Anyone into VW baja?

[Whitmore]

My daughter has a 74 super with the 1600cc motor, I put a new clutch in too, she wants me to buy it for 500 clams and I am thinking it would make a cool baja, put the 7 piece wide eye fiberglass kit on , some new wheels and tires , raise it up a few inches, a little suspension work and a cool after market exhaust.

I think this thing would be fun to bash around in the woods with as I dont want to scratch the Cummins rig.



Cheers, Kevin

 

[Ram4Sam]

I've built quite a few....

Kevin, baja's are a blast and the little buggers can go just about anywhere. But you got a little problem. The super beetles aren't really good for off roading. The front end on those use Macpherson struts instead of the conventional bug front suspension. It is a very weak setup for offroading and won't last long. Also, super beetles are longer, from the windshield forward. The fiberglass kits will not fit properly.



Sam

 

[Whitmore]

Sam

I just talked with my daughter and it aint a super but just a beetle ,cool, I wonder if it has the good frontend? If not I bet I could put a different front under it .



Explain how I can see the diff between the 2 frontends please.



cheers Kevin

 

[Peter Campbell]

I had a BUG - the real ones from the 60's. The suspension is really simple. Two pipes about 10" apart steering box bolts to the pipes. The two pipe go across the vehicle and house the torsion bars- get to them later. The end of the tubes have the upper and lower contol arms coming out of them. King pins on early and ball joints later to the spindle. The contol arms are faily stong forgings and ride on well greased bushings in the tubes. The torsion bar really are layers of spring steel flat stock( if I have the wrong kind of spring-- Its been a long time). Even without good shocks ( or any) there is still some damping in the setup. Forgot if ride height is adjustable. The good thing about the bug- if you unbolt the body and figure out how to hold up the steering wheel- it would be drivable. The belly pan and the center tunnel are all the structure it needs. The entire front suspension assembly unbolts from perches on the front of the vehicle "spine" or center tunnel. That is about all I remember of how the BUG suspension worked

 

[Ram4Sam]

Good to go!

Kevin, since it is a standard beetle, the front end is a conventional ball joint setup, which is fine. No need to change anything,as long as the ball joints aren't too sloppy. KYB makes an inexpensive gas shock for the front and rear that will work fine for you. As for the fiberglass kits, buy the cheaper ones as they fit just as well usually and the expensive one's break just as easy.



Wheels- try to stay with the stock offset on the front, too much offset makes them drive funny and you are more likely to break front fenders. With a stock motor, six inch wide for the back is good. Try not to go too large of a tire on the back, too tall of a tire makes the overall gear ratio too high. A stock motor will have a tough time pulling fourth gear on the highway and first gets too tall for rockcrawling.



Engine and trans use rubber mounts and pull apart very easy when offroading, which can bust the front off the transmission. There is a good(cheap also) kit that has poly-urethane mounts and metal straps to tie down the engine/trans assy.



Lastly, very important! The battery is under the rear seat, make sure it is tied down securely. If you do a roll over and the battery gets loose, you don't want to be in there with the battery loose!



Get an issue of Hot VW magazine and read up. $500 for a running VW is a good deal also. Pm me if you have any more questions.



Sam