Alyce the Baja

[TimS]

This is looking better and better with every update. Nice work!

[smiley]

I haven't worked on the car for a few weeks. Spent a week at Fraser and then down south for Warwick VW drags etc.

But prior to that I got a bunch of stuff done.

Firstly I got a care package from USA. Porsche CVs!! Thanks Rich!








Then I got to work mounting up the stainless hardlines I had made. And fitting up the bulkheads where they come out the front and back of the pan. Unfortunately I measured a tiny bit short and the clutch line didn't quite reach. I had to have to remade about 50mm longer. I had the same issues with the brake line to the cutting brake. But was able to fix this with a banjo that has a longer end.




















Next up I fitted the new accelerator cable tube into the tunnel. And welded in the last hose mount plates.











Then I started making and fitting up the new fuel hardlines for in the tunnel.














Once that was done I did another trial fit of everything to see that it all clears and fits around the shift rod etc.















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I soon discovered a new issue that I had created.

It was impossible to get the shift rod out through all the hoses to change the bushing.








So I went and got a new gearstick tunnel piece off a spare scrap pan I have.








And cut the original shift hole out of the tunnel.





I welded flat bar around the perimeter of this new hole and made the tunnel piece into a cover/removable shifter bushing. Very much like what a Type 3 has.





Then I had another issue. I could now remove the shift rod out the top of the tunnel. But it would hit the firewall inside the car before it came all the way out of the tunnel. Easily fixed, just cut it in half!!





I welded a nut into one side and a bolt into the other. A locknut holds it all in place. This allows me to break it in half, but also gives me a little length adjustability and I am able to rotate the splined end to wherever I want it too.








So the new shift bush replacement instructions are to disconnect the linkage. And remove the gearstick and then the shifter plate.





Pull the shift rod out and crack the locknut.





And then unscrew the front half and change the bushing. Simple!





Got my new clutch line back. Right length this time!!








Made the line up to the master cylinder.





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This line was fixed with the longer banjo.





And started making up some of the rear lines.






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I was trying to get all of the welding on the pan finished off that needed doing. Next up was the battery, solenoid and compressor mounts.

I picked up some good rubber matting to put under the batteries. And I cut some bit of angle to weld to the pan to stop them moving around. I put 2 on each battery on diagonally opposite corners.











Next I fitted a cut down piece of angle to the tunnel for the dual battery solenoid.








Then I welded on a couple of tabs that I drilled and tapped for my battery hold downs. Cut some more angle to use as the strap. Just need to get some bolts and it's ready to go. I will probably also add some rubber between the strap and battery too.








Then I made up a little frame for my ARB compressor that will be going next to the battery. Took me a little while to get the height and fit right but it all looks sweet now and fits perfectly next to the battery.











Next stop was the front beam. I added plates front and back to both beam tubes. This is where the beam support will bolt on. And where the front barwork will bolt to in the future.











Unfortunately I cooked my inner beam bushings while doing this so they had to come out. Took a bit but I got there with the slide hammer eventually.





I fitted the outer bearings and assembled the suspension so I could cycle it for the stops.





I cut a hole in the plate and welded a cut up rear swinger snubber mount on to the plate. So I will be running rear snubbers on the front too. Added a gusset plate. to the back too. I don't seem to have taken many pictures of this. I'm not sure if I like this setup yet. I might cut it all off and change it yet...








I cut and ground the hole in the front of the framehead as big as I can. Not I can fit my whole arm in there. Not sure if I can with the beam on though.





Fitted up my rear support frame and cut the tubes down to the new length needed and welded them on.





Put a plate in to block the last gap between the torsion housing and lift.





Filled in this stupid idea of a hole under the rear torsion housing. All bugs have this, I'm not sure why but it does a great job of letting crap into your tunnel. I welded a little plate over it.








Rewelded the hooks onto the outer edge of the pan. And plated them up too. I will probably add an extra plate between the torsion housing and the pan too.






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[smiley]

Time to seal the tunnel up! Started by making up some plates to cover it up. I decided to do it in three pieces. One weird shaded piece at the back, the main longer piece along the tunnel and the large one up the front that is also the base fro the framehead. I staggered the front join in a different spot to where the framehead has been welded to the tunnel for maximum strength. I'm using the same 2.1mm checkerplate that my floorhalves are made from.














Then the inside of the tunnel was buffed, ground, wirewheeled etc until I had it as clean as possible. Then I painted it all with weld-through primer.





Next up I fitted all the hoses and lines. I added a drop of medium strength Loctite to the clamp bolts. Hopefully it all stays there for a very long time.











I added some flatbar across the tunnel where the 3 plates were going to join each other for some extra support.








Then the painstakingly slow process of welding it all in. I first painted the inside edge of the plates with primer too. I also fitted them with the 'checks' facing inside the tunnel to give a completely smooth underside.
I welded very small sections at a time and worked my way round and round the plates. I didn't want to cook any of my hoses.
The end result is super tidy. So smooth under there now, nothing to get caught up on. And I think I picked up about 5mm more ground clearance as it doesn't bulge out quite as much as the stock one with the cross hatches on it.
















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I added these plates to the lower tubes so I can make up the beam supports.





Welded on. I'm planning to add a triangle gusset plate that runs up to the upper edge of the lift kit.








Front end all assembled. It's a roller! I ended up using those stupid red urethane beam bushes for the time being. All I can say is they are the worst, shitest, most annoying wastes of time ever invented. Never use these things. I will be changing back to needle rollers bearings when I have time.





Rack fitted up. Put boots on it but still have to do an alignment yet.





On to the back. Started bolting everything on.





We have a rolling pan people!! Very happy with how it is sitting. But I certainly need to go up to 33s on the back. The front is a touch higher.
I just need to blow the bags up a little and put the upper bolts in.








Fitting up all the clutch and brake lines.








Pedals are all sorted.








Gearbox got new seals, caps, side adjuster locks etc.





I fitted up the handbrake and adjusted the cables. But I am not happy with the late model pivot plate on the tp of it. When you pull up on the cutting brake handles they hit it. I'm not sure if it is going to be an issue once there is pressure in the system, the handles might not come up as far. But I think I will piss it off and make something different.





And then I had to throw the body on the pan and move it out of the way to do some work on my dad's bug. I'm very happy with the way it is looking. Nice and massive!!








Anyone else's bug clear a bucket?





That's all for now everyone, thanks for reading. I'm hoping to get stuck back in after this swing of work.



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I had to pick up some slightly shorter bolts for my airbags as the ones I had were bottoming in the holes. Getting them in was a little bit of a paint with the suspension assembled. But I got there in the end with a chain over the shock tower and jacked up the rear suspension to compress it a little. Then I used a screwdriver through the frame to guide the bad into place while a pumped a little air into them with an air gun. Once I had one bolt in the second one was easy.





While the body was off I had to finish the fuel tank frame off.





Here is the rear tank frame that I had in the car previously. It raised the tank up off the rear shelf a little with the two feet and the back edge was bolted through the firewall. I'm basically going to build the new frame the same as this but out of 25mm box steel instead of angle.





New frame made up. But then I ran into some fitment issues. On the old frame I trimmed the inside edge of the angle so the frame was only as wide as the tank. On this one I couldn't do that with the box so it ended up being wider. And doesn't quite fit in between the wheel wells.








I trimmed the outside edge off the box to suit. The gap between the wheel wells is tapered towards the back so they are cut on an angle to match.





Once I got the frame where I wanted it I marked out where I had to cut the floor to match. (unfortunately I ended up cutting slightly too much)





The body was back on the car by this point so I could check clearances etc. The frame is a nice tight fit and takes a few taps with a soft hammer to get it into place. Here it is with the fuel tank sitting in place.





And you can see here I have JUST enough clearance to bleed the hydraulic clutch.





Before welding it into the car I had to add some nuts to the inside of the frame to hold the tank down. I also opted to add a few along the back edge of the frame that faces the firewall. I can use these to mount rubber or engine sealing tins etc.








This picture shows the little plates I made with nut on them. I cut sections out of the frame and welded these in for the mounting nuts. For the ones along the back edge I used angle that did both the tank nuts and rear firewall nuts.





Body is back off the car now so I can weld the frame out. I guess this is what it is like to have one of those lowered bugs?





I have been taking little projects out to work with me that I can do when I have some spare time. One of them is this.
I bought some 4mm shock cord and tied it into a sort of cargo style net. It was measured up to fit in the roof of the car. I'm planning to use this to store light stuff like pillows and towels etc. And the roof of the bug has enough room with no headliner that it shouldn't be in the way of my view out the rear window at all. These cars are pretty small so I am always looking at ways to use the space that is available.





As for the mounts I simply used 6mm nutserts along the top edge of the roof. And used 6mm wire ring terminals with the yellow plastic cut off and the net tied through them. Cheap and simple. I still have yet to try it out and see f there is enough tension in it yet. But I can always pull the cord through more and tie it off tighter.





Last shift I also bought my dash out and put some holes in it for my gauges. I didn't have any hole saws and I'm not sure that the would have cut very nicely through the titanium anyway. So I just ended up cutting around the edge with the cutting wheel in the grinder and cleaning them out with a rotary burr on the die grinder.





Don't throw these offcuts out! This stuff is hard to come by. Maybe I can use it for brackets or something?











Trial fitted all of the gauges. Looking good!





I still need to add a hole in the middle of the dash for the light switches. But need to get some more measurements first and work out where the stereo and warning lights are going.





That's all for now.


Smiley

[TimS]

Cleaver gas tank placement, I like it. Also like your pedal setup, what master/slave is that on the clutch?

Nice pictures!

[CentralWAbaja]

Dudes got a titanium dash And you guys say I am fancy

Nice work Smiley, especially all the hand carving.

[smiley]

Cleaver gas tank placement, I like it. Also like your pedal setup, what master/slave is that on the clutch?

Nice pictures!

The tank does fit exceptionally well, it's like VW designed the bus tank to be retrofitted in there!

The master and slave setup are both stock T3/Vangon ones that I picked up when I got the 5 speed box. So they should work perfectly together.

Dudes got a titanium dash And you guys say I am fancy

Nice work Smiley, especially all the hand carving.

Well I got to have one selling point on the car don't I??

Thanks mate.


Smiley

[JUSSUMGUY]

Outstanding build Smiley. I'll be stealing some ideas for my car.
Alyce would do great on the trips we have been doing.

[smiley]

Outstanding build Smiley. I'll be stealing some ideas for my car.
Alyce would do great on the trips we have been doing.

Maybe one day I'll get over and come on one!


Smiley

[Iguana]

Out of interest has you started to notice the extra weight when you are moving the pan around ?

I know when Dyno did those two Baja Bugs at Custom it was amazing how heavy they ended up when you pushed them in and out and more and most stuff got added

[smiley]

Out of interest has you started to notice the extra weight when you are moving the pan around ?

I know when Dyno did those two Baja Bugs at Custom it was amazing how heavy they ended up when you pushed them in and out and more and most stuff got added

I can't say that I really push it around much. The few times I have rolled it back and forward a bit in the shed it has been easy to move. I need to have the handbrake on when doing stuff on the car or it tries to roll away on me.

I've only added about 30kg to the pan compared to the previous design (most of this is in the lift kit.) so I'm not sure if I would notice the extra mass at all? I suppose that there is also the extra battery, hoses, the gearbox is slightly heavier and the bags and frame. the front end would be a touch more with the shock towers and wider and rack.

I'll let you know when I drive it how it feels. I'm sure it will be fine


Smiley

[Spheromike]

Looks good keep up the good work. I enjoy all the photos of the process.