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Thu Feb 11, 2010 11:17 am

As for the electrical I am going the terminal strip route. One for constant hot, one for grounds and one for accessories(plus a 10 blade style fuse block). Haven't started yet but combined a few wiring diagrams from this site and it works on paper. 8)

I found some tractor/implement paint for $10 bucks a gallon and it's pretty durable and repairs aren't to bad. Good luck with the project and keep the pics coming.

Thu Feb 11, 2010 1:29 pm

so i found some small 8 position terminal blocks and jumpers, i can jump all 8 spots if i want to. these are only rated at 15A per position though. from what i've been diggin and math, i should be o.k. i think. i plan on fusing each of the KC's seperate along with my headlights. according to vw my headlamps were only on 8amp fuses anyways. for my kc's i was going to run a #10 from the battery through the relay then to the terminal strip where it is jumpered so it splits into two spots, then run two #12's from there to ea. fuse and then to the lights. sound good? by math i should be fine i think. what's the worst that could happen? blow a 15A fuse or melt a terminal block? I still plan on finding a couple larger(30A) blocks that i can jumper all together for power to feed everthing with. running out of room though. wanted to keep it all as close to the dash as possible to keep them out of harms way. I could also get a distribution block that has one lead in like a #6 from the batt. and it has 6 outs sized between #14-#8 got some more research to do, but i think i'm getting close to what i want. anyone have any input or knowledge please let me know.

Mon Feb 15, 2010 3:36 pm

i'm leaning towards a distribution block to feed everything now. something i can run a #6 or #4 from the battery and tie into that has 6 or 8 spots for wire to come out of. i'll go looking tomorrow. haven't done much with the car for over a week now. been kinda lazy. i'm going to try to get up early and hit it hard tomorrow thru the end of the week. i don't have much plans, so should be able to get some done on it. i did break out my two nitro rc cars today though. i think one of them is a vw cause i can never seem to get it to run right. lol. one ran like shit, the other purred like a kitten. so i'm on another forum trying to figure that out. i think i spend too much time on the computer and not enough with a wrench in my had. that being said, next time I post on this thread, hopefully i'll have a lot more done and some photo's. later

Fri Feb 19, 2010 3:40 am

man talking about getting out to the shop to work on the car and acutally getting out there are two totally different things!! i think tomorrow? who know's anymore. oh well, did spend some time in the house working on my wiring diagram, think i got it figured out. here's the pic of what i drew up

if you look in the off road gallery under chubby53's baja project it's zoomed in and you can read it better, also i went into explanation of everything on this thread:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4401515#4401515
please any help, ideas, or criticism is appreciated. thanks for looking at my brainstorm.

Thu Feb 25, 2010 6:12 pm

been awhile since i posted, been working on the roof. sucky!!!
here's what i started with. lots of bondo, took it all down to bare metal.

this is what it looked like after my hole repair, and a couple light coats of primer. gonna half to get some thicker stuff or something. all the little dents and dings that i didn't want to fix are sanding through to bare metal. don't really want to half to fill every little dent with bondo.

these are some of the spots that sanded through.

I'll get some more work done tomorrow, hopefully figure out how to sand with out bringing it down to bare metal. man i really hate body work.

Thu Feb 25, 2010 6:19 pm

I would rather be hung upside down by my toe nails then do body work. I'm sure it will all be worth in the end though.

Thu Feb 25, 2010 6:25 pm

god i hope so, don't want a show car or anything, just something nice to look at when it passes you on the whoops. haha, or when you pass me broken down on the whoops. hahaha

Sat Feb 27, 2010 5:15 pm

well i broke down and went and picked up a pressurized tank sandblaster from HF. of course some of the pieces to it i think were made by children in china or something. I was going to get the 40# one cause that's all i needed, and it came with a water separator and it wasn't terribly expensive. so went to the counter, course they are out and none in warehouse. so i go the next size up which is the 110# i figure i guess i can blast for longer before clean up and refills then. get it home put it together and wipe the slober and grool off my mouth, hook it up to my compressor to let it build pressure then the air/water separator starts to leak. what a pos this thing is. all plastic and it doesn't screw in to seal up just kind of pushes/snaps in. so dealing with that and trying to test it out the valve on the bottom that starts/stops blast media is hard to turn and then the hose clogs up. HOLY SHIT! I know i bought it from the worst quality tool store in town, but damn man. so me being stubborn, i say f&$% it and go down to a hardware store, pick up a nice water separator and some extra hose fittings for my airlines(had some other repairs to do.) get home replace the pos that came with the unit with a good one. then go to use it and the ball valve busts that is on the bottom of the tank. now i'm really happy. luckily i happen to have an extra hd ball valve in one of my junk drawers. so i replace it also. get everything ready to go and fire it up. Wow, this thing is amazing. only ran it for a couple mins, but damn. it went through the oil/dirt/grime and paint on the engine side of the rear firewall no problem and quick. so now i'm feeling kind of good about it. i should be able to get a lot of use out of it, still have quit a bit of the car i need to sandblast, my bumpers, my wheels, my roof rack, ect. and then any future projects i should be able to get quite a bit of use out of it.

in the end i should of taken it back and got a different one, but i'm happy with it now.

moral of the story, expect what you pay for.

and for the car, i've decided to smooth out some of the low spots with some filler, got some more sanding to do, but the roofs almost done, then i can fix the drivers quarter, sand and sandblast everything else that needs done, fix and prep my fiberglass, prep my doors then be ready for paint. yippee. with my schedule hopefully be painting before march is over. then i get to put it all together. I'll post again when i make progress to the back end. later dudes.

Sat Feb 27, 2010 5:22 pm

chubby i have the 110 from harbor freight it works great i thought it was going to be a total pos but it works amazing
i used it on my "59money pit" baja and it took it down to bare metal in nothing flat
cars looking good
and urs doesnt have near as much bondo as mine 65% bondo
30% vw and 5% unknown haha

Sat Feb 27, 2010 5:39 pm

tanner_122 wrote: chubby i have the 110 from harbor freight it works great i thought it was going to be a total pos but it works amazing
i used it on my "59money pit" baja and it took it down to bare metal in nothing flat
cars looking good
and urs doesnt have near as much bondo as mine 65% bondo
30% vw and 5% unknown haha
did you have any problems with yours? or did i just get the lemon in the bunch. also i'm running two water separators, i have my 80 gall comp. then about 10-20 feet of coiled up air hose, then water separator and regulator, then about another 30 ft or so of hose so i had air on the other side of my shop(all this was my existing setup). then i added a regulator at the end of all the stuff listed above, then i have about 30-50 feet of hose that i attach my tools to, then it would enter the second water separator on the tank then enter the tank. do you think i'll have any problems getting moisture in the mix? hoping with two separators it should keep it all out. i read an article online about a guy who had to run 20 feet of 3/8 copper pipe coiled up in a bucket of ice water before the water filter to cool the air so he could get all the moisture out, but i'm thinking with the amount of hose and being such a big compressor i should be fine.
sounds like overkill, but with my regulator before the last chunk of hose i know what i'm running at my tools, and the other one is so i know how much i got in my lines. someday i plan on hard piping a system all around my shop.
and besides l like to make things as complicated and confusing as i can. haha

Sat Feb 27, 2010 6:03 pm

i have no probalem with mine the water collector that comes on there works just fine u must have a lemon
my compressors 80 gallon 2 it powers it fine i just have to take breaks every now and then for it to cool down
haha ya ur air hose plumbing sounds really confusing :| haha

Sat Feb 27, 2010 7:07 pm

I have the 20 pounder from HF and blasted my whole pan with it. I used the glass bead media and it's great. I don't even have a water seperator on my friends shop compressor or on the blaster and it works fine. I only used 60 pounds of media so far, but haven't had any problems.

Sun Feb 28, 2010 6:34 pm

i think i'm destined to only get the defective stuff. If it's broken, that's the one i get. haha.
well not much work done this weekend. my 3yr old came down with strep throat, so i got to take care of her sat and sun. all day. too bad to it was almost 60 degrees and sunny both days. would of been nice to let her play in the back yard and me push the body out and work on it in the sunshine. oh well. my baby(my 3 yr old, not the baja, that's my step baby) is getting better and i guess the nice thing about your kids being sick is they just want to be loved on. usually they're running circles around you. Probably have to keep her home from preschool monday also so got to wait til tuesday before i get to play with my car some more. on a good note, had about an hour or two when she took a nap and was able to get my shop all cleaned up spic and span. that's it for now. later

Thu Mar 11, 2010 6:06 pm

finally got back to work on the baja, took some time off. the bodywork was kicking my ass. anywho, got my sandblaster working like a charm now. that thing is awesome. i did more than half the inside of the car in about an hour. hoping tomorrow i'll be able to finish the inside go over any rusty spots in the front trunk area, and do the sides. keep pushing the paint date out, now i'm thinking not until early april. i'll post some pics when all sandblasted. later

Mon Mar 15, 2010 4:17 pm

chubby53 wrote: well i broke down and went and picked up a pressurized tank sandblaster from HF. of course some of the pieces to it i think were made by children in china or something. I was going to get the 40# one cause that's all i needed, and it came with a water separator and it wasn't terribly expensive. so went to the counter, course they are out and none in warehouse. so i go the next size up which is the 110# i figure i guess i can blast for longer before clean up and refills then. get it home put it together and wipe the slober and grool off my mouth, hook it up to my compressor to let it build pressure then the air/water separator starts to leak. what a pos this thing is. all plastic and it doesn't screw in to seal up just kind of pushes/snaps in. so dealing with that and trying to test it out the valve on the bottom that starts/stops blast media is hard to turn and then the hose clogs up. HOLY SHIT! I know i bought it from the worst quality tool store in town, but damn man. so me being stubborn, i say f&$% it and go down to a hardware store, pick up a nice water separator and some extra hose fittings for my airlines(had some other repairs to do.) get home replace the pos that came with the unit with a good one. then go to use it and the ball valve busts that is on the bottom of the tank. now i'm really happy. luckily i happen to have an extra hd ball valve in one of my junk drawers. so i replace it also. get everything ready to go and fire it up. Wow, this thing is amazing. only ran it for a couple mins, but damn. it went through the oil/dirt/grime and paint on the engine side of the rear firewall no problem and quick. so now i'm feeling kind of good about it. i should be able to get a lot of use out of it, still have quit a bit of the car i need to sandblast, my bumpers, my wheels, my roof rack, ect. and then any future projects i should be able to get quite a bit of use out of it.

in the end i should of taken it back and got a different one, but i'm happy with it now.

moral of the story, expect what you pay for.

and for the car, i've decided to smooth out some of the low spots with some filler, got some more sanding to do, but the roofs almost done, then i can fix the drivers quarter, sand and sandblast everything else that needs done, fix and prep my fiberglass, prep my doors then be ready for paint. yippee. with my schedule hopefully be painting before march is over. then i get to put it all together. I'll post again when i make progress to the back end. later dudes.

so i had a couple more issues with this sand blaster, did some searching and found a couple more mods to help it. did all then was working great, and then the stopper on the deadmans valve went bad, the sand bore a hole clean through it. so i took off the handle and stopper and put a 3/8 ball valve in line just before the nozzle. man this thing is great now! it takes off the paint and crap down to bare metal in no time at all. i'm sure i'll be replaceing ball valves here and there as the sand wears them out, but it will be an easy fix. the only issue i have now is keeping my lense clean and waiting for my compressor. as old as it is i'm sure it's not putting out the cfm it should. someday i'll have the pump rebuilt, but that's more money than i have right now. almost got the inside of the car all done. it's gotten me fired up to work on the car more. so wahooo!!

Mon Mar 15, 2010 9:49 pm

so i finished my intrerior. there's probably some spots i missed but who cares? here's some pics of what it looks like.

here's my next rust repair job. can't wait.lol

this is a brace that i had to stick on the underside of my roof, it kept popping in and out, it helps strengthen it and keep it "straight"

this is the aftermath of a blasting session. I sweep all this mess up, filter it and reuse it. lot's of fun. there was about 7-8 gallons on the floor.

now that i got this blaster dialed in i can't brag enough about it. it's great.
tomorrow is a house cleaning day says the wife. got to get it all nice for my sisters visit this week. hopefully i'll get a couple hours in the shop though, and i'm going to try to get at least half a day on Wed. prob. won't work out ther again til a week from Wed.

Mon Mar 15, 2010 10:22 pm

I have a local guy that does commercial sand blasting. Farm equipment and such.
Any thing that will not go in my blast cabinet, goes to him.
Last I did, I took 5 wheels to him. Cost me $40 and I got them back in primer.
He does all of his outside, and reuses the sand. Has a homemade sifter, made from an old cement truck.

Tue Mar 16, 2010 12:16 am

Russ Wolfe wrote: I have a local guy that does commercial sand blasting. Farm equipment and such.
Any thing that will not go in my blast cabinet, goes to him.
Last I did, I took 5 wheels to him. Cost me $40 and I got them back in primer.
He does all of his outside, and reuses the sand. Has a homemade sifter, made from an old cement truck.
last time i took a pair of wheels to the local sandblast guy he charged my 40 bucks for two, and no paint. i also took him some empi 8 spokes and he charged me 80 bucks. although i've deciede that if i ever want to do a whole body again i'll probably take it somewhere if it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. i have a bunch of plastic that i hang down to the floor that keeps everything pretty well contained and a good exhaust fan to suck out all the dust and crap. when i'm all done with this i'm going to get some tarps and hooks and make it so i can hang up the tarps real quick to make a temp blasting room for wheels, headers, roof racks, ect.. stuff that would be difficult to sand down.

Mon Apr 12, 2010 6:06 pm

been a few weeks since i did anything to my car. it's amazing how little projects and honeydo's around the house eat up time.
went out there today and started to mount my rear fenders so i can get an idea on where to cut the rear apron.
on my old baja i cut the sides of the rear fenderwells up to the luggage compartment to have easier access when i needed to work on it. was wondering if that's a bad idea(if it weakens anything.) was thinking about doing the same on this one, but leaving maybe an inch and pounding it underneath and tack welding to the bottom of the luggage area. what do you all think?
i plan on getting out there tomorrow for a few hours, hopefully get the rear end all cut and my fuse blocks and whatever else i can think of cut in so i can sandblast the outside of the car.

Mon Apr 12, 2010 6:17 pm

I wanted to do a race cut like that. It would make access to the trans a lot easier. And adjusting the clutch wing nut would be easy as hell. But it also exposes your motor to debris ,like mud, kicked up by the wheels. And we all know air cooled motors run a lot better with a blanket of mud on them. :^o

That sandblasting looks great! I will remember to do that next baja i build.