...Bronze\'s Dog-O-War...

The Dog-O-War is a well worn 71 Baja.


Bought because of my love of Vdubs and as a daily driver.


It's changed a bit since these pics but the urk colour it still there.


On used for work and picking up the kids through the week and Geocaching (.com) on the weekends. Will go anywhere most top dollar 4x4's go.

The Dog-O-War is named after my love for German Shepards and Pink Floyd. Although I can't have the former I spend all my time patting, preening and running my new pet.

It's a bit rough around the edges but I love it and we treat each other well. After a few electrical issues, a couple of welds and some splatter of paint a polish it's not looking too bad. The seals, brakes, paint and hinges could deserve some attention but at leat the interior is Ok. I'd say it's had it's fair share of young fellas in it's time with lots of little holes, new and unused wires and tidy trick bits.

The Future-
Well after the needed repairs will come some Hammer metal finish Gun Metal Grey (or Black) with black powder coated rims and a minor lift. Bolt ons will be a Donaldson filter, fire extinguisher and two ways radios to complete. Eventually I'd like to enter a fund raising rally like 'Caper kids, Valentine or Heart / Kidney Foundation.

The Bronze.
Stevesallychandler@yahoo.com

[Edited on 9-9-2002 by The_Bronze.]

Is the Bronze Back ??. I certainly hope so , I'v missed you heaps Maaate.

Thank's Glenn. The bronze is back.
Been a hard slog through my internship. Got a High Distinction for my efforts and most rewarding of al is that I can return to AVD again now I have time on my side.
I have a digitial camera full of pics and have hooked it up to the computer again. When I do I'll throw some updated pics up.
The Dog-O-War is going well. Lost a lot of oil from the Axel seals during the internship. Just spen the last three days doing repairs and relining the brakes and replacing the brake cylinders. Couldn't get the bearings out so that will be the next job. Special thanks to Ben Durie for all his assistance.

Cheers
The Bronze.

she's lookn good steve, lad to hear its all going well for you.
i still think u should leave the paint as is, love the look:thumb

sam VWFOOL

It looks good, I love the 'ZZ Top' stripes!! How did the kids like it?
Congratulations on the high distinction mate, sounds like you deserve a bit of R & R now. You better go out and get the Dog dirty again!!:thumb

[Edited on 5-10-2002 by KruizinKombi]

Couldn't find any mud this weekend so I thought I'd just roll in the dust for a while.

This is some Baja fun up at Mount Vincent, 20 minutes east of Newcastle.

The Bronze

oops

[Edited on 6-11-2002 by Buggy Boyz]

Here's a couple of shot taken by Ripplybulldog of the Dog-O-War taking a bath. This is a vain attempt at trying to cover up that crap paint colour.

We waited month for it to finally rain and already these water holes were drying up. Give it a couple of more days and they will be caked hard again.

One more for good measure - it might not rain for another 7 months.

Here's a pic of The Dog-O-War parked with VWFOOL's yellow 56 oval and James envy NB green 57.

This was in at the Foreshore on a sunday Arvo where you just enjoy the world going by, and by again, and again, again.

This is a montage os a series of earlier pics taken by my sister in law Sarah. Nat bad with her first time with this camera. We had great fun having a hoon on this private road near Mt Sugarloaf west of Newcastle.

The day was dry and the fun meter was getting a bit low!😉

Great pics from one of your camera team🙂

Hope Dog-O-War's limp is fixed soon, you must be suffering withdrawals right now!

Looking forward to pics from up Dubbo way:thumb

Bronze the Dog-O-War lookes good going
throo that mud.havent yet taken mine
throo the mud (havent founed ane)
hopfle next time we take it out we will
fined mud to play in.let you know when
we take it out next.if the buggey
wear bullding is finished we mabe taking
it insted.

cheers
Jayce

Well as most of you know the Dog-O-War has revealed a few surprises in the last few weeks. Some elusive and others filling the whole windscreen before me.

The family and I planned our holidays around the dates of the Klub VW Offroad weekend at Stockton sand dunes (18th and 19th) then off to the Nationals on the 20th. The weekend before I had removed the dogs donk and gave it the 123 of this goes with that. Airbrushed all the tardy bits and replaced the rubbers. Fitted a tranny brace to reduce tramp and not snap anymore rubbers hopefully.

Anyway - schools over for the term and my son and I are off to Newcastle from Dubbo and the wife already 4 hours ahead of us, I get two hours down te road and as the dark and rain settle in the Dog dies 20k's from Merriwa. NRMA turns up an hour or so later an remarkably it starts, wouldn't before. Anyhow - not know what the problem was we push on and 10 K's past Merriwa towards Scone the dog dies again - no spark whatso ever - That's right spacefans, the coils shit itself. 14 hours later a car comes along heading towards Merriwa and I send a not for a new coil, NRMA turns up with a resistered coil and goes and get another. This overnight stay fairly well stuffed the weekend camping up at Barrington tops but we did get up ther the Saturday night.

The next most eventful moment was probably when I went over a dune crest at Stockton the following saturday. Having spent over $200 on the dog the thursday before (as it was only running on one cylinder - Thanks Ben) I was now faced with a tree line at the base of a slope face that threatened to roll me over. See the pic below. I though that I could salvage the tyres, radio, gagues and battery before letting it roll into the trees - fortunately two 4WD's spent the next 40 minutes heahing the Dog out a foot at a time. Awesome stuff.

I tell ya my clacker snapped shut pretty hard when I went over that edge. The next loudest sound was all the laughter which soon echoed from above.

The Dog-O-War wen't fairly well after that but still wouldn't idle. Eventually the problem was found and a rubber idle seal ring had worked it way into the throttle body. An acid bath finally sorted it before returning home. It has never run so efficiently, smoothly or hard since I have had it.

At present its now outside topsoiling my yard with stockton sand as I emptu all the sand from the doors, floors, seats (now removed) and nook / crannies. The vacume cleaner exploded into flames literally this afternoon refusing to suck up any more sand. I lept from the Baja as it sparked and spat flame during its death throws. Thank god for circuit breakers.

The Nationals was a top event. I mostly enjoyed meeting people from this forum. I spent the best part of the morning chatting with old and new faces and the afternoon seeking out the best VW examples.

Future Projects:
Well, sand extraction is #1 at present followed by a liberal dosage of anti-rust paint and fishoil all over the pan and body. Next will be a complete rewire including a new sound system followed by a coat of paint on the outside. Not sure about colours yet. Time permitting I hope to have the engine throughly checked over and a new exhaust fitted in time for Nambucca. The main things are the paint and electricals though.

Thanks to Ben Durie Automotive and Merriwa NRMA for keeping this last fortnight from being a failure and my two new 4WD mates at Stockton for letting me keep my 71 Baja - The Dog-O-War.

Thanks to KOM123 for Emailing me this Pic.
Cheers mate.:thumb

Geez with all those dramas, should mean you have an incident free time up at Nambucca hopefully 🙂

Hopefully I will - but the what will I have to write about. I love drama but not when it means injury and expense. Fortunately no injury, made up for it in expense though.

The shopping list of jobs to do over the next few months will hopefully alleviate some of that worry. It will be a marathon effort getting to Nambucca as it won't be in school holidays and I will have to Go up Friday night - come back Sunday night. Think Driving lights are the on backorder for that weekend.

Great adventure Bronze, that pics a good one.
Add a set of steering brakes and a winch to the list before the next one. :thumb😎😀

Hi Bronze,

I am adding a few more pics of your "near tree encounter".

Mark

Sorry, not in the right order but you get the idea !!!!

Last one.

Jeepers! That gives us a better perspective of the slope, scary stuff!

:o Are you holding on so it doesn't roll sideways? Sure looks like it:jesus

Great pics

I'd hate to see the Dog-O-War turn into anything else, it's unique 🙂 When I saw it parked at the Nats I had no doubt about it's identity!

Uh bugger it - just when I was convinced I should go ahead and paint it!

You have riddled me with self doubt. I know what you mean KOM. I had a couple of people come up and say they had seen it on the web and another asked if I was from Newcastle, they had seen it getting around there. The Dog-O-War is fairly unique in the scheme of things I guess. Not many Baja's get used as hard as it does. It works for its keep and when it need some TLC it lets me know. My type of Herbie.

Brian - those pics above arnt working. You might like to go into edit and delete them and post those pics in a Nats thread. I have no objections to them being here but more people would see them in the General chat. Cheers.

Hi Bronze,
Sorry I didn't get up to Stockton on Monday.Didn't remember (too many beers)
and didn't get ypur messges until I turn my mobile on Tuesday.

Look like you've been having a great time anyway.

Did you get to the dunes on Monday?

From the looks of those photo's I don't know why you just didn't drive along the dune and back over the top you would have on any other dune. (Maybe if the tree's weren't there you wouldn't had any problems)

Next time we meet you can take the action shot, those photo's look great.

Keep working on the Dog-o-War and just maybe one day it will turn into a GS Limo.

Steve Vanes - Manx - Won Best Offroad Buggy

Brian Jones - GS Limo - 2nd Place

Beach Buggy Australia - Max fx - 3rd Place

Best of luck with your repairs Brian (GS Limo 3)


The Bronze can you send the Stockton story and any photo's to Mike Sharp so they can be put in the klub web site now that is back operating.

yeah sorry didnt get to speak to you longer at the Nats, would love to have shown that I was following with my Oval in your Dog-o-War footsteps " it was filthy ".
And I loved seeing yours as it was.

Nah I didn't get there Monday Brian but stayed most of the day Tuesday. You wouldn't have wanted to comes - it was seriously rutted everywhere! It was so bad the roofrack came off when we were heading back out to Lavats lane it was that rough.

Before the Nats I had gone to one of my old Mud holes and covered the Dog in this thick brown / black mud before I headed to Sydney. The night before and all the way to the Nats it rained and washed it off. I should have called in somewhere and got some of that Spray on mud I hear so much about.

This is the Dog-O-War outside our new home in Dubbo. We moved house from Newcastle 4 and a half hours west over the Great Dividing Range to inland New South Wales. It took me 5 and a half as the Tranny mounts were all preished and snapped providing a soothing swaying motion above 80k's an hour! All the hills were second gear and with 40 degree heat the motor was often around the +120c mark.

There was about 6 kids bikes, a pedal car, a dolly (moving truck) and about a kilometer of rope. The Baja was fully loaded within as well with fishtank, clothes, esky, plants, aquarium rocks and gardening utensils.

Our most recent trip from Newcastle to Dubbo proved exciting as well as I had about 400kg's of timber within. The materials for our new queen size bed. The longest lengths were 220mm. The foot well to the back window is 240mm. I put the passenger seat on the roof rack with the spare and packed it all in nice and tight. My navigator was posted to the back seat drivers side. The pics are in the conventional camera so when they have been developed and scanned I'll post them as well.

kool love all the pick feels like i was actually there. sortta like dvd quality :bounce

good to see my spare tyres getting some good use steve

Yeah thanks Sam - didn't have a flat but good to carry just in case. Since you were just goin to turf it I'm happy to carry it around - just have to get around to fixing the leak one weekend.

Yeah - I love the pic quality. When you budget for a digicamera, spend an extra hundred dollars on the one you think will do you. Get optical zoom and not digital zoom.

Hmmm - I think Mr. Plod would have somthing to say about me putting the kids on the roof rack. Not to mention what the wife is going to say about the window winder being left with the old shell.

She'll be right mate - I stick with what works. You just keep enjoying being blasted by my sand.

"One day son - this will be all yours!"

Update:

Well we have decided on the colour. It's a secret for now but when it's 100 percent done I show you all what the finished result is.

For now the under coat will be going on after some sanding and dechroming. Just forked out a few hundred dollars upgrading the electricals and brighter lights. The pans under the pedal assembly is being replaced - currently there is a VB can patching the previous owners holes. Some mechanicals and the rego.

Hopefully this will all give the Dog a new lease on life and I can stop driving the wifes car for may caches!

Bronze

Update:

Preperations on the dog are going well.

The paint sampled on the guards is holding up to the weather well and appears to be suitable the hard work and tight places the Dog squeezes into.

Lights, mechanicals, electrics and minor panel repair are all complete. Now just a sand down and respray. Easier posted than done.

Bronze.

Good Luck!:thumb

Howd'y all,

I'm the Bronze and the pilot of the Dog-O-War.

1600 TP - It's aim is to get in and out of the bush, dunes, creeks, gullies and cities.
The Dog-O-War has some mild modifications, suspension, electrical, exhaust, carb, cage, guards etc.
A 71 model it is reliable and comfortable - believe it or not.

Enough room for a co-pilot, the kids, camping gear and spares / tool it get me where I want to go and turns head while were at it. I love this machine and its heritage. You can call it a bucket of $hit and you'd be right but it my bucket of $hit and you can go and get your own.

The Dog-O-War is no trailer queen although it is getting a paint job at present, thats just because the old paint has fallen, faded, scraped, scratched or been sanded of at some junction in it history. The goal this year is to get it one colour in a paint that wont scratch off.

The Bronze.

....are you keeping d Dog-O War d same colour Bronze...n are d kids gunna help u paint him? :thumb

.....we've missed your adventures....post lots of pics 4 us 😎

maaate!

love the stockton pics, dad and i go there heaps with our 4wd club and i know that treeline all too well (if you squint you will see our landcruiser in there somewhere) unfortunately for us our lifted 60 series had a little too much weight too high off the ground and over we went again and again.

cudos for getting out of that tight spot!

Daniel

Soon to be back on the road.

Currently being Blueslipped for regostration.

I'm Excited!

And now has a 1500 after the 1600tp dies at Stockton over Easter. Thanks Pete. 😁

In the booth now for a smoother finish.








[ Edited on 16-5-2007 by The_Bronze. ]

[ Edited on 16-5-2007 by The_Bronze. ]