Scandinavian Baja Build Log

[DancingOnTheAshes]

Work continues. The Americas are slowly sinking underneath the waves, and I've gotten parts delivered.

I've gotten the bits and bobs that I needed to finish up the rear axles. New bearings and pads.

The old bearings. They were pretty dried up and the ball bearings had dust in them. Maybe I could have cleaned them out and repacked them but my father just told me to get new bearings instead.

I'm also busy installing urethane bushings in the front suspension. I've gotten the needle bearings out of there, but does anyone have any tips about getting the inner bushings out of there? They're stuck pretty tightly and the impact hammer is making -no- headway so far. It may be frustration talking but I'm being tempted to just leave the wee bastards in there.

I also found out why the steering was so damn stiff. The previous owner had stuffed the steering box full of grease. Should I just dig it out and replace it with gearbox oil instead?

I also got ahold of a Redline Progressive inlet manifold that has the gas linkage and heater passage that goes all the way up to the carburetor. It almost made me squeal in an unmanly manner.

[DancingOnTheAshes]

I finished the front end yesterday. I managed to finally get the stock inner bushings out by using a long bar and beating them apart from the other side per the advice of someone else on this forum. I'm going to keep the coilovers until they begin to wear down.

I made a mark where I think the rod should be so next step is to take it all apart again and begin work on the hooks and rods. I'm probably also going to gusset the tower while I'm working on the front end.
I'm leaving the IRS conversion and heightening of the front suspension to my father since he's the more experienced fabricator and welder.

[DancingOnTheAshes]

Well, for good or ill I decided to gut the framehorns today.

It began well enough, borrowed my boss' plasma cutter and laid into the framehorn after making some marks.

And after a loooot of cutting, grinding (and taking the jig on and off the pinbolts I screwed into the torsion lid mounting holes like, a million times) I'm finally there. On this side.

The top I'm happy with, I'm very close and I didn't touch any of the wire paths (much).

The underside? Not so much. I had to bend the inside lip a bit and I still probably need to beat the framehorn to make the edges meet, and I took way too much off the back near the e-brake.

[DancingOnTheAshes]

Got my transmission today, gave it an inspection and it seems that I need to swap the gearshift bushing.
It's an early AM tranny with the two bolt front mount. Probably from a late 1300. A bit low R&P but that can be altered.

[DancingOnTheAshes]

I spent this weekend getting the mounts for the trailing arms finished. My father tacked the mounts on and then we did a test fit. We had to do some minor adjustments on the left one because the jig didn't make it fit quite right then he finished the welding job and I did a final fit. I put the transmission on just because I like putting stuff on and taking them off again.

Now I'm just waiting for the green light from the SFRO inspector then I'll take all this off again and start painting.

[DancingOnTheAshes]

I've been thinking a lot about my tires and by extension the rims lately. I've got a Transmission with an R&P of 4.375 with the intent to bolt a 1600cc engine to it and I've gotten to the point where I'm starting to think about what size tires I should get.
I'm leaning towards a set of Yokohama brand tires with 175/80 in the front and 215/80 in the rear. Mainly intended for dirt road fun. That'd make the rear pair around 28 inches in diameter, which I've been led to believe is a bit much for a type 1 tranny. Do you guys have any thoughts about this?

[dustymojave]

No its not a bit much for a VW transmission. I ran 28.5" tires on my Baja with a 1385 engine and 4.12 differential ratio for quite a few years. Durability was good and offroading was good. 3.88 gears would be not so good. 4.37s would give better performance. So which VW transmission you use can affect how well it works, unless you buy one that has been modified or have the one you have now modified.
_________________
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.

[DancingOnTheAshes]

[DancingOnTheAshes]

Forgot to link last Sundays work, and I'm pretty happy with how she's ended up. As soon as we've finished with hooking up the rear brake lines the body is getting back on and we'll start to weld the rust holes.

Next on the docket is to reseal the transmission and get it and the engine back on there. The engine needs quite a bit of tlc, among other things new pushrod tubes and a gasket kit to replace everything that can be replaced without splitting the case.

[DancingOnTheAshes]

Spent something like 4 hours on the gearbox today. Changed out all the bushings and the o-rings. Now I just need to remember to pour some gearbox oil into the transaxle before I connect the engine.

The clutch lever and fork had rusted together and they were a fucking bitch to separate (I had to replace a busted clutch spring) to I ended up just chopping off the fork. They're like 16 bucks, I'll get a new one.

So yeah, I began working on the transaxle around 21:00, and when I next looked it was waaay past midnight. I may have a problem... naaaaaaah, I'm good. I'm having so much fun with this that it would probably be against some law somewhere.

[DancingOnTheAshes]

Finished the front suspension today, or at least it's as finished as I think it will be before the inspector comes and takes a look at the car. I'm probably going to gusset the tower at some point and weld the seam then find a pair of 3 inch lifted spindels. I'll see how the front behaves before I decide if I need to cut and turn the central tortion mount or if I'm leaving it as is.

It's also lucky that I decided to buy brake shields because the previous builder had neglected to pack the front wheel bearings... like, at all. There was a dab of grease in the cups but nothing more. I want to think well of him so I hope he had just decided to "do it later".

After that I replaced the fuel line. Like a dunce I didn't read the forum properly and I tried to take out the original worn out line in sections. I ended up with a 12 inch piece of old fuel line that I just zip tied to the rest of the tubes inside the tunnels like it was an extremely misshapen ship in a bottle.
If I had known at the beginning what I do now I would have left the original fuel line mostly in place but who does anything perfectly the first time?

I've got the line secured to the original clamp up front and firmly hose clamped to the e-brake tube in the back, with heavy industrial zip ties securing it to the clutch wire tube at the shifter and e-brake hole locations. That should probably be enough. What do you guys think?

[DancingOnTheAshes]

I went shopping today for parts to my baja. Well, "shopping". I picked up a bunch of parts and a body from a guy that had them sitting in an old garage for decades.

A neat little collection of main bearings and a couple of rod bearing sets, all unused and still wrapped in grease paper in their 20-30 year old packaging. I'm hoping to make use of some of it once I've figured out what the hell it is I have.

An F marked (Or badly stamped E) engine block that I used the pressure washer and de-greaser to clean at 90 degrees C, then used compressed air to dry off.

A crankshaft and rods along with three kamshafts.

And two sets of single port heads, at least one pair that fits 94mm. Either early as hell 1600cc or more probably for 1500 cylinders. Over here we got the dual port 1600 heads early. The cylinders are probably all a wash and an economy set of new 1600 cylinders cost barely anything at all these days, relatively speaking.

I'm hoping to be able to build a spare 1600 engine with this stuff. Make it my first engine build without having to take apart my working AB block and use it while/if I rebuild that one.

The tank I got was really nice, some loose paint and surface rust but nothing penetrating. I got rid of the gunk inside by using degreaser and the pressure washer set to 90 degrees again, then I buffed off the rust and began layering rust proofing. I'm probably going to use this tank for the baja since the other one I have has an extra hole in it for a gas heater to sip out of that I didn't quite know how to seal.

The body should give up a few useful windows and a pair of doors along with handles and window mechanisms. Sacrificed on the altar to saving pennies on appearances and pouring money into fun stuff, like things that make me go faster.

Ps; You guys are awfully quiet, I hope I haven't stepped on anyone's toes by accident.

[DancingOnTheAshes]

Okay, I'm starting to think that I'm ready to put the body back on the pan and plan the welds. I'm worried that if I fit the gasket between the pan and body that I might damage it by radiant heat or weld beads, can I just leave the gasket out while welding and reinstall it when that is done or should I use some kind of spacer material?

[DancingOnTheAshes]

I should clarify that my father advised me to bolt the body and pan together while we weld so that any warping due to the welding process will be minimised. That's why I'm asking if I should fit the gasket or use washers or just skip them all and mate body and pan without any spacer material.

I apologise if I don't always make sense, English is my second language.

[pullstart]

How thick is the gasket? Sorry for my ignorance, I've only had my buggy. Your English is just fine by the way!
_________________
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

[dustymojave]

Yes, you do well at English. Far better than us Americans are likely to do at Swedish.

That silence you noted was probably more due to nobody seeing anything they thouht you needed to be corrected on It probably meant that the folks here thouht you were doing well.

My own personal biggest comment is that I don't like those EMPI coilover shocks, The best part of them is the chrome coil spring that rusts VERY fast. Even here in the desert. The shock absorbers are poor quality, especially if you intend to actually use the Baja Bug off of well-paved roads.
_________________
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.

[DancingOnTheAshes]

[dustymojave]

_________________
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.

[DancingOnTheAshes]

[dustymojave]

Well, it was just a thumbs up smiley. It's been deleted from the gallery without explanation or notice. There's no equivalent in the set of smileys on the samba, so maybe I stepped on somebody's toes trying to add it.

I was just trying to indicate that I understand having budget restrictions and my approval of what you are planning to do later when you can afford to.
_________________
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.