My 1975/77 Baja

Well I started another sub-project while building the '59 Beetle. I have a rusted out '75 Bug floor pan and a '77 Standard Body that could not be fixed due to being involved in a multi car accident. The PO cut the back off Baja style and pulled the front out and continued to drive it. The the panhead was rusted out, so the floor pan is being converted to a 5" stretch Link-pin setup, consisting of a Warrior adjustable beam w/8" shock towers, wide 5 disc brakes and Heim 5/8" joints instead of normal tie-rods. The rear IRS trailing arms are 3"x3" made by Avery. I picked up a '73 Bus transaxle and with the 3"x3" arms I can run stock Bus axles w/100 mm CVs, Thing 100 mm stub axles and early IRS dual arm spring plates. Shocks are Bilstein 5150 with 11" of front end travel, I can't buy the rear shocks until I finish the 6 point roll cage, since the rear shocks are tied into the roll cage. I assembled the basic beam today and will get the spindles on tomorrow. The stock spindles have been beefed up with a kit. For power, I am going to use the 1600 engine out of Wilma, so it will get pulled this week, get cleaned up and remove the cooling tin not needed in a Baja. I will get some pictures in the next day or so of my progress.

Like everything. we need pics Danny.

Sounds sweet.

Heinz57 wrote:Well I started another sub-project while building the '59 Beetle. I have a rusted out '75 Bug floor pan and a '77 Standard Body that could not be fixed due to being involved in a multi car accident. The PO cut the back off Baja style and pulled the front out and continued to drive it. The the panhead was rusted out, so the floor pan is being converted to a 5" stretch Link-pin setup, consisting of a Warrior adjustable beam w/8" shock towers, wide 5 disc brakes and Heim 5/8" joints instead of normal tie-rods. The rear IRS trailing arms are 3"x3" made by Avery. I picked up a '73 Bus transaxle and with the 3"x3" arms I can run stock Bus axles w/100 mm CVs, Thing 100 mm stub axles and early IRS dual arm spring plates. Shocks are Bilstein 5150 with 11" of front end travel, I can't buy the rear shocks until I finish the 6 point roll cage, since the rear shocks are tied into the roll cage. I assembled the basic beam today and will get the spindles on tomorrow. The stock spindles have been beefed up with a kit. For power, I am going to use the 1600 engine out of Wilma, so it will get pulled this week, get cleaned up and remove the cooling tin not needed in a Baja. I will get some pictures in the next day or so of my progress.

Just don't cut the front tabs off of the cylinder tin to make it look clean. I had to weld mine back on.

Here are some pictures of the Baja:

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hey i know that old turd baja

Well here's a long over due update. I brought the pan over to BKR to get the pan work done. Tim and I figured out the stretch part and let him loose on it. Will and Tim fixed the rear frame fork that had a little rust spot in it, cut the rusted pan head off and extended the front with the link pin frame head. They modified it and it came out real nice. They welded in the new pans and pulled the bottom of the tunnel off. They were able to replace the rusted out fuel lines, made some killer fuel line support mounts and ran the new 1/4" line. They also made some bracket mounts for the front beam supports. I started mocking up the pan so I can make the brake lines, drill holes for the cage and steering brake. Here are a few new pictures.

Worked on the Baja yesterday. Trimmed some of the rear sheetmetal around the rear fenders, installed the new OEM VW shift rod, new shift rod bushing and coupler. I need to shortened to the shift rod its binding with the 002 tranny. I got the cage in and of course it needs some mods due to bad welding and misalignments. The engine internals are back from the Goza's machine shop, Tommy balanced the crank, pistons, rods, flywheel, pressure plate and pulley. Steve at Pro Flow was able to repair the screwed up heads and installed double springs with Scat CM retainers and keepers to go with the Engle FK-42 camshaft. The new 3"x 3" rear IRS trailing will be in next Friday so I should be in roller mode end of next weekend.

I need some parking brake stuff, such as the passenger side parking brake lever that connects to the parking brake cable and rear brake shoe with the pin and clip, parking brake spreader bars for both side, complete emergency brake handle including the pivot pin with the 2 clips.

Dropped the body on to mockup the cage:


Set the steering wheel and column to see how short the column would be with the 5" extended wheelbase:


Bus tranny with the 10 degree mount kit:

I was able to get a few hours of work this weekend. I got the connecting rods torqued, then measured for correct bolt stretch with the gauge on the ARP bolts. Dropped the 76 mm stroker crank in , installed the FK-42 cam, distributor drive and the the Electronic distributor. I brought the cage over to Tim's shop and he welded some of tubes. Installed the front and middle hoops and drilled the mounting holes. I need to make the bottom plates and grind all the sharp corners off. Also scraped off the tar board from the rear package shelf and started to srap off the old seam sealer before I blast the body. I worked on the rear drums as well.

Gonna be a beast.

Been working on the Baja this past week. Most of important thing is it is now on all 4 wheels. Still have to get the steering u-joints figured out since the steering column is too short.

Gonna be kool.

Nice.

That Baja is going to have a HUGE amount of travel- nice work!!

Well I been working on the Baja while Wilma is awaiting her turn to have the rear clip welded on.

For the interior I picked up a pair of Scat Procar Suspension seats, with sliders and tilt base from Summit Racing. Got the steering column mounted and built a lower support bearing so the steering column shaft is self supported in the tube since there is no more stock steering box. Using a Super Beetle double steering shaft to connect it together.

For the front suspension and steering I ordered a heavy duty Saco offset input shaft 1.5 turn lock to lock rack and pinion setup and also picked up 4 monster high angle 5/8" with 3/4" tie rod ends with swagged forged steel tie rod tubes.

I picked up a 1967 "H" engine for Wilma (temporary use), bolted it in the Baja to use her as a test run stand. Installed a rebuilt PICT30-3carb and it fired right off. Adjusted the valves and changed the oil and ran it again until a major oil leak occured. I thought it was the oil cooler seals , but turned out to be the oil cooler mount was broken off at the single stud point. Switched it to a dog house setup and replaced the pushrod tubes since after a good cleaning I found that the lower cooling deflector tins below the cylinders were "MIA". Modified the exhaust at the heater boxes by installing flanges and eliminating the clamps/doughnut setup. Still trying to clear out the clogged up heat riser tube on the intake if not I will need to find another one.

Finished the final cutting for the 1 piece front end and now its time to get all the brackets, mounts and front end tilt support frame welded together.

New front tires 225/70/15 Generals


New Scat Seats


Side View


Exhaust flanges


Long block

I love those seats.

Seats run about $180.00 each out the door at Summit.

It's coming together nicely.

pwmcguire wrote:It's coming together nicely.

X2. And I second the liking of those seats.

Traded the Baja to Tim Baker. He will continue the buildup.

True dat.

Update, I got the Baja back from Tim a while back and have started working on it again. Here is what I have been doing and changing stuff I did the first time.

Got the correct bushings for a Warrior beam. The regular ones are the wrong thickness and basically lock up the arms. Also worked on the bumper mounts


Installed extended front arms, 1 1/4" longer and 3/4" wider than stock


Added front beam braces


Set the offset Saco rack in place


Got the Pan up in the air now, much easier for me to work on.

Very cool! Definitely looking forward to seeing more progress!

Another update: Working on the pan seat reinforcements, rear bumper and suspensions.

Extended 3" x 3" trailing arms, Thing stub axles and early rear drums


Picked up and set in place for welding, IRS pivot bolt locks


Had to make parking brake cable extensions due to the longer trailing arms


Mocked up the engine, exhaust, transmission and rear bumper to determine where to weld the bumper to its mounts


Added for pan reinforcements since I removed the OEM seat tracks and the floor is way too flimsy without them