1971 "custom" convertible Baja Bug

[sailtexas186548]

While I have been slowly making progress on my baja, my buddy who's baja got me started in this whole adventure slid his baja sidways over a curb at about 35mph... It's got a little damage LOL. I am "fortunate" to have just enough garage space to shoehorn it in so we can repair it.

Backstory on this thing is he bought it running, off of craigslist for $2600. Supposed to have a 1776, a performance cam, and a center mount Weber 44 IDF - it is NO slug I can tell you that. It's pretty cool, whoever originally built it did a pretty good job although the cage bars are welded to the body and not connected to the pan. We will be extending the cage and adding bars this go-around.

When cleaned up it's real neat and gets a lot of attention driving around town. When he got it the wiring was a mess, and it leaked oil like the Exxon Valdez. I went though it, patched up the wiring so everything worked (the horn used to blow the main fuse, it was right at the point of max load all the time...), stopped the oil leaks from the engine, added a mechanical oil pressure gauge, added a full-flow oil filter, rebuilt the steering box, and put new CV boots on. It was running great, we drove it HARD and for the most part it never let us down.

When he first got it:

a current dash shot (dirty, at night it's COOL there are LEDs in the stock guage, light up switches, real cool stuff)

rebuilt steering box:

how it sits now (excuse the dirty shop, I'm cleaning it all up before anymore work gets done in there!)

right rear where the drum broke, hard to tell if the arm is bent but i suspect it is. The lower shock mount is bent from a previous hit off-road. there is a tight spot in the outer CV now also but the axle moves freely so I'm hoping a new CV, disc brake upgrade, and we can put it together but it may need an arm and complete outer assembly. the torsion housing is a bit tweaked on this side but i'm confident I can get that straightened back out.

and now the real damage haha... front frame head is tweaked, the beam is BENT, tie rod buckled... needs at least those parts, most likely going to get a complete new beam end to end with disc brakes, a new tie rod, and pull out the pan if possible. If not I'll hack the frame head off and weld on a new one, and consider a link-pin upgrade at the same time (if he'll pay for it!)

Anyways though i should start a thread on this one too! Any advice on how to check the rear arm out to see if it's bent? Everything i measure is within a 1/8" or 1/4" but I'm not sure ANYTHING on this thing is straight so....

- Alex
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it's more fun loud and dirty

[EnjoyNukaCola]

This should be fun to watch
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"when i go to drive it i get to like 5-10 mph it is at high rpms and gets higher the faster i go when i shift up to second the rpms drop is this normal or what and this is my first vw please help"

[sailtexas186548]

got a lead on a restored pan and complete drum to drum ball joint beam, that would really simplify things!
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it's more fun loud and dirty

[heywebonya]

very cool design, I like the cut back
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If I knew what I was doing; I wouldn't be building a buggy!

[sailtexas186548]

Yea it's a neat buggie, it gets a lot of attention around town!

Put an indicator in the right rear stub inboard and outboard and it's only running out .005" or less (not a great machined surface to check)! How that is possible I don't know but it sure is impressive after the hit it took! The tight spot when u spin the hub locks up the axle, so I'll swap a known good axel from the other side and see if that takes care of it. Them I just need to order a replacment axle.

I also measured a bunch and the torsion housing is only 1/4 bent, so with a little muscle and the slotted holes in the spring plates the rear will be a realitivly easy fix.

The decision has been made to go disc brakes on the rear, and a rebuilt beam with adjusters, thing spindels, and disc brakes on the front. Now to shop around for the best deals!
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it's more fun loud and dirty

[sailtexas186548]

We put the rear brake kit on so it can roll again, pulled the body, and cleaned the pan up this weekend. Waiting on a new beam to show up then it's off to the frame shop to pull it straight - it's too much to tackle without a frame rack or porta-power (I have neither).

Empi brake kit, lines not secured yet

Getting ready to pull the body:

Body coming off:

Pan (pressure washed after these pics), you can really see how bad it's all bent up lol:

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it's more fun loud and dirty

[sailtexas186548]

well there's a new pan in the equation now, complete and ready to drive just have to swap the yellow buggie body, seats, and and engine over, hook up some wires and the clutch and it's back on the road. Then we'll reinforce the cage and sort out the other issues it's got.

the new pan is at his place garage so I loaded it on a trailer and sent it on it's way.

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it's more fun loud and dirty

[sailtexas186548]

well photobucket killed this thread, but the body ended up getting swapped to another pan and it's running/driving around again. When I migrate my photos over I will try to fix the thread.
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it's more fun loud and dirty

[sailtexas186548]

Well after a short break, this project lives on.

The engine that was in it broke a valve spring and the #1 piston and valves had a meeting… after pulling the heads it turns out to have 92mm pistons a and a 74 or 76mm stroker crank! I need to measure the stroke better to figure out which. Also has some 40mm ish intake valves, not sure on exhaust.

Swapped in a spare mystery engine to get it running again, which promptly warmed up and had tons of blow by, haha dammittt. Took the heads and cylinders off one side, it’s a 1600 that seems totally stock… throwing new pistons and cylinders on and gonna button it back up. The big engine will get repaired and swapped in down the road.

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it's more fun loud and dirty

[sailtexas186548]

Engine parts are all here, it’s a 2021cc with 92mm pistons and 76mm stroke, single Weber 44 IDF, had to replace the ported 043 heads so now it will have AA 501 heads with 40mm and 35.5mm valves. No idea on the cam it was installed by the previous owner.

While we were waiting on engine parts it got cleaned up and painted with SEM hot rod black satin.

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it's more fun loud and dirty

[Erik_m]

I hate cabrio’s. But i absolutely love this thing!!!

[sailtexas186548]

Finished up the engine a couple weeks back:

Had to weld up the intake

I need to get a pic of the whole engine together. Ended up building a bracket to brace the carb to the fan shroud, installed a thermocouple on the #3 and #1 cylinders.

Also mounted a new aluminum fuel tank in the rear that looks pretty slick
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it's more fun loud and dirty

[sailtexas186548]

Here is the engine all together

Front trans mount

The spring plates are notched about 3/8” maybe a bit less, requiring the lower shock mounts to be cut off, then rotated and moved towards the pivot 1/4” or so so the shocks fit. Also had to convert to bus CV joints and thing axles.

Ready for the engine

Fuel tank

Engine installed

Outside and running, timing set, took it to the gas station on a temporary tank and put some fuel in the real tank. The exhaust is kinda junky, but it’s nice and quiet which is good for sorting things out on a new build

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it's more fun loud and dirty