Jordan's 1974 "back in California with no time" Thing build

[thingow181]

So my hypocrisy has been pointed out, requesting pictures but not contributing. So here's my build, in a nutshell.

The first one is the car in as original condition as I have photos of. It came out of a junkyard with a clean title. I got some smallish all-terrains on the Centerlines to roll it around on. This was some... 16 years ago? Bought it with paper route money.

car.jpg

Next photo we cut and turned the beam and indexed the rear. Somewhere along the line it had gotten a bug trans swapped in with bug CVs, blew them up, and went to 930s from Transform. A friend of my dad's built a cage, we built the bumpers, and it got a coat of paint. Built a little 1776, melted the rings after mudbogging, did it all over again.

thingshop.jpg

I love Pismo, even if I have destroyed this car out there (two lawn darts.) The third photo is the car out at the beach before the first stuff. I'd pull the rear fenders so as not to smash them with the big tires.

vwdunes1.jpg

From there it needed to go bigger. A body lift (with the cage unfortunately staying the same height) with a stock 091 trans and some big super swampers made it look pretty bitchin. My poor 1776 wasn't thrilled with this configuration.

thingfront.jpg

From there, it got linkpinned. This was before there were people making conversion parts- I cut up an old beam, spaced it out, and welded up a link pin beam. The rear got 3x3 arms with dual 2.0s, and the front was 2.5" arms with cut/welded lift spindles and 2.0 coilovers.

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That actually worked pretty sweet in the dunes...

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Until I flipped it.

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So it went under the knife, and started getting bigger/badder parts. 3x3s stayed, but was getting coilover/bypass rear.

But I moved to China, and so time became the issue. I ended up taking it to Mosebilt offroad, and will share more in the next posts.

LONG project... and one of those "so I am spending more money than it is worth just to make it go again?" kind of stories... but I can't let it go.

[thingow181]

Currently it's sitting in my trailer at my dad's shop, with 2x2" stuck in place of shocks and a set of stock rollers because it's time for body work. The specs in progress are as follows:

1.75" DOM roll cage
8" wider big pivot beam with 4" Foddrill arms, Woods combo spindles, RBP 4 piston brakes
Saco Magnum rack with Unisteer electric power assist
King 2.5 internal bypass coilovers
New rear pivot housing, moved 1.5" forward in the car
3x3 arms installed with microstub RBP 4 piston brakes
King 2.0 coilovers and 2.5 bypasses
2.0L GM LSJ supercharged ecotec engine mounted to a Weddle filled 091 that was sprinkled with holy water

As mentioned, the old cage wasn't going to work because 1- I've tested it and 2- it was too short with the body lift in place. So I found John Moseley and dropped the car off with him earlier this year. The tube work you see is all his at this point.

Next steps are:
1. Finish sorting out what to do for fenders
2. Swap shock ends and ensure rear tires don't hit the body (should have gone wider)
3. Build front bumper and light mounts
4. Redo radiator mounting as I don't want it visible (this was a later decision)
5. Enclose rear of the car and clean up all of the old holes, cuts, etc
6. Tweak rear bumper mounts and add hanging motor mounts from upper trans mount
7. Body/paint
8. Electrical/plumbing
9. Abuse

[thingow181]

And now the only thing anyone cares about- pictures!

Started off by getting real door bars and lower rails. Wilwood hanging pedals and a Pro-Am shifter. I'm changing the steering column too.

Compact00038.jpg

At first I was a little concerned about how the cage looked.

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But I think it really came together. I decided to compromise and go with the 2 seat route, these cars are big and small all at the same time. Shocks and rear arms are in place.

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The ATL cell (ebay find) takes the place of a rear seat. You can also see the PWR Rhino radiator which will serve as the cooler for the supercharger.

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Up front, keeping it simple with internal bypasses and heavy parts. I wanted single shocks to keep things neat and inside the body. It's a sleeper dammit!

Compact00070.jpg

John worked up the Unisteer kit I gave him, and put together a fun mix of joints and short shafts. It'll probably test the limits of the kit, but I am hopeful. I plan on changing that bearing out- it's hard to remember everything you need when you're doing things from 6500 miles away.

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The rear suspension pivots came forward an inch and a half to move the Ecotec forward in the car, and to center a 3x3 arm in the rear wheel well. Fuel cell mounts and upper trans mounts all visible here.

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Kevin at Trans West got rid of the funky blue and swapped in a .93 4th for me, so I should be able to do a little street driving with it once all is said and done.

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The heart and soul- a 2.0L Ecotec LSJ. MEFI5 by Steve Humphrey, 50lb Siemens injectors, 2.9" pulley, etc etc etc. Another ebay find- this was a GMPP crate motor from a guy who never finished a project.

April 19 new rear bumper 3.jpg

A new front clip has been following me around for years, so it finally got slammed on. Some fiberglass fenders are in order, and they'll serve with a bit more work.

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So that's it for now. I should be moving home in December, and hope to have it driveable by summer. Lots left to do, and money to spend, but hey, that's what you guys are for!

[CentralWAbaja]

That has a bitchen one-of-a-kind look to it, I thing I like it.

[Big Dave]

Super cool Thing! I love the progression pics.

[JUSSUMGUY]

I like it!

[Steve Arndt]

Nice.

Do you have more info or pics on how you made the welded link pin lift spindles?

Digging the electronic power steering.

[thingow181]

Nice.

Do you have more info or pics on how you made the welded link pin lift spindles?

Afraid I bought them off of dunebuggy.com or something like that years ago. If I remember right the spindle snouts had been cut off and welded to a 1/2" thick plate that lowered them on the pivot. They looked something like this: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/ ... id=1344277

[Hoodrich]

any updates?

[thingow181]

any updates?

I move home December 20, that's an update, right?

Seriously though, hoping to get a few days to get the front bumper and fenders done in Dec or Jan. From there sheetmetal should go fast, and get it painted.

I bought a new house, so I'll be able to tow the Thing down to LA once it's shot. I'll do plumbing and wiring in LA, and then off to CBM for dyno/tuning.

I have all the stuff for the fuel system, and I have everything picked out for brakes. Wiring... will probably end up with a universal harness and go from there, still TBD. There's really nothing VW electrical left in the car. I picked up a carbon fiber Penhall dash, so hopefully that should go smoothly.

[tikotiko]

Pretty sweet

[JUSSUMGUY]

In the specs above you listed RBP brakes. Fordfreak has been having an issue with scrub radius on his build when using these brakes on the front. Just a heads up if you are planning on using them on the front.

[thingow181]

In the specs above you listed RBP brakes. Fordfreak has been having an issue with scrub radius on his build when using these brakes on the front. Just a heads up if you are planning on using them on the front.

Appreciate the head's up. I've been following it on his thread. I don't have any front view photos, so I can't recall how it looks and I'm way far away.

I'll have to just wing it and see how it goes. The car has less miles than CentralWABaja even, so I can't worry about it too much yet!

[CentralWAbaja]

............. The car has less miles than CentralWABaja even, so I can't worry about it too much yet!

[Getrdone]

So it's CW's turn to poke eh?