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Baja Fiberglass body kit.
I have a 7 piece broad-eye kit. Sadly, the person who ordered it was
stupid. In spite my repeated asking "Is this kit coming from Mark
V?" and his answer "Sure." the kit he got was not from
Mark V.
Hard lesson #1: Order direct from a known source with references. If
you haven't talked to a person who owns the expensive part you are about
to buy, don't by the part. With Baja kits, don't buy a kit until you've
seen an example. I'll post photo soon.
The VW parts guy who sold me my kit has no idea where it came from.
Needless to say, I'm boiling mad about it. The manufacturer of the kit
did not mark it. I guess they're ashamed of it.
I bought an extra thick, spilit hood from Mark V. The quality is good.
The hood was pretty easy to fit to the car. It was also easy to assemble
and looks good. The only down side is that the gel coat is black. I'm
going to call Mark at Mark V and ask about this.
Good quality is important in the hood, even more than the fenders.
The bad hood I have won't fit my car. I spent about 4 hours drilling
and re-drilling the mounting brackets. The brackets aren't big enough,
and the hood is the wrong shape. It isn't rounded enough at the edges,
it is the wrong shape at the cowling below the windshield. It is basically
junk, and expensive junk at that.
What about tail lights and head lights? I've mounted both on my Baja
bumpers.
Latest Rage has a couple of types of headlight
kits for Baja kits.
I cut the tail light area out of my old rear fenders, and fabricated
a mount. See my Baja Bumper page.
Before and after removing the rear apron. More on that later. The arrow
points at the fuel vapor canister mount which also has to be cut off.
These are taken after the rear apron was removed. You can see where
I had previously mounted my external oil filter. The arrow points to
a bump that has to be hammered in so that your rear Baja bumper will
fit. The second photo was taken after the hammering.
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Disassembling the Bug.
Check out this sequence of how a Beetle looks being disassembled.
Bumpers, fenders, trunk lid and engine cover all come off. These photos
were taken while preparing the car for the Baja kit. Be sure to save
all parts, especially fenders and lights. Sadly, I didn't take photos
while cutting off the front and rear aprons. I'll add some text explain
each photo.
Refitting the Baja kit is trouble if you don't buy a good
kit. Mark V Fiberglass is the only reasonable option.
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