Shoptalkforums.com

http://www.empius.com/vwcatalog/2013/153.html About half way down the page is a listing for Raised/lowered ball-joints. They are radiused; e.g., the slot modified for more BJ angle potential and I think they are similar to ones that some of the class racers use to get a bit more travel when limited to a BJ beam. I don't know how strong they are but in case you weren't aware of them (I may have mentioned them once in passing) I think It is only fair that you know at least some of what is out there.

Volksmeister wrote:

I think I might start a separate thread on BJ travel to rattle a few more brains but I need to do some more 'in-shop' investigating...

Please don't. We have a lot of long threads about that topic already.

Volksmeister wrote:Lee: I welded the additional arcs on first.

BAJA-IT: I found full bump by strapping the base of my floor jack to the shock towers and jacking up on the lower arm until the gall joints bound. I am pretty confident that I was making the full range of travel. The torsion bars were installed. Do you have any measurements of either the angle of the arms or measurements from the shock towers on your 9 car that I could compare?

Thanks guys.

-Levi

I did get the upper arm angle measured and it is at 20*+/- down with the beam sitting at 3* back (the way it is sitting right now) so around 17* on the top arm. Hope that helps.

Ok, I was brain storming storming paint schemes the other day and thought...
Without the swastica obviously!

I am part way there as is. Would this be totally bad form or cool?

I really like vintage aircraft, the car is German and it kinda fits with my line of work...

-Levi

i like it.

definitely no swazticas(SP?) but put a number on it, the iron cross or whatever it is called and some german lettering like "fuel", "fokker(or is fokke-wolfe")? etc.



some won't like it though....

Thanks Herb!
I would be worried about some crooked F@#$ putting a brick through the window.

I think it would look sweet if done well! Maybe ever a line of machine gun bullet holes alone the side!

I dont know how to spell swastica either. I think that is a good thing...

my dad was a navy pilot in WWII, learned to fly in a stearmann biplane, then flew PBY Catalinas and B-24 Liberators. while in England he flew the coast looking for german subs...... he told us he drank lots of whiskey back then!


fake rivets and panel lines would look awesome, could be done with vinyl pretty easily i bet.... i like the bullet holes too!

Volksmeister wrote:I really like vintage aircraft, the car is German and it kinda fits with my line of work...

I say go for it! Would be a lot more fun to do than some shiny "pretty" paint job .

I watched Planes with the kids last night... it was terrible. Not too many theme baja's out there. Should be cool, but I wouldn't go overboard. No propeller.

Thanks guys! Glad I got a positive response...

The links and pics were helpful. I have the ability to do REAL aircraft rivets! Could be a cool way to patch holes too. I have a lot of other things to do to the car before I get carried away with paint jobs.

Update!!!

3 years ago I had to store my car at my folks due to lack of space at my previous spot. I've since bought a house and got hitched and made space for my old best friend!

I towed her home on Sunday. Boy, what a project... I forgot how deep in I had gotten. The only thing that still works or isn't taken apart is the steering!

My garage is uphill from the street so I will be fixing the brakes and making it run before she goes inside. Good thing we seem to have nice weather!

I had dreamed of making a nice car with a cage and clean interior and stuff. I've bailed on the "nice" part and just need something to thrash on. I will finish the cage and suspension, different seats, clean it up, maybe paint it.... fix the stuff that needs to work, like the windows!

I have been using my 1992 Toyota pickup as my wheeler and I will continue to use it as my "nice car" with a heater, A/C, fuel injection, power steering, low range, rear locker... all the stuff that the Baja won't have!

Plans subject to change...

I am unsuccessful posting picture from my iPhone, so they will have to wait... it doesn't look any different then from my last post.

Cheers!

Get it running and bring it on over. JT and I hit a killer trail on Saturday as part of a 120 mile loop. Probably a 2 mile stretch that twists and turns through the trees and grassy meadows. Probably close to 15 2-3ft tall jumps along the stretch. Yeah we hit that stretch 4 times LOL

I liked the pix of those cars especially the second one. Who ever did the cab did a great job based on what I can see the pix.

When I started working in the Aircraft industry there were still some WWII pilots around including Catalina pilots and, believe it or not one or two "Red Tail" pilots (African American fighter pilots of the 99th and on or two bomber pilots of the 322 squadrons). It was fun to listen to them all of them talk... when they had time to.

"... I did get the upper arm angle measured and it is at 20*+/- down with the beam sitting at 3* back (the way it is sitting right now) so around 17* on the top arm. Hope that helps."

You went at it farther than I did, I was going to measure to get the total travel but somehow got side tracked but if you want I can do it now as I have a bare beam sitting there (in progress) and the Thing arms and spindles I used in the previous beam build sitting unused in a bucket (not for sale).

When I was doing the BJ beam build I had the trailing arms fitted with new BJs and put them in the beam to set the "hook and pin" suspension stops. I put the arms in (pages ~2 through 4 of my off-road beam build [http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic ... 8&t=136514]) w/o putting the spring stacks in place. I rotated the assembly to the point where the BJs locked in compression and at full hang then backed off a smidgeon to tack the stops in place. I did this to ensure that there would be no binding of the BJ at either situation.

Right on! Thanks guys.

I will be getting back into my beam travel issues a little later. There are other things that need my attention first.

Also, I bought a used Pro Tools bender with a 1 1/2" die and a degree wheel at the off-road swap meet! Good price too!