Well not 20 hours after I had crashed my old one I'd already bought a new one to build up as my new daily driver.
Named her Alyce and seeing as I'm back home from TAFE now I've kicked the build into top gear and got stuck in today.
These first few pictures are the day after I got her back to my place.
Yesterday after noon I pulled the engine out and this morning I got stuck in and pulled out the front and rear seats.
Last picture shows under the bonnet with the fuel tank removed, steering shaft disconnected and brake line removed.
Disconnected rear brake lines, clutch cable, starter motor, shifter linkage and removed handbrake and it's cables. Then undid the gearbox mounts and spring plate bolts and rolled the backend out of the car.
Undid the body (luckily all the bolts that go up into the sills weren't there so it only took a few minutes). Got a couple of mates around and conned them into helping lift the body off.
That's all I got done today cause I was also helping dad put and new waterpump and radiator in the VG ute he's building. Plus I was a little slack and was taking my time.
Definately getting up early tomorrow to do some more though! 🙂
Smiley 🙂
colonel mustard ·
dude... part of your car is missing... the bit at the back!
Smiley ·
colonel mustard wrote:dude... part of your car is missing... the bit at the back!
SHIT!!! I never noticed, I got ripped off!! No wonder it was so easy to remove the engine.
Smiley
bajachris88 ·
Good stuff smiley! should be on the road in no time :P
I bet ur missing her already.
Smiley ·
Yeah, sure am. Was the most brutally reliable VW I've ever had.
Good thing is that I'm using most of the running gear off the one I crashed on the new one. So I know it's going to be just as reliable.
How's yours coming along Chris? You'd be in your last week of uni by now wouldn't you?
Smiley
bajachris88 ·
Yup! i'm on holidays now. exams finished early for me...
I been getting stuck in and am finding it hard to find things left to do to the floorpan, which is a good sign.
Gotta bit of work still to accomplish when the pay cheque comes in this fri. Last couple of days i been working on the body, cleanings up the interior, firewall and front trunk + a few cracks in the fibreglass that have popped up over the last 12 months since the last paint job. Along with modding the lift kit & getting the shifting rod adapted to the kombi gearbox hockey stick. Learnt the hardway that China empi was poorly cut. so had to machine and make it work. Couldn't find anyone else who made adapters for it though.
Should be good. Be nice to finally reach a conclusion. 👍
Smiley ·
Nice. Do you have an ETA of completion at this stage?
Smiley
bajachris88 ·
with the way i'm going, Feb easily. 👍
Thats if work, weather and available time is consistant. I don't like to be optimistic though, lol disappointed myself too many times.
Can't wait to pop over ur way, let alone drive something that isn't mainstream
Smiley ·
That's great. How's the engine coming along? Sourced a blower yet?
Smiley
bajachris88 ·
nah. reasonably priced sc12's disappeared as soon as i started lookin. Penty of sc14's but they are harder to fit. would be good to work out the sc14 as the whole supercharger setup could be shifted to a 2ltr in the future. (although i haven't even got thoughts of that, but he work involved i want universal-ability)
The motor is lookin schmick though, heads all torqued up right now, cams on, bling new tinware, valve covers, pulleys, gen pulley and stand, oil filter and german h/d larger oil pump. Haven't fitted go-fast bits yet.
Bought the acid from my pool shop today to dip the dog house fan shroud and clean the surface rust off it, then give it a red coat of gloss :P
I don't wanna buy a new one cause i haven't seem em available in red. lol, although it would be much easier
Smiley ·
I've got a spare SC14 lying around. I bought a pair of blowers off a dude from work for $150.
Smiley
Smiley ·
Got the front end pulled apart today. I was going to remove it then strip it, but of the three bolts that were in it, one snapped off and two were welded. After I ground the heads off the welded bolts I still couldn't get it to budge.
When I looked underneath on the RHS the beam is welded to the cradle!! What kind of idiot does that. So I just left it for now and started pulling the tie rods off. Removed the wheels and knocked the link pins with everything on them out of the suspension arms.
I was keen to weld adjusters in but now i'm going to have to flip the pan over and see if i can cut the beam off. Wish me luck.
Smiley
71-BEETLE-SEDAN ·
You have done well to spot a weld apart from dirt but good luck.
Smiley ·
I planned to try and take the beam off this afternoon but I spent most of my time sorting parts out and moving stacks of wheels out of the way. Did get my brother to help me flip the pan so I could get a better look at where it is welded. And it turns out that just behind where it is welded has started to crack accross the framehead. So now I have to try and separtate the beam and repair the framehead too. At this point I was getting frustrated so I called it a day.
Smiley
71-BEETLE-SEDAN ·
Maybe he was trying to fix the frame head susing one of those old helmets that need flicking down and his hand moved and he welded the beam...Jks
Scarab ·
mate....youve set a cracking pace on this one....well done!!
71dub ·
doing well looking forward to the next instalment
Smiley ·
I got stuck in and cut the beam off the florrpan this afternoon.
These first pictures show the welds after I wire wheeled them.
I ground the welds down as much as I could without eating into the parent metal of the beam or framehead too much. Lucky the welds were of fairly poor quality.
I then grabbed my big cold chisel and gave it a belt to split the final bit of weld holding the two pieces together. The front end came free and you can see in the bottom picture the beads on the beam.
You can see the two bolts that were welded that I had to cut the heads off. Fortunately one of them came out with vice grips, unfortunately the other one snapped off. Both the bolts on the other side are also snapped. So I soaked all three for a while then drilled them out with successively larger drills. Then I soaked them some more. I'm going to bring my easy out set home from work tomorrow and see how I go.
As you can see the frame head has cracked everywhere. I'm not sure if this is a result of extra stress added due to the welded beam or whether it's just had an incredibly hard life. Probably a bit of both. I'm going to have to straighten it out and patch all the holes and cracks.
Lucky I bought a welder.
More cracks and dodgy welds up the sides of the cradle.
I plan on using everything from the link pins out, and probably the steering box too if it's not damaged. I know that the brakes on the car I crashed are good cause only a few months ago I had all the drums machined and replaced the shoes and front wheel bearings. So the new Baja will be getting all of this.
I'm also going to weld adjusters in the beam, leave the bump stops standard for now and seam weld the towers.
The bottom picture show the framehead how I left it this evening when I stopped. I drilled all the broken bolts through and blocked it up to allow them to soak overnight.
That's all folks!! Well until tomorrow anyway.
Smiley 🙂
11CAB ·
Might be time to cut that framehead off and weld on a new one. Mick Motors sell new frameheads
matberry ·
11CAB wrote:Might be time to cut that framehead off and weld on a new one. Mick Motors sell new frameheads
x2.
That frame head has had enough. All beetles need some sort of extra support of the frontend. In the 50's when they were brand new they suffered from fatigue of the framehead, so it's no wonder they need a bit of help holding the beam out near the shock towers.
MickH ·
x3...too dangerous to repair just get a new one👍
VWCOOL ·
MickH wrote:x3...too dangerous to repair just get a new one👍
yeah, or another pan... The chassis can crack due to them rusting from the inside out, that weakens them and then they crack - especially cars used rough like country roads and Bajas. Chances are the backbone and chassis forks will be weak too. Take a close look
Smiley ·
Could I use the framehead off another floorpan? I have a few here at home. I just think it would be easier and cheaper than buying one. Does anyone know what the quality of the new ones are like? And what one would set me back?
Smiley
OZ Towdster ·
Dan , Shit your having some bad luck dude , like vwcool said i'dd be haveing alook at one of those other pans up the yard
PS Seen two other Buggies cruising around here in Yeppoon
Joel ·
bajachris88 wrote:nah. reasonably priced sc12's disappeared as soon as i started lookin. Penty of sc14's but they are harder to fit. would be good to work out the sc14 as the whole supercharger setup could be shifted to a 2ltr in the future. (although i haven't even got thoughts of that, but he work involved i want universal-ability)
sorry for the hijack smiley, Chris i know of an SC12 thats been forsale for $250ono for months so you may get it cheaper
ill try and find out if its gone yet
Smiley ·
OZ Towdster wrote:Dan , Shit your having some bad luck dude , like vwcool said i'dd be haveing alook at one of those other pans up the yard
PS Seen two other Buggies cruising around here in Yeppoon
Yeah I know. Gotta take the good with the bad though. The whole car only cost me $300 so I can't really complain.
A green one and a black one?
Smiley
Smiley ·
I started to get my beam ready to weld the front end adjusters in this afternoon. I gave the centre section of both beams a wire wheel to clean the gunk off of them. And what do you know. There's more weld on one of the tubes. I used a flapped wheel to grind this down smooth.
There are still a few other stray welds on the beam that I'll have to grind off, but I want to get the adjusters welded in first. Then I'll clean off all the old and unnecessary welds and get it ready for paint.
I marked all the trailing arms. Then undid the centre set srcews and the RHS one. Removed the right trailing arms and put them in plastic bags to prevent getting grease on everything.
Then I got my old man to give me a hand pulling the LHS arms out with torsion leaves still attached. These were then wrapped in glad wrap to stop them coming apart and mixing the leaves up. As well as to prevent the grease attack once again.
Then I started marking out for the adjusters. Make sure you read the instructions!! I had to read then a few times before I got the jist of what was happening. If you get to this point and don't understand what you're doing I suggest you stop and ask someone for help, you're about to cut the middle out of your beam and I'm sure you don't really want to get it wrong.
I started on the top beam. I found the easiest way to scribe the horizontal lines was to clamp my steel ruler to the beam with some stainless hose clamps. First I marked a horizontal line straight across where the set screw's hole is. Then I marked a line parallel to this 3mm higher than the first line. This is because I'm going to install the adjusters with a small amount of lift. So with the adjusters wound down as far as they go the front suspension will sit slightly higher than stock, then I can only go up from there!!
After I marked the horizontal lines, I scribed a vertical line straight through the centre hole. Then I measured one inch either side of this line and marked vertical lines. This gives the two inch wide piece you need to cut out to fit the adjuster in.
I marked around the beams on the outer vertical lines with green tape so it's easier to cut. Make sure that to tape is as square as possible. I then cut the middle section out by hand with a hacksaw. After I removed the piece I test fitted the adjuster. It's a little tight and only just won't go in. I'll hand file the ends of the torsion tubes before I tack it in place.
That's all I got done today, I'm going to try and finish the top tube off tomorrow and hopefully start on the bottom one.
Thanks to everyone for their interest so far. The only reason I write build diarys like this is so I can get feedback ans suggestions from other people.
Smiley 🙂
grumble ·
When I 1st saw the welds,I thought exactly the same thing,don't mess around wasting time and money persevering with it,look for another pan.
Smiley ·
I had to file a small ammount off the inside of the tubes so the adjuster fitted nice and snug. Then I chamfered the edges so the weld can get better penetration. Then I cleaned the grease out of the tunnel as far into it as I could. You don't want heaps of grease inside the beam where you are welding otherwise it'll get sucked into the weld and ruin it.
Bottom picture shows the adjuster fully welded in place. I tacked in place to makes sure it was striaght first. It looks like it's not straight in the picture but this is because the little angled bracket wasn't quite straight when they welded it to the adjuster, I can say with all confidence that the tube section of the adjuster is straight and that's what matters most.
You can also see the green tape I wrapped around the locking screw. This was to protect the threads from any spatter the weld was throwing around. The set screw was wound in to hold the center collar in place in the middle of the tube.
I'll going to let it cool and start the other side.
Smiley
Smiley ·
I've been majorly slack lately with the car, but decided to hook in this weekend and at least do a little before the heat stroke got to me. The beam has been all welded now and both adjusters installed. I spent yesterday afternoon and this morning wirebruching and sandblasting in ready for paint. After sandbalsting I found a few cracks that were covered by gunk that I welded up. also one of the bump stops was bent so Andrew and I straightened it with a bit of pipe then rewelded it.
We also ran a straight edge down the length of both tubes and there is a couple of mil gap in the centre. I'll be taking the beam to work tomorrow so I can straighen it in a 30 ton press at work.
Smiley
Scarab ·
Thats some nice work there mate! I'll bet you've got a good sense of accomplishment from doing it yourself too! Well done!!
Scarab (aka: Paul)
Smiley ·
I spent last weekend completely stripping the body of the car out. except for the doors and bonnet there's not a single crew or bit of nything left on the car. I removed all the glass, all of the wiring and speedo, the steering column, completely stripped everything out of the inside of the doors. dash grilles glovebox lid. It's cmpletely bare so I'll be able to start the minor rust repairs required and prep for paint.
When I was under the bonnet removing harness I noticed some tape on the flat area below where the glovebox is. I peeled this off to discover a lovely set of holes that would have been used as a speaker grille. So I went the the old Baja that I rolled and cut the same piece out as a replacement panel, thankfully it wasn't out of shape.
Smiley
Smiley ·
Thanks Paul.
I'm itching to go offroading again because of the lovely hot weather we've been having so I've decided to stop being so slack and get this thing smoked(or at least try to)
Smiley
71-BEETLE-SEDAN ·
Cool air con holes you could use there.
Smiley ·
The biggest thing that has happened is I've decided what I'm doing with the floorpan. So the old one has gone into quiet storage for now leaning up against a tree, and I'm going to use a superbug pan that I've had sitting at home for a while.
Andrew(OZtowdster) and I were discussing my situation a few weeks back and he suggested the SB pan. I was going to have to replace the frame head on the other one anyway, so now I'm putting a new framehead on this one and I get IRS rear as a bonus.
I'm probably going to just leave it a swinger for now and get it built, then worry about collecting parts and change it over down the track.
The only downside to what I'm now doing is that the Superbug pan also needs new floorhalves whereas the ones on the original pan are in top shape.
So I'm going to be ringing up various VW shops to get prices on a framehead with Napoleans hat section and two new floorhalves. Plus a few small repair panels I need for the body.
Let me know what you think.
Just went up and pulled the rear end off the pan of the Baja I crashed. Most of this will be getting straight swapped into the new car. Including all the suspension bit. It has standard torsion bars and twin shocks plus a coil on each side. So I have a bit of sandblasting and painting to do with the extra shock plates and other bits and pieces.
All that is left to come off the pan is the pedal assembly, all the brakes bits that are still on it, spring plates, gearstick, quickshift plate and shifter rod.
Smiley 🙂
bajachris88 ·
roar! 👍 man this beast is gonna be like brand new from the shop. Keep up the good work man!
What colour schemes are on the card?
I just had a bit of fun with some etch primer 2 nights ago! Learnt that 2 hrs prior to sprayin the paint, spraying rust convertor and taking the respirator off before the light remaining mist settles is not a good idea! Man that stuff is deadly when airborn! well... didn't feel to good haha.
I seriously gotta get some pics up. My laziness is next to lamelyness 🙁
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:What colour schemes are on the card?
Definately blue, will put pictures up after I get some good ones.
A small update, I got a bunch of the suspension components sandblasted yesterday morning before work. I hung them up this morning and gave them a brush with POR15, might be getting a second coat this afternoon if all goes to plan. Luckily the old roll cage out of my buggy makes a brilliant hanging rack.
Smiley 🙂
OZ Towdster ·
Have your new frame head sitting in the car ready to come back tomorrow + the other set of adjusters
Smiley ·
I pulled the last few things off the body this afternoon, bonnet and both doors.
The bottom bolt for the passengers side door was fibreglassed over. I thought this was a little suss so I pulled the 'glass out, and hey persto, you need a new pillar.
This got me a little worried cause there is a large fibreglass patch on the outside of the passenger's front quarter.
I decided to pull this off too.
So I peeled off the big piece of fibreglass and lo and behold, new quarter panel is now in my letter to Santa. Also looks like the surrounding area is coated in about half an inch of bog.
On the plus side Andrew picked me up a new framehead as stated above and I should be getting it some time this week. Awesome!! I know what I'm doing on the weekend.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Got some huge ammounts of work done on the car today.
I got the second coat of POR-15 on my suspension components this morning.
First lot of pictures is where I started cleaning up the framehorns. I welded up the heater cable tubes as these will no longer be getting used.
Didn't get much further on the wire buffing because Andrew (Oztowdster) showed up and we got stuck into the real business of the day.
Andrew bought a new framehead up from Brisbane for me, thanks mate!!
We started by removing the floorhalves
These will be getting replaced with new checkerplate ones. Definitely have to get dad's ute registered now so I can pick some up.
Floorhalves removed.
Andrew did a little measuring and worked out where to make the cut and the chop was made.
Inside of the tunnel looks quite good, except for the rat's nests.
The bottom plate the goes under the tunnel dips down at the front leading up to the framehead, this is starting to scale a little on the inside but other than that things look good.
This is the piece I was talking about above. It's not going to line up once the new framehead is on so I removed in now.
Smiley 🙂
11CAB ·
The brake pedal is on the wrong side.......
Same as the framehead i picked up a little while ago.
Your project is coming along nicely
Smiley ·
11CAB wrote:The brake pedal is on the wrong side.......
Same as the framehead i picked up a little while ago.
Your project is coming along nicely
This is also the first thing that I noticed.
Just more holes to patch and drill I guess.
That Or let the passenger do the braking 😂
Smiley
DubCrazy ·
haven't u finished this yet??? what the bloody hell have u been doin all this time? slack bastard!!!!!!
hey ur mate who brought the other Baja was chasing an engine the other week but i was crook and couldn't talk. did he manage to find one?
steff..........
Smiley ·
He hasn't managed to find one yet. If you have any ones that you know are definately good he's keen for one.
Did Andrew get on to you?
I finally decided on a colour I want, cost permitting obviously.
Are you still keen to paint it? I was thinking about stripping it back to bare metal, would this suit you best to paint on?
I think the colour is Ford 'Sensation Blue', I'm going to go to the dealership on Monday afternoon and see if I can get a paint code for it.
I'm trying to get the car done ASAP cause I am trying to make this - http://www.manxclub.org/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=879
I don't care what you have on you had better be there!!
So any way that you can help speed things along would be more than greater appreciated. I think I will need a lot of help/hints/tips when it comes to prepping the body for paint.
Smiley
Scarab ·
great looking colour Smiley.....looking forward to seeing the end result!
Scarab (aka: Paul)
DubCrazy ·
I'll see what i can find in regards to engine
no Andrew didnt get hold of me, has he been trying? easiest to just give him my number
when ur getting to the paint stage of life give me a holla and i'll send u in the right direction and for a fella Baja u know i'll look after u price wise, bear in mind a solid is going to be cheaper than a mettalic(c.o.b) and will hide a few more sins🤪
Trip to 5 rocks and noone told me!!!! if i still have the green beast i'll be up for that one and that also explains why andrews been droping stuff off to u, i am SO out of the loop these days😂
steff.............................
Smiley ·
DubCrazy wrote:I'll see what i can find in regards to engine
no Andrew didnt get hold of me, has he been trying? easiest to just give him my number
when ur getting to the paint stage of life give me a holla and i'll send u in the right direction and for a fella Baja u know i'll look after u price wise, bear in mind a solid is going to be cheaper than a mettalic(c.o.b) and will hide a few more sins🤪
Trip to 5 rocks and noone told me!!!! if i still have the green beast i'll be up for that one and that also explains why andrews been droping stuff off to u, i am SO out of the loop these days😂
steff.............................
It would be good to see you there, I'll probably be bumming a lift at this pace.
Can you do that same colour but not as a metallic?
Andrew came back around today, thanks a heap again mate!!
We got stuck into attaching the new framehead.
I got most of the join area cleaned up yesterday afternoon.
So we got it in on flat ground on fine adjustment jack stands so we could make sure it was completely level.
After ages of lining up, measure thrice, everything was good so we tacked it in place. The diagonals are still out by a few mil but we will get this back by loosening the beam off and giving it a knock leftwards.
After tack welding we double checked all measurements and ran some stitch welds inside and out.
Then the power went out accross most of town.
And it started raining.
So I'm going to have to finish welding it tomorrow weather permitting.
While we were waiting for the power to come back on, and before it started raining, we grabbed Andrews battery 5" and drill and cut a donor piece out of the old pan that I crashed to cover the hole under the tunnel. This is the area where the superbugs slope down towards the front as I explained earlier.
Smiley 🙂
Scarab ·
wow....that must be some current draw on your welder to have blacked out half the town!! 😂
great to see you are moving ahead mate.
all the best for Christmas
Scarab (aka: Paul)
Smiley ·
Scarab wrote:wow....that must be some current draw on your welder to have blacked out half the town!! 😂
great to see you are moving ahead mate.
all the best for Christmas
Scarab (aka: Paul)
It wasn't anywhere near the highest setting!! I could probably take out the state if I turned it right up!
You'll have to get stuck into that Type 3 of yours!!
I'm thinking about coming down to Adelaide mid way through next year so it would be good to catch up if you're not busy and in town. Might be able to give you a hand with the Notch if you're still pottering along with it.
Well, I might go do some more welding.
I'll bring you all some pictures later.
I also ordered my steel for the new floors today so I should be getting that tomorrow, expect some epic work over the weekend.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
These are the pictures of what I got done on Wednesday night.
There were some fairly large gaps in the framehead right next to where the beam sits. After a little "ball-pein persuation" I filled these in the prevent water, mud, cat entry etc.
I was fairly late so that's all I got done the other night.
Today a friend came round and we got stuck into finishing all the welds off on the framehead and seam welding the N-hat section.
The section where the accelerator arm goes had a large gap in it. So I got to try out my Christmas present, a hammer and dolly set. I hammered the section down until it was close enough to the tunnel so I could weld it up.
Because the framehead is a LHD one I made up some templates to transfer the holes to the RHS. Then made up some plates to cover the old holes. Dad thought I was making Ford badges some reason.
The superbug fuel line turned out to not be long enough to reach out the hole I drilled in the top of the tunnel. So I cut it off inside the tunnel near where the pedal assembly runs through. I then got some bundy tube and cut a piece the right length for the rest of the way.
I wire wheeled all the framehead welds inside the tunnel and cleaned everything out and gave the inside a lick of POR-15.
Then connected up the separate fuel hard lines with a small piece of rubber fuel hose. I double clamped it just to be safe and make sure you put a rubber grommet on the hole where the hard line exits the tunnel.
While I was doing this my friend got happy with a wire wheel on a grinder and cleaned up the edges where the new floorpans are going to sit.
Smiley 🙂
mackaymanx ·
Don't stuff around with fuel lines. Replace the lot.
mackaymanx ·
I'm loving what you've done so far but that join will give you trouble later. Interested where you sourced the framehead from, was it Mick Motors?
Smiley ·
mackaymanx wrote:Don't stuff around with fuel lines. Replace the lot.
How hard is this to do?
Must you cut the tunnel open in a number of places in order to strap the fuel line down?
And I'm not exactly sure where the framehead came from, Andrew Westwood bought it up for me. I either came from CVD or Mick Motors.
I'm sure next time he reads this thread he'll post it up and let you know.
Smiley
mackaymanx ·
Here is a good place to start, shows where the fuel line is attached inside the tunnel.
I haven't done one myself yet(I have to do my Manx sometime in the future), I sure someone will come up with some tips.
Joel ·
x2 its alot easier to replace the hardline while the bodys off
Smiley ·
Thanks for the link Mackaymanx.
If anyone knows how to do this, has done this before or has any ideas on how to go about it best please post it up here and let me know ASAP, and I will get started on it first thing in the morning.
Thanks for you thoughts Joel and Mackaymanx.
Smiley
Joel ·
there was a good thread on the samba with pics ill see if i can find
Smiley ·
Thanks a heap Joel.
I was thinking seeing as i can flip the pan over incredibly easily it would probably be best to cut a section of the bottom plate and drill out the spot welds. Under the handbrake area where the center hold down is maybe a foot long piece. Then feed the new line in from the back and secure it in the middle (and redo the clutch one super strong while I'm going) then I already have access both ends to secure it. Then just weld the plate back on like I'm doing with the piece under the pedal assembly.
Smiley
Joel ·
the stock line just has 3 metal tabs bent over to hold it like the brake line to rear along side the tunnel
the rear one is easy to get to from the shift coupler hole but most people have to cut an access window in for the one under the handbrake
the front one is under the pedal assembly
looked like a prick of a job so i just took the easy route and ran rubber lines front to back inside a protective conduit
engineer was happy enough with it so im sleeping eaasy 😂
Thanks for that Joel, I just read the whole article. I think I'll do something similar to what he says but he makes no mention of the tab under the handbrake.
Do everyone think I should just leave that out or do what I said above and drop a small section of the bottom plate off?
At least that way I'm not cutting into the tunnel itself and it's remaining completely solid.
Smiley
Scarab ·
smileyman3000 wrote:
Scarab wrote:wow....that must be some current draw on your welder to have blacked out half the town!! 😂
great to see you are moving ahead mate.
all the best for Christmas
Scarab (aka: Paul)
It wasn't anywhere near the highest setting!! I could probably take out the state if I turned it right up!
You'll have to get stuck into that Type 3 of yours!!
I'm thinking about coming down to Adelaide mid way through next year so it would be good to catch up if you're not busy and in town. Might be able to give you a hand with the Notch if you're still pottering along with it.
Smiley
Sounds good mate.....I agree with you about getting stuck into the Notch....at the moment, time and money are the issues, but looking forward to updating my thread soon!!
Will definitely try and catch up when you come down!
Great work on the Baja by the way
Smiley ·
Scarab wrote:Great work on the Baja by the way
Thanks Paul.
As I said above I'm trying to get it together ASAP for the Australia Day long weekend Manx trip that is happening just out of Yeppoon.
Smiley
OZ Towdster ·
Well , if ya stop hanging around here . you might get some more done hehehehehehe
Smiley ·
I decided to go with the method I discribed above, dropping the bottom plate off and feeding a new line through.
First I marked and cut the plate, then drilled the spotwelds out and chiseled the plate off.
Then I set about removing the old fuel line. I was fairly easy, I unfolded all the tabs except the one in the framehorn which I couldn't reach. Then cut the fuel line into a few pieces and it all came out.
While I had it open I took the opertunity to remove the now useless heater control tubes.
I'm also going to put extra bracing on the clutch tube to prevent any failures for the next 40 years or so.
I painted the inside of the tunnel as far as I could reach with POR-15 again, hopefully this will slow the germlins down for a while.
Going to run the new fuel line tomorrow hopefully, but first i have to fix dad's ute which decided to stop working on the way to the cinemas this afternoon.
Hey everyone, I've just run the new fuel line into the tunnel and I was wondering if it should go below or above the pedal shafts that run through the tunnel.
Have a look at the first picture and you'll see what I mean.
If people could tell me ASAP it would be good cause I want to get this finished so I can close the tunnel back up.
As Dave suggested I bent the fuel line down so it will run over the top of the pedal shaft (note the pan is upside down).
I've rewelded the middle clutch tube/fuel line tab so it's extra strong. Then I rewelded the center plate back in place.
I'm getting ready to weld the plate under the pedals back in but before I do that I'm going to get and air blower and vacuum cleaner and suck anything that's left in the tunnel out.
I vacuumed out the tunnel and sprayed as much fishoil in there as I could. Then I welded up the plates that cover the hole in the front that I made. I sure hope I didn't forget anything.
Even the factory cross marks on the new plate lined up!!
Smiley 🙂
Camo ·
Its too late now, but from my old photos it appears as if it runs under the pedal shaft.
I honestly dont know if it makes a difference.
Kev
Smiley ·
Camo wrote:Its too late now, but from my old photos it appears as if it runs under the pedal shaft.
I honestly dont know if it makes a difference.
Kev
Oh well. As you said she's all sealed now.
I've started cleaning up the tunnel edges in preparation for the new floorhalves with a flapper wheel and wire brush.
It's been a PITA trying to work on the car today because it's been raining on and off.
Hopefully it stops this week so I can get started on the body while I wait for the checkerplate to show up for the floors.
Smiley
Joel ·
as long as its not gonna rub on the clutch pedal rotating its not gonna matter
Smiley ·
Joel wrote:as long as its not gonna rub on the clutch pedal rotating its not gonna matter
Yeah I made sure it wasn't in line with the holes at the sides at all. Plus the fuel line is run up the center of the whereas the clutch hook is off to one side in the Superbugs. So I can't forsee any problems.
Smiley
bajachris88 ·
Nice work Daniel 👍, and a pro finish too.
Won't be long before the pan would be finished hey?
what mm checker plate do u recommend for the pans?
Smiley ·
The checkerplate for the floorhalves is 2.1mm thick, any thicker will be going backwards due to the additional weight. Smiley
OZ Towdster ·
Looking good Dan , hope to be not scaring at this point but i hope you ran a cable through that clutch tube before sealing it all up to make sure you didn't get to much penetration from weld into the tube and therefore blockikng the tube
Smiley ·
Got stuck into the body after a late lunch this afternoon.
I've got a replacement pillar panel that needs to go in, but I soon found out that was the least of my worries.
Turns out the sill and quarter in that area are in shambles worse than I thought.
First thing I did was cut away the piece that the new panel will be replacing.
And smoothed out the surrounding metal and removed old welds and brazing.
Next I cut the heater channel area around where the 90° elbow is and removed it because it was rusting away. I'm going to seal the sills up and not run the hoses up inside the pillars or anything.
Next thing was the removal of the quarter area, which was now two sheets thick due to average previous repairs. I then spent ages grinding away the welding and brazing and bits of old metal.
Wire wheeled out inside the heater channel and vacumned out all the crud.
I straightened my beam on Thursday morning in a press at work. It cracked a little so I've rewelded these. Then I wire buffed it back to bare metal for the second time (was getting a little orange).
Then it got hung up for it's first coat of POR-15.
While I had the brush out and seeing as I had cleaned up the inside of the channel. It got a good coating as far as I could reach into the sill.
Once all the welding is done the inside of the heater channels will be getting fishoiled to death aswell.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
So I've finally started to work out how to use Photobucket (I hope) so I'm putting up this mornings progress.
This is what the area looks like in daylight after the paint has dried.
This is the new panel sitting in place after I finished cutting it to size.
And this is a few images of it welded in place.
I came inside to have a break as the heat is absolutely killing me. Going back out to do some more now. I want to try to get up to putting the new door pillar in today. We'll see how things travel.
This was the next area of attack.
Old metal cut out.
Made of the replacement panel, as you can see I made it slighty higher than the old one, plus is exteneds off to the right to bring everything up to the same hight.
Completely welded and smoothed.
Now I just have to make a top piece to seal the sill up. Before this I'm going to pain the new metal on the inside.
Smiley 🙂
Aussie ·
What has the POR-15 been like to work with? Good finish? Thinking of using but heard lots of mixed views on the stuff.
vwrallycar ·
por 15 is awesome, i can highly recommend it
Smiley ·
Aussie wrote:What has the POR-15 been like to work with? Good finish? Thinking of using but heard lots of mixed views on the stuff.
Bushes on well. Self leveling. I got a few brush stokes show up in those suspension components that I hung up to paint, but I think that was more because they were vertical.
The stuff goes for miles and I highly recommend it. I would probably put a lot more effort into getting the final finish to a higher quality if it was a show car. But for floorpan etc on a Baja it's so easy to just bruch on.
Smiley
Aussie ·
smileyman3000 wrote:
Aussie wrote:What has the POR-15 been like to work with? Good finish? Thinking of using but heard lots of mixed views on the stuff.
Bushes on well. Self leveling. I got a few brush stokes show up in those suspension components that I hung up to paint, but I think that was more because they were vertical.
The stuff goes for miles and I highly recommend it. I would probably put a lot more effort into getting the final finish to a higher quality if it was a show car. But for floorpan etc on a Baja it's so easy to just bruch on.
Smiley
Can you spray this stuff or does it have to be brushed on? When you say more effort for a show car finish do you mean more care brushing it on or using something different like a base and clear 2 pac?
Scarab ·
Impressive progress Smiley! Keep it up mate!
Scarab (aka: Paul)
Smiley ·
Aussie wrote:
smileyman3000 wrote:
Aussie wrote:What has the POR-15 been like to work with? Good finish? Thinking of using but heard lots of mixed views on the stuff.
Bushes on well. Self leveling. I got a few brush stokes show up in those suspension components that I hung up to paint, but I think that was more because they were vertical.
The stuff goes for miles and I highly recommend it. I would probably put a lot more effort into getting the final finish to a higher quality if it was a show car. But for floorpan etc on a Baja it's so easy to just bruch on.
Smiley
Can you spray this stuff or does it have to be brushed on? When you say more effort for a show car finish do you mean more care brushing it on or using something different like a base and clear 2 pac?
You can spray it.
When I say more effort I mean going to a lot more care brushing it (I only slapped it on there) or spraying it on.
It can be top coated. There is a lot of info on the Australian distributors website. If you're interested you should have a read or email them. http://ppcco.com.au/
Smiley
Smiley ·
A small update, I ordered the checkerplate sheet and the unistrut this afternoon. With any luck they should be ready to collect tomorrow. Then I can get started on new pan halves!!
Smiley
matt ·
how bad did the por 15 burn when you welded near it???
matt
Smiley ·
Didn't seem to catch on fire, could smell it though.
Smiley
cam070 ·
Impressive progress on this project. Well done!
Smiley ·
cam070 wrote:Impressive progress on this project. Well done!
Why thank you.
Smiley
Smiley ·
Got stuck into finishing of the heater channel and welding in the new pillar today.
This is the last hole in the channel that needed to be filled.
Made up a new piece and tacked it in place to ensure a good fit.
Then fully welded and ground smooth.
Then I attacked the installation of the new door pillar.
First I spent a while grinding the area and the repair panel getting them to the best fit. Both seemed to be quite out of shape.
Then the top was tacked in place and the distance between the A and B pillars was measured and compared to the drivers side. The bottom of the panel was adjusted accordingly and then tacked in place onto the top of the heater channel. We grabbed the passengers door and hung it to check that the gaps and distances were correct.
I have to say I was pretty impressed because the door gaps were prefect on the first try.
Then the door was removed and the panel fully welded and smoothed off.
Good thing I know how to do it now because the drivers side also needs doing. I thought it wasn't too bad but after have a bit of a poke around today the same thing will be happening to the drivers side. It looks as though it might need some heater channel repairs also.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
WOW. 2 months without an update.
Truth is I haven't had a computer for about a month and a half.
The Baja has been very slowly coming along, haven't done much over the last two months. Got a little done in the last week.
Made the new side rails up out of galvanised unistrut. They have the obvious big bend in them just below where the door pillar is. And a very slight subtle bend at the back of the floorpan.
All I can say is measure a million times, tack on, and measure again. Then you can weld.
Both sides fully welded.
Started cutting the new floorplates to shape. I spent a long time with the grinder getting them to fit just right.
RHS floor tacked into place.
I decided to run with flat floors the whole way inside of putting a slight bend at the back of the flloorplate. I chose this to make the battery easier to mount under the seat.
Right floor fully welded on the top side.
LHS floor sitting in place.
This is the little notch I made in the floors where they swap from sitting on top of the tunnel seam to running underneath near the very back.
Both floorpans fully welded top and bottom.
Last little plate welded in place.
Not long to go now and it'll be wirewheel then paint time.
The pan that I am using is a superbug one, so the heater controls are the little levers either side of the handbrake lever.
Because I removed these little levers I decided to give the area a tidy up and strengthen it a bit.
First cut being made to removed the section with the thread on it.
I wanted to cover the slot on either side
New plate tacked in place, covers both the slots, gives me somewhere to weld the forward facing tabs down to and completely surrounds the handbrake area to give it more strength.
Fully welded and smoothed back.
Another shot of the pan as it is currently.
Most of the work in the past two posts has been done in the last week.
Smiley 🙂
Scarab ·
Awesome work mate! Keep it up, its coming together nicely!
Scarab (aka: Paul)
wilderness ·
love ur work!!!!
jjwebb123 ·
nice work mate,i soo want to learn how to do all that stuff myself.
Smiley ·
jjwebb123 wrote:nice work mate,i soo want to learn how to do all that stuff myself.
Get yourself a grinder, a welder and some metal and get into it! This is the first time I've done metalwork on a car and I'm just learning as I go. Practice makes perfect as they say!
Smiley 🙂
bajachris88 ·
This chassis is gonna be as strong as a mofo! Good on ya bro!
Smiley ·
Thanks for all the positive comments everyone, the only reason I keep this diary is for the feedback from other people.
Thoughts, ideas, criticisms, keep 'em coming!
Smiley
chippy ·
what are u using to smooth back the welds? a flap disk?
Smiley ·
chippy wrote:what are u using to smooth back the welds? a flap disk?
Usually, it gives a very nice finish 🙂
Did a little bit for a few hours tonight.
Tackled the battery tray and hold down area.
When I rolled my last Baja the loops that the strap holding the battery box go under snapped. Probably cause they where dodgy plastic ones. Thankfully the positive and negative cables kept the battery under the back seat.
I wanted the new system to be simple and strong, and I definitely wanted better mounts for the strap!!
This is the old battery box, I'm going to be reusing to so I made all the mounts the right size for it.
I cut four pieces of angle and rounded all the edges and smoothed them off. One for each corner to stop the box sliding back and forward or side to side.
Tacked into place then checked the box for final fit before welding.
I then made two little loops up to run the strapping under to securely hold the box down against the pan. I spent a while getting all the inside edges round and smooth to prevent chaffing or wearing the strap.
That's all for now folks. Hopefully be more tomorrow, I want to keep the progress as regular as I can now.
Smiley 🙂
71-BEETLE-SEDAN ·
Looking very good, if you want even nicer welds get some high quality wire like lincon or like it, your welds are really nice and the better wire just makes em look even better and stronger.
Smiley ·
71-BEETLE-SEDAN wrote:Looking very good, if you want even nicer welds get some high quality wire like lincon or like it, your welds are really nice and the better wire just makes em look even better and stronger.
Thanks for the advice. I'm still running the original spool that came with the welder, so who knows what brand that is. Smiley 🙂
BlueV2 ·
What are you going to paint the chassis with ?
chippy ·
nice work smiley. I still welding with stick, one day I will upgrade to MIG. Im super impressed with the quality of your work ... look fwd to seeing the progess.
Cheers Todd 😀
Smiley ·
BlueV2 wrote:What are you going to paint the chassis with ?
POR15, I have a litre of it sitting here just waiting.
chippy wrote:nice work smiley. I still welding with stick, one day I will upgrade to MIG. Im super impressed with the quality of your work ... look fwd to seeing the progess.
Cheers Todd 😀
Thanks for the kind words.
The welds aren't really that great, the actual welds don't do the pictures justice 😂
Notice I take all the picture from a long way away, that's to mask the shoddiness!!
If you came and had a look you would see what I mean, especially where I welded to the galvanised unistrut, was a PITA.
A small update, every bit helps!! I try to do something everyday.
I got a few things from work today to put the last hold down on the fuel line inside the tunnel, just under where the shifter rod linkage is.
I got a rubber coated P-clamp the right size for my fuel line and cut a bolt down so the thread left on it was just shorter than the depth of a nut.
Welded the nut inside the tunnel, bit of Loctite and a spanner, HEY PERSTO!! your fuel line is clamped.
I also drilled the mounting holes for the brake master cylinder and marked out where the hole for the pushrod has to go. I have to buy a hole saw the right size to finish this off.
Smiley 🙂
11CAB ·
Do you work for CAT?
Scarab ·
Love those CAT bolts mate....been a while since I spun those for a living!! 😂
You are really doing a great job mate, love the battery brackets. 👍
Wouldn't the tool store at your work have a hole saw that you could borrow for the master cylinder hole? Just a thought 😀
Keep up the steady progress mate!
Scarab (aka: Paul)
Smiley ·
11CAB wrote:Do you work for CAT?
I don't directly work for CAT. I work for a CAT dealership, Hastings Deering. They cover Queensland, NT, PNG and Soloman Islands.
Scarab wrote:Wouldn't the tool store at your work have a hole saw that you could borrow for the master cylinder hole? Just a thought 😀
That's I great idea, I hadn't even thought of it.
Thanks Paul!!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
The other night I borrowed a hole saw from work and marked out and cut the M/C hole.
These are the holes that were left after I cut the heater tubes out from under the backseat area.
This is a section of heater tube that I cut from the wrecked car to make patches for the holes. I'm also going to use it to patch the vent holes in the front footwells.
New metal cut to shape.
Welded in place.
And smoothed off.
Then it decided to start raining before I could tackle the other side so I retreated into the carport and did some more on the pan.
Where the new framehead has been welded on, the new metal has covered over the forward pedal assembly holes on both sides.
I measured to where the holes are and drilled the top layer of metal to re-expose the threaded holes. I also ran a tap through them all to ensure the threads were nice and clean.
Yesterday I removed the pedals from the bent floorpan and started cleaning up bolts and the like. I took some of the cover and mounting plates to work to sandblast today. Will pull the assembly apart completely tomorrow for a good clean up and respray.
While I had everything there I trial mounted the pedals in place. The travel stop (little hook) on the bottom of the brake pedal was knocking on the floor as the pedal was moved through it's motion. So I had to lift the assembly up slightly. The factory flloorpans have a cross brace that runs from the tunnel to the top right corner of the floorpan under the pedals to give them support. This is what the bolts go down through. I was planning on welding one in so I can drill and tap for the mount holes. It'll now also lift the end of the pedal assembly up slightly so the brake no longer catches.
Trying the pedals in the pan.
Flattening the checks off the checkerplate so the plate will mount flush.
Plate cut to size and sitting in plate.
Fully welded.
Can't wait to get stuck back in tomorrow, the pan is starting to get very close to paint.
Smiley 🙂
Scarab ·
Thats brilliant mate....what a great idea to borrow a hole saw from work!!....who would have thought of such a thing? 😁
Glad it worked for you Smiley.....its looking great!! Bring on that POR15!!
Paul
Smiley ·
Scarab wrote:Thats brilliant mate....what a great idea to borrow a hole saw from work!!....who would have thought of such a thing? 😁
Glad it worked for you Smiley.....its looking great!! Bring on that POR15!!
Paul
Still a little to go yet. Have to drill all the body mount holes in the side rails, drill the holes where the seat frames will bolt down, slightly enlarge the outside hole where the the M/C bolts up, drill and tap holes for the pedal mounts, and position and drill holes for the accelerator pedal. Then find a bolt to go in all the threads to prevent paint from clogging them, then wire buff and paint. That's the plan for tomorrow.
I wish it would stop raining.
And thanks for your idea on the hole saw Paul. 😎
Smiley 🙂
OZ Towdster ·
Hopefully not but that plate you welded on for the pedal mount near the throttle pedal usually goes underneath the floor and in the position you have it above the floor layer i suspect you may force a bend into the the hole arangement
Smiley ·
OZ Towdster wrote:Hopefully not but that plate you welded on for the pedal mount near the throttle pedal usually goes underneath the floor and in the position you have it above the floor layer i suspect you may force a bend into the the hole arangement
You's such a party pooper sometimes Andrew!
I'll remount the pedals and check for any problems, I can always modify the bracket on the pedal assembly or grind that plate down a bit.
Smiley 🙂
DubCrazy ·
Looked every bit as good in person, good effort fella. Cheers for yesterday, i hope to fit one today and see of it cured the problem..
Hows the weather? raining a heap here and the winds a bit gusty but not to bad. We've missed the worst of it for sure(unless the bastard turns round!) they were saying it mite hit ur way ,any dramas?
steff.............
Smiley ·
It's raining a little but not too much, it's no where near as windy as it was yesterday. I was looking on the website earlier and it's down to a category 1, tracking west and very slightly north. On the map it looks like it went straight up the main street of Proserpine. It was raining heavy early this morning but is dying off quite a bit now.
I just want it to piss off so i can do that body!
Hope all goes well with the steering boxes, let me know, I'm keen to see if it works.
I suppose I had better go and get to work.
Well it seems Andrew was right about the pedals (jinxed me)
They were up too much on the side where I welded the plate in.
Easily fixed though.
This is the mounting plate that slots onto the far most RHS on the pedal assembly.
I cut it in half then slotted the piece onto the end of the shaft. Set the pedals at the right height so they were level and free to pivot. Then I held the other half in place and tacked. Pulled it off and welded it up, fits like a dream!
I drilled and tapped holes for this mount plate and drilled the holes for where the accelerator pedal mounts down.
Flipped the pan and realised I hadn't welded the outside of the fill plate that I made for the back of the floorpan. Got this sorted and cleaned up next.
At the front where the unistrut joins the framehead it hangs down quite a bit. This is because I got one size larger then I needed. Not a problem though, I just cut them off at an angle and made up a pair of mini skid plates which I welded on.
Last thing I did was drill all the body mount holes in the side rails on the pan.
I'm now happy to report that the floorpan is complete!!!
Just need a tidy up with the flapper wheel and a wire wheel and it'll be ready for some shiny black coats of POR15 goodness!!
Now to the body!
Smiley 🙂
Scarab ·
looks great mate!
Paul
Smiley ·
I sandblasted most of the pedal assembly pieces at work today. When I got home I hung them up and primer them.
I also picked up a new drivers side pillar and front quarter on the way home from my local VW supplier.
Smiley 🙂
wilderness ·
hey mate, how did you find using the rust repair pillar sections??? I had a bit of a dig around mine and I reckon I'm in the same boat!! Where did you pick yours up from?? Not a lot of options in Cairns!! Want to make sure they are ok before ordering them up, people don't appreciate parts being sent back on freight!!
Cheers
Chris
OZ Towdster ·
I was there when smiley fitted his passengers side repair panel it seamed to fit really well and suprisingly we got it to be just right in the first attempt for the hinge loaction which is no mean feet when you don't have the 3 way jig .
As for where to get em , Mick motors is your man
BlueV2 ·
Great job smileyman. 👍
Wish my shoddy welds looked as good as your shoddy welds !!😊
Smiley ·
What Andrew has said above is true. The passengers side fit incredibly well and one the first go too! The drivers side one in the picture above was bought from North Rocky Mechanical, a local mechanic that keeps a lot of Volksie parts. I have yet to see how it fits. I spent yesterday afternoon cutting out the old pillar and quarter. It was a lot worst underneath than I was expecting. If my internet is working again tonight there will be pictures. I know how much everyone loves pictures!
Just another small thing. Turns out the pan isn't quite ready for paint yet. Just have to sort out seat mounts and seatbelt ankorage plates. I knew that I would forget something!
BlueV2 wrote:Great job smileyman. 👍 Wish my shoddy welds looked as good as your shoddy welds !!😊
Thanks for the kind words BlueV2!
I promised you all pictures!!
The pedals are coming along nicely, now wearing gloss black.
I started to pull the old seat frames off the seats. They are incredibly dodgy/weak looking/illegal. Will definitely be getting this all sorted out in the next week or so. This afternoon I pulled the runners off the bottom of the seats. They're going to need a good clean out and regreasing to free them up.
Here are a few before photos of the driver's side pillar and quarter before I started cutting.
You can see from the next few pictures that the bottom inch or so of the pillar has dissolved and the quarter doesn't look much better due to a few dodgy repairs in the past.
I think I will surely have to do the same as the passengers side and replace some sections of the sill.
Still unsure how much more of the quarter will be removed. That replacement panel I purchased goes all the way to the front corner.
I went and ordered some steel for my seat spacers and mounting plates this afternoon. With any luck I should get it tomorrow so I can attack the seat/seatbelt side of things this weekend and get it all approved next week.
That's all folks!
Smiley 🙂
Scarab ·
mate....you are an inspiration! looking good!
Scarab (aka: Paul)
Smiley ·
Scarab wrote:mate....you are an inspiration! looking good!
Scarab (aka: Paul)
Does that mean the Notch is moving forward? 😂
I picked up my steel this afternoon. Luckily they were able to get everything I needed, and at a great price too.
Poor little Eleanor got used as a work ute to transport it back home. It only just fit into to door when it was almost up against the rear screen. I thought I might have to open the sunroof and poke it out the top!
Marking out and cutting the box section that is going to be the spacers under my seats.
Also cut all the crush tubes to size that are going to be welded inside the box for where the bolts go through.
I spent a long while taking a gazillion measurements off the bottom of the seat rails so I can get everything just right.
This is what I have come up with. The 4 corners of the box on the piece of cardboard perfectly match the seat mount holes down to the millimeter. I'll punch very small holes in the card so I can transfer these measurements onto the stuff I need to drill holes in. This template matches the drivers side seat, I have yet to dig out the passengers seat and see how close it is.
Unfortunately that's all I got done on the car this evening. Mum's car stopped working in the next town over so I had a half hour trip either way to go and pick her up, bloody SS's!!
Definitely keen to get up early tomorrow and get the floorpan completed.
See you all then!!
Smiley 🙂
Scarab ·
smileyman3000 wrote:
Scarab wrote:mate....you are an inspiration! looking good!
Scarab (aka: Paul)
Does that mean the Notch is moving forward? 😂
Smiley 🙂
Sadly no....but I enjoy reading your updates!! 😂
Paul
Scarab ·
Hey Smiley, I'm intrigued with the crush tubes.....
do they fit vertially inside the box section with the bolt running through them?....whats the go??
are they intended to stop the box sectioning from 'crushing'?
Thanks, Paul
Smiley ·
Scarab wrote:Hey Smiley, I'm intrigued with the crush tubes.....
do they fit vertially inside the box section with the bolt running through them?....whats the go??
are they intended to stop the box sectioning from 'crushing'?
Thanks, Paul
Sure is! Read below.
Well I spent the better part of the day working on my car. I wasted a few hours this morning putting a tow bar on dad's ute and wiring it up.
Measured all the holes up and drilled them out top and bottom.
Trying the crush tube in for fit.
I ground the tops down till they were flush them welded the tube in place.
Then I ground the welds smooth and ran a drill through the tube to clean out and dags and make sure there was no weld inside.
Crush tube in position.
All the boxes with the tubes in place.
Spent a good while taking measurements off the old pan and transferring them onto the new one. Drilled the mount holes and ground all the 'checks' off where the boxes are going to sit.
I dug the passengers seat out and pulled the old frame off the bottom of it. Turns of the holes are a perfect match to the ones on the drivers side seat. This made marking all the holes onto the passengers side floor and boxes a heap easier.
Cut the plates that are going on the underside of the pans to size and drilled to holes. The law states that on each bolt that holds the seat down there must be a plate with a minimum size of 75x75x3mm when it is mounted through the floors. The flat bar I have is 75 wide and 3mm thick and I'm running it the fully length under each side of the seat. Definitely going to pass.
Also made up two little plates for the seatbelt mount points. These also have to be 75x75x3mm.
Passenger side drilled and ground.
Made up 8 plates to cover the ends of the box. Continued the checkerplate theme.
I only welded one end up on all the boxes so far. Tomorrow morning I'm either going to paint the inside or fill the with fishoil, or both, before I close them up for good.
Flipped the pan over and welded both the seatbelt plates into position.
Started at 9 this morning and finished up at 10:30 tonight. Feels like I got bugger all done.
Going to try for 15 hours tomorrow 😂
Scarab wrote:
smileyman3000 wrote:
Scarab wrote:mate....you are an inspiration! looking good!
Scarab (aka: Paul)
Does that mean the Notch is moving forward? 😂
Smiley 🙂
Sadly no....but I enjoy reading your updates!! 😂
Paul
I enjoy making them!
Seems like your my biggest fan Paul, thanks for your support!
Smiley 🙂
OZ Towdster ·
You need to weld a cross members between those box section spacers front and rear to stop them being able to rock sideways to pass with an engineer
Also you would be better off if those plates for underneath where only 75 x75 as the long ones will provide a large area as a double thickness which will lead to rust , and you don't want that do you !!!
Scarab ·
No worries mate....there will always support coming from me....its easier to watch someone elses work, than actually doing your own!! 😂
I tend to Agree with Andrew above....those seat supports are pretty tall, and even though welded on the base, it leaves it open to sideways sheer movement with the weight of someone sitting on top....a cross brace between the two supports on each seat sounds like a good idea mate.
on the whole though, a very nice job!
....and coming from a parent, don't ever feel that spending time helping them is wasted (like fitting and wiring a towbar)...I am SURE it is appreciated mate!! 👍
Paul
Smiley ·
Already ahead of you fellas! After I bolt them in place I'm going to weld the cross braces in place. It's a lot easier than trying to line them up the correct distance apart off the car. And with the flat bar underneath I was planning on welding it all the way around like the seatbelt plates? It that ok?
Scarab wrote:....and coming from a parent, don't ever feel that spending time helping them is wasted (like fitting and wiring a towbar)...I am SURE it is appreciated mate!! 👍
Paul
I know.
They do let me use the carport, and run up the power bill with the welder. 🥷
Change of plans for today.
It just started raining so I can no longer weld the new pillar in (until it stops).
I just spoke with Andrew (oztowdster) on the phone regarding the underplates and how to run them.
I will be cutting them down to 75x75 and not welding them on.
Seeing as I'm not welding the plates on or boxes on anymore, means that there is no more welding required on the pan and I can start wirebrushing it ready for paint.
Smiley 🙂
Scarab ·
so I guess you can wirebrush in the rain?? 😂
Paul
Smiley ·
Scarab wrote:so I guess you can wirebrush in the rain?? 😂
Paul
Damn straight I can!!!
I spent a good while this morning cleaning up around the place. Sweeping out the carport and throwing out rubbish and crap that was in the way.
Then I propped the floorpan up at one end so i could blow the tunnel out with compressed air and suck as much dust and crap out with an old vacuum cleaner.
There were a few other little last minute odds and ends to sort before getting ready for paint.
I drilled and tapped the holes in the front of the framehead for the little cover plate to bolt on. As it's a new framehead it didn't have any at all.
I also went to the old floorpan that I crashed and pulled the old brake line that runs along the old tunnel off. I was thinking of reusing it but now I'm not going to bother. Have to buy some brake line tomorrow. Also pulled the old shifter rod out.
While I was there I measured where to drill the hole for where the brake line passes through the framehead.
I also had to add a few new brake line hold down tabs where the old ones had broken off.
After that all everything was pretty much sorted. If anyone can think of anything I've forgotten to do please let me know ASAP as I intend to lay paint down within the next 2 days.
Then I started making things shiny, I love shiny things!
I still have to do some of the tight spots in around the rear torsion housing. Then flip if over and do the underside.
Tomorrow I have to source some bolts to mount the seats and the above mentioned brake line, and some paint brushes I suppose!!
Smiley 🙂
OZ Towdster ·
Weld on some bolts at your rear inner irs pivot points so as to lock off your pivot bolt once you go irs with CVD's hex key lock
Smiley ·
OZ Towdster wrote:Weld on some bolts at your rear inner irs pivot points so as to lock off your pivot bolt once you go irs with CVD's hex key lock
Do you have a picture I can use as an example?
Smiley 🙂
chippy ·
smiley nice work!what do u do as a day job , if u dont mind me asking ???
cheers Todd 😀
Smiley ·
chippy wrote:smiley nice work!what do u do as a day job , if u dont mind me asking ??? cheers Todd 😀
I don't mind at all! I'm an apprentice diesel fitter. Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
The lock tab Andrew is describing can be fabricated by welding a piece of flat bar to a 17mm bolt. The bolt is fitted into the socket of the pivot bolt, the flat bar gets welded to the bolt and has a hole in it for a M6 mm bolt that screws into a threaded hole in the pivot box. The idea is, it will lock the bolt in position and stop the bolt backing out. By the way, great job on the pan, only change I would have done is make the side rails continue foward to the lower front end torsion tube, thus tying it into the pan.
Scarab ·
good job as always mate.....mmmm SHINEY STUFF!! 👍
Paul
Smiley ·
Didn't get much done today unfortunately, and it looks like tomorrow will be a write off cause I have firetwirling in the early evening.
Managed to get some bolts for the seats today from work, only got four and four more are on order.
Bought 6m of brake line and new fittings. Borrowed a flaring tool and tube bender from a mate.
Getting ready to trial mount the drivers side seat.
I pulled the runners off the bottom of the seat so it would be easier to check that everything lines up. I pushed the bolt in from below up though the plate, floorpan, spacer box then seat runner. As you can see in the picture it sticks out a bit far and the top half of the runner will hit it when it slides back.
I ground 10mm off the bolt and bolted it down tight. Here's a quick tip for those playing at home, always run a nut onto the thread before cutting or grinding it down. That way when you wind the nut off it flattens the burrs and cuts the last bit of thread back on.
Both runners bolted in place on top on the spacer boxes.
Turns out the bolts were still a touch too long so I ground another 3mm off all of them.
Then I pulled it all off and bolted the runners back to the seat so i could try the whole thing together. I have to say that the finished product looks good. I'm quite happy that all the holes managed to line up perfectly, everything fits and nothing went wrong. They still feel exactly the same to sit in 😎
Plenty off room underneath too! I made the boxes so that they are 1 inch higher than the seats were in the old car, just to get a touch more visibility, especially when looking down the bonnet offroading.
As I few people have mentioned above I plan to weld cross braces between the boxes. I'm going to pick some angle up tomorrow afternoon with any luck.
I also plan to completely strip the runners apart and give them a good tidy up and a regrease, they're a bit stiff.
Catch you all later!
Smiley 🙂
BlueV2 ·
Looking great Smiley. I think with the seats that high, I would need a sun roof to look out through :-)
Smiley ·
BlueV2 wrote:Looking great Smiley. I think with the seats that high, I would need a sun roof to look out through :-)
You must be a lot taller than I am! They're only going to be an inch higher than they used to be. And I never had any worries with headroom in the past.
If I do run into hassles, convertible Baja anyone?
Smiley 🙂
Scarab ·
smileyman3000 wrote:I ground 10mm off the bolt and bolted it down tight. Here's a quick tip for those playing at home, always run a nut onto the thread before cutting or grinding it down. That way when you wind the nut off it flattens the burrs and cuts the last bit of thread back on.
Spoken like a good mechanic mate!!
Another good tip is to give the end of the thread a quick lick on the grinder after cutting but before you remove the nut, giving the thread a slight chamfer around the end. This will help stop the nut from stripping out when you try to wind it off your newly shortened bolt....and it gives the nut a nice start point on the thread when it comes time for re-assembly.
Keep up the good work mate!!
Paul
71-BEETLE-SEDAN ·
You should make conpartments under the seats.
Its the only thing i wish i had along with cupholders, heaters and aircon.
Smiley ·
Fitted the passengers side seat this afternoon so I could weld the cross pieces under the seats.
Tacked into place with the runners still on. I initially had the seat bolted down firm before I tacked the angle in place so the distance between the boxes suited the seats, and I made the angle to suit.
Fully welded cross braces in place.
I started wirewheeling the final bits around the frame horns and rear torsion tube with my die grinder. I ran into a little trouble with a bit of hard scale and rust where the springs plates slot in. The wire wheel wasn't putting much of a dint in it so I'm going to see if I can borrow a needle gun from work tomorrow.
I'm hoping for my first coat of paint tomorrow evening.
Also ordered a few seals for the front end and gearbox from Mick's on express post. Fingers crossed they arrive tomorrow ready for the long weekend.
Smiley 🙂
Scarab ·
Rock on mate! You are making great progress doing little bits .... regularly .... something that I should try doing!! 😂
Keep it up!
Paul
Smiley ·
Scarab wrote:Rock on mate! You are making great progress doing little bits .... regularly .... something that I should try doing!! 😂
Keep it up!
Paul
I don't have much time for anything else.
I told all my friends that I'd see them again in 6 weeks or so, with a new car 😂
Smiley 🙂
bajachris88 ·
good on ya dude...
so still looks like ur driving down south when tafe kicks in hey?
BlueV2 ·
Dont think those seat bases will be going anywhere soon :-) Nice work.
I wouldn't get to carried away when cleaning out the torsion bar groumet housing.
Smiley ·
BlueV2 wrote:I wouldn't get to carried away when cleaning out the torsion bar groumet housing.
I more want to get all the scale out of there so it won't chew the rubbers to pieces.
Does anyone know what the best lubricant to put on the rear torsion bar splines and rubbers is?
Graphite powder?
Grease?
Rubber grease??
Smiley 🙂
BlueV2 ·
I think I just used copper grease on the splines and as I understand it you dont put anything on the rubbers. However if you use urethane then they will squeek unless you use urethane grease which you can get from 4X4 shops.
OZ Towdster ·
Graphite powder for the torsion end rubbers and as V2 said copper coat or similar for the spline ends
Smiley ·
OZ Towdster wrote:Graphite powder for the torsion end rubbers and as V2 said copper coat or similar for the spline ends
Would Nickel Anti-seize do the trick?
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
Nickel anti sieze is perfect for the torsion splines, and rubber grease for the inside and against the spring plate of the rubber grommets, or graphite powder or even talc if you dont have any rubber grease, heard they don't make it anymore!!!
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:Nickel anti sieze is perfect for the torsion splines, and rubber grease for the inside and against the spring plate of the rubber grommets, or graphite powder or even talc if you dont have any rubber grease, heard they don't make it anymore!!!
I have red rubber grease from work. And graphite powder. Which is the best to use?
Smiley 🙂
vwrallycar ·
dont use grease, use talc
Smiley ·
vwrallycar wrote:dont use grease, use talc
Graphite?
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
I always used rubber grease for most, the only time I wouldn't is if the car was going to see heaps of dust offroad.
OZ Towdster ·
Yep , well smiley better be using the graphite then as 5 rocks is certainly dusty
Smiley ·
Thanks for the advice fellas. I'll use the graphite powder. Looks like I'll be putting spring plates in on Sunday.
More painting to do!!
Time for a big update. I got a lot done today.
First thing was to attack the scale and the last of the wirewheeling of the floorpan. And a last minute mod.
Borrowed a needle-gun from a mate at work. It made short work of the bit of scale inside the rear torsion housing. Gave it a quick clean out with the wire buff, vacuum cleaner and air blower and it was looking sweet.
I was looking at the handbrake yesterday and realised that if I want to run turning brakes off it that the sides that stick out would be in the way off the extra handles.
So out came the grinder once again and cut them off. Then I made up some little curved wedges to take the shape back and strengthen things up. I know that how it is now is a lot weaker than what it was. Hopefully This won't become a problem down the track.
I also added the above-mentioned bolts for the diagonal arm pin locks. Thanks to Mattberry and Andrew for their input and explanation on this.
Tidied up the last bit of crustiness on the rear of the pan with the wirewheels and the pan was a bare canvas.
Weapon of choice here is POR15 Rust Preventative Paint. I bought a litre can of it a while back and some of you maybe remember me putting a coat on the beam a long time ago. Thankfully it hadn't gone hard sitting around in the garage. I also bought a box of gloves cause it's a real pain to get off otherwise.
First thing I did was paint every seam, hole and weld on the pan with a good coat to make sure any and all gaps were filled.
Happiest man alive!
Then I got stuck in with the larger brushes and put a full coat over everything. For this I enlisted the top painter in our household, my mum! Seems like she'll do anything to get her carport back.
We flipped the pan and did both sides. Suspending it of the frontend bolts sticking out and the gearbox cradle bolts sticking out the back.
While waiting for the first coat to dry I got in and finished off the seat boxes. Drilled and tapped an 1/8 inch NPT pipe fitting for a plug into the front of both boxes. This way I can take this out and spray fishoil in there every once in a while.
Then they were hung up ready for paint along with all the plates that go underneath.
This is the first coat dry. Only took a few hours!
Oops!! Missed a spot.
Painting the boxes, plates and frontend. Any colour so long as it's black!
This is the underside of the pan just before I started on the second coat. Surface finish comes up amazingly for a bush-on job.
This is the top side after the second coat.
I've put two coats on the whole pan at this stage. I'm going to put one more coat on the underside tomorrow morning for an extra bit of protection. I also put a third coat on some areas of the top side. On the top of the framehead, where the seat boxes are going to sit and where I put my feet while driving in the drivers footwell.
Before I put the final coat on the underside tomorrow I'm going to run the brakeline down beside the tunnel and probably paint over this once it's mounted in place.
Plan for tomorrow is to get the final paint and brakeline down in the morning then get onto the bodywork on the car. With any luck I can start doing a little assembly on the floorpan on Sunday/Monday.
Happy Easter everyone!!
Smiley 🙂
OZ Towdster ·
Well done mate , it's looking a treat and as you say now onto the body which with the skillls you've shown on the other parts of the build , will be done in no time .
Worst thing is how bad your making me look with the Towdster rebuild
Smiley ·
OZ Towdster wrote:Well done mate , it's looking a treat and as you say now onto the body which with the skillls you've shown on the other parts of the build , will be done in no time .
Worst thing is how bad your making me look with the Towdster rebuild
I'll be down in the end of May if you need a hand? It would be great to see the Tow'd up close and see how it's different to a more conventional buggy. Have you gotten much done on the Bus?
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Just ran the new brake line on the floorpan.
Earlier this week I bought a roll of new brake line. It got a little springy once I took the ties off it.
I borrowed a brake line flaring tool and a line bender off a mate from work. Thanks a million Ronnie!! Turns out the line was pliable enough to bend into shape by hand, but I might use the bender to make some neat bends with the front and back lines.
I went down this morning and got new grommets from Repco. The line was a little loose in the one at the back so I'm going to sikiaflex all the holes inside and out to make sure they won't leak at all.
Bent all the tabs over to hold it down and it looks great!!
It will get a coat of paint over it to help prevent rusting and hold it to the pan to prevent rattling
Well I didn't get anywhere near as much done today as I wanted. I spent a great deal of time cleaning grease off front end components and frigging around at Big-W waiting in line to buy chocolate.
I wanted to get all the front trailing arms painted. This meant taking the torsion bars out of the ones that were still attached. I left them together so I wouldn't lose the orientation of the bars. If you put them back the wrong way round they'll fail prematurely.
So what I decided to do was put the bars back into the beam now that it was all painted. I cleaned as much of the old grease out of the beam and off the leaves as I could.
Fed the torsion leaves into the correct tube. A lot of people say that you need to put a cable tie or something similar around the leaves near the end to help poke them through the square slot in the center piece. I thought I would try without doing this first and was surprised that they went through quite quickly with a little jiggling. I suppose the grease in between the leaves was holding them together. It would be a lot harder to do with everything dry.
Once they were through the center adjuster I undid and removed the torsion arm and slid them all the way to the middle ready to be bolted in place. This was done with both sets of leaves.
These are the center adjusters that I welded into the beam earlier in the build. The long hex head bolt goes through the locknut and the little block of aluminium, then screws into the thread on the center adjuster and pushes down hard against the torsion leaves holding them in place with a little dimple that is drilled in them. The center adjuster piece is free to rotate up and down inside the beam. It has a little slot that limits the travel (you can just see the bottom of the slot in the photo below, just under the alloy block).
This is where a second hex drive stud with a locknut comes into play. It screws into the bracket welded on the outside and bears against the aluminium block.
The more you screw it in the further it pushes the block around, the more you rotate the center adjuster by.
Screw the bolt in as far as it goes until the block is at the top of the slot and you have maximum ride height because you are rotating the leaves and moving the torsion arms further down.
Screw it back out and you drop the front of the car back down towards standard height.
These adjusters can be welded in place to give all raising, all lowering or a combination of both. When I welded might in I set them so the bottom of the slot is a tiny bit above where standard height is. So with my adjusters on the lowest setting the frontend will sit a touch higher than standard, and it can only go up from there!!
Please let me know if I missed anything in this brief explanation.
The ends of the torsion leaves sticking out of the beam.
I spent a good while cleaning gunk and old grease and mud off the front torsion arms, getting them back to bare metal ready for painting. This is them taped and ready for paint.
And with a few coats of that lovely black.
Also put the final coat on the underside of the pan, which used up the very last of my POR15 paint. I'm going to have to buy another can next week.
That's all I'm doing for today cause I have to wash Eleanor and get here ready for a local car meet that happens in Rockhampton first Saturday of every month in the evening. Myself and a few other local dubs are going to go and show them Chevys who's boss!!
Smiley 🙂
71-BEETLE-SEDAN ·
Ive just stripped a beam back and am trying to clean it up but i havent got a wire wheel at home so its been with a wwire brush. Not fun. When you did the beam how did you make sure all the mounting points styed put and central/
Cheers And its looking good.
Smiley ·
71-BEETLE-SEDAN wrote:Ive just stripped a beam back and am trying to clean it up but i havent got a wire wheel at home so its been with a wwire brush. Not fun. When you did the beam how did you make sure all the mounting points styed put and central/
Cheers And its looking good.
If you look back earlier in this thread it shows me doing the beam.
I basically just cut the beam one tube at a time and put the adjuster in. That way there was one whole tube holding everything together at all times. It did pull a little bit out of shape so I straightened it in a press at work.
Smiley 🙂
Scarab ·
Nice work Smiley! I can't believe how nice it comes out using a brush....that POR15 must be amazing stuff!! (Love your drying rack too!!😂)
On side note, I didn't realise that you were so close to Rocky.....you might have seen my nephew's car in Rocky....
Its a custom metal flake blue Lexus GS300 sitting on its guts on 20" chrome rims, with number plates BGPMPN (big pimpin' 😂) it seems to be pretty well known up there.
Paul
Smiley ·
Scarab wrote:Nice work Smiley! I can't believe how nice it comes out using a brush....that POR15 must be amazing stuff!! (Love your drying rack too!!😂)
On side note, I didn't realise that you were so close to Rocky.....you might have seen my nephew's car in Rocky....
Its a custom metal flake blue Lexus GS300 sitting on its guts on 20" chrome rims, with number plates BGPMPN (big pimpin' 😂) it seems to be pretty well known up there.
Paul
Yeppoon is only about 20 minutes drive away, I work in Rocky so drive up everyday. Can't say that I've seen that Lexus but I will keep an eye out.
The custom drying rack is the cage out of the buggy. It's useless as a cage now cause it's rusty and parts are made out of box section (WTF?) so it's been getting put to good use.
I'm about to head out and do some more. I'm starting assembly of the pan now. This is the bit I love. Brand new seals and rubbers on a brand new(ish) pan with lovely clean and painted components.
Smiley 🙂
Scarab ·
Dont bother keeping an eye out...its back in Adelaide now....just thought you might have seen it....he was up there for the last couple of years. he worked at BSC Bearings.
All the best for your work today mate.
Paul
Smiley ·
First thing is morning I rolled the pan over so it was right way up. It was a bit of an effort by myself but I manage without dropping it on the floor and scratching the new paintjob.
Next thin I wanted to get the front trailing arms on the beam so i could mount it to the pan. I found it easier to loosen the center screw and slide the leaves out so i could put the arm on. Then I slide them back into the tube. Don't forget the new rubber seal that goes between the arm and the beam. I did and had to pull the first arm back out again. Once all the arms were in I made sure all the leaves were centralised and tightened all the grub screws and there locknuts. I also set the center adjusters on the lowest suspension setting, this will make putting the spindles on easier when I get to in.
Before putting the beam on I decided to bolt up the brake master cylinder. I put the flaring tool I borrowed to work and put a fitting on the main line that runs to the rear. Looks a treat!
Then I nailed the beam in place. 40ft/lbs all round.
Now that the front end is on I decided it was looking a little naked and needed bits hanging off the ends of it. So I dug the front spindle assemblies out off the car I crashed. These got new seals, bearings and machined drums about a month before i rolled the car. Lay them out ready for a good degreasing. While I was at it I grabbed the transaxle so I could clean it off too.
The gearbox mounts are being replaced so I thought I'd pull the old one off before cleaning. It was a little worse for wear.
While I was undoing it one of the studs started spinning in the mashed rubber. So I ripping the top of the mount off to expose the stud and put a pair of vicegrips on it.
Everything was given a good soaking in degreaser.
And then hosed off.
I had no idea it was so blue!!! Since I bought it the transaxle's been covered in a good layer of mud and gunk. I always though it was the colour in the picture above. Now it's so bright!! It's fantastic!
While the gearbox was drying I decided to give it something to bolt to on the pan. So I gathered all the bits I needed. Rear springplates, splined torsion bars, new springplate rubbers, springplate cover, new bolts, graphite powder, antiseize, trolley jack and a length of chain with a D-shackle.
Antiseize was applied to both splines then the bar was slid into the springplate. As with the front end be sure to mark everything when you pull it apart so you get the torsion bars back on the correct sides. After this the rubber donuts were liberally coating in graphite powder and slid onto both sides on the springplate. Then the whole lot could be put into the torsion housing.
I'm setting the ride height to standard. With 30" rear tyres there's plenty enough clearance for mild offroading. The trick to setting it to standard without all the fancy measuring tools etc is to set the torsion bar into the inner spline so the springplate covers half the lower rear springplate cover bolt. This is around standard ride height. I referred to Craig Hughes' 'Dollars and Sense' article in Issue 12 (Nov '06-Jan '07). I can highly recommend this article for those that are looking to put rear suspension back on their car, it was very helpful.
I then put the cover on (after putting some more graphite powder inside it) and started the three bolts with threads that aren't covered.
Now get you trolley jack and place it under the rear of the springplate. Then get some chain and run it under the front axle of the jack and over the rear shock tower. This is very important. If you have no chain all you are going to do is lift the whole floorpan up, you want to compress the springplate without the pan moving. I found it a bit easier when I got my old man to sit on the rear of the floor on the side I was lifting. This helped give a little more weight to stop things sliding off the jack stands or the jack.
You have to jack the springplate up until it's above the bottom stop on the end of the torsion housing. It's kind of hard to explain and I forgot to get a picture. Once it's up high enough you evenly screw the bolts in with a criss-cross pattern and pull the springplate into position above the stop. Do then all down tight and you should be able to release the jack and the springplate will drop down and rest on the stop.
If you are doing any work on rear suspension, (especially removing it) always be sure to act safely. The springplate is full of stored spring energy when it's rest on top of the stop. You don't want to release this energy into a hand or foot.
This is the springplate in place all finished. The other side is exactly the same.
Back to the gearbox now that it's dried.
A few weeks before I crashed the old car I went to change the transaxle oil because I assumed it hadn't been done in a while. Only to find that the rear sump plug (17mm allen head) was rounded out. So all I did was top it up.
I decided to replace this while the box was out, with a magnetic one.
First thing I did was got a center punch and peened the outside edges of the plug back in. Then I got a punch to give it a wack in the middle to help loosen things up. Unfortunately it just punched a hole straight through 😂
So then I got my butane soldering iron and heated to plug a little with the flame. Then grabbed my 17mm key and hammered it into the plug, with a little gentle pressure it screwed straight out without rounding the plug again. Then I installed my replacement one. The gearbox with definitely be getting new oil now as most has leaked out of the torn axle boots whilst it's been sitting around.
I also installed the new front gearbox mount. I Loctited to nuts in place because I always used to have trouble with them working free every few months.
Last thing on the gearbox was the replacement of the snapped clutch return arm spring.
I got back onto the pedal assembly. Welded a new accelerator pedal return stop on one of the plates as the old one snapped off. Gave the last few parts a good clean up and hung them ready for paint.
That's all I've gotten done so far today, I'm going to head back out now and do a little more and have a tidy up.
Thanks for reading!
Smiley 🙂
Scarab ·
Glad you didnt forget your Cat safety boots mate!! 😂
Well done on the plug removal...when you punched through the centre, you didn't lose a piece of plug into the box did you?...hope not.
Well done mate....you are really flying!!!
Paul
Smiley ·
Scarab wrote:
Glad you didnt forget your Cat safety boots mate!! 😂
Well done on the plug removal...when you punched through the centre, you didn't lose a piece of plug into the box did you?...hope not.
Well done mate....you are really flying!!!
Paul
Yeah I wasn't grinding or welding today (just the one little bit) so I thought I could get away with wearing something a little more cool. I should have been wearing my gloves though cause I just put a seal pick into the end of my thumb.
With regards to the plug. I'm not sure if it punched a piece out or just pushed the metal to the side. It's only a tiny piece if it is. Hopefully the new (read pulled out of an old gearbox) super dooper magnetic one will grab it as it rattles past with all the bits of teeth.
You should have smelt the gearbox once I took the plug out. Burnt gear oil. Definitely been running low. Hopefully I won't run into any dramas. I've always got half a dozen other swingaxle boxes here. That or I could put a fast track on the IRS swap.
Smiley 🙂
Scarab ·
HAHAHA....gotta love that smell of burnt trans oil !! 👍😀
Paul
Smiley ·
I laid some more lovely black down on the last of the pedal assembly parts in the late afternoon.
Ran the accelerator cable, and started feeding the clutch cable in. Make sure you use plenty of grease!
The easy way to do your clutch cable, even with the body on. Feed the cable almost all the way in and have just a little bit left poking out. Grab your pedal assembly (here's one I prepared earlier) and hook the cable onto the hook. Make sure you keep the pedal rotated towards the front of the car so the hook doesn't fall off. Then get a friend (or father) to pull on the gearbox end of the cable to keep it locked in against the hook whilst you slide the pedals into the tunnel. Easy peasy! Just be sure to keep the clutch pedal rotated towards to front of the car until you get the pedal stop in place to stop it flopping back and having the loop jump off the hook.
Accelerator pedal plate bolted on.
Accelerator linkage attached and cover plate and pedals bolted down.
Pedal assembly mounted, pedal stop bolted down and just need to get a need seal for the plate that bolts on this side of the tunnel. And where did that brake pushrod and accelerator pivot pin end up?
Grabbed the front drums and knocked all the link pins out, they were a little stiff after sitting in the weather for 6 months. Gave them a good polish off. A couple were a little worn, have to add new link pins to the list of things that will need attention down the track. Sprayed them with heaps of Lanolin and now they are silky smooth in the holes.
Went to slot them into the torsion arms but the holes didn't line up. Because of the slight extra preload in my frontend the holes are further apart. I ended up just slotting the bottom one in the arm, standing on the floorpan and lifting against the spring tension and slotting the top pin in. Wasn't too bad as it was only an inch or so.
Next two pictures show them all bolted in and link pins rotated around correctly.
At this point I ran (yes ran!) and grabbed wheels and wheelnuts and bolted them on.
No smoke and mirrors here people!! The floorpan is rolling (the front half anyway). I feel immensely satisfied with the work I got done today and it's really great to have the thing standing up on it's own.
Unfortunately the downside is I can't put the transaxle and rear wheels on until Tuesday. I used the brand new rear gearbox mounts I bought for the Baja on Eleanor a few months back and must have forgotten to buy replacements.
Tomorrow I still have plenty of other things to occupy my time. All that bodywork I've been putting off. Plus I can put the shifter rod in, steering box tie rods and everything else up front, finish off the last of the pedal stuff and make up front brake lines and connect it all up.
Until then, goodnight!
Smiley 🙂
BlueV2 ·
All good stuff. Keep up the good work. Should be finished by Anzac day !! :-)
Smiley ·
BlueV2 wrote:All good stuff. Keep up the good work. Should be finished by Anzac day !! :-)
The plan is ASAP! I want it finished to drive down to TAFE in Brisbane next month.
Smiley 🙂
11CAB ·
Looking good, but I'm surprised you didnt upgrade to a dual master cylinder & disc brakes...
71-BEETLE-SEDAN ·
Wow busy day, making the most of the 25 hour day.
What degreaser are you using cause i wanna get some.
Cheers
Smiley ·
11CAB wrote:Looking good, but I'm surprised you didnt upgrade to a dual master cylinder & disc brakes...
Don't really have the time/$1000 at the moment. It's a plan for down the track.
Just another thing on the list at the moment.
71-BEETLE-SEDAN wrote:What degreaser are you using cause i wanna get some.
Cheers
I bought a 20L drum of Motogard Heavy Duty Degreaser.
I just pour some out into a large spray bottle and use that. It works very well. Great for getting oil stains out of cement.
I didn't get quite as much done of the Baja today as I would have liked. Spent the morning doing the valves and a few other things on maroon car.
Dug the shifter rod for the superbug out. It was looking a little worse for wear.
Much better.
New shifter rod bushing was installed in the cradle. Make sure you use plenty of grease so the rod slides through easily (minds out of the gutter people)
Rod was fed into the tunnel and I had no trouble sliding it all the way through.
Went a found a linkage and gave it a good clean up. Will have to get new rubber blocks for it tomorrow.
I got a couple of people to come and stand on the front of the floorpan to load the suspension up. Then I knocked the new urethane snubbers into place. They went on surprisingly easily.
Bolted the gearbox cradle into place.
Made up new front brake hardlines and bolted them into place.
That's really all I got done on the pan. Then I moved onto the body and have started welding up chrome trim holes and screw holes and the millions of holes that seem to have been drilled under the dash. Not really worth posting any pictures of.
I'll hopefully be able to get the new rear transaxle mounts and sector shaft seal tomorrow and get the backend rolling too.
Smiley 🙂
Scarab ·
Is that all you got done??....PATHETIC!! 😂😂😂😂
Just jokes mate....you got heaps done in my opinion, well done!!
Rock on!!
Paul
Smiley ·
Scarab wrote:Is that all you got done??....PATHETIC!! 😂😂😂😂
Just jokes mate....you got heaps done in my opinion, well done!!
Rock on!!
Paul
I'm doing a whole lot of list making at the moment too.
Starting to get sick of lists!
Some of the holes that I've welded up on the rear quarter and under the bonnet.
These are what remained of the heater tubes where they run though the body. I cut them off at an earlier date.
I cut around the tubes on the inside of the car and the whole piece fell off on the outside. Now i just have to make up some patches to fill the gaps.
Smiley 🙂
Scarab ·
What??....no update tonight?? Disappointing 🙁
Looking forward to the next installment mate!! 👍
Paul
Smiley ·
There is. Seem to be getting less and less sleep lately. I wonder why?
I'm going to be running the dash the same as it was set up on the old car. I made an alloy plate up with holes for the oil pressure and oil temperature gauges. This means cutting out the dash underneath, so out came the die grinder.
From this.
To this.
When I was welding up the trim holes yesterday one of the holes on the front quarter was giving my some trouble. So I decided that welding in a patch would be easier. It's a piece I cut out of one of the old superbugs lying around. Had to be reshaped a touch but ended up fitting very well.
Still need to order a few seals and things before the transaxle and the rest of the rear suspension goes on the pan. I'm thinking I might try the body on the pan tomorrow to see how it fits.
Also spent almost an hour going through boxes of parts off the old Baja and the new one. Lots of bolts in labeled bags and tangles of wiring. Trying to dig out bolts that I will be needing soon so I can order new ones.
Smiley 🙂
Scarab ·
Whoops....am I bad?? 🥲 I spoke too soon eh??!!
Looking good mate. You are powering on as usual. You seem to be gaining some awesome bodywork skills too mate!
Paul
Smiley ·
Dropped the body on the pan this afternoon to see how it would fit. Unfortunately....it didn't.
Fortunately it's a relatively easy fix. Lifted the body back off the pan and cut both mounts off with the grinder.
With these cut off the body slipped straight down into place. Was a little tight in between the tops of the shock towers right next to where I cut the mounts off. The body is sort of jammed down in between the sides of the towers. will have to dimple the body slightly to prevent rubbing and allow slight movement for aligning the boltholes.
Aside from that little drama everything seems to fit quite well. And amazingly (given that I drilled most of them) the bolt holes all seem to line up quite well!!
I have some new body mount rubbers showing up tomorrow so I'll be able to set my gap and weld the mounting plates on higher than they were. I don't foresee any problems after that.
Here's a couple more shots of it sitting on there!
I also have the dust boot for the transaxle nosecone showing up tomorrow so that will be going in and we might have a fully rolling pan!! Although it wheelbarrows quite nicely if you have someone to steer the front wheels for you.
Hoping for a big update tomorrow!
Until then.
Smiley 🙂
Scarab ·
Good job mate....man, I would have been stressing out!!! At least its a pretty easy fix.
Its starting to look like a car again....well done!!
Paul
Smiley ·
First thing I got onto after work this afternoon was mounting the transaxle.
Dust boot in place on the floorpan.
Dad gave me a hand so sit it in place. I put some rags down on the framehorns just in case it slipped. And the jack was underneath the diff housing.
New front mount was bolted and Loctited in place. The engine earth wire is run from the nosecone of the gearbox to the LHS stud on the front gearbox mount.
New rear rubbers bolted in place. Everything lined up easily and slid into place.
Axles bolted to the springplates with the snubber mount on the top bolt. New rubber snubbers fitted. I will still have to adjust the rear toe in later on once all the weight is on the car.
Shifter rod linkage fitted with new rubbers. I also installed a new selector shaft seal on the gearbox before in went in.
I stripped the old gearstick out of the crashed Baja down ready to be reused. I was fitted with a short shift kit which I'll be reusing.
While I was waiting for the paint on the gearstick parts to dry I had a look at the handbrake.
I want to run an early model handbrake because I want the option of adding steering brakes later on. I sat the handbrake in place and it's obviously way too long. Definitely going to hit on the gearstick. This is because on the later pans the gearstick hole is further back and they use a shorter handbrake handle to accommodate this.
The other problem I'm seeing is that the handbrake cables are too short to work with the early model handle. I could probably give them the length required by cutting the tubes down where they go into the floorpan at the back. This would allow more cable to poke through. The only problem with doing that is when I do convert to IRS the tubes are going to be shorter. Can anyone suggest a remedy for this? Should I cut the tubes and just have some spacers machined up later on when I go IRS?
On the plus side I went and grabbed some skinnies and bolted them on the back.
WE HAVE A ROLLING PAN PEOPLE!!!
Went ahead with finishing off the pedal assembly.
Found another brake pushrod (still can't find the first one I cleaned up) and put it in place. I screwed it most of the way in for starters. I'll have to set the brake pedal freeplay once there is pressure in the system.
Also found a pivot pin and mounted the loud pedal in place! All connected now, just needs something at the other end to make some noise.
The paint had dried on my gearstick parts at this point so I greased everything up and put it in place...........but it didn't fit.
The earlier model gearstick I'm using has a pin sticking out of the ball. This pin is there to locate the gearstick in the and stop it from spinning. Because the earlier model gearsticks were mounted further forward on the tunnel they were curved so they were easier to reach. You don't want a curved gearstick spinning, hence the locating pin.
Whereas on the later year models (ie, my pan) the gearstick is mounted further towards the rear of the car. No need for a bent gearstick so no need for a pin to stop it spinning. The shifter rod in the tunnel has no cutout for the pin to go down into so the early 'stick won't fit.
I dug out the superbug gearstick and it is presently drying its new coat of paint. I'll be able to reuse everything else, including the shortshift kit. The only problem with the superbug gearstick is that the knob on it is an ugly blob of plastic. I'm sure I can change this with something cooler. Any suggestions?
The new straight superbug 'stick in primer.
I cut the old axle boots off while I was waiting for paint to dry. One was on correctly (the one I changed when I first bought the car) and one was on incorrectly.
New ones will go on tomorrow when I work out how to get enough weight on the pan to get the axles sitting down horizontal.
Take two of the gearstick install.
Everything fitting together very nicely.
Seems I can get all 4 forward gears if I hunt around a little. Can't seem to get reverse. The gearstick is very stiff to change and you can't really 'feel' where the gears are.
I don't know that the Superbug gearstick and shift rod are playing nicely with the short shift kit.
I might take the spacer out and see how it goes normally.
Does anyone have a short shift kit on a superbug? What's it like?
By the way, you can see what i mean by the ugly gear knob in the above picture.
Anyone got any suggestions?
I'm off to bed, lots to get done starting early tomorrow!
Smiley 🙂
OZ Towdster ·
As always , iv've got another bit of backtracking for you to think about hehehehe!!!!!
Those bolts you used to fit the ends of the axles to the spring plates , are they a fine threaded bolt ,as if not they will continually undo themselves due to the pitch of the thread and the constant vibration of the unsprung area of which there a part of .
Andrew
OZ Towdster ·
Oh and have you got the reverse lock out plate the right way around as that will stop you being able to find reverse gear
Smiley ·
Thanks Andrew. One step back two steps forward don't they say?
I'll get new bolts from work on Monday.
The reverse plate goes with the slope to the RHS and facing the front?
Do you have any suggestions RE handbrake and cables?
The main business of the day. Finish bodywork!!
The car is going up to Rocky tomorrow or Monday to begin prep work for paint. Car is booking in the be painted on the weekend of the 24th. Time to extract a digit!!
Areas needing completion, RHS sill, pillar and quarter.
LHS quarter and front corner.
Made up a new rear quarter piece. Also has a bottom plate that extends inwards to seal the bottom of the pillar.
Held in place.
All welded in place.
Made a plate up to fill the rest of the hole.
Tacked in place.
Everything welded in.
Onto the LHS front corner. Removed the offending metal, everything was surprisingly good underneath.
I made up a plate and welded it in.
I also deleted the vents on the inside of the sill in the passengers footwell. These are no longer needed as the heater isn't connected. The same will be done on the drivers side.
Onto the drivers side.
This is where I started.
Sill needs a lot of attention before the pillar and quarter even go in. I did the same to the passengers side earlier in the build, but this is far worse.
Front corner also has some dodgy patchwork (a little dodgier than mine at least)
I cut the side off the sill and cleaned the inside out.
New side welded into the sill.
The heater hole, plenty of cancer!!
Much better.
Made up the two simple plates to reform the shapes of the sill. One is the large top plate which has a slight curve to it. The other is a small angled piece in the bottom corner.
The top plate still needs a fair bit trimmed off the outside edge. All I have to do now is make up the complex curved piece which ties everything together. After this I can weld the pillar in and set the door gaps. then the quarter. Once all this is in all I have to do is patch holes and the metalwork is finished!!
Will be back into it first thing tomorrow!!
I also laid some paint on more stuff. Mostly just cover plates for the various holes.
I also pulled the short shift kit out from under the gearstick and it is FAR easier to change into all of the gears. I'm just going to leave it out for now, the throw on the gearstick doesn't seem long at all.
I also worked out why I couldn't get it into reverse. Turns out I was trying to put it into reverse the same as my semi-auto Beetle 😊
The semi-auto is push down, to the left and FORWARD. Whereas I'm sure you all know a normal manual Volksie is down, left and backwards.
I think the gearstick needs a slight tweaking of its position and everything will be perfect!!
Smiley 🙂
hellbugged ·
Oorsum production pace here as usual 👍.
Great work, give yourself a pat on the back..........and get onto the next freakin job! 😍
Aussie ·
smileyman3000 wrote:I also laid some paint on more stuff. Mostly just cover plates for the various holes.
I also pulled the short shift kit out from under the gearstick and it is FAR easier to change into all of the gears. I'm just going to leave it out for now, the throw on the gearstick doesn't seem long at all.
I also worked out why I couldn't get it into reverse. Turns out I was trying to put it into reverse the same as my semi-auto Beetle 😊
The semi-auto is push down, to the left and FORWARD. Whereas I'm sure you all know a normal manual Volksie is down, left and backwards.
I think the gearstick needs a slight tweaking of its position and everything will be perfect!!
Smiley 😎
Great Job - I cant believe how fast you are moving this forward!!
Smiley ·
Thanks for you kind words fellas.
I'm getting to the point now where the progress in contagious. I just what to do more and more. I wish I didn't have to sleep, I'd work all night!
Update time!
I finished off the last piece of the sill this morning and welded it in.
One repaired sill.
I tacked the new pillar in place so I could hang the door and check the gaps.
Amazingly I managed to do the same as the passenger side and got the door gaps and hang absolutely spot on the first go!!
Patched the hole in the sill left by the removed heater tube.
Got the pillar fully welded in and started taking measurements for the quarter panel. Fortunately I managed to pick up a repair panel for this side. So all I had to do was trim it down to what I needed.
I hung the drivers side front guard in place so I could use it the line up the quarter panel. One of the mount bolts for the guard is on the new panel.
New quarter panel welded into place.
Patched the two holes where the heater used to go through the firewall under the backseat.
The inside of the new quarter and pillar. I still have to smooth the welds down and pretty things up a bit.
I spent a while filling more of the millions of little holes all over the body. The the body was lifted onto the pan and winched up onto the trailer ready to travel over to Rocky tomorrow. I'm taking it to a friends place who has offered his shed, equipment, time and knowledge to help me prep the body for paint. Who was I to turn down an offer that good?
As it sits now 99% of the welding on the body is completed. All I have to do is sort the rear body mounts and fill the last thousand or so of the little holes.
Things are finally starting to move along a bit.
Smiley 🙂
71-BEETLE-SEDAN ·
Hye smiley,
you probably already know this but if you wan to fill those little holes you could get a sheet of copper and put it underneath and make sure its a tight fit and just weld over it. It doesnt stick to the weld and will stop the weld going through into the cockpit.
Cheers
Scarab ·
nice work as always mate! its looking GREAT!!
Paul
Smiley ·
71-BEETLE-SEDAN wrote:Hye smiley, you probably already know this but if you wan to fill those little holes you could get a sheet of copper and put it underneath and make sure its a tight fit and just weld over it. It doesnt stick to the weld and will stop the weld going through into the cockpit. Cheers
Yeah man. That's how I've been doing it. Thanks for your input anyway.
Scarab wrote:nice work as always mate! its looking GREAT!! Paul
Thanks Paul.
I'd wouldn't say great. I'd say good. But it will be looking great!
I have two weeks to prep for paint. At this stage it's going down to Gladstone on the 23rd to be painted.
Got the car and everything over to Scott's place this afternoon. He's helping my do the last of the bodywork and the prep for paint. I'm going to pay him back by helping him with his floorpan for a buggy he's building.
The Baja has got a bay in his shed! It's staying in good company for the next two weeks, with Scott's Baja being the next bay over.
Scott has an air chisel (have to get me one of those) so he cut the old metal strips of where the bonnet seals slide into. They were starting to rust a bit and I'll be running a different seal so they aren't needed.
While Scott was doing that I cleaned up the rear body mounts and the inside of the rear wheel wells. Then I tacked the mounts into place. They'll get completely welded once we lift the body off.
Then we broke out the copper plate and filled some more holes in.
I want to try and get the last for the welded and filling holes done over the next day or two. Then we can start concentrating on the prep for paint.
Thanks again Scotty!!!
Smiley 🙂
bajachris88 ·
Far out man!
Dats fully sick. Most impressed 👍
I can see this thing on the road by june if pace stays the same. 🙂
champion effort.
All set for VALLA u rekon :P? U going down?
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:Far out man!
Dats fully sick. Most impressed 👍
I can see this thing on the road by june if pace stays the same. 🙂
champion effort.
All set for VALLA u rekon :P? U going down?
June. hahahaha.
I'm aiming for registered by the 7th of May. I want it done so I can drive it down to Brisbane for my first block of TAFE.
When/where is Valla? Depends how big a drive it is.
By the way, I still have that SC14 if you're still interested. I haven't even looked at it though I'm sorry. I'll bring it down for you when I come down for TAFE if you'd like?
How long before the big red beast is on the road? Did you sort out the problems with your daily?
Smiley 😎
wilderness ·
KEEP IT UP!!!!!!!! lookin better each time, still working up the courage to attack my pillars though!!!
bajachris88 ·
June. hahahaha.
I'm aiming for registered by the 7th of May. I want it done so I can drive it down to Brisbane for my first block of TAFE.
When/where is Valla? Depends how big a drive it is.
By the way, I still have that SC14 if you're still interested. I haven't even looked at it though I'm sorry. I'll bring it down for you when I come down for TAFE if you'd like?
How long before the big red beast is on the road? Did you sort out the problems with your daily?
Smiley 😎
Hi man,
thats awesome! yea valla is south of coffs harbour, bit of a distance, but only happens once every 2 years. 5 hrs south from me. Would wanna bring a few spares for the 'just in case' moments 🙂, but its usually in a cruise group and each person seems to support each other.
LONG time before the red beast is done. Daily is getting there, but uni has been full on. Putting in a very low km jdm half cut from a later model (with many revisions), so it should last at least another 15 yrs rather than 7 days 🙂, but the main prob is mixing and machining wiring to make the new loom. Almost there... but yea. head ache none the less... but should last.
My baja is going no where. might see if i can do a quick assembly to get it rolling. Like, putting little attention to detail on the body, and maybe running n/a for the moment. i got the carbs/manifold. The engine, gearbox, chassis is like so near, cept steering and barwork. I got a friend who can help me with blue plate certification and rwc. Would look like a bomb with mismatched doors with 69 in a circle spray painted on with aerosol lol. put seat covers on the teared seats lol, and dirty tiny 14inch wheels. would be fun but fugly lol 🙂
I am still VERY interested in that sc14 however, very much so! bring it down, i will happily compensate ya 🙂.
Smiley ·
wilderness wrote:KEEP IT UP!!!!!!!! lookin better each time, still working up the courage to attack my pillars though!!!
Go for it mate!!
You can't do any worse than I did. 😂
bajachris88 wrote:
June. hahahaha.
I'm aiming for registered by the 7th of May. I want it done so I can drive it down to Brisbane for my first block of TAFE.
When/where is Valla? Depends how big a drive it is.
By the way, I still have that SC14 if you're still interested. I haven't even looked at it though I'm sorry. I'll bring it down for you when I come down for TAFE if you'd like?
How long before the big red beast is on the road? Did you sort out the problems with your daily?
Smiley 😎
Hi man,
thats awesome! yea valla is south of coffs harbour, bit of a distance, but only happens once every 2 years. 5 hrs south from me. Would wanna bring a few spares for the 'just in case' moments 🙂, but its usually in a cruise group and each person seems to support each other.
LONG time before the red beast is done. Daily is getting there, but uni has been full on. Putting in a very low km jdm half cut from a later model (with many revisions), so it should last at least another 15 yrs rather than 7 days 🙂, but the main prob is mixing and machining wiring to make the new loom. Almost there... but yea. head ache none the less... but should last.
My baja is going no where. might see if i can do a quick assembly to get it rolling. Like, putting little attention to detail on the body, and maybe running n/a for the moment. i got the carbs/manifold. The engine, gearbox, chassis is like so near, cept steering and barwork. I got a friend who can help me with blue plate certification and rwc. Would look like a bomb with mismatched doors with 69 in a circle spray painted on with aerosol lol. put seat covers on the teared seats lol, and dirty tiny 14inch wheels. would be fun but fugly lol 🙂
I am still VERY interested in that sc14 however, very much so! bring it down, i will happily compensate ya 🙂.
When is Valla on?
You've got the whole idea backwards Chris. You need to sell all those other cars and put in a few hard weeks work on the Baja and it'd be done!
I'll bring the SC14 down. You do know that they are a little long to fit on a standard Type 1 with the fanhousing?
Have you read Joel's thread? There's a bit about it in there. I just don't want you to buy it off me and find that it won't fit. I'll also try to find time to check the lobes out inside and see they aren't worn.
Smiley 😎
bajachris88 ·
Valla is like early August.
haha, yea but i owe money on one of em and as it is it is worthless, + I need a reliable daily, something with common parts and common spares, bit of room, and comfortable.
Not that i doubt the vw can't achieve that, but i haven't grown to trust it yet. I'm sure once it proves its worth when its on teh road i will grow accustomed.
June holidays are coming. if i can assemble what i got as i got, because the running gear is all sorted on the pan, i can have a work on progress on the road. At least i can enjoy it as i go.
Yea i'm still keen if u are, if u aren't then ur all good. I will pass if its too far gone/dead. I have noticed Sc12's are very hard to find from my hunting, well, decently priced ones if any. I read about Joel's issues, i don't know how i am going to go about it, but i'm willing to have a tinker, even if it means shafts and bearing carriers lol. The lift kit gives me a bit more room, but i don't want it to look like the pyramid of giza, want it to look tidy. I got a few very broad half cocked ideas, i just wanna have a play really, and sc14 will give me some play with flexibility in engine upgrade. Maybe need an eaton style snout to get behind the shroud maybe? :P Wish me luck!
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:Valla is like early August.
haha, yea but i owe money on one of em and as it is it is worthless, + I need a reliable daily, something with common parts and common spares, bit of room, and comfortable.
Not that i doubt the vw can't achieve that, but i haven't grown to trust it yet. I'm sure once it proves its worth when its on teh road i will grow accustomed.
June holidays are coming. if i can assemble what i got as i got, because the running gear is all sorted on the pan, i can have a work on progress on the road. At least i can enjoy it as i go.
Yea i'm still keen if u are, if u aren't then ur all good. I will pass if its too far gone/dead. I have noticed Sc12's are very hard to find from my hunting, well, decently priced ones if any. I read about Joel's issues, i don't know how i am going to go about it, but i'm willing to have a tinker, even if it means shafts and bearing carriers lol. The lift kit gives me a bit more room, but i don't want it to look like the pyramid of giza, want it to look tidy. I got a few very broad half cocked ideas, i just wanna have a play really, and sc14 will give me some play with flexibility in engine upgrade. Maybe need an eaton style snout to get behind the shroud maybe? :P Wish me luck!
I have an SC12 aswell. But you can't have that one. 😂
I really want to put it on my Baja later in the year 🥷
I think the torque would be quite an asset offroading as well as help the fuel economy turning the big tyres on the highway.
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
First thing I got onto this afternoon was the rear parcel area.
This first picture gives you a scope of how many holes were there!
All filled up.
I also ground all the factory sound-deadening hooks off. Who needs 'em! All they do is cut your hands up when you're working around the engine.
We loosely bolted all the guards into place.
The rear guards are super wide! It's awesome. I'm going to be able to put some big tread under there if I want to.
Uh oh, we have a problem here. Looks like when the Baja chop was made they got a little too enthusiastic. You only supposed to cut the body but in line with the ends of the Baja mud guards. I'm going to get some flatbar and sheet and rebuild this area out level with the guard tomorrow afternoon. I'm also going to run a rear support out for the back of the rear guards. With them being so wide they are going to get some flex happening without additional bracing.
While I was tooling around drilling holes and grinding things, Scotty was having a look at the hang of the front guards. Checking them for fit and finding any gaps that need filling or dints that needed knocking in out out.
I drilled and tapped some plugs into the sills. This is so, like my seat frames, I can pull them out every few months and spray rust preventative in there to keep the gremlins at bay.
I also smoothed out some welds and cleaned up the inner quarters.
Then we sat the body back down onto the pan so we could roll it in for the night.
I think it looks awesome!!
The clearance under the front guards is massive!
The front suspension is sitting against the bottom stops at the moment.
And the back definitely looks weird with the tiny stockies on the back. Going to have to get some decent meat under there.
One last shot for tonight with the bonnet sitting in place.
Smiley 😎
Scarab ·
Too cool mate....that thing is ROCKIN!!!! Well done, loving yout progress mate!
Paul
Smiley ·
I got in and fixed the last few rust holes this afternoon.
This is in the drivers side quarter.
All fixed.
I also welded up and smoothed down all the trim holes in the doors.
While I was filling holes Scotty started work on the new rear corners for where the mudguard bolts on.
I picked up some flatbar to use as frames then we're going to sheet over it. The flatbar will really help stiffen things up. There is also going to be a brace from this corner to the outer edge of the rear mudguard. Because they are so wide I really want to brace them up to help stop the flexing.
With the sheet clamped in place.
I also got a small order of parts come in today from Mick Motors.
All new tie rod ends, new flexible brake lines for the front and rear, new body to pan blocks and a new clutch/accelerator cable boot.
The steering and braking parts will probably find their way onto the car over the weekend.
Smiley 😎
bajachris88 ·
You got a real nack for this stuff man. Very proud!
With that rigidity, those mud claps are going no where! 👍
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:You got a real nack for this stuff man. Very proud!
With that rigidity, those mud claps are going no where! 👍
I didn't make those! It was all Scott. I just welded things in place for him.
Smiley 😎
bajachris88 ·
haha, u didn't have to tell me that 😉😂
I got a crazy idea for june, involving vee dubs during 4 weeks of holidays, alongside funding from a centrelink scholarship program for low income students on youthallowance 🙂
It shall be interesting. Hopefully, with more details to come... (IE: progress actually happening).
Ricer almost out of the way....
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:haha, u didn't have to tell me that 😉😂
I got a crazy idea for june, involving vee dubs during 4 weeks of holidays, alongside funding from a centrelink scholarship program for low income students on youthallowance 🙂
It shall be interesting. Hopefully, with more details to come... (IE: progress actually happening).
Ricer almost out of the way....
By this do you mean get yours finished?
Smiley 😎
bajachris88 ·
Yea... pretty much lap everyone on as it is.... or if not... quick coat of paint...
and finish it off as i go.
All the running gear is schmick... will finish body, but everything connected to it would be out of sorts lol.
talking white front guards, dark blue rear engine cover and fenders, red body, white bonnet, light blue doors with 69 in a circle aerosoled on each side lol (1969... 😀 u know...)
If i got time... i can sand it back as i go. all the fibreglass panels need a bit of work... cause although they are thick, they are checkered in heaps of hairline cracks that just show up over the paint. so will have to sand ALL the way back, and put some polyester resin over em, cept big cracks, will drill out ends of them and dig out, then fill.
But yea. rwc items involved with running gear is like all fully sick. (bushes, engine, brakes, shocks etc.)
bajachris88 ·
Means no nice 15inch chrome sunraisers with 31's yet 🙁, only seat covers, and no two tone, or flash chrome zorst lol.
But none the les... on the road. and get do it as I go. Just like how EVERYONE on this website said i should have done it 🙂
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:Means no nice 15inch chrome sunraisers with 31's yet 🙁, only seat covers, and no two tone, or flash chrome zorst lol.
But none the les... on the road. and get do it as I go. Just like how EVERYONE on this website said i should have done it 🙂
Nice.
As least you'll have it all running. You'll find it'll only take you a few months to pull all the rest of things together and it'll be looking sweet!
First thing we did this afternoon was drill the holes through the body for the upper engine cage mounts.
They tie into the upper shock mounts and the two bolts that go through the rear quarters into the parcel shelf.
I welded on the LHS corner and capped the end off neatly.
While I was doing this Scott made up the corner for the other side. When he was done I welded it in place too.
I also made up the LHS mudguard support bar and tacked it into place. It doesn't interfere with the rear cage mount or anywhere that the rear tyres are going to be.
I'll fully weld and make the right one tomorrow morning.
I'll be heading back to Rocky tomorrow morning. Going to get stuck in and get the welding and grinding all finished ASAP. Then we can start sanding the car and getting ready for fill work.
Smiley 😎
Joel ·
smileyman3000 wrote:
bajachris88 wrote:Valla is like early August.
haha, yea but i owe money on one of em and as it is it is worthless, + I need a reliable daily, something with common parts and common spares, bit of room, and comfortable.
Not that i doubt the vw can't achieve that, but i haven't grown to trust it yet. I'm sure once it proves its worth when its on teh road i will grow accustomed.
June holidays are coming. if i can assemble what i got as i got, because the running gear is all sorted on the pan, i can have a work on progress on the road. At least i can enjoy it as i go.
Yea i'm still keen if u are, if u aren't then ur all good. I will pass if its too far gone/dead. I have noticed Sc12's are very hard to find from my hunting, well, decently priced ones if any. I read about Joel's issues, i don't know how i am going to go about it, but i'm willing to have a tinker, even if it means shafts and bearing carriers lol. The lift kit gives me a bit more room, but i don't want it to look like the pyramid of giza, want it to look tidy. I got a few very broad half cocked ideas, i just wanna have a play really, and sc14 will give me some play with flexibility in engine upgrade. Maybe need an eaton style snout to get behind the shroud maybe? :P Wish me luck!
I have an SC12 aswell. But you can't have that one. 😂
I really want to put it on my Baja later in the year 🥷
I think the torque would be quite an asset offroading as well as help the fuel economy turning the big tyres on the highway.
Smiley 😎
its funny they seem to go in fads,
you'll see a heap of SC12s up forsale and the price comes down then they'll slow up and SC14s will flood the market
i used to keep an eye on a few sources for SC12, any that was cheapish i'd grab but they're getting less and less common now
people over boost them and nuke them
just wish i could make one fit the EJ
you got some real talent smiley 👍
cant wait to see the finished product
Smiley ·
Thanks Joel.
I'd love to do a Baja or buggy with twin SC12s. There's plenty of room back there. Especially when you start running bodylifts.
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
While I was finishing off the welding on the rear of the car Scott started sanding.
The different layers of paint tell a lovely story.
The factory colour for the car was dark green, and it used to have a yellow stripe over the top.
More sanding.
I welded nuts on the inside of the new rear corners.
The top two are for mudguard bolts, and the bottom two are for the new mudguards braces I finished welding up this morning. Should make things a lot easier to bolt together.
I also welded up the last few holes in the dash and drilled the new windscreen washer holes in the wiper panel.
By the afternoon Scott had started doing some fill work.............................and more sanding.
Just as it was starting to get dark I pulled the nosecone off the Baja. There was only sealer and two bolts holding it on there.
And I found a lot of things I didn't like. The bottom panel of the wheelwell was rustier than it looked and the corners were a bunch of scrap.
So out came the welder and the grinder to do more metalwork. And the car is going to paint on Friday!!
Nosecone removed.
The sides metal that the nosecone fits around was rusted through in places and the bottom corners were extremely rough.
I removed the entire bottom angled piece and it's going to the scrap heap.
Nosecone held back in place. All I need to do at the bottom is make a new angled piece to fill and seal the gap between the body and fibreglass.
At this point I stopped going backwards and started moving forwards again.
I cut the side pieces off the body where they were rusting and cut two new ones to go in.
Tacked into place.
Both sides fully welded into place.
I made the pieces slightly oversize so I can trim them down later and get them to fit the nosecone perfectly. Then all I have the do is make up the angled bottom piece. Then I can say, "There, that's all the welding on the body finished"..............................................for about the seventh time now.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I spent most of the day sorting out the issues with the nosecone on the car.
I bought the bonnet hinges up today so we could mount it to get the alignment right. Once we had the nose cone where we wanted it I drilled the holes for the mounting bolts down the sides so it wouldn't go anywhere.
I spent a long while shaping both the new side pieces with a hammer and dolly until they matched the nose.
Then I bent up the last angle piece to seal everything up.
I really wish that I had a sheet folder for this, I had to do it all with a hammer.
Once it was welded in place everything seemed to fit perfectly and will seal very well with a bit of sikaflex around the edges.
While I was stuffing around with metalwork, Scott was making some fantastic headway with the bodywork.
Bonnet fitted up. There are still a few gaps. I'm going to extend the body down a bit with metal and Scott is going to add a little bit to the nosecone later on.
Bonnet seal area extended. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this metal work business. I even got the shape to match up reasonably well on the inside edge.
RHS also done.
Now they look like this. You can see the LHS one there is a large piece missing out of the top corner of the nosecone that Scott is going to have to replace.
Last thing for the day, and hopefully the last bit of welding on the body (won't be now that I've said it)
Welded some studs into the back of the car. One either side of the back window and one near the end of each of the rear corners. These are the mounting studs for the rear engine scoop. They came with some pretty chrome acorns nuts too!!
That's all for now. More tomorrow hopefully.
Smiley 🙂
beetleboyjeff ·
I just love the way you find things that aren't right or some sort of problem, then just hook in and get it fixed - no mucking around.
Scarab ·
looking great mate....whats the plans for colour etc.??
Paul
Smiley ·
beetleboyjeff wrote:I just love the way you find things that aren't right or some sort of problem, then just hook in and get it fixed - no mucking around.
Thanks Jeff.
I'm really hoping that at this stage no more problems present themselves. There's just no time to deal with them if there is.
I'm still not sure if it's going to paint this weekend or not. We'll see how things are traveling.
As for the colour Paul, I'm allowed to have some secrets aren't I? 😂
I've changed my mind and changed it back plenty of times since the picture I posted earlier in the build.
So I'll surprise you all.
I can say that wheels and barwork are going to be a light charcoal/gunmetal colour.
Smiley 😎
Scarab ·
fair enough mate....we will all just have to hold our breath and wait for the final reveal 😉
All the best mate,
Paul
OZ Towdster ·
So mate ,i hope you have a schedule of events / plan for every day you have left on the build , thank someone for a couple of long weekends in the next two weeks hey !!!
Smiley ·
OZ Towdster wrote:So mate ,i hope you have a schedule of events / plan for every day you have left on the build , thank someone for a couple of long weekends in the next two weeks hey !!!
I've taken next week off work to put it together.
And no schedule yet! 😂
Get it done ASAP is pretty much it.
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
Scott has started to get most of the fill work finished on the body. Still a little touch up work to go yet.
He also repaired the crack in the rear scoop and the big hole in the side.
Work has now started on the doors, and the guards still have to be looked at yet!
Possibly not going to make it for Friday, I have discussed the options with the painter Steff (Dubcrazy on here) and will hopefully get it down to him ASAP.
I wirewheeled the underside of the roof, the dash, the door jambs and pillars and the outside sills back to bare metal.
Gave it a clean off with wax and grease remover and sprayed some gray primer on all the bare stuff except the roof.
The door pillars still need a little filling and smoothing where I welded them in.
The inside of the roof will be getting brushed with POR15 tomorrow.
Smiley 🙂
DubCrazy ·
u have'nt got time to be posting on here young man!!! get back to work 😂
steff.........
Smiley ·
DubCrazy wrote:u have'nt got time to be posting on here young man!!! get back to work 😂
steff.........
The car's in Rocky!!
And I'm in Yeppoon!
Smiley 😎
beetleboyjeff ·
Gee, you sure are a slave driver Steff - remind me of my wife. lol
Post all the updates you want Smiley - gives the rest of us inspiration.
Smiley ·
beetleboyjeff wrote:Gee, you sure are a slave driver Steff - remind me of my wife. lol
Post all the updates you want Smiley - gives the rest of us inspiration.
Thanks Jeff.
He's allowed to be a slave driver at this point though. Otherwise it's never going to make it for paint this weekend!
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
Don't have a great deal to show for what I did this afternoon.
I spent about 4 hours sanding the rear mud guards, and they're still not finished!
You can see in the picture that the leading edge of the guard was badly stonechipped.
After a few hours.
There's still a little bit left to do on one of the guards which has to be done by hand.
Next thing I did was wirewheel the inside of the door back and hit it with some primer.
And I also threw a brush around inside the roof. Moe of that POR15 goodness. The surface came out like glass!!!
Scotty's been tackling all the exterior of the doors and fibreglass repairs to the scoop and nose cone. As well as filling the holes in the guards and work has started on the bonnet, which is scratched quite deeply.
I only just got home half an hour ago.
So I'm off to bed.
More tomorrow!!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Unfortunately I didn't get to do anything on the car today at all.
I had to go in this morning for a minor procedure on my eye to remove some rust and steel. After about half an hour I couldn't even see from the pain so I got dad to take me home.
Scott was finishing off patching the last of the fibreglass holes in the guards and scoop and was sanding the door jambs when I left.
I have tomorrow off work so hopefully my eye is feeling good enough to spend the day on the car.
Until then.
Smiley 😎
bajachris88 ·
No kool hey 🙂
Happened to me the first and last time last yr... and i was even wearing safetly glasses!
Mind you being surrounded and played with by 2 yound female med student inturns made the insuline needle scrape to the eye painless. It was quite fun lol. And was a first time for them... (the eye pricking 🙂, nuffin else lol)
hmm.... come to think ofi t.... 95% of all the scars on me are from that car... first set of stitches was from it too.
Smiley ·
I forgot to take my camera up today. Not that there is much to take photos of.
Scott has put two coats of highfill primer on the body of the car, wet sanding in between.
I spent most of the day sanding the doors and guards and scoop.
At this stage car is going down to Gladstone first thing Sunday morning. Leaving at 5.
Will try to get some pictures tomorrow and put them up before I leave tomorrow night.
Smiley 😎
DubCrazy ·
You know i am going to charge you time and a half plus double time plus beer for making me work on a sunday!!!!! 😂😂
steff............
Smiley ·
DubCrazy wrote:You know i am going to charge you time and a half plus double time plus beer for making me work on a sunday!!!!! 😂😂
steff............
What type of beer do you drink? 🥷
Smiley 😎
DubCrazy ·
the wet cold type 🤪
steff.......
Smiley ·
Steff is painting the body of the car at this very moment. Exciting stuff!!! Smiley 😎
DubCrazy ·
lol, you were using ur phone to aussieveedub while i was painting the beast!
well its all painted, its looks very nice in ******** indeed, i would say thats tho given that i painted it 😂
Just left the man at his motel and i think he is going to take full advantage of the free aus star!!!!!
steff..............
beetleboyjeff ·
Can't wait to see photos. Hope you did him proud Steff.
Smiley ·
DubCrazy wrote:lol, you were using ur phone to aussieveedub while i was painting the beast! well its all painted, its looks very nice in ******** indeed, i would say thats tho given that i painted it 😂
I sure was!!
And I agree, it looks fantastic in *insert colour here*
Smiley 😎
beetleboyjeff ·
Gee you sure are a tease Smiley.
Smiley ·
beetleboyjeff wrote:Gee you sure are a tease Smiley.
Can't help it! I'm still in Gladstone at the moment, so have no computer.
I'll put pictures up tomorrow once I'm back.
Smiley 😎
Scarab ·
hurry up and get back!!!....I am not a patient man and I want to see some paint!! 😁
Congrats on getting it this far so quick mate!
Paul
Smiley ·
Here are a few more pictures from Scott's place before I left.
I really can't thank Scott enough for the amount of work and effort and lack of sleep that he has put up with over the last week and a half. We didn't have anywhere near enough time but he made every second count. For this I am deeply grateful.
And here is the finished product.
Steff and I put in a truly colossal Sunday. We got the car painted, lift kit installed, barwork made, new wheels and tyres on, turbo Subaru engine and IRS conversion completed, all the glass in, interior install, everything wired up. It's pretty much a complete car. 🥷
Smiley 🙂
DubCrazy ·
glad to see you got back with out the car falling off the trailer 🤓
She sure is looking good mate, well done.
steff..................
Smiley ·
DubCrazy wrote:glad to see you got back with out the car falling off the trailer 🤓
She sure is looking good mate, well done.
steff..................
Thanks a heap for you help over the weekend Steff.
I really can't thank you enough.
My only really drama, now that I look at it, is that the colour is quite close to yours.
Really too close for my liking. 🥷
I'm sure I'll live with it.
Smiley 😎
beetleboyjeff ·
Your kidding right?
DubCrazy ·
lol i'm sure u can live with it.
how did it go down with the parents? they as impressed as u?
steff.............
DubCrazy ·
beetleboyjeff wrote:Your kidding right?
about????
steff.....................
Smiley ·
DubCrazy wrote:lol i'm sure u can live with it.
how did it go down with the parents? they as impressed as u?
steff.............
Mum and dad love the colour.
And so does my little sister.
Smiley 😎
BlueV2 ·
Great job guys, that looks fantastic. Great colour !!!!
beetleboyjeff ·
DubCrazy wrote:
beetleboyjeff wrote:Your kidding right?
about????
steff.....................
It can't be the same car. If it is, it has a different bonnet and everything. Good gee-up though.
Smiley ·
beetleboyjeff wrote:
DubCrazy wrote:
beetleboyjeff wrote:Your kidding right?
about????
steff.....................
It can't be the same car. If it is, it has a different bonnet and everything. Good gee-up though.
Blast!
We've been rumbled!
I guess it's time to reveal that the green car pictured above is actually Steff's. Not mine but still quite the beast though.
Smiley 😎
Scarab ·
YOU ARE SUCH A TEASE!!!! YES THE CAPS LOCK ON MEANS I AM YELLING!!!! 😬😬😬
I really wouldnt have been suprised if the posted picture was actually yours.....at the rate you work, its probable!! 👍
So....is yours really green too....or is that another ruse?? 😁
Paul
Smiley ·
Scarab wrote:I am not a patient man and I want to see some paint!! 😁
Here you go. 😂
Smiley 😎
bajachris88 ·
DAM DUDE! Gah... u had me for a sec!
sheesh!
I was like... hang on.
such a stir 🙂
none the less, will be soon the state u will be in...
Nice gloss light blue all round?
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:DAM DUDE! Gah... u had me for a sec!
sheesh!
I was like... hang on.
such a stir 🙂
none the less, will be soon the state u will be in...
Nice gloss light blue all round?
It's not that light. That's more the flash from the camera.
Smiley 😎
Scarab ·
I LIKE!! 👍👍👍
Now we just need to see a glossy shell covered in that colour! 🙂
Paul
Smiley ·
Scarab wrote:I LIKE!! 👍👍👍
Now we just need to see a glossy shell covered in that colour! 🙂
Paul
That happened on Saturday.
Ok. I give in.
I'm not holding off any longer cause I really want to show you all the colour on the car.
This is in Steff's workshop. We sanded every surface again in readiness for paint. And Steff fixed up some of my bodgery with finishing filler and stop putty.
Bonnet, front guards, doors and engine scoop got first go in the booth.
First all the parts were given a light coat of primer sealer. Which, funnily enough, also happens to be blue.
I'll put up pictures of the body ready for paint then all the colour photos.
Body all sanded and ready to go into the booth.
We thought it best to lift the body off the pan to prevent any overspray.
Body painted with the primer sealer.
Doors, bonnet, front guards and scoop painted in the blue.
Body with rear guards and the glovebox lid wearing the blue.
That crazy character Steff. He did an impressive job!
Thanks again mate!!
First shot of it out in the sun.
And got her back home safe and sound yesterday just after lunch.
Let the work commence!!
Pulled the nosecone and front guards off. And wire-brushed the wheel wells, firewall and under bonnet area.
More of that sweet sweet POR15 goodness.
Last night I also fitted the new flexible front brake lines.
Today I pulled the transaxle back off the floorpan and put the dust boot on around the right way. I also put a little sealer around the edge.
I put the axle boots on and reinstalled the gearbox with new fine thread bolts on the springplates (thank you Andrew)
Also fitted a new bowden tube and shimmed it to correct bend and the dust boot over the cables where they exit the pan.
Then filled it full of oil.
I also installed a new rear main seal in the gearbox. I was having a lot of trouble removing the old one so I made up a hook for my slide hammer and it was out in seconds.
New one installed.
And I thought While I was going I'd throw the engine and starter motor in.
Smiley 🙂
Scarab ·
Mate....I am REALLY sorry, but as a friend, I really need to tell you....that looks like CRAP!! You must be devastated!! 😢
🤪
😂
You are gonna have heaps of people tell you how nice it is, and I didnt think it was fair if all you had was good comments....so I thought I'd bring you down first!
Soooo sorry for you!
Paul
Scarab ·
Now for my real reply 😀 ......that is AMAZING!!! I Looooooove it!!
You must be sooooo proud! Well done mate!
All the best on the reconstruction
Paul
Smiley ·
Scarab wrote:Now for my real reply 😀 ......that is AMAZING!!! I Looooooove it!!
You must be sooooo proud! Well done mate!
All the best on the reconstruction
Paul
Thanks Paul.
I'm hoping to get the body on the pan tomorrow.
Smiley 😎
hellbugged ·
cant beat a blue baja!.........what is the colour called (although i think i know already)
turn the join on the axle boots round to 45 degrees.....too much flex on the joint when they are hirizontal or verticle 🙅
AND you cant possibly put that engine back in without detailing it.......would be a great shame
terrific work agin
Smiley ·
hellbugged wrote:cant beat a blue baja!.........what is the colour called (although i think i know already)
turn the join on the axle boots round to 45 degrees.....too much flex on the joint when they are hirizontal or verticle 🙅
AND you cant possibly put that engine back in without detailing it.......would be a great shame
terrific work agin
The wheels don't move forwards or backwards so there is no flex acting on the join when they are horizontal.
I have no idea what the colour is. Steff just had a bunch of colour chips there and I picked one 😂
Plus the engine might get detailed. Just not straight away. I'm aiming for registered by the 7th. Which is next Friday! So I'm just doing the essential things to pass roadworthy and rego first.
Smiley 😎
ryana89 ·
Been watching this thread since the begining and I must say the work you've done is astonishing!
Brilliant work mate!!!👍
I think you may have posted it, but can you refresh me on the engine and its sepcs?
Again congrats on the work!!! And Steff for his awesome paint job!
Cheers!
Smiley ·
ryana89 wrote:I think you may have posted it, but can you refresh me on the engine and its sepcs?
1600 singleport. With stock carb.
Power - Buggar all
But it's reliable as hell, and was decent of fuel.
Plus it turned the big wheels offroad and pulled a little trailer ok so it was all fine by me.
Smiley 😎
bajachris88 ·
congrats smiley! that is fully sick mate, i'm as jealous as eva.
I'm head over heals for that gloss dude. Brilliant job. can see ur so driving this thing down for tafe hey?
The colour makes me miss a tired 67' i had for a very short time lol. (it was from up north way too!)
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:congrats smiley! that is fully sick mate, i'm as jealous as eva.
I'm head over heals for that gloss dude. Brilliant job. can see ur so driving this thing down for tafe hey?
That's the plan.
Smiley 😎
DubCrazy ·
smileyman3000 wrote:That crazy character Steff. He did an impressive job!
Thanks again mate!!
dude i look bloody deformed and every so slighty insane! its the fumes i tell ya!
Smiley ·
DubCrazy wrote:
smileyman3000 wrote:That crazy character Steff. He did an impressive job!
Thanks again mate!!
dude i look bloody deformed and every so slighty insane! its the fumes i tell ya!
New avatar for you. 😂
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
It seems like I spent the whole day running around to Repco and other places buying bits and pieces. So I don't have a lot to show for today's work.
Finished painting the wheel wells and firewall area.
I made up the last of the rear brake lines, but in doing so I discovered that the tool I've been using has been putting the wrong flare onto the ends. Comparing it to an old line off the car they are quite different. So I'm going to head over to Rocky tomorrow and visit one of the brake shops and see if they can fix them for me.
This meant pulling the main line that runs to the back of the car back out. Which was a real pain because I'd painted it into places. One of those ten steps back one step forwards deals.
I also painted the underside of the mudguards and the inside of the nosecone.
The latter of which I spread some sealer on the edges and bolted it on with some new stainless allenhead bolts. Looks pretty!
I've also got all the body mounts bolts ready and painted all the little plates that go underneath. I'm planning to put the body on tomorrow now. But I have to get the brakes sorted out first.
Smiley 😎
Scarab ·
bummer about the brake lines mate....hope its an easy fix for ya!
Paul
bajachris88 ·
Your an inspiration Daniel.
Because of you, i woke up this morning and seeing how good weather it was, said, why the heck not. Did a days work and half the interior has Brilliant white top coat (gotta do it sectional as its in the backyard and don't wanna leave big sections in primer incase it rains, being semipermeable and all.)
Came up good 👍
Ur gonna be back 'dubbin' in no time! U gonna baby it now its all shiny, clean and new? lol
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:Your an inspiration Daniel.
Because of you, i woke up this morning and seeing how good weather it was, said, why the heck not. Did a days work and half the interior has Brilliant white top coat (gotta do it sectional as its in the backyard and don't wanna leave big sections in primer incase it rains, being semipermeable and all.)
Came up good 👍
Ur gonna be back 'dubbin' in no time! U gonna baby it now its all shiny, clean and new? lol
Good to hear Chris! Keep at it mate.
I might look after this one a bit more.
I think it's definitely going down the beach about 10 seconds after I screw the plates on though.
Smiley 😎
hellbugged ·
its the up and down movement of the axles...your car but its common knowledge that they SHOULD be mounted at 45 degrees.
Smiley ·
hellbugged wrote:its the up and down movement of the axles...your car but its common knowledge that they SHOULD be mounted at 45 degrees.
The up and down motion only effects the joins if they are vertical.
I just did a search and everyone was saying to put them either facing forwards or backwards. But not up.
45° is still half vertical. Which is going to half stress the boot.
I'll see how they go. I never had any trouble with the old ones and they were both mounted facing towards the rear. And the car got royally flogged most of the time.
Smiley 😎
matberry ·
The oil inside hardly see's the joint when it's at 45, main thing is to push the small end of the boot towards the g/box so there is no tension on the boot as the axle moves through it's travel.
Nice work on the car too. 🙂
Smiley ·
So I got the brake lines sorted in Rocky today. But didn't get home until 4 this afternoon.
So I put them all on first thing.
Then I started getting everything ready to put the body on the pan. Put the body to pan seals on, got all the bolts lined up ready to go.
We dropped the body onto the pan. Then, disaster struck. Seems that bugger all of my sill bolt holes line up. We pulled the body back off. I'm going to have to diegrind them out a little larger so I can get things to line up.
Also the four bolts that go in the underside at the front don't line up at all. They are way out. Whoever built the framehead built it with the Neapolitan's hat section out of wack to the rest of the framehead. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to even grind these so they will go in at all.
It can't all be smooth sailing, hopefully I can sort things out tomorrow in the daylight. 🙁
Smiley 😎
Scarab ·
spewin!! sorry to hear mate, but knowing you, you'll sort it out no probs!
Paul
11CAB ·
I have a similar problem with my baja pan. Its a super pan with a balljoint framehead. I got a lift kit buiilt on an early pan, and the bolt holes dont line up.
Smiley ·
11CAB wrote:I have a similar problem with my baja pan. Its a super pan with a balljoint framehead. I got a lift kit buiilt on an early pan, and the bolt holes dont line up.
What did you do to fix the problem?
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
Ok. So I got stuck in first thing in the morning to sort out all the body to pan issues.
I got dad to help me lift the body onto the pan before he left for work this morning. I jacked up the car and put in on some stands so it was easier to work under. I put some bolts into the rear mounts to line things up where they should be. Then I crawled under and marked where area metal needed to be ground and on which side of the hole etc. Then I jacked it up and put some long sockets under all four corners. Used the die grinder from underneath to get all the holes lining up to where they should be. Most of them just needed a little tickle.
Once this was sorted I gave everything another clean down and ran a bead of sealer around the outside edge of the pan. On went the body to pan seal and another bead around the top.
Then I dropped the car down into place. I put the four large bolts on the underside of the front in first cause i knew they would be a big hassle later on.
It was a slow and painful process but I eventually got all the of the bolts in and everything done down snug.
And that is how you put a body on all by yourself.
So after I got back from getting my eye checked out this afternoon I got stuck into putting the mudguards on.
I only got three of them on before I decided to call it a night.
First put the drivers side front on. Looks great with the new black beading. I'm still tossing up where to put the front blinkers at this stage, on the guards or on the front bar somewhere. You'll notice I had the holes filled just in case.
Rear guards went on next. Before I put them on I also bolts the rear cage supports on. once I had the rear guards on I bolted the supports in that I made up. They do a fantastic job of stiffening up the rear guards.
I've said it once I've said it a dozen times. Definitely need to get the big wheels out and put them back on. Especially to fill out those massive rear guards.
I don't think I could be happier with today's progress, things are finally starting to come together.
Plans for tomorrow include, front seats in, paint fuel tank ready to go in. finish the brakes off and bleed, last guard on, start putting the doors together and get them on, start putting things into the dash, etc.
Plenty to do!!
Smiley 🙂
11CAB ·
smileyman3000 wrote:
11CAB wrote:I have a similar problem with my baja pan. Its a super pan with a balljoint framehead. I got a lift kit buiilt on an early pan, and the bolt holes dont line up.
What did you do to fix the problem?
Smiley 😎
Nothing yet...... I dont have the same enthusiasm as you..... 🤪
Smiley ·
11CAB wrote:
smileyman3000 wrote:
11CAB wrote:I have a similar problem with my baja pan. Its a super pan with a balljoint framehead. I got a lift kit buiilt on an early pan, and the bolt holes dont line up.
What did you do to fix the problem?
Smiley 😎
Nothing yet...... I dont have the same enthusiasm as you..... 🤪
Get into it!!!
First thing this morning the remaining guard was put on.
Then I spent ages screwing around putting the rear coils and second pair of shocks on. I needed about 3 hands and fingers like toothpicks to get the nuts on the inside of the coils. Eventually they were mounted. Might need a wash though 😊
Then I spent the afternoon cleaning the inside and sealing my fuel tank up. I bought a POR15 fuel tank restoration kit. There's a few chemicals you slosh inside the tank first to remove any varnish etc. Then one that removes any rust. After that you flush everything out with water and completely dry the inside.
The instructions said that it was imperative that the inside was not wet in any way. So I went down to Big W and got a $15 hair dryer. Pushed it into the filled tube with the other holes unplugged and left it run for about half an hour 😂
Then you just pour the paint inside and slosh it around an pour any excess out. Seemed to coat everything really well. A now have a fuel tank with a silver lining 😀
Smiley 🙂
beetleboyjeff ·
You should have got a cloud - EVERY cloud has a silver lining. lol
Smiley ·
I got a fair bit done over the last two days.
Not many pictures to show for it though.
I pulled all the drums off, replaced the rear axle seals, gave the insides of the drums a buff, cleaned and adjusted all the brakes. Dad gave me a hand to bleed all the brakes. No leaks so far! (fingers crossed)
I bought some superbug handbrake cables last week. These are the longest for a type one. With a few mods to the springs they fit very well. Although the adjuster nuts are screwed all the way down and I still think it might be a little loose. I might have to space it out with a nut or two until I make the turning brakes up and fit them.
I fitted the handbrake cable. I decided to try the long one and was amazed that it fit....just. I'm going to see how it goes, may have to take an inch off the end of it.
Yesterday afternoon/evening was spent getting the engine running. Hooked up the old battery but alas it was flat. Even though it had been charging for a few days. I picked a new one up this morning. Put the engine back in again. Wired it up. Ran jumper leads from my Beetle. Hooked up some fuel. I put a length of wire onto the spade terminal of the starter and left the other end bare so I could press it onto the main terminal of the alternator.
Turned it over, nothing.
Checked for spark. Was getting spark. Little weak but definitely there.
Checked for fuel. No fuel. Bloody wasp's nest in the metal line. Cleaned that out.
Turned it over. Still nothing.
Still not getting fuel to the carby.
I undid the top fuel hose right where it goes into the carby. Sucked to fuel up the lines to prime the pump.
Yucky horrible tasting stuff.
Turned it over again. A splutter but still nothing.
I put my hand over the top of the carby and turned it over. More splutters, it's trying to start but no getting fuel. The pump was doing its bit.
Went and 'borrowed' a fuel pump off my dad's old Baja, it's not registered anymore anyway.
Put the replacement pump on and tried it again.
Splutter.
Cough.
SHE LIVES!!!!!!!!
Gave it a few revs and she settled straight into a rough idle!!
Not bad considering it hasn't been so much as sneezed at for 6 months, two weeks and 6 days.
I shut her down and promptly went to bed.
The engine is going to have to come back out again. I need to put need exhaust studs and gaskets on both of the J-tubes, weld up some cracks in the exhaust, fix the fanhousing coil mounts, give it a degrease. New plugs and leads to go on too.
I put the new battery in this morning. New leads and rubber grommets.
Strapped it all down good and proper. The strap loops that I put of the floor work perfectly. The battery is rock solid.
Fiddled around for a bit of the day doing odds and ends. Finds bolts and hunting for parts.
I put the new steering dampener and donut in place. Ready for the steering shaft/column to be fitted. I just need to paint them first.
I spent the rest of the afternoon picking out the best windows I have and giving them a good clean ready to go in tomorrow after work.
Then this evening I made a grand addition to the car.
SEATS!!!!!!!!!!
Look everyone!! Seats!!!1!!!
I know, they are a little grubby and need a good clean.
It feels good to finally be able to sit in it!
And i have to say that the seat height and placement is fantastic. I can't be absolutely certain until the steering wheel is in, but so far I like it. I raised the seats just over an inch compared to my old Baja. When I sit in them my eyeline is absolutely smack bang in the middle of the windscreen, top to bottom of course. I'm stoked. there's a good amount of room for the handbrake, the gear stick is easy to reach, the pedals feel good. Just have to wait and see how much clearance I have with the doors on and get the steering wheel in.
Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to pick up my rims from the powdercoaters and get them over to have the tread put back on them. Also going to pick up some alloy sheet, my exhaust bits and pieces and a few other bits and bobs.
Until then, thanks for reading.
Smiley 🙂
handycam ·
looking grate "
11CAB ·
Looking Good.
I cut my handbrake lever down when I moved the gearshift back on my manx. Wasnt too hard
Here's an early one sitting next to my cut down one
And the clearance to the gearshift
Smiley ·
That looks good.
Did you have to cut the spring down? Or just squash it more?
Smiley 😎
Scarab ·
Man, I think you really ought to give shortening that handbrake lever a go!
I had one like that in an old MK1 Cortina (sorry, blasphemy on a VW site I know 😂)...but anyway. I put a GT remote shifter in it and the handbrake was as close as yours....
first time i used it, I smashed my knuckles 😬 NOT COOL!! at least the VW has a nice soft boot for your knuckles to hit against each time, mine had a big bulky steel surround!! OUCH!!
Everything is looking great though mate....keep it up!!
Paul
11CAB ·
smileyman3000 wrote:That looks good. Did you have to cut the spring down? Or just squash it more? Smiley 😎
It was quite a while ago that I did that, but yeah I probably did cut the spring down a bit. I also cut and rewelded the rod inside the lever as well.
11CAB ·
I look forward to seeing this Blue Beast on our Mt Mee run at the end of the month 😎
Smiley ·
11CAB wrote:
smileyman3000 wrote:That looks good. Did you have to cut the spring down? Or just squash it more? Smiley 😎
It was quite a while ago that I did that, but yeah I probably did cut the spring down a bit. I also cut and rewelded the rod inside the lever as well.
Yeah. I'll do something similar. I've already tapped the thread further down the rod so all I have to do is cut the end off.
I have to take the lever out to paint it so I'll sort it out then.
11CAB wrote:I look forward to seeing this Blue Beast on our Mt Mee run at the end of the month 😎
That's if my new wiring harness shows up soon!!
I picked up my wheels from the powdercoaters this afternoon.
Pretty!
I took them straight over to have the wheels popped back onto them. Hopefully we be done by tomorrow.
And all the glass was put in. Actually starting to look a bit like a car now!
Smiley 😎
Scarab ·
those wheels look VERY nice mate!! certainly more appropriate than the stockies you've got on there now!! 😂
Keep going mate....the end is near!
Paul
bajachris88 ·
oh man...!
this thread is like a lady doing a show in a dirty bar....
as she continues on, things just get better and better. This baja is gonna be glamour. before u know it, u will be cruising in a 2010 model baja. 🙂
👍
still heaps of motivation dude. payday is this fri... hoping to get interior finished. then exterior... 5 weeks left till holidays..
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:oh man...! this thread is like a lady doing a show in a dirty bar.... as she continues on, things just get better and better.
Don't you wish she would just get it all off?😂
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
I cut the handbrake down one inch.
Makes for a much better fit.
Gave it and the steering overtube and clean up and some paint.
Also gave the outside of the fuel tank a brush off and gave it some POR15 loving.
Carby has been pulled off the engine. A friend is going to rebuild it for me this afternoon while I'm at work.
Smiley 😎
DubCrazy ·
And there was you telling me you would be drivng it by tomorrow! i think you mite just have been slacking off young man!!!!!
i'll run away now before u throw something very heavy at me🤓
steff.............
Smiley ·
DubCrazy wrote:And there was you telling me you would be drivng it by tomorrow! i think you mite just have been slacking off young man!!!!!
i'll run away now before u throw something very heavy at me🤓
steff.............
Still waiting for my harness to show up. It better be here today!!!
BTW. I just got home from work and there was a lovely stack of wheels with tyres on them sitting in the carport 🙂
They'll be going on first thing when I get up in the morning.
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
Sweet sweet tyres!
These are before and after pictures. I put black tyre gel on them.
Rear wheels on. They fill out the guards perfectly! There's maybe an inch maximum of guard hanging out further than the tyre. And this will probably decrease a little more once the rest of the stuff is on the car and the suspension sits down in place.
Front wheels on. These also fit very nicely. They do stick out front the guards a little touch, but it's only around 10mm max.
Well I'm off to paint the top of the fuel tank.
ENJOY!!!
Smiley 😎
DubCrazy ·
did the wiring loom turn up yet fella??
steff.........
Smiley ·
DubCrazy wrote:did the wiring loom turn up yet fella??
steff.........
They found it and sent it today.
So I won't see it till next week.
I'm going to get as much of everything else done on the car that I can. So then all I have to do is wire it up basically.
Smiley 😎
DylanTheDubber ·
Good on you mate , Alot of work looks like its gone into this bug and coulda been sent to scrap in tha first pllace but you saved it. = ]
Smiley ·
DylanTheDubber wrote:Good on you mate , Alot of work looks like its gone into this bug and coulda been sent to scrap in tha first pllace but you saved it. = ]
Thanks man.
I can't wait for the before and after pictures.
I got my new carby yesterday evening.
A good friend rebuilt me one cause it turns out the old one was a paperweight. Thanks again Andrew!
Although I never had any troubles with it, turns out the old one was a PICT 28, a 1200 carby. On my 1600 engine!! The new one is a PICT 31, 1600 single port carby. So the car will probably have a little more poke too!
Mounted on the engine. Hooked power and fuel to it and she fired right up! Only trouble I have now is that the fuel squirter linkage on the RHS of the carb is fouling on the alternator housing. I've only got a few mm of travel in the throttle. So I'm going to have to grind the Alternator housing away a little in the morning.
I did a rough wheel alignment on the front end and tightened all the tie rods up.
Then the steering wheel overtube was fitted with new rubbers, then the steering shaft, switchgear and steering wheel.
Fuel tank was then fitted and bolted down, lovely grey matches the wheels. I'm probably going to pull it back out again though because I want to fit some rubber between it and the car.
Plans for tomorrow include making the mounting plates for the front bar and rear cage, rear lights on the guards, headlights in, a little more dash stuff, grind alternator, rear seat in, and make a start on those doors!!
Smiley 😎
OZ Towdster ·
Arn't you suppose to be in Brisvegas sometime in the next couple of days ????????? IN THIS CAR
11CAB ·
He needs to finish it before he leaves so he can bring it to Mt Mee..... 🙂
Smiley ·
OZ Towdster wrote:Arn't you suppose to be in Brisvegas sometime in the next couple of days ????????? IN THIS CAR
Not quite. My deadline was yesterday.
I'm coming down to Brisbane on the 23rd. My first day of TAFE is Monday the 24th.
And I'm definitely planning to be at Mt Mee. Even if I have to bum a lift cause my car's not ready.
I spent yesterday putting my doors on and starting to put them together.
Problem is they don't fit.
Passenger closes and fits ok, the gaps are a little out. And there's one spot where you can see daylight through when the door is closed.
But the drivers door won't close at all. The inside of the door hits the striker plate and I scratched the paintjob 🙁
I think the problem is occurring because of the combination of mounts I used at the rear. It's causing the body to hunch forward and throw things out. I'm going to try loosening all the body to pan mounts and swapping some rubbers around and see if this helps things.
On Sunday I also started my headlight adapters. I bought new headlights and buckets and the holes in the guards are a touch too big for them. So I picked up some alloy plate to make some adapter rings.
This is the first one I made yesterday.
A lot of grinding and smoothing later, and it fits neatly onto the back on the bucket.
This is a picture of me holding it in place.
This is as far as i got yesterday. I was getting very frustrated and annoyed with everything because of the doors. So I decided to call it a day before I made any mistakes.
This afternoon I finished both headlight adapter rings and got them all mounted on the car.
This is with all the holes drilled into it.
There are holes to mount the ring to the guard.
Holes to mount the bucket to the ring.
And holes for the adjuster screws to wind though when they go all the way in.
Bolted into place.
And with the bucket.
And lights!!!
Still no harness by the way.
They sent it express on Friday. So if it's not here tomorrow I'll be storming the gates of Australia Post with a flaming torch!!! 😬
Smiley 🙂
Scarab ·
looks great mate!...shame about the doors though, but Im sure its not something that you can't solve!
keep plugging away...you are a real powerhouse mate, I dont know how you keep going at this pace.
at least you know you'll be out driving it before too long!
Paul
OZ Towdster ·
All i can say mate is don't go getting agro like i would and think it through and if that doesn't work then kick the tyre only !!
matberry ·
Bummer with the doors mate.
Good to see your thinking with the body fit, but instead of the rear, I'd suggest you start looking at the front. The foward body mounts onto the beam is where the factory intended to make the corrections your looking for. By altering the thickness of the rubbers under the body at the front end will pull the A pillar foward or back depending on thinner or thicker rubbers.
Hope this helps.
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:Bummer with the doors mate.
Good to see your thinking with the body fit, but instead of the rear, I'd suggest you start looking at the front. The foward body mounts onto the beam is where the factory intended to make the corrections your looking for. By altering the thickness of the rubbers under the body at the front end will pull the A pillar foward or back depending on thinner or thicker rubbers.
Hope this helps.
So thicker rubber will push the top back further?
Scarab wrote:keep plugging away...you are a real powerhouse mate, I dont know how you keep going at this pace.
Paul
It's called extreme lack of sleep 😂
Guess what showed up this afternoon!!
So I removed both the rear rubber mounts. It did take awhile, I loosened all of the body to pan bolts off. Then jacked the back up. And had to hit the mounts out with a long screwdrivers cause they were still pinched abit.
Bolted everything back down tight and.........the drivers door closes!! Just.
I might try packing the front up a bit too as Matt suggested and see if that helps a touch more.
The door gaps aren't exactly perfect, but are ok for now. Still abit of fiddling with the hinges to be done too.
You can also see in this picture that the bottom of the drivers door sticks out a little. Does anyone know how to fix this? I'm not sure if the doors are out of shape or if it's the body again. I'll see if I can pull it back in a little by adjusting the hinges.
So not a great deal done this afternoon. But some hurdles overcome.
Can't wait to sink my teeth into the wiring! My favourite part! 😀
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
smileyman3000 wrote:So thicker rubber will push the top back further?
Smiley 😎
Yep, thicker bottom rubber pushes the top hinge rearward.
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:
smileyman3000 wrote:So thicker rubber will push the top back further?
Smiley 😎
Yep, thicker bottom rubber pushes the top hinge rearward.
Sounds like a plan!!
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
Spent this evening making up the brackets to mount my front bar onto the beam.
I used some of the left over unistrut from my floorpan.
After much grinding and buffing you have this.
Basically the same as the two mounts welded to the front of the beam which hold it on. I'm going to make four, back and front ones for both sides.
I'm going to drill holes in them the same as the beam mount. The bolts with fit between them and sandwich the beam. Weld the bumper onto the front facing mount and you're all done.
Ready for drilling in the morning.
I was fortunate with the unistrut. It's just the right width to clear both the steering box and pitman arm, and the grease nipples on the beam.
Smiley 😎
bajachris88 ·
Man, u are the God of metal 🙂. (makes ya sound like a rock star lol)
Good job on the doors 👍. Out of curiousity, does one need to use a rubber body to pan seal or just sika flex with a lift kit? I'm still unsure what way I wanna go. I want to least body, but good watertight seal. I'm curious to see how my doors go after doing the a pillar panel job. If it was an issue, and i couldnt' adjust it out on the hinges as they were, i rekno i could 'shim' up the hinges, cause theres a bit of play for them to come forwards. I don't know if i would have to go to that extent. Its a neat job, well i rekon so lol, but i guess its what of those situatios, that if its a mm out, by the time the door is at the b pillar, it could have shifted a bit for sure. We'll see.
it didn't scratch the paint too bad? She'll be right.
Your loom, is that a complete loom? how much did it cost ya? where did u get it from? i was thinking of making my own, but if there is a reasonable priced mob to get it from, i will save myself the effort 👍. My 40 yr old wiring is a lttle brittle, and covered in overspray from the previous yrs... Makes it alot simpler though without the efi. I'm in spagetti with the celica at the moment, adapting later model engines and different ecu's. making a whole new engine loom and body loom (tha goes throguh teh relay boxes, ecu and the rest etc / starter motor in the engine bay. Not pertty. 🙂. (the blown up daily driver needing attnetion, hoping to have a VERY long term solution for it to last another 20 yrs... Once thats over its all bug stuff then. 👍 Then a test drive up ur way. 🙂
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:Man, u are the God of metal 🙂. (makes ya sound like a rock star lol)
Good job on the doors 👍. Out of curiousity, does one need to use a rubber body to pan seal or just sika flex with a lift kit? I'm still unsure what way I wanna go. I want to least body, but good watertight seal. I'm curious to see how my doors go after doing the a pillar panel job. If it was an issue, and i couldnt' adjust it out on the hinges as they were, i rekno i could 'shim' up the hinges, cause theres a bit of play for them to come forwards. I don't know if i would have to go to that extent. Its a neat job, well i rekon so lol, but i guess its what of those situatios, that if its a mm out, by the time the door is at the b pillar, it could have shifted a bit for sure. We'll see.
it didn't scratch the paint too bad? She'll be right.
Your loom, is that a complete loom? how much did it cost ya? where did u get it from? i was thinking of making my own, but if there is a reasonable priced mob to get it from, i will save myself the effort 👍. My 40 yr old wiring is a lttle brittle, and covered in overspray from the previous yrs... Makes it alot simpler though without the efi. I'm in spagetti with the celica at the moment, adapting later model engines and different ecu's. making a whole new engine loom and body loom (tha goes throguh teh relay boxes, ecu and the rest etc / starter motor in the engine bay. Not pertty. 🙂. (the blown up daily driver needing attnetion, hoping to have a VERY long term solution for it to last another 20 yrs... Once thats over its all bug stuff then. 👍 Then a test drive up ur way. 🙂
With the body to pan you could just use sikaflex. I actually had some but bought a tube of black windscreen sealer instead. I put it under and on top of the seal. It just means that you'll need to body to pan seals and two tubes of windscreen sealer (I only had a tiny bit left over).
PM Baja Wes if you want. He's running a 2 inch bolt in lift with two body seals.
I think it would just take a bit of lining up.
As for the wiring. You have PM.
Smiley 😎
bajachris88 ·
yea the wiring is alot reasonable in price than i thought! thats a complete loom? everything?
do you shrink wrap it urself? for the hrs it woul take me and the many different colours of wire i would need, i would have to be crazy to pass up the stressless opportunity at $135....
if it was a couple hundred, then it would be a different story. 👍
I spose the only issue with sikaflex is if u need to do what u had to do with jacking hte body back off and packing rubber between the pan and body... Imagine having to break the sikaflex seal all over again... bugger that! Unless i bolt the doors on before sealing... i dunno. will work it out as i go when the opportunity comes.
Valla is coming up... keen on coming?
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:yea the wiring is alot reasonable in price than i thought! thats a complete loom? everything?
do you shrink wrap it urself? for the hrs it woul take me and the many different colours of wire i would need, i would have to be crazy to pass up the stressless opportunity at $135....
if it was a couple hundred, then it would be a different story. 👍
I spose the only issue with sikaflex is if u need to do what u had to do with jacking hte body back off and packing rubber between the pan and body... Imagine having to break the sikaflex seal all over again... bugger that! Unless i bolt the doors on before sealing... i dunno. will work it out as i go when the opportunity comes.
Valla is coming up... keen on coming?
When is Valla again? 😂
It is the complete loom. No ends on the wires. It comes with the ends and a new fuse box. I'm going to shrink wrap it myself and solder any of the lame connectors they have used.
Ok. So I got a heap of little things done today. It all adds up.
I pulled the carby off and got the die grinder with a rotary burr and clearanced the alternator for the carby linkage. Never mind that black smear. That's just a bit of sealant. I broke through a tiny little hole into the housing.
Engine was then slotted back into the car.
Went and bought some bolts and put my front mounts on the beam ready to make the front bar for them.
I did as Matt suggested above and put some slightly thicker rubber under the front mounts. Made a little more difference. The doors are starting to get to a point where I could live with them. The passengers one fits perfectly now. And the drivers side has improved some more. Both doors still stick out at the bottom rear corner. Haven't messed with the hinges yet. I swapped the locks out of my old Baja into the handle and fitted the latches to both doors. Adjusted the striker plates and they both open and close now.
And made up and new cork gasket for the fuel tank so I could fit the sender unit with new screws.
After I fitted my wheels and tyres back onto the car the front left kept going down.
I traced the problem to air leaking around the valve stem.
So i took the wheel back to the bloke that fitted it up. He pulled the tyre back off and the stem out and it turns out the hole for the valve stem is too big!
When i took my wheels in to have them powdercoated they sandblasted them. There must have been a bit of rust scale built up around the valve stem because they've ripped this off and opened up the hole.
So I had to weld up the hole so it could be redrilled. There goes $80 worth of powdercoating down the drain 😬
You can see the metal is quite thin around the edge of the hole.
I had to grind the powdercoating off 😠
Got my trusty friend Mr Copper out.
And welded up the hole.
I ground it all back down smooth, center punched the hole and gave the bare sections a hit with some spray can grey. I'm going to have to start saving to have that wheel done again. 🙁
I dropped it into the tyre guy and told him to drill the hole to suit the valve.
While I had the welder fired up I pulled the fanhousing off and welded up the cracked out coil mount holes. I'm still undecided if I'm going to put some nuts back onto the fanhousing or mount the coil elsewhere.
Engine back in again (I swear it's been in and out that many times it's like it's having sex with the car 😂)
Car all tidied up and ready for it's trip down to the exhaust shop at 7o'clock earlier this evening.
I took it down the the exhaust shop to get a hand having the barwork made for the car. It was bloody easy with the hydraulic tube bender!
This is some of the before. Just a bunch of tube really. You can see the old bent cage which we took down to act as a little bit of a guide for ideas.
This is Gary, a wizard at work. I really can't thank Gary enough for all his help tonight making the barwork, and using his shop.
We made up all the new pieces for the rear cage and front bar. All I have to do is weld them together now!
Didn't get any after shots tonight. I will take some tomorrow.
I just about froze to death when dad towed me home in the car. No door glass, no bonnet, and nothing in the dash made for a very breezy and frigid trip home.
We also got the the end of the street where Gary's workshop is and the cops were there with a car pulled over. The Baja has no lights, no bonnet, no engine cage, no bumpers. They gave us a funny look as we drove past but didn't seemed too bothered. Must have been to preoccupied to chase us.
Until next time, thanks for reading.
Smiley 🙂
PS You might have noticed I changed my username, I like it better this way 😀
OZ Towdster ·
Spoke to Smiley this afternoon , and all is going as planned ...........................i think.
He has registered it yesterday and it will be in brisvegas by tomorrow night , a champion effort in anyones language , good on ya mate , if only we all had your spirit and determination .
Andrew
bajachris88 ·
Definitely deserves a round of applause 👍
Top job mate..
So all in all... u practically ripped this out in.. what would be be... like 4 - 5 months?
Thats a brilliant time for a resto...
vwrallycar ·
i saw the car friday night, very well done, for the time frame involved, awesome job. lets hope you look after this one!
Smiley ·
Thanks for the positive comments guys.
I wouldn't exactly call it a full resto. Just ask Steff about the quality of the prep work that we did before paint. It came up very nice but it's by no means great. There are so many things that need to finish off that I did in a hurry to have her ready for tomorrow.
I think it's fair time for an update. I've been absolutely flat out for the last week straight. It's mostly a hazey burr of no sleep, sparks and wiring.
I really can't thank the people that have helped me throughout this whole build so far. It's easily too many to name but here's a few off the top of my head.
Andrew Westwood - For steering me down the right path with the floorpan and giving me a big hand welding the new framehead on. If it weren't for him I'd still be scratching my head trying to fix the cracked one.
Andrew Rankin - Rebuilding my carby overnight for me, general help and local VW knowledge. Has been a great help.
Scott Newlands - He prepped my car up to the standard it is in a week, after work. What more can I say? The effort he put in in the impossible time frame that he had really shines in the finished product.
Steff (insert last name here, can't remember lol) - For doing an absolutely fabulous paint job. He didn't have the most perfect car to work with, but he put the hard yards in and covered up a fair few blemishes. Everytime I look at that colour it still brings a massive smile to my face.
My dad - Has put in a lot of work behind the scenes and is a constant source of motivation and inspiration.
My mum - For the use of her carport, for her help with painting the floorpan and for putting up with all of my crap lying around and the VW wrecks everywhere around the place.
And lastly, everyone on here that has been following the thread, especially Scarab (who's constant replies border on stalking 😂, but I don't mind) If it weren't for the people reading this thread and leaving positive feedback and ideas, I'd probably still be months off having the car done.
Thanks to anyone and everyone that has been involved, it's been a long road but I've finally got there.
Ok so where did we leave off?
Last post was Thursday last week!!
Last Saturday I got stuck in and got the doors assembled, handbrake refitted, fixed front wheel back on, trail fit on the rear scoop and made a start to the wiring.
Both doors were assembled with all new rubbers and seals.
The wheel that I welded up had the tyre refitted and balanced. I touched it up with paint out of a spray can and have to say it's a pretty close match.
Scoop on.
Started on the electrical. I got all the main loom sorted out. Because it didn't come with a sheath of any kind I wrapped the entire length in electrical tape to give to some protection. I also ran an additional length of 7 core trailer wire and two lengths of coax with this.
Sunday I got started on making up the rear cage for around the engine.
I picked up some neat hydraulic clamps from work for the front mounts onto the rear torsion housing. Normally these hold large hoses on Off Highway Trucks and dozers. But with a thin rubber glued to the inside they were to perfect size of the torsion tube. Plus they make removing the cage a job of extreme simplicity.
The way that the tip of the exhaust was shaped got in the way of one of the uprights. I just cut it for now. I'm almost due for a new muffler and I'm going to replace the whole exhaust from the 4-into-1 back.
I welded clamps to both of the underbars and bolted them to the torsion tube in their respective locations. Support at the back to the correct height with space-age custom bar supports. Second picture shows clearance to the muffler.
I then cut the two uprights off. I did this because I want to keep the entire cross bar as one piece to maintain it's strength. I also fishmouthed the bars where I'm going to weld. When you're welding barwork together (especially roll cages) it is very important to do this. You don't want to be filling up big gaps with weld, you'll end up with weak barwork and poor joins.
Crossbar welded in place. Ends still need to be trimmed.
Ooops! One of the bars that run around to the top mounts hits the exhaust. I had to do a little bit of 'clearancing'. I'll rectify this problem when the exhaust is redone.
Sunday continued.
I took a piece out of the middle of the bar because I wanted to put some box in here in case i want to add a spare wheel holder later down the track.
I must have forgotten to take anymore pictures for a while because now we skip to the finished product!
Both top mounts in place. The two rear uprights and you can see the box in the middle.
I'm thinking of possibly adding more bars here later on to help strengthen things up.
Perfect size between the bars for a plate.
Clearance to the exhaust. It's tight but a good fit all round. Now that I've actually driven the car a bit the cage does rattle up against the bend of the exhaust where I hammered it in. It's just too close. When I make the new exhaust all these problems will be addressed.
And off the car.
Monday.
Got it first thing and made the front bar up. It's a nice fit. Still needs some tabs for spotlights, extra cross bar to protect the nosecone and more strenthening gussets underneath.
While all this was going on I was tackling bits and pieces of the wiring and dash install inbetween.
Speedo and dashplate fitted. The plate is just a temporary one for now, I think I can do far better down the track.
Wednesday. I took the day off work and did 16 hours straight on my car. 8:30 in the morning till 12:30 that night.
Pulled the engine and welded up a crack in the exhaust that presented itself.
Fitted all the seatbelts and the rear seat backrest.
While I was doing all this dad painted the front and rear barwork with some chassis black.
I got the rear tail lights fitted, wired and working. I also wired the headlights, parkers and rear blinkers.
Made up mounts on the rear cage for the number plate lights and the plate.
Interior trims fitted. The back ones are out of my old Baja, and the doors trims were taken from dad's Baja. Will be getting updated when I get round to it.
Thursday. Roadworthy day. It was booked in for 3 o'clock.
Thursday was spent hecticly wiring the last things on the car. Trimming the ends off the rear barwork. Fitting bonnet, made the cage cover, fitted front blinkers, fitted front bonnet latches, fitted wipers. Basically all the little things that eat the day very rapidly.
Front blinkers. These are LED motorcycle blinkers. I made up some tabs on my front bar for them. They will more than likely get moved around down the track.
The cage cover. I made this in 20 minutes out of some flat bar, tec screws and ricer mesh. Finished it up and 2:51 pm. Put in on the car and promptly left for work. I left the car in dad's capable hands for roadworthy as I had to work at 3:30.
I rang dad later at smoko to receive some great news! The car had passed, and was ready for rego Friday morning.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
See what I mean about a hectic week, seems I missed Tuesday in there somewhere 😂
I'm sure some of it happened on Tuesday.
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
These pictures are from Friday morning. Just before I drove it down to the DOT for registration.
We had a light shower early that morning so I was looking reasonably clean and glisteny once the sun started coming out.
I'll give you all the details of the epic battle I had today to find why it was running like a bucket of piss another time. That will be accompanied by the tale of the cracked brake drum.
Not sure if I'll have internet for the next few weeks or so.
Anywho. I'm off to bed. I have a big drive down to Brisbane tomorrow for TAFE in the car.
Wish me luck, I'm sure I won't run into many dramas. I'm basically taking enough tools and parts to build an entire other car with me.
Thanks for reading.
Smiley 😎
bajachris88 ·
WOW! u were busy Daniel. Luv the barwork too.
Talk about busting it out. its nice to see a tidy baja. The rwc guy didn't have issues about no mud flaps? Looks so much better tah way though.
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:WOW! u were busy Daniel. Luv the barwork too.
Talk about busting it out. its nice to see a tidy baja. The rwc guy didn't have issues about no mud flaps? Looks so much better tah way though.
They didn't have any issues.
I thought you only needed full width bumpers?
My dad's Baja didn't even have those!!
Maybe they're a little lax in little Yeppoon.
Smiley 😎
DubCrazy ·
well done dude, fantastic to see her driving again. U've taken her a long way!
i see that the light surrounds mite just have been forgotten when part were brought down for painting, lol wehn u come down this way to play we'll whip them off and sort that hey.
As regards to your mudflaps u need them. the law in Qld states there should be coverage from mudflaps or bumper bar to the center of the wheel or lower. Dont panic to much as mine never had them untill mainroads was following me and pulled me for an inspection, the reasont ehy pulled me was the mubflaps. There was no fine just a fix in 14 days notice which i did and not a problem. Now bear in mind my car had at least 3 roadworthys like that and had been driven for years with out them. I had dealings with main roads and the police before this time and had no issues with it at all. My last Baja didnt have them either and once again two roadworthys and a few years of use before i sold her with no issues.
Enjoy her mate, we'll catch up soon..
steff..............
DubCrazy ·
just incase u had all forgotten this is how it looked when i sold it ,by the time the tornado rebuilder dan got her is was sort of half rubbed back and looking very very sorry for its self.
steff,,,,,,,
Smiley ·
Thanks for the info Steff.
And the picture. I was going to put some before and after pictures up. But that probably won't happen until I get back. I just ran out of time.
I drove the car down to Brisbane on Sunday. I have to say aside from being a little thirsty it had absolutely no problems whatsoever.
Didn't use any oil at all.
The first tank of fuel I put through it was premium, I got 10.8L/100km. I ran a tankload of BP ultimate through it and things improved a little. I did a little hunting one afternoon this week and found the autochoke was only opening around 95%. I rectified this and hopefully economy will improve a little. I think the idle and mixture screws still need a little tweaking.
The car is going on it's first offroad run to Mt Mee on Sunday with the Manx club. I will definately be getting pictures.
Thanks to everyone for their positive comments.
I will continue to post updates as I finished things off and make improvements and changes.
Smiley 😎
Scarab ·
well done mate.....CONGRATULATIONS!! 👍👍👍
Good to see all your hard work rewarded with a rego sticker!! 😁
Looking forward to your off road pics too
Paul
bajachris88 ·
YAY! awesome stuff mate!
Tried to give ya a call yesterday. Glad to hear the drive went well. how olds the motor?
11CAB ·
Good to see it finished. Look forward to Sunday and getting it all Muddy...... 😂
type3kid ·
nice work, that's awesome.
Smiley ·
11CAB wrote:Good to see it finished. Look forward to Sunday and getting it all Muddy...... 😂
Me too.
It should be good fun.
Smiley 😎
11CAB ·
We've got a new meeting tomorrow at 9am.... check out the thread on the manxclub
11CAB ·
Hey Smiley, great to meet you today and checkout your Baja. You didnt quite keep up with my little green manx, but still did pretty good to get up all the steep hills unaided with the engine flooding.
Hope you enjoyed getting it muddy...... 😂
Baja Wes ·
Hi Smiley, great to meet you and see your car in person. We didn't really get a chance to talk since I was busy taking care of my 13 month old most of the time 🙂
It was a good turn-out on Sunday, so you would have seen lots of cars to get inspiration from. There are a lot of nice baja's and buggies in the club these days. From stockish buggies like Jacko's yellow manx, to extremely modified buggies like Dyno's maroon beast, and very modified Baja's like my own.
Here's some pics of Smiley's car for people that don't trawl the manxclub forums.
Some slight on track modifications
beetleboyjeff ·
Great photos Wes. I reckon the only thing better than reading Smiley's great build is seeing the photos of him enjoying it. Thanks.
11CAB ·
Good to see Smiley isnt afraid to use it....... 😂
chippy ·
looks awesome mate! u have done a fantastic job. I hope to see it one day in the flesh!
Cheers
Chippy 😀
Baja Wes ·
The first 4 pics are mine (a friend took them using my camera anyway), the rest of the pics are from Graham.
The mud will make sure everything underneath is nice and dirty now, no more nice clean freshly built parts 😀
Smiley ·
Hey everyone.
Thanks for the pictures Wes.
I had an absolute ball on the weekend.
And Chippy, if you want to see it in the flesh I'm heading down to Killarney right now to visit my Grandma. I'll be there all weekend so drop in and say hi if you want. I'll be on Ivy Street right next to the bank. No doubt you'll see it parked there.
I can't wait to get back up home so I can get stuck into finishing things off and making improvments.
Smiley 😎
grease monkey253 ·
Good work dan!
i know i have already said this to you in person but WELL DONE! to get it done in the time frame you set and to get to brisbane on time was no easy task but u did it ! ,and have to say i had my doubts but you got it done.After all those long hours doing the body work i have to say it was still a pleasure being part of the build well done you should be proud which i know you are!
Also those action shots are great! makes me want to stop treating mine like a baby and get it dirty more....maybe after the wedding anyways got no time got the buggy to build for next years trip!.
Well done dan
bajachris88 ·
Hey Daniel, i went to clark rubber the other day, they got rubber caps/inserts you could use to cap the ends of ur barwork.
Thought it might be handy, as you won't have to weld it, and u could even store stuff in the barwork if u take the cap off.. (i don't know what exactly :S)
Smiley ·
grease monkey253 wrote:Good work dan!
i know i have already said this to you in person but WELL DONE! to get it done in the time frame you set and to get to brisbane on time was no easy task but u did it ! ,and have to say i had my doubts but you got it done.After all those long hours doing the body work i have to say it was still a pleasure being part of the build well done you should be proud which i know you are!
Also those action shots are great! makes me want to stop treating mine like a baby and get it dirty more....maybe after the wedding anyways got no time got the buggy to build for next years trip!.
Well done dan
Thanks Scotty!
We'll have to get stuck into that pan! I'm keen for some welding!
bajachris88 wrote:Hey Daniel, i went to clark rubber the other day, they got rubber caps/inserts you could use to cap the ends of ur barwork.
Thought it might be handy, as you won't have to weld it, and u could even store stuff in the barwork if u take the cap off.. (i don't know what exactly :S)
Thanks for the thought Chris. I'm still undecided at this point. I might just go and get a few for the time being to keep the weather out of there. I think I'm going to add a bit more barwork to the car over the next few weeks if I get keen.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Ok it's been a long time with no update so I thought I'd throw a bit up here.
Many of you might have read about my clutch dramas in the tech section of the site. I'm fairly sure the main culprit was the big hills at Mt Mee, and the fact that the clutch was an old one I had no knowledge of it's age. So I had a fairly badly slipping clutch. These next few pictures are from the day before I drove back from Brisbane to Yeppoon.
This is at the guys place I was staying while I was down for TAFE. He seemed a little puzzled when I said, "All I need to pull the engine out is a milk crate" perfect height.
Clutch plate was under 7mm.
Throwout bearing pins had grooves worn in them from the throwout arm.
Both the clips weren't even on the bearing! The remains of the were sitting the bottom of the bellhousing. The throwout bearing was sort of half sitting in place.
Throwout arm was quite worn and bent down.
A massive thanks to Andrew (oztowdster) who went out of his way to drive hours to give me a hand and get me parts.
Next picture shows the offroad throwout arm next to the old one. You can see that instead of clipping around the back that the clips slot through holes in the arm. This was they can't slide down and off the bottom of the arm, like what happened to my old one.
All in place. New throwout bearing, arm and and better 'curly' clips in place.
New clutch plate and good condition second hand pressure plate in place.
I don't have any more pictures after that cause it was quite dark.
Needless to say all that work was really for nothing because the clutch started slipping as I drove over the gateway the next morning on my way home. Was quite a slow and shitty drive back to Yeppoon.
Have since replaced the pressure plate with a brand newy, the real main oil seal and the flywheel with one that is closer to spec. The clutch slipping problem appears to be gone for the moment. I'm starting to get things together for a 200mm and 12V starter conversion.
Something I started to have a mess with a weekend or two back was the exhaust. The old muffler is very much on the way out and the pipe hits the rear cage which I have to rectify with the new setup.
The old system, you can see it's very close on the LHS and does knock against the barwork on some bumps.
Quite tight at the back, will try and gain a few more mm here with the new system too.
Also on the RHS it blows a little soot onto the barwork. On the new one I'm going to have the tip facing down more because I eventually want to mount reversing lights in this area.
New muffler and new exhaust tube bought from Mick Motors. It's actually exactly the same tube that's on the car at the moment. I just had it cut and swaged so I can move it over a little.
I took the old system off (had to go for a blat up the road and back 😂) And sat the new lot in place to see how things fitted. It didn't 😬
The curved elbow piece I have is too short and also causes the muffler to be too high. So I've decided to ditch that whole piece (it's fairly thin shit anyway) and make my own. Ordered some donut and straight pipe which I picked up yesterday. So I want to try and get into this over the next day or two. I want to try and get it with the muffler sitting forward further inside the curves of the exhaust a little bit. Like this
Last week I also managed to pull this from a Kombi out at the wreckers for next to nothing. 🙂👍
Next thing that I addressed on the weekend just passed was the rear suspension. I was finding that the extra coils were just making things too stiff, and I was starting to get a little sick of having my spine shattered everytime I drove to work. So it was time to say goodbye to go-kart handling and hello to offroadability.
It was very straight forward. Jack car up. Remove rear wheels. Unbolt coils. Done!
I took some before and after pictures of the car flexed up on a mound of dirt we have at home. I was surprised at the change, didn't think the coils were holding it back so much.
They were limiting the upward travel of the wheel by a few inchs at full compression. Full droop remained the same with the springplate resting on the stops both times.
Before
After
Droop the same.
Better full compression 👍
Before
After
Despite how things look there is absolutely no rubbing throughout the entire travel of the rear wheels, which I'm completely stoked with 🤘
The car is far better offroad, I didn't think such a small thing would make such a huge difference but it does. The car crawls over things better and had way better traction. I think this is because the wheels are following the ground more closely and the weight on the car is being distributed more evenly between the rear wheels.
I'm going to leave the second pair of shocks on for now, but I'm leaning towards dropping them too.
I just have to remember to slow down for roundabouts now 😂
Smiley 🙂
DubCrazy ·
Oh finaly you've done something u slacker :oP
steff.........
Turbo54 ·
Looks like so much fun. The best thing is you are not afraid to use it. You see a few pretty ones over here in Adelaide but never dirty!
T54
71-BEETLE-SEDAN ·
Thats a really shite version of what could work with ur zorst. Make sure you keep it all in tight though.
Smiley ·
71-BEETLE-SEDAN wrote:Thats a really shite version of what could work with ur zorst. Make sure you keep it all in tight though.
Thanks for your input. I'm not too sure it the muffler will fit over to the side though. I'll have to check. There's not much room between the barwork and the runner pipes. This is my reasoning for wanting to tuck the muffler in as close as possible.
Smiley 😎
71-BEETLE-SEDAN ·
im really god at it but aye, na it was hard to put inot words.
could just stick it straight up in the air.
Smiley ·
71-BEETLE-SEDAN wrote:im really god at it but aye, na it was hard to put inot words.
could just stick it straight up in the air.
Yeah, stinger straight off the 3-bolt flange. I'm sure that would go well with the cops 😂
The car's fairly loud as it is.
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
I hit a wallaby this morning on my way home from work.
It was crouched down so basically just busted it's skull on the nosecone and went under the car.
I hope the stupid thing is not dead and is hurting so much it wishes it was. 😬
There's no damage to any parts of the car except the nosecone. Which is cracked and chipped some paint.
Keen for a respray Steff?
And yes, that is a tuft of fur in the first picture. 😂
It was my intention to weld a cross bar in place to help protect the nosecone from rocks etc while offroading. I was going to weld it on this weekend! So it'll probably be definitely happening now.
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
I got a chance to tackle the exhaust on the weekend.
This is a shot looking down into the 4 into 1 collector. I just wanted to ask whether people think it would be worth cleaning all the welds up with the die grinder? Slightly better/more laminar flow? Obviously I'd need to remove the entire exhaust to do this so I didn't bother at this stage.
Old system off I worked out how much of the donut would be need to be tacked to the muffler to aim it towards the top.
Here is everything tacked in place. Very simple, bit of straight, two bits of donut, a flange and a muffler. Far more compact and far lighter than the old system.
Picked up maybe a mil or two between the rear cage and the muffler.
The clearance the the barwork on the LHS is a vast improvement over the old setup.
Added a brace, tip and fully welded everything. Will be getting paint tomorrow afternoon then going on the car.
Old and new.
That's all folks!!!
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
Just a quick update.
I got in on the weekend and got the exhaust all painted. I fitted in up yesterday afternoon. There is a heap more space around it in every way and I'm very happy with results.
For the short drive a took it on yesterday initial impressions are that is is noticeably quieter, and that the exhaust note sounds a lot better in my opinion, a bit 'meatier'.
I'll see how it goes at 100km/h on the way to work this afternoon.
Pictures of it fitted. I painted it with muffler paint I got from work, which is good for up to 1000°F. Not quite sure how much this is in °C around 800 and something. Which I'm sure is alot more than the humble little Baja can throw out unless it's on fire.
Next picture shows where the exhaust tip exits in between the barwork.
Thanks for reading.
Smiley 😎
BlueV2 ·
Theres only on problem now Smiley, you will need to paint the rest of the exhaust !!!😁
Looks good.
11CAB ·
If you mount up a bash plate on the front bar, it will protect the front & also you wont be able to see the damage to the nosecone
ryana89 ·
BlueV2 wrote:Theres only on problem now Smiley, you will need to paint the rest of the exhaust !!!😁
Looks good.
X2
Even though looks don't phase me much, I must agree.
That muffler certainly out shows the header tubes!😂
Will be interesting to see how long that 'high temperature' paint lasts😎
Smiley ·
ryana89 wrote:
BlueV2 wrote:Theres only on problem now Smiley, you will need to paint the rest of the exhaust !!!😁
Looks good.
X2
Even though looks don't phase me much, I must agree.
That muffler certainly out shows the header tubes!😂
Will be interesting to see how long that 'high temperature' paint lasts😎
True. But I think the rest of the system is a little too knocked around to waste paint on 😂
And I'm keen to see how long the paint lasts too, the trucks at work seem to be able to burn it off.
Smiley 😎
Joel ·
I've tried a few different high temp paints too.
last one was a good quality one for 1500f and like all the others, lasted fine on the muffler but first time the headers get wet when hot its gone
I usually get an ok run out of potbelly black paint
Smiley ·
I did this work two weeks ago. I've just been slack with updates and have been in Sydney.
I decided that the front bar wasn't quite right, and I needed to change the blinker location to mount driving lights anyway.
After some spurring from Dubcrazy I chose to double tube the front bar.
This is how things were before I started.
Second tube tacked into place.
I then pulled the front bar off to fully weld all the joins, also added plates to mount my new blinkers to. They're still LED ones, just a different style. And I've seen some different ones again yesterday, so they may be getting changed again yet.
Back on the car with the blinkers, they have since been wired and work fine. Though I don't think they're as bright as the old ones you can view them while standing directly next to the car.
My car is also still having a few issues burning points. So on the weekend I decided to change the coil, the old one was so old I can't even tell what brand it is on read anything on it. And was also quite dented.
So I went and got a Bosch GT40T solid state coil. These have no oil in them. And a new set of points too.
I hope this will tide me over until my new dizzy with electronic ignition shows up.
And yes. I'm aware that the wiring is very messy. It will all be getting a good cleanup in the near future, I want the car looking it's best for Warwick!!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
This afternoon I welded a tow bar tongue onto the rear cage of the car.
This is the tongue I cut down to fit the car.
I cut a square slot into it so it would fit either side of the box section on the cage.
Welded.
I also made up some triangle pieces to brace it in a different plane and help stop things flexing.
And added a little bracket for the trailer plug, yet to be wired.
Cage fitted back to the car with the ball in place. I don't really like the chrome ball, it doesn't suit the look of the car. It will be getting swapped for a black one as soon as I can.
That's all folks.
Smiley 😎
DubCrazy ·
yayaya!!!!! heaps better young man.
steff............
Smiley ·
DubCrazy wrote:yayaya!!!!! heaps better young man.
steff............
Now I'm going to do the same on the rear and mount some LED tail lights and blinkers in between. So I might need someone to paint the holes in the rear guards once they're filled 🙂
Smiley 😎
bajachris88 ·
Brilliant work on the tow bar Daniel 👍
where abouts did u buy the tongue from out of curiosity? or did u have it spare from a donor or something?
That things pretty tough. Ready to take the boat out for a bit of fishin or sumfin? box trailer for camping or wateva? I luve the possibilities.
will certainly follow in the same footsteps. 👍
I spose its time for an update, but hows your shofter rear suspension now? would u say its the way to go without those backup springs? alot more comfortable and versitile? So it just rolls over the bumps alot easier?
It shouldn't matter about towing either i guess, caues you would just have the trailer weight dristributed over teh trailer axle instead.
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:Brilliant work on the tow bar Daniel 👍
where abouts did u buy the tongue from out of curiosity? or did u have it spare from a donor or something?
That things pretty tough. Ready to take the boat out for a bit of fishin or sumfin? box trailer for camping or wateva? I luve the possibilities.
will certainly follow in the same footsteps. 👍
I spose its time for an update, but hows your shofter rear suspension now? would u say its the way to go without those backup springs? alot more comfortable and versitile? So it just rolls over the bumps alot easier?
It shouldn't matter about towing either i guess, caues you would just have the trailer weight dristributed over teh trailer axle instead.
Bought the tongue from the wreckers for about 10 bucks. I just went and picked one out 😂
I have to say that the rear suspension is a million times better. I'm kicking myself for not having done it like this in the first place. The rear end still sits up a bit with a small amount of camber, I guess when I did the spring plates I put them slightly above stock.
I could not believe the different that the softer suspension made to the car. Sure it has a slight bit more bodyroll in the corners, so i can't drive it round like a go-kart anymore. But it's an offroader so meh. It's like a completely different car offroad. Especially when it's crawling slowly, the wheels just want to grip so much more. I'm sure this is because the suspension is traveling more and flexing out and distributing the cars weight better. I'm looking froward to my next trip down to Brisbane, should be alot better on the back.
I also removed the secondary shocks about a month back. No noticeable difference. I thought they were pretty rooted anyway.
So she's back to stock suspension really, except the slight lift at the rear and adjusters at the front.
The tow bar feels very solid, I do have some extra mounts I still have to finish for the cage. And I also have to wire the trailer plug before I can tow anything.
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
I went for a bit of a mild offroad this afternoon with a mate from work that has an immaculate Baja.
He doesn't 'wheel' his as hard as me given it's condition, but we still had fun. Fantastic view that's only about 15 minutes drive from my house.
Thanks for looking.
Smiley 😎
DubCrazy ·
bring those old bangers down this way before mine goes and we'll play, well me and you will but mister greenie mite just watch as its a tad rough and his is to perfect! 😂
steff...................
matberry ·
Always good to get the off roaders out for a play, nice view up there too.....Keppel Islands by the looks, I have friends with that view, they live at Eagle Ridge, must be close by, and I know Rosland Bay Marina too 🙂, any beach drivind allowed in the area? Thanks for posting.
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:Always good to get the off roaders out for a play, nice view up there too.....Keppel Islands by the looks, I have friends with that view, they live at Eagle Ridge, must be close by, and I know Rosland Bay Marina too 🙂, any beach drivind allowed in the area? Thanks for posting.
Yeah. We're allowed to drive on the beach to the north of Yeppoon. These pictures are from South of Yeppoon.
I was down there Saturday afternoon for a few hours running amuck. Got stuck as the tyres on my car are highway terrains, and clog with sand in an insant, then they just spin in the sand like slicks in the rain. So we let them down to about 4-5psi and she just chugged through everything lol.
Another funny thing was, when we were up on that hill taking pictures, a guy came along on a dirt bike. He came over and asked how on earth we got the cars up there? 🙅🙅🙅 Looks like another poor uneducated 4WD person. I told him they got up there without missing a beat, and mines been through alot worse lol.
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
I got stuck in this afternoon and did a bit more on the car.
I lashed out last week and bought some driving lights to go on the front bar. So I made up a few tabs to weld on. Clearance is a little tight but nothing hits. The bonnet misses the lights by about 10mm when it opens.
I also made up some braces out of flatbar for the front barwork. These are to stop the front hoop folding upwards into the nosecone/bonnet if I hit anything. They are slightly different left to right because the RHS had to miss the steering box.
I also drilled some holes and added crush tubes for mounting some tow hooks I bought.
And back on the car. The tow hooks are rated at something like 4.5t each, so I'll be missing a frontend before I break them. I just realised I also forgot to take a picture with the spotlights mounted will try to remember to get one tomorrow.
That's all for now, thanks for looking.
Smiley 😎
bajachris88 ·
Where did u get those tow hooks from? They certainly look sturdy 👍
11CAB ·
Good work. You'll have to let us know when you are back in Brisbane and we'll organise another Mt Mee run to see how your improvements have gone.
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:Where did u get those tow hooks from? They certainly look sturdy 👍
Repco. They are quite study 👍👍
11CAB wrote:Good work. You'll have to let us know when you are back in Brisbane and we'll organise another Mt Mee run to see how your improvements have gone.
Funny you should mention that. I'm going to be down for Warwick then in Brisbane for the 4 weeks afterwards. I have Tafe on until the 29th.
Another Mt Mee run would be great! Or anywhere else that isn't paved for that matter!
And I can't say that I've made improvements. Just covered up more of the dodgery😂😂😂
Still trying to sort the carb out properly, I'll have to get someone to show me how to tune one when I'm down.🤪
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
This evening after work I fitted the sand seal pulley I purchased from Classic a few weeks ago.
The kit, and new gland nut.
Old next to the new. The old pulley was buckled a bit, used to wobble around when rotating.
All fitted up! When in great, no trouble with installation, despite that I was working around the exhaust.
As you can see in the pictures it's degreed too, which will make setting the timing waaaay easier than the chicken scratches on the old one.
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
Long time no update, thought I'd put abit more in on my car and what's happened since last time.
Firstly, I was down in Brisbane during October. Went offroading at Mt Mee once again with the Manxclub. Once again had a ball!
Unfortunately my external harddrive crashed so I lost all my pictures. Still trying to get them recovered.
While I was down there I took the plunge and purchased some 31"x10'5" all terrains for the back of the car. was previously running 30".
The car is a little slower and hills on the highway kill it a bit more. But offroad they just don't compare. The new tyres are a far more aggressive tread pattern, and in the driving I've done since getting them I can easily say they are better then the old ones in every way.
But having bigger tyres has come at a cost. They have highlighted a new problem. Under compression they were rubbing on the inner guards.
I have plenty of sets off rims so I hunted through until I found a set that have 26mm more offset than the ones the tyres are on.
I drove the car around on 185s for a day while they were being swapped onto the new rims which I had powdercoated.
I also prefer the look of the new wheels too, shown here with the tyre on. Compared to the ones that were on the car.
with the old wheels the tyres were about 1 1/2 inches inside from the lip of the guard. Now they are about 1/2 an inch. Fills the guard better and looks far better.
Old and new comparison pictures.
Now I just have to get bigger ones on the front!!
Next little upgrade that I performed was the install of a 2-way radio.
It's a Uniden UH015SX, bought it and the aerial off one of my brothers mates for bugger all. It's quite a nifty little unit, does lots of fancy things that I've yet to learn how to work.
This is where I decided to mount it. Under the dash on the passengers side. I can still reach it very easily, and there isn't really much loss of kneeroom for the passengers.
I taped the area first before drilling the holes to stop under of the pretty paint from chipping.
Got some fancy stainless screws to put the mount in place. I also placed some rubber grommets in between the plate and the body to give the radio a softer mounting and cushiony ride 🤪
I screwed the handpiece bracket to the side and all done!
Next I had to mount the aerial. Luckily when I built the car and pulled the harness through the pillar I had the foresight to run two coaxial cables to the back of the car. One is for the 2-way and the other is going to be for my stereo if I ever get round to it. It was a simple matter of soldering some connections on and plugging everything in.
I'm just running a stainless angled aerial bracket for the moment but I plan to weld some tabs on down the track.
Now I can listen in on Dave and Graham complaining about how horrible my car is offroad when we go to Mt Mee next 😂😂😂
Some of you probably saw my thread in the tech section asking about how to fix a bent framehorn.
Lets just say I had a particularly great day rockcrawling in the Baja last Saturday and managed to bend the LHS framehorn down about an inch 😠
I've been driving it like this all week, it took me until Tuesday to notice the crooked engine and find the damage 🙅
So I rolled her into the carport on Friday afternoon (sorry mum) and it wasn't long before cage was off then engine out and the transaxle was unbolted, brake lines/wiring/cables disconnected etc
I got to this point and tried to roll everything out but run into and snag cause my tyres were too big and hitting the guards 😂 Had to jack her up some more 😀
Definitely bent ❗
Fortunately the topside wasn't cracked or warped at all, just alittle bent. Can't say the same for the underside though.
Luckily I have a bit of crap lying around which comes in handy in times like these.
First thing I did was wirewheel the paint and mud and llamas off the framehorn. So I could get a good look at everything and because I was having to weld on it later.
Then I carefully cut the damaged metal out and drilled the spotwelds.
The spare rear end supplied the replacement piece. As well as the plate to weld along the underside for additional strength.
I heated the horn alittle and put the jack under it to get it back to original location. Took lots of measurements and made sure the car was level.
Welded the piece in. Was a bitch welding overhand, wish I could have put the car in a rotisserie or something to flip it over.
Then I cut the strengthening plate to length and hammered it until it was a snug fit over the underside. I also had to notch it and bend it a little to get it to follow the curve of the horn better.
Cranked up the amps and laid some good beads 😀
It was a little messy but all the welds turned out quite good. I gave it a little smooth over with the flapper to remove any bumps or sharps then gave it a few coats with red primer (POR15 will have to wait as I have to drive this to work tomorrow)
Dad thought it necessary to take a picture of my dropping a gearbox on my face 😂😂
When I put everything back together I left of the secondary shock bottom mount plate. They normally bolt on with the springplates, but I haven't been running the twin shocks for a while now. Just saved about half a kilo of unsprung weight per side 👍👍
Everything back in and running, I did some rough measurements and I think the left side is still a few mill lower than the right. But I can live with that 🤘
Problem sorted!!
Smiley 🙂
11CAB ·
Good to see you back on the road Smiley
bajachris88 ·
YOU BLOODY CHAMPION!
No mucking around, u just get stuck straight in. Thats tops mate 👍
Smiley ·
Just a quick one. Did a little bit on the Baja Christmas weekend.
She's getting a headlining on the 18th at the trim shop. So I lashed out and bought some dynamat. Really good stuff, bought a roller too and put it on myself.
The pack I purchase was a 'boot kit' to do the boot on a sedan. I've done some quick measurements and I'm easily going to enough to the the roof, door, rear quarters, parcel shelf and under the backseat. And I'll probably still have some left over too.
The main thing to remember with dynamat is that it's an acoustic vibration dampener, it stops panels from vibrating a transmitting noise. So you only need to cover the center 25% of a panel to stop it vibrating. Any more than this and you're wasting time and money.
Probably why their 'boot' pack will do most of my car 😂😂😂
One other little mod that I knocked up in at some stage in the last few weeks is the installation of an LED reversing light. It's only hooked to a switch on the dash for the moment but some day when I have a Kombi box I'll patch it through that too.
Seems to work quite well 👍👍👍👍👍
It seems I don't have a picture of it bolted to the car. I'll try to remember to get one at some stage
Smiley 🙂
11CAB ·
You should have moved the plate 5mm to the left.... much stronger then... :P
11CAB ·
Smiley wrote:Now I can listen in on Dave and Graham complaining about how horrible my car is offroad when we go to Mt Mee next 😂😂😂
Smiley 😎
Hahahahahhaha...... you have to find the right channel first...... :P
Smiley ·
11CAB wrote:
Smiley wrote:Now I can listen in on Dave and Graham complaining about how horrible my car is offroad when we go to Mt Mee next 😂😂😂
Smiley 😎
Hahahahahhaha...... you have to find the right channel first...... :P
I've worked out how to make it scan!
And the plate doesn't need to be that strong! It's only one tiny lightweight little light!
Besides I still haven't decided what I want to do with the rear barwork yet. I might double tube it like the front.
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
Well on Thursday on the regular trip up to Rocky something a little special happened. I decided to wipe the mud spatter off the speedo 😂😂😂
Nah just kidding, it was this.
And now it's time for a service 😀
Today I pulled everything out of the back of the car and started cleaning it up for painting.
These are shots of before I wirebuffed all the crap off.
And here's some shots after i laid down a couple of coats of pure POR15 goodness 👍
Lucky I'm going to have trims to cover up all my shoddy runs.
Got a little bit more dynamat pressed down too.
Going to do some more tomorrow, goodnight everyone!
Smiley 🙂
ryana89 ·
Looking good Smiley, always makes me smile when people do a job properly.
Can I ask 1 question about the Dynamatt?
Once you've bought the matt, can you then cut the sheets/matting to your own size?
Thinking about using some in the Golf, but not sure if I can cut it (myself) to better fit certain area's of the car.
Thanks😀
Smiley ·
ryana89 wrote:Looking good Smiley, always makes me smile when people do a job properly.
Can I ask 1 question about the Dynamatt?
Once you've bought the matt, can you then cut the sheets/matting to your own size?
Thinking about using some in the Golf, but not sure if I can cut it (myself) to better fit certain area's of the car.
Thanks😀
You sure can. It's cuts fine with normal scissors or a knife.
And cheers for the positive feedback too 👍
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
Wow. It's been quite a while with no movement. But so much has happened with the car. Time for an update.
We left off with dynamat.
Here's the finished rear parcel shelf area.
And here's a couple of quick pictures of the flag I put on her for Australia day. Used an old towball and just welded a piece of box section to the top of it. You have no idea how many people loved it and waved and, screamed and hollered as I drove past. It was great.
Now one thing I have always hated about my car is the shitty 6V wipers. Especially with the amount of rain that QLD was having at the end of last year and the start of this one.
So messing around with the bits and bobs I had. I managed to cobble this together. It's a 12V motor, arms and spindles. On a 6V frame. So they are spaced perfectly for the holes in the plenum panel. The other thing I had to do was modify the little drive arm that attaches to the shaft coming our of the wiper motor. It was cut and rewelded 180° out from usual. Because the 12V wipers park on the wrong side for a 6V car. But now mine park on the same side as a 6V car. The arms are bent the wrong way and I still have yet to modify these, I'll get around so it someday 😊
One other thing I had to do was drill the hole in the dash slightly larger so that the later model 3 position switch (off, slow and fast) would fit.
Arms sit up slightly into my vision but I am used to it now. I will need to get around to bending the arms back in the other direction someday.
I can honestly say that this is the best modification that I have ever done to this car.
The wipers actually work!!
The splined arms stay in the same place and don't move around!
The arms have great spring pressure and stay stuck to the glass and wiping water! Even at speeds over 40km/h, or in wind!!!!
They and 12V and 2 speed. Can't ask for much more. Now I just need to read Joel's thread again and start collecting for an intermittent upgrade.
Another thing that happened this year was the death of the stock 12V VW starter I had spinning the engine. Being 40 years old and expecting it to keep working was asking too much. Especially given it's been underwater a fair few times on creek crossing and dunked in mud a few times etc.
So I bit the bullet and bought a Cranky Kit from Brisbane. http://www.crankykits.com.au/
I really can not recommend this product highly enough. The quality, fit and finish is second to none and it solves a problem that I'm sure has plagued plenty of dubbers over the years.
Here's the old VW starter just before it came off. You can see the dents in the solenoid housing where I coaxed the last few weeks of life from her 😂😂
Here's the new Subie starter which took it's place. Kit came with all the bolts and hareware required to fit it. You will also notice the Subie starter is a reduction drive, which means more torque and less amperage draw.
Unfortunately I don't seem to have a picture of the thing fitted to the car!! Rest assured it went on with no hassles and I have not even had to think about looking at it since. The noise took a little getting used to, but on a daily driver that gets used as much as my Baja, I would never go back!
Ok. Now at some point my trusty little 1300 single port had decided enough was enough (about March I think). And decided that oil was better suited to watering the lawn then staying inside an engine case. Long story short it's dead now. The little engine didn't do too badly considering that I got it second had with no history, then put 80000km on it in 2 years. And they were hard miles too. So I can honestly say that I think it served me a lot better and longer than I expected.
So I 'borrowed' the engine out of my Semi-auto (1600 TP), converted it back to manual and slotted it in. I was plagued with idling troubles that I have only just recently been able to fix.
But when I got it I decided to put my 31PICT carby onto. So I got my hands on an adapter plate. Problem was that the fuel pump linkage hit the adapter when the throttle was opened. I didn't want to modify the linkage so I opted to space the carby upwards with some plate. I can it out, drilled out the hole, ground the hole to size with a rotary burr, smoothed it out with some flapped wheels. The made some gaskets and 'ported' the spacer plate and adapter plate to match one another and to the carby/manifold.
All seemed to turn out well in the end and the car runs great.
Here are some pictures.
Smiley 🙂
beetleboyjeff ·
No doubt about you Smiley, you sure are a problem solver.
Smiley ·
Ok. New (spare) engine is in and car is running great. Work decided to send me to Mackay for 3 weeks to learn transmissions from the experts up there. 4 Hours drive from home.
It's 10:30 on the Thursday night, second week in. Disaster strikes while offroading near the beach in Mackay. I bottom the car out quite badly while moving quite quickly on a dirt road.
Once back at the motel I discover that I've managed to rip a large chunk of mag out of the case and she's pissing oil. And I have to drive her home again the next afternoon.
Fortunately I managed to get some blue goop from the Loctite family the next day at work. Patched her up good enough to stem the arterial bleed and drive her home the next day. I stopped every 50km and checked the oil. Only had to top her up once, was only slowly dripping.
Saturday, oil drained, engine out, flipped upsidedown so damage could be assessed. Turns out I ripped off the node that one of the case studs goes into. But this was not where the oil was leaking from. The oil was leaking out from under the sump plate. Turns out when I slammed down hard on the engine and broke the piece out it pushed that half of the case up. Causing the point where the case halves meet to be ajar and a little step where oil could leak out.
Case stud and sump plate removed. Took me ages to scrape all the blue gunk off!
Blue gunk completely cleaned off. Ended up using the wire brush attachment in the grinder and drill. Stud was put back in place with the nut loose. The case halves were levered until they were back where they were supposed to be with a flat, square sealing surface for the sump plate.
Then the metal I broke off was replaced with this. It's called Quiksteel. A very good product that I bought from Repco. And from my experience with it I would highly recommend it I now keep a tube in the car with me.
It's a putty that you knead together then put in position, sets in 4 minutes. Then you can, cut/drill/machine etc it. Withstands high temperatures etc. I put it over the damaged area to replace the missing metal and left it overnight before tightening the nut on the stud. So far I've had no leaks from it. Overall very happy.
Sump plate was resealed and put back on. Oil replaced. Then I drove it back to Mackay again on Sunday afternoon 😀
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
beetleboyjeff wrote:No doubt about you Smiley, you sure are a problem solver.
Thanks Jeff. Wait until you read the post I just put up 😂😂
Smiley 😎
beetleboyjeff ·
What more can I say..............👍
Smiley ·
More great *cough* luck from 2 weeks ago. I was on my way to work in the morning, around 25km into my drive along the highway when a Hilux decides to overtake me on the roadworks just before Rocky. He pulled back round in front of me quite close and a rock (from the dirt road due to the roadworks) came off his back wheel and hit my windscreen I went from seeing a lot to bugger all in a split second. Fortunately I was only doing 60km'h (also due to the roadworks) so I was able to brake and pull over safely. I pushed the glass out onto the side of the road but kept the rubber. I then decided it would be best to drive home and grab another car instead of continuing to work.
It was 6 in the morning and bloody cold with no windscreen and no jacket!!!
Here are a few pictures I took that afternoon.
I was lucky that the local windscreen guy is a top bloke and he came round the next day and put one of my spares in for the time being. I've gotten him to order me a brand new laminated windscreen that I will have fitted when it arrives. The spare will do me until then.
That's about up to date with the car. There's probably things I've missed, but I guess they mustn't be too important if I forgot them 😂😂😂
I ordered some LED brake lights and an LED interior light which should show up this week some time. Went and got some door switches to put in the pillars etc.
One more thing I just remembered. My clutch decided to explode on the weekend. But more on that and pictures tomorrow!
Smiley 😎
baghall ·
Bloody hell smiley. What did you do break a mirror, walk under a ladder etc? At least you are keeping it going.
Smiley ·
baghall wrote:Bloody hell smiley. What did you do break a mirror, walk under a ladder etc? At least you are keeping it going.
hahahahaha. Nothing like that. These are pictures from this whole year. And she does a lot of km.
And I didn't even mention that someone backed into me and punched a nice little hole in the 'glass bonnet.......in my own driveway!!
Well on the weekend some friends and I decided to head up to the local beach/dune spot. It's called 5 Rocks and it's a '4WD only' area.
The hardest part about getting to 5 Rocks is when you first get out there, there is a large dune/hillclimb that needs to be accomplished. But once you climb that you are set for the rest of the day, it is the hardest part so you can easily drive the rest if you can get up the hill.
There are two tracks side by side. One is quite hard and the other is a lot easier. Me being me I decided to try the hard one. I got 99% of the way to the top when I got bogged down. A few more attempts and I wasn't getting any further so I took the easy track and was up top in minutes.
Now after this point I noticed that my gearbox and clutch were behaving funny when we started driving again. It seems I didn't have a clutch and was having to 'crash' change through the gears. Having since pulled the engine out I discovered that the clips had fallen off of the throwout bearing. So I drove around the whole day like that on the dunes and beach. Had a great day while out there like we always do.
Then as we were leaving about 5 minutes before we were back on the blacktop I pulled up and let the convoy catch back up again. Then when I went to takeoff I had nothing. Clutch was just slipping and spinning. So we towed the old girl home and the next morning I had the engine out.
It would appear that the last clutch I bought (only 6 months old!) was an 'el cheapo Chinese POS. The linings off one side of the clutch plate had completely turned to dust. There was piles of it in the bellhousing and outer rim of the flywheel.
On Monday I bought a brand new, high quality German clutch to replace it. The look and finish is 10 times as good as the old one. Put it in this morning and she drives like a new car! No mores shudders or jerks. Just smooth smooth smooth!!
That's all for now folks. No doubt I'll break something else soon!
Smiley 😎
baghall ·
Smiley wrote:That's all for now folks. No doubt I'll break something else soon!
Smiley 😎
Hope not smiley. I'll have to get up to QLD one day it would be good to see the 2 bajas running together with the same colours on them.
BTW that starter motor kit you bought looks the goods. Con I ask how much it set you back and where you got it from?
Hey Smiley, thanks for sharing. Another classic case of cheap parts costing MORE $$$.
Nice to see the sprung center disc this time, good choice. 👍👍
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:Hey Smiley, thanks for sharing. Another classic case of cheap parts costing MORE $$$.
Nice to see the sprung center disc this time, good choice. 👍👍
The old one was sprung too! Look at the pictures.
It really is on a whole different level to drive with the new clutch. So smooth.
As soon as I had it fitted I drove it into a drain on the side of our driveway. Then with minimal revs and slight slipping of the clutch she just walked straight out. No slips, no shudders, no fuss. LOVE IT!!
baghall wrote:Hope not smiley. I'll have to get up to QLD one day it would be good to see the 2 bajas running together with the same colours on them.
BTW that starter motor kit you bought looks the goods. Con I ask how much it set you back and where you got it from?
Yeah or I'll have to come down!
The starter motor is great. I can not recommend it highly enough. After the wipers it's the next best thing I've done to the car.
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
Smiley wrote:The old one was sprung too! 😎
Ok my bad, but it wasn't the centre that failed.
Smiley ·
Ok. Some new updates for Alyce.
I think I mentioned at some point that I've bought fancy pancy LED brakes lights for the Baja. Well I did a little bit of fabbing this afternoon and started to fit them.
These are the LED lights that I purchased. I have two and they are both going to go on the engine scoop in the centre of the car.
'Procured' a piece of scrap alloy from work. Bit of cutting grinding and drilling later and both the lights are mounted all pretty like.
More progress tomorrow hopefully!
Smiley 😎
baghall ·
Hey Smiley, They are looking good. I have one of these as well but haven't fitted it yet and probably won't for a while.
Smiley ·
Now ever since I got the car it's never had an interior light. Well when I was on my LED buying spree I decided to get one.
Dug a few door switches out that I had somewhere at home. And hey presto! Light when the doors are opened. I'm also eventually going to wire it up with a 3 position (off/on/door) switch in the future.
The light installed in the stock location.
It's nice and bright. I'll try it tonight and see what's it's like in the dark.
Thanks for looking.
Smiley 😎
OZ Towdster ·
So when are ya gunna get that shed up young man and get on with the buggy , because if i can get the Towd ready for the Cape you better have your buggy ready
Smiley ·
OZ Towdster wrote:So when are ya gunna get that shed up young man and get on with the buggy , because if i can get the Towd ready for the Cape you better have your buggy ready
Earthworks are done, shed kit is here, and slab is getting done very soon.
And I might need to get sponsored to have my buggy done for Cape. That's only a year away!
Smiley 😎
OZ Towdster ·
Sponsored !!!!!!!!!!!!! what the hell !!!!!!!!! ,you must have mistaken me for someone that has money 😊 i just spent near on 6K just on my front end and some rims for the Towd .
Smiley ·
OZ Towdster wrote:Sponsored !!!!!!!!!!!!! what the hell !!!!!!!!! ,you must have mistaken me for someone that has money 😊 i just spent near on 6K just on my front end and some rims for the Towd .
I take sponsorship in parts too, not just money 😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
Just thought I'd post up pictures of the winch I bought. I got it a few months back off eBay. While tidying my room today I unearthed it.
It's a 4000 pound (just over 1800kg) unit. Has the plasma rope instead of cable which is what I wanted to keep weight down. Came with a solid alloy fairlaid, solenoid, mounting bolts, mounting plate (too flimsy IMO), cables (too short to reach the VW Battery 😂), hook with a block on it for doubling back the rope, and a wireless remote that goes on your car keys (much like a keyless entry dongle). I can't complain for $120 plus $20 shipping!!
It'll lift my car twice over, she weighs less than 900kg.
It'll eventually find it's way onto the car at some stage. Going to need to build a new front bar and I'll probably wait until after the body lift.
Smiley 😎
DubCrazy ·
hey smiley just watch the plasma rope on the beach... they are great but a few people who have come in the shop have had failure becasue the sand gets in the rope twist and slowly cuts it.. That was a while ago now and they mite have a cure .... It will not happen overnight ......
steff...............
Smiley ·
DubCrazy wrote:hey smiley just watch the plasma rope on the beach... they are great but a few people who have come in the shop have had failure becasue the sand gets in the rope twist and slowly cuts it.. That was a while ago now and they mite have a cure .... It will not happen overnight ......
steff...............
No worries.
VW's don't get bogged in the sand anyway do they 😂😂
Smiley 😎
baghall ·
Smiley wrote:No worries.
VW's don't get bogged in the sand anyway do they 😂😂
Smiley 😎
So why the winch then Smiley😂
Winch lloks good though!
DubCrazy ·
baghall wrote:
Smiley wrote:No worries.
VW's don't get bogged in the sand anyway do they 😂😂
Smiley 😎
So why the winch then Smiley😂
Winch lloks good though!
its there to pull the nissans and toyotas that are stuck and blocking all the fun tracks :o)
steff.......
baghall ·
DubCrazy wrote:
baghall wrote:
Smiley wrote:No worries.
VW's don't get bogged in the sand anyway do they 😂😂
Smiley 😎
So why the winch then Smiley😂
Winch lloks good though!
its there to pull the nissans and toyotas that are stuck and blocking all the fun tracks :o)
steff.......
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Smiley ·
hahahahahaha
Yeah. The stupid 4WDers that think "I have 4WD drive, my car is the best, there's no need to let my tyres down from the 45psi that I run on the road in order to tackle this soft dune"
Plus I like to be prepared. You never know when it could come in handy. Plus the weight of the winch (and probably extra battery) out the front it going to help my weight distribution and handling.
PS - How's the glass work going Mr Steff??
Smiley 😎
DubCrazy ·
heya mate
sorry but it has been delayed, my grandafather(75) thought he would get up on his roof last week and fell off. 12 broken ribs three bones in his back, his shoulder!!! so been a bit buzy sorting out stuff for him and nan(he is doing well in brissy hospital so fingers crossed) im back at work today so i will try to get it repaierd this week...
steff..................
Smiley ·
DubCrazy wrote:heya mate
sorry but it has been delayed, my grandafather(75) thought he would get up on his roof last week and fell off. 12 broken ribs three bones in his back, his shoulder!!! so been a bit buzy sorting out stuff for him and nan(he is doing well in brissy hospital so fingers crossed) im back at work today so i will try to get it repaierd this week...
steff..................
No rush man. I completely understand. You have until the end of September remember? 😂😂
I've got the spares on the car at the moment so she's still getting driven around. Thinking of heading to 5 Rocks on Saturday, it'll be too easy with a working clutch!!
Smiley 😎
11CAB ·
Hey Smiley, if you get a snatch block to use with your winch that will double the pulling power.
Smiley ·
11CAB wrote:Hey Smiley, if you get a snatch block to use with your winch that will double the pulling power.
It came with one! The only issue I have there is the length of the rope. I'll probably have to get some winch extension straps.
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
baghall wrote:
Smiley wrote:That's all for now folks. No doubt I'll break something else soon!
Smiley 😎
Hope not smiley.
Unfortunately you did not get your wish Baghall.
My front end has broken in half where I welded the adjusters in.
Clearly I'm the worst welder in the world 🙁
*sigh* There goes the weekend. Think I'll add braces while I have the welder burning.
Smiley 😎
BlueV2 ·
Crap...thats no good.
Smiley ·
BlueV2 wrote:Crap...thats no good.
Fortunately it seems to have held together.
I noticed a clunk in the frontend last night while driving home.
So I checked it out when I got home this afternoon from work.
It was fine 2 weeks ago before the 5-rocks trip where my clutch went. Because I always check the car over and grease the frontend before I head offroading for the day.
So it's obviously gone very recently.
There will be pictures at some stage.
Smiley 😎
matberry ·
Adjusters welded in and no beam supports.........now Smiley, what were you thinking?🤓
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:Adjusters welded in and no beam supports.........now Smiley, what were you thinking?🤓
magic....?
I'll fix it tomorrow, I promise.
Smiley 😎
bajachris88 ·
bugger man! show pics of your bracing too! I got beam supports, but not where i cut and shut.
baghall ·
Sorry to hear smiley. Definitely post up some before and after pictures.
Smiley ·
Well this is the before pictures.
Not pretty at all. The bottom tube has completely broken in two. And the top appears to be broken too. Not sure if it's all the way through or not.
*sigh* Better crank those amps up.
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
I pulled the front barwork, steering box and hubs off the car.
Everything is very dirty, it'll be getting a good clean before it goes back together.
I left the brake lines connected so I don't have to bleed anything after it bolted back together.
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
The beam is in two halves. Only the torsion leaves are holding it together 🙁
I'm unsure if I'm going to put this back into the car straight away. I have a spare empty stock beam here that I might put on for the time being. Just means she'll be a little bit lower at the front. What are peoples thoughts on this??
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
The other thing I want to ask able is where I should run my beam braces back to?
Here are a few picture of the front corner.
Should I try and tie it back into the unistrut floorpan edging? Like this picture show below?
The problem with this is I think my wheels are going to rub on the tubing at full steering lock.
Or should I try and make up something that goes onto the two front bolts underneath the framehead. Similar to the beam braces the Country Buggies came with.
The problem with this it that the bolts were super hard to get in when I put the body on the pan and if I take them out I'm not sure I'll start them again.
If you have any pictures or ideas on front beam bracing please post them up cause I'd like to try and get this sorted this weekend if possible.
Thanks in advance
Smiley 😎
bajachris88 ·
OH! those kinda braces...
I went with the idea your dreading with off the shelf beam braces from cip1. There were two kinds, lower braces (bolt in the body bolts) and upper braces that bolt into the front firewall.
I didn't like the idea of bolting in there, because the image of a front end acident and the steel bar driving into my leg was a bit of a turn off.
These braces are solid as though. and now that you got the bolts in there already, you atleast know the thread should be nice, clear and clean for reinstallation compared to how it was initially maybe ???
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:and now that you got the bolts in there already, you atleast know the thread should be nice, clear and clean for reinstallation compared to how it was initially maybe ???
The issue was more that the holes didn't line up because the framehead I bought wasn't built to the greatest tolerance.
When I put the body on I had to start them first and then move the body around to get everything else to start.
Smiley 😎
bajachris88 ·
maybe worry bout beam braces when you have an offroad beam and lift kit prepped to go, then smash it out?
are they necessary if you run a stock beam and don't intend on having massive front end knocks on boulders?
matberry ·
bajachris88 wrote:are they necessary if you run a stock beam and don't intend on having massive front end knocks on boulders?
Mate, stock beetles in 1950 were fitting them because the frame heads cracked. That was when they were new. I fit them to every car that has anything improved over stock. The ones pictured above that only attach to the lower tube are very close to useless. They really need to support both tubes with a diagonal brace rearward, or tie to the shock upright between the tubes, and rearward to the 2 M10 bodymount bolts.
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:maybe worry bout beam braces when you have an offroad beam and lift kit prepped to go, then smash it out?
are they necessary if you run a stock beam and don't intend on having massive front end knocks on boulders?
As I have proven they are necessary if you have adjusters welded to your beam.
The stock beam flexes back and forward even on a stock road going Beetle. Once you cut it in half and weld in adjusters you introduce a weak spot which happens to be at the center of the beam which is flexing back a forward. Adding the braces helps to significantly reduce the ends of the beam moving back and forward.
I should have added them when I built the car and now I'm paying the price.
Smiley 😎
matberry ·
Back and forward is some of it Smiley, but worse is the rotational/torsional loads, that is why the braces need to tie to both tubes.
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:Back and forward is some of it Smiley, but worse is the rotational/torsional loads, that is why the braces need to tie to both tubes.
These are the mounts that hold my front bar on.
If I run a tube from here (lined up with the bottom torsion tube) back to my floorpan, then run a tube or plate from the top of this mount back down to the bottom tube will this be enough for my mild Baja for the time being?
Smiley 😎
matberry ·
It sure will mate. 👍👍
matberry ·
It sure will mate. 👍👍
The diagonal could be tube, solid of even flat bar, on edge set diagonally.
68AutoBug ·
bajachris88 wrote:OH! those kinda braces...
I went with the idea your dreading with off the shelf beam braces from cip1. There were two kinds, lower braces (bolt in the body bolts) and upper braces that bolt into the front firewall.
I didn't like the idea of bolting in there, because the image of a front end acident and the steel bar driving into my leg was a bit of a turn off.
These braces are solid as though. and now that you got the bolts in there already, you atleast know the thread should be nice, clear and clean for reinstallation compared to how it was initially maybe ???
Hi Chris
You will need extended grease nipples to grease Your torsion bar bearings , as they look too close to the brackets...
those brackets look a good idea....
Lee
bajachris88 ·
hmm! i have an old beam brace like what u describe Matt that used to be on my 67 baja, but didn't fit the balljoint beam because of clearance issues with all the nick nacks about.
i have 1 intact in the backyard, will take photo soonish.
1 i cut up to mod to fit the balljoint but never finished. its been hacked up bad.
heres a pic of what it looked like. didn't ahve diagonal brace, it was a steel angled rod, connecting to the beam tubes clamp and tube backing up to the m10 bolts
matberry ·
That's one locally made, prolly by Custom Off Road Components, they have been making them fo 35-40 years, reckon there's a few sets out there.
bajachris88 ·
actually, it musta worked well, cos out of everything that was on that POS car, the beam was one of the very fuew straight un-farked components i got out of it 🙂
btw, thanks Matt for the heads up. i'd aught to get some tube angled to the top bars then. I was more inclined on the road bumps and torsion bar response puting teh beam back at the ends and producing a moment about the frame head than radial of top twisting over bottom (well visa versa)
matberry ·
They are 100% necessary IMO, but you don't have to take my word for it, just ask Smiley....hey, it's his thread. 😂
baghall ·
Well I have been thinking about beam support as mentioned here but haven't done it yet. Better get onto it, but am glad I haven't yet welded in beam adjusters. Hope you get it back together quick smiley!
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:They are 100% necessary IMO
SECONDED!!!!
Matt, do you have any pictures of the setups that you have built? Do you run into issues with the tie rods clearing the top brace??
i have a few sets of these, interestingly the stoko beetle recently aquired has a set too.
Very nice. I'm going to make something similar to this but it's going to be welded to the floorpan instead of bolting on.
Once I get around to doing my lift kit I'll cut them off and remake them to tie into the C-channel.
Smiley 😎
matberry ·
Sorry Smiley, only digital pics are ones you have seen already
Smiley ·
Ok. I haven't really had much of a chance to work on the car this week.
On Tuesday afternoon I put the spare beam in. And assembled the front end with everything except the torsion bars installed. This way I can cycle the suspension and make sure that none of the steering or suspension is going to hit my brace bars.
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
You can see in these next few pictures that even on the drivers side with the steering on full lock and the suspension at full droop that I'm going to have plenty of room to run the bars.
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
I picked a bit of scrap tubing out of the bin at work that I'm going to use for the braces. Going to make use of the bends in the tube to keep the bar as close the the body and out of the way of the tyre. I think I'll only have very minimal rubbing. This setup is also only temporary too, because when I install a lift kit into the cars I'm going to redo all the bracing/front barwork etc.
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
You can see here that there will be no clearances issues in any way on the passengers side.
When I undid everything off the beam and disassembled it, it literally fell in two.
And you should have seen the amount of sand that was in the bottom torsion tube when it came apart! It must be getting in through the adjust.
Does anyone else have this problem?
What have you done to prevent it??
I hope to get the braces made up and tacked in tomorrow afternoon at a minimum. But I'm going to try and have the car all back together and drivable again by Saturday lunchtime at the latest.
Thanks for looking
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
Got another half hour of time this afternoon to do a tiny bit on the car.
I made the RHS beam brace up. That is all. More soon hopefully.
Smiley 😎
11CAB ·
The ones I have flatten out and use the two large body bolts to attach to the body. I'll take some pics later
Smiley ·
Got the tubes all welded in last Friday afternoon.
Just need to put the front hubs back on, wheels and bleed the brakes! She should be driving by the weekend.
Smiley 😎
Smiley ·
And look what came in the post today!! I didn't know it was Christmas!!
Ceramic coated exhaust.
I'm excited!!
Smiley 😎
matberry ·
You really need the added bar to make the brace work properly
matberry ·
Woo hoo new engine 👍
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:You really need the added bar to make the brace work properly
That is the intention. I need to get it to work around the tie rods too. I think I'll add some flat bar from the top down.
Similar to this.
Smiley 😎
matberry ·
👍🙂
bajachris88 ·
woah! that new donk is gonna roar like a dragon!
great work man 👍, u know i'm jealous right?
11CAB ·
I reckon your front tyres will rub on that bar you've put on.
Smiley ·
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 😎
11CAB ·
It wont be at full droop, the wheels move further back as the wheel goes up.
11CAB ·
These are the ones I have. They attach using the two large body bolts.
BlueV2 ·
Did you make them Graham or are they a VW part ?
11CAB ·
Neither, I think they were made by Custom Offroad at some stage. I bought them second hand for about $20
Smiley ·
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 🙂
Smiley ·
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 🙂
Smiley ·
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 🙂
Smiley ·
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 🙂
Smiley ·
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 🙂
Smiley ·
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 🙂
hellbugged ·
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!
beetleboyjeff ·
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.
Smiley ·
Thanks for the input chaps.
I'll get some new flapper wheels on Monday from work and rough them up a little.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
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 🙂
DubCrazy ·
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..................
Smiley ·
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 🙂
Smiley ·
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 🙂
Smiley ·
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 🙂
Smiley ·
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 🙂
hellbugged ·
👍
Smiley ·
Pretty grey to match my wheels.
More soon.
Smiley 🙂
DubCrazy ·
Half way round the world and I'm checking on alyce! Starting to get there mate. Just need a body lift now :o)
Steff
bajachris88 ·
Reminds me of that song...
"sex on wheels!!!.... " 👍😂
Smiley ·
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 🙂
Smiley ·
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 🙂
Smiley ·
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 🙂
beetleboyjeff ·
Maybe a rubber plug - like a gromet without a hole in it.
bajachris88 ·
Daniel, for curiousity sake u atleast gotta take it down the Warrick quarter mile. com'on!!! :P
Doing a brilliant job.
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:Daniel, for curiousity sake u atleast gotta take it down the Warrick quarter mile. com'on!!! :P
Doing a brilliant job.
Not happening!!! My gearbox probably wouldn't last one pass. I'm going to try and look after this one.
Besides, at the rate I'm going it'll probably still be getting run in on the way down.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Ok. More updates.
I got both of the rear trailing arms fitted. I also threw the outer bearings on the stub axles too.
Just need to throw the outer seals and brakes on and I can put her back on her wheels.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I pulled the tinware off the old engine and put it in the car ready to clean up at work tomorrow.
Lots of cleaning and some repairs to be done.
I'm not sure if I'll be reusing all of it or scrounging through my parts collection to try and find some better examples.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Started doing a little tinware mockup too.
A while back I picked up one of the doghouse fanhousings with no heater outlets. They're getting a bit of bad rep at the moment over here http://forums.aussieveedubbers.com/viewtopic.php?tid=92368 so I'll so how it goes.
Initial inspection seems to be that it'll need a little massaging and mods to get the fit nice.
I also have a little bit of a gap between the upper cylinder tins and the fanhousing. This is due to the additional 5mm stoke, and will also need to be addressed.
I also pulled out a brand new alternator I bought a while back 😀 Loving all these shiny new parts 😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀
Ordered a new seal for my sand sealed pulley today as well, so that'll be finding it's way onto the engine in the near future.
Still plenty to be done!!
Smiley 😀
Smiley ·
Got all the tinware bead blasted at work. It all cleaned up really well. But also showed the extent of the damage and cracks they has sustained over the years. I hit them with some red primer just to stop them rust until I can do the repairs then paint them properly.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
New seal showed up from Classic.
Installed it in the ring and then onto the engine. Tried the pull in place but didn't bolt it down. I still need to fit the under pulley tinware first.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Also rebuilt my dizzy with a new Ignitor II kit from Pertronix. The cap and the rotor button will be getting replaced as they are old.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Fitted up the rest of the wheel bearing stuff and the brakes.
But because I'm running early 5 stud brakes on the later trailing arms the drums aren't as wide, so some of the spline is sticking out.
Fortunately I discovered that the inner part of the old outer wheel bearing is the perfect size to use as a spacer. Please note, I will not be driving the car like this, it's just so I can put the wheels on and continue work on the car. I'll get one of the blokes in machine shop at work to make me up a proper pair of spacers.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Both sides done with the wheels fitted 😀
Look at this. Car jacked of the ground and no massive camber on the rear wheels! 😍 It's some kind of magic.
I'm liking the clearance with the car sitting on the bottom stops. 👍
Thanks for looking, I have a big day planned for tomorrow.
Smiley 🙂
11CAB ·
Looking Good Smiley
bajachris88 ·
Congrats mate 👍
will be ready for warrick in no time 😀
u takin the semi auto for a spin while this ones off the road?
hellbugged ·
Cool!......
try the bearing spacers out of your swing axle for the spacers.....
i had to weld some of the directional veins in the aftermarket fan shroud, might be worth looking at, depending on the quality
matberry ·
hellbugged wrote:Cool!......
try the bearing spacers out of your swing axle for the spacers.....
i had to weld some of the directional veins in the aftermarket fan shroud, might be worth looking at, depending on the quality
Or blob some polyurethane in so the panel doesn't get distorted but stops vibrations.
The swinger seal runners work fine for your axle/drum spacer.
Looking good man....you may want to think about upgrading cv's and notching spring plates for more down travel, but beware of shock length, doesn't take much and you need longer shocks and a relocated top mount, as the shock compression length needs to also suit at full bump. Now is the time to set it up.
At ride height you should have a minimum of 1/3 of your travel available in droop, 2/3rd's bump.
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:Or blob some polyurethane in so the panel doesn't get distorted but stops vibrations.
What brand of glue is this? Something heat resistant I assume?
matberry wrote:Looking good man....you may want to think about upgrading cv's and notching spring plates for more down travel, but beware of shock length, doesn't take much and you need longer shocks and a relocated top mount, as the shock compression length needs to also suit at full bump. Now is the time to set it up.
At ride height you should have a minimum of 1/3 of your travel available in droop, 2/3rd's bump.
I would love to go for some wild travel but it's really not necessary at the moment. That car is my daily driver and won't be racing the Baja 1000 anytime soon. So for to time being I'm going to leave her with the stock suspension.
I do need new rear shocks though, any recommendations?
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Ok. First this on the agenda today was fixing my second cracked framehorn.
All wirebuffed back to bare metal ready for welding. You can see there is a little dirt on the inside on the farmehorn through the crack. I cleaned all this out before welding to prevent weld contamination.
First thing I did was make sure that the horn hadn't moved out of it's location. Lots of measuring and a few 'tweaks' with the hammer and I welded up the crack. Then I made up a small plate to go over the area and welded that out too.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Once this was done I put the new heavy duty CB Performance gearbox mounts on the new transaxle and dropped it in place temporarily.
Cranky kit bolted straight up 😀👍
Then I was able to trail fit the new engine.
Looking good 😎
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I knew that things were going too well and my winning streak was broken when I trail fitted the new exhaust onto the engine.
All I can say is that it is massive!! It's probably half a metre higher than the one on the old engine.
I also run into some clearance issues with my barwork. With the LHS bolted up loosely the exhaust tip hits on the barwork on the RHS.
And this cradle is meant to fit over the exhaust tube next to it to support the muffler.
Overall I'm not very happy with the general fit and finish of the exhaust. It doesn't seem to fit together nicely, I think the tube size (1 5/8) is too large for my needs, you can't fit washers onto the flanges to bolt in on because the welds are in the way. It sticks up waaaay too high in my opinion and I don't really want to cut it or modify it because it's ceramic coated. The only plus side is that I got it for a very very good price as a sort of a bonus with the engine.
Not sure what I'm going to do at this stage.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Ok people. Another small update.
I started doing some additions to my barwork in order to help strengthen up my framehorns and stop them cracking again.
You can see what's happening here?
Still needs some trimming.
Ground to a prefect fit.
Here it is bolted onto the car.
What I'm going to do is remake the front tubes from my engine cage, they will run from the bar to the torsion housing. Then the rear half of the engine cage will have flanges added to it and bolt onto the back of the bar. Hard to explain, you'll understand once I have pictures.
I'm going to gain a number of good things from this. The bracing of the framehorns. I'll be able to put a jack under there for lifting the car up. The engine cage is going to be easier to remove then the current design. The bar is the lowest point of the car, so it'll cop the flogging instead of the transaxle or engine cases. And it's a nice solid place to mount a skid plate onto.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
And this afternoon I spent 2 hours fiddling with the tinware, starting to get it to fit better. I've only done the LHS Cylinder covers! And they still need more work. I must have had them on and off 10 dozen times trail fitting.
The LHS upper cylinder cover is actually in quite good condition. Only a few small cracks to fix up.
But there are a few gaps that I have to content with. Because the engine is a stroker nothing really fits very well.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
And the manifold doesn't fit down onto the head either because it jambs in the tinware.
What I ended up doing was shaving the manifold down slightly and reshaping the tinware a bit until it's a nice tight fit. That way I'm not losing any air out of big gaps.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
And with the gaps a little gentle and gradual tweaking with hammers and dollys. And slight bend with pliers etc etc. And I got things fitting much better.
I also took the times to hand file the casting marks and imperfections off the heads to give me a smoother surface and better seal.
The LHS is starting to fit very nicely now. The bottom shroud underneath still needs a little adjustment. Then I have to fix the crack and paint.
I'm not looking forward to doing the RHS. The tinware has a lot of cracks and some massive holes broken into it. Going to need some repairs before I even start trying to get it to fit.
That's all for now.
Thanks for reading.
More soon.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
More stuff has been done.
Whilst shuffling through my new bits I noticed that the oil filter stand didn't have a very nice sealing surface on it. So I took it to work and blocked it on one of the flat sanding plates we have.
I still have to figure out where to mount this, any ideas??
I also went and got a new pair of rear shocks cause the ones on the back of the car are no good anymore.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I finished off the LHS tinware last night and got the manifold and everything to fit nicely.
Lots of little cracks to weld up.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
And on to the RHS.
This side is very broken up and cracked.
Tack , tack ,tack.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
For the large holes where the screws are meant to go I got some panel washers and sat them in place.
I put all of the lower tinware on so the upper cylinder cover was held in the right position. Then I screwed it down with the large washers in place. Weld them on, bit of a clean up and it's looking good 👍
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
What started out looking like this.
Now looks like this, and is much stronger.
I also had to repair the other end too.
But now all the cylinder tinware fits nice and seals well!!
More than a few hours labour.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
So now it's time to start making the fanhousing fit.
It's quite gappy, but I was expecting to have to tweak the upper cylinder covers a bit anyway.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
With a little grinding, bending, tapping and 'persuasion' I've got the fanhousing sitting down nicely. The only issue was the larger gap at the end where the bolt goes through. And only on one side.
Which was quickly sorted. 🥷
The gap on the opposite side is fine.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
So the fanhousing fits nicely now. I just need to sort out the dump vent for the oil cooler and everything will be getting painted. Rattle can for the time being, powder coated when I get the time and money.
And I couldn't resist dropping the carbies into place to see how it looks 😀 Can't get the smile off my face. 😍
Smiley 🙂
DubCrazy ·
been buzy while i was away young man, u still on the right time frame for warrick?? cant wait to see and see how she goes. nice job...
steff........
matberry ·
Good work Smileyman. I'm glad people get to see the effort that is necessary for this type of work, and what most workshops need to address.
Don't forget these little additions, important in my opinion
AJPerkins ·
What a read mate! A great thread. You have more talent in your little finger than I will ever have! 👍
Smiley ·
DubCrazy wrote:been buzy while i was away young man, u still on the right time frame for warrick?? cant wait to see and see how she goes. nice job...
I certainly hope so! I'll being pushing her if I have to but she'll be there!! How was the trip away? You'll have to take the weekend off and drive your little beast down to Warwick too!
matberry wrote:Good work Smileyman. I'm glad people get to see the effort that is necessary for this type of work, and what most workshops need to address.
You aren't wrong! I probably have nearly 10 hours in the tinware alone!
matberry wrote:Don't forget these little additions, important in my opinion
Are these on the underside of the head?? And what is the second picture of? I can't quite make it out properly.
AJPerkins wrote:What a read mate! A great thread. You have more talent in your little finger than I will ever have! 👍
Thanks for the kind words 😊
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
Yes, Smiley, top pic is underside of head, second pic is looking into barrel cover fitted, the little air vane near the fan shroud mounting screw isn't fitted to new tinware. They make stacking the product less effective. lol
bajachris88 ·
update update update 👍😂!!!
your so close Daniel!
You gotta have this ready for Warrick...
I've got a rwc inspection booked in tomorrow morning so we can cruise in early october 👍
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:Yes, Smiley, top pic is underside of head, second pic is looking into barrel cover fitted, the little air vane near the fan shroud mounting screw isn't fitted to new tinware. They make stacking the product less effective. lol
No worries. I'll make a set up at my next convenience 👍
And I don't need to worry about the upper cylinder covers, I'm using some stock ones that I've fixed up. But it's something I'll keep in mind if I have to use new ones at some stage.
Thanks again for your help Matt, I look forward to meeting you at Warwick and seeing your Baja up close in the flesh.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:update update update 👍😂!!!
your so close Daniel!
You gotta have this ready for Warrick...
I've got a rwc inspection booked in tomorrow morning so we can cruise in early october 👍
So close yet so far!
Now that yours is done you can pop up and help me get mine finished off!!
Just make sure yours is nice and running sweet and I'll see you at Warwick.
I'm off to do more welding!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I painted up the backing plates and fan and assembled the alternator. So I could make sure that the fanhousing was sitting in the right place when it bolted down.
When sitting down it still had a slight gap underneath it. I ground a little more off the bottom of the fanhousing where it was sitting down on the block. After this it sits down nicely and the fanhousing bolts up well.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Last thing on the tinware list was the oil cooler dump vent.
The new ones that came with my fanhousing were complete rubbish. Not even worthy of the recycling bin in my opinion. The fit is horrible and doesn't bolt up to the fanhousing nicely at all. Not to mention the fact that the two halves of the vent don't even fit together in the slightest!!
I went for a scrounge through the stash up top and dug out a nice pair of factory items. The fit is far superior.
Here they are bolted onto the fanhousing.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
One issue I ran into was how to hold the bottom half of the vent steady, as I am not running the front breast plate on the engine that would normally support this piece.
So I bent the inside lip down a little further.
And borrowed some metal from this useless heap of junk.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
A weld here and a weld there.
And we have a neat little support tab that sits onto the upper cylinder cover.
Then all I did was drill a hole and weld a nut on the inside of the tinware.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Ok. Now onto what I did tonight.
I finally managed to get my new support tubes bent up right. I got them back yesterday and they weren't bent as far as I wanted so dad was kind enough to take them back down today and get them bent to where I wanted.
Blue is new, black is the old setup.
I made a cardboard template so I could work out what length I needed to cut it to. It's so much easier to mock up with card and cut with scissors when lying under the car.
Once everything was the right length I cut the clamps off the old bars, cleaned them up and welded them to the new ones.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Here is the tube sitting in place with magnets.
It clears the trailing arm at full droop (which is what the car is currently sitting at). These tubes should give me heaps of strength in my rear barwork (which is good if I want to tow a trailer), give me somewhere to mount a skid plate to and help stiffen up the framehorns some more.
And all welded. It unbolts and comes off easy. But the plan is to not have to remove it ever, until I want to upgrade my down travel of course 😂
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Last thing I did tonight was start to get the cage to fit back up again.
Trimmed the tubes to the correct length and bolted the under mounts in place.
I just need to make some plates up and weld them on, then drill some holes and weld nuts on the back.
Still plenty to do!! More soon.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
All of the tinware except the fanhousing has now been painted.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Finished making the lower rear cage mounts.
I still need to round and smooth the plates off.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I took the rear crossmember off and trimmed the ends to length and smoothed them off.
Then it was cleaned and straight to the 'paint booth' 😀
Along with the transaxle mount.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I fitted the Under pulley tinware, then the sand-sealed pulley.
And all of the cylinder cover tinware has been fitted for the final time! I got some pretty allen button headed stainless bolts for it. As well as spring washers to stop them vibrating loose. Everything went on without any dramas, it'd want to given the hours I spent making the tinware fit!!
I've also fitted the long reach plugs that my old man picked up for me today.
I have new CV boots and rear flexible brake hoses coming from Mick Motors. And the local brake shop is making me up new hard lines for on the diagonal arms.
A friend of mine from work and fellow VW enthusiast has kindly rebuilt the CVs and axles for the car (just waiting on the boots)
I had a good long chat to Mr Penrose yesterday on the cam break in and engine run in procedure. Also discussed carby jetting, service intervals among other things. Lots more infor for my tiny brain to try and take in 🤪
I still have a list as long as my arm of stuff that needs to be completed, but I feel like I'm starting to knock down the brunt of it. I now have less that 2 weeks before I'll be on the road to Warwick (driving down the Thursday night). And I need to get the engine started ASAP and driving so I can run it in and get some kms on it before driving +2000km down to Warwick. I want at least 1000k on the car before we go so I can give it a major service and valve set before we leave.
Well that's me for tonight, lets do it all again tomorrow shall we?
Smiley 🙂
bajachris88 ·
yay! gonna burn rubber all the way down to warrick 😂
I haven't got the underpulley tinwear fitted, is that something i should really get on top of?
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:yay! gonna burn rubber all the way down to warrick 😂
I haven't got the underpulley tinwear fitted, is that something i should really get on top of?
If you're running a stock pulley then it's a must.
A lot of dirt/sand/etc gets flicked onto the back of the pulley and can get drawn into the engine by the spiral groove that keeps the oil in. Because I have a sand sealed pulley it's not really as important but I put it on for a little bit of extra protection. Plus it also helps support your cylinder cover tinware and oil breather tubes.
Smiley 🙂
bajachris88 ·
ah i c! i got a sand seal, thats no worries (slip in style, no machining).
i did notice though that the upper tinwear was a little 'loose' fitting. will fish through the spares and see if i still got it lol.
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:ah i c! i got a sand seal, thats no worries (slip in style, no machining).
I'm running the same style. I really like the degreed pulley that came with the kit too. Makes setting the timing a breeze.
Smiley 🙂
bajachris88 ·
You do have some pretty flash hardware 👍
you'll have to give me a demonstation when you come on down to warrick. not sure if i'm game to ask what the bill was lol. None the less worth it 👍, many years of trouble free motoring are ahead of ya.
I like your bar work on the rear, that'll surely keep the stress outta those rear forks. Now you just need a boat to tow with ya to Fraser 🙂
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:You do have some pretty flash hardware 👍
you'll have to give me a demonstation when you come on down to warrick. not sure if i'm game to ask what the bill was lol. None the less worth it 👍, many years of trouble free motoring are ahead of ya.
I like your bar work on the rear, that'll surely keep the stress outta those rear forks. Now you just need a boat to tow with ya to Fraser 🙂
No worries. We'll have to go for a cruise after racing stops on Saturday or something.
And I don't need a boat, It's for pulling out bogged 4WDs😂😂😂
I'm also planning on adding a 3 bar Kafer kit if Craig ever messages me back.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Unfortunately I was away this weekend from Friday till Sunday at a Rover activity in Emerald. Then when I got back I was sick as a dog all of last night 😠
I managed to get a little bit more done this afternoon when I was feeling better.
I sanded back the fanhousing on Friday before I left and my dad was kind enough to paint it for me while I was away.
Sanded back.
And primed then painted, and here it is fitted to the engine with the alternator. I had to reshim the fan a little because it was rubbing once everything was bolted down.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
New clutch and accelerator cables fitted (isn't this an annoying job), new hardlines on the diagonal arms and new flexible brake hoses.
Then I fitted the gearbox and framehorn cross member.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Then I fitted up the manifolds, carbs and linkage kit.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
This is the stock mount that came with my oil filter housing. It mounts off the exhaust studs. I don't mind the location, I'm just a little worried about it hanging too low and copping rocks from the LHS rear wheel. What do you people think?? I think I'll just run with it for now and put a foam stubby cooler over it.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Then I got to work on modifying my exhaust.
First think I found was you couldn't even do the nuts down properly due to the welds being in the way. So a little tickle with the grinder and a smooth off with the file sorted that issue.
I cut the ends of the exhaust tubes down to try and minimize the height of the system.
Then I cut the collector off the muffler.
It'll be welded on like this.
That's all I got down this afternoon. Still plenty of little jobs to be done.
I'm picking up my CVs and axles tomorrow, and need to drill and tap the Type 3 dipstick plate for my temp sender. But if all goes to plan I'd like to start the engine on Wednesday. Not long now till Warwick!!!
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
Crikey mate, you didn't like the slip joints did ya. Yeah.....yeah.....too high. Might be awkward fitting once all welded together, hopefully it will flex enough.
Good work, make it how you want it 👍
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:Yeah.....yeah.....too high. Might be awkward fitting once all welded together, hopefully it will flex enough.
Yeah, too high. And it'll fit, I'll make it fit 🤘
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Also, I'm fitting flanges to the J-pipes so it's easier to fit number 1 and 3 exhaust tubes. If that's what you meant. I'll be able to put the rear half on the bolt the tubes onto the front.
Then I just need to work out how and where my muffler is going 🤪
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Now where were we? Exhaust!
Here is the collector sitting in place ready to be welded.
After three of the pipes were tacked into place I removed one of the tubes so I could weld out the others more easily. It was just more of a pain in the ass to weld the last one, but got there in the end.
Then I cut the J-tubes off and added in the flanges a wanted (can you tell I don't like slip joints yet?)
Now I just need to sort out the muffler orientation once the engine and cage are fitted 👍
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
And I couldn't resist throwing the engine into the car, even if it's only temporary. I wanted to make sure the carbies and aircleaners were going to clear the body.
I had to removed the top plate and element of the filters, but beside from that the whole engine just slots neatly into place. Got to love a Baja for ease of access 😀
I'm not sure if the tops of the aircleaners are going to clear my engine scoop, but that's a hurdle we'll overcome if the issue arises.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Engine back out!
Got the vents on the back fitted up nicely. Had to get a little foam to seal some of the gaps.
While the donk was out these came out of the little baggies 😀
Axles in!
Smiley 🙂
SebastienPeek ·
Nice work Smiley!
Looking great, when you reckon it'll be back on the road?
I have to admit, I love that colour on the engine. It is awesome!
Smiley ·
Engine bolted back in with exhaust.
Cage added.
This is the room I have to fit a muffler in.
I'm sure I can make is fit. More pictures on that in a minute.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
SebastienPeek wrote:Nice work Smiley!
Looking great, when you reckon it'll be back on the road?
Thanks man. I'm hoping to start the new engine for the first time tomorrow and run the cam in. Then I'll be driving as much as I can from there. Still lots of work to be done first. Might have to bleed those brakes too...😂
SebastienPeek wrote:I have to admit, I love that colour on the engine. It is awesome!
Thanks. To be honest it's just primer grey. Which matches the colour I've had other parts on the car powdercoated. I'm going to get the engine tins and barwork powdercoated in the same grey down the track too.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
With the rear cage fitted I ran into this awkward situation.
The external oil filter doesn't clear the barwork 😬
The supplied bracket hangs too low.
So I'm going to make a new one tomorrow that'll lift the filter up a little and tilt it clockwise slightly to keep the hoses aimed under the exhaust and at the pump.
Plan is for it to sit around about here.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Another clearance concern of mine was the top of the new aircleaners to the baja engine scoop.
As you can see in the pictures there's plenty of room.
The same can't be said for my old engine cage and the new exhaust though. And this is without the muffler bend on the top. Mattberry would be proud of the height 😂😂
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
A few more little jobs ticked off the list.
New rear shocks fitted.
Oil pressure switch and pressure sender fitted.
Oil temp sender fitted, had to drill and tap the Type 3 dipstick plate.
Dizzy fitted.
Smiley 😀
Smiley ·
I said I'd get back to the muffler right?
Plan is for it to hang here like this. All I need to do is can the tube off the top and basically weld it on 180° from where is is now. And make a new support for down the bottom somewhere. And make cut the tip off to stop morons melting their knees on it, namely me!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Things still left to be done.
Make new filter mount.
Put oil in transaxle and engine.
Connect shifter coupler to gearbox.
Bleed brakes.
Install and adjust handbrake.
Plug holes in manifolds.
Add proper spacers under axle nuts.
Modify muffler to fit.
Mount coil to firewall.
Fit leads and engine wiring.
etc etc etc etc.
What have I missed? Any more ideas?
Smiley 🙂
BlueV2 ·
Not sure if it matters that the external oil filter is on an angle, but I would want good clearance between the hoses and the exhaust. That is the hotest part of the exhaust, and you wont find out about the leak until you have been running hard down the freeway for a while. I am sure you have all that covered though :-). Its all looking really good.....well done.
Smiley ·
Ok. Here's what I did Thursday night.
New bracket for the oil filter was made.
I cut down a stubby cooler and made a NASA spec rock deflection apparatus 😀
Made up the oil hoses and fitted them. I discovered yesterday that I put them on around the wrong way, and have since swapped them correctly.
There is quite a bit of clearance to the exhaust, but I'm also going to put some exhaust wrap on the section near the hoses. I will try to get some heat sheathing for the hoses at work too.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Coil has been mounted to the firewall. A few reasons for this. It's not going to vibrate loose, it's mounted in out of the weather, plus I didn't want to mount anything on my pretty fanhousing 😀
Fuel lines and wiring was completed. Still needs a massive tidy up and waterproofing.
I got a heap of some P-clamps from work in order to tidy up the fuel lines and wiring. Here is one I put in place to hold the #3 and 4 leads up off the exhaust. It looks very neat.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Still on Thursday night. I got in and got the exhaust finished off.
As luck would have it I had an exhaust bend lying around that was perfect for my needs. I was going to mound the muffler like this.
This orientation had the tip poking out nicely from under the back of my cage. But I was unhappy with the way the muffler and top bend were sitting. And I discovered if I spun the muffler 180° and faced the tip towards to front of the car the fit was much better.
The bend was trimmed to length and tacked in place. Then tried on the car.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Welded out 👍
I had to spin the tip 180° and weld it back on. I also trimmed in right back too. Still hangs a little low for my liking. Time will tell to see if it catches on anything.
You can also see in the picture that the exhaust is higher than the fanhousing ❗❗ Mattberry eat your heart out 😂😂
I even managed to use the factory style clampy mount to support the bottom of the muffler from vibrating. Please excuse the dodgy weld. I did this one just after I ran out of gas on the MIG. Luckily enough I got everything else welded before I run out.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Yesterday afternoo I had a couple of little wiring issues to finish. New oil pressure sender. Then I added oil. Roughly set the timing. Cranked her over till I got oil pressure. Then started her and run the cam in!!!
Here's a few pictures of me running the cam in. I've bought a tacho for the car and I wired it up to the coil, so that's what I'm watching.
And here's a couple of quick movies my dad took. Engine sounds tough. between 2500-300RPM it's not super loud, which I'm stoked with because that's where it'll be sitting when driving to work on the highway. She ran quite well given I haven't touched the carbies.
Enjoy! I'm off to tune the carbies and set the timing 😀
Smiley 🙂
SebastienPeek ·
Smiley!
Seems someone has definitely been busy!
That oil filter is great, that mount is even better!
That exhaust mounting is looking tough, and sounds even tougher.
Glad you're getting there, can't wait to see a video of it in action roaming around a forest somewhere! 😀
Oh, and your wiring job, excellent in keeping in bloody tidy!
Looks awesome.
11CAB ·
Good to see its getting close 🙂 Fraser isnt far away
Josh turned 16 today and got to add this to his Baja...... 🙂
Smiley ·
SebastienPeek wrote:Oh, and your wiring job, excellent in keeping in bloody tidy!
Looks awesome.
Hahahahaha. You most be joking right?
It's horrible. I can't wait to tidy it up, cover it and get it clamped out of the way neatly.
Also going to add a plug at the firewall so I don't need to disconnect any wires to pull the engine, just unplug and drop on the ground.
11CAB wrote:Good to see its getting close 🙂 Fraser isnt far away
Josh turned 16 today and got to add this to his Baja...... 🙂
Sweet! Is she going to be all ready for Fraser? Are you going to Warwick next weekend?
And I love the plates, your son must be stoked. Wish I had a Baja that good at his age!
Smiley 🙂
Anthiron ·
This is looking great Smiley! I like what you have done with the exhaust. The wiring loom plug is a great idea. I might have to steal that one.
OZ Towdster ·
Looking good mate , r you staying down for the week between Warwick and Fraser or heading home between ?????
SebastienPeek ·
Smiley wrote:
SebastienPeek wrote:Oh, and your wiring job, excellent in keeping in bloody tidy!
Looks awesome.
Hahahahaha. You most be joking right?
It's horrible. I can't wait to tidy it up, cover it and get it clamped out of the way neatly.
Also going to add a plug at the firewall so I don't need to disconnect any wires to pull the engine, just unplug and drop on the ground.
Definitely not joking, so much better than my setup that is for sure!
Yeah, that definitely sounds like a good plan. Will make removing an engine from a baja even easier! :P
Smiley ·
OZ Towdster wrote:Looking good mate , r you staying down for the week between Warwick and Fraser or heading home between ?????
Unfortunately I don't have enough holidays so I have to go home for the week. Are people from the Manx Club meeting up on Friday morning again and cruising down? Dad and I are driving down Thursday night and if we time it right we can meet up with you guys and join the convoy.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Smiley wrote:Things still left to be done.
Make new filter mount.
Put oil in transaxle and engine.
Connect shifter coupler to gearbox.
Bleed brakes.
Install and adjust handbrake.
Plug holes in manifolds.
Add proper spacers under axle nuts.
Modify muffler to fit.
Mount coil to firewall.
Fit leads and engine wiring.
etc etc etc etc.
What have I missed? Any more ideas?
Smiley 🙂
All done!
Smiley ·
Ok!!
What a weekend it's been.
Car is done and running. I've driven it. And my first comment it HOLY POWER BATMAN!!!! It is a hoot to drive!
My second thoughts are, the handling is sensational. A million times better than the swinger. The IRS conversion should have been done when I built the car. It no longer wobbles around like a duck wagging it's tail when I hit bumps on the road. So long swing axle!!
I spent a while yesterday finishing off all the jobs on my list. Adjusted and bled brakes, put oil in the gearbox, swapped the right spacers under the axle nuts, etc etc. Lots of little jobs.
One issues I did have was that I could only get 3rd and 4th gear after I connected up the shifter coupling.
I traced this problem to the dimple in the gear selector shaft. Because the box is out of a type 3 the dimple in the shaft is on the underside. Guy that gave my the box redrilled the dimple on the top side for use in a beetle.
Problem was the dimple was a mm or 2 out of the right spot. Even this tiny amount completely stuffed the shifter adjustments. All I did was flip the coupler over and screw the set screw into the factory dimple. Was a little tight to get my hands in there but we got there in the end. I get all the gears perfectly now.
I also have this awkward situation.
Haven't even driven her yet and she's leaking oil in true Volkswagen style! I have few small weeps from some of the fittings. Nothing major, I'll fix them on the next oil change.
I do have one oil leak that is a little more annoying. Seems that the oil cooler is leaking. Not sure if it's seals or the cooler itself, I haven't had the fanhousing off yet. The seals are new so I'm thinking the cooler might be buggered. Good excuse to buy a new one? It's leaking a little oil into the fanhousing, which the fan is doing a fantastic job of distributing from one end of the engine to the other. 😬 Needs a wash now. I think I'll order a brand new cooler and swap it straight on. Fins that aren't bend over or full of rocks are going to help the cooling anyway.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
While tuning yesterday things didn't seem quite right. So I got some spray out and sprayed around the carbies. Sure enough one of them seems to have a vacuum leak. I pulled it off the car and it was leaking from this gasket here.
The things are brand new!!! I pulled it apart and added a tiny smear of gasket maker to both sides of the leaking gasket. Put it all back together and Bob's your uncle. I pulled the other side off and did it too just in case.
Other than that the carbies seemed to tune up quite well. Still needs some fine tuning but we'll get there. I think it's running quite rich at idle. I drove down the Gladstone today, 300km round trip. Before I left to come back I stopped at Red Rooster drive through to get some lunch, was sitting there probably 5-10 minutes with the car idling. When I left and was driving though town the car was missing and backfiring. I think I fouled the plugs up. Got her out on the highway and it wasn't long before the plugs cleaned out and she was running sweet again. Same thing happened as I was driving through Rockhampton, just from stopping at the lights. Must be running quite rich to do this so quickly.
Aside from that the car drove very well today. Oil temp sat between 75 and 85°C and oil pressure remained constant with no issues. Fuel consumption is around 10L per 100km. I'm sure this will get better when I sort the tune out and get everything running perfectly.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Well I've discovered where the leak was coming from. I thought it was coming from the oil cooler in the fanhousing. Turns out that the side covers on the gearbox are leaking from the gaskets, oil is getting onto the inner CVs and being flicked onto everything.
At this stage it looks like I might not be driving her down to Warwick. I'm not sure if I have time to pull the engine and box to fix the leaks as well as get the engine running properly. 😬😬😬😬😬😬
Smiley 🙁
Anthiron ·
That's not good news 🙁
bajachris88 ·
Still time Daniel!!
you don't even have to pull the motor or gearbox out!
I believe in you!
matberry ·
You can do it Smiley !!!!!
DubCrazy ·
Smiley wrote:Well I've discovered where the leak was coming from. I thought it was coming from the oil cooler in the fanhousing. Turns out that the side covers on the gearbox are leaking from the gaskets, oil is getting onto the inner CVs and being flicked onto everything.
At this stage it looks like I might not be driving her down to Warwick. I'm not sure if I have time to pull the engine and box to fix the leaks as well as get the engine running properly. 😬😬😬😬😬😬
Smiley 🙁
bugger and damn it!!!
i did say it as there sorry i was right... no need to drop the engine and box to do it tho, go on you can make it!!!.
steff....
dangerous ·
Nice to meet you again at Warwick dude.
Hope you guys enjoyed the week end and had a safe trip.
Now, back to work so you can race it next year!
Smiley ·
dangerous wrote:Nice to meet you again at Warwick dude.
Hope you guys enjoyed the week end and had a safe trip.
Now, back to work so you can race it next year!
Likewise Dave.
I think I might have a go next year, might need you to build be a stronger box if she's going to survive the weekend for the drive back home!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Ok. Long time no post. I sort of dropped off the radar at the end of last week cause I was flat out fixing the car to get her ready to drive down to Warwick.
Well she made it, and averaged 9.3L/100km on the way too! Which I'm reasonably happy with given she still needs a little fine tuning. It was about a 2000km round trip for us, that includes the driving around on the weekend that we did.
Here's what I did on Wedneday night/Thursday before we left.
I'd suspected that the oil cooler was the source of the leaks, So I bought a new one. Turned out to be the gearbox and the cooler was fine. So I though, what the hell, might as well throw it on. It's in better nick than the old one and half the fins aren't bent or clogged, plus it has nice sealy foam 😀
Here's the old one with the fanhousing off, oil everywhere!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Here's the real culprit of the oil leaks!!
Bloody gearbox!
Removed CVs and axles, circlips and flanges. You can see the new stub axle seals that I fitted, these weren't the source of the problem, it was the O-rings on the side covers.
I removed all the nuts but had an issue on the RHS because the starter was in the way. So off with the cranky kit.
The other problem I had was that the side covers wouldn't fit off the end of the studs because the frame horns were in the way. So I had to remove the bottom 2 studs on bother sides. Then the covers came out easy peasy.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Inside the box was quite sludgy. The side cover too. And the O-ring was old and very hard. It immediately broke into 3 pieces when I tried to remove it with a seal pick.
I cleaned the sludge off the side covers while I had them out. But I'm not sure about the inside of the box. Is this because it's been sitting for a while? Is there some sort of cleaner I can add to the oil then do a change?
New O-rings fitted with a smear of rubber grease.
For those that want to see a VW diff 👍
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
All back together. Other side is the same but no starter in the way.
Then I did a valve set. Because the engine has chromoly pushrods the valve clearance is set at 0-0.001"
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Then I had to sort out my fuel pressure.
I bought an adjustable fuel pressure regulator from Mick Motors. Couple of fittings and she was ready to fit up.
And it when from this..
...to this.
I also fitted a gauge to double check that the regulator was accurate. I'm happy to report that it is. The pump was putting out around 4psi, way too much for Kadrons. So it's now regulated back to 1.5psi 👍
Final setup looks good. The regulator helps hold the lines in place where it is mounted. Much neater than the cable tie I had on previously!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
So she made it down to Warwick. No issues at all. Aside from the massive play in the steering 🤪
Pulls like a freight train on the highway, it's so good to actually have enough power to overtake people when you need to. Just about all hills were taken in top gear no worries.
A little loud but no worse than the old engine. Might have to finish my sounds deadening and maybe add some carpets 😂
And here she is trying her best to win something in the show and shine, hahahahahahaha, that's laughable!!!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
While we were down for Warwick dad and I stayed with my grandma. She lives in Killarney, the next town over, about 20 minutes drive.
Sunday afternoon once we headed back after racing finished I decided to hit up a little track the 11cab showed my last year.
Pretty mild track, a few steep bits and a few rocky bits. I ran into a mud hole near the top and decided to turn around and come back. I was by myself and she really has no clearance under the front at the moment. And I didn't want to rip the track up any more than it was.
Here's a few pictures. Great views from up the top.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Since changing the car to IRS I haven't had a chance to really cycle the suspension and see how it goes. So when I got near the bottom of the track I found a mound and flexed her out. I'm glad to report that the travel is good and she hits the stops on both directions 😀
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Ok. Back to work!!
After we got back from Warwick dad and I noticed that both the front tyres have worn on the inside edge.
The front end has been needing attention for some time now. The King and Link pins at all worn and she has some play in the steering box. Clearly given the wear the camber is way out and the castor is no good either. So I decided to get some bits together and get it sorted out before Fraser next week.
Last time I order bits from the states a few months ago I also ordered new king pin and link pin kits. So I have all the parts ready to rebuild the spindles. Rather than take the car off the road for a few days I opted to find a nice pair from the parts collection i have here at home and rebuild them ready to swap on.
Today at work I pressed the old king pins out and completely disassembled the stub axles. The carrier and stub axle were both then sandblasted. I also went around to my local VW guy and he was kind enough to let me use his reamer for the king pin bushes.
I tapped the new ones in, cut and filed the slots into the upper bushes. then run the reamer through so now they're a perfect fit on the kind pin.
They need another tidy up and a wash then I'll paint them and reassemble with the new bits.
I'm also hoping to knock up another beam with adjusters in it over the weekend. Help get the front up out of the weeds. If all goes to plan I'll be able to swap the beam and and put the new carriers and stubs on too. I've also purchased new tie rod ends and am going to adjust the play out of the steering box.
More soon 😀
Smiley 🙂
ryana89 ·
Geez, you keep up the work on this thing, always love having a read of this thread.
In regard to the sludgy gearbox, (you may have heard of this method before).
We once had a Suby with a 'dirty/hard to use' box, so we drained the oil, replaced it with kerosine and went for a VERY short drive around the block, cycling through all the gear's once or twice.
Replaced the oil and never had trouble from it again. 🙂
Smiley ·
Kero you say?
Some might just go missing from work next week 🥷
Smiley 🙂
Anthiron ·
I have also done the Kero thing. I didnt take it for a drive though just let it soak over night. Then put some cheap thin oil in and take it for a quick spin then drain again and refill with Nulon additive and 90 weight trans fluid.
Smiley ·
Over the weekend the spindles and carriers were primed then painted to match the rest of the car.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Spindles were then assembled With the new king pins, link pin bushes and thrust washers.
I made up a new pair of tie rods to swap onto the car.
And got started on cleaning up this heap to repair back to it's former glory.
More soon.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Well it's been a few weeks without update. Thought I'd post up what's been going on.
I got stuck into fixing up that beam so that car was ready for Fraser.
This was the car's ride height with a stock beam fitted.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
And this is the car after the beam with adjusters was refitted.
I have to say that the new front end is fantastic. New link pins, king pins, tie rods, front tyres and an adjusted steering box. Took the car down for a laser 4 wheel alignment. Camber, castor and toe are set perfectly on all 4 corners.
The car drives like a brand new vehicle. Handles beautifully at any speeds on and off the road. Doesn't wobble or jitter or wander. And is very responsive. Has completely transformed the driving experience of the car. I'm stoked 😀
As far as the adjusters go. I only had them screwed up a little to begin with. But once the suspension settled a little and after she was fulled loaded for Fraser the front end dropped back down again. She was looking low for the first few days of Fraser until I dug the allen keys out and screwed the adjusters up as high as they go 🤘
Ride height and comfort was very good for the rest of the week at Fraser. The only issue I've found is now I've got the car back home and unloaded everything the front end is sitting on the stops. So I have no more suspension droop. I'm not super happy with this. Though I have got my spares and tools back into the front since I've cleaned the car out from Fraser. So I think it'll come down off the stops with this gear back in it and my ass sitting in the drivers seat.
I'm looking into fixing this anyway as I've dug out the set of Country Buggy spindles I bought a while back and am going to look at rebuilding them and putting them on the front.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
At some stage on Fraser (I have no idea when!)I managed to rip the cracked nosecone open. The piece is no doubt in the sand dunes somewhere.
Another thing for my old buggy Steff to repaint for me once it's repaired 😀
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
When I had the car lifted up with the wheels off cleaning everything, I noticed a dint in both rear shock towers. Turns out the upper front spring plate bolt has been running into the tower under compression. So I got some dome headed allen bolts and put them on. The low flat head on the clears the towers fine.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
On Fraser my engine cage mesh started to rattle off. So I used some handy cables ties to hold things back together. Just as I was about to cut the tails off, Dyno said, "Leave them man, it's looks cool"
So I did, and we have the first Baja with a magpie proof engine!!!
Then, my first week back at work, I come out after work one day and find this.
One of the guys at work decided that I hadn't done a good enough job of it so he did the rest of the car for me, front bumper, door handle, aerial. I had the cut the ones off the wiper arms cause I thought they might be a bit of a vision safety issue. I was quite impressed that he managed to colour match them and everything. 😂😂😂😂
I didn't really appreciate him touching my car, but it was all in good fun. I might grease his exhaust in a few months once he's forgotten about it 🥷
Smiley 🙂
beetleboyjeff ·
Trying to take off the beetle in the movie 'The Cars That Ate Paris'. It had big spikes all over it.
Google the movie - it is an Australian movie made ages ago - 50s or 60s I think. Not a marvelous movie, but the beetle looked cool. :-)
Bizarre ·
^^^^ was thinking the same thing
One of Australias all time weirdo movies 😀
Smiley ·
Just looked that up!!
hahahahahah, that car has a lot of pointy spikes all over it!!!
I think I'm going to trim all mine off anyway. I can hear them buzzing in the wind on the highway.
Smiley 🙂
11CAB ·
You need to cut off the standard front bump stops to get more height in the front. Have a look at the modified bump stops Dave runs on his Baja. I cut the stops off on my Manx
Smiley ·
I thought I had better post some pictures from Fraser 😀
I had such a great week.
Smiley 😀
Smiley ·
Smiley 😀
Smiley ·
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
This is the stretch that broke my CV 😊
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
WD40 is good deodorant as well as good for drying out drowned engines 😀
My favourite
Smiley 🙂
ryana89 ·
Smiley wrote:
1 of those 3 blokes standing out on the beach is my father!
Your Baja wasn't lop sided was it?
Small world.
🙂
11CAB ·
Dave's Baja was lopsided as he broke the R/H rear torsion bar just after he got onto Fraser for the week
11CAB ·
11CAB ·
Smiley ·
Yeah the broke car was Dave's Baja. Still made it to the cape and back with it broken though!!!
We fixed it once on Saturday night, then he broke it again on Tuesday halfway up to the cape. And we fixed it again on Wednesday morning. He has told me it still hasn't broken again yet, but he hasn't really driven it since we got back from the trip.
Smiley 🙂
Sandy ·
Can't believe it, but Dave's baja actually looks schmick!
(and I can't believe I'm using the term schmick🤪)
Smiley ·
Sandy wrote:Can't believe it, but Dave's baja actually looks schmick!
(and I can't believe I'm using the term schmick🤪)
Amazing what a paintjob can do 😀
Smiley 🙂
11CAB ·
Yeah Dave's Baja got a new paintjob and rack & pinion steering before the Fraser Trip
OZ Towdster ·
And it's .......................................... broken again
Smiley ·
Finally got my arse in gear and ordered a new CV and boot to replace the on I broke on Fraser.
This is the setup I've been running for the last +2000km or so since the incident. It's a Westwood design Heavy Duty offroad CV boot, now available for purchase at all Woolworths and Coles supermarkets. 😂😂😂😂😂
Here's the spare CV that Tratty lent me and the boot ring for the boot I ripped. I'm going to pull the CV down and check it out. I doubt there's much wrong with it aside for a little sand contamination.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I pulled the new CV out of the box and notice that it was a little tight and didn't move as freely as it should.
So I pulled it apart to check the surfaces out. They turned out to be quite rough and not to my liking so I hand sanded them smooth.
Before.
After.
I did the inner half too.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
All ready for reassembly.
After I put it back together it was nice and free and smooth in all movements.
Fitted to the car with a new boot.
That's all for now folks.
Planning some big improvements. More on that as it develops.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Ok. So I am currently going through performing a brake upgrade to the car. I'm also going to fit the Country Buggy front spindles that I have at the same time. Starting out with adding discs to the front, then I want to put them on the rear asap too.
First thing I did was pull the discs off a spare balljoint beam. These are a pretty common swap to fit onto the Kingpin with the right bearings and a caliper bracket that bolts on where the drum backing plate normally fits.
I also pulled out my CB bits which included all the drums and braking parts. And while I was going I pulled the front brakes off an old VN Commodore that dad had lying around.
Balljoint spindle.
Country Buggy spindle.
Country buggy drum, balljoint disc and Commodore disc.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
After taking about a million measurements off all three spindles and all three brakes, I came to the conclusion that there was no way that I could fit the balljoint disc onto the CB spindle. The spindle was too big for the hole through the disc, there wasn't much room left for a bearing!
Fortunately I discovered that the Commodore disc could be fitted to the CB spindle with the right bearings.
Commodore caliper sitting in place.
So I sat down and took another million measurements to order to work out where the caliper needed to be and did some drawings for caliper brackets.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
At this point I went and saw an engineer and spoke to him about what I wanted to do. He was happy with what I was going and I got the go ahead to carry on with the project and get it approved.
Blasted the calipers.
Bought some new discs, caliper rebuild kits, high tensile bolts, high temp paint, bearings, etc etc.
Here's a picture of the caliper bracket bolted in place with the caliper pivot sitting in the correct location. Obviously the real ones won't be made of cardboard 😂 I'm having them CNC plasma cut.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Time to clean the caliper pivots up ready for paint.
I can't have this blasphemy written on parts going on my Baja!!!
Grinder made should work of that. But while I had it out I got a little carried away and smoothed off all of the steel casting flash and seams.
And soon they looked like this. I'm going to bake these and the calipers in the oven tomorrow to cure the paint correctly.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
While I was getting carried away smoothing things I decided that the calipers needed to be done too.
And then I got one spray out of the can of high temp paint before the nozzle clogged 😬 Couldn't get it going again so I'm going to take it back tomorrow and swap it for a new one.
That's all for now. More soon.
Smiley 🙂
Bone ·
Should be a great improvement brake wise. You wont know yourself after having baja drums all round. (full of sand and mud) Will you run 15x6 commodore rims on front ?
Smiley ·
Bone wrote:Should be a great improvement brake wise. You wont know yourself after having baja drums all round. (full of sand and mud)
Yeah. I can't wait. Am over adjusting the drums all the time and them wearing out so quickly! The good thing about the Commodore bits is that replacement parts are so cheap!
Bone wrote:Will you run 15x6 commodore rims on front ?
That's the plan. Might have to tweak the offset a little to get them under the car as much as possible. The CB stubs add a fair bit to the track. Plan is to do the fronts, run Commodore rims there and my normal Baja ones on the back for now. Then get to work on putting the Commodore stuff on the back as soon as I can. Then I will have Commodore stud pattern front and back and can eventually look into getting a nice (light!) set of mags.
Smiley 🙂
Bone ·
Sounds good. Their cheap and plentiful !
Anthiron ·
Following your brake build smiley. Looks like the goods so far.
If it all works and you don't mind I would love a copy of the list of compenents etc.
Smiley ·
Anthiron wrote:Following your brake build smiley. Looks like the goods so far.
If it all works and you don't mind I would love a copy of the list of compenents etc.
No worries man. If you decide to go ahead with it I'd love to help you out. I can get a set of caliper brackets made or even do a up a full brake conversion kit for you. Remember this is only for Country Buggy spindles though.
PM me if you are interested.
Smiley 🙂
Joel ·
I need to stop reading this thread, makes me want a Baja too much again
SebastienPeek ·
I agree Joel, I agree.
I'm thinking the next bug I buy will become a Baja, unless it already is 🙂
Smiley ·
I'll take those both as compliments! Thanks chaps 😀
I went out offroading in her again all of yesterday at a local spot. The car is such a pleasure to drive with the new engine. Just hop in and drive. So reliable.
I've done almost 10000km in the last 2 months, so she's certainly seeing some miles.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I managed to get a new can of paint on Friday. Nice and blue 😀
I also did the outward facing area of the new caliper pistons.
Then bake on a low heat for one hour, or until your mum asks WTF is in her oven 😂😂
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Then reassemble with new seals and bolts. Always remember, when lubricating seals for the braking system, the only thing you use is new brake fluid.
With any luck my calipers brackets and spacers will be CNC plasma cut this week and I can put everything together for a final check over. Then I just need to work out how to rebuild these Country Buggy spindles so I can fit everything to the car.
That's all for now, more soon.
Smiley 🙂
Anthiron ·
Hi Smiley
Yeah as you probobly know I am Chasing down a set of CB spindles.
I probobly will put them aside when I get my hands on some as there are more pressing things to spend money on atm.
But when the time comes I will PM you.
Finding your build very inspirational.
Cheers
Nicko
Smiley wrote:
Anthiron wrote:Following your brake build smiley. Looks like the goods so far.
If it all works and you don't mind I would love a copy of the list of compenents etc.
No worries man. If you decide to go ahead with it I'd love to help you out. I can get a set of caliper brackets made or even do a up a full brake conversion kit for you. Remember this is only for Country Buggy spindles though.
PM me if you are interested.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Anthiron wrote:Hi Smiley
Yeah as you probobly know I am Chasing down a set of CB spindles.
I probobly will put them aside when I get my hands on some as there are more pressing things to spend money on atm.
But when the time comes I will PM you.
Finding your build very inspirational.
Cheers
Nicko
No worries man.
And I am loving the progress you are making on your car! I need to take a leaf out of your book and actually get stuck in a do some more mods to mine.
Smiley 🙂
Scarab ·
hey mate,
just thought Id drop in and say hi.....and congratulate you on the Baja.....looking the goods mate, and the brakes should be a huge imporvement!
keep up the great work!
Scarab (aka: Paul)
Smiley ·
It's a long story, but basically I broke the gearbox while offroading last Saturday. Currently stuck in 2nd gear with broken selector forks 🙁
So that's put a little bit of a handbrake on proceedings for the time being.
Despite being able to get another Type 3 box for nothing, I've decided to fit a Kombi box instead. I know that I would probably just break another Type 1 box, plus the ratios aren't very good for offroad use.
Luckily enough I happen to have a few Kombi boxes lying around. A 5-rib 1800 box was selected as it has the best ratios for offroad and highway use, remember this car is still my daily (when it's not broken)
Here it is ready for a degrease.
And after I scraped some of the sludge off it and a quick degreasing later.
The bellhousing still has some heavy gunk in it. I have to pull it off to cut the input shaft down anyway, so I'm going to take it to work and run it through the thermojet hot wash to get it nice and clean.
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
Had to happen, good decision going with the 1800.
Smiley ·
It wasn't long before I had the bellhousing off and the input shaft removed. The box was actually quite clean inside, and the oil wasn't burnt or smelly when I dropped it.
I've spoke to Dave Butler this afternoon and I've ordered a few bits that frequently wear out under the nose cone and are easy enough for me to replace by myself.
I'm also going to replace the CV flange seals and the main input shaft seal.
Another plus is that my Cranky kit bolts straight up to this box so I'll be able to continue using it.
Things are probably going to slow up for a while now, I'm hoping to have the box fitted before new years.
More soon.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:Had to happen, good decision going with the 1800.
I was hoping later rather than sooner 😂
It's only been in there 2 months, and only done about 10500km 😀
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Took my gearbox input shaft into one of the local brake places that happens to be into VWs. He was kind enough to allow me to use his lathe to trim the end down to the correct length for use with the Type 1 engine. Got to love fellow dubbers that are always willing to help out.
I also had a package show up today from Mr Dangerous Dave. Many thanks for the speedy service 😀
And I went down to Repco and rifled through their draws until I found some bushings that I liked. They are off a Ford Fairmont I think they said. Soon to be 10° transaxle mounts for a Baja Bug I told them!!!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Here is the bellhousing after the little clean up it got today at work. It's a shame I'm running on such a tight deadline otherwise I would have smoothed it and gotten rid of all the casting flash like I did on the calipers.
And now all pretty blue!!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I pulled the nose cone off the box and removed all of the shiftery bits. I have a new pivot ball and the shim plate ready to be fitted. I also picked up a new shifter shaft seal today too.
Hoping to maybe get the box back together this weekend 😀
More updates soon.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I installed a new shifter shaft seal in the nosecone.
And fitted a new swivel ball to the linkage. Plenty of grease.
Here's all the bits greased and reassembled. Ready to fit the shim plate and nosecone.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I reassembled the thowout arm back into the bellhousing and fitted it to the box. You can also see the cut down input shaft.
I also put new output flange seals and seal caps.
Box is ready to fit 👍
This was done by about lunchtime yesterday. So I decided to get carried away and rip into the car.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Didn't take long to go from this...
...to this.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
You can see in the previous picture that I removed the standard gearbox mounting cradle and just left the crossmember that I built in place. This will stop the framehorns from moving around. I'm going to fabricate my own 10° Kombi gearbox mount that will be welded to the top of the horns.
I sat the box in place to see how much clearancing would be required to get the box to fit.
Going to have to trim the framehorns where they are spotwelded together.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
The framehorns got trimmed down and then seam welded.
I also cut the factory front mount off the pan.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
You can now see the gearbox isn't sitting up on the framehorns anymore. It fits in between them and is resting on the two CV output flanges. I took a lot of measurements of where the CVs were located before I took the old box out so I can get the new one in the same location. But I found if I move the box back by 10mm I don't have to trim the shift rod at all. This also gives me a little more room for the clutch and accelerator cables to come pass the box on the LHS.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
One issue I did have was the reversing switch had no clearance to the framehorn and was contacting. I have my reverse light on a switch on the dash anyway, so I decided to cut the terminals and plastic switch housing off. I then removed the plunger from the inside and filled the hole left in the plug with silicon.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Time to start fabricating a new front transaxle mount. Using those EA Falcon front suspension bushes.
First make one of these to suit your Kombi mounting holes.
Then separate these.
Make some more plates with holes in them.
And voilà! Ready for welding. Make sure you remove the bushes after you tack the pieces in place. Otherwise they get a little melty.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I cleaned about a kilo of sand each out of the clutch and accelerator bowden tubes. And I fitted the box for about the millionth time to check clearances. I wanted to make sure that the bowden tube was going to have a nice bend in it and not run into the box too much. I'm happy to report that with the gearbox location I've chosen the stock Beetle tube is the perfect length and has the right bend in it and everything.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Last little update for tonight.
I go the last of the front gearbox mount fabbed up and welded onto the torsion tube. I'm happy to report that is works as it should and the box is in the right spot.
Now I just need to make up the rear mounts tomorrow afternoon and machine my axles to take a Type 2 CV on the inner side.
More updates as they come, thanks for reading.
Smiley 🙂
dangerous ·
Nice work dude!
Just a tip on fitting the kombi CVs.
Dont machine the axles, it weakens them.
Counterbore the CV inner race enough to get your circlips on.
bajachris88 ·
How friggen brilliant is that! 👍 Very happy to hear Daniel. Very tidy work. that mount looks like a very clean installation, mine was a bit of a mutilation job but did the trick. With your mount setup, because it looks pretty robust will you need to have a gearbox strap?
Bone ·
Thanks Dangerous for this tip as I was about to get the axles machined and will now do this instead.
BTY Dan , (pardon my ignorance) why do you fit the shim to the gearbox ?
Smiley ·
dangerous wrote:Nice work dude!
Just a tip on fitting the kombi CVs.
Dont machine the axles, it weakens them.
Counterbore the CV inner race enough to get your circlips on.
Do you machine on the inside (flange side) or outside (axle side of the inner CV piece? Or an even amount into both sides?
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Bone wrote:Thanks Dangerous for this tip as I was about to get the axles machined and will now do this instead.
BTY Daniel , (pardon my ignorance) why do you fit the shim to the gearbox ?
Dangerous Dave can probably explain it a lot better than I can (he recommended I fit one)
But from my understanding it just ensures your mainshaft bearings are held down into the intermediate housing. This eliminates some play from the input shaft and if there is any wear on your nosecone takes that play out too. Dave suggested I fit one as well as the swiveling ball that the hockey stick piece goes into, as these are easy enough pieces to fit at home to improve the shift quality of an older box.
Dangerous, if I've explained this completely wrong could you please correct me for those playing at home?? 😀
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Didn't get much done this afternoon.
I bolted the box in with the front mount in place and am happy to report that it shifts into all gears with easy. And I didn't have to modify the shift rod length one bit.
I started to make up some cardboard templates for the rear mounts. The bushes are going to mount directly above the framehorns.
I'm hoping to get these made up tomorrow afternoon and then I can start sorting out my CVs and axles.
I'm also picking up the prototype caliper brackets from the metalshop tomorrow. They are getting CNC Plasma cut first thing tomorrow.
More soon
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:How friggen brilliant is that! 👍 Very happy to hear Daniel. Very tidy work. that mount looks like a very clean installation, mine was a bit of a mutilation job but did the trick. With your mount setup, because it looks pretty robust will you need to have a gearbox strap?
Nope. No plans to run a strap. Wait till you see the rear mounts, they're going to be even better 😀
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
These are the start of the rear mounts. This plate will go in between the crossmember and the framehorn.
Once I get everything sorted out in the correct location I'm going to weld the little plate onto the back of the crossmember.
This is how where the bush is going to sit. The little front plate will be welded to the top of the framehorn.
I started cutting out the pieces that will attach the bellhousing to the top of the mount, but forgot to take pictures. With any luck I'll get these mounts sorted out and finished tomorrow. It's taking longer than I expected!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I also picked up my caliper brackets and spacers this afternoon. I'm very pleased with the fit and final finish of them. As soon as I get my gearbox conversion finished off I'm going to be back onto doing my brake and spindles upgrades.
Caliper bracket sitting roughly in place on the spindle.
And this is where the spacer goes.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Ok. time for an update.
I got my gearbox conversion done and finished on Christmas eve last Saturday. Then took the car for it's first drive with the new box Christmas afternoon.
Unfortunately I haven't really had a computer the last week so I haven't been able to update this thread.
So here goes.
Made these plates up for the rear gearbox mounts. They fit closely to the shape of the bellhousing and tie into the lower outer bellhousing bolts.
Then I made these little plates up and drilled some holes in the bellhousing for the blotsto go through.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
With everything bolted in plate I tacked the mounts together and fully welded them. I decided to weld the nuts because it was going to be a tight area to get into with a spanner and it's easy to just undo the bolts from inside the bellhousing now.
With the mounts coming together I mounted the gearbox back into the car and bolted it tight in position with the front mount. I put some 6mm plate underthe drive flanges to space it up off the framehorns for the correct height and made sure it was centred in the vehicle.
After much shaping and grinding of the mounts to fit the bush mounts. And pulling the box in and out a few more times. We ended up with this. Everything sitting in place ready to be welded.
After this I tacked the mounts together aswell as tacking the mounting plates to the top of the framehorns and the crossmember.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
At this point I removed the mounts and crossmember so I could weld them out. Then I went to remove the gearbox and ran into a little problem.
The tabs I added to the framehorns were preventing the box from being removed! I couldn't lift the gearbox high enough to clear them because the two ears on the top of the bellhousing that are your factory Kombi mounts were hitting into the firewall panel.
After much wiggling and jiggling I ended up having to remove the bellhousing into order to get the box out. Obviously I can't do this every time I want to remove the box so A solution needed to be found.
After the box was out I fully welded the mounting tabs in place then trimmed the tops of them down as much as i could to give me some more clearance.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I'm off to bed now. Will finish my updates some time this weekend. Thanks for looking.
Smiley 🙂
nils ·
Hey smiley, those mounts look kind of familar 😁
Nice work mate 👍
Smiley ·
nils wrote:Hey smiley, those mounts look kind of familar 😁
Nice work mate 👍
No prizes for guessing where my inspiration came from 😂
I hope you don't mind 😊, I don't see the point of reinventing the wheel if someone has already done a better job of it then you could ever do. When I decided to go with the 10° kit your setup was the first thing that came to mind, gotta be the best and simplest system ever!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Right. Now where did I leave off? Gearbox can't go in or out with the bellhousing on 😬
It didn't take me long to identify the factory Kombi mounting ears as the major part of the problem. They were running into the bottom corner of the firewall and not allowing the gearbox to be lifted up high enough.
So it didn't take long for this.
To look like this.
And then pretty blue again 😀
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
All the bits and the framehorns got a lick of paint.
And here it is all bolted back in the car. Removing the ears off the top of the bellhousing gave me enough room to fit the gearbox in one piece. You can see where I welded in an additional gusset plate on the mounts between the bushing tube and where it bolts to the bellhousing.
The stock length clutch cable is the perfect length as is the stock beetle bowden tube. Accelerator cable runs up and over the front of the gearbox into the fanhousing.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I have an early start tomorrow so I'm off. I'll post the last few pictures tomorrow night with any luck. Then we can start on the next upgrades 😀
Smiley 🙂
SebastienPeek ·
Damn Smiley, I come on and you've done so much to your baja!
Congratulations, can't wait to see Alyce back climbing hills.
You need to post some videos of her in action 😉
Smiley ·
SebastienPeek wrote:Damn Smiley, I come on and you've done so much to your baja!
Congratulations, can't wait to see Alyce back climbing hills.
You need to post some videos of her in action 😉
Thanks for the positive comments dude. There's no point sitting around, got to get in and do! The gearbox swap took me about a week. I'm back onto the brake upgrades now 😀
I actually went out offroading on Saturday and Sunday just gone. As far as actions movies, I'm been meaning to get some for a while now. I do have these 'action' pictures from when I went offraoing in Gladstone with Dubcrazy in Nov 2010.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Fortunately my Cranky kit bolts straight up to this Kombi box 👍 Still can't fault this setup, they are fantastic.
I was fortunate that the starter cleared my gearbox mounts. As I forgot to check this before welding it all together 😊 Lucky for me there's plenty of space 😀
The shifter coupling is all standard. And the shifter rod didn't have to be shortened. I didn't even have to adjust the gearstick on the tunnel!! It all just bolted up and shifts perfectly 👍
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Then it was time to sort out some CVs and axles. I'm running Kombi inner to match the box and Beetle outer to match the stub axles. I ended up have to machine the axles because my friends lathe wasn't tough enough to cut the inner CV part.
I pulled a set of Kombi axles of a spare box that I had lying around for the CVs. For those that are interested here is a side by side picture of the Beetle and Kombi axle sitting next to each other. You can see that the Kombi axle is a few inchs longer, and also has a longer splined section for the wider CV joint.
Out of the 4 CVs on those axles there was only one in good enough condition to use. Most of the had galling or bad wear. With the worst one looking like this ❗
Fortunately I had another bus at home that I could pull the axles out of. Of the 4 in it I only managed to get one good CV too!! Talk about a run or worn parts.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
It wasn't long before the axles were assembled greased and fitted to the car. The good thing is that I have 2 spare Type 1 CVs now in case I break another one 😊
I also fitted the earth strap here. As there was no where on the floorpan near the front of the gearbox to bolt it to, because of my front mount design. This is just a stock Kombi earth strap.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Next issue that I ran into was that I couldn't get my big allen key onto the fill bung in the side of the box. Because of the angle the framehorn is in the way.
So I dug out a little M12 bolt that has a 17mm head and put a few nuts onto it. After this picture I tacked the nuts on so they won't come off. And we have a NASA spec tool for removing the drain and fill bungs on the gearbox 😀
Then it was only a few minutes work and the engine was back in. Gotta love Baja's for being the easiest car in the world to pull the donk in and out of 👍
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
This pictures shows the angle that the engine is on now. I'm not the biggest fan of this but it's what I've had to do for the time being until I fit a body lift to the car.
One good thing about the 10° kit is that it lifts the back of the engine up and gives it more clearance. This is great for when you're driving on rocks or deeps ruts. You can also see that my crossmember is the lowest hanging point on the car, this is exactly what I built it for. If I do drop the car into a rock or down a rut the idea is that this hits first and protects the soft engine and transaxle cases. Also a great place to mount a skidplate!
Another issue I was faced with due to the tilted engine was the exhaust was higher, which put it hard up against the underside of the engine cage when it was fitted.
So out came the hacksaw and chop chop chop. I'll have to make a new tip that exits a little lower under the barwork again.
All done 😍 This was Christmas eve.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Ok. So I took the car out offroading on Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday I went to Stoney creek with 2 other cars and did some dirt/rock tracks. With some hills and deep ruts. And a tiny bit of mud too. I think one of the girls in the other cars was taking pictures so I'll try and get a hold of them.
I have to say that the lower gear ratios are a blessing offroad. And the addition of a working reverse gear is the greatest thing ever!! Way better than the last gearbox.
And on Sunday myself and a mate in his Patrol headed to the local beach/dune spot, 5 Rocks.
Here is where the car really impressed. It drove straight up the hard sand hill on the way in at steady throttle with no hesitation or bogging down. She just chugged straight to the top! The Patrol was in 4WD and low range to get up the same track.
We cruised around for a few hours down on the beach and inland track, had a gear time. I have found that 2nd gear is far more usable. Because of the lower ratios. With the old box I would have been reving a little high in 1st, or really lugging in second, the car seems to pull 2nd gear a lot better now making the car a lot more drivable.
All in all I'm very pleased with the gearbox and car. On the weekend it did exactly what it was built to do, TORMENT 4WDs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😂😂😂😂😂
I'm started back onto my brake and spindle upgrades. I've marked the calipers out and am going to drill them tomorrow at work. I also have to try and get some brass rod to machine up into bushes for the country buggy spindles so I can get them rebuilt ASAP.
That's all for now. Thanks for reading.
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
Good job Smiley, and a good read. 🙂
Smiley ·
Thanks for you kind words Matt. I hope you enjoy the beach trip this weekend. I wish I could go but have something else on!
I took my caliper brackets and spacers to work and used the drill press to put all the holes in the right places. I got home yesterday and it wasn't long before I had this.
The brackets bolted up to the spindles perfectly. The clearance to the rotor is exactly as I hoped for.
With the caliper fitted. All the clearances are spot on. I'm very proud that everything fits perfectly on my first attempt. The caliper is centered on the rotor. I also tried it with pads fitted and they go straight in as they should.
I'll be taking this to the guy that's doing my blue plate approval so he can inspect everything before it's fitted to the car. Hoping to see him next week.
I picked up some brass rod yesterday afternoon so now I just need to make the bushes and rebuild the spindles!
I'm getting excited now 🤪
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Great news!
Went and saw the bloke doing my Blue Plate this afternoon and showed him everything I've done for the brakes
He was very pleased with the caliper brackets and I've been given the go ahead to put everything together and fit it to the car. Then we just have to do braking tests etc.
I'm super excited! All the hard work is starting to pay off.
Smiley 😀
SebastienPeek ·
Smiley,
Damn they look awesome! Good job and congratulations on getting it passed.
Now just need to make sure they do their job!
Can't wait to see her back on the road.
nils ·
This is great work smiley!
I forgot to mention That you need to take the ears of that kombi box to make it fit with that style mount, still abit of a pain really (but how many times do you plan on doing it, think i changed mine for an earlier bell housing)
Will hopefully be doing a trip up north next year about this time, will look you up, go for a cruise and compare toys
When is the roll cage and coil overs coming?😀
Turbo54 ·
Looks great and nice job on the brakes. Can you please tell me where you got the caliper brackets from?
Thanks
Heath
Smiley ·
SebastienPeek wrote:Smiley,
Damn they look awesome! Good job and congratulations on getting it passed.
Now just need to make sure they do their job!
Can't wait to see her back on the road.
It's not passed yet! Still have to put it on the vehicle and do the testing yet.
And what do you mean back on the road? She's my daily driver, always on the road! 😀😀
nils wrote:This is great work smiley!
I forgot to mention That you need to take the ears of that kombi box to make it fit with that style mount, still abit of a pain really (but how many times do you plan on doing it, think i changed mine for an earlier bell housing)
Will hopefully be doing a trip up north next year about this time, will look you up, go for a cruise and compare toys
When is the roll cage and coil overs coming?😀
Yeah, I worked out the gearbox issue. Only put me back a day so no big drama.
It would be great to see you car in person, as I've said before it's got to be one of, if not the, best Baja's in Australia. Hopefully mines a little less tame by that point 😀
As for the rollcage and coilovers, maybe when I have something else as my daily driver so I can pull it off the road and do the work to it.
Turbo54 wrote:Looks great and nice job on the brakes. Can you please tell me where you got the caliper brackets from?
Thanks
Heath
Thanks for you positive comments. I designed the caliper brackets myself and had them CNC Plasma cut at a local fabrication shop. Then I drilled and tapped all the holes in them at work.
Smiley 🙂
nils ·
It would be great to see you car in person, as I've said before it's got to be one of, if not the, best Baja's in Australia. Hopefully mines a little less tame by that point 😀
As for the rollcage and coilovers, maybe when I have something else as my daily driver so I can pull it off the road and do the work to it.
Smiley 🙂
You sure know how to make a guy feel proud, truth is it no better than any other really. It has its limitations and problems, and days i wish i had kept it a bit more stock ( right now i am stuck with that long distances are a major pain and rebuilding things to make that possible) really cool to look at and jump though.
Depending on what engine you are running and how far i live from all the places you roll you will probably find that the 1600 box 4th gear is just a little low,
Have fun!
Smiley ·
Here's a quick picture of the new fridge I bought fitted to the car. It's a nice little unit and managed to keep my drinks and fruit cold all day long 👍
Seat belted in nice and tight so it won't go anywhere on the rough tracks I did today.
And here's a picture of the 12V socket that I added to run it. It's fitted to the underside of the rear seat cross brace just beside the tunnel. Nice handy location but tucked in out of the way. Currently it's wired up to constant power off the battery. I didn't have any dramas today with it running the battery down, I think we stopped for over an hour for lunch. But I wouldn't leave it plugged in overnight, at least not until I install twin batteries in the car 😀
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Here's a few quick pictures from the trip we did yesterday morning out to the Rock Track at Stoney Creek.
The pictures don't really do this drop of justice. The car is on a +45° angle. It was very steep. The Subaru opted to drive around this little obstacle 😀
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
This is the little Subaru that came out with me that my mate owns.
Smiley 🙂
nils ·
Jealous! . . .. . . . . . . . ..I went out sunday too, drove around for 2hrs and found close enough to nothing.
picture this with CB spindles 😀
Smiley ·
That is a good vision 😀
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
One of the guys from Ipswitch bought his buggy up on the weekend, and I proceeded to show him the local offroad areas.
We did some sand and beach driving, paced paced dirt tracks, winding forestry trails, mud holes, hill climbs and rock tracks. So we pretty much covered all types of terrain 😀
Fueling up before we left. I've fitted my flag again 😀 It's a bigger one than last year.
And here's where I ran into an issue on the sand with my tyre pressures not being low enough. Couldn't make it up the hill. I had them at 10psi, when I dropped them to 7psi I had now more issues for the rest of the day.
And here we are up at Stockyard Point at 5-Rocks.
You can see 5-Rocks in the background.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Did some more beach cruising.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
After the beach we heading north until we hit the Army base. Then we found an awesome track that followed the fence line to the east. After following the track for a number of km it abruptly came to a dead end at a steep sided creek. No matter, we got to drive back down the awesome track.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
After this track we headed back to our campsite at Stoney creek to settle in for the night.
The following day we were doing tracks around Stoney creek and the surrounding area.
We found a nice little mud hole.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Followed up with some ruts! Check out the flex man!!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
And more ruts 😀
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
This is about how clean she was when I got home on Sunday afternoon.
"Wow those airclearners are dirty!"
Good to see that they are doing their job.
Dirty outside.....
.......clean inside 👍
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
And I really need to get in and fit dual batteries soon. I decided to see if my battery could run the new fridge all night on Saturday, the fridge won 🙁
So I needed a little 'jump' to get going that morning 😊
I also need to get my spindles and disc brakes fitted ASAP! I need to spindles for the height and the disc brakes for the ease. My drums got full of sand again and need adjusting....again!
Smiley 🙂
grinderman ·
Good stuff Smiley, there's nothing like some off-road pics to keep me 'motorvated' on my projects. Modifying a daily driver has its advantages like "I must fit this stuff or I cant get to work/school" type urgency. Lovin this thread
nils ·
Ah................................Coke and eggs for breakfast with your nan ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
Breakfast of champions
If that flag gets any bigger, you'll be needing a bigger engine just to overcome the drag😂
beetleboyjeff ·
nils wrote:If that flag gets any bigger, you'll be needing a bigger engine just to overcome the drag😂
You might have to put a bag of cement in the front to stop it over balancing. 😂😂😂
bajachris88 ·
Bloody good trip Daniel! Alyce is a monster, but none the less credit goes to you too. All that offroading takes talent to conquer.
its a pita there ain't anything great that i'm aware of like that local in SEQ. Will one day have to cruise north... one day lol.
Those brakes are huge! Have you heard of that competition on a US show in the states where they offer to give people money if they perform a stunt? I cant remember the show, and sorry for the vague description, but one challenge was to stop on a dime. I could see your bug doing that with calipers that big lol. Hmm... good suggestion for a completition for all vw's at valla?
mactaylor ·
bajachris88 wrote:Bloody good trip Daniel! Alyce is a monster, but none the less credit goes to you too. All that offroading takes talent to conquer.
its a pita there ain't anything great that i'm aware of like that local in SEQ. Will one day have to cruise north... one day lol.
Those brakes are huge! Have you heard of that competition on a US show in the states where they offer to give people money if they perform a stunt? I cant remember the show, and sorry for the vague description, but one challenge was to stop on a dime. I could see your bug doing that with calipers that big lol. Hmm... good suggestion for a completition for all vw's at valla?
man head west south west from SEQLD and you have some of the best tracks around no probs i was logging in and around there and it will test you no end!
Smiley ·
beetleboyjeff wrote:
nils wrote:If that flag gets any bigger, you'll be needing a bigger engine just to overcome the drag😂
You might have to put a bag of cement in the front to stop it over balancing. 😂😂😂
At 100km/h+ the antenna actually lays right back until the flag is nearly touching the ground 😀
But a bigger engine would always be nicer too 🙂
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:Bloody good trip Daniel! Alyce is a monster, but none the less credit goes to you too. All that offroading takes talent to conquer.
BAH!!! Your car is way more beastly then see is.......for now 🤘
And if you think that my car is good you should have see Tratty's J&S Buggy going off! He drove it up the rock track. I didn't even try because I knew I would never make it and would definitely breack something trying. As Grinderman pointed out above, sometimes I have to try and exercise a great deal of self restraint to stop myself from breaking her. Cause I do need to drive her to work on Monday!
bajachris88 wrote:its a pita there ain't anything great that i'm aware of like that local in SEQ. Will one day have to cruise north... one day lol.
And I also agreed with what Mactaylor has said. I'm sure that there are plenty of tracks down towards Warwick/Killarney way. And even over just over the border and further out west. You've just got to get out and find them!!
I'm fortunate that some of the local offroad spots are very well known. But on the other side of the coin I also find new tracks just about every time I go out. Exploring is half the fun!!!
Smiley 🙂
nils ·
Hey smiley, got any tips on ripping those CB spindles apart?
Going to rebuild mine while i have them off the car. got one apart with abit of heat, but the second one has me beat.
nils
Smiley ·
nils wrote:Hey smiley, got any tips on ripping those CB spindles apart?
Going to rebuild mine while i have them off the car. got one apart with abit of heat, but the second one has me beat.
nils
PM Your email address. I got a lot of info off a bloke on here that I will forward on to you.
I was fortunate that when I bought mine they were already pulled down.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Was back out at Stoney for a play this morning.
Isn't it amazing how much a week and a little rain can change the terrain!!
Here's the track last week. Quite easy to drive up and down.
And here it is today, massively washed away and no way you could drive up it. Not to mention the thigh deep hole that is now in the foreground!!
Smiley 🙂
OZ Towdster ·
Smiley if you recon thats a bad step up then you are in for a big learning curve up the cape next year
Smiley ·
Also went a had a go at a massive hill climb near a friends place. I've had a go at it before and have never been able to get to the top. It's very loose rocks and dirt. Must be +45° steep.
I spoke to my mate who lives near by and he said heaps of 4WDs have been trying it too but no one has ever gotten to the top.
I thought I'd have another go with my Kombi box and different ratios.
And I made it all the way to the top!!!!!!!!!!!
Here are a few pictures my friend took when I was coming back down. This is as far up as his 4WD Subie could make it.
This gives you a little idea on how steep it was 🤪
The view from up top was amazing.
Looking up.
2WD for the win!!!!!!!!!!!!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
OZ Towdster wrote:Smiley if you recon thats a bad step up then you are in for a big learning curve up the cape next year
It was like 2 feet!
It never looks as bad in the pictures 😬
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
Great off roading Smiley, thanks for sharing. Your obviously happy with the new combo. 👍👍
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:Great off roading Smiley, thanks for sharing. Your obviously happy with the new combo. 👍👍
It's eaten up everything I've thrown at is so far. The car is limited by it's ground clearance and suspension travel now.
But we can work on that 🤘
Smiley 🙂
h ·
👍 sweet!
grinderman ·
Are there any plans for a diff lock in the future Smiley?
Smiley ·
grinderman wrote:Are there any plans for a diff lock in the future Smiley?
I don't exactly have the funds. I would like one but I think that the money is better spent on other things for the time being.
The car does most of what I want it to do.
The plan at this stage is to fit the Country Buggy spindles, and probably relocate the front bumpstops for more travel, fit the Commodore disc brakes front and rear, make or buy some new rear stub axles so I can fit Kombi outer CVs on the back. Then I can notch the rear spring plates for more travel.
I also plan on fitting a single lever hydraulic turning brake, this should compensate for a locker in a majority of situations as it will allow be to brake the wheel that's spinning and divert power to the one with traction.
I'd also need to fit twin batteries, and have a winch sitting at home which I would like to fit to the car.
Long term I have even further goals for the car 🥷, but at this stage I hope to get the above mods done over the next year or so. But we all know that it's probably going to take longer 😀
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
I fitted the turning brake for the same reason, but I went with the dual handle, gives you the option for each wheel or both wheel action.
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:I fitted the turning brake for the same reason, but I went with the dual handle, gives you the option for each wheel or both wheel action.
Not a bad idea. What brand is the handle that you're running and where'd you pick it up from???
Smiley 🙂
nils ·
I quite like the way matt has installed his cutting brake, is very neat and functionable. Not sure if the dual handle would have fit between my seat, remember to keep this in mind.
You get used to the single handle pretty quick, and if you pull the wrong one just laugh it off and try again.
Great day out by the looks again smiley! always amazes me how well the old vw goes up hill. Hope to see you out stockton some time, on the sand hills vw's make the 4wd guys look like chumps😂
Thnaks for that info on the spindles btw smiley, made a rig up today using my highift to pull these spindles apart. Still no luck but will let them soak in WD for awhile longer and cycle them though hot and cold a few more times
Smiley ·
Ok. So I ran into a little issue today with Alyce. Went to start her and the engine wouldn't turn over, turns out to be hydraulically locked. The engine has filled up with water in the heavy rain that we had this morning. No biggy, dropped the oil/water and replaced. Pulled the plugs out and turned the engine over to blow the water out of the cylinder.
I also dried and refitted the plugs. But now the poor thing won't start. Turns over fine but only sounds like it's firing on one cylinder every once in a while. I've checked all the plugs by removing them and checking for spark by earthing them against the exhaust with someone turning the engine over. All plugs have spark. The Dissy cap is dry on the inside and I'm running electronic points. The coil is mounted up on the firewall so it's dry too.
Any ideas?
Also, as far as I can tell the water got in through the breather filter here.
The carbies and well covered and were dry so it's not getting in there. The breather is the only other spot.
It's not quite completely covered by the engine scoop.
I've never been terribly happy with the breather system and have been looking to upgrade it for a little while now.
I'm thinking of welding a fitting into each rocker cover at the back here somewhere.
Then running a hose up into the base of the air cleaner. On the RHS I'll fit a T fitting and run a hose to it instead of the little filter.
And then the same on the left into the LHS air cleaner base.
Just a few questions, roughly what size hose should I be running for the breather system. Is 1/2" big enough.
And if I fit something along the lines of what I have described above can I do away with the little duck bill valve on the end of the breather tube? I only see this as a place for contamination to enter the engine mud/sand/dust etc.
Surely with the valve covers breathing this won't be required?
PS engine is a 2054cc
Thanks for looking.
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
I think most of your water would have got in through the air filters. The gutters aim straight for them in a baja, so inverted hats are the go to stop the problem. But a breather upgrade s also necessary IMO. Loose the lower stock tube as thats no good for an offroader, and plumb two or preferably 3, 1/2" or bigger lines to a tank. plumbing to both air filters is up to the individual.....there are pro's and con's
Smiley ·
nils wrote:Great day out by the looks again smiley! always amazes me how well the old vw goes up hill. Hope to see you out stockton some time, on the sand hills vw's make the 4wd guys look like chumps😂
I would love to get down to Stockton at some stage. Probably won't be until next year now, unless I can find time later this year.
Are you going to be at Dubs by the Pub again this year? Or are you still out in the middle of whoop whoop? I'm planning on driving down for it.
nils wrote:Thnaks for that info on the spindles btw smiley, made a rig up today using my highift to pull these spindles apart. Still no luck but will let them soak in WD for awhile longer and cycle them though hot and cold a few more times
Looks like you're all over it. The only thing that I can say is that in my experience WD40 isn't a very good penetrating fluid. There are better products out there, so if you're still having dramas you might want to try something else. We use a product at work called Rost Off, and it works very well.
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
Smiley wrote:Not a bad idea. What brand is the handle that you're running and where'd you pick it up from???
Smiley 🙂
I went with Jamar from Vee Dub Parts Unlimited.
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:I think most of your water would have got in through the air filters. The gutters aim straight for them in a baja, so inverted hats are the go to stop the problem.
What are these inverted hats of which you speak?
matberry wrote:plumbing to both air filters is up to the individual.....there are pro's and con's
Do tell me more 🤓
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:I went with Jamar from Vee Dub Parts Unlimited.
So is this just fitted in line with your normal brake hardline. Then you just run two lines to the rear brakes from the turning brake assembly?
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
'Inverted hat' may have given you the wrong idea, imagine a 4 liter icecream tub upside down over the top of your air filters, The air has to go up hill only, so your airfilters stay marginally cleaner but importantly they keep the water out. You could get spun alloy or f/glass or make some yourself or find a nice s/s bowl at K Mart that fits your air filters nicely. Theyneed to be slightly longer on the sides and have a side clearance of say 15-30mm.
Venting crankcase breather to air filters.....
Pro's
Positive vacuum tends to reduce oil leaks and be an effective breather volumetrically
Engine consumes vapours...green
Con's
Air filters suffer from oil contamination
Lowers effective octane......reduces engine power
I don't usually recommend it due to the last point.
matberry ·
Smiley wrote:So is this just fitted in line with your normal brake hardline. Then you just run two lines to the rear brakes from the turning brake assembly?
Smiley 🙂
Yep, I used two residual pressure valves after the turning brake in each line. All std VW hard lines are used, you just need to get 2 or 3 extra rear outboard hard lines and another tee. The Tees become joiners that give you a location for the RP valves and an extra brake light in each circuit. That way, even when the turning brake is used, the brake lights work and it goes midway in the line so mounted down at the pan out of harms way. A super bitch to bleed though 🙂
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:Yep, I used two residual pressure valves after the turning brake in each line. All std VW hard lines are used, you just need to get 2 or 3 extra rear outboard hard lines and another tee. The Tees become joiners that give you a location for the RP valves and an extra brake light in each circuit. That way, even when the turning brake is used, the brake lights work and it goes midway in the line so mounted down at the pan out of harms way. A super bitch to bleed though 🙂
Have you got any pictures to show this. I'm a little confused by the description.
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
What .... now?? 🙂
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:Venting crankcase breather to air filters.....
Pro's
Positive vacuum tends to reduce oil leaks and be an effective breather volumetrically
Engine consumes vapours...green
Con's
Air filters suffer from oil contamination
Lowers effective octane......reduces engine power
I don't usually recommend it due to the last point.
Surely it doesn't reduce the power by that much though.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:What .... now?? 🙂
Does the system get fitted into the factory brake lines?
Or do you fit a second set of hardlines etc for the turning brake?
I always though that you cut the long hardline to the back, fitted the turning brake in here, then ran two hardlines to the back from the turning brake. Replacing the single line and running to each rear brake.
What do the residual pressure valves do?
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
Why cut it, then you need to replace it. Remove it from the rear tee and reshape to the turning brake in/center port. Then one line to each rear brake. The RP valve holds residual pressure in the line to give a better 'pedal'. My turning brakes have a great 'pedal' but the foot brake has turned to cr@p with a quite low pedal which I'm yet to improve.
I used factory hardlines because of the difficulty of getting the correct properly done VW DIN double inverted flare. I also have oil pressure senders installed in the Tee's, not brake light switches as planned.
Smiley ·
I see what you mean by bitch to bleed!!
Redoing the hardlines isn't an issue for me. I recently came into the possession of some lengths of straight stainless steel hardline. so I can just get them remade with that. And the local brake shop does the correct flare as I've had them make lines for me before.
Thanks so much for sharing your info and pictures. The cogs are already turning in my head 😀
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
See how if the RP valves were mounted at the cylinder they would stick out and be easily snaped off by a fat arse or luggage moving or whatever. Obviously a different cyl or location and everything changes, but that's why I thought the Tees were a good plan. Obviously the lines need to be secured etc etc 🙂
Smiley ·
Yes I see. I think hiding them under my backseat would be the plan.
How do you go for room in between the seats? And can you still use you stock handbrake? It looks a little awkward under there.
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
Between the seats is fine and the stock handle is awkward but hey, it also has the above tunnel shift rod to contend with.....🤓😂
You only use the std hbrake when stationary, the new hydraulic brake is heaps more powerful when at play.
nils ·
My cutting brake actually has a bleed nipple on top to help out with that, but otherwise much the same. Think there is a picture in my thread somewhere of how mine is setup.
as far as the water is concerned, the breather could use some work, have you concidered just a breather box up under the cowl? Cheap and easy! And i understand what 😀 to keep the water out of that engine (bearings don't love water) ask me how i know😂 though still longer than a deisel motor😂
Smiley ·
Well I got the old girl running again. Looks like she just needed an extra day to dry out 😀
Too her for a drive and she is running as good as ever, except the clutch has started slipping. No biggy, I have a spare clutch plate at home so I might pull the engine tomorrow and check that she's not leaking any oil. I have a feeling that the clutch was starting to get worn under specs though.
And look what else I picked up today!
Breather upgrading parts!
Marked out the locations for the fitting in the rocker covers and filter bases. I'm going to get them brazed in tomorrow at work 👍
Now I just have to design some sort of hat system to keep the water on the outside of the engine 😀
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Great news, got all the fittings brazed in today at work.
Unfortunately no pictures cause they are still at work!
Pulled the engine out today to see what the clutch issue was.
No leaks in the engine or gearbox which is good. The bellhousing was actually very dusty, all that offroad action she's been seeing 😀
You can see in the picture that when I undid one of the bottom engine nuts it screwed the stud out too 😬 So I removed the other side too and ran a die nut down all the threads. Then double nut installed them back into place with some high strength Loctite, that should stop them moving too far 😀
You can see here that the Kennedy Stage One is looking slightly sandblasted 🤪
Always make sure that you mark the pressure plate to the flywheel so it goes back in the same place.
I removed the old clutch and measured the thickness, it was just under 8mm, about 7.9mm. What is the acceptable minimum thickness for a clutch plate? I think I remember someone saying that if you can fit an 8mm spanner over it then it is too worn.
I measured the new plate before I fitted it and it was 9mm. This doesn't seem like a huge amount more than the old one, and the old one still looks like there is heaps of meat on it.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
While I had the engine out I decided that there was plenty of room to try and fit the loom for my Christmas present through the pillar.
It's an air/fuel ratio gauge!!! 😀
After about 6000 attempts to push a length of Mig wire through the pillars and roof section I finally had success. I'm putting it through my RHS pillars/roof. On the LHS I have my main loom, 1x length of 5 wire trailer cable, and 2x coaxial cables (one for the 2-way and one for the stereo) And in the RHS I have a length of heavy twincore for my spotlights and a length of 7 wire trailer cable. So it was a tight fit pulling the wiring harness for the gauge through. But it got there eventually. I don't think I'm going to be able to run anything else through those pillars!! Most of the wires on the trailer cables are currently unused, I have them as spares for any accessories/gauges etc that I want to fit later on.
The air/fuel gauge was ordered with the 8ft loom, which is the longest available from the supplier. There is a very large plug on the engine end which attaches to the 3-wire loom on the heated oxygen sensor that goes into the exhaust. Fortunately the plug on the gauge end is very small so it would fit through the car. I had to pull the loom through from the engine bay. Dad kept telling me that it wasn't going to be long enough. But what do you know, it's the perfect length. With the large plug pulled up as far as it goes there is just enough poking out the other end for me to plug the loom from the gauge onto.
This is the oxy sensor plugged in.
Here you can see the large plug as far in as it would go.
And the other end. The small plug is wrapped in the green tape where I attached it to the Mig wire. It's just poking out behind the bonnet hinge. If the middle piece of loom was 5cm shorter there's no way it would have been long enough.
So I'm very happy with the fit and quality of the gauge so far. Now I just need to make room on my dash somewhere to fit the gauge 🤪
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I bought the rocker covers and air filter bases home from work yesterday before giving them quick coat of paint and fitting them to the car. While I had them out I did a valve set on the car, it's due in about 90 miles anyway.
I managed to get a hold of a 0.001" feeler gauge from work. Because I have chromoly pushrods the valves are meant to be set a 0 lash. I wasn't super keen on this so I've been setting them at 0.002" and now that I have the thinner feeler I'll be setting them to 0.001" 😀
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Unfortunately when I pulled then aircleaner bases off one of the sealing gaskets got ripped. So I went and got some cork and made a pair of new ones.
And here is the LHS breather hose fitted up. It's quite close to the exhaust but I tried to give it as much clearance with the space I had available. I had to bent the tinware in slightly with a hammer. Next time it is off I'll clearance it properly.
I'm going to keep an eye on the hoses, I hope the heat doesn't affect them too much.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
And here is the RHS.
This is how I set it up to begin with.
But I also thought the hose was too close to the exhaust. So I shortened up the one that runs to the oil filler to pull the hose across away from the exhaust. Now it looks like this...
I wasn't long before the car again looked like this....
....and she was ready to hit the beach today for some fun.
Only thing I have to do now is swap my oil filler unit to a later model one that doesn't have the dump hose with the duck bill valve on the end of it.
More updates soon 😀
Smiley 🙂
SebastienPeek ·
Smiley,
Looking awesome, I need to do something similar for my breather setup. Quick question though, where'd you get those air filters from?
I need to get me a couple because I need to attach my oil filter to them ASAP.
PM me the details!
beetleboyjeff ·
SebastienPeek wrote:Smiley,
Looking awesome, I need to do something similar for my breather setup. Quick question though, where'd you get those air filters from?
I need to get me a couple because I need to attach my oil filter to them ASAP.
I assume you mean you need to attach your oil filler to them.
The air filters are the ones that come with Kadrods. They are available at a lot of the VW shops. Smiley fitted the breather connections to the air filter base plates. Some Kadron air filter bases do come with a breather connection (usually just for one carb) - mine did.
You don't have Kadrons though do you?
Smiley ·
beetleboyjeff wrote:
SebastienPeek wrote:Smiley,
Looking awesome, I need to do something similar for my breather setup. Quick question though, where'd you get those air filters from?
I need to get me a couple because I need to attach my oil filter to them ASAP.
I assume you mean you need to attach your oil filler to them.
The air filters are the ones that come with Kadrods. They are available at a lot of the VW shops. Smiley fitted the breather connections to the air filter base plates. Some Kadron air filter bases do come with a breather connection (usually just for one carb) - mine did.
You don't have Kadrons though do you?
Yes, as Jeff has said the filters are the same ones that came with my 40mm Kadrons carbies.
The original filter elements that came with it lasted about two months before they had holes in them, bloody EMPI shit 😬😬
So I've bought aftermarket K&N replacement filters to match my filter bases. All I did was search on here http://www.knfilters.com/ until I found something that suited my needs. The K&N filters are very high quality and have a million mile warranty, all you do is clean them and reoil them and put them back on the car.
I'm fairly sure from the pictures that you have shown that you have cylinder shaped foam filters on the new carbies? Just get on here and search for something that suits your application and the space that you have in your engine bay. I'm not sure if you'll be able to find anything with a breather tube pickup in he bottom. A lot of their products have them as an option, but because the filters you want are a small diameter you don't have much room to fit a fitting into the bottom of them.
Just get on here and have a look. http://www.knfilters.com/search/universal.aspx
Then you can just run a small breather filter like the one I had fitted. I went to the improved system because my engine is a lot bigger than stock. With a stock 1600 that isn't too worn out you should have too many dramas.
That or you can buy Kadrons 😀
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Well I've had the engine out yet again over the weekend, I might have a crack at the world record soon 😀
On he way home from work the throwout bearing seized. Then the clips fell off the throwout arm. So I drove her home with no clutch pedal, I was surprised at how easy she is to 'crash' change being a bus box.
Pulled the engine and this is the scene of the crime.
While I was at it I decided to pull the box and do a bit more tidying up of some other bits and pieces.
It wasn't long before she looked like this again, I'm very happy with the gearbox mounts I made. It made pulling the box a breeze.
I diagonal arm pivots had been squeaking annoyingly ever since Tratty got the car dirty when he was up here in January. So I undid the spring plate bolts, removed the pivot bolts and regreased the everything. I did a little bit of a juggling act with a jack etc to hold the arm so I didn't have to remove my brake lines or handbrake cables. I also took this opportunity to take one of the two washers that go on the outside of the pivot and move them to the inside. When I took the car and we did the last wheel alinement the wheels were still a few degrees too far towed in. Even with the spring plate adjustments as far back as we could get them. So hopefully this will pop things back out a few degrees and straighten the wheels a little more.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I fitted a new nosecone to body seal before refitting the box ( I forgot this when I did the kombi box conversion 😊)
I also lubed the mounting bushings before bolting her back in. I replaced the bowden tube because i managed to damage the old one and also lubed the clutch and accelerator tubes.
When I removed the old bowden tube there were vast quantities of sand and dirt inside. I'm wondering what other people use to keep the crap out of their cables? I was thinking of going to the wreckers and trying to find some boots to fit off a modern car?
While I had the engine out I rerouted my balance tube for the carbies. It's been flapping around on top of the gearbox for a while now and I new it was only a matter of time before something damaged it.
So it went from this......
.....to this.
Smiley 🙂
SebastienPeek ·
Damn Smiley,
You sure do get busy with Alyce every weekend!
It's great to see such a change and I bet it feels great to see the changes and cleanups too!
Smiley ·
You might have noticed in some of the other pictures that the LHS carby is looking very oily. This has only started happening since I fitted the breathers from the rockers to the aircleaners. And I think I've worked out what the problem is.
I foolishly didn't take Hellbugged's advice to fit baffles over the breather fittings where they are in the rocker cover. I figured that because my car doesn't see high revs or massive cornering G's that they wouldn't be required, I should have listened to the pros. The LHS fitting happens to line up perfectly with one of the rockers. I assume what is happening is that the rocker is throwing oil off and straight into the fitting, which is then getting sucked up by the vacuum in the carby. Contaminating the filter and carby with oil.
The fix is easy, fit the damn baffles!!!
I also noticed that the RHS rocker fitting was weeping ever so slightly. So I took it back to the guy at work and got him to lay a bit more silver solder around the fitting.
And I picked this up from work to make the baffles out of. It's a bearing preload shim out of a Kress dump truck or 793 CAT dump truck. This is one of the leftovers after we made a shimpack up. It's 0.030" (0.77mm for the metric minded) perfect for a baffle!
Lop a piece out and the trim to size before tacking into the rocker cover. I ended up trimming this piece into more of a triangle shape before welding it. Once tacked I fitted the rocker cover to the engine with no gasket and checker for any interference to the rockers. All was good so there should be plenty of clearance with the gaskets in place. Weld it out then refit the covers and breather lines.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
While I had the welder cranked up I fitted the O2 sensor bung into my exhaust for the air/fuel ratio gauge.
Here it is.
I was reading in the manual that fitting the heated sensor without it connected to the gauge will cause it to be damaged. I can only assume that it needs to heat itself and not be warmed up by the exhaust. So all I did was fit a spare single wire non-heated O2 sensor to fill the hole for the time being. And I cable tied everything up for the time being until it's ready to be wired.
I'm hoping to finish off my new dash panel in the next day or so, then I want to get the gauge fitted and wired before Dubs by the Pub, so I can try it out on the drive and know how horribly rich she's running 😀
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
And here is a few quick pictures of the new dash I'm making to fit to the left side of the speedo. I'm hoping to fit the stock fuel gauge and the Air/fuel gauge on here for the time being, until I do some more gauge changes and shuffle things around again.
More updates as is happens, thanks for reading.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
SebastienPeek wrote:Damn Smiley,
You sure do get busy with Alyce every weekend!
It's great to see such a change and I bet it feels great to see the changes and cleanups too!
Thanks for the positive comments. I actually had a pretty lazy weekend really, I pulled the car apart on Thursday afternoon and put it all back together today after lunch. I should have got it done earlier so I could go offroading. But had to do a coolant change in my girlfriends car. Coolant, bah, I change the air in my cooling system everytime I go for a drive 😂😂😂
I'm hoping to try and get a lot more of my planned mods into fruition in the next month or so. Stay tuned.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I got the dash and gauge sorted out last Thursday before I drove down to Dubs by the Pub.
Here is the finished dash panel with the holes ground in it for the gauges.
It is replacing this.
Here is the opening in the dash widened out to fit the gauges through.
And all fitted. This side of the dash now tells me how much fuel I've used, and where it's all gone 😂😂
The car is running a bit rich, and the gauge is very accurate and seems to keep up with the loud pedal quite well. I'll now be able to fine tune my carbies some more and hopefully achieve a small amount of fuel economy at least.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
The next major thing on my massive list of jobs to do before Dubs was replace my front LED blinkers.
The old ones that I had fitted were actually truck side markers so they weren't the brightest kids on the block. I'm happy to report that the new ones are very bright and very visible.
Replace this....
...with this.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I've also been slowly working away at my spindle and braking upgrade. There are a lot more things to consider than just bolting them on.
I'll be sending the spindles down to a member on here is SA to have them rebuilt professionally. I am in over my head as far as the machining work that is required. I have neither the tooling or skills to do the job properly.
And while I'm waiting for that to happen I've turned my attention to the wheels and tyres that I want to run.
Because I'm changing to the Commodore 5x120 stud pattern, I've decided to run 16" steelies off a VE Commodore. I chose 16" because offroad tyres are starting to be far more common in a 16" instead of a 15". I know that this isn't the case with road tyres with 16" being the uncommon and less used size in between 15 and 17. But as far as offroader tyres go they are very common.
So I picked up a steelie yesterday and went about seeing how it would fit.
Unfortunately I ran into a drama, although the stud pattern is the same, with the VE Holden went to 14mm studs instead of 12mm, which is on the VN brakes that I am going to be using. Also, the 'snout' that the wheel fits over is 70mm on the VN and slightly smaller at 67mm on the VE. Time for some mods 🤘
You can see here the piece I'm talking about that the wheels fits over. This is a VN front disc.
And here is the steelie that I bought. They are 16x7" wide so it's a good size for the front and the back. I would be happier with a 5.5 or 6" wide for the front but that's something I can address down the track if and when I get some mags.
Here is the offending hole that is 3mm too small in diameter.
I tried bolting the disc on but there was only just enough threads poking though to get the nuts started.
And here is a picture of the fit after I gently enlarged the hole with a die grinder. The fit is now perfect. And despite that this rim is meant to go onto 14mm wheel studs it all bolts down perfectly. The tapers on the nuts pulled it into position and everything bolts down firm without the nuts bottoming out on the disc causing the wheel to be loose on the rotor.
I thought that I might have to upgrade to 14mm studs but the 12mm ones will be fine. This gives me the advantage of being able to run any Holden Commodore rim (VE if I enlarge the hole)
The plan is to run a 215/70/16 on the front. This is a tiny bit over 28" tall.
And a 265/70/16 on the back, which is around 31" tall.
Now that I know it will fit I need to get another rim for the front on the other side. And maybe order in some tyres.
Thanks for putting up with my ramblings again.
More soon.
Smiley 🙂
Joel ·
Smiley wrote:And here is the steelie that I bought. They are 16x7" wide so it's a good size for the front and the back. I would be happier with a 5.5 or 6" wide for the front but that's something I can address down the track if and when I get some mags.
Might be worth speaking to some Euro wreckers.
Some of the more pov spec beamers around E46 had 16" steelies that weren't overly wide about 6" and are same 5x120.
I hear ya re forby 15" tyres being alot harder to source than 16".
Very few 4x4 were actually sold with 15", for the last 20+ years they have been 16" stock and now even 17" is common so 15" AT tyres aren't catered for as much.
Smiley ·
Joel wrote:Might be worth speaking to some Euro wreckers.
Some of the more pov spec beamers around E46 had 16" steelies that weren't overly wide about 6" and are same 5x120.
I also noticed this the other day when I was looking on here http://www.boostcruising.com.au/forums/index.php?showtopic=332862
The only problem is that's it's a bit of a drive to the nearest Euro wreckers, I think I'd have to hit Brisbane. Might be worth a look next time I'm down.
Joel wrote:I hear ya re forby 15" tyres being alot harder to source than 16".
Very few 4x4 were actually sold with 15", for the last 20+ years they have been 16" stock and now even 17" is common so 15" AT tyres aren't catered for as much.
This is the main reason for going to a 16"
If I'm out touring in the desert or half way up to the Cape and wreck a tyre, it's going to be far easier to get a 16" one than a 15.
I saw your car for the first time in person at Dubs on the weekend Joel. It looks the goods as always. It would have been nice to meet you in person too, but I have no idea what you look like hahahaha.
Smiley 🙂
Joel ·
Ha, yeah I was hiding from the heat with a few mates in the tavern for a fair while.
There is actually a post a pic of yourself thread buried in the archives somewhere, but I'm camera shy and any of me are probably from 10 years ago on my old profile if the links aren't broken, although aside from the hair I haven't changed much in 10 years.
Good advise re. going 16s.
I got the same problem with my forby.
Stockos were 16s but I have wide 15" sunraisers so I can run 31" muddies and trying to find second hand tyres is a PITA.
16s are everywhere second hand.
Smiley ·
So I started making up a set of cutting brakes for the car today. It's so simple I don't know why I didn't do this a long long time ago!
First get a bolt and cut to length. Then drill some holes in a couple of bits of flat bar.
Bend the arms slightly to clear your gearstick and centre handbrake lever.
Bolt stuff in.
Now you're almost done 🙂
Just need to cut the cable holes off the middle lever and weld them separately onto each side lever. Easy as pie!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Finished off the cutting brakes today. They still need a little adjustment and fine tuning.
First of all you cutty cutty this piece off here.
Then grind things smooth and weld a little bit of plate under here.
Cut the cable loops in half and join one to each arm.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Then fit it all up into the car.
Here is a shot off the handle brake down....
.....and one with it up. You can see that the little piece of plate pulls up on the underside of the two outer arms. This lets the centre arm ratchet and work like a normal handbrake when you pull it up. But when it's down you can pull up either arm separately to brake either rear wheel.
I then took the vehicle for a test run. She cuts a nice hoop with one wheel locked on 👍
But when I backed back in and under the carport I noticed this.
With the car in reverse or 2nd gear the LHS handle catches on the underside of the gearstick. Something I'm going to have to work out.
I also need to get some shorter handbrake cables (I'm sure you all noticed the stack of nuts 😊) I adjusted the rear brakes and they are screwed down as far as they can go and are working reasonably well, but they could be better.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I've also done some more prep work on the car getting her ready for Fraser this weekend.
Replaced the front left wheel bearings (damn speedo cable!!!!!!!!), Tratty managed to fill them with muddy water on the weekend so they weren't very crash hot.
Adjusted the front and rear brakes (can't wait for discs)
Adjusted the link pins and greased the front end.
Changed the engine and transaxle oil.
Cleaned the air filters and reoiled, going to have to find my outer socks for the beach.
Replaced a punctured CV boot.
And I still need to fit the clutch cable cover that Steve was nice enough to give me at Dubs by the Pub.
When I was doing my front end I also noticed this
Looks like I'll be needing some new bump stop snubbers soon. Might be a good excuse to cut them off and net some more travel 🤘
Smiley 🙂
bajachris88 ·
That cutting brake tut is great Daniel! good work mate 😀.
My rear drums are so sluggly though, i can reef it up like mad and never lock it up, would it still turn sharper?
I spose if say 1 rear wheel was in the air and the diff wouldn't put torque to the rear wheel on the ground, having cutting brakes would allow ya to lock up the spinning wheel and put torque on the ground one?
Alyce is a beast haha. I'm keen for Dorrigo if you are when Valla comes around. Theres a whole myriad of old forestry and fire trails because there used to be timber and mining industries there a century or so ago. If you look hard enough, you can come across abandoned untouched train stations and (rumour has it) pubs and brothels that have been abandoned and untouched in the middle of the forests. There is steam trains about too. I been around there twice in 12 months on non-super hardcore stuff, i haven't found the tracks yet back spotted a map online. Found the abandoned train station the second time in the town of Megan.
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:That cutting brake tut is great Daniel! good work mate 😀.
My rear drums are so sluggly though, i can reef it up like mad and never lock it up, would it still turn sharper?
Your rear brakes shouldn't be that bad. Mine don't work as well as they should because the cables are too long. Need to get some shorter/newer cables. Are your drums adjusted correctly and handbrake adjusted properly after that? You you've done a bit of sand driving they could very well be out of adjustment, sand eats brakes shoes like crazy!!
Probably a great excuse to change to discs, this is what I'm planning on doing as soon as my front discs are done I'm going to start designing up a kit for the back.
bajachris88 wrote:I spose if say 1 rear wheel was in the air and the diff wouldn't put torque to the rear wheel on the ground, having cutting brakes would allow ya to lock up the spinning wheel and put torque on the ground one?
That's my main reason for fitting them. I've been in a few situations where I'm stuck or can't go any further. And a cutting brake would have had me out in seconds. As I stated above I don't know why it's taken me so long to do this cause it was so easy!
bajachris88 wrote:Alyce is a beast haha. I'm keen for Dorrigo if you are when Valla comes around. Theres a whole myriad of old forestry and fire trails because there used to be timber and mining industries there a century or so ago. If you look hard enough, you can come across abandoned untouched train stations and (rumour has it) pubs and brothels that have been abandoned and untouched in the middle of the forests. There is steam trains about too. I been around there twice in 12 months on non-super hardcore stuff, i haven't found the tracks yet back spotted a map online. Found the abandoned train station the second time in the town of Megan.
Sounds like a great idea. If there's offroading involved I'll be there! It might be a good idea to even take a few extra days off and make a bit of a holiday out of it. Explore a bit of NSW.
Smiley 🙂
baghall ·
Good tut smiley you make it look too easy.
DubCrazy ·
hey smiley i have a unifilter sock from my old custom filter somewhere, you could cut it in half and use it if ur intrested (mind u i have to find it first) give me a text if ur intrested as i dont get on the computer much anymore...
steff......
Smiley ·
baghall wrote:Good tut smiley you make it look too easy.
That's cause it is easy!! Everyone with an offroad VW should do this mod!
And here's some pictures from last weekend's adventures to get you nice and inspired.
Tratty was nice enough to come up from Ipswitch and hang out with me. We hit the beach for the morning. But then the real fun started when we found some wild muddy forestry tracks after lunch 😀
This is where Tratty got stuck turning around.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Bob's Bridge. Maybe a little worse for wear?
Me coming up a slippery and steep incline.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
On this trip I have come to observe Tratty's interesting method of doing water crossings. He tends to hit them as hard as possible so all of the water gets out of his way 😂😂😂😂
Unfortunately for him this didn't work on one occasion, which leads us to my favourite series of pictures 😀
DOES ANYONE ELSE WANT TO COME TO CQ YET!!!!!!!???
Smiley 🙂
grinderman ·
When the dual cabs finished and has some 34" super swampers on it , I'll be there .
Smiley ·
grinderman wrote:When the dual cabs finished and has some 34" super swampers on it , I'll be there .
I'll be happy to have you 😀
Always keen for people to come out offroading in their VWs with me.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I might have worked out what that vibration was 🤪🤪🤪
The rock was wedged in there really tight. The car runs so much smoother without it fitted 😀
I also finished tidying up my breather setup. Found a late model filler without the dump pipe and fitted it up. Had to change a few of the breather hoses lengths but now all is well.
Smiley 🙂
11CAB ·
Shoulda just added another rock opposite...... Lol.
I had a rag wedged in mine one time
Smiley ·
11CAB wrote:Shoulda just added another rock opposite...... Lol.
I had a rag wedged in mine one time
Where did it suck that up from?
Smiley 🙂
11CAB ·
I'm not answering that question for fear of incriminating myself 😀
Smiley ·
Well I've been putting the cutting brakes to good use over the last few weeks. I have found them great for crawling in and out of deep holes and ruts. When one of the back wheels starts to lift off and spin, all you do is gently pull that brake on and she crawls straight out!
I was getting a little sick of the stupidly too long cables though. So I went and got a set of swingaxle beetle handbrake cables, which are about 60mm shorter than the Superbug ones I was running.
Remember that it looked like this, with a leaning tower of nuts on each cable!
So I fitted up the new cables and decided to take it for a test drive to see how they would work. And within 5 minutes I had snapped the ends off both cables! 😬😬
The issue that I had was that the section that the cable was running through on the brake handles was pulling back on the cable at too much of an angle. Causing snappy snappy. The old ones didn't do it cause the entire length of the crimped threaded end was out of the handle, so it was just cable flexing around the angle.
Time for cutting brakes Mk II!!!!!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Ok. So this is what I started with.
There are two issues that I want to address. First of which is how the cables attach to the handles, and secondly how far the handles can travel. How the cables attach caused the breakage, but I think handle travel had a bit to do with it too. It's all too easy to get too excited in the heat of the moment and rip up on the handle too hard. So for this reason I'm going to build some stops into the handles.
So we add a little more metal to the back of the handle like this.
Then profile it so when you pull up on it the new end runs into the tunnel when you have the handle as high as you want it. This stops you overextending the cables or pulling to hard on the handle.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Next thing you want to do it cut that shitty Mk I cable retainer of the side. Then bend and shape a piece of flatbar, weld it on and drill a hole in it.
Repeat the above steps for the other handle then cool in the fridge 😁 When this is done you should have something that looks a little like this.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Now what to do about the cables I hear you ask?
Well I couldn't be F*&#ed pulling the rear drums off again, plus these ones are brand new! So I decided to repair them.
First of all get some two M6 nuts and a bolt of the correct length. Combine with weld until you have a fancy new broken cable extender!
Add a few drops of high strength Loctite for taste and screw them down tight on the remaining threads on the cable. No need to even remove the cables from the car!
Reinstall handles and you should end up with this.
Adjust the handbrake and everything works as it should. The new plates where the cables bolt on allow the cable to pivot through the handles travel. No more issues!
Smiley 🙂
SebastienPeek ·
Very nice indeed Smiley!
Glad they're not snapping now, I'm sure that would have given anyone a fright, no more handbrake! :P
Smiley ·
SebastienPeek wrote:Very nice indeed Smiley!
Glad they're not snapping now, I'm sure that would have given anyone a fright, no more handbrake! :P
It wasn't too bad. I was flexed halfway up a pile of gravel though. I had issues backing down cause I could no longer lock the spinning back wheel that had no traction.
But revs and working the steering back and forward got her free 😀
Smiley 🙂
SebastienPeek ·
Ahaha glad it wasn't more disastrous!
I hope other people take notice of this, might even be worth making a thread solely about this and getting a mod to sticky it or something!
Smiley ·
SebastienPeek wrote:I hope other people take notice of this, might even be worth making a thread solely about this and getting a mod to sticky it or something!
I had considered making a thread similar to what Joel has done with his stickies. I'm not sure that I'm worth listening to though 😂😂😂😂
Smiley 🙂
Arpspasm ·
For sure do it! you have saved myself and a lot of other people from a lot of fak around time figuring out what you already have 👍
Smiley ·
Arpspasm wrote:For sure do it! you have saved myself and a lot of other people from a lot of fak around time figuring out what you already have 👍
I might give it a go.
What do people want to see tech articles about though?
Smiley 🙂
Arpspasm ·
Well You have at least a dozen articles just about ready to go in this build thread alone. How about an article on "how to make my wife stop hating on my bug" 😂
Joel ·
Smiley wrote:I had considered making a thread similar to what Joel has done with his stickies. I'm not sure that I'm worth listening to though 😂😂😂😂
Neither am I most of the time but you have a keen attention to detail and you don't half arse things, that's what makes how-tos helpful.
Smiley ·
Arpspasm wrote:Well You have at least a dozen articles just about ready to go in this build thread alone. How about an article on "how to make my wife stop hating on my bug" 😂
I also hope to have
- Rack and Pinion conversion
- Disc brake conversion
- Fitting CB spindles, and;
- Getting more travel out of your Link pin Front end
Very soon 🤘
Joel wrote:
Smiley wrote:I had considered making a thread similar to what Joel has done with his stickies. I'm not sure that I'm worth listening to though 😂😂😂😂
Neither am I most of the time but you have a keen attention to detail and you don't half arse things, that's what makes how-tos helpful.
hahahaha. I half arse some things! The key is not to post them up 😂😂😂😂😂
Thanks for your praise. Might have to write some threads and work out how to do the linking thing.
Smiley 🙂
beetleboyjeff ·
Arpspasm wrote:How about an article on "how to make my wife stop hating on my bug" 😂
That would be brilliant if you could do one of these. I for one sure could use it. :-)
Of course, with that sort of knowledge, you could rule the world I reckon.
Smiley ·
Well I went offroading a few week back. And managed to get stuck in a big mud puddle. I found out afterwards that it was in fact my clutch slipping that was making me unable to drive out of the hole. And the reason that mud got in and jammed my pressure plate is because I had a hole in the engine block mounting flange. In the top right hand side the factory hole for the diagnostic plug was letting all sorts of unsavory types into my bellhousing (I kept wondering where all that sand was getting in)
So all I did was fill the hole up with sikaflex and am hoping that this stops the issue from occurring again.
I haven't drive the car for a week or so. I encountered a lost of power and haven't had a chance to look at the problem properly yet. It's either lack of fuel or a large vacuum leak. I'm leaning towards vacuum leak because I pulled the tops off the carbies and there was plenty of fuel in the float bowls. I've also cleaned all the jets and passages and changed the fuel filter.
I disassembled my fuel pressure regulator because the type I have tend to jet jammed on the low pressure setting when they fill up with sand and dirt.
I'm going to have a bit more a play tomorrow and check all the gaskets and manifold crossover hose. The carbies most certainly need syncing and tuning again cause I've had them off a few times.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Something else I noticed recently while under the car is that I've had something rather large come into contact with the underside of the engine, bending the tinware and damage the LHS pushrod tubes.
I had to do a valve set on the engine today anyway so I decided to fit some new sprung pushrod tubes that I've had sitting around for a while. I only put the in the LHS because the right is perfect and leak free so I decided to let sleeping dogs lie.
Bent tinware.
Damaged pushrod tubes.
You can see here where two of the pushrods have been rubbing slightly on the dints in the tubes.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
The basic method of removing the old tubes is to bent them in the middle and just rip them out.
And here are all the sprung tubes installed. If you are fitting these make sure that you fit them with the larger diameter tube to the engine case side. The pushrod tubes serve as an oil drain for the rocker cover area on your head. So you want the oil to drain into the smaller tube which then runs out inside the larger tube. I'm told if you get it wrong they leak a lot from the joint.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Lately I've been getting pissed off with my aircleaners. They work really well but I seem to be cleaning them every weekend I go anywhere near dirt or sand. So I've decided to come up with something better, once again using parts off the nearest modern car that I can get my hands on. As is the case with my brakes, the VN Holden Commodore is giving up some parts again.
I'm working on a way off holding these down and sealing them up. I think I have it all nutted out, just need to get some welding done at work.
They fit over the Kadron perfectly.
Intake tube will fit here and be joined to the top of the carby with a small length of silicon hose. I'm having a few clearance issues with this piece too. I'm going to remove the factory decklid hinge mounts and spring mount so I can push this tube up and forward as much as possible.
And the airbox will sit somewhere just here, wish me luck.
Smiley 🙂
tar76 ·
Mate i've got some alloy covers that will fit over your air cleaners and kads. they just need tops (kad fitler tops fit). You pay postage and there yours?
nils ·
Hey smiley, instead of messing around with modifing (look who's talk right?) The commie airbox, spend a few dollars on a donaldson filter and never have to stress again?
Smiley ·
tar76 wrote:Mate i've got some alloy covers that will fit over your air cleaners and kads. they just need tops (kad fitler tops fit). You pay postage and there yours?
I did see that in the for sale section. Do they fit straight over the aircleaners like I have? Or do I have to buy a different aircleaner to fit onto the tube? How large is the diameter of that inlet tube? You have PM.
nils wrote:Hey smiley, instead of messing around with modifing (look who's talk right?) The commie airbox, spend a few dollars on a donaldson filter and never have to stress again?
The only issue with that is I don't have anywhere to put the Donaldson's. I would have to run two of them and I don't like the look of putting them on the guards cause it decreases viability and puts a lot of weight on the guards to flex and crack them.
But the main reason I don't want to run a Donaldson is because they are a very restrictive type of filter and rob your engine power. Don't get me wrong, I know that they filter incredibly well. I work in the mining industy and everything runs a Donaldson style (centrifugal separator followed by a paper element or two) and they clatter around in the dust all day. But these diesel engine run low revs in a small range so the air quantity required for the engine doesn't change dramatically. Whereas the engine in my car revs from crawling at idle to 5000+
I did consider the Donaldson but they are not for me.
Smiley 🙂
tar76 ·
Yeah man just sit the alloy housing on top of your aircleaner bottom plate drop the air cleaner inside put the chrome top on and tighten down nut and your done! then you can run some cold air induction pipe from the side outlets or whatever you think will be best. Found out they came off a baja bug.
Smiley ·
7mm ring gaps.
These will be ok to reuse right??
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
🤪
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:🤪
They'll be fine! I'm sure they'll go another 25000km before I need new ones.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Well as you can tell from the above picture I ran into some troubles with my engine.
Turns out it's been dusted 🙁
So we pulled it down and fitted new pistons and barrels a few weekends ago. Now it's sitting at home all back together waiting to go back in the car.
Stripped down to a short block.
Here is one of the new barrels. Notice it has a lovely cross hatch. Shiny mirror bore like above is not good at all.
And here's a picture of it all back together again.
Sorry I didn't take more pictures. We started at around 10 in the morning and had everything cleaned and back together by 2:30 in the afternoon and running on a milk crate 👍
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Well I've been doing some upgrades over the last week or so. Still haven't got around to fitting the engine since it's been rebuilt.
I've been focusing on making an airbox and new inlet system for the engine. Most of the reason why the old bores got dusted was the location of the air filters on top of the carbies. They were copping way to much dust and sand coming out of the wheel wells and because I have minimal engine bay sheet metal left it's all getting thrown straight at the filters!!
This will certainly not do, so I've decided on a centre mounted single airbox with twin outlets going to the carbies.
Here's what I started with. It's an airbox from a VN Commodore. Luckily I have a few of them 😀
And here's a second box that I cut the inlet out of so that I can weld it into the other box.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
After a lot of measuring and heaps of trimming we arrive at this stage.
And then it's ready to be tacked in place and then welded.
This is the first time I've ever had a go at plastic welding. And I must say it's not as hard as I'd thought it would be. You must obey most of the same principles as normal welding, get good penetration, make sure the parent material melts into the weld puddle, don't get it too hot, etc etc.
Though it takes a fair be longer to 'run a bead' than normal welding.
It wasn't too long before I had something looking like this and you can see it starting to come together. I've basically tried to mirror the first inlet on the other side of the airbox. It's made a little different cause the top of the box slopes away towards the left of the picture.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I also welded to inside to make doubly sure that it's sealed and airtight.
Here it is with the second outlet bolted in place.
I had to grind a tiny bit of the trumpet on the backing plate so it cleared to sloping top. Aside from that it all fits well.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Then it was time to fill the last hole.
Made a piece up.
And all welded up.
Here is the inside with the outlet bolted in place again
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I've also discovered that I need to turn the top half of the airbox 180° from how it goes at the factory.
This is roughly where the airbox it going to sit on the engine.
And it turns out if the base is the other way around there is a neat little scollop here that fits perfectly around the post on the alternator. Like it was made to go there!! 🤘
The issue I have is that none of the clips that hold the lid down line up when it's turned 180° out. So the issue is how to hold the lid down?
Can anyone suggest anyway that can be used to fasten the lid down tight like the factory?
I thought about welding the tabs on in the right spots but I'm not sure if it'll be neat enough and work well enough. Other thing I could do it cut the top completely off the bottom half of the airbox and reweld it the other way round.
If anyone has any ideas please post them up straight away cause I want to get this all done over the weekend.
Here is a picture of the factory clips.
Smiley 🙂
bajachris88 ·
Might be a stupid idea, but bore a hole straight through the middle of the entire airbox assembly including the element filter.
1. With the top of the air cleaner housing and the filter element removed, fit a long threaded rod into the base of the air cleaner housing. Then using large washers and two nuts, clamp the threaded rod to the base of the bottom half of the air box.
2. Fit the filter element over the threaded rod into the base of the air cleaner, quick lick of silicone around the shaft hole in the element.
3. Fit top of air cleaner housing over the threade rod followed by large washer and a wingnut for easily removal.
Similar to the circular style paper element filters. 👍
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:Might be a stupid idea, but bore a hole straight through the middle of the entire airbox assembly including the element filter.
1. With the top of the air cleaner housing and the filter element removed, fit a long threaded rod into the base of the air cleaner housing. Then using large washers and two nuts, clamp the threaded rod to the base of the bottom half of the air box.
2. Fit the filter element over the threaded rod into the base of the air cleaner, quick lick of silicone around the shaft hole in the element.
3. Fit top of air cleaner housing over the threade rod followed by large washer and a wingnut for easily removal.
Similar to the circular style paper element filters. 👍
That's going to cause an issue cause I want to me able to remove the element and clean and reoil it frequently.
Smiley 🙂
nils ·
You're a man of many talents smiley
Smiley ·
nils wrote:You're a man of many talents smiley
Thanks mate. That means a lot coming from you. I've seen the work that has gone into your car.
I have a quick question for you. When you put the hanging pedal in you car for the accelerator, do you need to get that approved and blue plated?
I'm considering the possibility of underslung pedals for mine.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Well seeing as none of you gave me any ideas I opted to chop the whole bottom off the airbox and rotate by 180° and plastic weld it all back together.
I did it with the element in and top clipped in place to try and keep it all square and stop it pulling itself out of shape from the heat.
All welded in place 😘
I also picked up some new rubber mounts for the box on Friday. Plan is to throw the engine back into the car tomorrow and fab up a frame to support the box in place where I want it.
More soon.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Well I've made some good progress since the last post.
Have changed the way to box is being mounted. When I sat it in place with the 3 rubber mounts bolted to the bottom None of them lined up nicely with anything to mount to.
So I'm now running two mounts on the fanhousing and one off the top of the throttle linkage pivot.
I borrowed a nutsert gun and put some threads in the shroud for the mounts. These are a nifty little tool, they are basically a pop rivet with a thread down the middle of them. I might even look into buying myself a kit.
Then I had somewhere to mount two of the mounts for the box.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
The third central mount is bolted onto the frame for my carby linkage pivot.
And with the airbox base in place. You can see everything has plenty of clearance 👍
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I had some super duper spacers rings made up to adapt the Commodore inlet flanges onto the Kadrons. You can also see the cross bar that has been welded into the tube.
Spacer goes here.
And then this fits over the top. And bolts down using the factory Kadron aircleaner mount threads.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Look what showed up in the mail today.
At least 5hp per silicon bend I think!
They go here like this.
And the alloy tube will be trimmed to length and fit in the gap like so.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I'm going to have to pull the engine and cut off the stock decklid hinge mounts.
They are in the way.
And worse on this side. Nothing the grinder can't fix.
Aside from that the clearance is very good. Doesn't rub on hit on anything. I've always wondered what the hump in the engine scoop of the Baja kit is for, it's so you can fit an airbox!!
Thanks for reading, more very soon.
Smiley 🙂
BlueV2 ·
Smiley, why do you have a spark plug in your exhaust system ?
Nice airbox by the way ❗
Smiley ·
BlueV2 wrote:Smiley, why do you have a spark plug in your exhaust system ?
That's where my O2 sensor goes. I had it out when I took the engine down to the Gold Coast and we rebuilt it. And I knew that we were going to run it up, so I plugged the hole. The large spark plug is the same thread size as an O2 sensor.
Smiley 🙂
BlueV2 ·
Huh, I thought you were using it to light the afterburner !! lol
Smiley ·
BlueV2 wrote:Huh, I thought you were using it to light the afterburner !! lol
Hahahaha Yeah! Shoot a nice plume of flame out onto the ground.
She's not running that rich!!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
So I got stuck in last night and finished off my airbox setup.
I needed to make room on the firewall area where the hoses looped around.
So I got stuck in and trimmed 90% of the drip rail off. As well as the decklid hinge mounts and prop srping mouhttp://forums.aussieveedubbers.com/post.php?action=reply&fid=25&tid=80275nt.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
They I trimmed the alloy tubes down to length.
A very easy way to mark tubes evenly and straight it to put a hose clamp on and tighten it up. Then use this as a guide to make your cut. This is a very good method of getting straight cut when you are cutting a front beam to fit adjusters.
It wasn't long before I had this 🤘
Looking ready to ruin some 4WDs day now 😀
Smiley 🙂
SebastienPeek ·
Looks the goods Smiley!
Can't wait to see it back in Alyce.
Are you expecting to notice any difference whatsoever?
Smiley ·
It wasn't long before I had it fitted up to see if everything cleared. I'm happy to report that to clears the firewall completely!! Only thing I had to do was slide the coil an inch or two lower in it's clamp to clear the LHS pipe.
And it all clears the engine scoop with plenty of room to spare.
As far as servicing goes, all I have to do is loosen the two hose clamps onto the carbies, undo the clips on the airbox and it wiggles out easily!
I have fitted a K&N oilable filter element to the airbox, and am looking to run a prefilter or two on the inlet to the airbox before I take it offroad.
I'm sure that this setup should work a great number of times better than the old setup, and prevent me prematurely wearing out the rings and the bores again. All I have to do now is finish connecting the engine up and refit the rear barwork. Then I can start running her in.
I'm interested to see if the induction noise will be different, hopefully it's a little quieter.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
SebastienPeek wrote:Looks the goods Smiley!
Can't wait to see it back in Alyce.
Are you expecting to notice any difference whatsoever?
I expecting to notice a lot less oil consumption, and an engine life of more than 6 months/25000km.
Hoping the induction noise might be a little less and the filter is a lot more easy to service now too. And it's easier to fit a prefilter.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Just a quick update.
I've been driving the car to work and around, basically as much as possible to run the new engine bits in.
I've done over 1000kms in the last week since I started driving her again.
Fuel economy is a little worst than it was, I've averaged between 13.2 and 13.5L per 100km. But all the tanks have been very close together in this range which I think is a good thing.
The A/F ratio gauge indicates that she's running rich throughout the rev range. So I'm sure with a few adjustments I can get a little more economy out of her. Getting down into the 11s would be great, we'll see how things go.
I'm currently working on fitting a digital speedo (with a twist) to the car so I'll put some posts up of that when I get it all sorted and ready to go in.
Smiley 🙂
big_ash ·
Looks the goods! 🙂
kaiisons ·
hey i was wondering if you could explain how the air actually gets into the air box. you might be running more rich because of a lack of air flow.
Joel ·
Ready to start on mine?
it's still in the "I haven't worked out how the hell I'm gonna do this" stage at the moment.
You make plastic welding look so easy.
ian.mezz ·
kaiisons wrote:hey i was wondering if you could explain how the air actually gets into the air box. you might be running more rich because of a lack of air flow.
looks like there is a hole in the side of the lower half.???
1303Steve ·
[/quote] I'm considering the possibility of underslung pedals for mine.[/quote]
Hi
Love your work.
Do you know why Dr. Porsche designed the pedals that way as in bottom hinged?
Have look at how your ankle joint works when pushing on the brake or clutch pedal then imagine how it would work with underslung pedal, you will see that underslung pedals cause the ankle to try to bend the wrong way.
Larry Perkins amongst other V8 racers set up bottom hinged pedals to reduce fatigue on the ankle joint, we will probably never have this problem but I thought I would point it out.
Steve
Smiley ·
kaiisons wrote:hey i was wondering if you could explain how the air actually gets into the air box. you might be running more rich because of a lack of air flow.
As Ian has suggested there is a hole in the forward facing edge of the bottom half of the airbox. I faces towards the fanhousing. There is plenty enough gap there to allow enough airflow. The hole is the front of the box is 55x105mm which works out to 5775 square mm.
I filled the car up again this morning and am happy to report that the last tank I got 12.4L per 100km. Which is a great improvement, I guess everything is starting to bed in properly. I wouldn't say that it's running rich due to lack of airflow, just that the mixture screws need adjusting slightly.
Joel wrote:Ready to start on mine?
it's still in the "I haven't worked out how the hell I'm gonna do this" stage at the moment.
You make plastic welding look so easy.
Plastic welding is easy!!! Send it up my way and I'll be happy to glue the stuff together for you 🤓
I've been using my gas soldering iron, the flame is adjustable which helps regulate the tip heat. When plastic welding sometimes you want to throw a fair bit of heat in to get the puddle flowing and other times you want low heat to prevent you from blowing holes in it.
This is my one that I've been using. It comes with a variety of tips so I've picked the one that suits plastic welding the best.
The tip I'm using has a 'pie slice' cross section. I've found it the best one in the set for welding. You can use the sharp edge to cut through the plastic, the large flat sides are good for smoothing and the rounded back is great for getting into concave hollows and tight corners.
I hope this info helps you out.
1303Steve wrote:
I'm considering the possibility of underslung pedals for mine.
Hi
Love your work.
Do you know why Dr. Porsche designed the pedals that way as in bottom hinged?
Have look at how your ankle joint works when pushing on the brake or clutch pedal then imagine how it would work with underslung pedal, you will see that underslung pedals cause the ankle to try to bend the wrong way.
Larry Perkins amongst other V8 racers set up bottom hinged pedals to reduce fatigue on the ankle joint, we will probably never have this problem but I thought I would point it out.
Steve
You make an interesting point Steve. Something that I would not have thought about. I figured that because most newer vehicles have underslung pedals that is would be the superior option. I was more wanting to get the pivots etc up out of the crap as my footwell often gets full of sand and mud etc, despite how often I clean it all the moving parts cop a lot of contamination. I figured that moving the mounts up onto the firewall would reduce the crap getting into the moving parts and stop them wearing out as quickly. I also planned to upgrade to a hydraulic clutch at the same time.
Thank you for you input, I guess it's more info to process before I decide to make the swap or not 😵💫
Thanks to everyone else for their comments. There's no point updating a build diary unless people are going to read it and leave some feedback 😀
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Have got her down to a best of 12.32L/100km when I filled her up last night.
Due for a valve set when she's cold early in the morning before I go to work, and a service tomorrow after work when she's hot 😀
Smiley 🙂
1303Steve ·
Hi Smiley
I have regularly clean my pedal area as well, I can see your reasoning to go underslung
I'm not sure if you already commented or not, does the filter make any difference to induction noise?
Steve
matberry ·
Good one Smiley.
I'm with Steve on the pedals, pet hate converting beetles to hung pedals👎👎👎
Smiley ·
1303Steve wrote:I'm not sure if you already commented or not, does the filter make any difference to induction noise?
Steve
It's not of any noticeable difference.
Maybe a tiny bit quieter. I can't really tell over the exhaust.
I really need to get some more sound proofing into this car, it's very loud for a daily driver. I'll probably be deaf soon. Worth it though, getting to drive my aircooled Volksie and watch all the fools with their 'new' cars.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:Good one Smiley.
I'm with Steve on the pedals, pet hate converting beetles to hung pedals👎👎👎
Is it for the above mentioned reason?
Or something else you don't like about the conversion?
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
I've always been most comfortable with floor pivot, I also always considered it to be more 'correct' for our ankle movement and felt under hung are purely a function of front engine engineering. Never realised Dr Porsche considered it a must for the same reason..... 🙂
Smiley ·
This is interesting.
I just remember the other day that one of my friends has purchased a brand new Passat. And the accelerator pedal hinges off the floor like a Beetle. So maybe Volkswagen have come to there senses and gone back to the floor mounted ankle saving setup for this reason.
I do agree with you both with regards to the ankle having to pivot the way it does on your right foot for the accelerator pedal. But both the brake and clutch pedal are operated with a pushing motion using your whole leg, not with a pivoting motion like the accelerator. I suppose that the brake uses a little of both depending on how well the brakes are working and how hard you are braking❗
So how's this sound, keep a floor pivot for the accelerator pedal and only move the brake and clutch pedals up to a firewall mounted underslung setup. This will save me from the ankle fatigue on long drives but also allow me to move most of the mounts and bits up out of the footwell to stop them filling up with sand and mud. Sounds like a win win to me 😀
People can let me know what they think.
Smiley 🙂
BlueV2 ·
Smiley, if you then put in cruise control then you wont have to worry about fatigue on the accelerator foot so you can put all the pedals up 🙂
I agree with your reasons for moving them off the floor though, it would certainly make cleaning up a lot easier!
Smiley ·
BlueV2 wrote:Smiley, if you then put in cruise control then you wont have to worry about fatigue on the accelerator foot so you can put all the pedals up 🙂
I agree with your reasons for moving them off the floor though, it would certainly make cleaning up a lot easier!
Cruise control! That's going a bit far. I'm considering air conditioning, but cruise control! This is an offroad aircooled VW. Any electric fance-pansery that isn't required should be left off. 😂😂😂
But in all seriousness it might be easier just to put them all up instead of two up and one down.
I've never had any issues with ankle fatigue driving any other model of car which have underslung pedals.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Since this time two weeks ago when I started driving the car again I have done 3437km.
1712km of that was done in the last two days with a trip down to Brisbane and the Gold Coast this weekend.
On the drive down and back the car averaged 11.89L/100km. With my best tank I managed 11.3L/100km.
The A/F ratio gauge indicates that the engine is running rich at all speeds and all revs (I still haven't adjusted it yet 😊) So some more improvement is there to be had! Into the 10s would be fantastic, single digits even better! I think I might have to go down a main jet size we'll see when I start tinkering.
Wow what a weekend! The car is still quite noisy even loaded up with pillows and blankets and camping gear in the parcel shelf and back seat. I think sound deadening and a little more refinement are the next orders of business. If I'm going to be doing these sorts of kms all the time I'll be deaf in 6 months!
I got a text message today with some great news, watch this space, there might be big things happening really soon.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Dad says that my baking is really improving 👍
Smiley 🙂
OZ Towdster ·
I'll tell your mummy
matberry ·
OZ Towdster wrote:I'll tell your mummy
Ha ha
What's for dinner????
Smiley ·
Well all my Christmases came at once on Monday.
I picked up my new front tyres, and my Country Buggy spindles showed up from SA!!
I've had the tyres mounted onto my new rims. They are Mickey Thompson Baja ATZ 5-ribs in a 225/75/16. So I'm going to have Bajas on my Baja!!
Here's a few comparison shots to my current 175/R14 LT tyres. It's safe to say I like the improvement 😀
And here are the beautiful new spindles, don't mind the slight surface rust they'll be getting painted tomorrow. Freshly rebuilt by Tony Beven a member of our forum. I really can't thank Tony enough. The work is second to none and there is no doubt in my mind that they are better than when they left the factory. They were pretty grubbing when he got them and he has done a lot of good work to get them up to the standard that you see here. All of the stub axle bearing surfaces needed welding up and resurfacing, all new king and link pin bearings were manufactured. And after a few discussions we decided to upgrade the steering stop bolts to a much stronger design, cause if anyone is going to break them you can bet your bottom dollar it'll be me.
These spindles are off the Volkswagen Country Buggy and give you approximately 3 inches of lift over standard. And are the only legal option for lifted spindles in Australia. You can see here that the stub axle is attached in line with the lower link pin, whereas the factory ones the stub is situated evenly between the two link pins. They also have a much stronger steering arm (about twice as think as the Beetle ones!)
In this photo you can see my caliper bracket mounted to the CB spindle. I was very keen to use these stubs but was not happy with the factory CB drum brakes that came with it. They are basically the same brakes as a late split Kombi with HUGE heavy drums and twin slave cylinders inside. There was no way that I was going to all this effort and sticking with drum brakes. They wear out way too fast!
So I've designed and built my own disc brake kit for the front using Commodore parts.
You might have see earlier in the thread that I rebuilt some VN V6 calipers ready for the car. Well I traded them as a part of another brake kit to a friend. And got myself some V8 finned calipers instead!
And here are the rotors mounted onto the CB stubs.
The Country Buggy uses a double locking nut setup to hold the brake on, same as any link pin VW. But I was informed that Bay Window Kombi locking nuts will fit onto my stubs and have the correct lefthand and righthand threads too!
I've only run into one slight issue with using these nuts. They don't quite fit inside the Commodore grease caps. So I'm going to grind them down a little and hopefully we can sneak them in there.
While I was messing around tonight I decided to weight some of the parts old vs new.
One of my old wheels and tyres weighs 16kg, and the new wheel and tyre weighs 26kg.
One of the old spindles with stock drum brakes weighs 10kg, whereas the new spindles and brakes are 17kg.
Poor old Baja is packing on the pounds!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Here are the old and obsolete brakes and spindles 🙂
It wasn't long before it looked like this. Might need some new snubbers soon too.
One thing I had to do was replace the outer balljoints. The Country Buggy spindles have a larger holes and taper and take a larger balljoint. Which happens to be the same as the ones run on balljoint front end beetles. So I picked up a pair of out tie rod ends and swapped them in.
You can see in this picture the larger and stronger balljoint tierod end on the right compared to the smaller Link pin one on the left.
While I was tearing things apart I also drained and removed the master cylinder. I was still running a stock single circuit master cylinder. I would have been no where near adequate for the discs up front (and planned rears too) so I'm upgrading to a Bay window Kombi master cylinder. The Beetle M/Cs are 19mm internal bore whereas the Kombi is 23mm bore, which is the same as the M/C bore in the Commodore. I'm hoping that this is all going to work, but it's proving a bit of a mission even to get the Kombi M/C to fit. It's quite tight on the tunnel in places, and I'm going to have to get tricky with the fittings I think.
The car is booked in for a wheel alignment first thing on Saturday morning, so I'm hoping to have it all built and done by then. Nothing motivates like a deadline! Wish me luck.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Well I got a lot of little small jobs done today on the car.
Went to 3 different brake and hose shops before I found someone that had the right gear to help solve some of my Master cylinder clearance issues, more on that tomorrow.
I got the spindles painted and the caliper brackets too. But I did have to make this little addition first. It's a tab where my magnetic sensor for the digital speedo bolts in.
Then I went ahead and started grinding down the locking nuts until they fit nicely. Can still get an allen key into the socket and the grease caps now fit over the top.
Speaking of grease caps. The CB spindles are longer in the thread than the Holden stubs. So the grease caps are too shallow to fit over.
Fortunately I've collected about 10 caps from the wreckers while getting brake parts. So I picked out 4 good ones and made them into 2.
Chop chop chop.
Standard next to modified.
Weld weld weld.
Just need to grind them down smooth, give the inside a buff out, a lick of paint and they'll be better than bought ones 🙂
Well tomorrow is crunch day. I need to have the car ready for Saturday morning. I'm at the stage where I'm ready to start putting everything together, wish me luck.
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
Good luck 👍
sander288 ·
Smiley what are you doing with the old drums?
Are they original VW ones?
Loving this thread too btw
Cheers
Shaun
bajachris88 ·
super friggen awesome 👍
This baja is gonna transform from steroid pimp to uber wilder breast!. You know i'm gonna chuck a 10c piece on the bitumen in front of you at valla, and expect you to stop on it 🙂 lol.
Smiley ·
sander288 wrote:Smiley what are you doing with the old drums?
Are they original VW ones?
Loving this thread too btw
Cheers
Shaun
I was just planning on putting them 'back into stock' at my place.
I'm fairly sure that they are original VW ones, not sure that they would be any good cause they have seen a lot of sand.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:You know i'm gonna chuck a 10c piece on the bitumen in front of you at valla, and expect you to stop on it 🙂 lol.
Challenge accepted! I plan on having the rear discs done by then too!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Well I've just pulled up working on the car.
It's 99% done but my master cylinder is leaking.
I'm running a standard bay window kombi unit without the booster. It's 23mm bore which is the same as the 15/16" of the VN Commodore.
I had to do a few mods and changes to make it all fit in there.
Two of the ports on the M/C face inwards towards the tunnel. And they were too tight to get normal fittings onto. So I'm using the top one for my brake light switch. With a right angled fitting the switch clears the tunnel by about 3-4mm. And on the lower port I had a banjo style small flexible hose made up. It loops around and joins onto the normal rear brake circuit hardline.
The standard brake pushrod had to be shortened because of the different offset of the piston in the Kombi M/C.
Here it is mounted in the car. I had to clearance the firewall slightly with a hammer to make room for the little reservoir that goes on top of the M/C.
The M/C is leaking out of the back and onto the pedals. I have to see if I can get some more seals for it tomorrow.
It wasn't long before these were mounted to the car.
You can see here the driver's side spindle fitted with the VSS.
And all tied back out of the way. I got someone to cycle the steering while I was checking the wires to ensure it doesn't bind on anything or pull tight.
Awesome blue brakes fitted. Everyone knows blue is a cold colour so I won't have any issues with brake fade 😀
I'm liking the height 🙂
Fitting the brake pads is as easy as removing one bolt and swinging the caliper open. Slot your pads in and the job is done 🙂
And by this point I just had to throw a wheel on to see how it looks.
Well there you have it. Still have to sort out the issues with the M/C. But the spindles are all fitted and shimmed. Grease nipple fitted and greased. Wheel bearings greased and adjusted, brakes fitted. Steering connected.
All I need to do is get it bled then fit the wheels!
Hoping to have all the problems solved tomorrow.
Smiley 🙂
grinderman ·
You are are a legend in the DIY VW world Smiley. Find a problem, You solve it. Cant buy a specific part? You make it. And the amazing thing is this aint a long term project stuck in a state of the art workshop, its Your daily driver!!!! Keep up the good work.
P.S. Good tyre size choice 225/75r16 are proper light truck rated 4wd tyres and are easily available everywhere.
Smiley ·
grinderman wrote:You are are a legend in the DIY VW world Smiley. Find a problem, You solve it. Cant buy a specific part? You make it. And the amazing thing is this aint a long term project stuck in a state of the art workshop, its Your daily driver!!!! Keep up the good work.
P.S. Good tyre size choice 225/75r16 are proper light truck rated 4wd tyres and are easily available everywhere.
Thanks for the kind words mate.
And yes, that's why I went with those particular tyres. And also why I changed to 16" rims, far more common and cheap cause it's what all the 4WDs run.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Well today was incredibly long a frustrating. But we've finally gotten there. Just took her for her maiden voyage. I have to say it's fantastic.
Spent all day screwing around with the brakes. Had to change the master cylinder to a brand new one and swap that all back in. Then the new one had one less port than the old one. So I took the T piece out of the rear circuit off a floorpan I had lying around. Finally got that in and they wouldn't seem to bleed up nicely. More hours frigging around checking and double checking everything, plus it's been raining on my all day, lovely.
I ended up pulling the fuel tank out and pouring brake fluid directly into the little split bottle that plugs into the top of the M/C. this got rid of an air pocket and they finally bled up good. Pedal is still a little soft, half of this is cause the rear drums need adjusting, might do that in the morning.
Put the wheels on and sat it down, the thing is massive! I'm really liking the stance. Though the front is higher than the back now, by a few inches at least I think. Time to bump in up a notch I suppose.
Took it for a drive and noticed a number of issues that will need to be sorted out.
- Looking in the rear vision mirror, all I can see is the road about 10m behind me 😂😂
- The headlights are pointing at the tops of the powerpoles, they will need adjusting.
- The steering is a little wandery. This is fair enough, I haven't touched the wheel alignment or even roughly measured it. It's booked in for a wheel alignment on Monday afternoon. There is also a little play in the steering box. I'm going to adjust it in the morning and maybe put some oil in it 😀
- I can't seem to get the smile off my face. From the second I first sat in it and thought "Did I leave the jack under the front? Hang on, this is how she sits now."
- The disc brakes are working well. It's raining here at the moment so I was taking it easy to make sure all was good. The car will lock the fronts up if you apply the brakes hard. I attribute this to a number of things, obviously the drums on the back are hopeless trying to keep up but they do need adjusting so that should move the bias rearward a little. I think I still have too much pressure in the front tyres so dropping them down a little further will give me some more grip. I will have to start working on the rear disc brake conversion ASAP.
I also noticed the car feels a little more top heavy to drive. Which is understandable, it's built for embarrassing 4WDs not winning track days.
Last Monday I was driving the car up to Rocky when some loud noises started emitting from the engine bay followed by a bang and then silence. I turned the car off immediately and pulled over. Went round the back to find this, notice anything missing?
And this was sitting on top of the RHS cylinder tinware wedged against the exhaust.
The pulley had let go off the hub. I've since found out that this is caused by not having enough shims installed and the pulley halves are riding on the belt. Causing them to wobble and crack.
I adjusted my belt a few weeks ago and have only done about 5000km. Something to look out for, for those playing at home.
This is the only picture I managed to take once the car was back on the ground. I'll get some better ones tomorrow in the daylight and up the beach to should it all off. Can't wait to go and get her dirty!!
Thanks for reading. There will be more updates very soon. Next thing on the list is to build a speedo, I'm not sure if you can see it in any of the photos but I had the hole in the spindle for the speedo cable plugged to prevent water and mud getting in.
More soon!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
She's back on the road alright! Aside from one tiny setback at the end of the day which put her back off the road 😂😂😂😂😂
After a fantastic day of offroading up at the local beach spot 5-Rocks. While driving out the fan nut decided to come loose! Not a massive deal, we towed her home. I'm going to pull the alternator out tomorrow and sort it all out.
I didn't get any pictures today as my camera went dead as soon as I turned it on this morning 🙁 So as soon as people put some up on Facebook I will repost them up here.
I did manage to get a few shots this arvo before it got too dark.
Here is a nice comparison shot of before and after.
Before...
...and after.
And as you can see from this next picture I now need to raise the back up a little to match!
Is it possible to raise it up a little bit without notching the springplates and not have it riding on the stops? It's currently set to factory ride height on the rear. Dad has suggested 33"s, but the 31"s rub already and I don't really want to change to short torsion bars.
Let me know what you think.
And I will try to get some more pictures tomorrow in the daylight with a charged camera!
Smiley 🙂
PS - You all missed a great day up at 5-Rocks, when are people going to come and start visiting??
Smiley ·
Also. I measured the ground clearance with the car sitting on the ground and with it jack up at full droop with the wheels just touching the ground.
The old ground clearance was 210mm, it is now 370mm 😀
And at full droop, old was 280mm and the new is 450mm.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Here's a few happy snaps I manged to snag off Facebook. Aside from the constant drizzle the day was quite great. I think I might look into wiring up intermittent wipers, really needed them today.
We had one Patrol, one Hilux, one Cruiser ute, one Jeep, one Range Rover and one Baja. That just about every make covered 😂
Look and see if you can tell who has the most ground clearance 🤘
We found one of those nice logs stuck in the sand and every one had a go cycling their suspension.
I'm happy to report the tyres don't rub at all on full compression, not even on the headlight bucket which I thought they would. The only place they rub is a little on the inner guard at full steering lock. I'm very happy.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
One more from today.
Smiley 🙂
niall ·
love the thread smiley but i cant help thinking that its too much lift in the front now, how can you match that on the rear without going to kombi boxes?
bajachris88 ·
Good on ya Daniel, you been waiting very long for this. 👍 Good on ya mate.
What a change! Those tyres fill in the front guards perfectly! I gotta cure the whacky racer look on Frog one day... maybe so the some route. I'd have to raise the rear then too which is the only thing stopping me atm.
Smiley ·
niall wrote:love the thread smiley but i cant help thinking that its too much lift in the front now, how can you match that on the rear without going to kombi boxes?
Blasphemy!!! There is no such thing as too much lift, as long as you still have travel too and it isn't sitting on the stops. I already have a Kombi 5-Rib Transaxle in the back. Or do you mean a set of Split Bus/Country Buggy redux hubs?
The plan is to fit Kombi CVs on the outer to replace the Beetle ones I have currently. This will give me some more travel so I can notch the spring plates a little. Then I can screw the back up a spline or so without it riding on the stops. And 33"s are also in the pipeline.
Any more brain busters? 😂
bajachris88 wrote:Good on ya Daniel, you been waiting very long for this. 👍 Good on ya mate.
What a change! Those tyres fill in the front guards perfectly! I gotta cure the whacky racer look on Frog one day... maybe so the some route. I'd have to raise the rear then too which is the only thing stopping me atm.
Thanks Chris. I'm very happy with the way the front end has turned out. The tyres only rub very slightly on full steering lock. And the good negative offset of the rims means it's not stressing the wheel bearings as much and there is a lot less force being transmitted into the steering arms. Means I'm less likely to bend long tie rods and there's less feedback through the steering wheel.
And as for your car, you certainly need bigger tyres on the front! And lifting the back up is a good thing. I'll do mine and then in can follow along 🥷
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
Smiley, you'll need to upgrade all your cv's for increased lift as inner and outers all see the same angle. Don't muck around and go straight to 930's.
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:Smiley, you'll need to upgrade all your cv's for increased lift as inner and outers all see the same angle. Don't muck around and go straight to 930's.
I already have Kombi inner. Just Beetle outer. I was going to set it up for Kombi CV bolts pattern with the intention of going to Type 4 CVs down the track.
Smiley 🙂
BlueV2 ·
Smiley, you will find that 33's will have a big effect on your acceleration and braking. You might not like that change, but you will enjoy the extra height. Just dont make it so it looks like it will tip over on the first corner 😵
Smiley ·
BlueV2 wrote:Smiley, you will find that 33's will have a big effect on your acceleration and braking. You might not like that change, but you will enjoy the extra height. Just dont make it so it looks like it will tip over on the first corner 😵
Yeah. I have considered that. I was probably going to change to 33"s when I fit the 5 Speed gearbox and a few other mods at the same time like a body lift. Cause the 31"s currently rub at full compression, so the 33s would probably be too much.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Here's a picture of what was left of the hole in my fan. I got this all sorted out yesterday morning. I fitted another fan and hub. Cause it was also quite flogged down.
I also got stuck in this arvo and fitted the flexible rubber guard flares to cover my new wheels.
As you can see the tyres are a little proud of the guards.
Put the flaring on and it is just covered enough 🙂 Should keep Mr Plod off my back.
I personally hate these rubber flares on cars. I think they look horrible and half done. This is just a temporary measure until I sort out some wider guards for the front to cover everything.
Thanks for reading.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Here is a quick picture of the rack.
And the steering arm with ball joint on the end is below it.
As you can see it's a very nice compact unit.
I've measured the steering lock to lock and it's 4 full turns. This is compared to 2.6 for a standard Beetle steering box.
Bear in mind that this might change when it's fitted to the car. It depends whether the Beetle steering throw will use all of this travel or not to got from lock to lock. We measured the number of turns in a friends Mk I Golf and it was about 3.5 turns of the steering wheel from lock to lock.
I'll have to get stuck in as I wouldn't mind having it fitted for Valla.
Smiley 🙂
njg02 ·
What a read! Great work Smiley. I've wanted a baja since, well, a long time. I'm out at Gracemere and hope to bump into you out at Yeppoon one day for a good yak. We were supposed to go to 5 Rocks last Sunday but the weather was too good, so we took the boat out. I'll keep my eyes peeled.
Neil
Smiley ·
njg02 wrote:What a read! Great work Smiley. I've wanted a baja since, well, a long time. I'm out at Gracemere and hope to bump into you out at Yeppoon one day for a good yak. We were supposed to go to 5 Rocks last Sunday but the weather was too good, so we took the boat out. I'll keep my eyes peeled.
Neil
Hey mate. Thanks for the kind words.
I drive me Baja daily and I work in Rocky. I'm actually surprised you haven't seen me. Good to here that there are more local people interested in VWs, especially offroad ones!!
I'll PM you my number and you can drop me a text or whatever next time you're down the beach and we can catch up.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Did a little messing around this arvo.
Drill this deeper and tap it out.
Then you can fit these.
Which holds this on.
More soon...
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
This afternoon I decided to have a go at race prepping my CVs before I do my rear suspension upgrades.
Here is the CV new out of the box. It was very tight to move and stiff.
The inner star, cage and balls slid out sideways as one piece. This was the first indication that they needed attention. At this point all the balls should have fallen out and rolled under something to get lost, but they were all jambed in the windows on the cage.
They should not be this tight!
I started with the inner stars first. Lightly clamp them in a vice so you can polish the grooves where the balls run. You can see that the grooves are quite dull, and on some of them you can even see the manufacturers machining marks. You want to get rid of all of this and polish them to a nice finish while removing as little material as possible. You want the balls to slide nicely in the grooves, not slop around. If you remove too much material you can also remove the heat treatment on the metal and this can cause premature failure of the CVs.
Next on the list is the outer housing. The process is the same, tidy them up without going overboard. Also remove any sharp edges and burrs.
Lastly you want to sort out the cages. This is the area on mine that needed the most work. The balls were very tight in the windows and took a fair effort to push through. What you need to do is polish the edges of the windows down until the ball will drop through without catching. You want to do this along the length of the window because the ball slides back and forward in here depending on you CV angle. Do all the windows.
Then run your buff around the edges of the window and remove any sharp edges. The cage is the part of the CV assembly that is most prone to cracking and/or breaking. By removing any sharp edges you reduce the number of surface defect, which reduces the chances of having stress risers. Stress risers lead to cracks and breakages.
I found that the inner star and outer housing were easiest to do clamped in the vice. And the cages were easiest held in one hand, which allows easy movement to buff all the edges.
I only got to CVs completed this afternoon, so will have to do the others soon. I'm hoping to have the back end up for the trip down to Valla, but that depends if my stub axles show up or not.
I'm going to take more pictures as I go and will run through CV assembly and timing CVs on the axle. If it's any good I might write it into a tech article.
Thanks for reading.
Smiley 🙂
baghall ·
Hey Smiley, just curious what you were using for buffing the cvs?
nils ·
Dremel with 1/2 sanding drum i'm going to guess😁
baghall ·
Makes sense nils Just diddent think of that. Feeling rather stupid now!
Smiley ·
baghall wrote:Hey Smiley, just curious what you were using for buffing the cvs?
I got one axle painted this arvo and blasted, drilled and tapped the other one. It'll be getting paint tomorrow.
Smiley 🙂
nils ·
Mmmmm.... ......5 SEEDS
Smiley ·
Might have had a slight problem with my long tierod this afternoon.
Bent my long tierod on a step in a rut out the back of my house this afternoon. Because I was so close I limped her home the 500m or so. It was an interesting little drive with her trying to drive off both sides of the track at once 🤪
So I did what any respectable offroader should and rebuilt it stronger!
I pulled the tie rod out and bent it straight.
Now you remember when you bought your first Baja 4 years ago and the first afternoon that you got it home you immediately removed the front swaybar? Well it has another use! I managed to dig one out of my spares.
Measure the length of your tie rod then subtract both the lengths of the threaded ends of you tie rods. Take off another 10mm or so to give yourself a little extra room and then cut a piece of swaybar out for this length. It's a nice fit inside the hollow tierod and helps give it a little more strength. Mine slid most of the way in and only needed a tiny tap with a pin punch to get it all the way past the threads so I could refit the tie rod end.
Should tide me over until I get my steering rack setup properly.
Fitted it all back to the car and she's just like a new one again!
Thanks for looking!
Smiley 🙂
1916baja ·
👍 i did that to my buggy years ago on straddie. We used a big tent peg! 😂
bajachris88 ·
HOLY CRAP! What a bent tie rod lol. you going to mount it on a trophy plaque? lol.
Always good to see a baja well used 😀 Top stuff Daniel 👍
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:HOLY CRAP! What a bent tie rod lol. you going to mount it on a trophy plaque? lol.
Always good to see a baja well used 😀 Top stuff Daniel 👍
It's back on the car! Didn't you read the writing in between all the pictures? 😂😂
Smiley 🙂
nils ·
Ha HA, It starts with the tie rods. No turning back now, things only start getting biger and badder from here
Smiley ·
nils wrote:Ha HA, It starts with the tie rods. No turning back now, things only start getting biger and badder from here
Well I do have that rack and pinion sitting here.....
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Well after I bent my long tie rod on Friday it seems I hadn't managed to give the car enough punishment. So I managed to break the internals of my steering box on the same track Saturday morning!!
Limped her home again and set about the nessicary repairs.
I managed to find a very good condition steering box off a balljoint car I had at home. Scrounged a pitman arm off another mid 60s linkpin Baja and we were in business.
I pulled the lid off the box for a quick inspection, and to wipe the old grease out and give it a repack.
I decided while I had the cover off to tap the holes out so that I could plug them properly. I've never been a fan of the little push in plastic plugs.
Cut down some bolts to suit.
And all fitted back in the car.
I have to say that the steering is now fantastic. I knew that the old steering box was getting a little worn and I couldn't adjust the play out of it, but the difference is night and day! No play whatsoever, nice and smooth and a lot easier to turn. Going to be a great drive down to Valla!!!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
On Sunday morning I went a long to the local 4WD Clubs monthly meet. The club is called CQ Offroad, but then they told me that I couldn't become a member because I didn't own a 4WD. Fortunately they let me tag along for the day, though I was a little disappointed in their bad attitude towards non-4WD offroad vehicles.
The meet was at Seeonee Park, the local scout park. A location that I actually know quite well.
Here are a few shots of me driving through some wombats holes. Lifting the front wheels one after the other!! Very fun!!
And a few more driving in and out of the 'Snake Pit'
I had a good morning but had to leave early to attend a birthday lunch. Might go out with them again some time.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I also fitted my second blue plate this evening.
She now has two plates with 4 codes 😀
Time to start working on some more.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Guess what showed up today!!??
My Thing Stubs axles from America.
Unfortunately not soon enough to have them in before Valla, but I know what I'll be doing next weekend!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Well I've gotten the stub axles prepped, painted and ready to go into the car. I figured it would be a good chance to throw a new set of wheel bearings and seals in the back because they haven't even been looked at in 12 months now. I'm going to be picking up a set tomorrow after work.
I took the car up the top this arvo and flexed her out one last time to take a few measurements before I rip into the rear suspension. I'd like to try and get it all done this week so I can try her out next weekend.
Here's a few pictures.
More very soon.
Smiley 🙂
OZ Towdster ·
How about finishing that big thing behind the car first ya wally , as it wil be summer soon which means plenty of rain in your neibourhood , wjich will make for some pretty uncomfortable working conditons without a roof and walls
nils ·
Been awhile since i checked in on your thread. Nice work collecting blue plates!,will be like trading cards eventually. With reguards to your steering box. A great way to make it last longer is to face the pitman arm and bottom of the box and add a big washer/shim between the 2, it takes the impact load off the aluminium top and worm & roller. Think it may be in the hibbard book?
Smiley ·
OZ Towdster wrote:How about finishing that big thing behind the car first ya wally , as it wil be summer soon which means plenty of rain in your neibourhood , wjich will make for some pretty uncomfortable working conditons without a roof and walls
How did I know you would post something about the shed!!
I know I need to get stuck into it. When are you coming up to help? I haven't seen any progress on the bus or Towdster in 6 months so you should have plenty of free time.
nils wrote:Been awhile since i checked in on your thread. Nice work collecting blue plates!,will be like trading cards eventually. With reguards to your steering box. A great way to make it last longer is to face the pitman arm and bottom of the box and add a big washer/shim between the 2, it takes the impact load off the aluminium top and worm & roller. Think it may be in the hibbard book?
Yeah. I have also read of that somewhere. I think I'm just going to focus on getting the rack in ASAP. That way I can work on some down travel on the front too.
Smiley 🙂
h ·
Smiley wrote:
OZ Towdster wrote:How about finishing that big thing behind the car first ya wally , as it wil be summer soon which means plenty of rain in your neibourhood , wjich will make for some pretty uncomfortable working conditons without a roof and walls
How did I know you would post something about the shed!!
I know I need to get stuck into it. When are you coming up to help? I haven't seen any progress on the bus or Towdster in 6 months so you should have plenty of free time.
Smiley 🙂
touché 😂
OZ Towdster ·
Hey you organise a weekend and i'll come up , and as for my cars not making much progress , it's a case of me being to nice i think and helping everyone but myself
Smiley ·
OZ Towdster wrote:Hey you organise a weekend and i'll come up , and as for my cars not making much progress , it's a case of me being to nice i think and helping everyone but myself
This weekend or the weekend after?
I know somewhere you can stay really cheap!
Smiley 🙂
DubCrazy ·
it would want to be cheap it doesnt have a roof on it yet! or is that the deal, fit the roof and you stay dry?? hehee
steff.......
Smiley ·
DubCrazy wrote:it would want to be cheap it doesnt have a roof on it yet! or is that the deal, fit the roof and you stay dry?? hehee
steff.......
You should be coming up to help too!!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Well I hooked in this evening and made a start on the rear end. Would like to get it all sorted and out of the way by the weekend.
First thing I finished prepping the other 2 CVs. So they are all buffed and finished now.
Now when you are reassembling your CVs it's important to put them back together around the correct way. Both the outer ring and inner star have an alternating pattern of narrow and wide sections. When you reassemble your CVs you want to make sure that you line the wide section on the outer ring with a narrow section on the inner star, or vice versa. It is possible to put them together with the wide section next to the wide section on the other part. However, the CV will be very tight and have little or no angular movement at all. I actually found that one of the ones I pulled out of the box brand new was assembled the incorrect way round. Lucky I was pulling them down the prep them!
Correctly assembled CV.
After the CVs were done I went and grabbed a spare set of single plate IRS springplates. I'm cutting these up to use as a measuring tool to find the maximum angle to run the CVs to.
I marked them out with a 10mm notch. I thought this would be way more than I would be able to run but turns out it was close to perfect.
Then chop them out with the grinder.
It wasn't long before I had the axle nuts cracked, wheels off and started pulling the old stub axles, axles and CVs out.
Out with the old!
And here are a few comparison shots between the standard Type 1 Beetle stub axle and a Type 181 Thing stub axle. They are identical on the axle shaft, spline and thread. But the Thing has a larger flange which will accommodate a Kombi, Porsche 944 or Type 4 CV.
Fitted up to the car with new seals and bearings.
I'm also swapping to Baywindow Kombi gas front shocks for the rear of the car. They are a little beefier than my current shocks and should help keep the rear end from bouncing around as much as it has been lately.
Undo your diagonal arm and jack it up as high as you can. You will have to remove the suspension snubber in order to get the hight to clear the spring plate.
Loosen the spring plate cover and pop it down off the stop. It didn't even amputate my arm or start any world wars on it's way down.
Once it's popped off you can remove the cover and let it hang at full droop. I marked the plate to the housing here so I can put it back in the same spot later for adjustment.
I also removed the spring plate and torsion bar as one piece and didn't separate them for the same reason.
It was also at this point that I discovered my spring plate bushes are a little worn and I would prefer to replace them before putting the suspension back together. Will see if I can get some after work tomorrow.
Now assemble it back together with the tooling spring plate and no torsion bar fitted.
It turns out that a 10mm notch on the spring plate is just perfect to use the full travel of the Kombi front shock. It doesn't bottom or top out through the full travel. I worked it out to be 9 inches (nearly 230mm) of wheel travel. Which is up from the 7 inches (178mm) you get from a completely stock setup which is what I was running. It may not sound like much but that's a 28.5% increase in wheel travel! I very happy with that.
From this.....
...to this.
Very nice!! Now that we have worked out the max travel of the shock is it going to be too much for the CVs and will they bind?
First step is the dry assemble your axle so you can fit it to the car. You can see in the second picture the washer and bolt setup that I have fitted to hold the CVs onto the axle.
Then you want to fit it up to the car. On the inbound side I had to stack the bolts out with a few washers. Because I didn't have the CV boot or torque washers fitted the bolts screwed through and into the side of the gearbox preventing the axle from turning.
Here it is dead level. I am happy to report that there is still around half and inch of sideplay in the axle. It turns freely without binding onto the inside of the gearbox or stubaxle flanges.
And here is the axle at full droop. Spins freely and no binding whatsoever!!! With a 10mm notch in the springplate, got to be happy with that 😀 I have not measured the angle on the axle but I will do so tomorrow and let you know.
So I'm planning on notching my double springplates 10mm and resetting my rear suspension a few inches higher.
I couldn't resist throwing a wheel on and taking a few pictures.
Hoping to have another big evening on her tomorrow. But right now I'm off to bed!!!
Smiley 🙂
1916baja ·
Nice work mate! So detailed in the explanation.... Handy! How do you work on your car when its that dirty? That would drive me nuts!
Smiley ·
1916baja wrote:Nice work mate! So detailed in the explanation.... Handy! How do you work on your car when its that dirty? That would drive me nuts!
Yeah. She's booked in for a very thorough wash as soon as the wheel are back on and she can move into the yard again.
And then she's booked in for offroading this weekend to test out the new suspension setup!!!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
I got a tiny bit more done on the car this afternoon.
I notched out my LHS double springplate so now it's ready to back up to the car. I ended up going with 11mm cause there was a tiny bit more travel to coax out of the shocks.
Then I decided to see how far the CVs can travel before they bind.
So I notched the other springplate out to 20mm and fitted it back to the car.
It's actually not sitting down on the stop because the diagonal arm has swung down so much it is resting on my barwork. So there is a 2mm gap between the stop and the plate. So it's sitting like I notched the plates 18mm.
I borrowed this tool off a VW friend. It's a factory tool for measuring and adjusting the angle of your springplates. In this case I used it to measure the angle of my axle.
So then I bolted the axle in place. And, amazingly, the CVs weren't binding at all. Everything still spun smoothly with no tightness or clicking. I used the tooling to measure the angle of the axle and it's sitting at 24°!!! Pretty damn stoked with that! Who needs Porsche CVs? I obviously won't be running them like this because my shocks can't travel this far. I'll be sticking with the 11mm nitch for the moment and chase more down the track.
Hoping to have another big afternoon and night on her tomorrow. More then!
Smiley 🙂
nils ·
Just make sure you radius and edge all the notchs in your spring plates, otherwise you are creating places for cracks to start.
baghall ·
Some more awesome work smiley, but looks like you oight damage your guards if your wheels bounce that high.
Smiley ·
baghall wrote:Some more awesome work smiley, but looks like you oight damage your guards if your wheels bounce that high.
The wheels don't contact the guards at all, and that's with the snubber removed. They rub the tiniest bit on the inner guard, you can just hear it when you go over big bumps fast 🤘
The suspension cycles very well, I'm working on it right now. Want to get it all back together so I can try it out ASAP!!!
Smiley 🙂
Anthiron ·
Time for a body lift smiley. Nice work!
Smiley ·
Anthiron wrote:Time for a body lift smiley. Nice work!
Tell me about it!! I need one so I can fit 33s without them rubbing.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Where were we?
I put in a big night last night getting the car all finished. I worked through the night and got it all done at 4:45 this morning! Ready just in time to drive to work 😀
After a lot of screwing around getting covered in graphite powder I finally had everything lubed and ready to go back together. After adjusting my springplate angle you can see the difference to what I was running here.
In order to compress the spring up I find it easy to bolt a spare springplate on to put the jack under.
But of course you are trying to lift the whole car off the ground so it is necessary to chain the front axle of the jack to the car. So then you are compressing the spring not lifting the car. You want to make sure the chain is attached somewhere strong, there is a lot of tension here, looped over the top shock mount is a great place.
It wasn't long before we had this...
...and then this.
And onto the other side. You can see here the springplate bushes liberally covered with graphite powder. Not be shy, the more you can get in there the better. I use graphite powder because it is a dry lubricant and won't attract dirt. Whereas a wet lube like rubber grease will. You want to keep as much dirt out of the moving parts of you car as possible, so it's graphite powder for me!
Here is the final angle that I am running at the moment. A neat 20°, quite impressed with that.
Everything back together and wheel back on. Here's a shot of both wheels at full droop.
And here's a few shots of how the car sits now. I think I might have gone a touch high with the ride height setting. Time will tell and we will see it it settles down a bit. If it doesn't I might wind her down about and inch. We'll play it by ear and see how things go.
Smiley 🙂
OZ Towdster ·
I think it might be time for some 3 x 3 arms there sunshine as those rear wheels look so far foward in the wheel arches .
As for suspension height settings , how much droop have you got from ride height compared to your overall suspension travel , as the ideal setting would be to have 2/3s up travel from ride height and , a 1/3 down travel
bajachris88 ·
Good job Daniel 👍
Amazing effort as always. Alyce the monster truck prevails again. I bet those 4wd co-workers shut up now lol. Thanks for going into detail too, a good illustrated tech sheet and confidence booster (for the audience).
OZ Towdster ·
Oh , and with your baja in the shed of a night lately in bits , i bet mums on your case about her ss out in the weather hehehehehe
mackaymanx ·
I like this Smiley, good bit of thinking outside the box.👍
grinderman ·
I'm sorry but the next step is obvious .......33's.....33's........33's.........c'mon everybody start the chant !!! LOL.
In all seriousness (I cant believe I'm saying this) maybe drop it down a spline on the back and fit some 32inch rears to even it out nicely, which would give you more droop which equals more traction.👍👍👍 Have a look at 235/85r16's they measure 32inch high and 8.5inch wide (slightly narrower tyres will improve your economy as well).
Alyce just gets better week.....
Anthiron ·
Very Nice! i admire your dedication. baja > Sleep
Smiley ·
OZ Towdster wrote:I think it might be time for some 3 x 3 arms there sunshine as those rear wheels look so far foward in the wheel arches .
As for suspension height settings , how much droop have you got from ride height compared to your overall suspension travel , as the ideal setting would be to have 2/3s up travel from ride height and , a 1/3 down travel
You read my mind Andrew. I really like those 2 1/2 by 2 1/2 arms that Avery's do. After seeing yours I must have a set! As for the travel. I think it's lacking in the droop at the moment, the plan is 5-Rocks trip tomorrow to see if I can 'settle' the suspension some more. If not I will probably drop it an inch, the car is sitting slightly higher at the back so this will bring it back level anyway.
bajachris88 wrote:Good job Daniel 👍
Amazing effort as always. Alyce the monster truck prevails again. I bet those 4wd co-workers shut up now lol. Thanks for going into detail too, a good illustrated tech sheet and confidence booster (for the audience).
Thanks for the kind words Chris. I wrote it like this so people like you can copy it and lift their Baja's up!! So get to it!
OZ Towdster wrote:Oh , and with your baja in the shed of a night lately in bits , i bet mums on your case about her ss out in the weather hehehehehe
Mum and dad are currently on holiday in Darwin. So they don't have to know about this! I'm going to give the SS a wash anyway, and Alyce and the Daewoo and the ute. All the cars are dirty!!
mackaymanx wrote:I like this Smiley, good bit of thinking outside the box.👍
I thought everyone used the chain over the shock mount?
Or do you mean bolting the springplate to the springplate? I've done that in the past and it worked well so I did it again.
grinderman wrote:I'm sorry but the next step is obvious .......33's.....33's........33's.........c'mon everybody start the chant !!! LOL.
In all seriousness (I cant believe I'm saying this) maybe drop it down a spline on the back and fit some 32inch rears to even it out nicely, which would give you more droop which equals more traction.👍👍👍 Have a look at 235/85r16's they measure 32inch high and 8.5inch wide (slightly narrower tyres will improve your economy as well).
Alyce just gets better week.....
Problem is I can't run bigger than the 31s cause I have long torsion bars in her. And I'm not changing to swingaxle plates for reasons I have yet to tell everyone. But this is where the longer rear trailing arms come in that Towdster mentioned. These move the wheels back so they will clear the long bars and I can run up to a 35-36 inch tall tyre.
There are two other problems with 33s, they will kill my gearing a little, and they are going to rub badly on the bodywork on full compression. But don't you worry, I have big plans for all this sort of stuff and I'll keep you all posted on here.
And I do like the 235/85/16s, I want to eventually run them as my fronts and run something around the 33-34 as my rears.
I'll get some pictures offroading tomorrow!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Anthiron wrote:Very Nice! i admire your dedication. baja > Sleep
Way greater!!!
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
Smiley wrote:And I do like the 235/85/16s, I want to eventually run them as my fronts and run something around the 33-34 as my rears.
^^^ Now there's something serious.......
drop the rear an inch or 2 and a half for now .... good work
Bone ·
matberry wrote:
Smiley wrote:And I do like the 235/85/16s, I want to eventually run them as my fronts and run something around the 33-34 as my rears.
^^^ Now there's something serious.......
drop the rear an inch or 2 and a half for now .... good work
What nut case would run 33's on the rear of their baja !
nils ·
grinderman wrote:I'm sorry but the next step is obvious .......33's.....33's........33's.........c'mon everybody start the chant !!! LOL.
In all seriousness (I cant believe I'm saying this) maybe drop it down a spline on the back and fit some 32inch rears to even it out nicely, which would give you more droop which equals more traction.👍👍👍 Have a look at 235/85r16's they measure 32inch high and 8.5inch wide (slightly narrower tyres will improve your economy as well).
Alyce just gets better week.....
might want to add power steering to this list 😂
bajachris88 ·
haha, don't you worry, hes got rack and peanut on the way close enough 😂😀
nils ·
Speaking of those daewoo rackss, you have a power or a manual rack smiley?
baghall ·
Nice job Smiley. Glad they fit but yeah would look better further back. Bit of a hijack but I was told of a way to get lift that can be done. If you cut off the rear clip and front clip and reweld them 2 inches lower it will give lift to the body. Would need to gusset them well, though.
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:drop the rear an inch or 2 and a half for now .... good work
2 and a half! I've only raised it 3 inches, I'd almost be back where I started if I dropped it that much. After the thrashing she got today the suspension has settled a little (will post pictures soon) but it looks like the drivers side is a little lower than the passengers. I not sure if it's cause of the big lump behind the wheel or if the torsion bars aren't even. I will take some good measurements tomorrow and see what I want to do. The drivers side is perfect, I might have to drop the passengers an inch or so to match.
Bone wrote:What nut case would run 33's on the rear of their baja !
It's an exclusive club I've heard of, and I would very much like to join 😀
nils wrote:might want to add power steering to this list 😂
I don't think it will be needed. The car is very nice to steer and drive at the moment with the 225/75/16s and I'm still running a box. The 235/85/16s are only 10mm wider and a little bigger in diameter, I don't think the footprint would be much bigger than what I have currently. So I think a rack should be able to push it around fine.
nils wrote:Speaking of those daewoo rackss, you have a power or a manual rack smiley?
Neither 🥷
I did actually pick two Daewoo power racks up very cheap from the wreckers.
But I'm not going to be running them. I've got a brand new MkI Golf rack here at home and it's going in instead. Just need to get around to starting to fit it.
I will post pictures of today's shenanigans as soon as I can. I think I drove the hardest track in the world today 🙂
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
baghall wrote:Nice job Smiley. Glad they fit but yeah would look better further back. Bit of a hijack but I was told of a way to get lift that can be done. If you cut off the rear clip and front clip and reweld them 2 inches lower it will give lift to the body. Would need to gusset them well, though.
You mean the framehead on the front and the torsion housing on the back?
I have seen this done where someone welded another torsion housing onto the car at the back directly under the stock one. Can't remember what he had at the front.
Problems with this is you are adding a lot of extra weight, would have to gusset the crap out of it like you said, I'm not sure of legality? and you are not actually gaining any ground clearance. Cause you are only moving the body up on the suspension, not winding the suspension up for more height.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
bajachris88 wrote:Good job Daniel 👍
Amazing effort as always. Alyce the monster truck prevails again. I bet those 4wd co-workers shut up now lol.
I forgot to say. A lot of the dudes at work are blown away by how massive she is. Certainly gets some comments.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Well I went out offroading yesterday. Headed up to 5-Rocks and then out to do some forestry tracks.
On the way into the 5-rocks up the big hill the sand was so soft. It's the softest I've ever seen it. I was running 5psi in my tyres and wasn't getting anywhere. I had to drop them down to 3psi and what a difference that made! Walked straight up the sand hill with a few revs on board.
The 4WDs that were there had to drop their pressures a lot too, and needed four wheel drive and low range to make it 🙅
Here's a view looking from the recently refurbished Stockyard Point, down onto 5-rocks.
As we were heading in first thing in the morning there was a tree dropped across the track leading out of one of the creek crossings, but not by nature. Someone had purposefully dropped the tree to block the track and prevent access. There are people that actually live up at Stockyard Point so I have no idea why someone would do such a foolhardy and dangerous thing. I stopped and had a chat to one of the locals and he said it wasn't there the night before.
The tree was massive and still quite attached where it had been cut. So we ended up driving around it through the creek to get past. There was the 2 cars and me, and then 3 4WDs of blokes I know from work. We were literally the first ones into 5-Rocks that day. By the time we got through more people had arrived and were starting to line up.
Here's a picture of the tree I took while we were on our way back out, someone with a chainsaw and a massive which had shifted it off the road. Tratty's brother Matt and my other friend Lincoln provided a size comparison 🙂
And here's where it was dropped across the track. It was sitting at around headheight.
On the way out I decided to drive back through the side track anyway, for the fun on it.
On the other side of the creek I found a nice mound to check my suspension on now that the back has been done,
You can see here it's not quite compressing fully up into the guard anymore. I think I am going to drop the back a little bit.
Front flexes nice and the wheels don't rub.
Tyres at 3psi 🤓
After this we headed into the Byfield store for a spot of lunch.
Matt had to head home, and then Lincoln and I went north towards the army base to find some forestry tracks.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Here's one of the tracks I drove. I found it quite a while ago but I don't think my car was capable of tackling it back then. I've always wanted to try driving it because as far as I can tell no one else has. The difficult stretch is only about 30m long, but is so rutted and washed out. There is a large large metre deep washout towards the end of the difficult bit which makes this track impassible to 4WDs cause they are too wide to drive past it and if you slipped in you would roll. Might be able to if they had like 5 feet of suspension travel. fortunately Alyce is just small enough to hug the fence (to the army base) on the LHS and sneak past on the bank, the wheels were only a few inches from the side of the washout. Small is sometimes better!!!!!!!!!!!!
The offending section, pictures never seem to do tracks justice.
The washout, where it starts there is a 2 foot drop straight down.
Here I am standing in the washout. You can see it's over waist height on me.
Well straight into it. Down another one of those 2 foot drops and if you look closely you can see my back wheel hanging in the air. Yep, she's resting on the barwork!
Had to lift the back and pack that wheel. We also chipped a bit off the bank under the barwork.
Walking her through, the front wheels spent a lot of time in the air on this track 🤘
Sorry about the poor picture, we were looking into the setting sun. This is just before the big washout starting to turn up onto the bank.
Driving past the hole, can't fit a 4WD up here! 😂
Then another big step down.
VICTORY!!! Out the other side. Lincoln wisely opted to drive around and meet me at the other end of this track. I don't think the little Subie had much of a hope.
It might not be the hardest track in the world but it's certainly the worst one I've driven. Just need to try it in the wet now 😎
Who else is doing this in their daily driver work hack?
Thanks for reading, time for more upgrades!
Smiley 🙂
nils ·
The golf rack was one of the racks I looked into when putting in a rack (also I looked into a LADA of all things) from what i have seen the golf rack is shorter and will fit between the shock towers ,which need to be cut off to fit the daewoo rack (not to mention that a broke one already😊) so I look forward to seeing your instal.
Looking at some of those photos, lookes like cutting brake may go well on you mod list, it's like poor mans traction control 😂
Always a good read smiley
Smiley ·
nils wrote:Looking at some of those photos, lookes like cutting brake may go well on you mod list, it's like poor mans traction control 😂
Always a good read smiley
Thanks dude.
I already have cutting brakes. But currently have two snapped handbrake cables 🙂
Next weeks pay will be going into some new ones, and I might even have a crack at a mkIII design of my cutting brakes.
Smiley 🙂
grinderman ·
Awesome effort for 31inch all terrains and open diff. 34inch centipedes and a diff lock would have you idling through that track without stopping. Gotta love a baja thats used for what they were originally designed for.👍
beetleboyjeff ·
Smiley wrote:Who else is doing this in their daily driver work hack?
Smiley 🙂
Certainly not as wild as that track, but with a trailer on - does that count?
This is up in the swamps between Limburners Creek & the beach, North over the river from Port Macquarie. I was taking building materials in towards our 'shack' on the creek.
In this one you can see the 'turfor' winch cable. I fell into the wheel ruts and got stuck (there were 3 of us in the car) on the way in, but on the way out, with just me in the car, I got out OK.
This is where your big wheels & wheel travel, and high ground clearance come into their own. :-)
One day, if I can outlive my wife so I will be allowed, I will get my 69 in the garage finished into the baja that I want.
Smiley ·
grinderman wrote:Awesome effort for 31inch all terrains and open diff. 34inch centipedes and a diff lock would have you idling through that track without stopping. Gotta love a baja thats used for what they were originally designed for.👍
I locker would be fantastic! And you're not wrong about the tyres. My all terrains are starting to get very worn, they've been on 2 years now and have done over 85000km!
I'm very much considering some mud tyres for my next purchase, but we'll see how everything goes.
beetleboyjeff wrote:
Smiley wrote:Who else is doing this in their daily driver work hack?
Smiley 🙂
Certainly not as wild as that track, but with a trailer on - does that count?
This is up in the swamps between Limburners Creek & the beach, North over the river from Port Macquarie. I was taking building materials in towards our 'shack' on the creek.
In this one you can see the 'turfor' winch cable. I fell into the wheel ruts and got stuck (there were 3 of us in the car) on the way in, but on the way out, with just me in the car, I got out OK.
This is where your big wheels & wheel travel, and high ground clearance come into their own. :-)
One day, if I can outlive my wife so I will be allowed, I will get my 69 in the garage finished into the baja that I want.
Hahahahaha! Very nice work Jeff! I bet not many people have taken an L bug down a track that sloppy! I certainly hope that you can get your Baja done at some stage!
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
Def go the Mudders Smiley
Smiley ·
matberry wrote:Def go the Mudders Smiley
I do have some 16 inch all terrains here at home that are in good nick. I just really need to get my rear disc brake kit built so I can change the stud pattern on the back to match and get some 16" rims for the back too.
But muddies would be great, just not sure I can afford them just at the moment.
Matt, you also have PM.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Went back out offroading yesterday to do some more exploring.
Decided to drive that hard track again. Did it about a thousand times quicker cause I knew the right lines.
I replaced both my handbrake cables (again 🤪) on Friday afternoon and adjusted the rear brakes up. Got to use the cutting brakes and they really helped out while flexing through and getting a little light on one back wheel.
The Patrol and the Hilux opted to take the long way round 😀
Then I decided to plant Alyce in the ground to see if I could get her to grow even bigger 😂
Front wheel disappeared into the earth.
My friend Mike was trapped in the passenger's side.
It was a lot softer then suspected!!!
Had to get strapped out.
Time for a good wash I think. All in a day's work for Alyce the Baja, I love this car so much!
Smiley 🙂
Bizarre ·
😂 you REALLY put her through her paces dont you?
Great stuff
matberry ·
Great mate. a couple of us thought you may show up at DI on friday night. Glad you were out mucking it. 👍👍
Smiley ·
Bizarre wrote:😂 you REALLY put her through her paces dont you?
Great stuff
That's what's she's for!
matberry wrote:Great mate. a couple of us thought you may show up at DI on friday night. Glad you were out mucking it. 👍👍
I was really really tempted, I definitely need to start driving down to some of those beach trips. I have no excuse, they are only 6 hours away.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Well during the week I pulled the bottom half of the airbox off in order to add somewhere to attach my prefilter.
It will be going on the LHS above the dissy.
Cut a suitable piece off a Commodore inlet tube.
And it wasn't long before we had it all welded in place.
Still a little tidying up to be done. I might give it all a smooth out with the die grinder and inspect for holes.
All that is left to do now is weld up the original spare hole that is in the front side of the airbox. As well as a few little ones that were the original bolt mounting holes.
Hoping to do a little more tomorrow afternoon.
Smiley 🙂
baghall ·
Smiley I love the punishment you dish out to the baja. Also looking forward to see the new air setup.
baghall ·
Smiley wrote:
baghall wrote:Nice job Smiley. Glad they fit but yeah would look better further back. Bit of a hijack but I was told of a way to get lift that can be done. If you cut off the rear clip and front clip and reweld them 2 inches lower it will give lift to the body. Would need to gusset them well, though.
You mean the framehead on the front and the torsion housing on the back?
I have seen this done where someone welded another torsion housing onto the car at the back directly under the stock one. Can't remember what he had at the front.
Problems with this is you are adding a lot of extra weight, would have to gusset the crap out of it like you said, I'm not sure of legality? and you are not actually gaining any ground clearance. Cause you are only moving the body up on the suspension, not winding the suspension up for more height.
Smiley 🙂
Sort of but not welding under the existing, cut off the existing. Legality is an issue but I know of a mechanic that did it to lower a car and engineers couldn't tell (what you don't know can't hurt you?). As far as clearance your right Smiley, it does only give a body lift. Gusseting was done with 10mm steel.
Smiley ·
Hey all. Just a few quick pictures. I managed to finish welding up the holes in the bottom half of the airbox on Friday so I could fit my prefilter.
Cut out a piece and welded it in to fill the factory inlet hole.
And plug welded up the factory mounting holes.
Mounted back in place.
The air is now draw from the side instead of directly off the fanhousing. I'm hoping that the inlet air will be a bit cooler now it's not pulling from off the hot fanhousing.
Airbox and prefilter fitted back onto the car.
And here's a picture with the engine scoop back in place.
And what better way to test it out then a trip up the beach on Saturday 😀
Smiley 🙂
nils ·
Got to say smiley, im digging the airbox with prefilter. 😎been thinking about what to do with the new engine and i think that just made the shortlist
baghall ·
Yeah I like that idea as well, might have to ut that on the to do list.
Smiley ·
Little bit of a late post on here but Alyce and I had a fantastic time down at Warwick!
It was my first time ever racing so I was a little nervous of how things were going to go.
Drove her around 800km either way to get down to Warwick and back. She ran like a watch the entire time, oil temps were very good, a lot better then the last big drive we did, some of the improvements are showing. Even got better fuel economy then normal too. Though I still think I can go down one more main jet size.
Had some great days on Saturday and Sunday racing and trying to remove as much weight from the car as possible 🙂
Ended up running my best on Sunday morning practice with a 11.442 at 57.32mph. A little slower than I hoped but pretty good for a big heavy Baja 😀 Will certainly be racing again next year, it's too much fun not too!
Here's a few quick pictures.
Well drag racing one weekend, followed by an 800km road trip home. Drive her to work everyday. And then UP THE BEACH THE NEXT WEEKEND!!!
We had such great weather I couldn't resist taking the 'race car' for a run up to 5-Rocks today.
Gee she is doing some hard miles!!!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
When I got home this arvo I started work on a long range fuel tank for Alyce.
Pulled this out of a Kombi at home. Given the state of the bus I was expecting the lower half to be reddish brown and very 'swiss cheese' looking. But turns out the tank is in great condition and very clean inside.
Pulled everything out of the back on the car and sat it in place. Though it is sitting up on the outlet pipe I have to say that the fit in the car is amazing. Perfect spacing between the wheel wells, the seatback still swings against its stops with an inch to spare and still going to leave some room up top for storage 👍
Filler is going to go out in here.....
.....through to here somewhere.
Still a little more parts collecting to be done. I also need to source a new sender cause the one in the tank is inoperable. And some fill tubes.
I will build a frame for it to sit in then a new firewall over the top.
More soon 😀
Smiley 🙂
baghall ·
Cool long range tank idea. I assume you are going to allow it to drain to the front tank, but are you going to have a large enough drain so you can fill both tanks from the one filler.
Smiley ·
baghall wrote:Cool long range tank idea. I assume you are going to allow it to drain to the front tank, but are you going to have a large enough drain so you can fill both tanks from the one filler.
Nope. Just going to tee it into the fuel line with a switchable fitting. So I can change between tanks.
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Well I got a little bit more done on the rear tank today.
Made up a frame out of 25x25x3mm angle.
I had to notch the 2 side pieces slightly so the tank would fit down in it. I couldn;t make the frame any wide or it won't fit between the wheel wells in the back of the car.
The tank fits very nicely into the frame.
And the frame is a nice tight fit into the back of the car.
More soon.
Smiley 🙂
OZ Towdster ·
Looks like Alice is getting some love for a change
So come on Smiley let the folks know whats going on !!!!
matberry ·
I can see some rear discs......
OZ Towdster ·
And some nice new non 30 year old seat belts too , and wipers that don't park in the middle of the screen
matberry ·
Hopefully ready for some pretty little plates, blue in colour. 👍👍👍
Smiley ·
WESTWOOD!!! You stirring bugger!!
Since when are you friends with my sister!??
Looks like I've been sprung. Long story short, Alyce got defected by the police. So I've been working on her getting her tidied up and sorted ready for a RWC. After about a week of phone calls and butting heads with the Transport department and Police station it came down to me getting a RWC and taking it in to the police station and they will lift the defect.
While I had her apart I decided to make and fit the rear disc brake conversion, and fit a standard weight flywheel cause lightened ones suck! Among a lot of other little fixes and tidying up I've had to do. I've been too busy to put anything up on here but have been taking some pictures and will try and do a proper update soon.
There's still lots to do and she's booked in for a RW Wednesday afternoon. I need her back on the road before Christmas, or I'm going to kill myself. I'm already getting withdrawals from not having been offroading in too long! 😂😂
Smiley 🙂
OZ Towdster ·
Am not actually friends with Sam , but when she tags you in a photo on good old fb , the fun had to start .
h ·
haha 👍
good to read its nearly back where you belong..
SebastienPeek ·
Smiley,
What'd she get defected for?
Glad to see you're on the road to recovery however, hopefully you can get in a few runs through the tracks before Christmas.
Good luck!
Smiley ·
SebastienPeek wrote:Smiley,
What'd she get defected for?
Glad to see you're on the road to recovery however, hopefully you can get in a few runs through the tracks before Christmas.
Good luck!
- Oversized tyres
- No mudflaps
- Broken Hood latch
- Cracked door pillar
- Oil leaks
- Wipers
- And my brakes.
Smiley 🙂
nils ·
Didn't know you could done for oversize tyres on a baja.
does anybody have copy of the modification guide that states vw types 1,2 and 3 are exemt from that rule due to beach buggy heritage?
OZ Towdster ·
I thought there was a copy on the manx club forum but just had a look and can't find it
bajachris88 ·
haha, take it to the inspection with stock vw rims and tyres, take a few photos for shiz and giggles. It'll get ya by for the moment, and will get you through the pits!
Then change back that afternoon lol.
Smiley ·
nils wrote:Didn't know you could done for oversize tyres on a baja.
does anybody have copy of the modification guide that states vw types 1,2 and 3 are exemt from that rule due to beach buggy heritage?
It would be good if someone did. But seeing as no one has ever been actually able to show me a copy, does it actually exist?
And Chris, not doing to Transport anymore, they didn't want to see it. All I need to do is get a roadworthy and take that to the police.
Smiley 🙂
nils ·
Smiley wrote:
nils wrote:Didn't know you could done for oversize tyres on a baja.
does anybody have copy of the modification guide that states vw types 1,2 and 3 are exemt from that rule due to beach buggy heritage?
It would be good if someone did. But seeing as no one has ever been actually able to show me a copy, does it actually exist?
Smiley 🙂
got to be honest and say, i've never seen it either. vw urban legend perhaps?
Sounds like maybe andrew has seen it before
veedubberpaul58 ·
Smiley wrote:
SebastienPeek wrote:Smiley,
What'd she get defected for?
Glad to see you're on the road to recovery however, hopefully you can get in a few runs through the tracks before Christmas.
Good luck!
- Oversized tyres
- No mudflaps
- Broken Hood latch
- Cracked door pillar
- Oil leaks
- Wipers
- And my brakes.
Smiley 🙂
i thought these items were part of a baja kit 🙂 and in the baja build/ kit fitting instructions 😂😂😂
matberry ·
I used to have the document. Definately not a myth.
Smiley ·
What happened to it? Does anyone know where I can get a copy?
Smiley 🙂
h ·
no mudflaps
are they f serious..?
BS at its finest
OZ Towdster ·
The baja papers are an available item on the Manx Club Forum but the link of that item is broken at present so i' can't see if the tyre papers are also attached to the baja papers
Smiley ·
OZ Towdster wrote:The baja papers are an available item on the Manx Club Forum but the link of that item is broken at present so i' can't see if the tyre papers are also attached to the baja papers
Who do I contact about having the link fixed?
EDIT - and can you send me the page that the link is on??
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
The document was like a brochure from Dept of T'sport about allowable wheel/tyre combinations ( +1, +2 etc.) and the allowable variation front to rear, in the wording it stated different sizes were allowable only if from the factory that way, but in the fine print it said 'except Volkswagen types 1,2 & 3'
mackaymanx ·
If I remember that was for rim width, you could go up to a 7 inch rim but track and height had to remain in the limits. I have that bulletin but I'm in Townsville and it's in Mackay.
OZ Towdster ·
Come on smiley , we need some pics and report on what you have rebuilt
nils ·
He's building everyone christmas presents right now, cut him some slack andrew
Smiley ·
I'm uploading some pictures onto the net right now. I should be able to do a post up tonight.
I figured you're be more interested in getting your Bus and Tow'dster done Andrew. Instead of trying to live vicariously through my build 🙂
Smiley 🙂
OZ Towdster ·
I am working on my bus , but while i'mm picking on you i'mm leaving Dave alone 😂😂
OZ Towdster ·
Still waiting
Still waiting
Still waiting
Still waiting
OZ Towdster ·
Can't you type any faster
Smiley ·
Firstly, Merry Christmas to all.
Seeing as everyone else is still in bed asleep I figured I have time to do a quick morning update to get Andrew off my back.
While the car was defected I figured it would be a good chance to get my rear disc brake conversion done. I've been planning it for a little while and now was as good a time as any.
I'm using VN Commodore rear discs, which nicely match the VN discs I have on the front 🙂
First step was to strip all the old drum craps off and set it aside. I'm sooooo happy to finally get rid of these, having to adjust them after every beach trip was annoying and shoes weren't even lasting 6 months.
I cut an old swingaxle axle tube down and set it up in the vice to work off. On the IRS arms the handbrake bracket on the caliper backing plate doesn't clear the trailing arm unless you rotate the assembly slightly. Then you have to redrill the mounting holes.
I used the bearing cap to help line up and drill the holes, then test bolted it down to the swinger axle.
The next step was clearancing the caliper bracket and backing plate so they cleared the trailing arm. A little bit of tidy notching later and we have something that looks like this.
Then everything got beadblasted, cleaned and given some paint. And then I started assembling it all onto the car. New shoes, pads, rotors and calipers.
You can see in the next 2 pictures that the stock handbrake cable was maintained. It simply hooks straight onto the Commodore setup! Got to be happy with that. All I had to do was add the tube to the Holden bracket to act as the cable holder for the over sleeve.
And thanks to Mr Oztowdster she is now sporting spiffy new shoes too. On 16" Commodore steelies that have had the centres flipped, moved and rewelded.
While I wasn't driving the car I also figured it would be a good chance to swap on the full weight flywheel I picked up at Warwick. I had to have the centre drilled from 4 dowel out to 8 dowel. I weighed them both once I took my lightened one off and the new one is about 1.3kg heavier. Which equals more grunt down low where we want it!
Bolt this NASA spec tool on, torque her up and she's ready to go back in.
And in about 20 seconds we go from this.....
....to this.
Barwork on and back down on her rear wheels 😀
And onto the front. Had to patch a little hole at the corner of the windscreen. I finally got the massive hole in the bottom of my nosecone fixed up. Cleaned and repainted everything! Sorry there's not heaps of pictures like normal, I was actually working for a change 😂
Coming together...
Had to fit mudflaps, yuck! Managed to get them so they don't look completely crap. I hope I don't drive over them too much.
These are the last pictures I took. Will have to get some more now she's all clean and driving again. All I did after this was refit the engine cover and give her a thorough was inside and out.
She went through Police on Friday and is now defect free and driving again!!! HOORAY!!!!!!!
I have to say that the new brakes and freaking sweet. Stops well. I have yet to really stand on it cause I have been letting the pads bed in first. The handbrake is amazing, I'm sure it would hold the car on any slope without a worry at all.
Now that's all sorted, where was I? Fuel tank and rack and pinion wasn't it? More soon 😀
Smiley 🙂
11CAB ·
I light chain from the mudflap back to the rear barwork will stop you driving over them
grinderman ·
Hey smiley what size are those rear tyres? And who modified your wheels?
Smiley ·
grinderman wrote:Hey smiley what size are those rear tyres? And who modified your wheels?
Tyres are 265/70/16
Which are 31s basically. Same size as what I had. 33s will come later 🤘
Wheels were modified by a bloke at the Gold Coast. I'm not sure of the business name because I had someone drop them off and pick them up for me. They are located in the same industrial complex as Gold Coast VW in Labrador, Gold Coast.
Smiley 🙂
11CAB ·
It would have been Billeau Engineering, I had them modify some mag wheels for my kombi years ago.
Stand up work as always smiley, thanks for posting your brakes up. Been looking at alot of brake options of late. might have to take a leaf from the book of smiley
Smiley ·
nils wrote:Stand up work as always smiley, thanks for posting your brakes up. Been looking at alot of brake options of late. might have to take a leaf from the book of smiley
Thanks for the props dude. If you have any specific questions about the brakes PM me and I'm happy to let you know.
I just noticed that I didn't mention where I go the hubs from. They are brand new blank Type 3 rear hubs. John Sherman on the Gold Coast supplied them, he also drilled them, studded them and machined them to fit inside a Commodore rear rotor.
Smiley 🙂
matberry ·
Awesome work Smiley. 👍👍
Your front and rear brake conversions remind me of a set I had a hand in in the 90's. Very similar to look at but we used VW 5 x 112 type 2 F & R hubs and rotors, later T 4 rotors in the rear...can't remember the hand-brake set-up but yours looks great.
Aussie ·
Nice work on the brakes!!! Bet having discs now front and back will make a real difference. 🙅
Smiley ·
I thought I's share some pictures of the car now she's all done and washed. I think she's looking the best she has in years. I also pulled the standard handbrake back out and put my cutting handles back in (I thought the Po Po might frown on these 😂 ) I haven't had a chance to use them yet but they seem to work really well. They lock the individual wheels up no worries at all.
Out with this...
...and in with these.
Smiley 🙂
Doug Sweetman ·
Nice approach / departure angles !
Love the commo disc setup too
h ·
great to read and see back at it..
if only matty b could do that sort of thing in the last lot of pics 😂
OZ Towdster ·
How come you only put a new seat belt on the drivers side .
Apart from that it looks like you say better than it has in some time , good work .
Smiley ·
That's cause I couldn't get the old one on the passengers side unbolted 😬
And I hate the new one on the drivers side anyway. It tangles too easy and doesn't feel the same as the old one. I think I might put the old one back in.
Smiley 🙂
Joel ·
Excellent work on the rear brakes, they are almost made for the job.
Thats the ideal rear disc setup to have with drums for the handbrake.
The modern ones that just lever on the piston for park brake are crap.
Hows the bias with them being from a heavier front engine car?
Smiley ·
Joel wrote:Excellent work on the rear brakes, they are almost made for the job.
Thats the ideal rear disc setup to have with drums for the handbrake.
The modern ones that just lever on the piston for park brake are crap.
Hows the bias with them being from a heavier front engine car?
Bias is still towards the front. It'll still lock the front wheels up first on the road. But you're stopping so quick you barely even notice 😀
I just need more braking on the back now. You can buy plenty of brake upgrades for a Commodore, which is another reason why I went this way 🙂
Smiley 🙂
11CAB ·
nils wrote:Didn't know you could done for oversize tyres on a baja.
does anybody have copy of the modification guide that states vw types 1,2 and 3 are exemt from that rule due to beach buggy heritage?
I think the document you are thinking about is this..... It's dated 12/93
nils ·
Funny i have some stocko beetle rims infront of me and they are ET30
h ·
good to hear back in action!
you still have time to get down to DI this weekend for the annual Manx club beach trip!
c u there 🤪
Smiley ·
h wrote:good to hear back in action!
you still have time to get down to DI this weekend for the annual Manx club beach trip!
c u there 🤪
I wish I could have made it. I hope you all had a ball without me!!
Smiley 🙂
Smiley ·
Not being able to go a few days without taking a grinder to the car. I decided to do something I should have done months ago.
Shock mount all trimmed for maximum ground clearance. This has actually hung me up before in some ruts a few months ago.
Went and did some local tracks to see in the New Year. Hope you all had a good time and have been misbehaving yourselves 😀
I can't say she'll outflex a 4WD. But it certainly has a lot less trouble driving this sort terrain.
Teetering on the top!
New favouite picture of the car 😀
That's all for now folks, and it brings you all up to date on the car.
I'm hoping to kick my rear tank into full swing as well as make a start on my new front end with rack and pinion steering.
Thanks for reading.