TheSamba.com :: View topic - My Red 1972 Microbus Deluxe

Wed May 18, 2011 9:20 am

BumbleBus wrote: Looking good! Did you put the blue plaid right over the mustard yellow or remove that? If you removed it... do you still have any of it? 8)

oh no, the mustard vinyl came off the jumpseat before the plaid went on - but thats the only item, everything else was just replaced - i still have the small square of jumpseat fabric, but the seat and rear mattress are still intact and are in my garage waiting for a local to buy them off me!

I don't think anyone will buy the 1/2 wardrobe so i might cut that up top make a little box/bench for behind the passenger seat.

Wed May 18, 2011 3:07 pm

rustbus wrote: the seat and rear mattress are still intact and are in my garage waiting for a local to buy them off me!

that's what I was wondering.. if that sale falls through contact me. :)

Tue Aug 09, 2011 3:18 pm

here's the 'final' new interior

New green shag from Ikea today. cheap enough to replace every few years.

also finished my "tool box stool" you see behind the passenger side, which houses my Stahlwille toolbox. i hinged the top for easy access to the top drawers, and the whole box has no bottom so i can pop it off for full access to the tools.

Still need to adjust the seat height of the jumpseat, which will also clean up the edge as I will cut down where the laminate is chipped.

you might also notice I installed an extra ashtray on the passenger side, (second pic) since the jumpseat covers the original one. was easy since I had a spare panel and the hole is already there in the metal.

anyhow,i've done alot since posting this thread, more updates when its less nice out!

if these pics are too huge let me know

Tue Aug 09, 2011 7:19 pm

Love the carpet ! Totally retro !

Wed Aug 10, 2011 8:49 am

Yup, you've done nice work. I love the carpet and I especially love the custom camping stool tool box. That is a wonderful idea!

Wed Aug 10, 2011 9:17 am

Thanks Jordan! Westfabulous!

I was pretty stoked about the carpeting too. i've had the butt-ugliest yellow/golden color burber in there for years, from back when i was a poor student and bought what ever was left in the corner of the carpet shop.

the stoolbox will come in handy a lot. many times we find ourselves just sitting in the bus in the back yard when theres a few friends over, occasionally short on seats. this filled that spot nicely, and although i was searching for a while for a folding jumpseat like the old ambulance buses used to have, this actually works better and provides close access tot he toolbox and free's up the space under the jumpseat that was my old toolbox stash.

gotta keep valuables out of sight in my neighborhood!

actually the best part of the stoolbox is that i was able to make it out of the remnants of the old wardrobe, only added a bit of plywood for the seat. that plus all the fabric has been re-used from upper matresses froma 75 who i traded parts to for the folding seat/matresses

Wed Aug 10, 2011 12:31 pm

Awesome work. I have that same carpet in my living room...except its red 8)

What's the little electronic do-hicky on your roof by the dome light?

Wed Aug 10, 2011 12:40 pm

skid wrote: Awesome work. I have that same carpet in my living room...except its red 8)

What's the little electronic do-hicky on your roof by the dome light?

thanks skid! - we eyeballed the red carpet, but figured it was too much with the red bus

the doomahickey is the remote control for the stereo, I glued a rare earth magnet to it so it sticks to the various metal surfaces in the bus! super convenient, and I do love changing tracks from the back

Tue Dec 06, 2011 10:54 pm

Below is a trip speedo adventure i had last night. these are the highlights, im not going to get into the details of calibration, and where to find new gears, that all appears to have been well covered here before as i found with some searching....I guess this is a bit of a hack, but i had no choice, and its not like i'm gonna sell this thing anyhow!

...Finally found an early trip speedo on Obey. looked good from far so i bid and won it.

on closer inspection, its kinda grimey, so i hoped that would clean up. I knew the reset knob was missing, thats all buddy said it needed...turns out, the entire trip-resetting guts of it had been removed...a total dud. thanks buddy!

upon closer inspection the grime was thick and trying to get it off was pulling up the paint...

so I had to take drastic measures. this is where it gets hacky

i started into it without reading on the samba first, so that made needle removal difficult

i used a spare speedo to practice needle removal. the spare came off with just (sore) finger tips

but the trip unit needed more

this yoghurt container made a nice holder..

since the face would not get clean i had to make a decision...i have a grey face 73-74? NOS speedo that i was going to sell to cover the cost of this early unit. its new, its clean, the trip works, and really the only thing missing was the center disc from the early units.... so i took the needle off it too:

then i found that all my units had 'cracked drive gear syndrome' which can be fixed with either a $25 gear plus shipping

or you can drill it out with a 1/8" bit to take the press-fit out of it and that took the stress out of it and allowed the crack to close.

I scratched the shaft with a utility knife for traction

and glued the gear on with a dab of crazy glue

and took the center from the early trip to it...i think it's passable as an early, and sure its a hack, but its MY hack! :P i was happy to see the needles are interchangeable

Here it is amongts its donors - fleebay score on the left (whats left of it) retrofitted mid-bay unit in the center, guinea pig regular speedo in back (sporting the mid-needle) and good old reliable late unit who was my reference through this mess.

the color is a close enough match for me, and i get the benefit of new old stock internals, km/h, and the early look. shame is how much i had to paid for basically the early grey/chrome face center with the trip section punched-out....although the seller misrepresented it as functional, i thought i was getting a unit that just needed a reset button...we'll see if he offers any remedy or just ignores me. either way my search for a trip speedo has finally come to an end!

now to fix that clock.......

Wed Dec 07, 2011 7:55 am

I had forgotten about your thread, so I sat down this morning at work, with my coffee and read the entire thing (tax dollars at work). I think this is the best "resto" thread on here. I love your attention to detail. You've done far and away better work than lots of people. Your bus is fantastic, and the addition of that interior made it even better. That stoolbox is awesome. Well done.

Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:11 pm

I'm jealous of that trip speedo. I'd love to have that grey face trip in my bus. Do you have as many clocks as you do trip units? I'd take one off your hands :wink:

Wed Dec 07, 2011 7:44 pm

Quote: I had forgotten about your thread, so I sat down this morning at work, with my coffee and read the entire thing (tax dollars at work). I think this is the best "resto" thread on here. I love your attention to detail. You've done far and away better work than lots of people. Your bus is fantastic, and the addition of that interior made it even better. That stoolbox is awesome. Well done.

haha, thanks Kirk, its amazing how easy it is to just sit back and scroll through these bus build threads. glad you enjoy mine! I'm blushing! :oops: :P thanks buddy

Quote: I'm jealous of that trip speedo. I'd love to have that grey face trip in my bus. Do you have as many clocks as you do trip units? I'd take one off your hands Wink

heh, sorry walrus, only have the one clock. i wish I could just remember where i found it... i know i got it for nothing, but cant recall where....it was a luck thing years ago, back before the samba and the remote idea guys would be asking up to $175 for these things...i just thought it looked good! I hope i can repair it myself, like maybe the fusible link is cooked... we'll see ... I know it must be tough to see me 'hack' an original grey face trip odometer for my early, i know i'd be upset if i had a 'mid' bus. :P I'd sell you the old donor early as a grey face but...it doesnt work!! buddy responded to me about it, said "he didnt know, so yeah... thats it" either way i say misrepresentation! i asked if it worked and he said yes. whatever, no biggie, lets move on!

thanks guys! for watching...next i'll post up some pics of my future FI system!

Thu Dec 08, 2011 9:41 am

Just read through this whole thread. Love it! Thanks for keeping it up to date, despite all those posts where you ask a question and nobody responded :) Glad to see you were able to figure things out on your own, anyway.

Do you still have the info on those awesome slider windows? Thinking about picking up a pair and replacing the jalousie (sp?) windows for a cleaner look in my new camper.

Pic for reference:

Thanks!

Thu Dec 08, 2011 7:40 pm

Way cool thread! Love the documentation, went through all pages and will be back when I get to many of those parts :)
It's looking great btw, has come a long way!

Fri Dec 09, 2011 5:19 pm

odecom5 wrote: Just read through this whole thread. Love it! Thanks for keeping it up to date, despite all those posts where you ask a question and nobody responded :) Glad to see you were able to figure things out on your own, anyway.

Do you still have the info on those awesome slider windows? Thinking about picking up a pair and replacing the jalousie (sp?) windows for a cleaner look in my new camper.

Pic for reference:

Thanks!

hey odecom5, haha, yeah questions in the build threads rarely seem to get answered, ya really need to start or add to a specific thread. yeah that rear slider came from mexico - they still make them there, or at least used to - i heard a rumor they may have run out...? you can make one cheaper, but you need to sacrifice a frame! check with antonio trejo (samba username) he supplied me with this driver side one, i made the passenger side one. passenger side, well, i've yet to see a original VW passenger side rear.

Fri Dec 09, 2011 5:31 pm

Kursive wrote: Way cool thread! Love the documentation, went through all pages and will be back when I get to many of those parts :)
It's looking great btw, has come a long way!

thanks Kursive, its cool to review were i've been with this bus...just wish i had pics since day one! i think digi cams were $1500 for a cheap one back then if they even existed...when did those come out?

well i pulled the dash out of the bus as it is and set up to swap parts

the clock seems to tick along fine it i touch the weight in back but i can see the fusible link is gone. i will have to read up on that, i believe i need some special solder? need to find a thread for that.

gas gauge was a little spotty

so i replaced it with this one, which has just one big spot

I thought about painting it but it would never look right right?

this needed some attention! :lol: almost forgot about this! well some 'goop' glue took care of it no problem

reassembled with the clock in, even though need to fix it still. i dont really like it laying around all apart anyhow. that glass with the hole in it has been waiting for AGES :P

Fri Mar 09, 2012 8:34 pm

I had my throttle rebuilt and i just love it, so i thought i would share. real craftsmanship by whip! i keep it on my desk away from the other grimey parts. obviously.

before and after pics, the one that got rebuilt is the one on the left. it was the earliest one i had and had the smoothest casting. but thats really just visual, after the rebuild these are hugely better than new

After.... :D

Sat Mar 10, 2012 7:38 am

Holy shit I love this bus.

I want a 72 now :cry:

Great work on those guages...and that carb is clean I want to eat lunch off of it!!
HOT DAMN!

Wed May 09, 2012 6:56 pm

Just wanted to say thanks for the motivation and info here in this thread, and for answering the questions I had via PM's. Got one of my sliders installed today. Took a wopping 5-7 minutes to install. :D
It's posts like this that help many people and I am forever greatful. Donation to Samba #2 on Friday for having this website! :wink:

Tue May 22, 2012 8:21 pm

secretsubmariner wrote: Holy shit I love this bus.

I want a 72 now :cry:

Great work on those guages...and that carb is clean I want to eat lunch off of it!!
HOT DAMN!

Hey thanks Buddy! i try.