Central WA Baja
- Leatherneck
- Moderator
- Posts: 17104
- Joined: Sat Jul 01, 2006 6:47 pm
Re: Central WA Baja
Puts a new meaning to BFC.. Where you able to weigh each wheel?
- CentralWAbaja
- Posts: 4278
- Joined: Fri Feb 05, 2010 9:05 pm
Re: Central WA Baja
Well....The car runs and drives so I guess that brings this thread to a close right?
Haha, I just cannot do that after 7 years. I owe it to myself and this STF family to reflect back upon this journey and give a full report in classic CWB fashion. Wait, what does that exactly mean? Well when this all started it I was just a guy from Central Washington State setting out to build the cool baja I thought I had dreamed about. I started searching for convertible bajas on the web, as well as class 5-unlimited baja bugs. I had never posted to any forums had only signed up for a couple just to be able to see pics. I decided then that CentralWAbaja would be my username for such forums. It seemed fitting.
As this journey progressed I learned that I may be judged by others for my conduct online as well as my abilities to actually execute my build as well as document it. I also learned that it is real easy for a guy like me to get caught in the "Keep up with the Jones's" mentality. I have learned so much along the way, much more then the technical details it takes to complete such a project. I have learned that sometimes a car is just a car, and sometimes a car is a look into someones inner self, especially a build of this nature. I know that I definitely opened myself up to the world when I decided to document this build online, and although I have posted highlighted versions of this build in other forums and online venues I have always held true to this STF family.
As recently as just a few weeks ago I have been introduced (Online only at this point) to a member of this forum that has never posted but has followed for a long time if not from the start pretty much. That made me realize that there are way more people that have silently supported me than I ever knew or thought was even possible. The flip side to that is that I also realized that I have been judged by others in a way I never realized before either and again one of those things I have learned over this process is that that matters more to me then I ever realized. Funny things we learn along the way. Anyway, the friendships that I developed through this place have shaped my life forever, and I am so grateful to each and everyone of those people that have taken the time to develop a relationship with me, whether it be limited to an online friendship or one that has found us riding together or sharing a cold beverage together. Thank you guys.
I also have thought about this moment and how I would handle it over the last several years. Knowing I needed to thank so many people that have helped make this happen. Also knowing it would probably give some light to this that only those closest to me really know about. Obviously my wife and family first and foremost and that almost goes without saying but never would I go without saying it. Although in the "Online world" this build has the appearance of a guy with some expendable budget to really go all out, that definitely is not the case. Albeit I cannot deny that there has been a very large sum of money has been dedicated to this project over the years. I can remember having conversations with people 4+ years ago that I may have gotten carried away lol and I may have headed this down a path that I never intended but also one that would be very hard to deviate from. The fact that this has not been an unlimited budget build has also helped lead to the 7 year build time. In fact reflecting back through the timeline there was a day when my dad paid to fill my welding bottle so that I could spend a day under the hood feeling like a man lol
That said, there are some people that promised myself I would thank once this day arrived. You see this project started with the unexpected passing of Colette's (my wife) mom Marlene. Knowing how much she loved seeing us all as a family enjoy my old school car, we decided to start this project with some funds that she had left behind for us. And so it began with me sending my mom and dad to San Diego to pick the original parts purchase. That was Labor Day weekend 2009.
My first post here about this car was Feb of 2010. I was immediately welcomed in by this entire gang here as the fresh meat and y'all were so willing to help me lighten my wallet. I am afraid to call out individuals here for fear of leaving some out. Scan the 1st 5 or 10 pages of this build and it reads like a whos who of the regulars back then, but as I recently learned, there are regulars that do not show up in the 130+ pages either. So many people to thank, and as I sit back at the end of the day reflecting on those that took the time to explain bumpsteer, or hydraulic brake theory, or even the basics of CV's and their balls to me. I am so thankful for them.
Ya'll have watched my 13yr old kid grow up into a 20 year old young man along side me starting his own VW addiction, as well as helping me keep my sanity over the last 6 months as this has all come together.
Along the way I had some financial contributions from the passing of some of the most important people in my life. The decision to add funds to this build from that was a personal one between my wife and I and really until this very post I have never made mention of it. Why now? Well My aunt and uncle Lindy and Len sold me my first baja bug for a $1. They gave me a start in this VW world. They would have never built anything like what I have built, they would have never splurged on anything like this for themselves, they were always about doing things for others. I don't know what that says about me for doing what I have? But I choose to feel as though I helped make them happy in a way by letting them help me realize my dream.
Along the way my construction company has had its ups and downs with the economic situation our country was/is in while I was building this car. I learned to understand the TIME/MONEY Matrix. At times there was no money and lots of time and other times there was money and no time to work on the car. I tried to learn how to work with both of these. The Edwards family have been customers of mine since before I owned my own business. On a couple of occasions they made substantial contributions to me (Tips/bonuses) and said do something for yourself with this, pay bills if you must, but try not to and see if you cant just have some fun with it.....who knew you could put an Acura V-6 in a baja, yeah I hold the Edwards responsible for the snowball that was created there
I have people ask me if the company logos that are currently on he car actually gave me anything for running their decals. My simple answer is yes, they gave me their belief in me when I said I was building something pretty cool that thought would represent them well....and a pretty good deal on parts in some cases.
Then there is a special decal on the side in memory of a kid that worked for me for a while that lost his life 2 years ago doing what he loved, working on his truck. He worked for me at a time that I was unsure if I wanted to work for myself any more, he made me realize that there are people out there that just want to show up to work and learn. He made me wanna go to work, just to work with him. Without Kenny Rhodes working for me when he did, my company name might not be on the side of that car.
I can't help but think of the people that were in my life at the start of this build that are no longer on this rock to physically see it run. I feel and felt them as I spent my time reflecting back while driving down to California twice in the last month. When I sent my folks down at the beginning of this project was also the first time my mom showed serious signs of having health issues, ending up in a SoCal hospital for a few days on that trip. I am saddened by the fact that I cannot see her smile at my accomplishment, but so happy to know in my heart that she is smiling...she always smiled. That is her legacy.
3-1/2 years ago I sat my folks down and talked with them about whether I should focus on making the car drive or just staying the course and detailing it out to a more completed stage before driving. Part of that discussion was where to focus my budget that I had to work with at the time. I really wanted to start acquiring some parts but also wanted to start learning how to do the aluminum panel work on the car which was going to require a pretty expensive tool in a Mitler Brothers bead roller to do the things I had in mind for the car. They asked if they could buy the roller for me as they really wanted to watch me learn it all just as much as I wanted to show them that I could figure it out. I am probably to most proud of the panel work on the car for this reason. I know in my heart that they are both proud of me for accomplishing it they way I wanted.
What can I say about Pops? My dad has been there every step of the way. He has seen the joy as well as the frustration. He has helped create reality out of my crazy dreams using his own hands, tools and experiences. He has put up with just having to get out of the way while I sorted out the details in my head. And in reality that was a crappy thing to do to him at times because the car has lived in his garage since January of 2010. I am so glad he was there to see me get it dirty the first time....Oh that is what we all tuned in to read about wasn't it? Sorry I had to get past all that sappy reflecting back stuff first.
Oh and we'll get to some pics as well. But first: "The Plan".
Plan was to drive down pick the car up on Saturday the 1st and maybe get a little break in run that evening. Take it to Barstow and get a baseline setup on the car on Sunday with 5-car racers Zac Reish and Erik Irvine. Then maybe head out to Dumont Dunes for some family fun rides on Monday. Spend Tuesday working my way south to get some real shock tuning done by Sonny from Downsouth Motorsports on Wed or Thursday. Somehow meet up with my best friend Cory who has been there for me every step of the way through this entire build. Then I was hoping to convince a couple SoCal boys to play hooky and meet me in the desert for a day and then make our way north to try and catch the gang in Bodie on Saturday around lunch time. Sounds easy enough right? Well that's not exactly how it all went down.
Found out early in the week there was no way that Cory was going to make it for any of it. Irvine was going to have to stay down south in SD, Zac was down with a cold and not sure of his status, then on Wednesday I called and talked to Jack who said he was a little concerned abut being able to deliver the car on Saturday. He felt like Monday might be doable. I explained what that would do to all of my plans and he said he would do his best to keep me on track. I said should I just put it off a week and well as much as he might like that he had two cars to wire before the SEMA show at the end of the month so it really was not going to help him as he just needed to get it done and move on to the next ones.
So we left the house about 6:30 PM on Thursday night planning on driving straight through to Hesparia, CA since we had three drivers. HA! not one of us does a night shift of any kind but what the heck. Those of you that are friends of mine on FB have read this part and can skip ahead if you like but it really is just to good not to share.
So let me set the scene for you....it's 4:13AM somewhere in the northern Nevada desert. Now if you have never driven the stretch between Jackpot and Wells at O-dark-30 you need to understand that there is a metric poop-ton of wildlife to dodge out there. Everything from grasshoppers that are the size of hummingbirds to jack rabbits, coyote, deer, elk, then at time of the morning there are sage brush that are just sage brush and there are sage brush that all of the sudden move and become one of the formentioned forms of wildlife. Add to that the need to dodge the abundance of road kill, which brings us to the story. So trying real hard not hit the fog line or centerline causing that startling noise of hitting the rumble strips associated with those lines causing your passengers to wake up to that uneasy feeling that the driver in charge of this sh!tty shift of driving has fallen asleep, that's the worst right? Anyway, I have to cross said centerline to avoid some road kill and my copilot to the right asked if I was still fighting wind since I had just recently relieved him of his shift. I said no, but I am dodging all kinds of stuff. In that 100 or so mile stretch I dodged 5 rabbits and 3 coyote. Not 5 minutes later from the passenger seat I hear Deer!....deer,deer,deer increasing in pitch and intensity. I don't see it! I don't see it! I move to straddle the centerline giving myself options. I do not know if I should hit the brakes or the gas as I still don't see it! When the comforting voice of Colette from the back seat says "it's OK honey, he's dead asleep" are you fricken kidding me J.T.?
We rolled into Hesparia early enough to take "Uncle Randy" and Danette out to dinner. Now understand that Uncle Randy is not my uncle. He is Cory's uncle, but I love these guys like my own family so Uncle Randy it is to everybody in my family as well. These guys have been part of my sand family my entire adult life. When I sent them pics of the car and asked if we could set up camp at their house during my two trips down, Randy's response was sure, nice car, and are we taking it to Dumont when you pick it up from wiring? lol
It was nice to sit down and relax even though I was nervous with anticipation. So many things racing through my head as I laid down to sleep. I was excited but so nervous really. There are so many untested systems on the car. The motor has never been fired. Will the injectors be stuck. Will the fuel lines leak behind the fuel cell causing us to have to remove the cell to tighten fitings? The coolant lines have never been tested. How much coolant will it take to fill the system? The power steering system has only been bled with a drill. The clutch disk has never been engaged, and I only think that I have the hydraulic throwout baring bled properly and the pedal stop set at the proper depth. The brakes are bled but have never been hit with the car moving. That's just the mechanical stuff, then there is the steering and the suspension, spring rates,crossover collars and every single bolt on the car and what ones did we loctite and which ones did we not even think about loctiting? Yup a hard alcoholic beverage on ice was required to settle all that down a little.
Saturday Morning:
Jack was not ready and I knew that. That was OK as we had an appointment with Herald and Liz at Racing Plus/Parker Pumper. When we were down to drop the car off we went on the hunt for a place to try on helmets and neck devices. These guys were highly recommended and well all I can say is I am a customer for life! These guys are awesome. Colette and I were fitted on the first trip but they needed to wire and and add air to them. I also told them that we would be bringing JT in for fitting on the return trip but would not be able to wait long for them set up his helmet so to be ready. They asked what size we thought he might be and made sure that they had a couple helmets already to go. We still spent a couple hours getting everything ready to go which was fine. made sure to get a couple hoses for the pumpers as well.
I called Jack about noon and said we were headed that way. He said no hurry and that he had a long day ahead of him still. Well, JT and I knew we needed to work on the car a bit. I had found a last minute conflict on my front shock reservoirs and had shipped them off to Sonny to be converted from piggybacks to remotes. Cool story there. he quoted me a price for each kit and I said sure no problem and then he said ship them to me and I will do the labor for no charge...Really? OK then he calls me and asked what I was planning to do with my old parts and I said well I was planning on you keeping them on your shelf so that at some point you could help somebody else out down the road. He said well they are worth some money and he wanted to give me a little something as he was going to use them on his personal rig...Are you kidding me? I said perfect! please use them and I don't want a dime for them.
Anyway I had them shipped to Jax so they were waiting for JT and I to install springs and put them back on the car. After that project we decided to bust down the BFG A/Ts off the rear of the car. We had already mounted some Mud T/As on a set of my spare wheels. Once we busted down the 10.50s we mounted a couple of used 9.50s that I had picked up last trip preserving the set of stickers that were on the front. Those will get balanced and be a street/light duty use set. I will remount the 10.50 A/Ts on a set of 7inch Methods that I have and do the same with them. I sent the wife out for some Subway sandwiches in the mid afternoon.
Not really looking at the time much but knowing it was starting to get long in the day as the texts to my phone began to come in asking how it was going and all I knew is there was a bit of wiring left to do on the car. It was about then that Zac said that he could play hooky on Monday to do Barstow if that helped and that lifted this huge weight of my shoulders. Having somebody with about 30k worth of off-road miles under their belt riding shotgun as I shook the car down was going to be a huge confidence boost and honestly a big part of my plan in bringing the car down to wire and fire. At almost the same time I received word from Erik that he and his wife had decided to travel north for the weekend after all and would be at their desert house in Landers if we got things running and wanted to come out there. Oh yeah another weight lifted. That will be perfect as Erik is the only guy I personally know that even comes close to having the same miles under their belt as Zac as they have spent most of their lives chasing each other around the desert.
The sun sets and JT and I have finished our task list. But Jack has a ways to go yet. I pick up the heat gun and begin to shrink tubing on the harnesses that are left to be made up. Colette has been asleep for a while in the trailer and we order some late night Dominoes. As it approaches midnight Jack knows we need to get the motor fired so that JT and I can trouble shoot anything we need to while he finishes stuff like the tail lights and dome lights ect. So at 11:55 Saturday night I woke Colette up and we fired the motor for the first time. We let it run for a few and then shut it down.
Sunday Morning now I guess:
Jack finishes wiring up the fans and we cycle it again. No water seems to be circulating but I guess that because the T-stat has yet to open. We cycle it a couple more times shooting the block, heads ect with a laser temp gun and finally we get enough heat in the motor that it begins to flow coolant. Then the drip chasing begins. We have coolant at the heater core because its leaking, but we do not have hot water there. Well first thing is first, need to add in the O-rings at the heater core that somebody forgot to put in. Luckily Jack also plumbs cars as well as wires them and quickly saves the day on that one. I then notice a drip coming out of the thermostat housing and my head sinks. Really a bugger to get at in the configuration of this motor. Up front under the airbox and a pretty good reach at that from outside the cage. I put a small wrench on the bolt and give it a spin and it moves kinda easily so I give it a little more. Its tight but going and the drip seems to be slowing down. One more more little twist and SNAP! Are you fricken kidding me? Its 2:30AM and I just busted off a 4MM bolt in a hard to reach area of my motor. It was then that I realized that the leak was from a split in the hose going up from the housing to the manifold heat at the T-body. Not only does my head sink but it pretty much hits the floor, and I walk away. It was then that JT somehow collected himself and sat down next to the engine cage with a pair of vise grips and began to work the broken bolt the rest of the way through the back side of the open boss. Disaster averted again. A couple more fire ups with no leaks I am now realizing that I have the heater hoses reversed but that is not a huge deal at all and we will address that tomorrow....later today I mean.
I start to mount things like the GPS antenna, and the speedo GPS antenna as well as my roof top antenna for the radio. Meanwhile Jack and JT are buttoning up things like the seat heater wiring and dome lights when Jack says he is two connectors short of being able to finish the lights. F-it I said wire them in direct an we will cut the plugs in later. To which Jack says wait and begins to scrounge the shop. Details are sketchy at this point but I have plugs It's 5:20 AM and Jack says his checklist is complete. I was not in a pic taking mood but did snap a couple earlier in the day.
JT and I panel the car, put the doors and hood on and it is really all on me now. It runs but has never been in gear, it has never stopped ect. I fire it up and let it warm up for a second. Push it the clutch and its smooth. I put it in gear and its smooth. I let the clutch out slowly and wha wha wah I stalled it! Yup I stalled it. 3 more times I stalled it trying to get it out of the shop. Really did not want to dump the clutch and sling stuff all over the SEMA car parked right behind my car in there. But anyway it went something like this from there
https://youtu.be/pRs9-c-ulV8
https://youtu.be/sGpxEUsSMKM
Not sure how to explain the emotion in that second video. Yes there was excitement, dampened by pure exhaustion I guess. We loaded it in the trailer and I texted Irvine and asked if he was awake yet? He said absolutely and asked where we were? I replied that we had just put the car in the trailer after working all night on it. Can I come set up camp in Landers? he said he was going truck shopping but to just c'mon out. So that is what we did.
Unloaded the car in the dirt took a pic and then took a nap
After my nap and Erik's return I decided it was time to drive it down the streets of Landers and see how she did
Oh yeah while I was napping, my pops rolled in to Landers as well. He had been making his way down from Washington at a much more leisurely pace, but his timing for arrival was perfect.
I aint going to lie as I may have the details sketchy but I think Pops got the first shotgun ride. Unfortunately this is where we started to experience some of our inconstant engine trouble symptoms, so his ride was a little short maybe a mile out and back in the desert. But we were there to heat cycle everything today so that was OK. We let the car sit for a few and plugged in the code reader and cleared a bunch of stuff that was in there. I Then took JT for a ride out into the desert a few miles and back and followed that with a similar trip with the wife. She did take a couple vids of me trying to practice self control lol
After a few of these trips it was time to let Erik ride shotgun with me and we blasted out across the desert with a little more aggression but still keeping things in check for sure. We did pound a few whoops on our way out to some big bolder in the desert LOL
Well as I was loading things in the trailer I noticed that the front bumpstops did not look right and after further review I found a weld that was just a plain crappy, TIG bead laid on top with no penetration.
So basically we are looking at the end plate of my TIG welded beam. These are the only welds on the chassis that I did not do, I paid for these well that's a bummer as we really did not beat on it that hard. So I called Zac and said I would be in Hesparia for the night again and doing some rework on the end plate in the AM. He said No problem he would meet us there and go to Barstow from there.
So yeah then this happened....Sledge hammer, grinder and welder on day two of the Queens reign
Once I had that end plate welded back together...carefully as to not melt out the bushings on the beam. We headed for Barstow. Where I took my first ever "Selfie" with the "Classic Vinyl Guy"
Actually before the selfies Zac and I made a pass down the whoops road from Barstow main to the outlet center.
He told me to run it down there at about 50mph or so...or whatever was comfortable. We I did not have the GPS on but think that was about what we did the first pass at. He asked what I thought? I laughed as I have nothing rally to compare it to, but I said I felt that the back was soft. Not uncomfortable but soft I said kinda like my swng axle baja LOL He said OK lets adjust the front He adjusted the crossover and kept us on the lighter spring longer and we made another pass at probably about the same speed. I said that feels more balanced or more "In the road" I guess.
Back at Barstow Main we found that the other side bumbstop had done exactly the same thing So this time we got to do the same repair in the desert...and with a110 flux core welder. So much for the pretty stuff lol.
Zac then took a little out of the rear compression on the bypass and we made another pass. He then told me rather then blasting down through there in 3rd gear to go ahead and roll it in 4th and feel how much more stable it would feel. He was right more stable, however it did seem to want to drift around in the trail a little more now. He said yeah, well that's because you just blasted down through there 20mph faster then the first couple passes.... you actually have to drive the car now
Zac had to leave then so JT and I made one last pass down through there which was cool for him as it was his first real ride. Same vid as last week but ya'll were screaming for updates so I had to post them
It was at that point I called and told Sonny that we would not try and do shock tuning this week with the front bumpstops not performing up to snuff. I also told him that he had things really close with spring rates and valving right out of the box and we will be back down once I learn to drive the car a little better to have him dial us in.
Backtracking to the morning repair session in Uncle Randy's driveway. I walked up to him and explained that it had been really hard for me to try and plan any part of this trip with anybody but if he could be ready in a couple hours we could go from Barstow to Dumont tonight and camp you'd a thought I had just handed a 4 year old kid a sucker So yeah they stopped by Barstow on their way to Dumont and said we'll meet ya there.
Tuesday Morning:
Dumont is a cool place for a dune goon like myself.
Well first trip out was with the wife this time and it did not take us long to realize that 12PSI in the BFG's was going to be a bit too much
https://youtu.be/DdCQ1-FPmOE
I think that vid shuts off about 10 seconds before the view went to this
Followed by this
https://youtu.be/I_dOdJ3oDfs
And then this
https://youtu.be/agiCGTaTEJI
We still came back with smiles on our faces though you can't see em they are there
I have been skipping over the fact that we are still having random issues with the motor. Which has led us to decide not to head south at all skipping the meet up with the SoCal gang. Seems fine when we are cruising but after it has sat for a few it seems to be a crap shoot as to weather we need to clear codes or reset electrical system ect. But when it runs it runs good
https://youtu.be/Sqw7Il5nhjY
https://youtu.be/l9-0qlWARpc
https://youtu.be/AukUaoUJu6U
Wednesday Morning:
It was time to let the kid have a shot at it
https://youtu.be/1XO3hPHXfUI
I am pretty thankful that JT was able to get some seat time on this morning as it would be the last real rides we were able to take as frustration lay ahead. It was later in that same day that the motor went into limp mode symptoms and would not snap back out of it. I decided to contact the engine builder who I bought the entire package from. I knew that he knew we were up and running or at least close as Jack had been in touch with him last week to get a couple questions answered. So understand that I would have to drive 15 miles out of camp to get phone service to try and do so, which I did on Wednesday evening about 6:30PM. I called Carl to leave him a message and to let him know I would be sending him a text message with the codes it was throwing. But when I called he answered. I identified myself and began to explain what was happening, when he cut e short and explained that he was in the middle of dinner and would need to call me back. I apologized, and explained that I was on the side of a desert hwy in the closest place to camp that I could get reception but I would hang out and wait for his return call. An hour later I went ahead and sent him a "heads up" text with the list of the codes it was tossing. His intimidate response was that he was sorry that I was experiencing an issue but that he was busy and would call be back when he was done with dinner. So I picked up the phone and called and BS'd with fellow Honda guy jt1967 for a while. I explained to him the situation and that we probably were not ready to blast around Ocitillo Wells with the cool kids just yet. He understood my frustration with it all and said there would be another time. At 8:30PM about 2hrs after my first contact with Carl I decided to call it a night and head back to camp a bit frustrated. About 5:30AM I drove part way back out to the hwy to text Jax to update him and make sure we/he did not have anything that we could have gotten wrong. Really the codes pretty much pointed to engine management but it felt good to chat with him about it all knowing that at some point I might get pissed an s-can all of the computer and harness from Carl, I just have had mixed feelings about that deal from the time I cut the check on. Anyway Carl did send me a text back asking a few questions which I tried to answer by text but told him I would need to get to better service to call him back and to give me an hour or so. I went back to camp and I talked with Colette and JT about our options and said that Carl splits time between Portland,Or and Yuma, AZ and he was in Yuma and would take a look would they be willing to head that way. They agreed even though we all were starting to feel a little under the weather and the trip was taking its toll on us. We all agreed to break camp and I offered to take everybody out to breakfast in town where we split ways with my pops, and Uncle Randy and Danette, As we had been in contact with Carl on the way to breakfast and it was decided to head to Yuma with the car.
I made contact with jt1967 and told him that we had a Friday 7:00AM appointment in Yuma with Carl and if it was a quick fix we would head their way in Oct wells as I was hell bent on meeting him, Busk and Baja5 somehow. Even if all I did was unload the car spin 3 doughnuts in the parking lot and load back up it would be worth it.
Friday:
Well unfortunately, it just was not in the cards, we spent a few hours with Carl where he spewed his ways all over us and laid on some stuff that I would need to later float passed my Honda brothers to see just how tall of boots I needed to be wearing...yes this is my way of only slightly venting my frustrations about Carl. When we were done the motor was running free of codes accept for an O2 code and even though I had been talking with him for 2 days now and drove 6hrs to his house, Carl did not have another sensor there for us to try. Whatever.... we loaded the car and voted to point it straight north and see if we could be home buy days end on Saturday.
We made Ely Nevada buy about 10-11PM and camped in the mountains above Ely for the night. At 22* in the morning my thoughts turned to my STF family on the other side of the state of Nevada that were tent camping. Unfortunately, meeting some of them for the first time and seeing some old friends would have to wait for another time as well and that is a bummer for sure but there will be time.
Saturday would not be without it adventures and another blown trailer tire would lead to a 2+hour delay at the tire store in Twin Falls ID but we would push on through to home about midnight or shortly there after.
Monday:
Unloaded the car and its tossing codes Thanks for the help Carl!
After a call to Baja5, Denny suggested I start out with checking a few things an the first one we checked was to see that the two camshafts were in fact "In-time" with each other and well they are one tooth off so we now have a real place to start.....Thanks Carl! and seriously Thank You Denny.
Well the last month has been an emotional ride....I guess that's the way it's supposed to be, as the last 7 years has also been an emotional ride. I hope ya'll have enjoyed the ride as well. I'll leave this post with a couple of the coolest cell phone pics of the week
Haha, I just cannot do that after 7 years. I owe it to myself and this STF family to reflect back upon this journey and give a full report in classic CWB fashion. Wait, what does that exactly mean? Well when this all started it I was just a guy from Central Washington State setting out to build the cool baja I thought I had dreamed about. I started searching for convertible bajas on the web, as well as class 5-unlimited baja bugs. I had never posted to any forums had only signed up for a couple just to be able to see pics. I decided then that CentralWAbaja would be my username for such forums. It seemed fitting.
As this journey progressed I learned that I may be judged by others for my conduct online as well as my abilities to actually execute my build as well as document it. I also learned that it is real easy for a guy like me to get caught in the "Keep up with the Jones's" mentality. I have learned so much along the way, much more then the technical details it takes to complete such a project. I have learned that sometimes a car is just a car, and sometimes a car is a look into someones inner self, especially a build of this nature. I know that I definitely opened myself up to the world when I decided to document this build online, and although I have posted highlighted versions of this build in other forums and online venues I have always held true to this STF family.
As recently as just a few weeks ago I have been introduced (Online only at this point) to a member of this forum that has never posted but has followed for a long time if not from the start pretty much. That made me realize that there are way more people that have silently supported me than I ever knew or thought was even possible. The flip side to that is that I also realized that I have been judged by others in a way I never realized before either and again one of those things I have learned over this process is that that matters more to me then I ever realized. Funny things we learn along the way. Anyway, the friendships that I developed through this place have shaped my life forever, and I am so grateful to each and everyone of those people that have taken the time to develop a relationship with me, whether it be limited to an online friendship or one that has found us riding together or sharing a cold beverage together. Thank you guys.
I also have thought about this moment and how I would handle it over the last several years. Knowing I needed to thank so many people that have helped make this happen. Also knowing it would probably give some light to this that only those closest to me really know about. Obviously my wife and family first and foremost and that almost goes without saying but never would I go without saying it. Although in the "Online world" this build has the appearance of a guy with some expendable budget to really go all out, that definitely is not the case. Albeit I cannot deny that there has been a very large sum of money has been dedicated to this project over the years. I can remember having conversations with people 4+ years ago that I may have gotten carried away lol and I may have headed this down a path that I never intended but also one that would be very hard to deviate from. The fact that this has not been an unlimited budget build has also helped lead to the 7 year build time. In fact reflecting back through the timeline there was a day when my dad paid to fill my welding bottle so that I could spend a day under the hood feeling like a man lol
That said, there are some people that promised myself I would thank once this day arrived. You see this project started with the unexpected passing of Colette's (my wife) mom Marlene. Knowing how much she loved seeing us all as a family enjoy my old school car, we decided to start this project with some funds that she had left behind for us. And so it began with me sending my mom and dad to San Diego to pick the original parts purchase. That was Labor Day weekend 2009.
My first post here about this car was Feb of 2010. I was immediately welcomed in by this entire gang here as the fresh meat and y'all were so willing to help me lighten my wallet. I am afraid to call out individuals here for fear of leaving some out. Scan the 1st 5 or 10 pages of this build and it reads like a whos who of the regulars back then, but as I recently learned, there are regulars that do not show up in the 130+ pages either. So many people to thank, and as I sit back at the end of the day reflecting on those that took the time to explain bumpsteer, or hydraulic brake theory, or even the basics of CV's and their balls to me. I am so thankful for them.
Ya'll have watched my 13yr old kid grow up into a 20 year old young man along side me starting his own VW addiction, as well as helping me keep my sanity over the last 6 months as this has all come together.
Along the way I had some financial contributions from the passing of some of the most important people in my life. The decision to add funds to this build from that was a personal one between my wife and I and really until this very post I have never made mention of it. Why now? Well My aunt and uncle Lindy and Len sold me my first baja bug for a $1. They gave me a start in this VW world. They would have never built anything like what I have built, they would have never splurged on anything like this for themselves, they were always about doing things for others. I don't know what that says about me for doing what I have? But I choose to feel as though I helped make them happy in a way by letting them help me realize my dream.
Along the way my construction company has had its ups and downs with the economic situation our country was/is in while I was building this car. I learned to understand the TIME/MONEY Matrix. At times there was no money and lots of time and other times there was money and no time to work on the car. I tried to learn how to work with both of these. The Edwards family have been customers of mine since before I owned my own business. On a couple of occasions they made substantial contributions to me (Tips/bonuses) and said do something for yourself with this, pay bills if you must, but try not to and see if you cant just have some fun with it.....who knew you could put an Acura V-6 in a baja, yeah I hold the Edwards responsible for the snowball that was created there
I have people ask me if the company logos that are currently on he car actually gave me anything for running their decals. My simple answer is yes, they gave me their belief in me when I said I was building something pretty cool that thought would represent them well....and a pretty good deal on parts in some cases.
Then there is a special decal on the side in memory of a kid that worked for me for a while that lost his life 2 years ago doing what he loved, working on his truck. He worked for me at a time that I was unsure if I wanted to work for myself any more, he made me realize that there are people out there that just want to show up to work and learn. He made me wanna go to work, just to work with him. Without Kenny Rhodes working for me when he did, my company name might not be on the side of that car.
I can't help but think of the people that were in my life at the start of this build that are no longer on this rock to physically see it run. I feel and felt them as I spent my time reflecting back while driving down to California twice in the last month. When I sent my folks down at the beginning of this project was also the first time my mom showed serious signs of having health issues, ending up in a SoCal hospital for a few days on that trip. I am saddened by the fact that I cannot see her smile at my accomplishment, but so happy to know in my heart that she is smiling...she always smiled. That is her legacy.
3-1/2 years ago I sat my folks down and talked with them about whether I should focus on making the car drive or just staying the course and detailing it out to a more completed stage before driving. Part of that discussion was where to focus my budget that I had to work with at the time. I really wanted to start acquiring some parts but also wanted to start learning how to do the aluminum panel work on the car which was going to require a pretty expensive tool in a Mitler Brothers bead roller to do the things I had in mind for the car. They asked if they could buy the roller for me as they really wanted to watch me learn it all just as much as I wanted to show them that I could figure it out. I am probably to most proud of the panel work on the car for this reason. I know in my heart that they are both proud of me for accomplishing it they way I wanted.
What can I say about Pops? My dad has been there every step of the way. He has seen the joy as well as the frustration. He has helped create reality out of my crazy dreams using his own hands, tools and experiences. He has put up with just having to get out of the way while I sorted out the details in my head. And in reality that was a crappy thing to do to him at times because the car has lived in his garage since January of 2010. I am so glad he was there to see me get it dirty the first time....Oh that is what we all tuned in to read about wasn't it? Sorry I had to get past all that sappy reflecting back stuff first.
Oh and we'll get to some pics as well. But first: "The Plan".
Plan was to drive down pick the car up on Saturday the 1st and maybe get a little break in run that evening. Take it to Barstow and get a baseline setup on the car on Sunday with 5-car racers Zac Reish and Erik Irvine. Then maybe head out to Dumont Dunes for some family fun rides on Monday. Spend Tuesday working my way south to get some real shock tuning done by Sonny from Downsouth Motorsports on Wed or Thursday. Somehow meet up with my best friend Cory who has been there for me every step of the way through this entire build. Then I was hoping to convince a couple SoCal boys to play hooky and meet me in the desert for a day and then make our way north to try and catch the gang in Bodie on Saturday around lunch time. Sounds easy enough right? Well that's not exactly how it all went down.
Found out early in the week there was no way that Cory was going to make it for any of it. Irvine was going to have to stay down south in SD, Zac was down with a cold and not sure of his status, then on Wednesday I called and talked to Jack who said he was a little concerned abut being able to deliver the car on Saturday. He felt like Monday might be doable. I explained what that would do to all of my plans and he said he would do his best to keep me on track. I said should I just put it off a week and well as much as he might like that he had two cars to wire before the SEMA show at the end of the month so it really was not going to help him as he just needed to get it done and move on to the next ones.
So we left the house about 6:30 PM on Thursday night planning on driving straight through to Hesparia, CA since we had three drivers. HA! not one of us does a night shift of any kind but what the heck. Those of you that are friends of mine on FB have read this part and can skip ahead if you like but it really is just to good not to share.
So let me set the scene for you....it's 4:13AM somewhere in the northern Nevada desert. Now if you have never driven the stretch between Jackpot and Wells at O-dark-30 you need to understand that there is a metric poop-ton of wildlife to dodge out there. Everything from grasshoppers that are the size of hummingbirds to jack rabbits, coyote, deer, elk, then at time of the morning there are sage brush that are just sage brush and there are sage brush that all of the sudden move and become one of the formentioned forms of wildlife. Add to that the need to dodge the abundance of road kill, which brings us to the story. So trying real hard not hit the fog line or centerline causing that startling noise of hitting the rumble strips associated with those lines causing your passengers to wake up to that uneasy feeling that the driver in charge of this sh!tty shift of driving has fallen asleep, that's the worst right? Anyway, I have to cross said centerline to avoid some road kill and my copilot to the right asked if I was still fighting wind since I had just recently relieved him of his shift. I said no, but I am dodging all kinds of stuff. In that 100 or so mile stretch I dodged 5 rabbits and 3 coyote. Not 5 minutes later from the passenger seat I hear Deer!....deer,deer,deer increasing in pitch and intensity. I don't see it! I don't see it! I move to straddle the centerline giving myself options. I do not know if I should hit the brakes or the gas as I still don't see it! When the comforting voice of Colette from the back seat says "it's OK honey, he's dead asleep" are you fricken kidding me J.T.?
We rolled into Hesparia early enough to take "Uncle Randy" and Danette out to dinner. Now understand that Uncle Randy is not my uncle. He is Cory's uncle, but I love these guys like my own family so Uncle Randy it is to everybody in my family as well. These guys have been part of my sand family my entire adult life. When I sent them pics of the car and asked if we could set up camp at their house during my two trips down, Randy's response was sure, nice car, and are we taking it to Dumont when you pick it up from wiring? lol
It was nice to sit down and relax even though I was nervous with anticipation. So many things racing through my head as I laid down to sleep. I was excited but so nervous really. There are so many untested systems on the car. The motor has never been fired. Will the injectors be stuck. Will the fuel lines leak behind the fuel cell causing us to have to remove the cell to tighten fitings? The coolant lines have never been tested. How much coolant will it take to fill the system? The power steering system has only been bled with a drill. The clutch disk has never been engaged, and I only think that I have the hydraulic throwout baring bled properly and the pedal stop set at the proper depth. The brakes are bled but have never been hit with the car moving. That's just the mechanical stuff, then there is the steering and the suspension, spring rates,crossover collars and every single bolt on the car and what ones did we loctite and which ones did we not even think about loctiting? Yup a hard alcoholic beverage on ice was required to settle all that down a little.
Saturday Morning:
Jack was not ready and I knew that. That was OK as we had an appointment with Herald and Liz at Racing Plus/Parker Pumper. When we were down to drop the car off we went on the hunt for a place to try on helmets and neck devices. These guys were highly recommended and well all I can say is I am a customer for life! These guys are awesome. Colette and I were fitted on the first trip but they needed to wire and and add air to them. I also told them that we would be bringing JT in for fitting on the return trip but would not be able to wait long for them set up his helmet so to be ready. They asked what size we thought he might be and made sure that they had a couple helmets already to go. We still spent a couple hours getting everything ready to go which was fine. made sure to get a couple hoses for the pumpers as well.
I called Jack about noon and said we were headed that way. He said no hurry and that he had a long day ahead of him still. Well, JT and I knew we needed to work on the car a bit. I had found a last minute conflict on my front shock reservoirs and had shipped them off to Sonny to be converted from piggybacks to remotes. Cool story there. he quoted me a price for each kit and I said sure no problem and then he said ship them to me and I will do the labor for no charge...Really? OK then he calls me and asked what I was planning to do with my old parts and I said well I was planning on you keeping them on your shelf so that at some point you could help somebody else out down the road. He said well they are worth some money and he wanted to give me a little something as he was going to use them on his personal rig...Are you kidding me? I said perfect! please use them and I don't want a dime for them.
Anyway I had them shipped to Jax so they were waiting for JT and I to install springs and put them back on the car. After that project we decided to bust down the BFG A/Ts off the rear of the car. We had already mounted some Mud T/As on a set of my spare wheels. Once we busted down the 10.50s we mounted a couple of used 9.50s that I had picked up last trip preserving the set of stickers that were on the front. Those will get balanced and be a street/light duty use set. I will remount the 10.50 A/Ts on a set of 7inch Methods that I have and do the same with them. I sent the wife out for some Subway sandwiches in the mid afternoon.
Not really looking at the time much but knowing it was starting to get long in the day as the texts to my phone began to come in asking how it was going and all I knew is there was a bit of wiring left to do on the car. It was about then that Zac said that he could play hooky on Monday to do Barstow if that helped and that lifted this huge weight of my shoulders. Having somebody with about 30k worth of off-road miles under their belt riding shotgun as I shook the car down was going to be a huge confidence boost and honestly a big part of my plan in bringing the car down to wire and fire. At almost the same time I received word from Erik that he and his wife had decided to travel north for the weekend after all and would be at their desert house in Landers if we got things running and wanted to come out there. Oh yeah another weight lifted. That will be perfect as Erik is the only guy I personally know that even comes close to having the same miles under their belt as Zac as they have spent most of their lives chasing each other around the desert.
The sun sets and JT and I have finished our task list. But Jack has a ways to go yet. I pick up the heat gun and begin to shrink tubing on the harnesses that are left to be made up. Colette has been asleep for a while in the trailer and we order some late night Dominoes. As it approaches midnight Jack knows we need to get the motor fired so that JT and I can trouble shoot anything we need to while he finishes stuff like the tail lights and dome lights ect. So at 11:55 Saturday night I woke Colette up and we fired the motor for the first time. We let it run for a few and then shut it down.
Sunday Morning now I guess:
Jack finishes wiring up the fans and we cycle it again. No water seems to be circulating but I guess that because the T-stat has yet to open. We cycle it a couple more times shooting the block, heads ect with a laser temp gun and finally we get enough heat in the motor that it begins to flow coolant. Then the drip chasing begins. We have coolant at the heater core because its leaking, but we do not have hot water there. Well first thing is first, need to add in the O-rings at the heater core that somebody forgot to put in. Luckily Jack also plumbs cars as well as wires them and quickly saves the day on that one. I then notice a drip coming out of the thermostat housing and my head sinks. Really a bugger to get at in the configuration of this motor. Up front under the airbox and a pretty good reach at that from outside the cage. I put a small wrench on the bolt and give it a spin and it moves kinda easily so I give it a little more. Its tight but going and the drip seems to be slowing down. One more more little twist and SNAP! Are you fricken kidding me? Its 2:30AM and I just busted off a 4MM bolt in a hard to reach area of my motor. It was then that I realized that the leak was from a split in the hose going up from the housing to the manifold heat at the T-body. Not only does my head sink but it pretty much hits the floor, and I walk away. It was then that JT somehow collected himself and sat down next to the engine cage with a pair of vise grips and began to work the broken bolt the rest of the way through the back side of the open boss. Disaster averted again. A couple more fire ups with no leaks I am now realizing that I have the heater hoses reversed but that is not a huge deal at all and we will address that tomorrow....later today I mean.
I start to mount things like the GPS antenna, and the speedo GPS antenna as well as my roof top antenna for the radio. Meanwhile Jack and JT are buttoning up things like the seat heater wiring and dome lights when Jack says he is two connectors short of being able to finish the lights. F-it I said wire them in direct an we will cut the plugs in later. To which Jack says wait and begins to scrounge the shop. Details are sketchy at this point but I have plugs It's 5:20 AM and Jack says his checklist is complete. I was not in a pic taking mood but did snap a couple earlier in the day.
JT and I panel the car, put the doors and hood on and it is really all on me now. It runs but has never been in gear, it has never stopped ect. I fire it up and let it warm up for a second. Push it the clutch and its smooth. I put it in gear and its smooth. I let the clutch out slowly and wha wha wah I stalled it! Yup I stalled it. 3 more times I stalled it trying to get it out of the shop. Really did not want to dump the clutch and sling stuff all over the SEMA car parked right behind my car in there. But anyway it went something like this from there
https://youtu.be/pRs9-c-ulV8
https://youtu.be/sGpxEUsSMKM
Not sure how to explain the emotion in that second video. Yes there was excitement, dampened by pure exhaustion I guess. We loaded it in the trailer and I texted Irvine and asked if he was awake yet? He said absolutely and asked where we were? I replied that we had just put the car in the trailer after working all night on it. Can I come set up camp in Landers? he said he was going truck shopping but to just c'mon out. So that is what we did.
Unloaded the car in the dirt took a pic and then took a nap
After my nap and Erik's return I decided it was time to drive it down the streets of Landers and see how she did
Oh yeah while I was napping, my pops rolled in to Landers as well. He had been making his way down from Washington at a much more leisurely pace, but his timing for arrival was perfect.
I aint going to lie as I may have the details sketchy but I think Pops got the first shotgun ride. Unfortunately this is where we started to experience some of our inconstant engine trouble symptoms, so his ride was a little short maybe a mile out and back in the desert. But we were there to heat cycle everything today so that was OK. We let the car sit for a few and plugged in the code reader and cleared a bunch of stuff that was in there. I Then took JT for a ride out into the desert a few miles and back and followed that with a similar trip with the wife. She did take a couple vids of me trying to practice self control lol
After a few of these trips it was time to let Erik ride shotgun with me and we blasted out across the desert with a little more aggression but still keeping things in check for sure. We did pound a few whoops on our way out to some big bolder in the desert LOL
Well as I was loading things in the trailer I noticed that the front bumpstops did not look right and after further review I found a weld that was just a plain crappy, TIG bead laid on top with no penetration.
So basically we are looking at the end plate of my TIG welded beam. These are the only welds on the chassis that I did not do, I paid for these well that's a bummer as we really did not beat on it that hard. So I called Zac and said I would be in Hesparia for the night again and doing some rework on the end plate in the AM. He said No problem he would meet us there and go to Barstow from there.
So yeah then this happened....Sledge hammer, grinder and welder on day two of the Queens reign
Once I had that end plate welded back together...carefully as to not melt out the bushings on the beam. We headed for Barstow. Where I took my first ever "Selfie" with the "Classic Vinyl Guy"
Actually before the selfies Zac and I made a pass down the whoops road from Barstow main to the outlet center.
He told me to run it down there at about 50mph or so...or whatever was comfortable. We I did not have the GPS on but think that was about what we did the first pass at. He asked what I thought? I laughed as I have nothing rally to compare it to, but I said I felt that the back was soft. Not uncomfortable but soft I said kinda like my swng axle baja LOL He said OK lets adjust the front He adjusted the crossover and kept us on the lighter spring longer and we made another pass at probably about the same speed. I said that feels more balanced or more "In the road" I guess.
Back at Barstow Main we found that the other side bumbstop had done exactly the same thing So this time we got to do the same repair in the desert...and with a110 flux core welder. So much for the pretty stuff lol.
Zac then took a little out of the rear compression on the bypass and we made another pass. He then told me rather then blasting down through there in 3rd gear to go ahead and roll it in 4th and feel how much more stable it would feel. He was right more stable, however it did seem to want to drift around in the trail a little more now. He said yeah, well that's because you just blasted down through there 20mph faster then the first couple passes.... you actually have to drive the car now
Zac had to leave then so JT and I made one last pass down through there which was cool for him as it was his first real ride. Same vid as last week but ya'll were screaming for updates so I had to post them
It was at that point I called and told Sonny that we would not try and do shock tuning this week with the front bumpstops not performing up to snuff. I also told him that he had things really close with spring rates and valving right out of the box and we will be back down once I learn to drive the car a little better to have him dial us in.
Backtracking to the morning repair session in Uncle Randy's driveway. I walked up to him and explained that it had been really hard for me to try and plan any part of this trip with anybody but if he could be ready in a couple hours we could go from Barstow to Dumont tonight and camp you'd a thought I had just handed a 4 year old kid a sucker So yeah they stopped by Barstow on their way to Dumont and said we'll meet ya there.
Tuesday Morning:
Dumont is a cool place for a dune goon like myself.
Well first trip out was with the wife this time and it did not take us long to realize that 12PSI in the BFG's was going to be a bit too much
https://youtu.be/DdCQ1-FPmOE
I think that vid shuts off about 10 seconds before the view went to this
Followed by this
https://youtu.be/I_dOdJ3oDfs
And then this
https://youtu.be/agiCGTaTEJI
We still came back with smiles on our faces though you can't see em they are there
I have been skipping over the fact that we are still having random issues with the motor. Which has led us to decide not to head south at all skipping the meet up with the SoCal gang. Seems fine when we are cruising but after it has sat for a few it seems to be a crap shoot as to weather we need to clear codes or reset electrical system ect. But when it runs it runs good
https://youtu.be/Sqw7Il5nhjY
https://youtu.be/l9-0qlWARpc
https://youtu.be/AukUaoUJu6U
Wednesday Morning:
It was time to let the kid have a shot at it
https://youtu.be/1XO3hPHXfUI
I am pretty thankful that JT was able to get some seat time on this morning as it would be the last real rides we were able to take as frustration lay ahead. It was later in that same day that the motor went into limp mode symptoms and would not snap back out of it. I decided to contact the engine builder who I bought the entire package from. I knew that he knew we were up and running or at least close as Jack had been in touch with him last week to get a couple questions answered. So understand that I would have to drive 15 miles out of camp to get phone service to try and do so, which I did on Wednesday evening about 6:30PM. I called Carl to leave him a message and to let him know I would be sending him a text message with the codes it was throwing. But when I called he answered. I identified myself and began to explain what was happening, when he cut e short and explained that he was in the middle of dinner and would need to call me back. I apologized, and explained that I was on the side of a desert hwy in the closest place to camp that I could get reception but I would hang out and wait for his return call. An hour later I went ahead and sent him a "heads up" text with the list of the codes it was tossing. His intimidate response was that he was sorry that I was experiencing an issue but that he was busy and would call be back when he was done with dinner. So I picked up the phone and called and BS'd with fellow Honda guy jt1967 for a while. I explained to him the situation and that we probably were not ready to blast around Ocitillo Wells with the cool kids just yet. He understood my frustration with it all and said there would be another time. At 8:30PM about 2hrs after my first contact with Carl I decided to call it a night and head back to camp a bit frustrated. About 5:30AM I drove part way back out to the hwy to text Jax to update him and make sure we/he did not have anything that we could have gotten wrong. Really the codes pretty much pointed to engine management but it felt good to chat with him about it all knowing that at some point I might get pissed an s-can all of the computer and harness from Carl, I just have had mixed feelings about that deal from the time I cut the check on. Anyway Carl did send me a text back asking a few questions which I tried to answer by text but told him I would need to get to better service to call him back and to give me an hour or so. I went back to camp and I talked with Colette and JT about our options and said that Carl splits time between Portland,Or and Yuma, AZ and he was in Yuma and would take a look would they be willing to head that way. They agreed even though we all were starting to feel a little under the weather and the trip was taking its toll on us. We all agreed to break camp and I offered to take everybody out to breakfast in town where we split ways with my pops, and Uncle Randy and Danette, As we had been in contact with Carl on the way to breakfast and it was decided to head to Yuma with the car.
I made contact with jt1967 and told him that we had a Friday 7:00AM appointment in Yuma with Carl and if it was a quick fix we would head their way in Oct wells as I was hell bent on meeting him, Busk and Baja5 somehow. Even if all I did was unload the car spin 3 doughnuts in the parking lot and load back up it would be worth it.
Friday:
Well unfortunately, it just was not in the cards, we spent a few hours with Carl where he spewed his ways all over us and laid on some stuff that I would need to later float passed my Honda brothers to see just how tall of boots I needed to be wearing...yes this is my way of only slightly venting my frustrations about Carl. When we were done the motor was running free of codes accept for an O2 code and even though I had been talking with him for 2 days now and drove 6hrs to his house, Carl did not have another sensor there for us to try. Whatever.... we loaded the car and voted to point it straight north and see if we could be home buy days end on Saturday.
We made Ely Nevada buy about 10-11PM and camped in the mountains above Ely for the night. At 22* in the morning my thoughts turned to my STF family on the other side of the state of Nevada that were tent camping. Unfortunately, meeting some of them for the first time and seeing some old friends would have to wait for another time as well and that is a bummer for sure but there will be time.
Saturday would not be without it adventures and another blown trailer tire would lead to a 2+hour delay at the tire store in Twin Falls ID but we would push on through to home about midnight or shortly there after.
Monday:
Unloaded the car and its tossing codes Thanks for the help Carl!
After a call to Baja5, Denny suggested I start out with checking a few things an the first one we checked was to see that the two camshafts were in fact "In-time" with each other and well they are one tooth off so we now have a real place to start.....Thanks Carl! and seriously Thank You Denny.
Well the last month has been an emotional ride....I guess that's the way it's supposed to be, as the last 7 years has also been an emotional ride. I hope ya'll have enjoyed the ride as well. I'll leave this post with a couple of the coolest cell phone pics of the week
It is not Mickey Moused.....It's Desert Engineered!
- TimS
- Posts: 5723
- Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2010 10:11 pm
Re: Central WA Baja
I knew there was a reason I couldn't sleep. Then I found this nice surprise story this morning. Thank you for taking the time to immortalize this experience and illustrate it so well with words and pictures.
Would have been good to see you again but it appears we kept crossing the same ground on different timelines. NO thanks to Carl
Would have been good to see you again but it appears we kept crossing the same ground on different timelines. NO thanks to Carl
Don’t ever yield your gift of dream; Your knack for gumption, too. For “It’s the crazy ones that have all the fun," if dreamers yearn to do.
-
- Posts: 17731
- Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2006 10:17 pm
Re: Central WA Baja
OK, now the $64 dollar question is: are you still going to post now that this is pretty much done? Are you going to drop out of sight llike so many have or is there a new project on the way?
Hate to see you go but can you afford a new project that will top the last one?
As far as the lurkers go: one of the reasons I post to some extranious details at times is because of them. I watch the count of people looking at my strings and others. Gotta be a lot of them out there.
Lee
Hate to see you go but can you afford a new project that will top the last one?
As far as the lurkers go: one of the reasons I post to some extranious details at times is because of them. I watch the count of people looking at my strings and others. Gotta be a lot of them out there.
Lee
- takotruckin
- Posts: 3774
- Joined: Tue Jul 18, 2006 6:40 pm
Re: Central WA Baja
What a journey. Glad to see you are working out the bugs. I have no doubt you will end up with one of the fastest and most reliable cars out there. I hope to be on a trail with it some day.
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- Posts: 1126
- Joined: Fri Sep 20, 2013 3:02 pm
Re: Central WA Baja
That is a awesome wright up CWB. I have to say the second and third paragraphs are feelings I have felt to a point As we were driving across Nevada on the EBA I got text from you and felt your frustration and felt bad for you I am glad to hear things are looking up now and you do have one VERY nice car for your efforts Hope to meet up with you one day.
Ed
Ed
- BugUgly
- Posts: 116
- Joined: Thu Oct 02, 2008 8:59 pm
Re: Central WA Baja
Congratulations on getting that rig in the dirt!
On behalf of the lurkers, thank you very much for this thread. Ol'fogasaurus is right; we're out here. I don't have the experience to make helpful comments on an epic project like this one, but it sure is inspiring. It took a lot of effort to make such an extensive record. The way you did this thread puts your ideas, problems and solutions out where we lurkers can learn from them. It's been a fun read over the years. Thank you. -ErikF
On behalf of the lurkers, thank you very much for this thread. Ol'fogasaurus is right; we're out here. I don't have the experience to make helpful comments on an epic project like this one, but it sure is inspiring. It took a lot of effort to make such an extensive record. The way you did this thread puts your ideas, problems and solutions out where we lurkers can learn from them. It's been a fun read over the years. Thank you. -ErikF
- bajaherbie
- Posts: 9959
- Joined: Sat Jul 15, 2006 7:07 pm
Re: Central WA Baja
Heck yes! Awesome baja AND build thread! I promise I read every word!
When is the photo shoot with Hot VW'S? Definitely cover and centerfold material. The car, not you!
Sent from my SM-G920R4 using Tapatalk
When is the photo shoot with Hot VW'S? Definitely cover and centerfold material. The car, not you!
Sent from my SM-G920R4 using Tapatalk
Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.
- CentralWAbaja
- Posts: 4278
- Joined: Fri Feb 05, 2010 9:05 pm
Re: Central WA Baja
Funny you mention that Herbie. I have been in contact with them and gave them a chance at shooting it prior to any rock slinging. Their response was something like "You have done an awesome job on this build but our readers are pretty vocal about not liking V-8's in their VW's."bajaherbie wrote:Heck yes! Awesome baja AND build thread! I promise I read every word!
When is the photo shoot with Hot VW'S? Definitely cover and centerfold material. The car, not you!
Sent from my SM-G920R4 using Tapatalk
So I took the queen out and knocked her crown in the dirt.
It is not Mickey Moused.....It's Desert Engineered!
- CentralWAbaja
- Posts: 4278
- Joined: Fri Feb 05, 2010 9:05 pm
Re: Central WA Baja
I do not feel the need to top this in any way right now. I want to get the kinks worked out and turn our attention to the one that is in a million pieces in my garage right now. Remember that I do have another car. And if I have learned anything with this build, it's that we need to not snowball it.Ol'fogasaurus wrote:OK, now the $64 dollar question is: are you still going to post now that this is pretty much done? Are you going to drop out of sight llike so many have or is there a new project on the way?
Hate to see you go but can you afford a new project that will top the last one?
Lee
It is not Mickey Moused.....It's Desert Engineered!
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- Posts: 17731
- Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2006 10:17 pm
Re: Central WA Baja
Is that the one JT was driving?
Thanks again for the beams. I am learning a lot with the one. Can't post pix because I am running out of gigs but I did get a plumb bob and now having it sitting on a work bench at the proper angle so I can go from there. I learned a lot just from tearing that one a part.
Waiting for that last big storm to come through before I get serious about the next step on the besom: a hint: from Dusty and a hint from bikesndbugs). The first one divided so two wet and windy so we got two wet and windy fronts instead of the one we originally thought. They are comparing it to the Columbus Day storm in '62 but now instead of the 100+ mph winds they are thinking now of them being in the 50 - 70 range. If what I want to do works i will post the drawing for the fix so others can use it.
Lee
Thanks again for the beams. I am learning a lot with the one. Can't post pix because I am running out of gigs but I did get a plumb bob and now having it sitting on a work bench at the proper angle so I can go from there. I learned a lot just from tearing that one a part.
Waiting for that last big storm to come through before I get serious about the next step on the besom: a hint: from Dusty and a hint from bikesndbugs). The first one divided so two wet and windy so we got two wet and windy fronts instead of the one we originally thought. They are comparing it to the Columbus Day storm in '62 but now instead of the 100+ mph winds they are thinking now of them being in the 50 - 70 range. If what I want to do works i will post the drawing for the fix so others can use it.
Lee
- Leatherneck
- Moderator
- Posts: 17104
- Joined: Sat Jul 01, 2006 6:47 pm
Re: Central WA Baja
Very cool write up and videos Daron, outstanding job. You and the family have done a killer job on this one. We all have learned a lot along the way. Thank you for sharing it with us.
- dustymojave
- Posts: 2312
- Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2008 9:08 pm
Re: Central WA Baja
Awesome beautiful car. Daron. I too hope to be out offroading with it some time.
A great thread as well. I too have read each and every word from every poster.
I'll look forward to posts about getting everything working as it should. Then I'll watch for posts about the car working as it was meant on offroad excursions.
You're right about forums such as this baring our souls as we write about building our cars. We tend to share our lives while we talk about what we love. And just like the relationships we have with the people we love, sometimes the cars we love frustrate us too. That doesn't mean we would turn our backs on them. It's just part of the deal.
A great thread as well. I too have read each and every word from every poster.
I'll look forward to posts about getting everything working as it should. Then I'll watch for posts about the car working as it was meant on offroad excursions.
You're right about forums such as this baring our souls as we write about building our cars. We tend to share our lives while we talk about what we love. And just like the relationships we have with the people we love, sometimes the cars we love frustrate us too. That doesn't mean we would turn our backs on them. It's just part of the deal.
Richard
Lake LA, Mojave Desert, SoCal
Speed Kills! but then...So does OLD AGE!!
Tech Inspection: SCCA / SCORE / HDRA / ARVRA / A.R.T.S. OffRoad Race Tech - MDR, MORE, Glen Helen BajaCup
Retired Fabricator
'58 Baja with 955K Miles and counting
Lake LA, Mojave Desert, SoCal
Speed Kills! but then...So does OLD AGE!!
Tech Inspection: SCCA / SCORE / HDRA / ARVRA / A.R.T.S. OffRoad Race Tech - MDR, MORE, Glen Helen BajaCup
Retired Fabricator
'58 Baja with 955K Miles and counting
- CentralWAbaja
- Posts: 4278
- Joined: Fri Feb 05, 2010 9:05 pm
Re: Central WA Baja
Did a little testing yesterday. Car ran ok until I ran into fuel regulator issues....or so I thought. Well seems that you need fuel in the tank to actually make fuel pressure.
Anyway, a quick vid of the wife and I making one of a few passes. She says we were doing 80mph accourding to the GPS didn't feel like 80, sure didn't look like 80 in the vid lol
https://youtu.be/z-Ma9INgesM
Anyway, a quick vid of the wife and I making one of a few passes. She says we were doing 80mph accourding to the GPS didn't feel like 80, sure didn't look like 80 in the vid lol
https://youtu.be/z-Ma9INgesM
It is not Mickey Moused.....It's Desert Engineered!
- CentralWAbaja
- Posts: 4278
- Joined: Fri Feb 05, 2010 9:05 pm
Re: Central WA Baja
CentralWAbaja wrote:Did a little testing yesterday. Car ran ok until I ran into fuel regulator issues....or so I thought. Well seems that you need fuel in the tank to actually make fuel pressure.
Anyway, a quick vid of the wife and I making one of a few passes. She says we were doing 80mph accourding to the GPS didn't feel like 80, sure didn't look like 80 in the vid lol
https://youtu.be/z-Ma9INgesM
It is not Mickey Moused.....It's Desert Engineered!