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Wed Jan 27, 2010 3:35 pm

body work sucks! Trying to weld in that piece for the rear quarter, first time i tacked it it was off, so i tried again, making sure that it followed the body curves, tacked it again, this time there was a 1/2" gap where the fender bolts up. shit!!! so came it to get something to eat, then go out there and try again. i hope i didn't screw myself. practice makes perfect?

Wed Jan 27, 2010 9:02 pm

third time's a charm. i think i got it as close as i'm going to get. it's still just tacked up for now. took me 3 hrs just to get to this point, but i'm happy. i still will have a little gap in a couple spots, but it should still pinch the fender beading nicely. tomorrow i will be able to weld it up all the way.

here's what she looks like right now.

this is the gap i have with the fender on.

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Fri Jan 29, 2010 7:37 pm

got my rear quarter all welded in, gonna need a little bondo, but nothing like it had before. what a PITA. It's a little off where the fender bolts up, but it'll do.

still trying to figure out if it was worth it or not yet. i think so, maybe after a few beers I'll feel better about it.
i've decided that i really, really hate bodywork. i still have to weld in the quarter section inside the car that i cut out to access it. monday i'll get to that. and then... fix any rust on the other side. yipee., but after that i can cut the rear apron off, get the whole body sanded down and any other body work, then ready for paint!! hopefully unless i think of something else i need to do. Oh yeah, i got to strip my doors and fill the molding holes. and repair all my fiberglass.
it never ends. you would think i was building a street car for as anal as i'm getting about this car. in the past i would just throw it all together and go play in the mud. man i can't wait to play.
So we'll se what i can get done on monday. later dudes.

Mon Feb 01, 2010 9:52 pm

got some bondo on my quarter today, threw a little primer on there to see how it looked, got a lot more sanding to do, but it's close

and also pieced back together everything i cut out and tacked it all in place. if i would of only known i was going to need so much cut out i would of cut it all in one piece to begin with. oh well it's coming back together okay.

tomorrow should get the rest sanded on that quarter and the inside all welded back together and grinded down where needed. then i get to start on the drivers side. now that i know what to expect it should be twice as easy, i hope.

Tue Feb 02, 2010 12:22 am

looks a lot better then how mine turned out. I hate body work as well, that's why I am gonna go with that mad max theme

Tue Feb 02, 2010 9:40 am

it's taken lots and lots of time and patience

Tue Feb 02, 2010 8:25 pm

found a late model gas tank with sending unit for 10 bucks about 15 mins from my house. yippee. should be able to pick it up saturday. not sure yet if i want to come out of the side or through the top with my fuel filler yet though. I need to look up an exploded view somewhere and see you exactly it all would go together with the overfull tube and a breather line.
no luck on working on the baja today, maybe when my wife gets home from school i can get out there for a couple hours. prob. not though.

Wed Feb 03, 2010 7:00 pm

bodywork, bodywork , bodywork!!! holy shit. im already tired of sanding and i don't even have 1/4 of the body done yet. there is a lot more little knics and chips in the previous paint than i remember. I think i finally got the quarter section good enough. i tried to make it "perfect" and almost made it worse, so there is going to be a couple small dents, and maybe some pin hole looking spots in the bondo, but you would only notice if you got right up on it. so when it's done and i want to show it off it will only be at night from 20' away, or driving by you in the sand or something. haha. I can live with the imperfections though. i'm just glad i'm not building a show car. holy cow how long would that take to do the bodywork and paint.
the drivers quarter isn't half as bad as the passengers was so hopefully it will go relatively quickly. and i got a section on the roof that had a pretty healthy size bondo spot that was cracked that i got to go over. but by the time i get to that i should be a pro. lol. I just can't freaking wait to get paint on the car. hopefully it all goes well and looks good.
well, i'm done for the night. after tomorrow i'll get some pics of what i did so you all can criticize me. lol. see ya.

almost forgot, had some beers last night. not good to have beers and be looking on websites at parts that you want. it wasn't terribly expensive or anything, but i ended up ordering 3 "8 position" fuse blocks and some jumpers for them. I hope they are what i'm thinking. you cut a hole and mount them through the firewall so the fuse access is inside the car. here is what they are: well the website i ordered from is having issues, but they are like these, except they were only about 7 bucks a piece. hope i like them.
http://www.wiringproducts.com/contents/en-us/p911.html

Wed Feb 03, 2010 7:03 pm

It's not to late to join the mad max style of body work............. join us, muhahahhahahahahahah

Wed Feb 03, 2010 7:15 pm

don't you worry, i'll get about half way through it and decide just to say f-it and rattle can the whole thing. lol maybe i'll put some ghetto flames on it or something. haha

Wed Feb 03, 2010 7:22 pm

I'll post some new pic's tomorrow in my build and show you getto. I really think my baja will have looked better when I started this project then when I finished. Lucky for me I care not for looks, just performance.

Wed Feb 03, 2010 7:36 pm

lets see it.

Wed Feb 03, 2010 8:56 pm

so i picked up these shocks(2 of them) at a swap meet a few yrs ago. don't know what they came from or anything about them, i do know they have about 8" of travel and are about 23" center of hole to center of hole. I can compress them about half way if i put all my wieght into them, if i use a ratchet tie down and lean on them with my fat ass I can ratchet them to comperss all the way, the rebound isn't really fast or anything. but not really slow either.
my question is if i should use them? i planned on using a stock ball joint front end at first until i get my link pin beam widened and longer shock towers. I have a ball joint with the shock towers cut off and i thought i could make longer ones to accomodate those shocks.
Is there somekind of shock geometry that i need to know? because of the coils the top shock boss would have to stick back farther than normal, didn't know if this would be a problem? thanks.

Thu Feb 04, 2010 12:21 am

Well i think thats a dam good idea. i was looking at a pair of my friends dirt bike shocks/springs with an external reservoir and that got me thinking....

Im sure there is some kind of geometry needed, but i think its one of those things you can eyeball. Or at least for my type of vehicle. Im not going all out building a race car, just something that looks like a race car....and drives like one. And any way, what are you going to loose except the time and the small amount of material needed to check out this idea?

Thu Feb 04, 2010 1:16 am

kind of what i was thinking, just get some steel and go for it. make some kind of shock tower? plus if it works out then maybe i could sell it when done with it? who knows? if i were to get flat steel and make something like a long shock tower kit you would buy, then what thickness? 1/4" enough or thicker?

Thu Feb 04, 2010 2:02 am

I won't dissapoint you and tell you just how bad those coil over shocks SUCK. No sir I will not do it.

You are doing so well in everyhting else in your build, I do not want to bring you down by telling you the coil overs are pos's. Not gonna do it.

If runslikeapinguin still wondered around this site, he would jump right in a tell you not to use them wether it PO'ed you or not, but I will not tell you not to use them because you will end up hating the car, won't do it.

I will not mention that using a coil spring and a torsion spring is a bad idea on any suspension.

I will just leave the whole subject alone.

Thu Feb 04, 2010 2:04 am

holy smokes does anybody sleep around here?

Thu Feb 04, 2010 2:06 am

where is that washinton dwelling empi coil hate'n rlap anyway? hahahaha

Thu Feb 04, 2010 10:26 am

joescoolcustoms wrote: I won't dissapoint you and tell you just how bad those coil over shocks SUCK. No sir I will not do it.

You are doing so well in everyhting else in your build, I do not want to bring you down by telling you the coil overs are pos's. Not gonna do it.

If runslikeapinguin still wondered around this site, he would jump right in a tell you not to use them wether it PO'ed you or not, but I will not tell you not to use them because you will end up hating the car, won't do it.

I will not mention that using a coil spring and a torsion spring is a bad idea on any suspension.

I will just leave the whole subject alone.

thanks for not dissapointing me. haha. anybody know what kind they are? i just figured if i used those then i won't have to preload the front end so much and will get more of a softer ride, and with 2 springs it will give more of a progresive type suspension. why is it a bad idea to use those with torsion leaves?

Thu Feb 04, 2010 1:57 pm

man i don't think i could of picked a worse body to use! started working on the roof today, figured i would get the bondo spots taken care of. SUPRISE, SUPRISE, SUPRISE, whomever built this bug used bondo as a sound deadener. i've been findind almost 1/8" of bondo on most of the roof, in places that didn't even need it. looks like i'll be taking 90% of this body down to bare metal. i really don't want bondo on the roof. it seems like one step foward, 3 steps back. oh well. done with my lunch now, back to work.