way. 😀

Here Here........

Hmm... Been a while since I was on here. Been learning to cope with things people shouoldn't have to cope with... Anyway...

My Supa Sport (AKA Wiggle's car) is turning into a longer term rebuild than I had originally planned. It's heading towards a fully gadgetised machine, with electrically adjustable everything (including Lexus 2 way electric adjust steering column), air con, electric removable convertible top, latest model Subi/Ford/Holden crystal lights all round (a mixture to fit into the buggy shape), new interior with everything fully moulded, lots of reshaping of the fibreglass to blend everything together, and the same red paint it had last time...

I'm bolting my other buggy together in the meantime, so I'll be able to head beachward again soon. It's the Astrum Roadster. I've got everything but the motor and aluminium pipe for the barwork (full end to end cage) sitting there waiting to be painted and assembled. Got full set of nice Colt seats (split fold rear) and some of the other buggy's bits are being handed down to it, since they won't be used in it's rebuild. I'm trying to keep weight to a minimum in this one, by using a folded and welded aluminium chequerplate tub in place of the original pan halves, all aluminium rollbars including seperate hoops for front and rear seat rows, and the body is slightly thinner than usual with everything being one piece... This one will have very few bolts, lot's of Sikaflex, and a new air cooled motor (not VW, or Chev). Simplicity is the aim with the Astrum. Anyway, just have to put some more serious effort into bolting/gluing things together now, although I have put a heap of effort already into gathering all the parts for these two buggies. I can barely make my way from one side of my workshop to the other at the moment...

My list is fairly extensive.

New bar work (front , rear, cage, nerf bars)
New roof
New windsreeen.
Paint job (by me)
New 4 into 1 exhaust
New seats and harnesses
A set of mags (maybe polished centrelines for on the road only)

It's a long list but I'll get there one day. Just have to do it bit by bit. I can still enjoy it in the meantime!:thumb

last celtic warrior, are you ok dude?

Yeah Pete, mental health issues... Makes it hard to make proper use of my intelligence. Leaves me scatterbrained and lost half the time. Mind you, I'm managing to occasionally help a friend who is building the ultimate Holden Overlander. Thanks for asking mate, good to find people who still care in this world.

Oh, this Overlander project, it's dubbed (excuse the pun, it was intended), the "Landroverunderoverlander". It's based on and technically still is a Landrover Safari wagon, with the Rover body removed and a '70s Holden wagon body installed. The Rover wheelbase is shorter than the original overlanders, which is a good thing, so I have reconstructed the rear wheel arches to allow for this and make room for big mudders.

There was a bit of re-engineering involved in shifting the front half of the rear wheelarch forward, as it involved a section of the chassis. Modifying this bit is OK for rego because the Landrover chassis remains unmodified. The Holden body is simply that, a abody, so we can botch it as much as we like... Loads of fun, and a good creative outlet.

before

The things we do... (and how we do it)

Very nice work Celtic...... its not everyone that can cut and move wheel arches and other complex shaped body panels....

My plans ? well.....

First I'm going to cut and raise the front end (K&L) about 2 - 2.5 inches.
Then I'll turn the rear torsion bars about 1 full spline (should be plenty).
Then I need to rebuild all the brakes (pan has no drums on it at all). Might go disc front, but prob stay with drums for now.
Then I can put some wheels on it (not that I have 4 that look the same just yet, this is only to get it rolling).
Then its a matter of fixing all the fibreglass tears, fixing the denting in the LHS of the body, a few little rust spots, re secure the hinges to the doors and straighten one of the hinge plates....... Then I guess I'll paint it and rebuild......

Oh yeah, and I've got an 1800 TIV with upright conversion in the shed somewhere for it, just need to sort a carby..... probably a 2bbl progressive or a 40DCNF...

Doug Sweetman wrote:Then I need to rebuild all the brakes (pan has no drums on it at all). Might go disc front, but prob stay with drums for now.

if you want to come by, I have some drum brakes you can have (5x205 linkpin), came from a disc conversion. if this helps you get it on the road

Ta for the offer but these are real long term plans, as I have a little one on the way now (due in feb) all bets are off until it safely arrives 🙂

But I'll remember that you have them if I suddenly come across some free time !

What are you putting in the buggy ? and how is the race machine ?

My plans are to have the manx finished!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My plans are to just start rebuilding the Towdster , have allready got a lot of idea's like raising the front end ,more roll cage that also strenghthens thefront chassie ,and rebuild basicly ever item on the car and just for fun TYPE 4'S KICK ARSE.

im half way down my list, but the more i do the more i want to do, well whats left on my buggy is...
-Hectic paint job (hopefully some airbrushing)
-front disc brakes
-bar work
-racing seats and harness
-a roof would be good
-sound system
-get interior done
-alarm
-fix my rear engine lid (which fell off on the freeway, and is just a bit scratched/torn up)
-make my car level (yea it sit a little sideways..shhhh no ones noticed)
-will go a kombi box when mine gives way
-install a fire extinquisher
-install a couple more guages to make it look pretty

All i have to do to her now is put two herbie stripes on her. This is what she should look like.


Before

after

I've just about finished making the deck in the back of the baja. I might have a velour back seat for sale soon.