Alyce the Baja

[dustymojave]

A Hijack after me and iguana would be to bring this thread back to the original conversation... ....

So why not?

Like...How about a constructive suggestion





Simple and quite workable for a Baja as well as this fiberglass manx-type buggy.

It eliminates all of the concerns expressed by Lee and I, and pretty much what I was angling toward when distracted... Shock mounting remains something of an issue as it is in what was proposed before.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic ... 8&t=145794 I took it on myself to move this to an easier place to obtain this information if no one minds.

Lee

[smiley]

You lot can stop arguing now. I have done the bags.

It has been a while. Time for an update, even if it is a small one.

I purchased a dual handle cutting brake. I'm planning to mount the cylinders behind the handbrake and the pivots for the handles directly in front of the handbrake. Then I have to extend the rods only a small amount and they should fit either side of the stock handbrake mount.





Next up I did some work making rack mounts on top of my framehead. I made two clamps that go over the thinnest section of the rack. And then added some flat on the outer sides which extends out to the larger sections to stop the rack sliding side to side in the mount. Then I joined both the sides with a piece of flat across the top.











I also had to make some locknuts for the rack ends by buying the correct thread size of nut and then cutting a piece off.





Then I made another strap to go around one of the stock mounts over the 'gearbox' on the rack.





When I had the body on I measured up and worked out what size of gusset I needed to add to the shock towers. I ended up cooking the bearings while welding things out. But that's ok because I bought new ones. I just slide hammered the old ones out with a cut down washer.























Next port of call was to flip the pan and cut the bottom off the tunnel. I removed the clutch tube as I am going hydraulic. I also ended up removing the accelerator cable tube too as I will replace it.














Ok. Time for something more constructive. Time to fit the lift kit to the pan!





I also drilled the holes in the rear of the lift kit. This is where my aircon hoses and oil cooler lines will come out the back.





Pan all prepped ready for the lift kit.





I took the lift kit and had it sandblasted. Way quicker than trying the clean it up with a grinder. Then I painted it all up with weld through primer.








Fitted it in place. Made sure it was all centred and the welded it out.













Smiley

[smiley]

Next up was seats and seat belt mounts.
I am fitting retracting seatbelts to the car. Where I have put the mounts they tuck inside the C of the lift kit out of the way.








And then onto seat frames. I built square frames with crush tubes for the mount bolts and then welded the mounting nuts to the underside.





And then I built a jig frame to mount the seats at the correct height and angle I wanted. Cause I have an 80mm lift I needed to raise the seats by at least the same amount. I raised the front a little more than the rear too, to get a little more angle back in the seat. Helps stop you sliding off the front in steed hill decents.











These are the outer mounting plates welded into place on the lift kit. The nuts on the back are also welded to aid in assembly.





And there are the ones on the tunnel. The plates have a thread tapped into them But it's only 6mm thick, so I will weld nuts on the inside of the tunnel too, next time it is turned over.





Then you just have to sit the seat frame in place, measure a million things to work out where you want it. And then make 4 legs to mate it to the mounting plates.





Then your seats mount up like so! Of course One had to sit in it and make brrmm brrmmm noises. I also fitted up a gearstick to see what it is like (Bus one)








I am very happy with how they have turned out. Plenty of room underneath. I'm planning to fit sliding drawers underneath to store parts/tools/gear in. They are actually high enough to fit a 20L jerry can under! Not that I plan on carrying additional fuel in such a manner, but it is cool anyway








Alright! Next up is mounting the 5 speed and airbags.





First was the front gearbox mount. I got some longer case bolts and stainless crush tube and started fabbing.














Front mount done! Might be a few more strengthening plates to add but it fits and works well.








Rear mounts were made using some of my old stuff and some new stuff. I have still got to add a bit of angle to make them double shear. Notice I am using the same mount all the way around. That way I only have to carry one spare. I am also going to fit them either side on my engine cradle too. And the 5 speed fits where it was never meant to go!








Smiley

[smiley]

Bags next. I made clamps to fit them to the trailing arms.








One little snag I ran into was where to run my handbrake cables. Previously I had them run over the top of the trailing arm unlike stock where they are run under. I found that at full droop the trailing arm was pulling on the cable and jagging the brakes a little bit. But I can't run them over the top now cause the bag mount is in the way. How's that old bear hunt saying go? Can't go over them, can't go under them, will have to go through them!! So I drilled a few holes and ran some stout 3mm wall crush tubing through the trailing arms as a new home for the handbrake cables.








Time to throw the body on and make the upper airbag frame.











Also through a wheel on and checked out full compression. As the pan is sitting now is where I plan to have ride height. She's going to be big! Also, plenty of room for 33s now














That's all for now people. But I will try and keep the progress moving.
Thanks for reading.


Smiley

[Ol'fogasaurus]

You have been very busy Smiley. Looking good!

Lee

[nilza]

Good to see you back at it and thinking outside the box as per usual. It's nice to have someone to live vicariously though while I look at my Baja under a tarp.

[Devastator]

Do you need to run shocks with the air bags?
Also, your steering wheel is on the wrong side. You're welcome.

[smiley]

Do you need to run shocks with the air bags?

Yes. Setup will have stock shocks and torsions. The bags are supplementary.

Also, your steering wheel is on the wrong side. You're welcome.

It wasn't even fitted! I was just holding it!!


Smiley

[smiley]

While I had the body sitting on the pan I decided to cut the rear shelf out for my rear tank. I'm going to recess it down this time. So it will be much the same as the front tank. With a large hole that the tank fills and seals.





For those of you that don't know I was running a Bay Kombi tank in the rear as my main tank and using the stock front tank as a secondary. It sat in this frame here and there was a little hole cut in the rear floor for the outlet on the tank.








First thing was drill out the spot welds and remore the front lip. And just when you think you have gotten all the rust











And then cut a big hole for the tank!





Tried the tank in the whole but it wasn't quite sitting down all the way on one side.





One big concern that I had was clearance to the airbag frame and to the starter motor. But I'm happy to report that there is heaps of room to both of them.





Turns out the tank was hitting on one of the shock lumpy bits on the LHS. So I enlarged the hole in it a little and the tank fits down perfectly now!











Then I went back inside and took the edges of the hole all the way to the wheel wells so I can start on a frame for the tank.








Now that that was all sorted the body came back off and out of the way. I can do the tank mount with the body off, now that I know it will clear everything.

I welded some extra strengthening plates onto my bag mount.
First was this little tab. Which picks up one of the holes cast into the shock tower. Perfect size for an M12 bolt








Next up I added this angle which ties in to the upper shock mount. These were all welded out once I got them fitting nicely. But it seems I didn't get a picture. Perhaps tomorrow.








Last thing for today was strip the box, rear arms and everything off the pan. Gave it a good sweep down and flipped it. Ready for tomorrow which involves all these pretty pieces





Thanks for reading.


Smiley

[smiley]

I decided that I would need to sort my shift linkage out before running any of the stuff in the tunnel. It is one thing that will need to be in there so I don't run hoses through where it is going to be. I will also need to fit the pedals too and make sure everything clears them in the tunnel as well.

So flip the pan back over and refit the box. Then cut a hole in the lift for the shift linkage.








Ran into a bit of clearance issue on the top of the framehorn. Had to do a small amount of 'reshaping'.








After that it all hooked up as planned and I fitted a gearstick and 'seat' so I could try it out. For those that haven't read the older posts on here, the shift linkage is part VW and part Holden Commodore steering linkage. The shift rod is slightly shorted than stock and has the spline off the top of the Holden steering rack welded into it. The Holden steering shaft clamps tightly onto the Weddle linkage and then slides over the splined end on the shift rod. Happy to report that I can get all the gears pretty easily. Reverse takes a tiny bit of extra wiggling but I haven't adjusted anything yet. Also there is no shift rod bushing fitted in the front mount behind the gearstick. Plus nothing is lubricated either.








Still a little bit of clearancing to do around the hole. I also have to enlarge it enough for the uni joints on the shaft to fit through.





Thanks for looking.


Smiley

[bajaherbie]

keeping the stock shifter?

[smiley]

keeping the stock shifter?

It is a bit low with the seats where they are. I was going to fit a bus shifter and then just cut it down to the height I want. And then put the 5 speed gearstick knob on top. I need to get some 8mm plate to put under the bus shifter though to space it up the correct distance to the ball doesn't bind in the socket. That's why I was just using the stock one for mock up.


Smiley

[smiley]

Made up a spacer for the Kombi shifter out of 8mm plate. Fits nicely now and shifts quite good for having no front shifter bushing in. I was thinking of trimming the bus shifter down, but now it has grown on me. I put both the seats in with a passenger and tested how the gearstick cleared everything with both seats forward and backward in different spots and two people sitting on them. Happy to say it clears everything very nicely. And I like the height. So I might stick with it yet.











I purchased a heap of stauff clamps for everything that is going in the tunnel. You can remove the think upper plate and bolt and replace them with an allen socket bolt which is countersunk into the plastic. Saves space inside the tunnel (which is at a premium these days!!) and saves some weight too. Because I am not using the clamps for high pressure hydraulic lines the single bolt will be quite adequate.











T3 pedal assembly was robbed of its clutch master cylinder to use in the car. I figured this would be the simplest and easiest way to go as it matches the slave cylinder on the box and the bits are all from the same car. Bored a hole in the lift kit where the brake M/C was originally mounted. Then made up a mount out of some angle and tacked it in place so I could work the pedal side of things out.




















Then the brake m/c was moved over to give sufficient room. More holes drilled.








I added a new pivot to the brake pedal that I stole off another set. You can see the stock one is still on the left side of the pedal. This one will be cut off and moved over to the clutch pedal for the clutch M/C. Fitted the pin and pedal travel is exactly as it should be.








Dropped the body on to check a few things. Fitted the seat in the car for the first time. Happy to say that the height is absolutely perfect for me. It is exactly where I want it. Pedals feel good underfoot too.








The seat has plenty of room to the door too which is good.








Need to work out where I am going to fit the fill reservoir. Probably somewhere under the bonnet that will go down to both the M/Cs.





Last thing I started thinking about/playing around with is fitting a hanging accelerator pedal. Jury is still out at the moment. I think it won't take much to fit up and connect. I just like the idea of less stuff on the floor and not having the pedal hinge seize up/fill up with sand and crap etc.



Thanks for looking


Smiley

[smiley]

Got a little bit done in the last few days.

Got to work mounting up the dual handle cutting brakes. I cut the front of the mount frame off and left it bolded to the arm pivot. And then put everything in place on the pan so I could work out how it's going to fit.





Made up some mounting plates for the cylinders which will be welded o the tunnel.





Next up I dug out the handbrake that I will be using to check clearances. Going to be tight. I had to move the cutting handles forward a touch on the tunnel and notch the underside of the handbrake out a bit. But it all fits and the handbrake works like normal. You can see I will have to trim the handles back a little as the left side one doesn't clear the gearstick anymore with them moved forward on the tunnel.








And here is everything in place and welded up. I made some extended pushrods by welding a pair of nuts onto the head of some bolts I got to suit the length. The fit is all very good and All the handles work as they should. I'm thinking I might cut the handbrake length down a bit to give more room to grab the ends of the cutting handles.











Next up flip the pan over again so we can finally get onto mounting the stuff in the tunnel.





I started from the back and worked forward. Welding in the stauff clamps for the aircon lines first up.








Once we got up under the pedals I cleaned everything up and added a few strengthening plates across the seam where I welded the framehead on. Should be super strong now! Then the lines could be looped around the pedals. I cut the hook off the clutch pedal to give some more room, and stop it rubbing on the hoses.











I also added a doubler plate on the framehead where the bulkhead fittings are coming through.





Then I welded the plates to the other side of the tunnel for the oil hoses. And the smaller ones below this for the fuel hardline.











I ordered some sexy AN fittings for the fuel hardlines. I drilled the lift kit at the back for the bulkheads. Sorry about the shoddy picture, the pan was still upside down. You can still get an idea of where they exit out the back.











Last thing I got down was to drill holes along the tunnel and weld nuts onto the inside. These are for the clamps that will hold my brake and clutch hardlines in place. The brake is on the right of the tunnel and the clutch down the left. You can see the spots along the tunnel where I buffed the paint off. I need to get some shorter bolts though, cause the ones I have stick into the tunnel too far where some of the hoses are going to be.
I also discover that my floorpan can stand up all by itself, even with the gearbox bolted into it











Things are getting a little busy up the back here. I still have to add a new accelerator cable tube too. But I am confident that everything will fit! I still need to work out some way of sealing the shift linkage to the floorpan where it comes through the lift. Does anyone have any good ideas for this??





Lastly, I bought a new second battery for the car. This one will be dedicated to running the fridge and camp lights. Whereas the other will be for most everything else.





Still a few things I need to do in the tunnel before I paint it up and weld it shut again. Mostly fitting the front bulkheads fittings and making up the oil hoses and fuel lines. And adding the new accelerator tube. In addition to this I have picked up my rear guards which have been repaired, as well as the engine scoop. The front guards that I had widened turned out to be rubbish So I have taken another set to a different guy that has been doing my glasswork and he is widening them for me again.

Still heaps to do but things are falling into place slowly.
Thanks for looking.

Smiley