Well...

For those of you who don't know I bought t_town_baja's red baja last week. So far I love it, I've only had it out in the woods once (found out all the rain tore the roads up, and saw some high schoolers who drove their pathfinder off of a 30-40 foot embankment). I did get it muddy going to work.

It's almost 4:00 Saturday afternoon, I got a good deal done since last night, although not nearly as much as I wanted. I broke two of my cardinal rules, eating at the computer and having frosty beverages before 4 p.m. But I am exhausted and eating a delicious tamale, so I figured a Dos Equis would be a good idea. Anyways I'll outline what I have done so far, some things I still wanna do, and some little things I have found out about the baja. Hopefully I'll get a little done every weekend so I can keep this thread alive and document what I've done.

I'll go over what I have purchased for the car thus far, prices not included.

1. Baja Bugs and Buggies book - purchased before the car and read cover to cover.
2. Hella twin-tone horn - was gonna install on my other car but the baja doesn't have a horn so it gets priority
3. How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive - started reading
4. Weber Tech manual - skimmed and read a few things
5. Universal Turn Signal from Chirco - still waiting for it
6. Spark Arrestor also from Chrico - US Forest Service are serious about those up here
7. Locks for the hood
8. A couple of paints and rubber coatings
9. Brand new pair of 31x10.50r15 BFG M/Ts mmmmm...

So far I'll I have actually done is put my hood locks on, wire wheel the paint off of the nerf bars, and get the tires installed. I want to do a tune-up this weekend but I don't know if I'll have the time or energy. Hopefully in the near future I will be able to put a stereo with an iPod hook up in (nothing crazy, no amps and subs, just something I can listen to music on), fix the leaky side cover, get everything I want painted, sort of considering a buggy whip, and the list goes on. Heres some pics of what I have done. The image quality sucks... Sorry, It was dark and rainy an I used my cheap camera and edited them using photobucket. If I used photoshop I would be at it for hours (graphic design student).

Hood locks, I'm gonna coat them in Plasti Dip. I can't decide if I should do black or red...


Heres the side bar after some wire wheeling, still gotta do the stuff near the body and some nooks and crannies. Im gonna paint them with the same stuff as the front and rear bumpers.



This is where I placed my jack (middle of the plate with four bolts) to get the car in the air, its just forward of the rear wheel. Is it a good spot?


Some of the little things I've noticed are that the driver side rear wheel has lug studs in the brake drum, whereas the passenger still uses the annoying lug bolts. I wanna change those asap... The oil pressure sensor thing, which has been wired for an oil temp gauge drips a little bit of oil. And my driver side, side cover on the tranny has started leaking a good deal. Im gonna fix that before I drive it much. I tightened all of the bolts I could get to and one was quite loose. The other was up against the frame horn and I couldn't get a wrench on it. With it jacked up I didn't wanna undo the line lock to spin the wheels so I could tighten it. Once it dries out and cools down, Im gonna go back out and finish grinding and start masking. At this point I'll get back under there and tightnen the last bolt. If it does turn out that I have to replace the seal I'm thinking I may as well start the IRS conversion. I think I have all the parts so what the heck... Hopefully thats not the case for now. Ultimately I would like to go to long travel coil-overs in the rear, and a-arms up front, but thats a long time and a lot of money away.

One thing I was curious about were what is the best place to put Jack stands on the front and rear? I placed mine below the frame horns. My jack was barely tall enough to get the tires off the ground. I am used to low cars that I can't get the jack under not ones that are too high. I welded up some three inch high ramps so I could get the jack under my other car but they would not help in this case... Thats all I can think of for now, any help from you guys will be greatly appreciated and I hope this thread is somewhat interesting even though it is quite long-winded.

James

Got a bit more work done before it got to dark. Nothing much just worked on more wire-wheeling. It is kind of annoying, I have an angle grinder with a 5" or 5.5" braided wire wheel (I think 5.5"), a drill with a 3" wire brush and then a dremel. I can't find a happy medium between the drill and dremel. The drill is too big to maneuver in some places and the wire wheel I have for the dremel is way to small. I'm gonna look at different wheels for the dremel and see if I can get something thats perfect.

Also I checked the tires, they were at 36 psi Thats fine if I used my bug for towing! Anyways if I remember right that was near the standard we used in the smears auto center. I lowered the psi down to 25 and it actually lowered the stance of the car by a inch or more. They were so full and tall I could actually see the change in camber. Damn swing axle, I wish the IRS fairy would visit me tonight...

Once again, not much accomplished today. I was totally wiped out from yesterday and in a depressed mood, because of classes starting tomorrow and friends leaving.

I did manage to get out and take a good look at the wiring. To my great relief it has been done cleanly and does not use the stock fuse block. Of the three Bugs some of my friends have owned the wiring in all of them was a nightmare, different colored wires going every which way. There's one slot left for another fuse, this will go too my Hella twin tone horn. I may have to get another fuse box with a larger capacity if I decide to install some kind of stereo, and a CB with a loud speaker might be fun too. The instructions with the horn kind of suck, just a crappy wiring diagram on the box... At least it's just a horn, hopefully the hardest part will be figuring out where to mount the trumpets.

Got a package from Chrico today!

It had my spark arrestor and turn signal switch. Got the spark arrestor mounted and it looks kind of goofy hanging off the stinger... Im gonna run 8 discs for now and see how that is. It came with 12, but I wanna quiet it down a bit. Im considering getting a u-bend for it so the spark arrestor doesn't look so ridiculous. Im kind of worried about hot exhaust gas getting blown on the engine but it has been done enough that I doubt it's a problem. Theres a lighting storm going on so I gotta shut my computer down...

Nice car.
If you're using a inexpensive floor jack, get a good chunk of 4x4, pressure treated or oak to support the full length of the jack. But you'll need to invest in a hi lift jack for offroading.
Before you start major suspension mods, take the time to check out some Class 11 cars in HOTVW's. Pretty stone stock all over. Just my 2 cents.
And the Keep your VW alive book...if you skip a page of commentary you miss alot. It's a primer on not just VW's, but life, and a history lesson too.
I love the part about buying a used bus....if you read it, you'll know what I mean.

Got some more done over the three day weekend!

Finished prepping and painting my nerf bars, they turned out really well. I guess it proves that prep work up front is important (I spent probably 8-12 hours wire wheeling etc...). Also figured out where to mount the horn trumpets. I think they are in an area that is well protected from getting beaten up on the trail. Now I just gotta find an awesome horn button to use. Here are some pics. Once again I apologize for the crapiness of the pictures. I've figured out that I either need to adjust the focus or the lens is scratched. It is a really cheap camera that my grandma got for a b-day or x-mas and passed on to me. She was the only one who could take decent pictures with it. Hopefully I will get a Canon Rebel XT or a Nikon D40 for my b-day at the end of the month...

The nerf bars were flat black, so I painted them to match the bumpers.




Heres the horn kinda tucked up behind the hood, the main thing Im worried about is the long, flimsy brackets they came with. I may shorten them or make some new ones.

james, how loud are those things? lol. Looking good man. Nerf bars came out damn nice.

Also, to respond to your question about the jack point (plate with 4 bolts). It should be fine to jack from there, being that it is a point where the cage ties to the pan AND goes right to the rear torsion housing.


Blaine

Lookin good so far man I was wondering what you used to paint the bumpers. And i like that plasti dip stuff i have never seen that before

Blaine Im not sure how loud they are yet, I've only actually wired up one and used it. The box says 110 db. so it should get peoples attention. My buddy had a train horn in his WRX wagon that was awesome and I was considering one of those. If so I could also have on-board air. But there are two issues with that: 1. I would have to find a place to mount the compressor and tank and the compressor is kind of obnoxious. 2. I think it would cause more problems than it would prevent, although blasting people who deserve it is super fun. Thanks for the compliant and the answer about the jack point, I figured those plates were part of the cage so I went ahead and used them. Im starting to consider a roof rack mount a hi-lift on, I wonder if Swine's rack would hold up???

JumpinBruceB, thanks. I have to give credit where credit is due. I didn't actually paint the bumpers, they were fabbed and painted by T_Town_Baja before I bought it. I just carried on the torch and matched the nerf bars. The stuff that we used was a rustoleum product called hammered. It has a gun-metalish colored lid that has a hammered texture. I bought it at True Value and it was only one color for hammered so I assume thats it. If you want I can take a picture of the can so you can get a better idea. And on that plasti dip stuff, the only place that carried it up here was Napa. I checked all the normal stores and no one knew what it was. It was kind of expensive like $20.00 a can.

By the way, this is kinda stupid. Wiring diagram on my horn says I need a 16 amp fuse between the battery and the relay... They don't sell 16 amp fuses at the parts stores here. Im gonna run a 15 and hope that it doesn't blow every time I use the horn.

damn that is expensive...yea if you would not mind that would be awesome i have been trying to figure out something that is strong without spending the money to powder coat

There are multiple colors of the Hammered Paints. Down in Tucson, I have several Grey/Silver colors, a few Blacks and a Blue/Green. I really like the way it looks, but it can be tough to get it to lay perfect.


Blaine

Managed to do a little this weekend. I got the horn 90% wired up and then I decided before I finished doing the wiring that I want to paint the front end part of the cage/chassis. So I unmounted everything.

I spent the afternoon sanding off the light surface rust and trying to figure out what I wanna paint it with. I don't wanna spray it because I would have to mask the beam, master cylinder, brake lines, tire rods, wires, lights, and the list goes on.... So I wanna brush it on which will probably take longer and not look as good, but I am an artist so I like paint brushes and Im going for function over form.

After doing all that work I found this stuff called rust bullet.

www.rustbullet.com/Pro...motive.htm

It's pretty damn expensive, but it seems to fit my needs. I would prefer black but the satin gray is not to bad. And they sell it in small quantities so I can get what I need and be on my way. Has anyone used this stuff? Or have any other suggestions?

Also is it worth while to convert from lug bolts to studs? I prefer the studs, but are they as strong? One rear wheel has studs, one has bolts and I think both fronts have the bolts. Thanks guys...

James

P.S. I ordered a 60 inch all cast Hi-Lift and the bumper lift attachment. Im pretty excited!!!

Yeaahhhh! I got one coat of Rust Bullet down, it looks pretty sweet. And for brush on it dries fairly smooth and pretty fast. I was a little sloppy but what the hell it's not a show car. Im considering doing the whole cage with this stuff. Once I get the second coat down I'll take pictures. And some day I will replace all of the horrible fuzzy pictures I already have up in this thread.

Im gonna hopefully start driving it daily in the next week or so, and I really wanna get it out in the woods some more. My 22nd B-day is at the end of the month so I'm trying to think of a way to incorporate the baja.

James

The Rust bullet stuff looks pretty cool. Keep us updated on how you like it.