readers write

Free Web Hosting Provider - Web Hosting - E-commerce - High Speed Internet - Free Web Page

READERS WRITE

If you have a story to tell or something to say just mail me and I will see about posting it.

I bought my baja something like eight months ago and haven't had too much time, ambition or money to do anything with it. I hope to have experiences like the ones I've seen on the site. I was able to make it to sand dunes last weekend where my friend has a house on Moses Lake in WA. we got the thing where it would run good and i immediately came up with this great idea at about 4am. LETS GET IT OUT THERE! LETS TAKE IT OUT! Never having been off road really and not ever in anything close to sand I made my friend Allan drive first. It did great. We were just trodding right along and after 20 minutes or so I needed my turn. Well I was afraid to bury the rear tires, which i was paranoid about NOT using sand tires in the first place. So my buddy hops back in the driver seat gets us up the hill over, down and we end up in a bowl. A bowl with an utterly STEEP incline ahead. The bug didn't make it on the first run or second. For the third we set up quite a run and I knew it would be the last. However, I didn't expect the thing to die 85% of the way up. We rolled into our little home of a bowl totally baffled as to what the problem is. No hope for starting back up. The rookies we are ended up probably 2 miles from my Allan's two wheel drive truck and not completely certain which exact direction to go. The only thing we had for an emergency was no good at the time - cell. phones. We spent a lot of special time together on our TWO-hour journey back to the truck as the sun rose over the quiet dunes. Fortunately we had a lot of luck (after time) with passersby actually FINDING the bug for us on two occasions that day. And lucky also we had Allan's sister and her boyfriend rush out in their 4x4 to pull my poor baja back out to hard land. Still not sure of the problem.

This was sent in by Wayne in the U.K. afrter having some problems

A long long time ago,
I can still remember how those twin carbs used to make me smile
and I knew that at every chance, I could feel the speed-bumps through my pants
and driving kept me happy for a while
But December brought a big disaster, I shouted out "You purple bastard!"
Oil all over the tarmac, I had to get towed back
I can't remember if I cried when in the mirror I saw smoke outside,
but something touched me deep inside, the day the engine died

So bye bye to this engine that fried
sounds like something quite expensive has expired inside,
another engine's something I'll have to buy
saying "soon this Baja Bug's gonna fly"
"soon this Baja Bug's gonna fly"

I read through a book on Bugs and I looked inside after removing the plugs
kinda hoping this wasn't gonna cost too much
I eventually saw sense, that this was gonna be great expense
and this engine is now officially cream crackered
Now I know that it's not really right, for your engine to pump out loads of sh*te!
There was no compression, I went into deep depression
I was a lonely teenage rockin' butt, with a metallic purple Baja Bug
but I knew that I was out of luck the day, the engine died.

I started singing, bye bye to this engine that fried
sounds like something quite expensive has expired inside,
another engine's something I'll have to buy
saying "soon this Baja Bug's gonna fly"
"soon this Baja Bug's gonna fly"

Bought an engine from a bloke called Dave, hoping my Bugs life it could save
although at �90, this seemed to be too cheap
I found it had a slipping clutch, but to repair it really didn't take much
and I also had to repair a flywheel leak
But in the traffic during rush hour, the engine had lost all it's power
It was as powerful as a fart, T&W Garages took it apart
They said the camshaft followers have kinda sunk, and the sump is full of yellow gunk
I went to the pub and got drunk because, the engine died

I started singing, bye bye to this engine that died
sounds like something quite expensive has expired inside,
another engine's something I'll have to buy
saying "soon this Baja Bug's gonna fly"
"soon this Baja Bug's gonna fly"

No more second hand crap, I wanted to give Dave a stingy slap
and my tension lead to tearing out loads of hairs
I wanted an engine that really lasts, and I'd heard good things about them in the past
so I bought an engine from Volkspares
Now for two months everything was fine, till I was driving past the river Tyne
The engine had departed, I could not get it started
I called the AA yet again, life was proving to be a pain
and everything was just the same because, the engine died

I started singing, bye bye to this engine that died
sounds like something quite expensive has expired inside,
an engine repair's something they had to try
saying "soon this Baja Bug's gonna fly"
"soon this Baja Bug's gonna fly"

Well, eventually I got the engine back, they said that the camshaft had cracked
as long as I got to a concert, I didn't really care
They'd repaired it so it seems, and we got to a concert at Milton Keynes
and had to drive 250 miles, gladly we did get there
And while the people in the back sang, the engine let out an almighty bang
the car was really hot, I was pissed off quite a lot
to get home it wasn't really the plan, to go back in an AA van
I could use my Bug as a frying pan because, the engine fried

Met a girl on the web, who owned a Beetle known as Red
and she mentioned that with problems, I wasn't alone
I wanted my dosh back from Volkspares, it seemed to me like they didn't care
and I ended up shouting, down the phone
I talked to people about my car, and how bad Volkspares really are
a lot of words were spoken, about how my engine was broken
This engine which had cost the most, let out a bang and now it's toast!
Volkspares engines are nothing to boast, because the engine died

So bye bye to this engine that fried
sounds like something quite expensive has expired inside,
a decent engine has to be the plan
so I bought one from Autocavan
I bought one from Autocavan

Now I'm singing:
Bye bye Escort XR3i
drove this Beetle past some people, made a boy-racer cry
I'm off to work now in a shirt and tie
saying "Told you my Baja was gonna fly!!!!"

Hello me again, I just saw your part about stories so here is one:
I have a friend named Josh and he had a bad-ass baja with dual shocks in the rear and swamper tires with a full 8-point roll cage and perfect body, well at least it used to be perfect =). It was a 68' bug with a stomper 2180 that had some serious head problems, he would foul 2 plugs about every 2 days, no joke! anyway josh is a maniacal driver who will do anything you tell him so one day we're up in the mountains and someone tells him to lay it sideways in the road, so he says ok and promptly smashes his beautiful baja into the bank. He smashed both front fenders and headlights, bent his front beam and turned his tie rod into a "U" so the idiot that he is he took it off and drove it to school with one tire flopping this way and that! Next thing he did was to rear end a 4x4 and dent his front bumper gaurd. Next he curbed it and ruined 2 rims. Then he let some guy drive it in the florence dunes and the guy ground reverse out because he couldn't figure out how to use the trigger shifter, more to come but that's all I can remember right now. By the way my name is sky, catch ya later man!

Hey Sky, maybe you should get this car from him before he kills himself. Then fix it up and show him how it's how it's really done.

Why I bought a Baja Bug

Since I first started appreciating the aesthetics of automobiles, I have liked the look of the VW Beetle. I was very young when the Golf replaced the Beetle as VW's "Small Car", and I remember being at a loss as to why a car with such a pleasing shape was being replaced by a box on wheels. I have since grown to appreciate the Golf too, but I remain fond of the Beetle.

While growing up I had the usual boyhood fantasies about owning a Ferrari, Porsche, etc. However during my more realistic moments my mind kept on returning to the idea of one day owning a Beetle. This idea was further reinforced when I read a magazine article about a Beetle that had been fitted with a 2.5l engine and NOS kit, and was capable of accelerating from 0 to 100 kilometres per hour in under 4 seconds. I thought the idea of a Beetle leaving a Ferrari in it's dust was very cool.

As I entered my teens, my interests and lifestyle started involving more outdoor activities. I started taking more of an interest in motorsport, particularly off-road racing, and the Ferraris and Porsches of my fantasies were replaced by Chenowth and Schlesser buggies. For some reason they always appealed more than the 4WD trucks they raced against, probably because they looked better and were usually faster!

It was also around this time that a friend of my mother's bought a Baja. It wasn't a show car by any means, rather it was a rough-and-ready daily driver that saw regular off-road use. It wore a wide-eye Baja kit by Beamish Buggies which integrated well with the lines of the original Beetle. My strongest memories of this vehicle are of it's huge rear tyres and bright fluorescent green bumpers and nerf bars. The rest of the body was painted black, which meant the interior got incredibly hot in summer. Around this time I started thinking about one day owning a Baja rather than a standard Beetle, but that it would definitely be a light-coloured one!

Time passed and as soon as I was old enough I acquired a learners' license. I started learning to drive in my father's VW Caravelle. The vehicle's commanding driving position inspired confidence, and mastering the tricky gearshift with it's looong gear lever made driving anything else a breeze by comparison. I passed my driving test first time in an instructor's little Ford, which I found very easy to drive and park after learning in the VW.

Practical business and family considerations prevailed when choosing my first and second cars (a small pickup and a large estate respectively, neither of them VW) but a few months ago I found myself in a position to buy a car for myself. I initially considered a fiberglass-bodied buggy (no need to worry about rusty bodywork - ever), and very nearly bought one, but as this was to be my daily driver I decided in the end that a Baja with it's lockable, weatherproof interior would prove to be a more comfortable, practical option that would sacrifice little if any off-road ability.

Around the same time that I made the decision to buy a Baja, Alan Gillow of Beamish Buggies reached a decision about a very special vehicle that had been sitting disassembled in his factory for a year. It was a custom Baja Bug based on a South African spec 1600S Beetle that he had disassembled for what had started out as a cosmetic refurbishment and become a complete overhaul. Many of his VW purist friends had urged him to turn it back into a Beetle, so it remained disassembled while he decided what to do with it. His decision was eventually reached when he found for sale a pristine factory original Beetle of similar age to the Baja, so instead of turning the Baja back into a Beetle, he decided to buy the Beetle, finish overhauling the Baja and sell it to me!

Alan did quite a bit of work on the car during the overhaul, which I followed as closely as I could from several thousand kilometers away in the UK via email updates and digital photos. Like many people, he elected to start with the bodywork. The donor vehicle had been in excellent nick without a single ding or spot of rust. However the paint was starting to lose it's lustre, so the whole car received a rub down and respray in brilliant white two-pack. The bumpers, wheels and engine tin received a new epoxy powdercoat, and front and rear windscreen rubber was replaced along with the door seals. The air inlets under the rear seat were fiberglassed shut to keep water, sand and exhaust fumes at bay.

The interior was completely gutted, then fitted out with new carpets, new headliner, reupholstered rear seat, door and side panels, front seats from an Opel Astra reupholstered to match, chunky steering wheel from a Golf GTI, new gaiters for handbrake and gearshift, new leather gearknob and a repigmented dashboard sporting three fused 12V power outlets. (For phone charger, GPS and refrigerated cooler box.)

Other than Bilstein gas shocks on the rear, new suspension bushings and tie rod ends, nothing had to be done to the chassis. The Beamish Sport baja kit allows nice large tyres to be fitted, so we saw no need to raise the suspension. The powerplant has received some attention though. It is a 1776cc unit, ported and polished, with Bosch alternator, electronic breakerless ignition and 009 distributor. Air comes in through a K&N air filter and Weber 36 DCD carb, exiting through a tuned stainless steel 4-into-1 exhaust with J tubes. An EMPI high-volume oil pump with spin-on filter keeps the oil flowing, the sump and usually vulnerable oil filter being protected by a 5mm steel bash plate.

They say a baja is never really finished - they tend to keep on evolving over time. My Baja is no different, with future plans including nerf bars (very soon - on order, to be here in the next week or so), a CD player (in the next month or two when I can afford a decent one) and some extra driving lights (when my finances have recovered from buying the CD player).

This little car is a blast to drive, having plenty of power and lots of grip, not to mention a very loud voice! It happily took 3 people and a large trailer full of camping gear on a 2500km trip around South Africa as a shakedown run, and apart from a puncture and a few problems with the airscoop fouling the air filter, it behaved superbly.

It is the perfect car for driving to and from work, as I often need to reach clients in rural areas along far from perfect roads. I am looking forward to many more adventures with the Baja over the coming years, including entering the next Africa Beetle Rally and a marathon drive from Cape Town across Africa and Europe to the UK when I finally move there.

READERS WRITE

J.R.'s First Trip

This was sent in by Wayne in the U.K. afrter having some problems

Keith from Cape Town, South Africa explains why he bought a baja.

Why I bought a Baja Bug

BAJAS FOREVER!!!