Keep on Rollin Rollin Rollin.

It's been a while since I posted. The bus has been a fantasitc daily driver. I just got back from a 1500 mile trip to Florida and back and had zero problems with The Jolly Rancher as it's come to be called. These are some of the pics I took from Bulli Brigade 14, an all bus show in Florida.

Club Meet continued.

Local club.

I joined a local club a while ago and I kept forgetting my camera. Managed to remember this last week and snap some shots. There weren't as many cars as normal because the rain was threatening.

Still around and working.

A couple weeks ago I started working on my interior. These are some of the before shots.

Update

I've logged a little over 600 miles on the bus so far. I'm pleased to say that my forty year old (this month as a matter of fact) bus hasn't let me down yet. That's not to say there haven't been any problems though. I expected this because it hasn't been driven since...well...who know when.

1. There was a pin hole in the drivers side front dust cap where it mounts to the drum and the speedo cable runs through. As I drove around, the pin hole was slinging axle grease inside the chrome center cap and eventually the entire wheel itself. The chrome cap became saturated with grease and departed the bus at some point. I retraced my route and was unable to find it. I took the wheel off and cleaned it up. I plugged the hole in the dust cap and haven't had an issue since.
2. For the first few trips in the bus there was smoke coming from the engine compartment. It was running just fine (nice and cool) and I checked all the lines and tried to determine where it was coming from. It wasn't localized to any particular area. It seemed like the whole engine was sort of wafting a little hazy smoke that didn't smell like anything dangerous like burning oil or gas. The engine was in the bus when I had it painted and the shop, although they covered it from the back, neglected to cover the side vents and there was dust and over spray in the engine compartment. I wrote the smoke issue off as paint burning off the new muffler (which it was) and the engine until I got a generator light and some wicked noise coming from the rear a couple blocks from home one night. I thought it was my engine, with it's unknown history, dieing. For those of you that have been following my little blog here, you'll remember that on initial start up I heard a funny whirring noise when I first installed the power plant. After I limping the van home, I opened the deck lid and smoke was pouring out of the top of the generator. It turns out that noise was the bearings in the generator crapping out. I had a spare alternator from my buggy and I installed that the next day. Then all traces of smoke were gone and the engine is running even cooler than it was.
3. Last week the bus saw rain for the first time. I expected a few leaks because I still have a ton of interior work to do. What I didn't expect was my brand new window seals in the front to leak. Both are leaking in the lower outside corners. I guess I didn't use enough sealant in conjunction with the new seals. I plan to try and stuff some more sealant around the edges with the windows still in. If that doesn't work, I'll just have to pull them back out and start from scratch.
4. The problem that worries me the most at this point is a noise that is coming from the right rear wheel. It's a sort of "clunkity clunk" sound that is only evident when I'm driving less than ten miles per hour with the trany out of gear. It's hard to tell if it's there when isn't in gear because of engine noise. In checked and re-torqued the lugs on the wheel and also the axle nut but neither seems to have helped. The problem doesn't seem to be getting worse but it still eludes me as to why it's making the noise. Stuff like this drives me nuts. I hate it when gremlins like this pop up because it could be something minor or something potentially catastrophic. I have one more lead to follow up this weekend that may be the cause of my sound. Last week , I noticed that I have a brake return spring that seems to have no home. I'm thinking that I forgot to put it on when I installed the brakes. If that's not the problem it has to be the reduction box which will cost a couple hundred bucks to rebuild.

In the mean time, I'm quickly learning to be patient as a VW bus driver. Not only because it's a slow moving vehicle but also because it attracts attention everywhere it goes. Kids break their necks to see it as I pass down the road. People shoot peace signs at me. Women flash me. OK not really, but I do get smiles from everyone and it's a blast to drive. I stopped to get gas the other day and no less than three people approached me to say how cool my bus looks or tell me stories about the one they used to have.

Ladies and Gents,,,It's a Driver!!!

First ride.

Took the bus out for it's first trip on Wednesday. It drove pretty well. The two bigger issues I'm having are the brakes and the steering.

There is quite a bit of play in the steering and it has a tendency to wander. Corrections on the wheel take about three inches of travel before the box kicks in and brings the wheels back. The alignment is also contributing to the wandering. A minor adjustment to the steering box should correct it.

Brakes worked great after I bled them out and replaces the wheel cylinders. When I hit the road I made it a few blocks before the master cylinder gave up the ghost. The brakes started getting weaker with each stop. A new master cylinder is on order and will be here this weekend.

I fully intended on posting pics this week but a couple parts still need to be installed before the unveiling. Definitely will be posted by this coming Wednesday. The VIN# search turned up nothing and I was extremely relieved to find out my bus isn't stolen. So am officially legal to drive on the road with a temporary tag until my custom tag arrives in the mail.

So close I can taste it!

Back from paint.

Got the bus back Monday. Aside from one spot, It looks killer!

I'm installing new brakes and bolting everything up. I'll post pics by Wednesday when it's "done."

One thing I forgot (or never thought about) was to have the VIN checked to make sure the thing isn't stolen. Hind sight is 20/20. Cops will be out Monday to do the check. Keep you fingers crossed. If it turns out to belong to someone, They can have it back after they pay me what I have into it. If that's not going to happen then they can have it back after I pull all my parts back off of it.

roof patches
upper vent section
rear vents
wheel arches
brakes
bumper
bulkhead
lights
seals
ect ect

I'm sure everything is fine though. I'll be rolling next week. Tags and all.

In the mean time.

The van was supposed to be done with paint this week. I'm not too upset about the thing being behind schedule because I'm behind the power curve as well. The new completion time is this week before Wednesday.

While it's gone..

I've mounted some tires on my new wheels.

I also had the front window frames powder coated. They look awesome but getting the vent window seals back in is a bitch! My fingers hurt just thinking about it.

I took apart the bumper I got for $35 and stripped it of all the old scale and rust (or patina as some refer to it) and the thing is pitted pretty bad. I'm just going to throw on a couple coats of Rust Bullet and top coat it with some rattle can until I can get a new bumper.

I started to break down the side pop outs and found that the frames aren't worth saving. I managed to break down one frame, replace the seals and get it back together. It's barely hanging on by a string though. I'm not happy with the results. I am, however, out of money. So I'm going to have to live with the old side windows until I save enough to get new frames which I will also get powder coated.

I stopped at the paint shop yesterday on my lunch break and the prep work looks great. The sides look nearly new and the shop appears to have done a wonderful job so far. The only questionable area I saw was the roof which looks worse now that it has been primed and cleaned up. The waves are deeper and more pronounced but I honestly expected that. My budget and time crunch won't allow for it to be properly fixed so I'm just going to roll it however it comes out and be as happy as possible. I may undo all my hard roof work in the future and go with a sliding rag or just glue a whole new roof to it. We shall see.

I was in the garage Wednesday and working on cleaning up some old fried eggs (front signals) that my brother was kind enough to send me (thanks bro) and my wife came out and asked me what I was doing. I held up the old signals for her to see what I was working on. She said, "Eeeeeewwwwwwwww! You can't put those ugly old things on your newly painted bus! Buy some new ones." Everyone should be as lucky as I am.

Work continues. Every time I turn around I think of something else that needs to get done. the list seems endless but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Paint

Took the bus out for paint early this week. The shop said that thier body guys were just hanging around waiting for work so it should turn real quick. It should be back by the middle of next week. While it's gone I'll be working on replacing the seals in my side windows. I've read both horror stories and pleasant tales about this job. Definately hoping for the latter. But if Murphy has anything to say about it, I'll be driving a rental for another month.

Speed bump

I ran into a problem as I was prepping the bus to go to paint. The lower backing plate for the screws on rear cargo door had come loose and fallen down the channel that it is contained within.

The first thing I did was try to fish it out using one of my favorite tools. I telescoping magnet. When I shoved it down the screw hole, my tool snapped. I was pissed to say the least. Now I had to make a cut to retrieve my tool and fix the problem.

From the interior, I made a three inch cut on the rear of the vertical stringer for fishing and to get at the backing plate. I only cut three sides and then pried it open like a hinge. My tool was in plain view when I opened it up.

When I pulled my crippled little magnet out, the backing plate came out with it.

Here you see the tab that is designed to keep the backing plate from falling. What happens is, as you unscrew the bolts holding the hinge in place, the plate puts pressure on the tab and pushes it away from it's designed position. After the screws come out, the nutplate falls. I think it's a good thing that my magnet broke because there is no way I could've fished the nut plate back to it's proper position. Even If I managed to to so, it most likely would've fallen the next time I pulled the door off. So I repositioned the backing plate and used a screwdriver to bend the tab back into it's proper position. After I cleaned up the inside a little, I bent my little hinge back in place and promptly ran some of the worst welds of my short career to finish up.

Early before and after.

I'm finally finished welding all the missing panels in. I'm sending it off to the local paint shop next week for a quickie. Nothing special, I just want it presentable and to keep the rust off of it for a year or so while I drive it.

Pass side before.

Pass side after.

Drivers side before.Drivers side after.

I also took it for a spin yesterday. Now I know that three gears work...and one brake. The crunch is on for me as I sold my Subaru the other day and now I have nothing to drive until I get this thing on the road.

One boxer meets the other.

It never ceases to amaze me how clean this bus is as I dig into it. The I have yet to find any serious rust issues as I cut panels off and glue more on. Even the passenger side corner is remarkably rust free. There is little but surface damage even after it was obviously hit in this corner. To be honest, the donor panel has more rust on it than the original I just cut off.

This is the remnants of the donor piece where I cut my patch from. If you look at the stinger behind where the sheet metal was, you can see the large amount of surface rust. this is just getting to the point where it's in danger of rusting through. I decided to stick with the original support for just this reason. It's only bent up and can be straightened to match up quite nicely.

Here is where two boxers meet (my 40 year old VW and my three year old Subaru). Nothing inspires creativity like desperation. I thought for about twenty minutes on how to straighten the corner support out. I went through every scenario from beating it to death with a hammer to using a jack to push it back into place to just using the metal from the donor piece. Luckily, my eyes fell on a come-along in the garage that we bought to take down a tree and inspiration struck. So I swung my Subaru around and hooked it up to the bus. With a few cranks of the handle on the tool, the stringer bent back into place. It was a tug-o-war between the car and the bus. Believe it or not, the car won. Just as the piece was lined back up, the bus (wheel chocks and all) started to slide backwards. The little wagon never budged.

This is the final test fitment of the donor. This thing has clamps all over it to line it up. It's going be fun to see the final fit of this thing. There's even a clamp inside the engine compartment to help the donor piece line up with the corner. You can see the yellow end over the distributor. Also note that the reverse light hole is now cut out. It looks perfect and the holes line up level with the opposite side.

For this piece I'm going to use a combination of lap and butt welds. The bus was pretty wavy back here from the hit it took and the only way to make it look right will be to use this method in conjunction with some filler.

Next week I'll prep the interior with some rust bullet and get to work with the welder.

In reverse.

I started this week by cutting out the drivers side corner and fitting the donor. The hole for the reverse light in my donor panel was non existent because it's from an earlier model bus that wasn't equipped. My original plan was to use the original piece to trace and cut. The thing was so bent out of shape that it was useless for my purposes. So I ended up using paper similar to the thickness of what you would use to print business cards on your printer. Fortunately for me, the holes (right and left) are identical so transferring it over was really simple. I put the paper behind the passenger side holes and traced the pattern on to the paper making sure I properly marked the location of the screw holes and notches. Then I simply cut the shape out of the paper with scissors and taped it to the other side. Then I just traced the hole with a permanent marker and bingo it looked perfect. Something to note. Even though the light holes are on opposite sides, they aren't mirrored. Sort of like brackets on your keyboard.

[ ] = Mirrored (not how you cut them)

[ [ = Not mirrored (how you do cut them)

What it's supposed to look like.

What it did look like.
Paper in place ready for tracing.
The next post shows the final outcome.

Passenger wheel arch.

This panel has proven to be much more tricky than expected. Cutting out the old dented and hacked up arch was difficult because of the number of welds tacked along the wells and the stringers. Since it's a much bigger panel than I've dealt with to date, it is more difficult to trim it to size. I've drilled a few holes in the panel and I'm using screws to hold it in place while I fit and trim. I'll fill the screw holes with the welder later. It's the only way I see to keep the fit consistent. It also makes the process of fitting it slower. I'm having to attach, mark, detach, trim and attach over and over again as I go. Welding and grinding is also a concern because the heat generated will be more conducive to warping of the metal. As of right now, I've cut out the old section and was pleasantly surprised at the lack of cancer (rust) behind the panel. Even on the lower edge, where it's usually pretty nasty in these things, there is little but surface rust and dirt.
I'm now a little afraid of the rear corner I'll have to replace. It seems like a much more complicated fit than this arch. My original plan was to do the corner last but now that I'm working on arch, it seems that It will be smarter to get the corner in before I do the vent and arch on the other side.

Where there was none.

Almost finished welding in the pass side engine vent. Still needs a couple holes filed and ground to be finished. It came out great.

Before

After.

Still working.

Internet problems and camera issues are hampering regular posts.

Overhead vent repair.

This last week I Sanded and coated the interior roof with Rust Bullet and tacked the missing fresh air vent in.

Here is the hack I started with.

Based on the donor piece not being cut out all that well and the ammount of work it would take to replace the entire thing, I decided cutting and blending here would be a much easier and better looking repair.

After I cut the donor peice to fit, I used the existing screw holes for the access plate to line it up perfectly. Here, where the two pieces meet, I'm using lap welds unlike the roof where I used butt welds. I painted the interior roof with Rust Bullet and also replaced the seals on the forward and center air flaps.

I still have som more grinding and finishing to do but you get the picture.