Project Sold so I Could Clear Up Shop Space
My fifteen year old daughter, Elizabeth, has decided that she wants a Baja
Bug for her first car. As I have been building Baja's for several years
now and have some of the parts laying around I thought that was a great
idea. What is really great about it is that I can build her a nice street
Baja for less than a thousand dollars. That is a far cry from the demands
on my wallet that my oldest daughter is trying to make.
The other cars in my collection have been decidedly off-road only. I
thought that for Beth I would need to make a nice looking off-roader with all
the creature comforts for daily use. I am going to create a car with
basically stock suspension components and a full body. I have a narrow eye
baja kit, some wide wheels and tires, a stock 1600DP engine and some nice rally
seats. The only upgrades I will be doing will be disc brakes (since bug
brakes suck!), a custom interior and whatever paint scheme she decides she has
to have.
And so the project begins.
The first step was to find a decent body. Bryan Gribner came up with
one in Seattle that was a decent start. It's a '64 sunroof bug.
The front end had been lowered and disc brakes installed. The wheels were
converted to four lug and a new Cal-Look window rubber kit had been installed on
new windows. The doors had the wing windows removed and there was some
other foo-foo stuff installed on it. It was obviously on it's way to being
a lowered street machine. It came with a 1200 SP engine that was ripped
out and tossed in the corner. Bryan thinks he has a buyer for it.
After looking the car over it will need a new sunroof insert, some floor
repair and a rear suspension changeover. I am going to leave the front
kingpin with the disc brakes but the rear swingaxle will be replaced with an IRS
set up.
Elizabeth
set about stripping off all that useless sheet metal and gutted the
interior. Unfortunately the brand new headliner that was in it had a big
tear in the back from something getting thrown into it so it had to go. We
then broke out the sawz-all and cut off the front and back valences.
Apparently someone had replaced both at one time and did a very bad job
re-welding them. It looked like it was held on with wads of chewing gum
(sure didn't cut like it though).
The front beam had drop spindles on them so
they had to go. We will be building some lift spindles for it later.
All the glass was removed and the messed up wiring was torn out, as well.
The
gas tank, and some of the extra foo-foo stuff that was bolted on to that thing
was yanked. Basically it was all stripped down for painting.
Now Elizabeth
gets the fun and exciting job of sanding all the crap off of this thing.
Glad I don't have to do it.
After much deliberation it has been decided that the pan on the car gets
thrown away. After a close inspection, I decided that it would be easier to
take a good pan off the stack than to try and repair the rust out on the
existing one. The pan is a '67 with swingaxle rear and ball joint
front. The first step is to convert the pan over to IRS for better
handling and a taller lift. Check here
for the steps that were taken for the IRS conversion.
After the conversion was
done, the body was unbolted from the old pan and prepped for the move.
The
rear spring plates were notched to give it an extra lift without removing the
lower stops. When this is done, make sure the notches are radiused (rounded and smooth) and not square. The square notch creates a weak spot
at the corner and causes breakage.
The
next step is the engine work. We have a good running motor with a bad carb.
I picked up a 34pict at a swap meet and rebuilt it. We then ordered a
whole pile of chrome. This engine will really shine.
Here
is the motor when we started. It was pretty ratty with a number of old oil
leaks. It required a lot of cleanup but it looked pretty good when
done. I put the rebuilt carb on it and reset the heads and
valves.
Finally
got the rest of the rear suspension assembled and the tranny mount
installed. After some cleanup the tranny can go in and the stubs and axles
can be installed.
I
also picked up a good set of Baja fenders. This way I do not have to
re-fiberglass the old ones. I also was given a couple donor front ends for
suspension parts. Now I have enough parts to make a rolling chassis.
Let the fun begin!
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