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1957 Volkswagen Baja Bug
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In December of 1991 I purchased this Bug from a "surf punk" in Huntington Beach. He had owned it only a month and had done quite a bit of damage to it. He even managed to bash in a fender between the time I first came over to look at the car and the next time when I came over to make the deal. I sputtered away $750.00 dollars poorer and one Baja Bug richer. |
| It may not look like it, but a large sum of money has gone into making it what it is today. It now features a full custom built roll cage, custom rear bumper cage, and at one time a custom front bumper cage which was destroyed when a "yokel" in a Camaro made a left turn into my front end. Fortunately, the Camaro was totaled. Other cool features are a 6 inch wider than stock front beam, a 1962 Bus transaxle, factory sunroof, popout windows, aluminum dash with VDO gauges, Beard seats and much more. Future plans call for a new front bumper cage and a "New Beetle" yellow paint job. |  |
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The engine currently in the car is a 1641cc dual port.
It features an S&S merged exhaust system, a full flow oil filter
system with Gene Berg steel braided teflon oil lines and a Berg pressure
relief pump cover. It also has a remote oil cooler, a power pulley,
Motorola alternator, Bosch 009 distributor , Zenith 32NDIX
carburetor, a very rare cast aluminum fan
shroud and a
Bugpack breather. Except for the 87mm pistons, it is basically stock
internally.
At one time, the car had a 2084cc engine with dual Weber 40 IDF Carburetors. That engine was destroyed in a garage fire while it was out of the car for repairs.
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| The Baja features early (pre-1964) Bus gear reduction boxes
and a highly modified John Johnson Racing laydown kit. If you look carefully,
you can see the brace bar and the one-of-a-kind shock mounts. I
designed and built these pieces while taking a welding class at the
local college.
Only one pair of shocks are currently installed, but the second pair will soon be installed. The upper shock mounts are attached to the roll cage. Using the Bus reduction boxes gives the car an additional 3 1/2 inch longer and a 6 inch wider wheel base as well as better gearing for hill climbing. It is the swing axle equivalent of having 3X3 control arms. |
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| It was this photograph of The Robertson Brothers winning Baja in a 1978 issue of VW Hi-Performance & Accessory Guide that I used for designing my gear reduction mounting. Except for the laydown adapters, none of the parts were available. I had to fabricate the brace bars, the mounts for the brace bars and the axle tube stiffeners. On the Robertson Baja, the shock mounts were incorporated into the spring plates. Since that type of spring plate is no longer offered by Sway-A-Way, I had to fabricate the lower shock mounts on top of the reduction box adapters. |
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Modified gear reduction castings. |
Axle tube stiffeners before the brace bar brackets were added. |
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| I found a good used pair of John Johnson laydown gear
reduction adapters on "thesamba.com". New ones have not
been available since about 1994.
The picture above shows The adapters with the shock mounts that I fabricated. They are angled at the correct 45 degrees as they should be on a swing axle suspension. Brackets were later welded on for the brace bars that attach between the adapters and the axle tube stiffeners. |
| If you have ever wondered why stock VW headlight
assemblies don't seem to fit the nose of a Bug-Eye style Baja kit, then
you may not know that the original designers of this kit (Miller-Havens
Industries) intended for people to use MG headlight assemblies. At the
time (1970) they were actually cheaper than new VW headlight
assemblies.
Unable to find a good used set of MG assemblies, I found these 1971 Renault R10 headlight assemblies in a local salvage yard a few years ago. They fit perfectly and enclose the back of the headlights to protect them from things sliding around in the trunk. |
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The dash and interior are basic and no frills. Real
Baja Bugs are not equipped with big booming stereos. All you will find
in this Baja are some VDO gauges, some warning lights and some switches in
the aluminum dash board. Yes, that is a Porsche steering
wheel.
The latest upgrade has been the installation of a rare NOS 1970's era AM/FM/CB radio. It is an unusual unit that looks like a regular AM/FM radio, but becomes a CB radio with the flip of a switch. Another item found on Ebay. Also inside are a full roll cage and Beard Seats. |
| Coming Soon:
I am in the process of building a 2110cc engine for the Baja Bug to replace the 2084cc engine that once powered it. The engine is just about finished. Rocker arm geometry is the only thing left to make it a complete longblock. It will feature Weber 40 IDF carburetors with Berg linkage and a Bosch 019 distributor. All machine work was done at Rimco in Santa Ana, California.
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Updated February 29, 2004
