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FT's Baja Buggy Build?

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Full Trucker

Full Trucker

Frikkin newb!!!
Feb 26, 2003
11,135
8,771
Exit, CO
The Joker said:
What ever happened with that? He had a thread going a while back but I can't find anything. I ask because I was dinking through another forum and found this: http://www.awdpirates.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=54299
And there is a skinny dude with massive chops in one of the photos that looks identical to him...
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One of the guys on the build (Motionboy2, actually) frequents that forum, so it's possible that the picture in question is, in fact, of me. But...

Mr Jones said:
need to register to view apparently....
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This.



Otherwise, you can find us all over the intertubes... we're still rocking it and going strong. Well, as strong as you can go when you're 4 dudes trying to build a car to race the Baja 1000 with your own money and limited time. Thanks for posting that link and video, SS. Here's some linkers for ya, can't miss us:

OH-FISH-ULL LINKERS:
http://projectbaja.com
http://www.facebook.com/ProjectBaja
http://twitter.com/ProjectBaja
https://www.rally.org/ProjectBaja <--- you know, in case you guys wanna donate some $$$ to the project... ;)

OTHER PLACES ON THE INTERNETS:
http://www.youtube.com/user/UberUmlaut <--- The ProjectBaja username was taken, this will be the home for all our stuff not just Baja
http://mylifeatspeed.com/archives/tag/project-baja
http://www.race-dezert.com/ <---apparently we have a build journal somewhere on this site, but I can't find it.

SOON TO BE FEATURED ON/WORKING ON:
http://www.euroberge.com/
Possible filming for a pilot/pitch to Discovery HD following several Class 11 teams racing the Baja 1000
 
amateur

amateur

Turbo Monkey
Apr 18, 2002
1,019
0
Orange County
Oh limited classes...

I hope you guy get to experience Baja...probably some of the most fun and frustrating times I've ever had. Best of luck. If you need any experienced pit support or chase crews I'm game to help in any way I can...Just send a PM.

PS...I dig your door bars.
 
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Full Trucker

Full Trucker

Frikkin newb!!!
Feb 26, 2003
11,135
8,771
Exit, CO
amateur said:
Oh limited classes...

I hope you guy get to experience Baja...probably some of the most fun and frustrating times I've ever had. Best of luck. If you need any experienced pit support or chase crews I'm game to help in any way I can...Just send a PM.
Click to expand...
Oh word... and thanks! We're not sure just yet what sort of crew we're gonna have, but I'll store this offer in the memory banks for sure. We're hoping to run the USA 500 to sort of work out logisticky stuffs, and get an idea of what we're in for.




amateur said:
PS...I dig your door bars.
Click to expand...
Thanks... we think they're sexy...
 
Full Trucker

Full Trucker

Frikkin newb!!!
Feb 26, 2003
11,135
8,771
Exit, CO
SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW!

After a long year and a half (but who's counting?) of working on the race car with motionboy2 and a couple of non-monkeys, we got to fire up the engine last night. Just a few more electrical nuances to chase down, some welds to finish up, and a couple other miscellaneous odds and ends and she'll be driving around under her own power.


Also, since I've basically sucked at updating this thread (in case anyone cares) I should post the previous video build journal, for posterity.

 
Full Trucker

Full Trucker

Frikkin newb!!!
Feb 26, 2003
11,135
8,771
Exit, CO
SkaredShtles said:
I like the "electrical nuances"...

VW is famous for those.

:D
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Heh. We're thinking we may have a either a bad oil pressure sending unit or gauge, everything else on the dash seems to work so far including the "you've got no oil pressure!" idiot light. As simple as this car is, confusing wiring is confusing.
 
SkaredShtles

SkaredShtles

Michael Bolton
Sep 21, 2003
67,827
14,163
In a van.... down by the river
Full Trucker said:
Heh. We're thinking we may have a either a bad oil pressure sending unit or gauge, everything else on the dash seems to work so far including the "you've got no oil pressure!" idiot light. As simple as this car is, confusing wiring is confusing.
Click to expand...
Bit of advice - don't ignore a "you've got no oil pressure" warning on a VW/Audi product. Don't ask me how I know this. :D
 
Full Trucker

Full Trucker

Frikkin newb!!!
Feb 26, 2003
11,135
8,771
Exit, CO
It's been a long time in the works, but the team leaves for the 2014 Baja 1000 in 16 days. Entry fee is paid, car is mostly done save a few odds and ends here and there, spare parts are collected, hotels are booked, fuel is purchased. It's game on! You can read moar of this drivel on our website www.projectbaja.com but here's some updates from the past few months, starting in mid-summer:

The Long Winter is Over!

We completed much of the little odds and ends, which seem endless: roll cage gussets, seat hardware, safety wire, painting, brake adjustments, sealing oil lines, electrical goodies, shifter, body modifications, mirrors, dash—a little bit of everything. But most importantly, it’s not a race car without GRAPHICS!



Our very own Full Trucker pulled through with awesome Colorado flag theme stripes and beautiful faux-mahogany dash wrap.



Next, we figure it’s been a long, slow build – we might as well actually drive it… After fixing the flat tire and severe oil leak from driving it in the parking lot, we were ready for our first test day at Colorado Off Road Extreme park out in Deer Trail, Colorado.

It was our goal to put the car through it’s paces as well as exercise the suspension. The new torsion bars and torsion leaves need to take a ‘set’. Once the springs are broken-in we can start tuning the suspension. First test day was a success. Only a few minor things broke/fell off – tires got a little cut, fenders detached and a tail pipe tip found it’s home in the dirt. The guys driving were quick thinkers and limped 1137 back to the pits, with a spare v-belt holding up the front left fender.

The 1584cc engine has plenty of power and runs strong. It’s much faster than we thought it would be.





Before we got too many battle scars, we decided to show off a little bit at VW’s on the Green in Littleton, Colorado. We met lots of friendly faces and lots of interested people. You just don’t see Class 11’s in Colorado. It truly stood out as one-of-a-kind.
 
Full Trucker

Full Trucker

Frikkin newb!!!
Feb 26, 2003
11,135
8,771
Exit, CO
Whew! Baja 1000 starting line only 7 weeks away!



Needless to say, we’ve been busier than we can imagine. We’ve got our tow rig all set up and ready to make the haul 1,200 miles to Ensenada – and then some!



Last week we were able to fly-in Mr. Art Savedra, who handles roll cage certification as well as class compliance. To be honest, we were sweating this a bit—if the roll cage needed major work, or if there were other major class compliance issues, it may severely throw off our schedule.

Art is very thorough. He did a special electrical resistance powder test on all the welds surrounding the passenger compartment, to check for full weld penetration. He also ultrasonically tested all tube wall thickness. And whaddaya know? We passed chassis inspection no problem. No alterations needed to the cage! Huge sigh of relief. Only a couple small things are needed as far as finishing up our safety stuff.



The car is 98% complete. Spares collected also 98% complete. Now to figure out all the logistics plans, pit plans etc. (and maybe get some more testing in soon). And what do we do when Hurricane Odile washes out the Baja peninsula? Or when flooding closes down I-15 into Las Vegas? Tons to think about!

 
Full Trucker

Full Trucker

Frikkin newb!!!
Feb 26, 2003
11,135
8,771
Exit, CO
Getting approved

It is tough business being in Colorado and deciding to race offroad. We are a big tow away from the scene. It gets even more tricky when it comes to rules compliance and cage approval. Do you tow the car all the way to Mexico and assume you will pass or do you take action and make sure you have everything approved, certified etc well in advance to avoid any last minute fiascos… We don’t like fiascos so we decided to fly Art Savedra out to inspect our cage.

Art is a great guy and a man with a ton of information, if you ask him a question he has someone on the phone in 2 minutes that is the authority in that question. It is pretty much incredible. We were specifically impressed with how thorough the inspection was. Electro Magnets, ultra sound and years of experience went into making sure our car was safe. When the dust settled we got a thumbs up and the additional encouragement with Art saying that our car was one of the nicest builds he has ever seen for a class 11. After a few years of work… that really feels good.



The added benefit of flying Art out was that he introduced us to Kristen and Erin Flaherty who are involved with BFG pits and also have tons of experience in Baja. The information and attention they have been giving us has been invaluable since and we can’t thank them enough for their help!

We have also gotten our Rugged Radios intercom and radio set up in the car. Whew, Another hurdle covered.



Testing, testing and more testing


Over the past two months we have been out nearly every weekend testing the bug. If it is going to break we want to know about it and if we are going to encounter it we may as well have a plan to try to tackle it. So we have been putting a lot of miles on the car and it has been teaching us what it needs to stay together.

We have an offroad park nearby that is very convenient to go to. Colorado Offroad Extremeis a great park with a variety of terrain and it is an easy tow and low cost. We have headed out and bounced the car around a lot and most recently we headed out for “rally day.” when a ton of Rally cars were out there showing us what a ton of horsepower can do.



We have also explored the mountains in Colorado. We have tons of trails that range from easy to very difficult and we have tackled a lot of them. Of course most of these start well above 8000ft in elevation so the little bug is struggling to find power when we head out there. The great thing about these trails is we can run them day and night, night testing is important for us since we have been dialing in our Baja Designs lights and even adding a bit more after we discovered we hadn’t quite given ourselves much in the way of turning lights. We are very happy with the setup now and have tons of light for the night time. 28,000 Lumins all directed in the right places, We are pretty psyched with the setup.





In addition to testing the car we have been testing the crew. Everyone needs to know all the crazy stuff we did to the car, so this weekend we pulled the motor so everyone had their hands on the job. It gave us a great excuse to check everything over as well and what we found was a lot of broken welds on our stock exhaust. So we took the time to put all of that back together again and now the car is solid again and our crew is educated.



We have been fortunate to have the Wilson family taking us under their wing as well. Gina has been handling logistics and she has been really been doing a great job. With all the odds and ends we are working on with the car it has been great to have someone whos focus is the details of the trip. Ed Wilson has been tackling a lot of our chase, transport and organization, wow, we knew it would be a lot of work but really I can’t imagine where we would be if we hadn’t had these folks step up.

We have also been fortunate to have met Kristen and Erin Flaherty. Both have a ton of experience in Baja and they have been so willing to offer information and guidance as we get closer to the race. With that being said, We can not say thank you enough to all the folks that have come out of the woodwork to help us out!

Updates to come! In the mean time Check out some photos from our build!









 
Full Trucker

Full Trucker

Frikkin newb!!!
Feb 26, 2003
11,135
8,771
Exit, CO
I don't know if I'll have more updates before we leave, the next couple of weeks will be stressful for us but boring from an update perspective. If ya'll ain't familiar with "Class 11" or even the Baja 1000, some friends of ours from the Western Slope of CO were featured in this short movie documenting their attempt at the 2013 Baja 1000... it
s pretty well done and worth a look. Gets the stoked up for sure!

 
Full Trucker

Full Trucker

Frikkin newb!!!
Feb 26, 2003
11,135
8,771
Exit, CO
If anyone wants to support us during the race by wearing a sweet t-shirt I designed up, that would be super rad. We don't make much money on these, and essentially you have 2 weeks to grab one, they print 'em up, and then they're gone. I know I'm gonna get one, think about it. It's orange. And cool.

teespring.com/projectbaja2014



 
Full Trucker

Full Trucker

Frikkin newb!!!
Feb 26, 2003
11,135
8,771
Exit, CO
The Toninator said:
I actually think I'm already sporting Tshirts you designed but just maybe...

Remind me next week.
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This is me reminding you to buy a shirt. I think we're going to end the sale a week early so the shirts actually get out to everyone by the race start. So we'll likely end it on Wednesday or Thursday of this week, FYI. And THANK YOU to everyone who picked up a shirt! Stoked to have these out there in the world!

Without further ado, MOAR updates!

All The Small Things
Just because 1137 is mostly wrapped up, tested, and running strong doesn’t mean there isn’t a ton of other things to take care of. Waivers need signed, hotels need booked, Food needs purchased and prepped, spare parts need collected, the trailer needs packed. We have an awesome group of supporters who have been helping us stay organized and on top of everything. We got our entry fee paid, waivers signed and back to SCORE, and got our wristbands back in the mail already with a note from the SCORE registration person that said “You guys win the organized award!”



We’ve been working on lots of marketing schwag to give away (have you bought a t-shirt yet?) and the first of those things showed up: temporary tattoos!



We’ve also had some help out from friends and family in the way of donations. We haven’t really pushed to get donations for a year or two, but one of the promises we made was that all the folks who donated to our team would have their name on the race car for the race. Well, it turned out we needed to fabricate a guard for the oil cooler fan and that makes a perfect spot for a list of names of people who have helped you out with a donation! The guard itself is made from aluminum, and looks super clean. It should protect the oil cooler fan and still let it move cool air, so that’s good.



Tools and spares are critical, as is being able to carry what you need to fix the race car. We’ve been working on placement of all the tools and spares we’ll take with us, making everything secure and easy to access. Joe from J.Paks is working on a custom tool bag that will fit in the nose of the car, an oil container holster, and some net pockets for the doors to carry spares and tools. We’ll get pictures of those items when they’re complete. We’ve also been in love with an item called a quick fist for mounting stuff in the car. Here’s a spare CV axle held in place with a pair of quick fists, just below the 2nd spare tire:



The jack handles are captured at one end with a metal “holster” and then the handle is secured on the other side by quick fists. The jack itself is held in place by a tab on the back wall of the car and a pull-pin quick release welded to the cage. Simple. These mount just under the 2nd spare tire, fairly easily accessed.





Another quick fist tool mount, this is the breaker bar for the wheel lugnuts. Position is just inside the co-drivers door near the A-pillar, easily accessed by the co-driver.



Gotta have our MAXTRAX handy! One end is held in place by the vertically mounted spare tire, the other end is secured with a couple of rubber bungees that have been bolted to the rear wall of the car. Double-sided hooks allow you to unstrap and strap the MAXTRAX easily even with gloves on.



We had a lot of light bleed coming in to the cabin when the Baja Designs upper light bar was fired up and blazing. We figured this would be a distraction to the drivers, so we built a visor to keep it at bay. Other VW teams all have visors as well to help mitigate sun glare so this should help with that as well and not impede vision.



Less than 2 weeks before the race team ships out, and although it seems like there’s still a lot to do the list gets smaller every day. We’ll keep plugging away at it until the next thing you know… we’re eating tacos in La Paz.
 
jimmydean

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
43,081
15,166
Portland, OR
I ordered an XL. Best of luck, I will likely watch that movie this weekend. Who knows what shenanigan will follow. :rofl:
 
Full Trucker

Full Trucker

Frikkin newb!!!
Feb 26, 2003
11,135
8,771
Exit, CO
Super rad man, thanks!

So a cool thing that I hinted at in the post is, I have a riding buddy named Joe who started this little company here in Denver called J.Paks... essentially he hand-makes custom frame packs for bikepacking. He has some off-the-shelf stuff as well, but his passion is actually working with clients to do custom frame bags for suspension bikes and specific needs. His stuff is super baller, and he's agreed to make us some tool bags that fit in specific spots in the bug. I think I'm more geeked about that than anything right now, stoked he's gonna help out. I'll definitely be posting pictures and such there, I should have grabbed a pic of him measuring up the space for the bag last night when we met... dang!

http://www.jpaks.com/
 
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