New Shoes all around!

The Baja got some new shoes this weekend. I got a great deal on 6 wheels and tires. They look good and should look good when I put them on. I have 4 that are BF Goodrich A/T's and 2 that are super swampers. When I get the front end all finished I will try the tires and see which ones look the best and install them. An update on the front end: I had some problems I ran into. 1st one is that there was a grease Zerk that was missing and had allowed water and mud into the torsion tube. That caused some rust on the torsion leafs and I had to remove the leafs and clean out the tube. It was pretty gross in there but I think it is salvageable and the bearings were miraculously in good shape. I put that all together and went to install the tie rods and found out that the pitman arm and the right spindle is off a 1968 bug and the left spindle is off a 69. That wouldn't be a problem except that the spindle shaft on the tie rods are smaller on a 68. I ended up taking the 3 back and getting the right ones. It kinda bums me out because the 69 rods are beefier and therefore stronger. Hopefully it won't bite me when I try to jump this off a sand dune. Me and a few guys from work have plans for a trek through the mountains. Hopefully I won't end up being towed home. Here are some new pictures.

This is after I have removed the lower leafs and cleaned out the tube and leaves really good. I just installed them back into the slots and am ready for the torsion arms. I got lazy on picture taking but you didn't want to see what I pulled out of the tube. It was just gross. You can see my shock and my rivet gun mishap. The bottom of it just chiseled right off when I was trying to get the nut off.

 Torsion arms and spindle installed.

 Here are the first tie rods all put together and set to the right measurements. Too bad they didn't fit. I ended up taking 3 off and switching them with 1968 tie rods.

 Forgot to mention that I powder coated my front and back bumper along with my tie rod tubes.

 They turned out good and look really nice.  Looking at this picture I decided I really need to clean out my garage.

Here are the wheels and tires I bought. You can't beat BFG's. The wheels are practically brand new also. These will make a nice addition because I had a mix matched set of wheels and tires on the car. The price was right and I just couldn't pass it up. They should last a good long time. (Probably the life of this car)

 Here are the mud swampers. They are a little bigger than the others. I may run them if they look good. I have a lot of fender to fill up on the rear so these may work better.

 Here's 5 of them. I still have one in the truck. It will be nice to have a good spare tire also.

 Stashed them in the garage until I get the baja back on the ground. Hopefully that happens tomorrow. I will post some pictures when I get the tires on.

So as it sits, I have the front ball joints, steering stabiliser and tie rods installed. I need to do a quick adjustment of the toe in, install the front shocks and put the tires on. I will then pull the engine back out, replace an o ring I forgot about, get it aligned and then take it down to get licensed. Should be ready for some fun in the snow. Well maybe not, It's suppose to snow Friday and Saturday.