Father and Son Baja Bug- Daily Driver

[Jamnajar]

How is your electric power steering working out? We are looking at adding it to our baja.
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Strictly Baja Official Utah Chapter:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/352715201562333/

[1fastbigguy]

[1fastbigguy]

Haven't really updated anything on the build in a while so I thought I would share an upgrade. For the original build on the car we used a set of forged 2 1/2 x 1" front training arms. They worked well on the street and we did get about 400 dirt miles on them. After the upgrade to King coilovers and bypasses and a day of tuning, the car became an entirely new beast. The car no longer hit bottom on mid bumps or G-outs and it is confident and stable in the whoops at high speed.
Not many miles after getting the car dialed in, the frontend became very harsh, began rebounding scary slow and packing in. Upon inspection of the frontend you could see both lower arms had bent at the beam bushings.

During disassembly of the frontend we also noticed that both lower arms had bent inside the beam and all 4 arms had cracks at the point where the casting meets the shank and the 5/8 link pins were bent as well as excessive wear on all the bushings. Fortunately we discovered these issues before there was a catastrophic failure at high speed!

I got in contact with Dave at Kartek adout the issues with the frontend and how quickly things had transpired. We talked about how the car is used and budget then came up with a parts list. The car now has a new set of welded cromoly Woods 4 x1" arm 7/8" cryogenically frozen alloy link pins and new bushings. The photos below show the difference in arm size and material thickness.

The frontend is completely rebuilt and we have a solid 500 miles pre running and chasing without a single issue.

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Cheers!

59 Ragtop
61 Ragtop Baja
69 Squareback

@Dustydrone
#Ohibaja

Our Build
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=545394

[no1clyde]

Alan in September I sheared a lower front arm off right where yours bent. Mine are my home made ones and I will be making another set using 1 1/2-1/2 wall
next set. I did a pretty good fix for our Utah Adventure and made the 783 mile run on it but was nervous LOL. I did have a few problems with other things like forgetting a couple welds 3 years ago and some bad CVs but we (me and my car) had another great trip and time

I find it interesting that we both tweaked front arms almost the same way at almost the same time in our cars lives

From our Utah trip last week

Ed

[dustymojave]

All comes down to my version of the old hot rodder's saying:

"Speed Costs Money. How fast can you afford to go?"

If you're gonna drive that hard and that fast and hit things, then the parts need to be strong. Many of the 5-open racers have upgraded to larger OD shanks on the trailing arms inside of larger diameter tube for the beam.

Then most of them can't seem to keep up with the 5-1600 fast guys. Dave mentioned above is one of the very few who can consistently run away from them. Just like he can run away from the rest of the 5-Open guys.
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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.

[1fastbigguy]

Dusty, I could not agree more! My right foot and my wallet have come to an understanding... If the foot wants to wear shoes it needs the lighten up on the go pedal Now I just need to figure out how get rid of the sharp rocks in the desert

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Cheers!

59 Ragtop
61 Ragtop Baja
69 Squareback

@Dustydrone
#Ohibaja

Our Build
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=545394

[pullstart]

[1fastbigguy]

I think with a set of razors up front, some paddles in the back and another couple hundred horsepower sand would be a ton of fun! I spent a large part of my childhood riding ATC's, Quads and later Buggy's out at Pismo beach. We used to camp at Osso Falco lakes and ride out to Guadeloupe, Devils slide and to the Pier for clam chowder... Now only about 7% of the dunes are open, it's very sad.
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Cheers!

59 Ragtop
61 Ragtop Baja
69 Squareback

@Dustydrone
#Ohibaja

Our Build
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=545394

[dustymojave]

Well I've been working on that problem for the last 50 years or so. Try to round off several rocks every time I go out in the dez. Lots of sharp rocks out here though.

And to make it worse, folks and mother nature keep uncovering MORE.
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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.

[heywebonya]

Wow, what a great build and amazing buggy.

Thanks for sharing the updates.
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If I knew what I was doing; I wouldn't be building a buggy!

[1fastbigguy]

[1fastbigguy]

Well I didn't get to go to Baja but I did manage to get a great burrito at Don Lalo's!

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Cheers!

59 Ragtop
61 Ragtop Baja
69 Squareback

@Dustydrone
#Ohibaja

Our Build
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=545394

[pullstart]

[1fastbigguy]

[pullstart]

Well so far I'm still running a bus trans, stock with the EJ25. I'll be picking up two 2.2/5 speed Subi donors next week that I'm considering the pros and cons of each orientation of the trans. But pics of his shift linkage and whatnot would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
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4 seater Appletree buggy, road legal with 002 IRS, 3x3 Appletree kit, 6" over Dan's beam with 10" towers and Fox 2.0 shocks, '00 Subaru EJ25 with KEP stage 3 clutch and KEP adapter plate.

my build page: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=662104&start=0

[FishTaco]

What an excellent build and thread! As I was reading I was curious if you had any issues getting it registered, since California seems to be pretty cranky about non-stock builds.

Thanks for the great thread.

[1fastbigguy]

[mkparker]

I like that response! ^^^^

I know the info is in the thread somewhere, but could you confirm the dimensions of the "stockish" beam and rear trailing arms please?
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Michael


Pit Boy 6163 Spec Trophy Truck

[1fastbigguy]

[mkparker]

Just got back from China, thanks for the response! Car is outstanding!
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Michael


Pit Boy 6163 Spec Trophy Truck