[N law]

This was my first VW that I picked up in 2006 from thesamba.com's classified section. I bought it as a baby blue sedan that ran and drove and had a TN title with some dead lady from Oklahoma's address on it.

The floors were rotten and when I went to replace them (its kinda a unibody/kinda a frame on body), the body fell apart. I set it back on there and tried to patch it. In november 2006, I bought a whole bug for $20 that had the VIN cut out. I parted it and scrapped it, but put the good body on my bug. It was finally pretty solid.

I also had the 69, so this one got put on the back burner a lot. Last spring, I pulled the engine out of the 69 to rebuild it for my wedding. I decided to get the baja road worthy with new tires and rewiring the whole thing. I put military 7.00x15s on the front and I bought a set of used 31x15.50x15s for the back for $75. I pieced the whole thing together to make a pretty good running vehicle that shook like crazy over 60mph (those cheap big tires!!!). Then my 69 got running and I took her out of service again (insurance). I towed her to some trails and rode her around a little bit.

Then the Hallowharrie invite came and I accepted. I tried hooking up the parking brake cables to separate handles to give me control over the open diff. I swapped out the rear tires for street tires to tow it 365 miles to Uhwarrie.

Hooked it to the VX and took off. The baja's 1st gear was like overdrive compared to everyone's low gears and it was hard to crawl over stuff or just trail ride without throwing gravel.

I jumped a lot of rock faces.

We went up to the backside of Daniel and wanted to watch the carnage, but none was to be had. I decided it was worth trying and everyone was in agreement that they could get me back up. I drove down Daniel, turned around, got high centered, got freed, floored it and bounced up a little less than 1/2 way before hitting a rock bigger than my tire, rolled back down, floored it again and got a little higher, broke something and got towed up by Van's badass rig.

I drove back to camp, but had a broken transmission mount.

Sadly, I sold it a few weeks ago to someone who will play with it a little more. I hadn't had it out since Hallowharrie and it was just taking up space. Thought I'd it off since it was a part of the planet history at uwharrie.

 

[88bronzetrooper]

Awe man i was so wanting to see it run those trails again!!! I never did get to see u ride. Hope u get another one day or at least come hang out man.

 

[stusvend]

Sure is an interesting vehicle. Too bad it's gone but atleast you can have pride in you handiwork.

 

[TonkaToy]

Dang it man. I know how those projects can go.

For those who missed it, this thing rocked!! No matter where he pointed it, it just went there. Threw the 4 wheelin book out the window! Forget about rockcrawlin, this thing should have been named Kermit, because it was hopping from rock to rock like a frog. Every obstacle he hit involved airtime and liberal use of the skinny pedal with a complete disregard of what vehicle damage might take place.

It was awesome and will be missed. Now, what are you going to wheel???

 

[squatch]

Sorry to see it go. You got me thinking air cooled again! I used to be big into air cooled VWs when I was a kid. Even had a baja back then. I used to do the maint on a co workers Bradley GT kit car. That was cool and had a lot of original EMPIE parts. I'm going to have to replace my commuter eventually and keep thinking about an old bug or Ghia. They pop up from time to time. Just don't want a major sheet metal project. There is a Baja in pieces that has recently showed up in a yard on my way home from work I keep checking out on the drive. He hasn't done anything with it though.

 

[Ruination]

It was awesome and will be missed. Now, what are you going to wheel???

I concur!!

The look on people's faces that were standing on the sidelines was PRICELESS as we rounded turns and they saw the bug behind me :lol: :lol: good stuff.

 

[N law]

There was a time or two I landed at the top of an obstacle. It was loads of fun and really enjoyed being a part of the group. I was afraid people with thousands in their rigs wouldn't like the $1200 bug going everywhere they did. It was a lot of fun and I was considering keeping it for another Uwharrie trip! I bought a transmission strap kit to secure the part that broke. I was hoping to try to take on Daniel again and conquer it. Oh well... Did anyone ever find the video of that?

I know it will be missed, but I couldn't justify keeping it. I've considered buying/building a rail buggy that would be similar to it, but I think I'm going to hold off on doing that for a few years. I do have a VX and an FJ40, so I think I'll be ok... (although neither have ever been off road... atleast the FJ40 hasn't been on my watch) I have a CRF230F that is dual sport, so I might bring that back to Uwharrie at some point if it stays around for a while.

I have been using the funds to try to fix up the Orange Westfalia in some of the pictures. It is a major sheetmetal nightmare but I think I'm gonna rock the rust for a while once I get a new transmission for it. I have read about people doing the "baja treatment" to buses... and I might keep my eyes out for a Syncro, but I'll have to save for one of those!

 

[squatch]

Westy expo rig. Now your talkin'!

 

[N law]

I sold it back at the end of April sometime and now its already back for sale on CL. Just found the ad:

http://chattanooga.craigslist.org/cto/2444781358.html

Looks like he'll be losing money on the deal! And the switch isn't bad...

 

[justwork]

Offer him 1K for it and buy it back!

 

[dryvr12]

Those are some neat little cars. we had a yellow 73. i learned stick on that car

 

[oldestisuzuist]

I had one back in the '70's before I bought my first 4x4. It was a combination of four different vehicles- frame, body, engine, transaxle. The final version had a bus transaxle- much lower gearing than a car- that would raise up in the rear when torqued instead of squat because of the planetary gears at the hubs. It was about as fun a vehicle as you could own.

 

[Trooper King]

love your bug buddy 8)

 

[N law]

someone apparently bought it and posted it back up on craigslist for 2k this time! Not sure I'm digging the black wheels but I like the new front lights! I don't think it was lifted 4 inches... but it might have been close after the taller tires. He was nice to say the interior is "nice". Hope it goes to good hands.

http://chattanooga.craigslist.org/cto/2539951409.html

 

[dryvr12]

buy it back?