heres the latest addition to the ever growing vw family my other family have to put up with!!

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some of you already know this car as petes from custom offroad. IT has the irs conversion,subaru 1.8 t engine,disc brakes all round.

The reason i brought this car was it was a cheaper option as to doing the same to my other baja and the time saved i earnd a heap of brownie points with the wife..

Now the basic car is where i want it but a whole lot of changing to minor things and a total colour change are on the cards. first things first was a day at the dyno to give me an idea of what i have before i start to do any changes and hopfully improvements .

i was quite happy with the figures and i dont think i will have to do a major amount to get the targets i would like.


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i will take a heap of pics of the car before i start(some small things already changed) so that the changes i make can be seen...

let the fun begin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

steff........................................

Someone say Kermit????? WHAT??? No Type 3???

Erm.. nice baja....

Awesome name


Tazz

PANIC!!!!!! there was big plans for the weekend, but after driving to work, i noticed a puddle under the car. so i crawled under and sure enough it was coolent and it looks like its driping from the left side head!!

Got it into the shop where they presure tested the cooling system and they found a hose mounted under the airbox that was leaking .Water could be runnign down and making it look like the head is leaking so fingers crossed it is or it heads of time!!! oh did find three pin prick hole in the rad while it was being pressure tested which is a bummer but better to find out now rather than a melt down...

If it is this pipe weekend plans are back on which entails changing the header tank and cooling pipes to a neater more user friendly system and cuting the rear quarters and frenching some metal scoops in to push more air into the engine bay. The plan is to still have all this finished(repaint and engine upgrades) intime for dubs by the pub but if it need rebuilding it mite throw a major spanner in the works


fingers crossed

steff....................................

turns out head was fine it was a small pipe located under the air intake had split and was pouring onto the head making it look bad!!

started giving the old girl its make over starting with fitting air ducting to the rear quarters to put more air over engine.

I made one from scratch in metal rather than buy the plastic/fiberglass bolt on ones as i dont like they way they sit/look.

first things was to mesure re mesure one more time for luck then mark, and cut out the desired section.



once it was removed then i fitted the air scope and made sure it had the returns i wanted.




all happy so weilded her into place,cleaned up with grinder and a very small scim off bog to get rid of any imperfections and prime. one side done onto the next



this last pic is for u pete to show u how i have run the cooling system, it made no difference to the temps but its a heap neater and having a metal header tank insted of plastic is always a good thing if u ask me




steff........................

Looks great - keep up the updates.

Love this Baja...!

The air ducts you are putting in, are they just general air flow to the motor or will have piping ducted to specific areas?

the drivers side one will feed the air filter as i am moving it from the central position to up behind the header tank and right at the opening of the duct. The passenger side one i am in two minds on what to do, use it as general flow to the motor or pipe it to the intercooler thats going to be mounted where the air filter is(central) but the cooler already has a feed from the rear cover i am building so not sure yet.

steff...................

enjoy, i'll be there to hand your hand when you decide to move the rad a litter further forward.

BTW, how good is a subie!

well i've finaly got of my arse and done some more, over the last few weeks i have fitted the other side vent, and repaired as much as i can while not taking th car off the road. Got bored on wensday and ripped it down and finished all repairs and yesterday i painted in insides of the cab,doors and bonnet. i.ve rubbed the outside this moronign and its getting its new paint this arvo

next week all the bar work gets painted/powdercoatd(not sure which yet) and at the end of the week its off to the magic man whos doing the engine. Pulling the heads off to have a look around make sure alls fine, the bigger valves,varable cam gear,bigger fuel reg,injectors and a T4 garret turbo.

i will post pics tonight when i get home ....

steff,..........

as the black board says:

hurry uppp hurrryyyy uuuppp!!

so I'm a voyeur from way back...and i wanna see the damn pics.

Good to here your doing more work steff. How's everything ur end of the woods baby? kids going well I hope

now..bring on the pics!!!

cheers
beb

Com'n Steff its 7pm and NO photos yet , pull ya finger out son

awww pffft andrew, my good wife made me shower and took me out for my birthday so i didnt get it done... but here we go!!!!

pulled down ready for the insides to be painted

insides done!!!3

in the booth with the doors back on and the guards just held in place so that i can 1 get it all in 2 the pearl witll been even across the car as u can get differnt shading if panels are all done seperatly.

as this is not a show car and it will see plenty off ofroading i didnt strip right back to bare metal as it had al been done before and in the areas i checked its in tip top condition and there was no need. on the whole car there was only one rust spot that need doing, the rest were fiberglass cracks and dents oh and of cause my vents



the whole car was primed with a wet on wet primer(no need for sanding) as the colour needs a even base oter wise it will have different shades, The colour is a three layer pearl which menas a base colour is used then a transparent pearl is put over then the clear coats.

the first colour

the peral over lay, u can see the difference its much deeper in colour now

done!!!!!



this parts all finished now, the clear i used is a new one from PPG, i dont like PPG as a rule (sikkins man) but there cerami clear is out of this world, it goes on great, and the end result is amazing. Plus it is higly scratch resistant (30X tougher on the surface than a standard ms clear) i have only used it a coup[le of times before but everything i use it on look amazing so allthough its a little more expensive the finish is well worth it and if it does scratch as easy thats got to be a plus. No colour snading needed so now its time to put the car back together and do the bar work. Here is a hardtop i used the cerami clear on to, once again no colour sanding that as it is off the gun,, LOVE IT!!!!




steff.................................

thats gunna look sweet as a green tree frog ,all u need is red head lights with black dot stickers to complete the froggy

Looking very nice steff,Wished i still lived in Rockhampton i would get you to paint my beetle,The only question i have wich is problem a dumb one is what about water down your vents will it cause any problems cheers shane.

Lucky you dont always get what you wish for

waters not a problem as it will just flow down and out with out harming anything. its done so the water runs out as a standard beetle so no harm done. More water will run off the back than the vents but the engines been done in such a way its not a problem, we had massive rains here a few weeks back and everyday i drove it with not one single miss or cough

as for loving rocky i will pass as friends up there will kick my arse

well the rebuilds started but its my b-day so i am off to get very drunk and eat what ever i can get my hands on, tomorrow the real work begins.....

steff.............................

thas an awesome colour steff..
looks bloody awesome..

cheers jess

Man that is a very gren car .. great job.

WIll be interested to see what the engine looks like inside and how the cooling works with some less restrictive pipes.

since that picture i have totaly changed the cooling system as it was not doing the job as well as i wanted, i removed the rad that was in it( early golf) and replaced it with a XD (the slightly smaller one found on the 3.9 not 4.2), then changed the inlet/outlets and fitted the temp sender into the tanks. it has worked a treat as i was always around the 95 mark on standard cruzing (thermo fans running all the time) and if i got into it the temp went up way to fast. Now its around the 85/90 mark on standard cruzing (no thermo's running)and if i switch the thermo's on it drops to under 80 , when i am getting into it with thermos running its just under 100 . So its now doing its job very well.

I hope the internals are all in good shape and thats the main reason for pulling the heads off, to make sure its all good to take the extra power/pressure i am planing.

If we find problems then its rebuild time so we will have to wait and see. ITs running fine right now, no probs that we have noticed just making sure..

steff.......................

i love the color of ur car steff..

yeah next time yoru down darl let go out for a cruise... i can take the golf and show u some real style...

although she is becoming very pink...so u'll just have to man up and take it like a chook...shotgun in a girls car...very very unmanly! only to be outdone by driving it when it has heaps of pink

cheers
beb

thats what i am let to belive it was, and the local rad shop suggested it could be but i cant say for sure, i'll have a look and see if it has any markings and take a pic as i still have it down stairs.

Nothing happened today as those pesky kids wanted to do something so family had a day out grrrrr@!@!@! Going to paint the bar work in the morning so i will get some down while thats drying.

steff....................

Is this a new episode of "Pimp my ride".....

not got round to taking pics of the rad yet but the only markings i can find are * F.H.E* on one side, no other numbers or markings.

cars coming back together quite well now but its all stoped so the engine work can be done. droped the engine out today and its been taken by the mechanic so with anyluck i will know tommorow how it all looks and pending any problems i will have it back by wensday to refit. While its out i will paint the bar work and tidy up in the engine area.

Have had a bit of a tado with the new dials, they are white faced with a saturn finish ali frame. I had one while it was dark green and loved them but now its the light green they look cheap and nasty so i ordered all new(boost,water temp,oil temp,fuel,tacho and oil pressure) in the new crystal range, black with solid black face that lights from behind when turned on. Another big hole in the pocket.. oh well i woul only spend it on beer if i didnt have my vw's


steff............................

well its good news, heads are off and there is no signs of cracks and valve seats look grand, off to the machinist in the morning to get it polished and the new valves seated

there is a slight mark on munber four barrel where the head gasket has been leaking water into it, not bad but i will clean it up.

Main seal is leaking which was why we pulled it in the first place so no suprises there but the BIG suprice was the D-shakle i found behind the fly wheel!!! not totaly sure why or how but there are no signs of damage ...

theres no signs of problems anywhere else so more than happy. The injectors are bigger than standard already(rated to 250bhp) so i won't change them for now so its just a new ajustable fuel reg and the bigger turbo. The mechanic was explaining the difference today , made no sence to me but the jist is its not huge but will make a noticble difference.

I am looking for a max off 200bhp at the wheels (112 at the mo) so when its all back togeather i will get it re-dyno'd and we will see how its all gone.

the next big thing on the engine side is a decent computer as the standard one i have is crap but funds are low right now so its going to have to wait, oh and i cant decide on what brand which isnt helping..

i will take some pics in the morning and put them up....


steff,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Hey Steff...clear looked it layed down really nicely - what gun do you use for the clear? I am tossing up a new Sata Jet 3000 vs Devilbiss GTi Pro at the moment....heard good things about both.

Nice work - colour will certainly stand out!
Al

It really depends on what u like the feel of better, both are good guns and will do all brands of paint well.

Certain guns will perform better with certain brands as they work togeather, sata-ppg, devillbiss-sikkins, iwata-sikkins,spies hecker,dupoint...

I personaly love the iwata w-400 LV2 adn have used them for years, I use Sikkins and i still use the iwata for all solid colours and most mettalics.

For pearls and the xirrilcs and any candys,three lays etc etc i use the Devillbiss GTI, it atomize's so much better its unreal. I have found it works better with the premium paints rather than the slightly lesser, not that i am knocking other brands but i have found it doesnt like the ms clears as much but it still does a good job.

Both the hardtop and my baja were with the devlibiss for both the base coats and clear.

Be carefull if buying the devillbiss as there are three different model gti's, and its only the bar rating thats different on two of them. The third is a two gun set that they say use one for base one for clear.I have not used the two gun set but i cant see the need as the cost is quite high and the good GTI will do the same job for less than half the cost. let me know which model it is ur looking at with bar and psi ratings

What are you useing now? and what paint do u normaly use? I can also get very good price's on devillbiss guns if u go that route.

if u want give me a call on 0413 135518 if its easier


steff,