Sam's Baja Bug

[War Pig]

Looking good Sam! I had a feeling there were going to be some bug builds going on after Dan built his. I'm working on my Class 1 rig right now and should have it ready for the March comp. Can't wait!

[Tin Soldier]

Just pretend it has a small block chevy stuffed under the hood and the scoop is for that. :-)

[sam63]

Originally Posted by Tin Soldier

Just pretend it has a small block chevy stuffed under the hood and the scoop is for that. :-)

Haha, cant do the chevy but maybe a ford. Think a 6bt cummins would be overkill?

Woke up this morning thinking I need to put a vw engine out back, just need to locate one now. The hood scoop will have to be a fresh air intake for the driver

[Tin Soldier]

Originally Posted by sam63

Haha, cant do the chevy but maybe a ford. Think a 6bt cummins would be overkill?

Woke up this morning thinking I need to put a vw engine out back, just need to locate one now. The hood scoop will have to be a fresh air intake for the driver

I have a Class 3 beetle that I didn't want a v8 stuffed in and so Speedweigand made me a Baja moto to go in the back that the electronics fit inside of.

I think a cummins in a Bug would rock. Use a 4 banger one from a forklift. :-)

Here's the link to the page where he was building the scale engine.

Custom Tuber Bug from an LCC

[sam63]

Got some more time yesterday to work on this. First thing was change the bumper a little bit, then add front and rear tube fenders.

After that I thought I would assemble the front axle. Sadly I dont think the VP 8deg set up will work for me like I planned. I would have to run wider hubs than I can get away with to keep the tire off of the steering arms. I had the axial high steer set up so I set it up with that but cant seem to get the same steering angle as I got with the xr mod set up with really narrow hubs to make the width work. My whole plan was to set build to the class 1 rules around the xr modded front axle but wanted to try going back to stock width and run a wider hub so I could get some wheel scrub so the front end gets more reach and movement with the wiggle trick. I tend to overthing this stuff sometimes So all that being said I will be sticking with xr front end goods.

So with the axles in it I can really see the 47% overdrive working. I have OD/UD in my class 2 and 3 and the only thing I dont like is when you try and get a front tire on a rock and hold a precise line it will sometimes spin and you lose the line. This od seems to be a lot bigger so we will see, if its too much I can just flip the t-case back and get the to the typical axial od and/or ud gear sets.

[War Pig]

That's a pretty crazy shock angle in the rear Sam .

[sam63]

Originally Posted by War Pig

That's a pretty crazy shock angle in the rear Sam .

Thats what it takes to get 90 deg of articulation on this thing Might be able to do some more on this tomorrow, cage are rear shock mounts are on my to-do list.

[Difuser]

Love the lines!

You did close to what I had for another thought on the rear tube fender to slider. I almost made some pieces to add in to look like the VW nerf bars that wee bolted to the body usually.

The rear bumper to slider is perfect. Are you doing something different for OD/UD? Axial is 28%ish, BigD's case is about the same ,47% is RC4WD tranny and tcase realm.

Oops nvm just saw that's what you're doing. You could further lighten it though by now OD'ing the rear axle to bring the split ratio not so extreme.

[BOLT]

This is a cool prosject and i really like the way you gave the body a longer wheelbase.
I had plans to use the same body but the short wheelbase stopped me..

[sam63]

Thanks for the comments guys, this has been a fun project. Last couple of days I got some more done. Spent a lot of time today figuring out the interior and electronics lay out. I have a plan finally and should be able to get the chassis and interior finished this week. The rear of the chassis will still need an engine, cant find one yet but may end up building one.

The cage fits the body just perfect so it should survive some nasty hits. If you have seen me drive you would know why

The winch set up is pretty trick, took most of the day to figure that one out. The spool will be hidden under the dash. I will mount the other side of it once I get the floor tubing in.

So here are some progress shots, sorry of the meathead wrestler guys, my 4 year old daughter insisted

[War Pig]

Nice Sam! Did you chop that servo winch case up or is it my imagination?
Look like it will perform nicely! What kind of belly clearance will it have once it's done? Looks pretty low.

[sam63]

It is kinda low now that you mention it. I was thinking street class low rider layin frame style. So I just checked and it will have the same belly clearance of my Blackfoot so it might be crazy enough to work, 2" at ride height for those who are wondering.

And yes you are correct on the servo winch being hacked. I wanted enough room for the drivers feet but the floor pan will come in too high so, alas, a footless driver it is. Too bad too, since it would of been a scale point. At least I will get tube fender points right Tim?! That one still kills me

[War Pig]

Originally Posted by sam63

It is kinda low now that you mention it. I was thinking street class low rider layin frame style. So I just checked and it will have the same belly clearance of my Blackfoot so it might be crazy enough to work, 2" at ride height for those who are wondering.

And yes you are correct on the servo winch being hacked. I wanted enough room for the drivers feet but the floor pan will come in too high so, alas, a footless driver it is. Too bad too, since it would of been a scale point. At least I will get tube fender points right Tim?! That one still kills me

2"? Damn, that's low.

No on the tube fender points.....

[pike2350]

Really like the tubework and the stretch. I grew up around VW's (although no baja's) I always thought one would be cool to build, but I didn't like the size of them....this makes me reconsider it.

I can't wait to see it done a little more.

[summitcrawler]

that looks awesome! i like it a lot!

[sam63]

Didnt reach my goal of getting the chassis and interior complete this last week but thats ok. I lost a couple of days with this mother of all colds that seems to infected everyone but me, untill now....

So having a throbing head full of snot and not wanting to think/agonize over fabrication stuff I decided to do some body work, my arch nemesis. Got to a point I can almost live with it, need to fill a couple of little spots, do some more sanding, priming and then final paint. I have the color picked out but dont want to spill the beans. Oh yeah, I was able to do some a little mod to the slipper to move the spur gear in super tight to the tranny allowing. This means no more hole in the hood, yay. Had to be fixed though, nothing a styrene master like me cant handle, seriously though it wasnt too bad, stuff just takes time and patience, I struggle in those areas.

The tube work is almost to the point I can pull it apart and weld and finish it out. Ive been using all SS tubing, 3/16 and 1/8, for the chassis and fenders. For the "less" structural stuff I decided to use some 3/32 ss rod. There are some things I want to do the rear bumper to close off the rear of the chassis and I also need to build a removable seat bar for the driver/passenger seats. The floor pan is one piece of styrene and can be finagled in and out.

[shwng1973]

That tube works makes the difference. Great job on it.

[BADASSPONY]

This is awesome!! With the tube work, the stretch and all the detail so far its simply a cool as hell bug!!!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

[Bulldog]

Yeah, that's looking really good. I'm totally digging it.

[War Pig]

Looks great Sam, just make sure the tires (front or rear) don't stick out past the bumpers. Basically, of you drive up to a wall, the bumper must touch before the tire (it's a rule in Class 1) it looks like you are close.