Scandinavian Baja Build Log

[Chochobeef]

[DancingOnTheAshes]

Okay, getting back on track after another hiatus.

Began with getting the fiberglass parts and doors out of storage.

That spacing between the front and the body isn't great, the original cut was pretty sloppy and needs fixing.

Started with making a paper shape and made a piece of 1mm sheet steel for each side.

Drilled and bolted the parts together with the fender holding the front in position. Then I made even more holes for blind rivets.

Then I painted the parts and where they would be making contact with the body with Arcanol and then used plastic padding and blind rivets to bolt these parts together.
Looks decent enough.

There, much better. Had to replace the bottom left door hinge since it was bent way out of shape. I also really like those rear view mirror holders I got from an off road store on the web.

I replaced the steering column with the safer collapsible type and it came with indicator lever and ignition already built in. The wheel came with the car, it's a fancy ass leather Luisi steering wheel and I like it a lot.

This is the current state of the dash. With a pair of Oil and Alt lights added to the plate.

Engine is being stripped and fixed up. The tins are getting a new coat of paint, that oil cooler will have to go, the carburetor is waiting for new jets and I'll be buying a 55amp alternator instead of the 30 amp stock generator.

[DancingOnTheAshes]

OOOOOOOkay, So, it's been a while and a LOT of stuff has happened.

Short tldr; Me and my dad has fixed the big rust holes in the body, built frames for the seats, finished the cage (mostly) and built in some 3 point seatbelts.

2019-2020

Seat belts.

Seat frames.

Thick layer of rust protection where it doesn't show.

Getting the cage in as close as possible.

There's going to be a lot of pool noodles and a layer of glue on roof insulation to protect from the sun so hopefully this is fine with the inspector.

Door is a tight fit.

The top mounts for the 3 point seat belt. (You can't register a car for road use with 4-5 point belts in Sweden.)

This is too low for competition use but it should be fine for a Road use cage in Sweden and it makes getting in/out much easier.

And my dad decided to buy a Saab V-4!

2021
I got an alternator and distributor for Christmas and got back on the engine.

Getting a proper flap and thermostat setup for this engine.

Along with a bunch of the engine cooling tins.

Going to make some deflector tins to go between the J-tubes and the push rod tubes. Iirc they're called industrial cooling tins.

I'm connecting the engine cage with the internal cage through the firewall and the intent is to fit a radiator across those above the extractor system with a reflector plate underneath.

Electrical work commences.

To make things a little less complicated I decided to pull a 13 lead trailer cable through the roof canal instead of trying to fit a bunch of individual wires through there.

The Relay array.

There's a lot of stuff to figure out on the electrical front, I don't want a bunch of high amp current to go through the ancient 1960's spec switches so a lot of stuff is done through relays, even the horn.

[dustymojave]

In general I disapprove of using relays. But my 1958 Baja Bug with 955,000 miles on the odometer has been having some mild troubles lately with poor contact in the original switches. So using them in your Baja just may make some sense, if you're using the original switches. The basic switch designs are for NO relays other than the turn indicator, and that's only to get intermittent operation, until about 1971. So basically, the switches are good with the loads they will see. But if the contacts are corroded, and Sweden is much more humid than the California desert and the factory switches are not sealed, so corrosion can be expected. My friends who have bought new replacement switches for their Bugs have not had good results, even from the best brands around. So I'm thinking of replacing the original switches with new sealed toggle switches (NOT cheap rocker switches!), rather than adding relays that I would view as only bandaids for existing problems, rather than fixes for those problems, and potential sources of troubles of their own.
_________________
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]

Exactly, dustymojave. I've had issues with my sand rail where corroded contacts made the starter sluggish and the horn unreliable, so relays for some of the functions just allow full current with less issues in my climate.

The pump relay is to make sure that if there's no oil pressure the electrical pump won't run. (With a primer button just in case.)

[DancingOnTheAshes]

I'm fairly done with the instrument panel, not likely to make more than one or two more holes in it.

So I decided to paint the inside of the front luggage compartment.

I'm not so concerned with the appearance of this space so it got the same rust proofing and enamel paint that the underside got.

While doing this I filled the steering box up with liquid grease and it's an amazing improvement compared to the thick universal grease that the previous owner put there.


So I'm back here again. Working the electrical side. Reusing scraps from another 13 lead trailer cable project to keep things coherent.

It turns over when I turn the key now and runs fine when it's gotten a minute to warm up. I used this guide when setting up the 32/36 carb and it's running like a dream compared to when it was only using a 28 Pict-1 and a 009 distributor. https://www.aircooled.net/making-weber-progressive-dfev-work-aircooled-vw-engine/
But there's a puddle on the left side of the engine because the push rod tubes are in horrible shape all around and leak like mad on the left. I need to get a set of collapsible tubes and swap them all out.

[DancingOnTheAshes]

Some progress pics.

Unfortunately the old design of the vw bug and my modern expectations ran into each other head first and the big switch that I thought would work fine for my wipers is completely unusable for that. So I was left with a big hole that I wasn't sure how to fill in my dashboard.

But after finding a working original switch with a broken fluid valve I went about using a buck converter to dial in the required voltage for the wiper motor.

After making a hole for the wiper switch I ended up enlarging the empty hole and putting a usb charging port there. Bit of a stupid spot for it but I guess I have to pay for my bad planning somehow.

[DancingOnTheAshes]

I spent the evening beating out some Industrial Cooling Tins. When I think back to how my cooling system was before when this engine was sitting on the little buggy I'm amazed.
It had just the fan housing and the upper cooling tins. No flaps, no thermostat, no lower tinware at all.

I don't think I did too bad a job for four hours work. I got the design from another thread here on the forum.

I did a test turn of the engine and held my hand back there, feeling the air flow, and the difference is astonishing.

Does anyone have any suggestion on what else I could do to improve my engine quality of life?

[DancingOnTheAshes]

Okay, I've run into an actual issue I don't know quite how to solve. The electric choke on the 32/36 is way WAY too fast, it opens up in just half a minute. That's not a problem if I make sure to not touch the gas until the engine is fully heated up while the gas linkage pins the choke but I'd like to slow it down so that it'll last longer, that'll be important when I start to actually use the car. Any suggestions?

[DancingOnTheAshes]

Huston, we have a fully open thermostat!

This makes me so happy, I've done a lot of manual testing and even a heat gun trial to check that it operates properly but it's always a thrill when things work first time under real world conditions.

[Q-Dog]

[DancingOnTheAshes]

Spent the last two weeks on the electrical.
So that is, from left to right; Electrical Pump Safety Relay (only runs the pump as long as the oil pressure is up, with a primer button as an option), Starter Relay, Ignition Relay, Flasher Relay, Instrument Panel Relay (Gauges, Panel lighting, USB Charging, Wiper Motor. It's going to run the stereo and CB as well later on), Backlighting&Parking Light Relay, and lastly (mounted sideways because it doesn't fit in any relay socket I could find) the mechanical Headlight relay that takes the short pulse of power from the steering wheel and switches from Low to High.

White is from the backlight relay to the Backlights and Parking Lights respective fuses, left to right side in that order.
Those double relays are for the headlights, Low Beams and High Beams.
Overkill sure, but I like the simplicity of putting as few wires on each terminal as possible.

This is the before and after on the wiring for the gauges and idiot lights;