'73 Turbobaja Build

[560]

Great!!!

Mike

[turbobaja]

Yep, ended up taking a job as Lead Tech for a shop up here called North Westy. We mostly build custom Vanagons, swap in Subaru or TDI VW engines, do 2wd to Syncro 4wd conversions, Westy pop top conversions, heater/fridge/etc. upgrades. It's a big change from my last 16 years of professional wrenching, more along the lines of what I enjoy doing after work and on the weekends. I even bought an '89 Vanagon "Blue Star" to do some upgrades on and serve as a more functional camping vehicle than the baja or Bronco. New page in life, exciting, different, little scary but might lead to good things.

[Iguana]

Yep, ended up taking a job as Lead Tech for a shop up here called North Westy. We mostly build custom Vanagons, swap in Subaru or TDI VW engines, do 2wd to Syncro 4wd conversions, Westy pop top conversions, heater/fridge/etc. upgrades. It's a big change from my last 16 years of professional wrenching, more along the lines of what I enjoy doing after work and on the weekends. I even bought an '89 Vanagon "Blue Star" to do some upgrades on and serve as a more functional camping vehicle than the baja or Bronco. New page in life, exciting, different, little scary but might lead to good things.

Sweet you have to love the T3's for functional camping vehicles. Slap in a Subaru 5 Speed and Engine and you have it the way they should have come from factory.

[JUSSUMGUY]

Congratulations on the job, sounds like a lot of fun!

[TimS]

That sounds like a fun job. Congrats!!

[560]

WOW, complete change for ya. As long as you are happy, learning and able to pay the bills I say great for you.

Mike

[Devastator]

Congratulations!

[ajdenette]

You should share about the Vanagon Blue Star over in the bus barn, interestingly enough I just ordered some SS brake lines from North Westy. I hope you are having fun working in the VW community.

[turbobaja]

Move over Baja, this Van is taking over

I've moved on from the North Westy Van shop, but definitely have myself a "perminant" reminder of the time I spent working there. I bought this Van from the shop owner halfway through my very first day on the job. It turns out it's WAY more of a basket case than it appeared to be, but I'm slowly making something of it.

The baja still sees plenty of miles, almost 11K on the odo. Just about 2 years now on a 240 wheel HP tune. Instead of buying a silly Van, I WAS going to completely rebuild the 2110 in the baja (3rd time) with a milder camshaft/heads/intake/turbo and regear 1st and 2nd to make this animal more off-road-able. Somehow I spent 3 times what that would have cost and I'm putting a 200hp Subaru engine in an '89 Vanagon instead.

[CentralWAbaja]

Getting close to time to play isn't it?

[Leatherneck]

Move over Baja, this Van is taking over

I've moved on from the North Westy Van shop, but definitely have myself a "perminant" reminder of the time I spent working there. I bought this Van from the shop owner halfway through my very first day on the job. It turns out it's WAY more of a basket case than it appeared to be, but I'm slowly making something of it.

The baja still sees plenty of miles, almost 11K on the odo. Just about 2 years now on a 240 wheel HP tune. Instead of buying a silly Van, I WAS going to completely rebuild the 2110 in the baja (3rd time) with a milder camshaft/heads/intake/turbo and regear 1st and 2nd to make this animal more off-road-able. Somehow I spent 3 times what that would have cost and I'm putting a 200hp Subaru engine in an '89 Vanagon instead.

You have got to catch us up, what have you been up to?

[turbobaja]

You have got to catch us up, what have you been up to?

Yep! It's been a while. The Baja has been sitting WAY too much in recent years. I've driven it to work a few times, a few shows and gatherings and that's about it. It's like a year and a half overdue for an oil change, I should kick my own butt...

We did manage our 4th Best In Show award, still the only Baja I've seen "win" a VW show, lol. I was NOT expecting it that day. This was the 7th annual Dubfest show, my first show win was their first show in '12. I bring it every year.



Also, we got "Best ride on BJGs" at the local Good Guys car show. First non-VW show we participated in and had over 2,500 vehicles there over 3 days. Had a cool parade at the end for awards, it was all fancy.



THIS thing, has been getting all the love lately.

[Leatherneck]

Ya need to take her out and blow out the cobwebs.