My weekend warrior 1970 baja bug build

TDCTDI · Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2015 7:17 pm Post subject:

Also, the outer steering box clamp stop is not welded to the beam like the inner one that I relocated, it appears to be a rivet. To keep from weakening the beam by trying to extract it & relocate it, I bolted the clamp to the steering box where it needed to be located & then welded the clamp to the beam, I hope that doesn't bite me in the ass.
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Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.

GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!

An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.

Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

TDCTDI · Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2015 7:26 pm Post subject:

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

Before I painted the beam, I used some brake bleeder dust covers to keep from clogging the Zerk fittings on the beam, they fit so well I think I'll leave them.
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.

GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!

An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.

Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

TDCTDI · Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2015 6:38 am Post subject:

Well, in preparing to lengthen the tie rods, I came across an interesting tidbit that I wasn't aware of.

The Thing tie rod (on the right) is already a little beefier from the factory.

So is the sway bar, I do not know yet if I'll be able to stuff it down the tie rod.
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.

GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!

An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.

Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

TDCTDI · Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2015 4:36 pm Post subject:

As it turns out, a VW engineer decided that Thing the passenger side tierod needed to be large enough to accommodate the larger sway bar

_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.

GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!

An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.

Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

TDCTDI · Posted: Sat Sep 05, 2015 6:22 pm Post subject:

I drilled a hole into the tierod so i could rosette weld the sway bar into the tierod
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.

GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!

An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.

Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

TDCTDI · Posted: Sat Sep 05, 2015 6:32 pm Post subject:

Then I threaded the tierod end all the way in to ensure maximum adjustment & secured the swaybar & filling in the hole.

_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.

GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!

An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.

Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

TDCTDI · Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2015 8:29 pm Post subject:

Well I Thought I uploaded a pic of my progress but it failed to & I already deleted the pic. I couldn't find a another Thing tierod to use as a donor so I ended up getting a piece of 1/2" pipe to use as a filler, I left roughly 3/16" between the pieces so I could weld directly to the swaybar insert & fill the gap by swirling the weld into the tierod pieces, here's the completed part.

_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.

GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!

An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.

Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

TDCTDI · Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 5:45 am Post subject:

Here it is after a quick coat.
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.

GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!

An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.

Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

TDCTDI · Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 7:20 pm Post subject:

The drivers side tierod was the same diameter from bug to Thing, this meant I could cut both at different points to get the length with only one seam.

The tierod was 9" long, so I split that in half & added one inch to the right on one tierod, then to the left of center on the other tierod.

That left me with a two inch longer tierod & a two inch shorter tierod (great because my buddy is narrowing his beam 4").
(Just be careful not to mix up which end is which, one end has a left hand thread & the other is a right hand thread)
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.

GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!

An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.

Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

dustymojave · Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 8:35 pm Post subject:

I recommend against using water pipe for tie rods and I hope you're planning to reinforce those joints where you combined the 2 tie rods together.
_________________
Richard
Offroading VW based cars since 1965
Tech Inspection 1963 - 2012 SCCA/SCORE/HDRA/MORE/MDR +
Retired from building Bajas, Fiberglass Buggies and Rails in the Mojave Desert. Also Sprints & Midgets, Dry Lakes, Road Race cars. All types New and Vintage
SoCalBajas Member
Kicked Cancer's A$$...1st and 2nd round...Fight ain't over yet.

TDCTDI · Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2015 11:36 am Post subject:

Hey Richard, I know, I really didn't want to use black pipe but I couldn't find anything else to fill the 1-3/8" gap. The Thing sway bar was too big to fit in the beetle tierod & I wanted to use the larger bar & couldn't bring myself to make a hybrid of the two.

Here's a pic of the difference in swaybar diameter.
Is the swaybar insert not adequate enough for integrity?
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.

GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!

An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.

Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

TDCTDI · Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2015 3:58 pm Post subject:

After cutting the tierods to length, I then drilled a hole into each half.
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.

GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!

An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.

Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

HERC · Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2015 7:30 am Post subject:

I cant wait to this car finished. Hurry up. Cool

_________________
Herc

TDCTDI · Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2015 4:17 pm Post subject:

Thanks HERC, I try to do something to it every day, eating that elephant one bite at a time.

Here's the piece of the swaybar that's going to be part of this tierod.
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.

GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!

An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.

Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

TDCTDI · Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2015 8:08 pm Post subject:

I then assemble the tierod & rosette weld the swaybar to the tierod

Then weld the two halves to the swaybar insert.
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.

GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!

An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.

Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

TDCTDI · Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2015 8:13 pm Post subject:

& clean it up in the sand blaster
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.

GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!

An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.

Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

TDCTDI · Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2015 8:49 am Post subject:

Now I've removed what's left of the original front beam.
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.

GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!

An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.

Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

TDCTDI · Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2015 3:05 pm Post subject:

And here's the widened beam going back in.
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.

GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!

An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.

Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

HERC · Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2015 7:23 am Post subject:

Lookin good bro.
_________________
Herc

TDCTDI · Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2015 4:30 pm Post subject:

Thanks HERC, glad to see I'm not boring the hell out of everyone, I just wanted to show a step by step of how I did it & hope it may inspire others to build their cars (or how not to).
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.

GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!

An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.

Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.


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My weekend warrior 1970 baja bug build
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