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BAJA CONVERSION

NEEDED ITEMS

• Baja Kit
• Rear Bumper
• Exhaust Header
• Hood Hold Downs
• Sheet Metal Screws
• Solid Trans Mount
• Marker
• Spray paint
• degreaser

OPTIONAL ITEMS

• Wheels and Tires
• New Shocks
• Oil Cooler & Filter Kit
• Front Bumper
• Tail Lights
• HD Throttle Cable

TOOLS

• Basic tools
  • Wrenches, screw drivers sockets etc.
• Drill
• Jack
• Jack stands
• Penetrating lube
• Hack saw
• Disc grinder
• Cutting torch (opt.)
• Saws all or jig saw
• Flywheel lock (if replacing main seal)
• An extra pair of helping hands

Have everything you need?

OK LETS GET STARTED

The first thing that you want to do is spray all the bolts with penatrating lube. If you live in moist climate it may be a good idea to start doing this a couple of days before you begin disassembly. You will notice that the fender mounting nuts are afixed to the body sheet metal. You want to try to keep these intact, it makes reinstalling the fenders easier. If they are totally rusted you may be able to get a hold of them with a wrench or vise grips otherwise you may need to cut or grind off the bolt heads.

Now for the disassembly

• Jack up car
  • Place jack stands under rear torsion tubes and front beams.
  • Remove tires (for easier access).
• Disconnect the battery
• Remove all the lights and set them aside for reuse
• Remove the bumpers
• Remove hood & deck lid
• Remove deck lid hinges
• Remove running boards
• Remove the fenders

Now your car should be looking pretty naked. Don't worry it's not bashful.

NOTE: VW engine cases are made of magnesium and are flamable, keep torch away from the case.

Lets remove the rear apron first.

• Hold the rear cowl piece in place across the rear louvers.
  • If you look down from the top you'll notice that it lines up with the body.
    
  • Check to be sure it's straight, then mark the body at the bottom of the cowl, both sides.
    • These will be your starting points.
  • Set the cowl aside.
• Remove the black tar paper stuff from the sides of the engine compartment.
• Move any wiring out of the way.
• From your marks cut straight down all the way out the bottom(both sides).
• Toss the apron away, it's history.
  
• Now remove the engine.
  • It's real easy once the apron is removed.
    
• Spray the exhaust bolts with penetrating lube and let it set for now.
• Finish removing all the tar paper form the engine compartment.
  • This stuff is actually heat and sound insulation.
  • It's merely dead weight and a dirt collector on a baja.

Lets install the fenders, do a little more trimming and clean up the back a bit.

• Align the fender with the body and the rear of it with your cut.
• Mark and drill the top hole.
• Place a bolt in to hold it.
• Now drill and bolt the bottom one.
• If the alignment is good, do the rest of the holes.
• If not, make the nescessary adjustments first.
• Now do the other side.

Now you can do some more trimming. This section is optional, but your baja will look much cleaner if you do it.

• Remove the piece hanging from the fire wall across the back.
  
  • This piece is spot welded in and can be removed with a chisle, by chisling around the welds.
    • This doesn't need to be pretty, you can clean it up after it's off.
  • If your not careful the spot welds may leave small holes in you fire wall.
• Now you can remove the section hanging below the floorbaord up to and around the shock mount.
  • In this section leave a 1/4-1/2in. excess to allow for smoothing with the grinder
• Remove the shocks
• Cut the piece out
• Do not remove the body mount.
  
• Repeat on other side.
• Now use the disk grinder to smooth everything off.
• You can also use the grinder to remove all the little hooks on the fire wall.

Everything is nice and open now

At this point lets put in the solid trans mount, you should not have to remove the trans for this.

• Go inside the car and disconnect the shifting coupler
  • check here for more info on this
• Remove the four bolts on each rear trans mount (rubber pieces)
• Loosen the two large bolts holding the trans mount
• place jack under trans and lift slightly
• Now remove the large bolts and toss the trans mount and rubber pieces over with the rear apron
• put your bumper mounts on the large mounting bolts
• Install the solid mount and bumper mounts, do not tighten yet
• Slide the bumper over the mounts
  
  • You may need to grind the trans mount a little to get them to line up
• Once the mounts are lined up and the bumper is level, tighten the mounting bolts.
  • Use a fair amount of force on these and check them periodically to make sure they don't vibrate loose.
  • Loctite may be a good idea here.
• Set the bumper aside.
• Now crawl under and remove the front trans mount bolts.
• Slide the trans back just enough to remove and replace the front mount.
• Slide it back into place and bolt it down.
  • Don't forget the four rear bolts.
• Reinstall the shifting coupler.
• Install the large strap over the rear of the trans.
• Install the small strap over the front.
• slide your upper bumper mounts over the top shock bolt
• Reinstall the shock with bumper mount attached.
  • Do not tighten at this time, the upper bumper mount usually requires some bending and aligning.
• You're done!

• Nows a good time to sand and paint everthing.
• This is also a good time to raise the rear torsion
  • Check here for more info on this.

Lets turn our attention to the engine.

• If your new exhaust isn't painted or chrome, paint it now.
• Clean the thing up.
• Remove the exhuast system.
  • Note: If you break the studs you'll probably need to take the engine to the machine shop to have them removed.
• Now remove all the unnecessary sheet metal from the engine.
  • If you'd like you can leave the small piece behind the pulley until sometime later when you need to remove the pulley.
• This is also a good time to inspect your clutch and replace your main seal if it's leaking.
• If you bought a cooler and filter kit now is the time to install it.
• Also check your intake boots and replace them if nescessary.
• Reinstall engine.
• Install your new baja exhaust system.

  Note on exhaust:
  There are several different systems out there. The main difference is one uses J-tubes the other does not.

  The system without the tube is generally referred to as the "bobcat". This system does offer a little better performane, but unless you're running a really beafed up engine you probably won't notice it. The exhaust tubes run above the heads allowing for more ground clearance, but makes it difficult to change plugs and are notorious for burning plug wires (and fingers). They also do not allow the use of heater pipes in cold climate.

  With J-tube systems you can interchange the J-tube and heater pipe depending on the season. You also will not burn the hell out of yourself working on the plugs and wires. As far as ground clearance goes, I ran these on my old car and never once hit them. And if I would have, I'd rather hit these than my push rod tubes, the J-tubes are much easier to replace. The main draw back here is that you need a clamp on the J-tube. These can leak making the car loud and cause back firing.

  Both systems can be purchased with either a stinger or muffler.

  I'm not trying to sway you one way or the other, just some food for thought.

• Align the rear bumper and install it
• Tighten shocks.
• Drill 5/16 or 3/8in. holes through the bumper and mounts and bolt them in place.
  • DO NOT over tighten these bolts, If you crush the pipe it's murder trying to get the bumper back off
  • Use double nuts to keep things tight.
  • The top mount can be welded. You'll just need to undo the top shock bolt to remove the bumper.
• Install tail lights.
  • I recommend after market lights, the stock ones are heavy bouncing around on the fenders.
• Hold the rear cowl in place and drill 2-3 mounting holes on each side.
  • Use a fairly large sheet metal screw here, otherwise they will pull out while bouncing around in the dirt.
  • Also glue a little foam between it and the body across the back to prevent it from rattling.
• Install the license plate and light.
• Put the wheels back on the thing and you're done with the rear.

NOW FOR THE FRONT