Bus: Mid-Summer Update

 Over the past few months, we’ve managed to do a little work on the bus. We didn’t accomplish anything earth shattering, however it’s all bringing us closer to our goal.

I timed the bus in May, resulting in a a boost of nearly 6MPG hwy on our trip to Mt. St. Helens! We calculated an average of 24 over our previously logged 18 prior to adjusting the timing. The Bus had been advanced 17° from TDC (Top Dead Center) rather than the suggested 7.5. Alot of  the work we’re doing seems to be split half and half between neglected/regular maintenance like timing and brake flushing and actual repairs.

In June, we bled the brakes. We had no reason to, other than for preventative maintenance. We’re glad we did. I’ve never seen brake fluid so opaque.

Chocolate milk anyone?

(sorry for the low picture quality)

 

 

Cleaned up and and added undercoating to the front skid plate in April.

Below: Installed and after a few days of abuse. After a month the Napa branded undercoating seems to hold up.

 

Next up, our new 1970 Beetle and it’s 44 year old electrical nightmare.

PNW SpringMeet 2014

 

Any Mel Brooks Fans?

 

We got some ideas for interior work

To Do

Well kids, this is why you fix your fuel gauge and carry a AAA Plus Membership.

Fuel sender’s tend to get fouled up on the Transporters (bus) by age. Its a simple fix… once you drop the engine and fuel tank. Since I dont want to remove the engine yet, I’ve been tracking my fuel tank using this little gadget, held on by a magnet to the metal plate where  the dealership-optional clock would call home.

Hence the mileage tracking gadget that didn’t help me in this instance… I may have been off by a hundred miles or so.

This mornings events, pictured above with Roxanne’s corpse on the side of I5, a 1/2 mile south of Everett’s 41st Street exit, prompts a To-Do list for the bus. Most of these will be accompanied by a post detailing the work.

In no particular order,

1. Fuel guage sender fix

2.  Driver/Passenger Inner-door handles

3. Inside paint

4. Fire extinguisher install (will explain)

5. H4 Headlight conversion

6. Sealed heating system

7. Tune-up (spark gap, points, spark cables, fuel filter.. etc.)

8. All New fuel hose

9. Modern Windhshield wiper pump install

10. Door switch for Headlights-On Alarm

11. Cabin Light

12. New Curtains

13. Interior storage (remove “bookshelf”)

14 Radio

Fixing Seat Tracks

 (and Why Neanderthals Shouldn’t Own Cars)

When we first looked at Roxanne, we were impressed by the lack of rust she had. Old VWs are known to get cancerous swiss-cheesesque rust. Now, things are a great deal better here on the West Coast, with the absence of salt on the roads in the winter, but It’s still present and a huge concern for these 35+ year old gems. We found out the PO (Previous Owner) welded in new floor pans and there was an engine rebuild 3 years ago, which took a load off my mind. I would enjoy doing both projects, but at this point I need a project scaled down to the space and time I have.

The only glaring issues were the absence of an installed passenger seat, seat-belts and a slow oil leak.  (What can you expect from a 35-year-old car?)

We bought her anyway.

I knew there was something up when I noticed the driver’s seat was NOT stock. It had been jerry-rigged, with two hardware-store bolts through the wheel well and a slot cut to accommodate the seat being an inch narrower than the stock seats. Luckily, 1976 1/2 Buses share the same seat bracket as the early (or maybe all?) Vanagons. $80 and an hour drive got us a near-mint set of seats.

 It needed some grease and coaxing but the passenger seat installed flawlessly.

Then I took off the Redneckified seat. Oh, the humanity.

My theory is that somewhere along the line a neanderthal owned the bus and could’t get his protruding forehead/brain around the fact the seats SLID. Yes, pull lever. Slide seat out. Depress tab du-dad keeping seat from sliding completely out. Seat removed . I can just imagine the hours hours of  sweating,  swearing  and finger-jamming  this person did with a crow bar and  hammer trying to pry the seat out. Well, I suppose they should get credit for sticking with it and accomplishing the task. One participatory bronze star for you.

After a day or two contemplating the issue and some help from the peanut gallery at TheSamba, this was the fix I conjured.

Broken center-punch, peen hammer and a jig to make sure the bracket didnt get over bent

Testing to see if the tracks were bent down enough

Tada.I would have preferred  low-backed seats of a different color but for the price, I’m ok just using seat covers.

After owning two air-cooled VWs, I’ve realized that much of the work involves correcting previous owner’s “fixes” or “features.”

Welcome, Roxanne.

A few months ago Emily and I made a knee-jerk decision to buy a VW Bus. The seller was leaving on a trip of epic proportions for an indefinite amount of time and didn’t have a good place to keep his baby. We were able to snag the bus a few hours before his flight took off, and for nearly half what we felt it was worth.

After handling some titling issues, We named her Roxanne. (We like The Police, not that she is promiscuous but i’m sure she’s seen a thing or two. )

I’m hoping to use this from here on to document the adventure of restoring Roxanne.

I plan on having a lot of pictures and not many words. I’m a picture-book kind of guy.

You can barely see it here, but she has a Westfalia camper seat on the back. Also, she has nasty curtains.