Baja Oval

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[Greg Urrutia]

With my recent Shasta Trips and visits to the local SVRA/OHV Park in my Bus, I have been re-motivated by a number of Baja enthusiasts to resurrect an Baja Oval Project.
This 56' Baja has been in the Bad Dog Stable for a number of years and has been an on-again/off-again project for the past 10 or so years. It was painted a number of years ago and just never finished. Being that it hasn't always had eligibility for indoor storage, the paint is starting to show some wear and tear. But hey....it's a Baja right?

The motor that you see in it now is a bone stock 1600 with many miles on it. I will give it some love and check compression numbers to see if it still has some life in it. In the performance department it will get a 009 distributer and appropriate exhaust, but that's it. Gonna keep it simple.

I'll keep this thread alive with updates as things come together. First thing I'll do is knock out the cobwebs and give her a good once over/cleanup. There is much to do.
Off the top of my head, I need to mount the a tank and related plumbing. Finish assembling the doors with windows, rubber, regulators, and the like. Seats need to be mounted and all the electricals have to be plugged it.

It has been sitting in this outdoor spot for about 2 years. It has been kept covered for the most part but some of the stronger wind driven storms has had me struggling to keep it under wraps. Now that the Baja is on deck, it will get the TLC it deserves.

Here is how it looks today before we pulled it from the long term parking area:

[Greg Urrutia]

The recent relentless series of storms have left my property saturated. Lots of standing water and the mud swallows everything up like quick sand. I ventured out treading ever so lightly just to keep my own balance. It was quite obvious trying to get the Baja out by myself was futile.

Lucky for me, Daniel another Baja enthisiast was home and willing to give me a hand. Once we got the Golf Cart with a dead battery going we hooked up the recovery strap and gave it a go. It was a bit stubborn and the wheels on the Golf Cart where starting to spin and throw mud. It was kinda cool but the task was to get the Baja out.
Daniel resorted to keeping the throttle floored on the cart with one leg and and digging in and pushing with the other. I was trying to steer and push the Baja at the same time. Almost went down once but our collective effort was just enough to extract the Oval.


<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/c4h9nd1hPjw&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/c4h9nd1hPjw&rel=0</a>

[Greg Urrutia]

We celebrated getting the Oval out by Moto X-ing the Golf Cart around the Vineyard a couple times until we got stuck. Gotta love playing in the mud!

Here's some initial shots of the Baja before I get into it:

[Greg Urrutia]

Well now that I got the Baja out and on-deck, things started to happen. First of all I took the power washer to it. In addition to cleaning it, I tried to knock down all the spiders. Also found some abandoned Wasp nests. That could have been ugly if those little bastards were active.

I let it dry over night and them I moved the Baja into the batters box....errrr workstation.
Here's how it looked before I got to wrenchin on it. I did notice some camber in the rear wheels so I may end up bringing it up a notch at the spring plates.

[Greg Urrutia]

From the underside you can see is has stock transaxle mounts, but it does have a bell housing strap and also a mid-mount strap. Also seen are the Baja Bumper mounting points (wonder what ever happen to that thing?), and a mini sump that somehow was mounted askew.

[Greg Urrutia]

First things first! I got out my penetrating oils and started to hose down all the buts, bolts, hinges, etc.
First bottle has PB Blaster. I buy it in gallons, one of my favorites. Go ole' WD40 which I use when lingering fumes can be a problem.
The last can is Howe's penetrating oil. This can only be found at Truck Stops and from what I understand, they swear by it. A good friend of mine turned me on to this stuff and I value his opinion. I bought 2 cans at the Truck stop at HWY 12 and Interstate 5 in Lodi (Kettleman exit?). It was a bit on the pricey side. I'm almost done with the first can. The jury it still out on the Howe's. I'm not sure if it is any better than PB Blaster.

[Greg Urrutia]

Out comes the motor.
I will pull the heater boxes and install a Bobcat style exhaust. The Doghouse fan housing is cherry. So cherry in fact that I decided to pull it to use on another application. I dug through my fan housings hoping to find a 36Horse/Dog House fan housing without the heater hose outlets.
No luck so I decided to use a beat up original one that I found. I mean it is a Baja after all right?
I checked the clutch since I had the motor out and found out that it was literally brand new. While I was there I went ahead and installed a new flywheel seal and O-ring.
I blew off the rest of the engine when the fan housing was off. Spider nests everywhere.

[Greg Urrutia]

Here's that beat up fan housing that I found. It looked like someone shot a hole through it. You can see the patch made out of a bottom cylinder tin on the front side. The exit hole on the back was welded up.
I added a few more screws to the patch, installed expandable freeze plugs into the outlets, rattle canned-it and called it good.





It doesn't look too bad but the left side is bashed up pretty good. I'll continue to look far a 36Horse style, but for now this one will work. Heck it's an original German.

[Greg Urrutia]

I installed the starter that had been sitting in the car. Throw-out bearing was brand new, as were the axle boots. I checked nut's and bolts for tightness, Everything looked good so I plugged the engine back in.

[Greg Urrutia]

There is still a ton of things to do. I had put aside a couple of gas tanks to look at for the Baja. One was a poly fuel cell the other was the Aluminum Twin Filler tank you see in this picture.\. To use either one I would have to do some fabrication to make them properly fit.
I looked at the opening where the original tank went. It had been modified in that area for the flip front end mount to fit. I found a tank that fits 58-67 and gave it a trial fit. No way, too big.
I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be funny if an original Oval tank fit in there?".
I was pretty sure I didn't have an original tank, but something prompted me to go check anyway.
My lucky day. I found a tank and it dropped right in to the opening.

[Greg Urrutia]

First Start Up

I still needed to plumb the fuel lines and do the wiring. The motor still needs an Alternator but I can run it with a fan blowing air on it for cooling.
I wanted to test run the engine to see if it was even a runner. I put in a fresh set of plugs and checked the oil.
I put a battery in it and hooked up a remote starter switch. I ran a hose from a gas can up to the fuel pump and hoped for the best......


<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/yUWYeQxxt9o&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/yUWYeQxxt9o&rel=0</a>

[Greg Urrutia]

I ran it long enough to put some heat into the engine. It smoked a bit at first but I'm hoping it will clear.
I drained the oil and then pulled the mini sump. I forgot they had a re-useable filter in there. I was glad to see that and thought it probably helped keep this old motor alive. I will replace the mini with a standard sump in the name of ground clearance.
Tomorrow I will give it a valve adjustment and some fresh oil. I'll order up a new alternator and start looking at the wiring and fuel system.
With any luck, I might even run it at the next NASA Race this weekend. 8)

[bajamike560]

Looks good so far Greg, keep hammering at it...
Almost got my car out yesterday but got side tracked with my smoker and the ribs cooking...

Mike

[Greg Urrutia]

I had to had to get headlights miunted to the Oval Baja.
Since the front end is one piece tilt, best bet was to solid mount the headlight bucket assemblies behind the opening. Since I wanted it done right, I made a visit to Deluxe Iron and to consult with Doug Colley. He was kind enough to break away from his endless tasks of building racecars and squeezeed me in to his tight schedule

First thing he had to do was cut and bend some flat steel then grind down the mounting area for a good weld and penetration.




Doug tacked the mount into place and checked alignment.




Once everything lined up, the mount was welded it into place.







When I got home I pulled the buckets back off to add a little paint. Looks pretty good. Now I'm legal.....sort of.

[Greg Urrutia]

Took the Baja out to Prairie City SVRA for a shakedown and it worked pretty well. I rook it pretty easy and noted a couple of weak points.