4 projects, 1 driveway, no time

[dose]

Bug bumper done but still need to wire the chinra light bar.

Also was able to get this reproduced for the chinook door. Instead of putting it on the door jam like most cars they actually put them on the door in 75. Since my drivers door was smashed and needed a donor I want it to get a new sticker for the new door

EDIT: the final sticker looks better, the picture above was the first attempt, guess I dont have a picture of final product on phone

 

[dose]

Sherwin grade I take it is from Bishop up to Crowley lake? That's awesome, I've towed up that many times and it no joke, what motor is in the chinook?

Yeah that one, Its defiantly harder than the Cajon pass on the 15 freeway
Chinook has a tacoma 3.4, 5 speed manual, 4.10 gears on 31s

 

[ucd baja]

Yeah that one, Its defiantly harder than the Cajon pass on the 15 freeway
Chinook has a tacoma 3.4, 5 speed manual, 4.10 gears on 31s

Ok that's a legit motor and not the factory offering which I thought it had, makes sense.

 

[dose]

Woke up to 3” of snow the day I needed to load up for 8 day Baja trip.

Made it to campo el vergel 32 km past San Felipe to hang with another couple with a 11 bug. Plan was to sleep in every day, gorge our faces with local food and alcohol, rip up the beaches with the cars, black out, repeat.

 

[dose]

Doggies love riding in the camper

View attachment 224638

 

[dose]

Day 1 We were crushing it, slaying the beach, smashing whoops bouncing from camp to camp on our way to Percebu for tacos and a drink when my wife parked the bug on it’s lid practicing doughnuts on a tacky dry lake bed.

No biggie, it was a slow roll and we were laughing because I told her be careful the car will hook and grab in the wet dirt so be ready to let up and steer into it.
She didn’t, instead she bicycled, froze up and let it lay over like a turtle.
We put it back on the wheels and drove 100 yards and the transmission grenaded. All gears including reverse sounding like a garbage disposal full of bottle caps.
FUCK

 

[dose]

Since we had 6 more days we decided to try to get a trans and swap it. Posted on a San Felepe Facebook group and had a few hits. I didn’t really want to spend the time or money putting another swing axle in when I had a bus box at home but since we found one that looked clean and shifted gears for $180 we went for it.
Also scored a set of $25 VW engine cases that I will be using for tonapah toasters on the sand trip this month.

 

[dose]

Got the bug buttoned up and tested the trans.
All gears working except 1st. Shit, oh well, I was wondering why someone would go to all the work to remove the axles. Now I know why. If you have never swapped axles, tubes and brakes on a swinger, let me tell you it’s not fun.
About that time some friends stopped by and the wrenching changed to drinking

 

[dose]

All that’s left now is bleed the brakes. That was fighting me too. Couldn’t build pressure because the plunger in the master cylinder wouldn’t return. Empi chinra cheap parts strike again.
Pulled, disassemble, clean, reassemble that bitch about 7 times and can’t get the plunger to return. Had to walk away, drink and eat tacos the rest of the day.
After my blood alcohol level reached the optimal percentage I decided after all that work we would take it out on a night cruise anyway and just putt. I still had a parking hand brake so what could go wrong? Loaded up the cooler with tequila, tecates and a 5 gallon bucket and headed to the beach to dig clams.

 

[dose]

Overall I consider the trip a success. We had a blast had some baja issues and did Baja repairs. Cruised the bug around the rest of time in second gear with the handbrake cruising beaches and trails were super fun. Ate a ton of killer food met some rad people.

The chinook performed flawlessly getting 18.1 mpg on the way down with a nice tailwind, 14 and 16 mpg tanks on the way home, all flat towing the bug!!