Brakes, steering and fuel tank all reinstalled in the Baja bug. Next up is the gearbox which needs a good cleanup before I can fit it.
Baja mountney steering wheel attached, bonnet straps riveted on and gearbox all cleaned up (or cleaned up enough for a Baja). Next up is getting some underseal wax onto the wheel arches, the gearbox and the rear boot area for some added protection.
Getting to the fun stage now! Porsche 924 CV joints are pretty much built up now so should soon have the drivetrain all installed. Funny you should mention the reverse switch as that's just reminded me I need to buy one as I've this little reverse lamp to mount on the rear cage:
Were the joints assembled correctly out of the box Jim? I think I had to breakdown and remake 4 out of 6 when I did ours.
Cool. Don't know if you saw this, but for reference... https://thelatebay.com/index.php?threads/cv-joint.93568/
Lots of jobs on the bug over the last two days. Porsche 924 driveshafts all built up (@theBusmonkey, miraculously all of the joints were assembled correctly ). Gearbox and wheel arches given a few coats of clear underbody wax and gearbox all fitted (it’s a snug fit under there now!). My plan for the next couple of weeks is to get the engine all put together. I’m not rebuilding this engine, more of a clean and tidy up. First up, heads off for some new pushrod tubes as the old ones are knackered.
Alternator, starter motor and a few other bits cleaned up and painted for the baja. The first of the carpets all made up and fitted into the bug. I’ve added some felt insulation underneath them to try and dampen the engine noise a little too And fitted the back rest of the rear bench. I upholstered the interior for this nearly 2.5 years ago so it’s nice to see it starting to come together.
Just picked up the baja wheels back from the tyre fitters. Suffice to say they’re friggin huge, 175/80/15s on the front and 235/75/15s on the rear. Bus in the background for scale, even the fronts are bigger than the stock tyres on the bus.
3 out of the 4 wheels fitted, and engine installed. The remaining stock wheel gives you a good idea of how much extra lift the bigger tyres give it.
One of the kind folks off the baja uk forum did run the figures for me for this size tyre and the bus 3 rib gearbox and there was still plenty of grunt without it getting bogged down in that 30-4omph sweet spot. I'll try and dig out the charts for you. The rear tyres work out to be 28.9" tall; there's a fair few baja chaps running 31" but this was about as far as I wanted to go (for now!)
With those tyres it should be pretty close to a stock 1200/1300 gearbox ratio wise. A mate is running 31s on a 5 rib and the revs are pretty close to my stock 1300 bug.