TheSamba.com :: View topic

Sat Jul 04, 2009 10:08 am

A couple years back, I picked up a 68 with the intentions of turning it into a low budget beater with an IRS conversion. Life got in the way for a while and I ended up taking over a clusterfuck of a 1970 baja that belonged to my dad. I ended up selling off some of the parts I had set aside for the the 68, as well as the car itself. I had already built a 4" wider balljoint beam and had some thing spindles and arms reconditioned for the project. Those immediately went on the car, along with some new 7.00 x 15 tires to replace the 165s that were on the car. I got a great deal on an 002 at Pomona and mounted that up with a 10 degree mount from McKenzies. At this point, Life got in the way again, pretty badly, for about five months.

This brings us to the middle of May when I pulled the baja out of the back yard and into the garage. I picked up one of the cheap weld-in 6 point cages and got that in the car. I modified a tri-mil header with a huge magnaflow to replace the brandless header that was on there previously. With the 10 degree trans mount, the firewall mount bumper didn't fit and therefore needed to be modified. I decided to take the bumper all the way through the firewall and mount it to the cage.

Since I wasn't after anything extreme, and since my front end is only 4" wider, I picked up a pair of the 2x2 tubular trailing arms from Appletree Auto. I spent a weekend mounting those up along with a set of 10" 6100 Bilstein shocks that I had gotten from baja5 a loooooong time ago.

Yesterday, I had a friend come in from out of town for the holiday weekend and he offered to spend a day helping me get the car running again. Now all I really need to do for the car to be roadworthy is to bolt up the shocks, hook up the rear brakes, and wait for my axles to arrive.

A few pictures:

the 68

the 70, before I started on it

4" wider beam

beam in place, with modified double tube front bumer

10 degree mount and 002 in place with 15-5/8" axles

some of the roll cage work

new exhaust

rear suspension progress:

Sat Jul 04, 2009 10:22 am

SWEET!! What's next? What are the specs on your motor? How do you like that front end?

Sat Jul 04, 2009 10:28 am

The engine is... I really have no idea. probably a 1600 or 1641. Whatever piece of crap came with it. With the low gears of the 002, I think it should push around a pair of 33" tires well enough. As far as the front end, it looks good enough, but I haven't actually driven on it yet.

Sat Jul 04, 2009 10:30 am

Are you going to make the Big Bear Run?

Sat Jul 04, 2009 10:33 am

57baja wrote: Are you going to make the Big Bear Run?
Three weeks from now? I'd say there's an outside chance.

Sat Jul 04, 2009 11:07 am

Wow Looks good!...Where in socal u located??..

Sat Jul 04, 2009 11:17 am

thanks. I'm in Chino Hills

Sat Jul 04, 2009 11:29 am

Nice work, that car has come a long way

Sat Jul 04, 2009 12:47 pm

those arms look huge! :lol: how long have you been in chino hills? i grew up in chino

Sat Jul 04, 2009 4:55 pm

Way to go Brad....good to see you're doing better...have Fun with it!!!!

Sat Jul 04, 2009 11:15 pm

steve2902 wrote: those arms look huge! :lol: how long have you been in chino hills? i grew up in chino
they look it, but they really aren't that big. as for chino hills, so far I've been here a bit over 24 years.

Sun Jul 05, 2009 8:47 am

nice ride, looking good Im in Chino neighbor :bug_yellow:

Sun Jul 05, 2009 11:56 am

Glad to see it's coming together, If you make the night run I'll buy you a beer and pay your entry fee :shock:

Mon Feb 22, 2010 12:20 pm

Update on the car, before Brad passed he had one request for his car that his bad beat the shit out of it on the trails as he would of done :lol: :lol: :lol: He built a badass car, got it running and was able to drive it around the block, the car still needed some work before its trail worthy. Here is some pics of how far he got on it.

Mon Feb 22, 2010 12:58 pm

The last couple of weekend i have been helping Owen with the baja, here is a list of what we've done (mostly Owen, lol) :

Reinstalled all new window rubber
Installed different shifter
Fabbed frame for 3rd seat
Painted inside
Finished electrical
Fabbed battery tray
Modified roll cage
Changed engine
Lots of hack patching from rollcage cutting
Skidplate fabbed

The mystery engine he had in the car had a ton of endplay, one of the helicoild pulled out the head so an old trusty motor was put in. It needs about a weekend's worth of work for the car to be done. We're going to have a offroading/campout 23-25 April at Afton Canyon, which is about 45 miles above Barstow. This was B-Rads favorite offroad spot, we'll be taking his baja out there we'll have a little memorial for him as this is a spot he wanted his ash's spread, more to come...

Mon Feb 22, 2010 1:06 pm

I'm glad that Brad's baja will finally see some action, I just wish the circumstances were different. Let us know when and where the maided dirt voyage will be. There are quite a few of us that never got the chance to go offroading with Brad, unfortunately. I was hoping he would finally get a chance to use those rear Bilsteins. I sold those to him 6 years ago or so when he was building the rail.

Mon Feb 22, 2010 2:34 pm

If a man can be judged by his friends, he must have been one hell of a guy. Glad to see you respecting him this way.

Mon Feb 22, 2010 3:37 pm

Anything you need Sal, let me know.

BTW, How is Owen doing?

Mon Feb 22, 2010 4:26 pm

Is there a need or wanted list for the finish of the HBB-Baja?

Mon Feb 22, 2010 6:04 pm

Kewal