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Sat Apr 25, 2009 2:20 am

Hello all, I just got her a couple days ago, and can't wait to get started! This will be an ongoing project that will take awhile to finish, due to another project I'm currently doing. Here's a few pics:

This how I want the paint job to look like:

The picture is an '80's vintage Tamiya Sand Scorcher R/C car, and I always wanted one. Well, now I do! :D
I'm not going to change a lot, the guy obviously put some work into this already, so I'm mainly going to accessorize and change a few things here and there. The first thing on my list is to get a rear cage, and maybe a body lift. All I can tell you is it's a 1964 bug with a 1600 dp motor. That's all I know, really. I jumped on it because I just got my tax return and needed to buy something. :lol:

Drives and runs great, and I've already taken it offroad in the hills of El Dorado. I also own a jeep and I am really surprised of what this can do in relation to my jeep's abilities. The engine has a slight flat spot when accelerating uphills; have to sort that out. If anyone wants to give a little advice or insight, or pleasant comments, please do!

Sat Apr 25, 2009 2:59 am

congratulations and welcome.

as VW off roaders our favorite hobby is showing jeeps up. :lol:

building this car to vintage standards would be sweet. not a whole lot of people doing it.

ohhh and you mean this RC car?

also that flat spot is a notorious VW problem, its normally caused by a combination of a OO9 mechanical advance distributor and the 34 PICT-3 carb. you can either upgrade the carb or the distributor as a real fix or you can greatly reduce the problem by modifying the intake butterfly.

Sat Apr 25, 2009 8:44 am

My plan is to put a pertronox electronic pickup in the distributor, & I know a guy who's selling a vintage Edelbrock intake with a Holley carb. Maybe this will help a little.

Sat Apr 25, 2009 9:16 am

64sandscorcher wrote: My plan is to put a pertronox electronic pickup in the distributor, & I know a guy who's selling a vintage Edelbrock intake with a Holley carb. Maybe this will help a little.

The electronic pickup won't help with the flat spot, but I run them and like them for other reasons.

Eddy/Holley setup, huh? This I'd like to see. Holleys are great carbs, I've run them on Chevys in the past. They perform really well under "race" conditions, on road anyway.

Oh, and I love the paint job idea! Herbie clones are alright, a Tamiya clone would be way cool!

Kyle

Sat Apr 25, 2009 12:43 pm

runslikeapenguin wrote: congratulations and welcome.
that flat spot is a notorious VW problem, its normally caused by a combination of a OO9 mechanical advance distributor and the 34 PICT-3 carb. you can either upgrade the carb or the distributor as a real fix or you can greatly reduce the problem by modifying the intake butterfly.

I wonder if changing the jets would help? I noticed it's running a little rich. Also, would a vacuum advance be beneficial? It's got the 009, but I'm guessing it's tired and might need replacing.

Sat Apr 25, 2009 1:02 pm

64sandscorcher wrote: runslikeapenguin wrote: congratulations and welcome.
that flat spot is a notorious VW problem, its normally caused by a combination of a OO9 mechanical advance distributor and the 34 PICT-3 carb. you can either upgrade the carb or the distributor as a real fix or you can greatly reduce the problem by modifying the intake butterfly.

I wonder if changing the jets would help? I noticed it's running a little rich. Also, would a vacuum advance be beneficial? It's got the 009, but I'm guessing it's tired and might need replacing.

SVDA (single vacuum dual advance) distributors are great with the VW engine. buying one would pretty much eliminate your flat spot. but may not be compatible with your carb.

its not the jetting though, people have tried a lot of different thing to fix this and the only one ive seen that works fairly well and doesn't compromise something else is just the plugging of the extra hole in the carbs butterfly. there is a walk through on a few different ways to do it floating around on the samba here somewhere.

Sat Apr 25, 2009 2:55 pm

Quote: SVDA (single vacuum dual advance) distributors are great with the VW engine. buying one would pretty much eliminate your flat spot. but may not be compatible with your carb.

Would it be compatible with the Holley & Eddie intake :?:

Sat Apr 25, 2009 8:26 pm

The "fix" for the 34-3 is easy to do and I would be careful about how much carb you put on a stock 16. Do plenty of checking first is all I'm saying. :)

Sat Apr 25, 2009 9:41 pm

i just noticed something, you have a balljoint front end. double check your VIN number (on the pan under the back seat near the shift coupler) with this list to see what year it is.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/info/chassisdating.php

Sat Apr 25, 2009 9:59 pm

runslikeapenguin wrote: i just noticed something, you have a balljoint front end. double check your VIN number (on the pan under the back seat near the shift coupler) with this list to see what year it is.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/info/chassisdating.php
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/info/bugchassisdating.php may be a little better for you, unless you're looking for buses ;)

Sun Apr 26, 2009 12:24 am

runslikeapenguin wrote: i just noticed something, you have a balljoint front end. double check your VIN number (on the pan under the back seat near the shift coupler) with this list to see what year it is.

The original linkpin front end was replaced with a balljoint front end after it was damaged a few years back. Here's a pic of the dent left in the body shell, my guess by the tie rod after hitting something hard!

Thu Apr 30, 2009 2:29 pm

Here's a photochopped pic of the graphics.

I'm sticking to black and red, mainly because it's cheaper for me, but also because it looks pretty cool. There's a couple extra decals I'm adding too, so in the end the decals will be close to what you see here. The decals are on order, so I just have to paint the red sides on the cheap. Plus, I still need a rear cage, and Bugformance has one for under a 100 bucks. I'll be visiting them in a couple of weeks.

Let me know what you guys think!

Wed Feb 24, 2010 8:04 pm

It's been a while since my last post, so instead of boring you with every detail about my build I'll just show you how it sits right now.
Finally got some paint on her. I decided to go with the original R/C car box art colors, white and blue. It turned out way better than I thought with a Maaco job.

Speaking of Maaco, even though the paint turned out great with minimal flaws, I cannot recommend them to anyone solely because of their policy. Someone there managed to destroy my brand new shifter by forcing it into reverse WITHOUT using the trigger lockout feature! I had to put an old stock unit in just to get it home and away from those yahoos. They totally denied it of course, stating that they are not responsible for mechanical failures. It was their fault for the failure!!! DO NOT use these guys unless you want to pay for whatever damage they inflict on your pride and joy!

I'm really trying to get everything done by the end of spring now. I plan to daily drive this thing for the summer!

Next will be interior, then the graphics after the paint fully cures. Wheels and tires will be last.

Wed Feb 24, 2010 9:13 pm

I'm normally not a huge baja bug fan, but I'm liking it. You gonna be out at bug-o, should be easy to spot there

Wed Feb 24, 2010 10:23 pm

sixty9fasty wrote: I'm normally not a huge baja bug fan, but I'm liking it. You gonna be out at bug-o, should be easy to spot there

Yeah I'll probably be there for the swap meet for sure. I don't know if I'll have my bug ready for the May event, but I am shooting for the September one.

Thu Feb 25, 2010 1:24 am

I don't now if you seen it or not but here is some inspiration for your project.

http://bugbox.skynetblogs.be/

Thu Feb 25, 2010 8:21 am

jimmy21 wrote: I don't now if you seen it or not but here is some inspiration for your project.

http://bugbox.skynetblogs.be/

I've seen that one. It's awesome! That was actually commissioned by Tamiya corp. for their upcoming re-release of the Sand Scorcher R/C car. It's the R/C car I'm basing the paint job on.

Thu Feb 25, 2010 8:29 am

where in nor cal are you in? im planning on bringing my baja for the may event im not planning on showing it tho.

Thu Feb 25, 2010 6:56 pm

Nachodaddy77 wrote: where in nor cal are you in? im planning on bringing my baja for the may event im not planning on showing it tho.

I live in Folsom, near hwy 50. As far as showing my bug, not sure if it's up to par with those trailer queens and picture perfect Vw's. there's alot of imperfections on mine. I'm just figuring on driving it to the meet.

Thu Feb 25, 2010 8:28 pm

It's all about the camping and partying Saturday night. The swaps and drags help though :wink: