It all started Christmas of 2007. I didn't get anything again. Everybody else got cool stuff but I got jack. I wanted a toy too. I wanted a project car. It had been quite a while since I had a stunt car. Family and kids can change your life if you're not careful. It was either gonna be a Firebird or a VW. I happened to stop by a buddy’s house and he brought me in his garage to show me his Baja, his VW convertible, and his VW street car.
Yeah, a Baja would be sweet. I spent the next few weeks fighting to get my garage back as the kids took it over as a game room. I spent 3 months looking for a donor car. My budget was $1,500, but if I spent less on the donor I would have more money for parts. I looked at alot of junk. Alot of rusted out cars. Alot of hacks. When I went to look, I would bring my tow dolly. Sellers figured they had the deal and wouldn't budge on their price. I'd just leave. I was getting burnt out and just bought one. I paid too much. I got this one for $1,400:
The pans weren't solid, they had a few holes.
The 08 tags expired in 20 days.
It wasn't accident free, it was hit in the back and you couldn't open the valve cover very easy.
It WAS complete...
The interior was all original...
The engine was replaced a “few” thousand miles ago and it ran pretty good. Even with all the original hoses leaking...
So before anything, I needed to get that radio replaced.
So I started to check things out to see what was needed. It needed pretty much everything...
My plan was to get used stuff to build the car where possible. I also used this site, TOS, and Hibbard as my guide.
I started on the front end since I needed to rebuild the whole thing. I went with a 1/4" cut and turn on the beam. It only cost me a case of beer to get that done.
I thought it was too high and would kill the ball joints, but I jacked up the rear and the front came down a bit. It also softened up over time. Still need to add straps. I followed Hibbard's advice on raising the rear. Didn't work for me. I was on the stops. I drove it like that for a while. Fun stuff when the only suspension you have is the softness of your tires. Spilled alot of coffee driving it to work on Friday's. Dropped it down a spline, but was 1" lower on the driver's side. Did the math and -5 inner splines and +5 outer splines and now it sits level. 15" high at the pan.
Now it's on to the interior....
Black duct tape! All done. It's just a baja for goodness sake.
My first score was the "almost" baja kit. It was only missing the rear fenders. Picked it up for $100 bucks. I almost didn't cut it. I couldn’t do it. Probably the hardest thing for me was to take a saw to the car. Once I got going I started to have fun.
The front fenders must have been lying outside for too long. They flattened out and I couldn't get them on. So I just cut my stock fenders. I saw a few pics online that looked bad, so I wasn't sure how it would come out. It took a while to make a line I liked. It took FOREVER to get the other fender to match. One pass with a scroll saw did it. I just added door edging to finish it off...
Scored $10 headers. The springs and gaskets cost me more…
The biggest nightmare had been with getting rims. A buddy bought me a set of 15x7 rims from the Pamona swap meet. I went at them with a wire wheel, primed, and painted them. Went to get some new BFG's put on them and that's when I found out they were really 14" rims. Still got them too if anyone needs a pair.
I found another pair on craigslist with 12 year old tires mounted. The guy tried to say they were only 3 years old. Then I pointed to the datecode. Got them for close to nothing. He threw in a 3rd wheel for a spare too.
So I was looking for front wheels forever. I had sold off my stock wheels when I found the front tires from another guy, but they were on 5 wide stock wheels (still have them too). So my buddy gave me 2 stock rims. One was bent. I go back to my buddy and got another wheel. It had an old tire on it which I had a great time taking off. I sanded primed and painted them, but one was a 4" wide rim and the other was a 4.5" wide rim. I pulled my original spare out and had the tire pulled off it. Sanded, primed, and painted it, but found that I now had one with a 4" backspace and another with a 4-1/4" backspace. So I go to my buddy's neighbor who has VW stuff up the ying yang. He gives me a pair of stock wheels. They were pretty damn rusty. (still have them too) As we are walking back to his house, his other neighbor asks what we plan to do with the rusty VW wheels. Turns out he has stacks of rims too. He gives me a pair of super beetle rims. I just threw some primer on them. So I go to get the 7.00x15 tires pulled off the 5 wides and have them mounted on the super beetle rims. The guy at the tire shop tells me they’re warped a little. That's why there are so many weights on it. Good enough for my baja…
While all this was going on, Ricko was swaping bodies. Not sure how we go to talking about them, but I ended up buying them… for next to nothing.
I was reading some posts on TOS and some yahoo offers up his rear double tube bumper. I already had the front bumper from the Pamona Swap meet, so I was all over this one. I met a cool guy who sold it to me for next to nothing. It was rough though. It had a few layers of paint that was chipped up pretty bad. It was bent and had broken welds too. It may have taken a hit hard enough to break a frame horn. Cost me another case of beer to get it welded. Here it is after a few coats of paint…
My backyard was looking like a VW junk yard. Made a few good deals. Everyone who came left with something.
So that’s about it. You’re up to date. Here’s what it looks like today. It’s just about ready for desert season.
It’s a work in progress, so this is just the beginning. Thanks for looking.
You did pretty good, do not sweat one bit about Baja's compared to one another, they are all great! How is the ride now compared to when you bought it?
I drop my reliability down to 20%. Not much grease in there and was was left looked more like my ear wax. I cleaned it up, packed the outer bearing best I could, put it all together, and used my trampoline torque technique. We'll see if it stops squawking tomorrow. Can't wait to see the other side... 
