| [ Total Views: 1992 | Total Replies: 16 | Thread Id: 94833 ] |
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 niall
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| posted on January 16th, 2012 at 09:00 PM |
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Baja bug pics + Straddie 2012
Hi all, new member and baja owner here. I do a yearly camping trip to north stradbroke island with my mates, we have taken a variety of 4wd's over
the years but this yeah was my first time in the baja, i bought it at the start of december, so only really had 1 month to work on it before the 2nd
of jan departure.
The first pic is when i first got it, it looked rough but we could see the potential. Its a 1961 i believe, 1600 twin port, not sure on the box but it
seems very long geared so maybe a later model box? 31x 10's on the rear.
The beach conditions at main beach-straddie were the toughest ive seen in 5 years, im not a novice when it comes to off roading or beach driving (not
an expert either) Almost everybody got stuck getting off the beach adn the cuttings to the campsite. Some unlucky buggers with very expensive camper
trailers and really well kitted fourbies could not get up the cuttings at all, some had to winch the trailers up, some just gave up.
There were even a few gooses who got stuck going onto the beach, and thats downhill!! driver error there. The reason for the tough conditions was a
very dry month up to christmas and far more people on the beach than previous years, the sand was like powder and some of the ruts were knee deep - No
exaggeration.
Needless to say, the bug did struggle in the soft sand. I was trying to find the line between wheelspin when taking off or bogging down. By the end of
the trip i figured out some of the baja driving techniques of letting it rollup on top of the soft sand when stopping rather than digging it in with
the brakes.
Anyway the pics tell the story od what the beach was like
The pics dont really show how tough that cutting was. it is longer and steepr than it looks and was soft sand most of the way, very little run up
opportunity. The rangie was in teh low box, diff lock on and the V8 opened right up. I took a run high rpms in 1st, made it about halfway but was able
to back out. Then tried again in 2nd with alot of speed, but the soft stuff just washed soo much speed off i ended up bogged in some really soft
powdery sand. The bug was fully loaded adn quite heavy, also i still had about 15psi in the tyres.
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 Bizarre
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The artist formerly known as blue74l
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| posted on January 16th, 2012 at 09:10 PM |
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Welcome!
Looks a nice baja and a great trip
Futue te ipsum!!!
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Ben386
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| posted on January 16th, 2012 at 09:25 PM |
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Great photos.
Top looking Baja!
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matberry
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Go hard or go home
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| posted on January 16th, 2012 at 10:43 PM |
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Great pics mate. Straddie is well worth it. Great it's still dog friendly.
You need to run lower pressures, fully loaded 12-14 PSI and 8-10 (or even less) empty for very soft conditions like you had there, esp with a smaller
engine.
Matt Berry Motorsports...air cooled advice, repairs and mods Ph 0408 704 662
OFF-ROAD,CIRCUIT,DRAG,STREET,ENDURANCE
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tar76
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| posted on January 17th, 2012 at 05:41 AM |
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good to see Vdubs on the beach. I've lived on Bribie most of my life (25+ years) and brother in law had a buggie and it was just trail and era for
us getting the right set up and adapting to drive a 2 wheel drive on the beach. Once he got it sorted he went anywhere my hilux did and alot quicker
as well.
"Obey your Dreams"!
62 Std beetle.
65 11 wnd Split "The Cross".
6? coming very soon!!!!
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niall
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| posted on January 17th, 2012 at 06:32 AM |
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thanks guys. re the tyre pressures once i had emptied it out i did drop the rears to 8psi, that helped alot with traction, but the motor would
struggle when you had full traction on both wheels and sand halfway up the wheels.
Definately going to do a bigger motor or lower gearing this year. or both !!
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Bone
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| posted on January 17th, 2012 at 07:01 AM |
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Great pics niall. You should also let your front tyres down (about 12psi) as this also makes a difference. If its powder go 6psi in rear but no
drifts or donuts ! Maybe you should come up to teewah for a day of testing,( I like to call it)
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11CAB
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If ya got it....Baja it
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| posted on January 17th, 2012 at 10:08 AM |
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Great pics, looks like you had a great time, and the Baja looks great too.
We camped up at Teewah last week and had 16 Buggies/Bajas there.
If you want to catch up with more Buggy/Baja guys then check out the Manx Forum
http://www.manxclub.org
65 Meyers Manx
68 Country Buggy (KO 367)
68 Country Buggy (KO 669)
68 Country Buggy (KO 789)
68 Country Buggy (KO 815)
68 Baja Bug
76 Baja Kombi Twincab
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h
A.k.a.: Towely BuMpEr KING! ILLegal ALIEN on a roadtrip
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| posted on January 17th, 2012 at 10:35 AM |
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welcome aboard!
great pics n story
Sweet!! 
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ancientbugger
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| posted on January 17th, 2012 at 05:03 PM |
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A good no-nonsense looking baja there, love the colour and great pics as well 
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vwjon
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| posted on January 17th, 2012 at 05:36 PM |
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Awesome pics, thanks for sharing. hope to see more!
3 1959 cadillacs
1 musso
2 early notchbacks
2 split kombis
2 split panels
1 split ute
1 low light panel
1 ex-pmg bay
1 country buggy
1 beetle ute
1 14" syncro caravelle
1 16" syncro doka
1 golf cabrio
1 vw camper trailer
2 3meter bombs
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niall
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| posted on January 17th, 2012 at 06:22 PM |
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Again thanks all for the positive responses, the pics really show the baja in its natural environment.
| Quote: | Originally
posted by ancientbugger
A good no-nonsense looking baja there, love the colour and great pics as well
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You're dead right there, no frills was the approach we took, like everyone i had a budget for this car, especially a month before christmas !! so
aside from paint , which i did myself on the cheap but still 2 pac, we spent everything on reliability and nothing on upgrades really. Thats one of
the most important things i took from the "baja bugs and buggies " book was not to get carried away buying cool looking parts and things you can
see.
Most of the money we spent you cant see but with over 200 miles of hard beach driving plus another 200 of road driving without a single fault proves
the point.
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Smiley
A.k.a.: Daniel Stephens
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| posted on January 17th, 2012 at 07:01 PM |
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Amazing looking Baja!
No frills is a good approach, "Chrome won't get you home"
Looks like you've had a great beach trip and now there's plenty of learning to be done! Cause offroading in a VW can be a lot different to
offroading in a 4WD.
Looks like your car is King and Link pin front and swingaxle on the rear.
Is the car 6V, 12V or a combination of both?
And more pictures of the engine and inside! We all love pictures!
Smiley
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
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nils
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| posted on January 17th, 2012 at 07:19 PM |
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TRue, a simple baja is a reliable baja.
Great looking vw and great looking trip (cute dog too)
Matt has a point, might want to check your tyre pressure gauge, it doesn't look like you are getting much bag in those tyres at all
Quit calling rust patina
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niall
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| posted on January 17th, 2012 at 07:28 PM |
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Hi Smiley, good to hear a comment from you since i have read hours worth of your posts in the past
you are right , it is a king pin front end and swing axel rear, 1600tp stock, 12v electrics which are mostly non standard. gearbox unknown but cruises
at 2450rpm in top gear with the 31 inch rear tyres
the engine looks good after the work so ill get some pics of that soon, but the interior is horrible so i wont be showing that off any time soon
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niall
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| posted on January 17th, 2012 at 07:32 PM |
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| Quote: | Originally
posted by nils
TRue, a simple baja is a reliable baja.
Great looking vw and great looking trip (cute dog too)
Matt has a point, might want to check your tyre pressure gauge, it doesn't look like you are getting much bag in those tyres at all
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Hi nils, your right, when the pics were taken they had 16psi in them i think, i dropped them to 8 psi on the second day which really improved grip.
If i had joined this forum before i left i would have known i could drop them much more than that and probably would have seen a big improvement. But
ill know for next time !!!
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niall
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| posted on April 17th, 2012 at 09:31 PM |
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Just a quick replay to say that more updates are coming soon, the bug has sat idle for 4 months but ive got back onto it, gave it a really good clean
up , rust proofing, lubrication and now making new seat mounting brackets.
I wasnt a big fan of the seats that were in it, some sort of 80's japanese luxury seats from what i could see, very wide with over sized headrests,
really reduced visibility from the headrests and they were so wide that access to teh handbrake and seatbelt stalks was limited.
I really wanted to get some cool seats like the corbeau
baja or something along those lines but the budget just doesnt cover it. I just want to get this thing rego'd again and daily it. So we opted for
some early Jaguar XJS seats that have been done in vinyl at some point, they are comfy but designed for a small cabin so they are thin in the back
with small headrests and a good folding mechanism etc.
The oil bath air filter proved to be a failure for off road so im fitting a different style this week.
After sitting around for months we had a few problems, The coil had fallen over, voltage regulator too., all the carbie linkages were seized and the
exhaust was completely stuffed.
We dipped into our jaguar spare parts department again and got a really good quality second hand all stainless middle silencer off a 4.2 E type which
happened to be the perfect size for the mounting location on the bug, (pics coming soon of all this stuff.) I found an old 180 bend from another
exhaust system and gave it a decent salami cut for the tailpipe
The good news with the muffler is that it sounds great, its quite a few years old so its really made well, all stainless and the E type has 2 of
these so ive got an identical one spare.
You guys are gonna think im crazy when you see how high these seat mounts are, but ive always felt i was sitting too low in the bug, not great vis
over the bonnet when off roading and my smaller mates look like a 10 year old kid when they are driving , so i really raised the seats up, im not a
small guy, around 6'5 but even now i have probably 8 inches of headroom. so heaps even if wearing a helmet.
Thats it for now, as i said ill take some pics of all this stuff because i know nobody likes pictureless updates. Be patient !!
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