Cheap progress.

Well, I have been working on the baja's engine slowly and cheaply. My goal is to get this car running for very little money and it's been going really well so far. I took the bumper and the exhaust into work so I could strip the paint and rust and see what kind of shape they are in. Turns out the bumper is good, but the exhaust had some issues. I stripped them and found a few holes in the process. I got them ready to weld and burned some bigger holes in them. Luckily I was able to find some decent metal on them and slowly built up the weld so I filled in the holes and I think they will work. I got some very high temp paint and put a fresh coat on them and we will see how they do when the motor heats them up. I also removed both pressure plates and clutches from the engines and decided to stick with the clutch that came with the motor I bought. It's in almost new shape and the other one was wore out. I also looked through some of my parts I have collected and found a brand new throw out bearing a buddy gave me. It won't work on Ed but will work perfect on the baja. I replaced the front main engine seal on the engine and reinstalled the clutch and pressure plate and I am ready to install the exhaust. I will then put on the carb and the motor will be ready to go in. I still need to flush out the fuel system, repack all the wheel bearings, and check the brakes and it should be ready for the road. Here are some updated shots. I found 3 holes on one and 2 on the other. Only this hole pictured gave me trouble.

 I didn't want to remove a lot of material but the hole ended up being about 3 times this size. I did eventually build it back up and I filled up the tube with water and it held. It should be good for a little while at least.

 I lost my camera so I missed out on some pictures along the way. Right here I have the seal in and the clutch and pressure plate bolted on hand tight.

 Here is the main seal I replaced. It looked OK but since I was this deep and I had an extra one on hand I figured why not just change it anyways.

Here I have the alignment tool through the clutch and into the gland nut. I bought this tool because it's really cheap and I will use it a few times I'm sure, but a broom handle or something similar will work also.

 All bolted on and torqued down. The front of the engine is ready to be installed now. When building a VW engine an engine stand is nice because you can install the clutch and flywheel and pressure plate while it's still on the stand as seen here.

 Here is the exhaust after I prepped and painted them. They should look OK for a beater baja..

 I am curious to see how long this paint holds up. It's made to use on BBQ's so I think it should hold up to exhaust.

 Just need to install the exhaust and get rid of this fuel filter on the engine. Don't want an engine fire!

I thought I would show the tank I use to clean all my rusty old parts. This is an ultrasonic tank and has a chemical in it that is equivalent to Draino. It is heated up in the tank and it is truly amazing how well it strips paint and rust off steel parts. I have the bumper sticking in it here. This eats aluminum quickly so you want to make sure you don't have any of that.

 I flipped the bumper and you can see how it removed everything to the bare metal. This stuff is awesome. Just don't get it on you cause it burns pretty good.

Well, hopefully the exhaust and carb will be next and the motor will be ready to be put in. I think I am going to remove the wheels and tires and clean them up. That's not expensive and I have a bunch of high gloss white powder coat I can use. They are really rusty right now and need some sprucing up.