68 baja build

[dustymojave]

Bending a tube that is from the front bumper back to the A pillar, then becomes the upper A pillar, then over the top to the top of the B pillar... is a difficult piece to bend and fit. Much simpler and stronger to make it more conventional as I showed in my Paint version of your drawing. With the A pillar and roof bar being one piece, and the front upper rail being a separate piece.

I notice in looking back at that that I brought the blue upper front tube back into the A pillar. It should have stopped a hair further forward so it shows the red as un-interrupted as I intended. But you can't very well edit Paint like you could AutoCad or Solidworks. I'd have to re-do the whole drawing now to edit that.

[bikesndbugs]

SO im mostly getting you i dont have time to really think it through now. SO im thinking a stick of .120 wall a stick of 1" tubing for braces idk what size nd a few sticks of .095 wall. I like the idea of bulkhead flat bar helps tie the cage to pan. I plan on leaving an inch or 2 of tunnel to weld tubes to

Picked up some arms today they have extended shock mounts welded on them so thats nice got the set for 40 bucks. Also stopped by a vw shop had them look at the spindle. THe man says he thinks its fine and i bent the carrier a little bit but i should be fine running it. ANd he said i should get my hands on one of the gusset kits.

GOnna wedge some 10ga between the beam and panhead just to straighten out the beam some for the daily commute to school as ive been using my dads for the past week and dont like that then i save up and do some work for people till i have cage money. then save some more till i have seat money then i should be all set.


SO my steering column fell off those little cast aluminum tabs snap. is there a way around this happening? whats the secret?

[dustymojave]

FELL OFF? ... Mount the steering column to the roll cage dash bar with pillow blocks.

If you're gonna use .120 wall for the cab, it will take more than 1 stick.

Let's rough figure that part of the cage:
- A pillar ~ 4' x 2 = 8'
- B pillar ~ 4' x 2 = 8'
- Halo (around the top over your head) ~ 4' across x 2 + ~ 2' sides x 2 = 12'
- Rear braces ~ 6' x 2 = 12'
- Diagonal (if used)) ~5'
Total = 40- 45' or 2, to 2+ sticks

1" OD material where I've shown it can be .065 wall.

All of the cage work you are doing can be CREW tubing. No need to waste money on fancy stuff like 4130. Most offroad race cars were built with it for over 40 years with no problems.

[bikesndbugs]

im gonna use dom mild steel tube. and when i said one tube i meant b hoop out of .120 wall I guess the a pillars would also be a good idea. the b hoop is about 11 feet then the sides of the a hoop and top are about 7 each plus 4 for across. I dont think the rear braces will be .120 wall. unless thats more important than the A hoop. I dont wanna use too much .120 wall as its heavier. I did the inter web google and its about half a pound per foot so i figure about 20 pounds heavier and 10 bucks more expensive. So no big deal. Does the rear supports have to be .120 wall i think 2 tube would be no problem if we kept the rear .095 wall. maybe do the tube back from the harness bar out of .120 so 6 ft rather than 12 we are then 35 to 40 ft with maybe some extra. the 1" would be used for braces and diagonals maybe for an diagonal from upper to lower beam supports and the diagonal you drew the blue diagonal. and the door bar diagonal sound right?

And as far as cage design the initial thought was how it is now i was just trying to get too fancy and bendy with stuff.


Also got about 4 ft of 1 inch Diameter pipe. would this work for tubular mirrors? with some 18 ga sheet metal as mounts?

[dustymojave]

1" OD is rather large for mirror mounts. It would work...I used 1/2" OD for mine. I would also use 16ga for the strap/bracket.

You say "pipe". Do you mean "tube"? Or is it really pipe, like for water or something like that? If it's "tube" it could maybe be used for some of the diagonal braces. Pipe...uhmmm...nope.

[bikesndbugs]

1" OD is rather large for mirror mounts. It would work...I used 1/2" OD for mine. I would also use 16ga for the strap/bracket.

You say "pipe". Do you mean "tube"? Or is it really pipe, like for water or something like that? If it's "tube" it could maybe be used for some of the diagonal braces. Pipe...uhmmm...nope.

Couldn't tell ya its off my roofrack that is now destroyed its welded seem so i say pipe i wouldnt trust it as a brace. the strap id try to do 16ga might be able to get some from my welding class i have a big sheet of 18ga in my garage
I did fine some other really thin pipe from some sort of bathroom towel rack welded seam looked like smaller diameter idk where i set that, idk if it would be sturdy enough and its got a dent where a bend would be does that mess things up

the pipe on this roofrack i snapped the fronts in the rollover so its useless to me now also rare pic of my bug stock

[bikesndbugs]

Got new shocks bet ended up snapping the shaft trying to back up. I need lower stops. not ready for uppers. becuase i dont have the shock tower set yet. so what will work. ive got some 10 ga so i could do a sort of plate stopper.

Ive seen some stoppers usesing a bolt on the arm but5 i cant find it. what do you guys have any pictures. im familair with dustys i might do something similar to that.


was reading up on edis stuff and turbo and all that cool stuff and it really reminded me of why i predominately stay on this site. Tos people tend to be so rude and just lash out if you do anything. like wow im trying to learn and people are calling each other stupid and just alot of bs. I am happy this site is better.

[bikesndbugs]

https://www.amazon.com/KYB-KG5192-Gas-a ... B000EQ8GYM
thinking these for the front

[bikesndbugs]

https://www.amazon.com/KYB-KG5192-Gas-a ... B000EQ8GYM
thinking these for the front

[Piledriver]

If you saw how they were designed you would never put them on your car.

The piston runs metal on metal, and they don't have a bushing for the shaft, steel on steel, ~9mm thick base.
The seal is kinda cool, its simply pressure activated lip seal at the base.

The valving is all on one side, and uses the ID and OD of the same shims for compression and rebound.

I just repurposed a pair of KYBs I had, they became resis for my front Bilsteins, needed a 1" shorter shock with full travel, so moving the IFP gave me that, shortened the shock body to match.

They are fine for that, used the steel KYB IFP for the gas end cap with the light plastic Bilstein IFP as the IFP.

For the price they almost make sense for that purpose...
OK if free.

[bikesndbugs]

i could buy a better shock if i had the money and ive heard better things about the gas adjust vs lets say a monroe or rancho. and that is where the budget is at.

[dustymojave]

Yeah guys. Not everybody out there can afford King bypass shocks for their 1st car. Give the young man a financial break here. Let's not talk top grade champagne on Kool-Aid budget.

I actually won a championship racing my buggy with KYB Gas-A-Just shocks against competitors with then new Fox shocks on their cars. Yes, there are vastly better shocks on the market now. But they cost vastly more as well.

Gotta remember the old hot rodder's saying (or at least my version of it):
"Speed costs money. How fast can you afford to go?"

[Piledriver]

You forget what a tightwad I am...

I paid $40 for a new in box _pair_ of Bilstein S6Ms... And about the same for a pair of used std 46mm Bilsteins from Ground Control, that had a custom revalve thats about perfect for the back of a stiffly sprung AX car.
The shim kits were ~ $10 for both.

I also picked up a set of Ridetech Fox "truck" 2.0s for a F250 that I converted the stud mount to a welded on 5/8" spherical (std 1/2" size 1" ID cup) to set the desired extended length, for $35. Each. New, surplus.
They contained about a dozen shims each, stuck a schrader valve in them and rearranged the stacks, work great after a couple tries.

All of the above became coil overs. The S6Ms already had the circlip...
Shock dyno is $8 at Smileys Racing for a non-adjustable.

Admittedly not off road shocks, but almost any used pair of (non-crimped) Bilsteins can be easily DIY converted to take aparts for a very few bucks and revalved any way you could possibly desire.

Don't buy junk just because you can afford it, SHOP HARD.

If 9" of shock travel is enough and you like bilstein take aparts shock-shop still has 40-50 Sx9s for dirt cheap, add any pistons and valving you desire. He's retired so he might take awhile to respond.

I got my Bilstein pistons and valve shim kits from Daly Racing in Tyler, Texas, even first class is ~overnight mail from here. They either have or can get anything Bilstein related, ask for Tommy.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Again, I am not running in the same conditions most of you guys are but as far as shocks go I have had experiences with the good, bad and oo-gully.

I started with some kind of stock shock in front and the air filled Hijacker style of air-shock in the rear. The stock shock was next to worthless even on the street. The air-shock ended up almost causing me to endo (flip end over end) as they were being used to get the body away from the tire and, like unshocked air bags became a trampoline. Even then my paddles have the paddles cut almost to the core all the way around. That is when I learned about changing the preload.

KYB shock came next: the grey in front and the white in the back Better but not by much. Another supposedly (advertised as such) good off-road/stock shock followed closely by Monroe/NAPA but again, not what I wanted or needed.

After finally doing a body lift (after several preload settings) and adjusters on the front beam I went to Bilsteins (Koni and other performance manufactures make good off-road shocks also) designed for the travel distance I have and designed and valved more for off-road. At the time the shocks were ~$100 per corner and well worth it. I have told the story several times before about the difference between good shocks and marginal/OEM shocks when the same dune face collapsed on me twice; once with the other shocks I was using and once with the properly valved shocks I got) and I dropped quite a ways before landing on a firm surface. The difference in the shocks was amazing.

I do recommend you go for properly sized and valved shocks for off-road and street use vs. the easy to get everyday/OEM style of shock/dampener ("dampener" is a better descriptor than "shock" is for what they really do). Do yourself a favor and do it right the first time and drive safer so you can live and enjoy things longer.

Lee

[bikesndbugs]

I do have some 10 inch fox2.0 coil overs with resis in the garage. No idea what the spring rate or valving is and the one has some shaft pitting and is blown. I was planing on runing those in the rear someday but this might be the time for them. maybe without coils? I ran the kyb stock replacement style in stock length and had no issues with the bottoming and those are even softer. even jumped the car a couple of times and the back bottomed out but not the front.

The ones i snapped backing up were bilstein smooth bodies idk how much travel. I might be able to get another longer set off a Friend. Those now go for around 100 each and i just dont have that kind of cash right now.ANd if i did id would drop 130 a shock on some foa shocks that are actually adjustable