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Building a baja right, in a week
How can this be? has the bajaguru gone insane? baja's take forever to build!
NOT SO!!!
case in point: a reader located in vancouver, washington emailed me a while back wanting to know what year would make the best baja, i said 69 or 70 cause they've got dual spring plate irs (stronger than single spring plate irs). so he emails me a few months later, he bought a good running 69 and would like to know where he might get some welding, i said right here, i live two hours south of portland/vancouver. so to make a long story short, i'm building this guys baja for him.
* you too can employ me, inquire *
i advise him on what all to purchase, i freely offer all the knowledge i have about baja's. i also try to teach him how to work on it, it's his first bug i believe. our scheduals are such that we are both free on weekends, so he brings it down for a weekend, i work on it and he pays me. it's good to get paid for something that you enjoy doing.
weekend 1:
him and a friend came down and i fixed his windshield wiper wiring. there was an extra ground hooked up to the switch for some reason, the plastic on that extra wire was all melted and everything. so i fixed that and inspected the car and took it for a spin, it's in great shape: new carb, new generator, new starter, rebuilt motor and only a little bit of rust on the pan.
we ripped off the plastic dash pad to expose the metal dash and tightened up the headlight and wiper switches (they were loose).
then i took them for a spin i my baja out in the woods so they could experience the joys of 50+ mph on fire roads. great fun was had by all.
so then i tore into his car and began lifting the rear end. a few broken bolts turned the 3 hour procedure into a two day nightmare. but it was all good and i had the rear end all lifted
by sunday evening when they had to leave. i also welded the seams on the diagonal arms and frame horn and welded skid plates on the lower shock mounts that weekend.
weekend 2:
he had done some shopping for baja stuff according to what i told him to buy and bring down for the weekend. goals for day 3 and 4 are install H.D. tranny mounts, install rear bumper, install tail lights, install baja rear fenders and engine cover and install exaust system. he brought all the need parts down and i went to it. by saturday night i had the body cut properly, the inside frame horns welded, the bumper fit with all bolt holes drilled and the tranny back in with all three H.D. mounts installed.
by sunday evening we had drilled and installed the fenders and engine cover, fabricated tail light mounts for aftermarket tail lights that mount to the bumper, the bumper and exaust painted and installed, painted the rear suspension, installed liscense plate and wired the lights. i had the motor and tranny out and everything all put back together and street legal in two days.
Ok folks, i've been at it again. he dropped his car off at my house and is leaving it here for a week. the goal is completion, and it is nearly so. he brought it down with the front half of the fiberglass kit, four new white spoke wheels, front bumper, front end adjusters and hood hold downs. i've got my work cut out for me, here goes...
day 5:
put car on jackstands. drained gas in gas tank, removed gas tank. poped off tierods and steering stabilizer, disconnected brake lines, speedometer cable (which promptly broke upon doing so). freed spindles from balljoints (pickle fork), removed spindles (they are heavy, front end is easier to deal with without them on). unbolted steering shaft, removed four front bolts on front end, then the top two, then the front end falls right out.
cleaned up frontend a bit, it's all dirty and there's grease mountains by the torsion arms. it's all got to be scrapped off if the paint is to stay on! welded seams on shock towers, installed frontend adjuster in top tube. be very, very careful about your torsion tube cuts, if they are not exact, things will not fit. mine were just good enough, it was close, there's not alot of room for error. the springs in the lower tube did not want to come out so i was not able to install an adjuster in the lower tube. i think this is best anyway becaue you can easily hit the ground with the lower tube and those adjusters look fairly fragile. i cut and turned the lower tube 3/8". the upper adjuster is set to go from stock to a 5/8" turn.
day 6:
welded bolt inbetween steering box and clamp to prevent steering box from rotating on torsion tube (this has happened to me). fabricated triangular gussets and welded them to the shock tower and top torsion tube. installed front bumper mounting brackets. i hold the bumper onto the frontend and clamp it down, maybe bolt it down too. line up the mounting brackets, clamp 'em on and weld 'em.
painted and reinstalled front end. fabricated rebound stop pieces and installed them. cut 19.5" length out of the sway bar and put it in the long tierod, slipped piece of tubing over the long tierod, put ~4" piece of sway bar in short tierod, no piece of tubing. it's not that important for the short tierod.
reassembled front end (spindles, tierods), set alignment (by eye). welded final rebound stop piece after spindles were on and installed shocks. i put both upper shock mounting bushings below the mounting point on the shock tower, this lets the shock droop more...more ground clearence. i watched the shock as i tightened the upper bolt, it pulled the lower torsion arm up a bit, thus letting tension off the balljoints. so i welded the last rebound stop piece at this point. they will prevet damage to the balljoints if the shocks fail. the shocks are designed to limit travel, that's why balljoint front ends don't have rebound stops from the factory. the shocks share the load with the new stops, this is good because the car will ride in the stops for a while with the lift.
removed front fenders, removed lights from fenders.
day 7:
fabricated lower torsion tube supports. basicly, tubes that run from the corners of the body of the car forward to the lower torsion tubes, thus preventing the tubes from bending backwards upon heavy impacts and landings. i cut the flat part of the frame head just outside of the brake line support and then straight back. then bent this piece up and grinded notches out of the tubing to fit into the bent piece. cut the other end to length and welded BOTH sides, yes, i welded the front end to the car in the name of strength. removal? just sawzall the tubing when you want to take it off and weld it back when you put it back on. simple. besides, i'm doing everything a frontend needs right now anyway.
removed hood, installed fiberglass hood. started cutting front sheet metal. started with just the forward painted part. did some thinking with fiberglass nose in hand. cut sides a bit, from lower rear corner of spare tire well to about 5" out from the rear wall of the spare tire well in a straight line. banged some things in so package is tighter. cut off lip where the hood meets the body of the car, there's that flat portion, just cut off that part about 31" from the rear part of inside edge of the lip (by the windshield). i gathered this by holding the nose to the hood in a manner so that it would look the way i want it to and make some marks on the bottom of the hood with a marker where the pieces meet. then transfer those marks on the hood to the lip on the body where they meet. double check.
cut the lip off. the nose then fit on reasonably well. drilled mounting holes in fenders, put them on with a couple bolts. things line up well. haven't drilled mounting holes for nose yet.
Ok, last day.
finished mounting the baja kit, changed the brake bias from front to rear. bolted bumper on, mounted headlights and turn signal lights on fenders. instaled hood hold down latches.
put gas tank back in. got tires mounted on the new wheels.
225/70R15 on 6" wheels in front, 30x9.5R15 on 8" wheels in back.
when eric gets his webpage together with pictures of his baja on it i will post it here. i didn't take any pics of it myself.
it's got a red body with a black "wide eye" fiberglass kit and yellow bumpers and suspension. pretty good looking, tall and mean.
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