1957 VW Baja Bug

Grilled Tees · Apr 10, 2015

So my daughter and I are going to take on a baja bug as a father daughter bonding experiment

we are looking for any and all suggestions on where to find a replacement motor - we are going to the pomona swap meet next weekend as a place to start but if anyone has a lead on a single port 1600 or 1800 motor we are interested

any other leads on parts suppliers would be great also

here are a couple photos as it sits now

hope to have it finished by DRV16

bob91yj · Apr 10, 2015

That's awesome. Keep on an eye out on RaceDezert.com classifieds, lots of action there.

BlkWgn · Apr 10, 2015

This should be fun to follow along with

TangoBlue · Apr 10, 2015

Cool!

Grilled Tees · Apr 19, 2015

After looking for a motor for the bug I found a 67 on craigslist in san diego that had been involved in a head on collision that by some miracle the driver was not injured in so we dubbed it #murderbug and towed it home - we stripped the interior and what we dont need for out project and posted those on craigslist but plan on taking the motor trans and other bits over to the 57

Gave the kids some tools and they went to town on it

Dave · Apr 19, 2015

Great project Jay, this is going to turn out really cool. Once you get bitten by the VW bug it's all over :thumbsup

Scott · Apr 19, 2015

Love this! Can't wait to see the progress! A bug, specifically a baja, is something I've always loved!

Mike · Apr 20, 2015

Yep, that is how my dune buggy project started, someone ran a red light and my dad t-boned her. Pulled the body off, replaced the front beam and went to town on converting it.

Grilled Tees · Apr 21, 2015

Dropped the trans out of the `57

Grilled Tees · Apr 28, 2015

Any one know if the title is worth anything? the pan is fairly twisted and the body is trashed too I think just wonder if I should cut up the body and pan and recycle it or would it be worth holding on to enough to sell for someone to rebuild something from it?

bob91yj · Apr 29, 2015

Just because it is smog exempt, I'd save the title and cut the VIN plate off out of the old body. I'd guess you could sell them (title/VIN plate) for $100 or so (at least) to someone that is doing a home build buggy. I have a friend of a friend a friend that passed around the title/VIN for an early '60's CJ-5 a couple of times on rock crawler builds.

Dave · Apr 29, 2015

bob91yj said:
Just because it is smog exempt, I'd save the title and cut the VIN plate off out of the old body. I'd guess you could sell them (title/VIN plate) for $100 or so (at least) to someone that is doing a home build buggy. I have a friend of a friend a friend that passed around the title/VIN for an early '60's CJ-5 a couple of times on rock crawler builds.

+1

Grilled Tees · Apr 29, 2015

Dropped the engine out of the 67 last night finish up with trans tonight the body and pan around the trans was so distorted I'm going to have to do some cutting tonight

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1430319149.797992.jpg

Grilled Tees · Apr 29, 2015

blew of the rest of the parts now time to figure out how to put it back together

bob91yj · Apr 30, 2015

You sure made a mess out of that donor vehicle in short order!

I've got that same Snap-On prybar that you have (two of them actually), they've come in real handy on the trail a time or twenty (they don't bend, and the handles don't snap off like the Harbor Freight versions do).

Grilled Tees · May 22, 2015

Got a lot of parts together got the trans axel back with a ok that it's in good shape should have the engine this weekend

Started putting in some dynamat