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Tue Nov 23, 2004 12:12 pm

Anyone ever found *really* stupid things done by the PO? im not talking about fender flares, shortys, or scoops, those are a given. Im talking about seriously lame moves, even possibly dangerous.

heres one i found on my barndoor when ripping out the wiring harness.
He had installed screws in the cargo area for something back in the day. The screws were still installed. When i was pulling on the harness i noticed it seemed to be glued to the firewall then i realized what he had done...
2 rusty screws running directly thru the middle of the wiring harness, pinning it to the wall and shorting out wires.

I can see him now.. "Hey why dont my taillights work anymore?!?! ehhh oh well".

Tue Nov 23, 2004 12:18 pm

previous owner covered under the bus with tar.... 1/4-1/2 inch of it...

or just looking at my front floor is enough to scare anyone

Tue Nov 23, 2004 12:58 pm

Oh, I'd say hacking out the stock rails to put in lame Ford Ragery seats that were actually just held in with one bolt anyway! Thankfully, I working on correcting that.

My radio grille also has a dent in it that I'm still working on ways to explain. Okay, it's not dangerous, just strange.

-Taylor

Tue Nov 23, 2004 1:00 pm

enkiel wrote: previous owner covered under the bus with tar.... 1/4-1/2 inch of it...

or just looking at my front floor is enough to scare anyone

did you buy that bus from eric & barb?

Tue Nov 23, 2004 1:03 pm

doveblue3 wrote: enkiel wrote: previous owner covered under the bus with tar.... 1/4-1/2 inch of it...

or just looking at my front floor is enough to scare anyone

did you buy that bus from eric & barb?

i would think not.

but tar does seems to be a good way to "hide" rusted through part

Tue Nov 23, 2004 1:03 pm

It wasn't my bus, but an acquaintance of mine bought a kombi that had the above mentioned tar treatment on the cargo floor and a set of eight deluxe sky lights installed on the roof.

Tue Nov 23, 2004 1:05 pm

A PO had added some electrical "thing" to the engine bay just above the starter and put one of the screws holding it thru the petrol tank!

Tue Nov 23, 2004 1:07 pm

bigbulli wrote: A PO had added some electrical "thing" to the engine bay just above the starter and put one of the screws holding it thru the petrol tank!

okay, i think this win it all

Tue Nov 23, 2004 1:15 pm

doveblue3 wrote: enkiel wrote: previous owner covered under the bus with tar.... 1/4-1/2 inch of it...

or just looking at my front floor is enough to scare anyone

did you buy that bus from eric & barb?

LOL! I always thought that crap must be hell to remove!

You should ask Hazetguy for some pics of his '56 Westy.

Tue Nov 23, 2004 1:16 pm

crofty wrote: doveblue3 wrote: enkiel wrote: previous owner covered under the bus with tar.... 1/4-1/2 inch of it...

or just looking at my front floor is enough to scare anyone

did you buy that bus from eric & barb?

LOL! I always thought that crap must be hell to remove!

funny

Tue Nov 23, 2004 1:19 pm

crofty wrote: doveblue3 wrote: enkiel wrote: previous owner covered under the bus with tar.... 1/4-1/2 inch of it...

or just looking at my front floor is enough to scare anyone

did you buy that bus from eric & barb?

LOL! I always thought that crap must be hell to remove!

i'll find out soon enough

Tue Nov 23, 2004 1:21 pm

not dangerous, but I'm sure it is common. The last owner was so cheap that he sold the OG back and middle seats because he found bay window seats that were cheaper and had newer seat covers. He told me so. I was pissed.

Tue Nov 23, 2004 2:12 pm

not dangerous,but totally a f@ckin piontless mod.a p.o. cut a rectangular whole and two round oes exactly like the dash for a stereo under the heater contol knobs and choke'\reserve cables under the front seat!!for what?you couldn't even see the stereo! and what a bitch it would be to wire?at least with something like hacking the bench to make a walkthrew it had its purpose :roll: .but a stereo under the seat ?when the same wholes are in the dash?why?i ask!i wish i could post a picture.has anybody else had a bus with this mod?

Tue Nov 23, 2004 2:31 pm

Where's Josh at? He needs to come share his tale of the house door hinge & zip ties used as a pivot for Rita's gas pedal. :-)

I'd imagine I'll have stories of my own before too long too. Right now the best I can offer is 1/4" thick bondo flaking off of a dent. At least the bondo kept it from rusting too badly though.

Tue Nov 23, 2004 3:32 pm

hey bill, you beat be to it! lol.

one of the previous owners broke the gas pedal assembly, and decided it would be ok to just use a door hinge and zip ties. :roll: the door hinge is screwed into the front floor, and there is 2 holes drilled into the gas pedal where the zip ties go through, and around the hinge pin. so rita's gas pedal wont return, so i use a bunji cord. anyone have an extra gas pedal assembly for sale?

Tue Nov 23, 2004 3:32 pm

I got one.

Previous/orig owner of my 67 SO-42 Westy decided that the Texas heat was just too much. Removed the left rearmost jalousie window and installed a residential air conditioner in the hole. To provide the 120 VAC to power it, he installed a gasoline powered generator in the left rear corner of the engine compartment with BIG BOLTS. A generator requires intake and exhaust air ports, so using what appears to have been a butter knife, he cut 6" diameter round holes above the left rear wheelwell and in the engine lid, to which he affixed little chrome air scoops. There must have been problems getting access to the generator when it was mounted, so then he cut another 10" diameter round hole in the left rear corner just above the tray and ahead of the seam AND he cut a huge "H" shaped area out of the left rear wheelwell that he later hammered back flat and fiberglassed over.

After a short time using this setup with the AC and generator running right next to his head and the AC pulling the fumes back into the bus all night, the PO decided that it was "like trying to sleep inside a turbine engine" and he removed all of it, filling all these big access holes with fiberglass covered with bondo and white house paint. Luckily he kept the westy window, but I'm still carefully trying to repair all these holes he cut in the bus.

Tue Nov 23, 2004 4:38 pm

vwjosh67 wrote: anyone have an extra gas pedal assembly for sale?

I think the only piece you can't buy new is the hinge piece that gets welded to the floor. Guess which piece has broken twice (on it's second weld back together) on my Deluxe...

Tue Nov 23, 2004 4:45 pm

A PO installed a bignut rear on my singlecab. Instead of buying new E-brake cables he just looped wire a bunch of times to connect the end of the cable and the shoe lever.

Tue Nov 23, 2004 5:17 pm

Out of the 12 rader wheels that I have been recently restoring (6 finally done a few days ago), 6 from Mexico were in fairly bad shape (and are still not finished). Anyway, one of them we pulled apart fell into 5 pieces, i.e. 4 broken spokes. Upon closer inspection, we notice that the wheel had been previously welded in some places (read that attempted) and in others places, someone simply filled the cracks and missing chunks from the spokes with bondo and then painted over.

Tue Nov 23, 2004 5:19 pm

My stereo was wired with a huge bolt instead of a fuse