That’ll buff right out…
Two weeks to Primm and we’re buttoning the car up. We re-attached the hammered out fenders, installed the rear skid plate, adjusted the shifter and clutch and installed the rear bumper.
Took it for a run around the neighborhood and decided some more teesting is in order, so we’ll out to Hollister Hills next Saturday for a shakedown cruise. Sunday the fenders get painted. Then on to Vegas.
Photos of today’s work here…
More work tomorrow on the car to get it ready for the Battle at Primm. A perfect time to do a retrospective on the evolution of the car.
Skid bought it for $300 from a guy who was about to have it hauled to a junk dealer, apparently because his landlord thought it was an eyesore. The car was a rolling frame with an engine and transmission, but not much else. We stripped it down to the pan and built it back up from there.
In line for the 2007 Baja 1000. We didn’t come to appreciate this til after the race, but we didn’t have much in the way of clearance, which was our downfall. Went with red rims in honor of Eric Solorzano. Notice the night lights mounted directly to the roof, also with no protection. One low hanging branch and we could kiss them goodbye. The black on the hood was to reduce glare from the lights.
Note the substantially greater clearance, the new vintage Jeep tires that give us an extra 3/4s of an inch of clearance. Front shock reservoirs have been moved to the inside of the fenders for increased cooling. Trunk is double-fastened with clips and a rubber bungie cord. New light bar with lights repositioned further forward. The car being prepped for Primm is pretty much in this configuration.
It’s three weeks to Battle at Primm and we’re working like crazy to get the car ready. Scott, Bob, Richard, Cary, Skid, Shawn and I showed up at Creech’s mountaintop retreat today. We installed the transmission, then the engine, then got the electrical and hoses connected, put in a new steering damper and fired her up. Bob also had his heart set on a front end alignment before terrorizing the neighborhood. Cary and Shawn worked on some new fenders we got courtesy of Bradford Racing in Prunedale.
Rather than trash those perfectly good fenders during the gold rush start of 14 Stock Bugs at Primm, we’re opting to hammer out and rattle can paint our existing fenders.
Bob and Richard doing the heavy lifting…
We picked up our rebuilt transmission from Steve Bradford with Bradford Racing Products in Prunedale. He used the Super Beetle case and most if its innards, and modified the gearing per SCORE spec. Steve (who’s won the Baja 1000 in the past) and his son Travis also donated a couple of fenders, a rim and a new reverse lock out shifter. We’ll be dropping off our other spare Super Beetle case to have him build a another for us.
Transmission and engine installation will likely be this Sunday. Shawn will be painting the replacement fenders. After that, Creech hauls the whole kit and kaboodle to the CHP to get it inspected in advance of getting it green stickered, which will allow us to run it on BLM land.
Countdown to Battle at Primm has begun.
Seth “I *am* Logistics” Schrenzel is starting to marshall the troops for the Battle at Primm Feb. 13-15 in Southern Nevada. We shouldn’t, technically, need a chase truck, (three laps on a 10 mile course), but we still need to figure out who’s going and what we’ll do if the car breaks between the Saturday and Sunday events.
So far it’s looking like Richard and Joyce, Skid, Creech (towing 1102), Ice, Bob and me.
Richard reports that we should get the repaired transmission back from Bradford Racing by Thursday. Shawn will paint the replacement fenders next weekend and we should be good to go.
Top photo of another VW racing somewhere in South America.