TheSamba.com :: View topic - Velvet Thread - saving a 21 window project with Ray Vallero

Fri Feb 24, 2012 11:59 am

unclespanky wrote: Sweet baby hayzoos!! Sexier then a twin dicked dog in a room full of bunny rabbits!! Can we expect to see Velvet at Red Barn & Kelley park this year?

Heck yeah Spanky, that's the goal! And Niello Ranch Run.

Got boots or the shift tube, so now the birdies will say clean. There is one boot on each end of the shift tube.

I will have heat. :D

Motor's in!

This motor had an old school dual exhaust on Hugo, but it won't fit under Velvet's bumper. So, we will use the stinger for now, I am out of money....

Still need to hook up the 96 pass oil cooler, put the longer bolts into the spring plates when they come in, rejet the carbs, lots of odds and ends. Hoping she'll be rolling this weekend. \:D/

Fri Feb 24, 2012 8:08 pm

Nice!!! Where did you get those heater hoses?? I can never find them locally and always end up using fresh air hoses.

Fri Feb 24, 2012 10:12 pm

with all due respect.. some things i read in this are disapointing... first the pulling of the leaves in the front beam to "bring the front end down to level it" by the suposed vw guru Ray vallero and now this dumb stinger that is gonna be horrible on that bus.. And thats a 1600 right? with what looks like 40 or 44 idf?s it dosent run rich at all? can you jet those down enough to run good? why not run a stock bus muffler on that 1600? lord knows itl look a whole hell of a lot better then that stinger that is dated back to when they used to pull leaves out out of beams to lower cars...

other than that keep up the good work its comming along nicely

Sat Feb 25, 2012 11:53 am

Hang on Alex, don't get your panties in a twist. :wink: Answers below:

50ate wrote: with all due respect.. some things i read in this are disapointing... first the pulling of the leaves in the front beam

I am taking Sancho's advice after they gave me an education here and running drop spindles. This decision was made months ago, but I apparently didn't update the thread, sorry.

Quote: And thats a 1600 right? with what looks like 40 or 44 idf?s it dosent run rich at all?

That motor is kick ass and been dialed in for decades. It's 100hp on the dyno two months ago after probably 200K miles. Yes, dual 40 webers, ported heads. For the dyno test we put on a bigger exhaust and smaller pulley out of curiosity to the HP increase, so HP will be a bit lower for the bus. It runs flawlessly. And no, it does not run rich, LOL.

Quote: look a whole hell of a lot better then that stinger

I agree wholeheartedly. I hate that stinger. But it works for now and it's free, until I can find what I want in my price range.

unclespanky wrote: Nice!!! Where did you get those heater hoses?? I can never find them locally and always end up using fresh air hoses.

Ray gets them from his wholesaler, he can sell you some Spanky. Would you like us to bring you a set to Red Barn?

Spring plate bolts in. They are longer and are 10.9, which is the highest grade in a hex-head bolt. These bolts have a larger footprint at the mating surface which makes them stay tight.

Moving right along. :D

Sat Feb 25, 2012 9:23 pm

That would be great if you could bring a pair to Red Barn Dawn. If I was smart ( if ) I'd buy a case of them as I find them more elusive then virgins and unicorns.

Sun Feb 26, 2012 8:27 am

Ok sounds good.. Panties untwisted :D .. Loving the progress and I will be at red barn and Kelly park in my 59.. Hope to see the bus and finialy meet you.. After all I did deliver that bus to you and never had the chance to see you :lol:
Keep it up

Sun Feb 26, 2012 1:07 pm

50ate wrote: Ok sounds good.. Panties untwisted :D .. Loving the progress and I will be at red barn and Kelly park in my 59.. Hope to see the bus and finialy meet you.. After all I did deliver that bus to you and never had the chance to see you :lol:

AWESOME! You driving the '59 all the way down from Seattle? I look forward to meeting you. :)

BTW: To clarify on the dual 40 webers, just in case anyone wants jetting info, we use F11 emulsions, 115 mains/200 airs/55 idles.

Here she is on the ground. Ray got the splines right on the first guess. Sitting pretty now. Gonna drive her today. :D

Sun Feb 26, 2012 2:04 pm

10.9 german is grade 8 american. grade 12 german is 10 grade american. those goofy bolts on a vw with 8 are grade 6 american. this why hardware stores carry bolts with 8 on them instead of 10 which would be stronger. don't confuse grade 10 metric with grade 10 sae (american)

Sun Feb 26, 2012 6:39 pm

[quote="dsimas62"] 50ate wrote: Ok sounds good.. Panties untwisted :D .. Loving the progress and I will be at red barn and Kelly park in my 59.. Hope to see the bus and finialy meet you.. After all I did deliver that bus to you and never had the chance to see you :lol:

AWESOME! You driving the '59 all the way down from Seattle? I look forward to meeting you. :)

hell yea im leavin wedsday the 18 prob take the coast down.. last july i drove it from orange county to my house witch is about 45 min south of seattle.. so yea i look forward to meating you aswell.. we can have that beer i asked about...
keep up the good work

Tue Feb 28, 2012 10:14 am

Starting the day right. We're headed yesterday to Robert Skinner's (www.skinnerclassics.com).

'59 SC chase vehicle for the journey to Vacaville, thanks Tommy!

We tucked this roof clip into Tommy's truck to take to Robert's too, donor metal.

VIN plate still on the clip. Says it was a double cab. Poor little DC, organ donor to many others so that they can live. RIP.

So, Ray is her doctor, Robert will be her beautician. He's putting in rubber (21 windows and 5 doors), ragtop assembly and canvas, and headliner. We will see what rust repairs I can afford that may HAVE to be done in order to get the windows and headliner in, or anything structural. Finishing up with a careful polish of the OG paint to make her shine. :)

Wed Feb 29, 2012 8:25 am

There's a great "feel good" factor to this thread that makes it a very enjoyable read - no pretensions to 'cool', no blue sky budget.
I prefer the bus stock height, but them I'm not driving it and you have to feel safe in you bus to enjoy using it!
Looking forward to the updates.

Fri Mar 02, 2012 2:00 pm

Thank you to "dropgatelefty" Tommy for driving to Skinner Classics again. We travel in style in his sweet little commercial, putting it to use hauling parts.

So, yeah, Robert and I sat in the bus with a spot light on her worst spot to plan his attack. Our best guess as to what happened to cause it: She sat in a field in Seattle area for many years. Facing nose down, the water probably ran down the sunroof rails and into the fresh air box and pooled at the vent above the windshields. It's rotted completely through there. That's why I brought him the donor clip. Rather than use the entire clip and cut the top of the bus off and repaint, he will be using pieces off of it as needed.

I want to preserve the bus and not do any more cutting/welding/painting than necessary. This is not a restoration, we are simply making her a driver with structural integrity. Bob calls it a RUSTORATION. :!:

He will be soaking her rust with Rust Mort by SEM. He will be reinforcing some of the worst scaly rusted metal that we don't want to cut and weld replacements in (namely the sheet metal that the sun visors mount to). He'll do that be using some donor metal that I brought and gluing it onto the back with Panel Bond Adhesive.

The worst of it at the fresh air vent area:

Yes, that is daylight you see above the windshield:

And from the exterior:

Also, water ran down the center post in the windshield and rotted through from the inside. The black triangle is a hole, no metal there at all. But I brought a clip for this too and Robert will use it here.

Also there's the Flintstones hole on the passenger front floor:

Alex provided me with some metal and Robert is going to use this patch piece that he suspects was hand made (and done very well). He will blast it and clean up it's surface rust.

The other worse spot is the rocker under the cargo doors. I'm ordering metal for that. I will get pics of that next time.

Moving right along..... :D

Fri Mar 02, 2012 4:27 pm

lookin good yea i thought that that floor patch was hand made aswell.. It was wrapped in newspaper from the early 90's there were two pices i think and i think i gave them both to you.. I felt it needed to go with the bus as they came with the bus.. `and Dawn i still have a pearl white or light grey air box cover on the wall in the shop Il bring it to kelly park for you If you let me sit in that thing and drive it aroud the block.. I always wanted to drive that thing but we had way to many proj that were ahead of it :D

Fri Mar 02, 2012 4:39 pm

My old '66 21 window had the same rust around the air vent along the overhang. Maybe they did a bad job of rust-proofing that year, because I've seen a disproportionate number of 66s with rotten air boxes.

Sun Mar 04, 2012 11:51 am

While under the bus, Ray found a hard brake line that was almost rusted through. So, new lines needed.

New lines in:

Yesterday we worked on her at Robert Skinner's. Ray pulled the spindles to send them to Matt at Punch Drunk as cores for drops. Also got a new center pin, so he got that pulled out and will be doing the tie rods also. Putting the leaf springs back in where they belong. I just needed to get my tax return to continue this properly. Matt is doing 2-1/2" drop spindles, I'm hoping the rear will match it, but if not, we'll turn the back a bit more.

I am doing all the prep for headliner and ragtop. All the panels had to come out, windows, rubber, jail bars, popouts, coat hooks, old glued headliner, etc. The tabs along the entire sunroof that held the old headliner in had to be carefully pried open one at a time so as not to break them to put the new one in. Tedious, but I enjoyed every minute.

Before pics. I'll post after pics when I finish, only about halfway through.

And here she is with all her junk on the floor after I got done with her.

And her front end, after Ray got done with her.

Tue Mar 06, 2012 11:44 am

Tommy and I worked on Velvet some more at Robert Skinner's shop yesterday. The most tedious part is stripping all of the old glued on headliner to prep for the new one. And opening up all the tiny upholstery tabs (which are rusted and prone to breaking) along the sunroof's perimeter. When I got the bus, I remember thinking, "Awww, there's no headliner." Now it seems to me that there is volumes of the damn stuff to take out.... Whole different perspective. :)

At least he can stand up while working, helps with leg cramps and stooping over for too long. :)

I also got the interior door panels removed. And we removed all the headliner and opened the upholstery clips on the fresh air box on the donor roof clip so it's ready for Robert to use whatever he needs off of it.

Here's Robert removing the skylights:

So, we got all the stationary windows out, but could not get the 6 pop out windows removed yet. The majority of the tiny screws are rusted so much, I couldn't get them to break free without damaging the screw driver, and a thicker screwdriver won't fit in the small screws. So, Robert will be drilling the remaining ones out to the those windows out.

By the way: WTB 3-6 white (preferably Pearl White) intact popout frames. Three of mine are rusted beyond repair.

Tue Mar 06, 2012 8:11 pm

I like your "velvet" bus. I also like your ladies take on owning a bus. I've had my wife read some of your posts so she can see it's not just a "guy" thing.

I just painted the bottom of my '58 panel velvet green. Love that color. You can see it in this thread, under "My lifted '58 DD Panel". Happy V-dubin'.

Sat Mar 10, 2012 1:13 am

All cleaned up with panels, glass, and old headliner (was down to the beltline around 15 windows) removed.

IMG_20120307_175515 by Skinner Classics, on Flickr

Headliner retainer strips (with the clips to hold the material) have been removed from the donor roof clip.

IMG_20120306_155054 by Skinner Classics, on Flickr

IMG_20120306_155005 by Skinner Classics, on Flickr

IMG_20120306_154959 by Skinner Classics, on Flickr

IMG_20120306_161731 by Skinner Classics, on Flickr

Resampled952012-03-069512-31-3495694 by Skinner Classics, on Flickr

Beadblasted to remove all the surface rust, sprayed on Wurth Brand Metal Etch.

IMG_20120308_142356 by Skinner Classics, on Flickr

IMG_20120308_142603 by Skinner Classics, on Flickr

Also did the handmade front floor sheet metal that Alex gave me.

IMG_20120308_095409 by Skinner Classics, on Flickr

IMG_20120308_095418 by Skinner Classics, on Flickr

IMG_20120308_154249 by Skinner Classics, on Flickr

Mon Mar 12, 2012 1:58 pm

The windshield post getting some donor metal grafted in.

Mon Mar 12, 2012 7:43 pm

If you're saying this roof clip :

dsimas62 wrote:

Is the same as this clip:
dsimas62 wrote: VIN plate still on the clip. Says it was a double cab. Poor little DC, organ donor to many others so that they can live. RIP.

It's not possible that is from a DC. Double cabs have the same air box as single cabs - short ones. Either someone swapped the DC VIN plate onto a different air box, or the VIN isn't from a DC.