this 1963 ragtop baja belonged to my good friend dan climan. when dan decided to start building a drag car, a few of his other projects had to go. he had planned this as a herbie the love bug clone. i loved the idea of a ragtop, and i missed by baja bug, so i decided what the hell. you can never have too many projects.


(sitting in dan's yard, fall 2003)

project: wikked #010 1963 ragtop baja
purchase date: 12/08/03
project status: working on it...
the plan: 3" body lift, bumpers, nerf bars, motor.

10.25.2005

Summer of '05 i purchased an IRS chassis of thesamba.com classifieds for $100 with the intention of using it for this project.
time to get to work... the floors werent too bad, but the front sections needed repair. i started to cut them out only to find the pans were not original. rather than half-ass replace half pans, i decided to just install new ones.

no pans in this picture


here's the floorpan replacement at the halfway point. it took me a few hours of work to do the floors. i take a lot of breaks.
instead of spot welding, i welded the new pans all around from the top side, then painted and used seam sealer on the bottom.

 




i also found some frame head rot under the front firewall area. i repaired this area with 1"x2" box tubing.

after a complete coat of masterseries, seam sealer, and more masterseries, i painted the bottom of the pan with truck bed liner.
11.5.2005


here is the finished chassis.
3" body lift (never installed on my last baja) is partly installed in this picture. no front shocks yet.
with the adjustable front beam (from kassy's 68, i put a stock beam on her car for her) and bugpack coil overs, the car sits a 12" off the ground, but is a little high in the nose.
I picked up the nice double tube style bumpers from my buddy TC in spring of 05.

11.6.2005

well, heres a little better look at the body... on 11.6.2005 i removed it from its original swingaxle floorpan, and put it on sawhorses in the garage...

this is the area that needs the most attention right now so i can get the body on its new chassis. the rockers behind the front wheels. the heater channels are intact, but the bottom corner has suffered some severe rot. nothing a welder, some fiberglass, and some masterseries can't fix.




  the cowl area is rough. it will definately need some work. the windshield will have to come out so i can get at that nasty looking rust. but i'll wait on that until i get the body back on the pan.

 

 

the rear quarters almost always rust... but this isnt too bad. rather than replace the whole section i think i'll just weld in a small patch to fix the bad spot.




theres some rust up by the sunroof too. unfortunately i'll have to remove it to get at it.

 

 
5.2006 the rust repair under the car is completed and the body is back on the floorpan...
fall/winter 2007 in the fall and winter of 2007 i finished the bodywork and painted the car myself in my garage. while it isnt "show quality" it looks pretty nice, especially since it was my first time painting a street car AND i decided to paint it silver (which if you've ever painted, is NOT an easy color for a novice to spray)


i grafted porsche 914 gauges into the dash, along with a MOMO steering wheel i saved from a 914 parts car...
winter 2008 i am now in the finishing stages of wiring and electrical... i hope to have the car running soon...

now i'll admit i am terrible at updating this webpage. so theres a huge gap here.

in april of 2006 t



i finished the bodywork and painted the car myself in winter of 2007.
(keep in mind i have been racing NASCAR during the summer months, thats why this project has taken so long)

in fall 2008 i began installing the headliner and window glass.

 

it is now closing in on winter of 2008, and this car is nearling completion.
car is now in the stages of getting the electrical wired, and hopefully getting the engine running.