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Sun Apr 19, 2015 2:27 am

Today I ABSOLUTELY HAD TO clean the headlight buckets. I don't know why the spirit moved me to do that. Deal with it.

What's this behind the right side bucket? Factory assembly line markings? Yes please! We won't be scrubbing that spot clean...

For some reason, the left side bucket was spotted with surface rust and bubbling paint. We can not have that!

Now then... "Blazing Copper Metalic" is not to be found anywhere, so my touch ups are usually small and poorly matched. But nobody will see this, so white engine enamel it is!

After wire brushing, cleaning, rust catalyzing, waiting, and top coating, it hit me that this left side didn't have a drain hole on the trim ring like the right OG ring has. Folks, please think through your aftermarket parts installations. (Here is a good example of a bug/bus part being "interchangeable" but not really, in a shiny catalog. The bug rings are 90* off, and while they may be the same shape and size, the drain holes are NOT the same. Which is why the inside of my ring required copious cleaning time and rust control.) Water will get everywhere, and we must show it the way out like the factory did.

After rust catalyzing, before top coating, I spent a good two hours progressively sanding the headlight inner trim rings back to their quality early bus luster. The polished stainless/ chrome the factory used was unreal. 600-800-1500 sandpaper made them look brand new. Which is nice, because they used to be covered in overspray, dirt, and overspray on dirt.

Much better! Sorry I don't have a before picture.

On the way out the door after all that, my shifter felt funny going into reverse. I crawled under, and after bragging about my 46-year-old shift coupler all week, I find that it has deposited the right bushing and lag bolt somewhere on the local turnpike. Fantastic. Oh well, NOS parts to the rescue:

The kicker was how poorly the new one fit, so I "convinced" it to bend and shape more like the bushing. NO SLOP ALLOWED here with the fancy spring loaded 3-4 shifter gate.

Trying to cover up all my toolbox aftermarket stickers with emo band stickers.

Oh yeah, and we drove 110 miles to the Pamona Swap meet where I scored some sweet digs before it even opened!

Good roads,
Robbie

Sun Apr 19, 2015 12:18 pm

Yea, I think they were just assembly line things. I know that splits would sometimes have their color noted in the headlight and eventually the letter would rust in the bucket under the paint. I'll send you the thread about it if I find it.

but, nice.

Mon Apr 20, 2015 9:27 pm

Zeen wrote: There are people who are willing to help, some of whom are experts and make real money doing what they'll share with you for free.

I know there are very smart people on this board.

There is also way more who think they know what they are talking about and don't, just sit at the screen and second guess everything. Even worse there's the guys that are gonna cry cause I'm cutting up a relatively rust free California bus.

I've begged borrowed and sacrificed way to much to not finish this...eventually. Driving around the country in it with the dogs is our dream.

It sat for 9 years in somebody's yard in New Jersey under a tarp with a blown type 4. I spent 2 years looking for this exact bus, late camper, close to home, cheap, little rust, needs engine. F the type 4, it's to much money to be slow.

If someone has intelligent thoughts on what I'm doing here, send me a pm. But believe me I've been staring at this thing with 2 other pretty serious car guys one night a week for about a year now, and I've got a pretty good plan put together. We drink beer. Some night are more productive than others.

Got some black door edge guard to see what that will look like fitted.

I think it's gonna work if I open up the holes a little bit more. The corners won't be such a tight bend. I had to cut reliefs on the back but I think If I get them just the right length and put them on right out of boiling water they will sit nice.

Mon Apr 20, 2015 10:13 pm

I really didn't do this to my bus today, (what I did do was rip out a bunch of blue Astroturf), but it certainly qualifies as a nice step forward to the future! I am pretty excited to get my panel back from eche bus... I just got this email yesterday, and this is what it looks like, waiting for me to pay and ship:

There is simply no way I could have done this work myself. :shock: Total fuggin' score. Jon had contacted me early on and said my timer is bad, and sourcing the timer could prove very difficult. I asked him to not worry about it, I will figure something out later. I actually don't have a use for this panel right now. So he will send it back to me totally renovated, sans timer, with the old timer included separate.

THIS... is what I sent him:

Tue Apr 21, 2015 12:02 am

I have collected the wiring harnesses, all the fuel injection parts, painted the plenum, all the tin, runners, and waiting on new rubber parts to reinstall every thing. Still need to treat gas tank, and clean \ paint the engine compartment that the fire damaged on this bus. Still under 2k on this project, but have used a lot of spare parts meant for my 78' on this 77'. 78' didn't need then anyway. Been a fun project too. :D

Tue Apr 21, 2015 7:08 am

asiab3 wrote: Today I ABSOLUTELY HAD TO clean the headlight buckets. I don't know why the spirit moved me to do that. Deal with it.

What's this behind the right side bucket? Factory assembly line markings? Yes please! We won't be scrubbing that spot clean...

On the way out the door after all that, my shifter felt funny going into reverse. I crawled under, and after bragging about my 46-year-old shift coupler all week, I find that it has deposited the right bushing and lag bolt somewhere on the local turnpike. Fantastic. Oh well, NOS parts to the rescue:

The kicker was how poorly the new one fit, so I "convinced" it to bend and shape more like the bushing. NO SLOP ALLOWED here with the fancy spring loaded 3-4 shifter gate.

Good roads,
Robbie

My '68 DC also had grease pencil-like markings on the headlight buckets... RE: The lag screw on the shifter coupling... I find that drilling a hole through the head of the lag screw to also accept the set screw lock-wire is the thing to do.

Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:15 pm

Wasted youth wrote: I find that drilling a hole through the head of the lag screw to also accept the set screw lock-wire is the thing to do.

I'll be doing that if I have ANOTHER problem. I seemed to have mitigated the 4th gear popping out issue by resetting the power train left-right alignment on the rear hanger (mustache) bar. And there's a copious amount of red thread locker on the new lag bolt.

So after I got home from a 600-mile trip this weekend, my second aftermarket signal switch craps out, and I'm left without brake lights. (I love seeing a clever problem solving tactic by these engineers turn into a nightmare when a plastic POS part fails.) Since the early bays are wired through the signal really then switch to power the brake lights, I had to cut, splice, and creatively tie some wires together to make sure I had break lights before work today. I had a third brake light all the way home, and I still have no turn signals, but at least I have all three brake lights for my commutes this week.

I'm sick of the aftermarket garbage, so if Matt Curtis, Skills, or anyone has a NOS early early bay switch (211-953-513 G) I'm willing to spend copious amounts of money to never deal with this again.

Finishing the stock vacuum system on a bitchin' '73 with factory dual carbs tomorrow,
Robbie

Thu Apr 23, 2015 6:23 am

Hubba hubba! ^that's a bitching high-top^ if you can, get pics of the inside!!

Sun Apr 26, 2015 10:10 am

After a solid week of scrapping, hand sanding, washing, grit blasting, prepping and painting. I was able to transform my front axel beam from this scuzzy mess

To this:

To this:

I must say the grit blasting is the worst part of it all. Thoroughly happy with the results. [/img]

Sun Apr 26, 2015 7:10 pm

^^^ Sometimes i wish i had the patience to be as tedious as some of you are in detailing... Looks nice.

Retorqued the bolts for the fresh acles and cv's today. Still feeling tight.

Also got a new timing light and checked out the new pertronix... Was my first time ever doing the timing. (Note to self...the timing light on the #2 wire gives you funny readings...) but all in all, finally figured it all out.

Question - with a stock 2.0 FI, 1976, pertronix installed, should i expect idle around 7.5 and advanced to 3000 to be around 30 degrees? Was searching for some guidelines and seemed to narrow somewhere around there. Sound right?

Mon Apr 27, 2015 5:29 am

m.pendzick wrote:

To this:

That turned out great!!

Mon Apr 27, 2015 8:01 am

melville wrote: GMATech wrote: secretsubmariner wrote: No wonder GMATech doesn't have a build thread!

Naysayers gonna naysay.

It looks super cool, good luck on your build!

btw Prickle rocks dude!

Nailed it, you all can see pics when it's done. Not lookin for any input.

You could mount a blow-off valve to that rear-facing nipple and then mount a steam whistle to that for a temperature gauge.

Holy shit!! I haven't laughed that hard in awhile!

Mon Apr 27, 2015 1:38 pm

New old very comfortable seats to ever go on a bay window bus..
Can you guess what kind of seats these are ?
Practically bolt right in !!

I wanted some comfort because at my old age getting there the stock seats are too uncomfortable

So here it is

Tiburon Seats
That is what they are and these are leather with headrests but i took those off. I lined them up and marked holes for them. I tap the holes with an M10 x 1.5 thread so i could use the standard 14mm hex bolts. Now i was only able to get 3 bolts to work but tomorrow i will work on the remaining ones.. so they feel great and relief from arthritic back. Here is a pic of the Tiburon at the Salvage Yard. The Tiburon retractable 3 point seat belts are next to be installed.
It was a good day today !
I paid $100.00 for them

On the passenger side i had to remove the old seat brackets by removing two 10mm bolts and the other drilling out the welds

Tue Apr 28, 2015 8:42 am

^^^ wow, Lazy Boys in a bay. Who would have thought? :)

Learned from a search on this site that you can use aluminum foil and water to make metal shiny. Never heard of that and the wife said "no, that's crazy talk!"

Tried it out, gave it a thirty second scrub, was amazed.

Now, to get those dents out.... Nah! Next task!

Tue Apr 28, 2015 8:53 am

PLF-Blue wrote: ^^^ wow, Lazy Boys in a bay. Who would have thought? :)

Learned from a search on this site that you can use aluminum foil and water to make metal shiny. Never heard of that and the wife said "no, that's crazy talk!"

Tried it out, gave it a thirty second scrub, was amazed.

Now, to get those dents out.... Nah! Next task! n

Or you can buy the 4 original german ones that i have for $40.00 in like new shape

Tue Apr 28, 2015 11:11 am

This bus was my first car! I've had it stowed away in a chicken coop for the last 7 yrs. Went and pulled it out this weekend so maybe I'll start working on it now

Tue Apr 28, 2015 7:04 pm

Well, my restore-the-bus season is over, and my wear-the-bus-out season has begun. Last project out the door was:

Before:

After:

I just painted a light long distance fog coat of "exresso" brown plastic paint from Walmart onto the Werksberg plastic kick panels.
Colin

Wed Apr 29, 2015 1:13 am

Engine fire bus I picked up 3 weeks ago is ready for paint. L 21 H is the paint code. Just doing the engine bay for now where the damage was. The tin is done. Por 20 going on the f pipes to the flappers in silver and manifold gray. Cali bus so every part is there. Coating gas tank tomorrow and maybe weld in new battery tray. HOA sent me a nasty-gram so got to hurry and finish. Just glad all the cleaning and prep is over. This bus was posted for 15 minutes on C-list for $1800 and I called and closed the deal for $1500. Guy was in the navy and was wanting to cut his loses and move on. 12 hrs from Phoenix to the coast on I-8 and back. Didn't notice the clock in the dash till yesterday. :shock:

Wed Apr 29, 2015 6:50 am

VWsArent4Hippies wrote: This bus was my first car! I've had it stowed away in a chicken coop for the last 7 yrs. Went and pulled it out this weekend so maybe I'll start working on it now

More pix! And, I'd love to see a "refresh" thread on it! :)