TheSamba.com :: View topic

Wed Jan 06, 2010 7:06 pm

Looks like a pretty straight car you are starting with.

Sun Jan 10, 2010 2:14 pm

neanders: not sure if I am cutting the front yet. I looked over the "Baja in day" /Ghetto Baja and I may keep the front end. That is unless I can find the right deal on a nose and hood on here or CL.

Over the weekend got the fender fiberglass work done. I just reinforced the side with the mounting holes and filled in the old brake light holes that were cut. I am learning how to do all this up at a local bodyshop. I work for free after I get out of the 9 to 5, in turn they teach me and full access to the body shop.

My question now is if I do cut the front end, should I use a 1 piece or just get a hood and nose? I have heard some complaints about the hood cracking and not being even close to fitting. I don't want to buy a used hood and chance it not fitting my vehicles. Thanks for the help.

Sun Jan 10, 2010 5:16 pm

as far as the front end, I think it's more to what your needs, taste is. some people like them cause you can pretty much cut all the stock metal off the front of the car up to the firewally and build a bitching cage/shock/beam system and extend it foward making the wheelbase longer. some people like the looks(me). I've always liked the looks i get when filling up with gas and i have to pull my front end off. I will put a gas door in my next one though. it gets old lifting it off and on every time you need gas. if you look at my build i'm trying to keep as much as a truck as i can, but still have the one piece. I ran a couple baja's with the fenders, nose and hood back in the day, and I liked those to. If you just plan on recreational bajaing then it might be for you, it retains the most of the original car. and if you do it right you can still have a totally sealed up trunk space. i would cut the bottom of the apron leaving as much metal as possible and then roll it up on the inside of the nose piece and bond it together there. Some hoods are better than others obviously. I've seen ones with studs for mounting hoods, i've seen people make L brackets and Big f&%ing washers with bolts through the hood. It's kind of to what you like. just make sure you either take out the hood springs, or cut them 1/2" like somebody said so they don't send your hood into orbit when you open it. hope I've helped.

Mon Jan 11, 2010 8:33 pm

Here are the shocks I was telling you about. Let me know.

Tue Jan 12, 2010 12:52 pm

Hey vdub411. I'm just down south of flint. If you're looking for some ride height, I have a set of "thing" spindles that will bolt right on your ball joint beam and give 3" instant lift. Those Bilsteins are very good shocks-very durable.(put 165,000 mi on a set on my 1997GMC pickup-still felt great till the kid rolled it) What size are those Mickey Thompsons? Maybe some trading is in order. (my sandrail spends most of it's life on the street-am looking for some Large rear skins-it's got p275/65r15's on it now.) Your project looks great and you should have some fun with it! But it will cost-it always does!

Tue Jan 12, 2010 7:21 pm

JeffT: PM sent

chubby53: I think I may just do that with the hood/trunk space in the front. I know some pretty good fab guys who can help me out. I will post the pics of my progress when I get a sec.

65BAJA: Thanks. Hopefully these will be replacing my EMPI coilovers. Might ride a little better.

Tue Jan 12, 2010 8:52 pm

i just posted some pics on my thread of how i redid it. still not done yet though. it's not perfect by any means, but i'm still learning, and it's a baja so oh well. it will function how i want it to though.

Fri Jan 15, 2010 11:04 pm

OK so here are some pics of the progress. Filled in the old holes for the turn signals and the brake lights. Got everything sanded with 80. Now I need to fill the outer holes with body filler and sand again with 150.

Earlier I might have said something about having a budget.....please disregard those comments. I am picking up a whole bunch of goodies this week, I'll post pics when I get them.

Sun Jan 17, 2010 11:23 am

A big thanks to JeffT who is leading me in the right direction and had some geat needed parts.

Now I have a new beam (the ad didn't say it had adjusters, but it does),new steering box, tie rods, beefed up rear trailing arms and thing spindles. Things are starting to come together nicely.

Can anyone tell me if this front trailing arm is stock or what kind it is. Obviously it is a VW but what kind? Thanks for the help. Here's some pics.

Sun Jan 17, 2010 11:33 am

was that beam lowered? looks like it.

Sun Jan 17, 2010 12:55 pm

I don't believe it is. It was on a sandrail project that never got finished. Is there an easy way to tell?

Sun Jan 17, 2010 2:05 pm

it just looked like the adjuster was turned down too much, could be wrong though. on my link pin front end, when maxed out my adjusters are pointing more towards the sky., rails are a lot lighter than a baja's, also they may have welded them in so they could turn it down so it wouldn't be so stiff? just look too see where the stock bolts are on your stock front end and go from there, if your adjusters will turn up past the stock location then it is lifted, if they turn down and don't go up any higher than stock then it is lowered.

Sun Jan 17, 2010 2:25 pm

They look to be close to the stock position. Here is a pic of the existing beam and the new beam. Little different angle but you get the idea. The adjusters still have equal movement up and down. It appears they are set in the middle right now.

Sun Jan 17, 2010 3:14 pm

with thing spindles, that should work pretty good for you then

Sun Jan 17, 2010 9:16 pm

Don't forget that you will need at least the two lower thing trailing arms to use the front spindles.

Sun Jan 17, 2010 9:30 pm

lookin good. we do alot of trail riding in the west branch-st helen aera. so if you want to go just let me know. we have around 8to10 buggys that go every weekend.

Mon Jan 18, 2010 6:24 am

joescoolcustoms wrote: Don't forget that you will need at least the two lower thing trailing arms to use the front spindles.

I was under the impression from the research I have done on here that these were a direct bolt on. I thought the only difference would be the position of the ball joint (on top or bottom). I would love to have the thing trailing arms but haven't found any yet.

nitrous nut wrote: lookin good. we do alot of trail riding in the west branch-st helen aera. so if you want to go just let me know. we have around 8to10 buggys that go every weekend.

As soon as I get it finished I will be there for sure. OK so not finished but at least drivable.

Mon Jan 18, 2010 6:45 am

The upper trailing arms are the same, but with the lower trailing arms, the BJ is flipped over. That's the desirable thing about the the Thing, both BJ's are above the spindle, so that when you hit a bump, the spindle is driven into the ball joint. On a T1, the lower BJ is below the spindle, so if you hit a bump hard enough, the BJ may separate.

Mon Jan 18, 2010 7:58 am

i am not a big fan of that style of adjuster i stripped the ones out on my old baja after a hard landing.

Mon Jan 18, 2010 4:13 pm

neanders wrote: The upper trailing arms are the same, but with the lower trailing arms, the BJ is flipped over. That's the desirable thing about the the Thing, both BJ's are above the spindle, so that when you hit a bump, the spindle is driven into the ball joint. On a T1, the lower BJ is below the spindle, so if you hit a bump hard enough, the BJ may separate.

I was wondering if using the complete set of front trailing arms from a thing would widen the stance any? I thought I seen it somewhere on here that if you used the thing parts it was wider. I could be wrong, it wouldn't be the first or last time.