My 2332 Turbo Baja Build

[ejbbal21]

Ok so this is my second thread on this site. The first one was my motor build http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic ... 3&t=133321 . This one is going to be about the installation of my lift kit and the refabing of my front and rear bumpers. I will post some pics of where I'm at as of now this week. I installed the lift kit from bugzylla fabrication last week. This past weekend the steering was fixed with some u-joints from a supper Beatle. If you look at my motor build you can see the before pics. I would love some ideas and pics of your guys front and rear bumpers and how you attched them to the car. What would you do diffrent? My car is not yet caged so I'm limited on where I can secure them. Thanks for you input.

[david58]

Ok so this is my second thread on this site. The first one was my motor build http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic ... 3&t=133321 . This one is going to be about the installation of my lift kit and the refabing of my front and rear bumpers. I will post some pics of where I'm at as of now this week. I installed the lift kit from bugzylla fabrication last week. This past weekend the steering was fixed with some u-joints from a supper Beatle. If you look at my motor build you can see the before pics. I would love some ideas and pics of your guys front and rear bumpers and how you attched them to the car. What would you do diffrent? My car is not yet caged so I'm limited on where I can secure them. Thanks for you input.

First ? are you putting a cage in the car? If so I would wait on the bumpers until after the cage is done. Nice car by the way.

[ejbbal21]

Update: I cut off my old upper shock mounts and have removed my old boxed stock rear arms. I now have 4x5 arms on my car. Let me tell you there is a real difference in the way it looks. I'm using lobro 930cv with chromoly cages. I figured that I will have at full droop 25* of angle. With an 8" and 10" shock I will have 18" of travel. Now I will tell you that this is not a race car, it is not a crazy duner. It a family fun play car that spends just as much time on the street as it does in the desart. I'm not going to cage the car at this time but I will at a later date. I have 3 small kids (5,3,2) and don't drive crazy anymore, especially with the kids in the car. I want to smooth out the ride for the kids. Ok so I like he way it looks and the way it will ride as well. I will post some pics in a few min.

[ejbbal21]

Before Clean

Before Dirty

Steering after lift kit was installed

After lift old upper shock mount setup






4X5 arms installed and tomorrow I will get started on my new upper shock and rear cage mounts.

[ejbbal21]

Update: if you look at my pics from before you can see my old upper shock mounts were fabed. I cut the old setup off and am in all most finished fabricating the new upper shock mounts. I have the main part of the bumper completed and am working on how I'm gong to attach the upper part of the bumper to the upper shock mount. I'm setting up for dual shocks in the rear. 1 8" travel shock and a 12" coil over. I would like to cage my car but I can't at this point. Besides I'm not jumping or racing this car. Ok I have to confess, before I started this upgrade I raced a early 90's vette and had 4 car lengths on him at 60mph. That's about the extent of my raceing...... And the occasional rice-burner. But really that's it. I will try and post some pics this week.

[Leatherneck]

Big difference in those arms. keep the progress coming.

[ejbbal21]

My goal is to have to rear completed in the 3 weeks. Then I will start on the front. I have a homemade 12" over beam with 4" over arms. Both the front and rear suspension came from my dad. He has a baja thing and the 4X5 would rub the body so he got 5x5. Seeing as how a thing is heavier to start with we built a new chromeoly beam with coil overs. I have no problem getting some hand me downs. it has taken me about two years to put together all the parts to complete the upgrade. My dad and I have always had a rivalry. You know like who has more power and suspension. Who would win in a race on the street and desert. He has a 2376 (86x94) n/a with some big heads and a fk87 cam dual 44 webers. We have the same tranny and gearing but I have a fully built setup. Mine is a turbo 2332 decent heads great cam (the hottest CB turbo cam) with dual 45 dells. Needless to say I kill him in the power area but he has forever eatin me alive on the trails. That is going to soon change. you could say that I have grown up with rails and baja's my whole life. The baja that this thread is about I learned to drive in when I was 8. I can't even tell you how many people have learned to drive in this car. It's safe to say it's part of the family. I'm not sure that it will ever get painted. The body is so beat up and tweaked it's no with the prep or paint. So I thinks that gives you the update for the day. I will post some pics of my dads thing later this week so you can see what I'm up against. I almost for got he's has 1.5 or 1.4 rockers and I have 1.3.

[Leatherneck]

Yes post up those pics, like to see what has been eating your lunch all these years.

[ejbbal21]

Here's a few pics of my dad's baja thing

[ejbbal21]

It's coming along again. I have the upper shock mounts finished and now I'm in the process of installing the oil filter and cooler above the tranny. Just as soon as I complete the rear the 12" over beam will be next. I'm hoping to have everything completed by labor day so I can take it to the cinders just outside of Flagstaff AZ. The front end will be done on the cheep. I will be using my stearing gear until i can afford a saco rack. and I will be using stock l/p spindles until I can get some raised combo spindles. So that's my update for now.

[ejbbal21]

I want to know what you guys are running as far as rear suspension? What size arm/shocks/CV's and how much useable travel are you getting?

[Big Dave]

My car uses 3x3 arms, 930 CVs, 14" travel coilovers and 091 bus trans. Travel is set to about 17". I can get more than that, but the tires will hit the body, and the engine would be very close to hitting the ground at full bump.

With a narrower trans (type 1, spendeola) you might get more travel from the CVs, and lowering the trans would get you more as well. Problem is, seems like for every 1/2" you lower the trans, the engine is 1" lower.

[ejbbal21]

When I measured with my 4x5's at full droop I had 5" of clearance between my trans mount and the ground. I'm running race prepped and polished German 930 cv's. How long are your shocks?

[ejbbal21]

Here are the latest pics. Sorry some of them are a little fuzzy. So after I finished the rear suspension I took it down to Autozone to grab a few things. As i was leaving i got on it a bit in the parking lot....... And well let just say that ring and pinion was no more. I called every one I knew to get quotes to rebuild it. The cheapest I could find was about $750 by the way it's an 002 bus. So I was on the hunt for a new transaxle. I found one here in Vegas, an 091 no less for $350. It was out of bus with the stock drive flanges and front mount. What a steel!!!!! I swapped the bell housing and input shaft and I was good to go. The gearing was a little taller but that was no big deal I have tons of torque to spare. ok so the rear is done except for some minor bracing on the rear cage and skid plates for the motor and trans. So up front I cut off the b/j frame head and welded on a l/p one. I extended the frame head 3.5" just incase I wanted to put on 4" over arms in the future and my tires would stay about where they were before. My beam is bolted up and the stock spindles are installed with brakes and drums. No all I have left is to make some tie rods. My new beam is about 12" over with 2.5 over arms to match the rear track. The head light mounts need to be fabricated as well as the front bumper. Thats the update for now.

[ejbbal21]

One more thing I forgot. I figured out that a 091 is about 3/8" longer then a 002. I didn't know that before.