The Apocabug baja chronicle

[anobii]

Figured id post a build thread. Been a lurker for years, finally got the Apocabug "soft completed" this past spring, and ive got it in the shop fixing all the little things this winter. This was a first for me. I've wanted a baja since i was a kid, but they're hard to come by out this way. Had to start with a rough cookie. Apparently it was a "tough truck" arena jumper when the monster trucks came to town.

My play was more of a sport utility build. Wasn't planning on hauling it out west to participate in any events. It's actually a daily driver for me. It was fun to build and really let me try a bunch of new things. this is mostly a picture thread. I'll try to add comments here and there.

So here it is from start to present.

Its a 69. It had no glass and a lot of extra ventilation and had a very rough life. I paid way too much at $1000 but, again thay're hard to find locally and i didnt have to source a baja kit so i can't complain.

[anobii]

It literally had mold growing on it! (well, lichen but still a fungus )

Pan removed, not in real bad shape.

[anobii]

Stuck the body up on some saw horses. it was a little precarious heting it up there by myself, but once up it was nice and stable. I even screwd the body to the 2x4 in case of heavy winds. this is where the body sat for 9 months while I worked on the pan. I did cut the package tray out completly before it made it out of the shop

I made a rotisserie out of a couple of engine stands. it worked great! I could even roll it out into my rough driveway to clean and pressure wash.

Started from the rear and worked forward. Lots of caked up grease to clean, but underneith was nice metal. Painted with rustoleum enamel and baked on with a driveway torch.

[FullFender]

Great start, love the graphic on the side

[anobii]

Next was stripping the old floor pans and cleaning the spine.

The pans i got were thin, but smokin cheap so its a 70/30 win. They were a jerk to weld, but they fit really really well.

the bottom of the nepoleon hat needed some attention as well.

[anobii]

Finishing up the pans. Again really a pain to weld, the flange on the spine had to be perfectly clean, event with flux core. If i passed a bit of rust it would burn outward trough the new pan metal.

Incedently, the rear shocks are from the front of a square body K10 they have the perfect amount of travel for what i was after. And they'll help with the extra weight.

[anobii]

[anobii]

Then on to the front beam. It was roached. i went back and forth about fixing it or finding another one. After 2 months of searching for a good replacement, locally I committed to fixing what i had.

cut some 3/16" plate

then some flat

[tobiism]

Nice job so far! Looking forward to the rest!
_________________
"There has never been a genius without a hint of madness."
-Albert Einstein

[anobii]

front beam continued...
tacked then just rolled the flat around the radius. tack, roll, tack, roll, etc.

rinse and repeat for the other side.

picked up some empi beam adjusters. these seem pretty straight forward, but man they sucked to install. I only took a few pics cause i need to focus on math and stuff. in the end i was about 1/8" off to one side wich made the urethane bushing a little tight on one side and a little loose on the other. Not a major issue but it was a little difficult to get the control arm on on the tight side.

[anobii]

I took the steering box apart, it had lots of play in the extreme left and right turn areas. It helped, by adjusting the backlash and a new bearing, but in the end the worm gear was worn too much and I replaced it with a brand new TRW box.

New ball joints, urethane bushings, blasted and cleaned control arms, painted with baked on rustolium. Also welded up the shock tower seams,

made my own rig to pull the arms together to put the spindles on.

I retained the fiber inner bushing on the upp arms and cut down the urethane bushing to wok with it. The lowers wer shot so the got the full bushing. Seems to be working fine and doesnt bind. I wanted to retain some rigidity to keep the alignment true.

Also, holy flippin glob. baljoints are no joke to change on these. I broke my vise, 3 hammers, 2 big sockets, and my 5 ton benchtop press trying to to these. I literally cut the old ones out with a chisle. I bought a 20 ton floor press and made some press cups to put em all back together, paying close attention to get the slots aligned properly.

[anobii]

Pan completed. All new brake lines, SS flex hoses, master cylinder, cables (were aplicable) etc.Also installed a varga/ghia disk brake conversion on the front. I like drums in the rear so i left those and just installed new hardware. Mocking up the seats i had from my last project. they are from a 99+ nissan 200sx.

Bought some new wheels. I didn't like the centerlines it came with, especially the rears since they were 2 piece. so i picked up some US wheel wagon wheels from summit in 4x130 (which aint easy to come by apparently) fronts are 15x7 and rears are 15x8. I run 205/75 and 235/75 all terrains.

After a 3-4 month hiatus, replacing a couple of engines in other peoples junk, i finally got the shell in the shop.

As you can see i had my work cut out for me.

[anobii]

Started with the bottom of the heater channels. At this point i was still planning to build an air cooled engine, so i tried to keep the channels intact. I would have done this a little different in hind sight. it worked and is solid in any case.

I ditched the package tray. Actually one of the first things i planned when i got the car. The idea of pulling the engine to change the starter doesnt excite me, even if it is the easiest engine in the world to remove. so i made up a frame for a removable fire wall.

It was at this point i started thinking about a roll cage. I picked up some 1.5" .120 wall ERW from allstar and went at it.

I kinked the tube in one of the upper corners a bit trying to get it real tight to the roof. Not real bad, so I went with it. Where ever i butt welded the pipes (like the center of the main hoop) I inserted a solid plug about 4" long, one to make it stronger, but mainly to hold it together while I welded.

[anobii]

Really went to work on the cage. LOTS of just grunt work. Fitting, cutting, welding. Went pretty steady, but spent weeks getting it all done.

At this point i had fixed all of the rust holes. I cut, pounded, and welded probibly 30 pieces of sheetmetal over the rust I cut out. the body was ready for the pan!

[anobii]

Getting into the fun stuff at this point. It's like a real car again!

Made some solid aluminum shift coupler bushings.

[anobii]

Some better pics if my side bars. Made from 1" square tube.

This is the point where the fit hit the shan. I was ready for a power plant, but mine was in major need of a full rebuild. It was an h5 1500 case with mismatched dual port heads. it was missing a few parts, and had about 1/4" of thrust play. I wanted to be able to drive it anywhere, i wasn't looking for big power, i was looking for reliability and fun. Reliability meant a brand new case. Noone line bores VWAC around here and even then its questionable. I wasn't about to put a couple grand worth of parts in a questionable case. I came across Kennedy engineering's website and havn't looked back. It's so exuberantly expensive to build a good acvw anymore i feel like the golden age of the powerplants have passed. So i decided on a subaru swap. I come from imports and modern muscle cars. Wiring and technology doesen't scare me at all.

I picked up a Phase 1 EJ22 out of a 1995 subaru legacy outback for $110. Yes $110 from the pick and pull. That included wiring, computer, exhaust, engine intake to oil pan. It needed a timing kit and had 134k miles on it. It was still brand new. $550 for a KEP adapter and another 100 for a stage one PP and clutch. I had 130ish HP for less than i could buy a clapped out 1600DP.

[anobii]

With the engine in place i set out on the job of the wiring. I didnt get the full harness, cause, well i almost died from heat exhaustion when the day i pulled the engine. so i clipped the harness 2 ft from the ecu and at the fire wall. so i had to splice em back together. Theres not much info out there about wiring an obd2 EJ especially the 95 which is the very first year. I had to do a lot of my own research and disect the entire factory sevice manual. I nearly memorized the electrical section! Its really not bad, took me longer because i had to extend the harness by 3 ft. Biggest thing is quadruble check every connection.

Thats me!

I picked up a monster radiator with ford style in/out. 3" core made to support like 450HP. Should be enough. I went big because airflow is not great back here. capacity helps keep it cool.

[anobii]

Between wiring sessions i figured out and finished up a few things.

[anobii]

[anobii]

Got the ECU harness complete, now i needed to work on the body harness. really needed to start with the gauges and under the dash so what better time to do the interior!

Horn button in place of the key switch. No keys for me! I wired a series of 5 toggle switches under the dash that have to be switched correctly to ignition on. Mad max style! (without the explosion).