For various reasons, I've latched onto the desire to get a baja bug. For the last couple of weeks I've been reading about them. I started out knowing absolutely nothing about the way they were built, and I'm struck by the simple brilliance in the design over and over.

I know that some of our nonmembers have had some experience with these things and so I wanted to open a thread to invite people to share their experience with me. I have no doubt that other people will find this just as interesting as I do!!

So far, I'm thinking that I'm looking for a 69 or later build so that I can have independent rear suspension as opposed to swing axle. I also understand that the pre-'65 front suspension (king pin/link pin style as opposed to the later ball joint design) is better.

My goal will be to get a completely functional and clean, moderately built post '69 bug for around 5k, but the cash budget isn't set yet. I'm seeing great examples on CL up to about 6K, and many for substantially less. There's another price point around 8k for pretty well tricked out builds. The ones that are higher priced than that look like they're either unrealistically valued, or else they're too glossy to be truly wheeled. Ebay hasn't been much help. The baja bug boards mostly list the same ones that are on CL.

I'll semi daily drive it because one of my goals is to reduce the amount of super short drives I do in my truck.

Linda isn't super happy about this, so I'm considering to sell off some firearms to reduce the ding in the house budget. I've got some big rifles that I never use and realistically, I'll never get full fun value out of them because I almost exclusively shoot pistol or AR. I've got my American Spirit Arms .308 AR10 platform which is fully tricked out and has barely 30 rounds through it. I also have a Remington model 700 in .300 Win Mag with a Leupold scope for taking elk, even though I never hunt. The AR10 is worth about 3k. The .300 Win Mag is worth about 1k. I'd also consider selling my 30-30 lever gun but it's not worth much by comparison.

An ideal outcome, of course, is that someone with a bug that I want would take the guns as part of a purchase/trade.

So...

If anyone knows anyone that might have a bug like I'm looking for, and they want to consider trade for it, that would be a great start!

Mostly, though, if anyone has thoughts about baja bugs, this is where to teach me stuff!!

Doc, no personal experience other than getting brakes on my Bus here back in the 80's but it seems these guys are the ones to talk to down here in Tucson. There are ALWAYS rails/bajas, transporters, etc here and they have a rally every year (Bugtoberfest) with Dozens of rigs. There are a Metric Butt ton of VW tech articles on their weebsite. chircoestore.com/wordp...?page_id=4


chircoestore.com/about-chirco
If you need part sourcing, etc. This is about 2mi from my house.

Hi , Doc my son and I use to build, rails bajabugs they are tinker mobiles. PM me if you have any quistions about them .,see if i can answer them??

There is (was?) a guy in Mesa who was making ball-joint to king-pin converted frontends. I was thinking about getting one for mine, but the parade of 4wd builds (colorado, fj, jeep) has taken a lot of the wind out of my sails on that project.

I'll text you, maybe we can work out a deal on mine.

I had a '63 baja for my 1st vehicle. I used to be able to change the clutch or throttle cables pretty quick. Plan on keeping spares of each, since they break routinely. The bus cables work well, because they are a heavier cable.

This site might have some good info.

www.azbaja.com/index.php

Bus Transmissions seemed to be the rage back when as well.

John I used to race the baja 500 and 1000 in a bug I have built up a lot of bugs we need to talk

Brian I also raced buggys & desert bikes in the ADRA days!! 1983 to 1988

Wow 83 I was just a pup working checkpoints puting in tickets, 88 did the 500 89 did the 1000 and totaled my baja. Those where the days before gps and I followed someone right into a 15 ft ravine.

WHOA! Lemmings

Its hard too see where you are going when your in a silt bed just follow the lights in front of you and cross your fingers

Other than just flat out breaking the law, is there anywhere you can run a buggy wide open? Like a race course that allows idiots to break their junk when a sanctioned event isn't in the works?

Is there an idiot class for sanctioned racing?

You can run in the wide open dessert, I ran a 2litre motor and could handle triple digits in the woops. Parker is a good place to prerun. Let's do a oldtimer baja 500 race?

Breaking the law is only illegal if you get caught

Brian you ever hit a pine tree or saguaro ?? They both suck ,any way ,Doc how much of a build are you after ??? I looked cl not much , Lasvegas, maybe??