The 66 Baja Transmorphification of Coolness: Part 1

The service department at Chirco sees a ton of projects go through it every year. It’s not uncommon for the shop guys to do 2 or 3 engine builds, 19 “make my car pass emissions”, 7 tune-ups, 6 or 7 carb rebuilds, 20 or so fix my broken cables and still put time into the resto projects we have every week!

I’m not trying to brag, but are shop guys can fly….like literally fly….and their knowledge of air cooled VWs is right up there near the tippy top.

That being the case it’s not suprising that Kevin brought his 66 type 1 here to have it transformed into a cool 66 Baja! Ken said the car got hit, or hit something and the front end was damaged so he thought it would be cool to turn his street car, all lowered and what-not, into a Baja. Kevins’ son Collin was hangin out with him. I asked if it would be Collins’ car and before he could answer, Kevin said “….ummmmm no.” We’ll see.

The car has been here for a few days so I went to take a few pics.

Bob and Joe Butler are the mechs assigned to this build. Chirco had the 7 piece baja kit in stock so they went ahead and removed the fenders, hood and pretty much everything except the doors and install the new kit.

Careful attention was paid to the fit and the cut. The 7 piece kit does come with a little extra room on the pieces so measuring and trimming is important. Naturally the Chirco Super Soldier Shop Freaks are meticulous. The cut to line up the fenders was absolutely perfect! I suppose a person could do this kind of thing all on their own, but it helps to have an extra set of eyes, not to mention, hands, legs, spleens and elbows.

The engine was built by Bob in like 2 days I think. It’s a 1641cc with a single Weber Progressive carb. It’s pretty much the Chirco 1641 engine rebuild kit, with a few special touches. The exhaust system is a Single Quiet System.

Bob thinks it’ll be a pretty sweet power-plant for this car.

Joe Butler, “Junior Mint Mechanic” and all around cool guy pointed out a little somethin to me. He said they use a little piece of hose with a slit in it to help hold the throttle tube in place. It stops it from rattling around and from ending up in places you wouldn’t want it to end up.

We also had the Bumpers in house. The guys sent it out for paint so it has a nice clean look. The front bumper got the same treatment. You can also see the other parts of the 7 piece baja kit. Now if you’re thinking you don’t want or need all 7 pieces, you can order them individually. Note: The fenders are sold in pairs though.

The interior wasn’t actually done by us. Kevin’s wife did it. I don’t know if she used one of our interior kits or what. I do know that it’s a very very nice job and worth showing you. I was told she went on YouTube and found headliner videos and everything she needed. Really a nice job….impressive.

That’s gonna be it for part 1. I’m told a tire and wheel choice has been made and the raised spindles should go on soon and then we’ll have a roller!

It’s pretty bada_s to get a chance to see builds like this happening every week around here. We’ll go get some more shots and get part 2 up here as soon as we can.

Thanks for reading.

-TC