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Tue Nov 23, 2004 5:56 pm

the second bus I owned came with a great homemade gas bomb or I mean heater installed under the front seat, so to plumb it he just "T" off the main gas line (no hoseclamps used) and bought too much hose to run it up under the seat so it was wrapped around the beam twice then where the hose came into the inlet (you know right next to the piliot light) I guess he was worried about the conection here so he used a zip tie to hold it on, but I'm sure it was warm!!!!

Tue Nov 23, 2004 8:04 pm

wood burning stove in my deluxe. hey davem, if i told you there was an original set screw for a igntion switch in a monkeys ass in the new york zoo ,would we see you on the news???

Tue Nov 23, 2004 8:11 pm

PO welded a broken rear shock mount on the passenger side rear......

You guessed it..... burned thru three wires on the main harness but not enough to cripple it. He then proceeded to add some extra wires to "jump" the ignition.

Don't think he had any idea what he had done.... So I put in complete, rebuilt and used harness.... works perfectly now and extra dash wires long gone!

Tue Nov 23, 2004 11:31 pm

Thd dumbest thing I hate that people do is cut up the dash for a freaking up-to-date stereo.

WTF? :twisted:

Tue Nov 23, 2004 11:42 pm

chopped50ford wrote: Thd dumbest thing I hate that people do is cut up the dash for a freaking up-to-date stereo.

Ummm... yeah. I hate that, too... 8-[ *pushes sawz-all out of sight*

Wed Nov 24, 2004 4:32 am

chopped50ford wrote: Thd dumbest thing I hate that people do is cut up the dash for a freaking up-to-date stereo.

WTF? :twisted:

Then you would love my dash. A PO oversized the light switch hole in order to put an incorrect one from who knows what vehicle, put another hole for an oil temp. gauge, plus squared the round corners on the radio hole.

Wed Nov 24, 2004 4:47 am

How about stripping the threads on the bolts holding the beam in, so only two bolts actually did anything?

Or only fitting two bolts to hold the petrol sender into the tank, so when filled up, and the petrol expanded, it would pour out of the top of the tank...?

Wed Nov 24, 2004 7:15 am

Received my 58 with one of the brake lines not connected. Kinda freaky since it had just crossed the pacific on a RORO !! :x

Wed Nov 24, 2004 7:31 am

Andrew wrote: 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...

Yo Andrew, Wolfsburg has them, I bought one a few months ago...

Wed Nov 24, 2004 7:33 am

My '66 came with "gutted" front brake assemblies...
I took off the drum, and there was nothing in there, not even wheel cylinders...

Wed Nov 24, 2004 7:38 am

i have to say that there is something unsafe about having 7 yeah thats SEVEN inline fuel filters laying atop the engine (hacked in pancake type 4)in place between the gas tank and the carbs isn't the smartest/safest thing to do. But it sure was some clean gas.

Wed Nov 24, 2004 8:44 am

whew, where to begin. my 56 Westy has a vast array of previous owner follies.
has the common stuff like radio hole cut larger, random holes in the dash, wiring that came from home deopt--alot of the same color and same gauge (nothing worked) and wired going everywhere, lotsa bondo for no apparent reason...

also: splitcase trans mount "modified" for home-made front mount for tunnel trans.
the front floor had been patched and re-patched and at spots there were 4 layers of metal, acclerator pedal itself had been "repaired" because the where the pin went through broke off. that was screwed to the pedal, and then the hinge part was welded to a piece of metal that was pop riveted to the floor.
at one point a dual port motor was installed, and i guess it was easier to break out the oxy-acetylene torch to cut out the engine compartment metal than to wiggle the motor in so the heater boxes would clear the metal.
cargo floor "repair" panel welded in over a perfectly good floor to make up the 4" difference that was rusted.
spray foam rocker panels.
cargo door hinges welded to the pillars.
here is the WORST one: every nook and cranny was stuffed with fiberglass insulation, like the kind you'd have in an attic. i filled many large garbage cans with insulation i removed. i mean everywhere too. front doors (were so rusted by this it was easier to just replace the doors), above/in front of the visors (so water could come in the fresh air vent and rust it out up there), rear hatch (gotta replace that), up and under the side windows, in the front nose below the headlights and even stuffed in the crossmember for the nose, where the upper screws for the kick panels screw onto, glued to the roof.
word of advice DO NOT USE INSULATION for this. it causes major rust that is hard to fix. believe me, i'm finding out.
pics here: http://home.earthlink.net/~hazetguy/56westy

Wed Nov 24, 2004 10:24 am

Oooh, my very first bus had wood paneling with housing insulation behind it. As the pop outs would leak, the water would soak through the insulation and then down through the floor. Oy, that was nasty stuff!

-Taylor

Wed Nov 24, 2004 2:04 pm

My barndoor was insulated with fiberglas insulation. Luckily they also did the tar thing. For the most part, the tar kept the insulation from rusting things, although the cargo floor didn't fare very well. The biggest annoyance on that bus was the front bumper brackets being welded on to the bus. Just pulled the rear bumper on one the other day where one rear bumper bracket was welded on. AFter busting a knuckle and finally breaking both bolts off I THEN realized it was welded. The other side had come off in about 10 seconds when I did it.

I've seen lots of other attocities, but try to block them from my mind. I do still wonder about the person who cut the speedo pod out of a 21 window with a cutting torch but then left it there. I couldn't weld it back in because of the large gap from the torch, so had to cut another one out to replace it with. You should need a license to opperate a sawzall.

Mon Apr 10, 2006 9:55 am

Bill-E-BoB wrote: 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 must admin that I did that exact repair once about 1500 miles from home in a walmart parking lot, thinking I'd fix it properly when I got home...but it was still there when I parted with the bus two years later. Makes me wonder if my poor abused '76 Westy is still out there...anyone gotta bread loaf with a 15000 BTU RV furnace installed under the sink?

Mon Apr 10, 2006 10:22 am

Mon Apr 10, 2006 10:45 am

My latest bus is full of silicone, EVERYWHERE, I think he heard the rumor about a bug could float and wanted to water tight this thing.

Mon Apr 10, 2006 11:14 am

The PO of my '60 Kombi (he was a Volkswagen mechanic and bought it new in Germany) installed a makeshift gas heater under the seat and ran the fuel line up and over the roof and down to the front. He also decided that he'd like a block heater and drilled a 1" hole in the nose and ran an extension cord all the way to the back. His next modification, once moving to Canada, was to weld in the semaphores and add late taillights and ghia bullets to the front. Not to mention the hacked wiring and blue shag interior.

My favorite strange PO change was to my DC. The guy jumped in the truck one day and it wouldn't start. He spent God knows how long designing and installing an old radio reostat to get it to fire. You would turn the key to ignition and them "turn up" the radio knob installed under the column. The starter would slowly wind up and when the engine started you'd turn it back down. When I bought it I pulled the reostat, climbed under the dash with a schematic, reattached all the wires, and turned the key. It started right up...... :shock:

Mon Apr 10, 2006 11:22 am

Another door hinge gas pedal mod here. At least mine is welded in. Actually, it give the bus some character because it's definitely lacking in that department.

The other fun mod is the PO painted the cargo area with latex housepaint and then spraypainted all this bullshit with flourescent yellow, orange and green. Such a bitch to get off and still save the primer.

Mon Apr 10, 2006 12:26 pm

Wannabe "barn door" fatchick! :roll: This is a barn-door hinge "grafted" into the accelerator pedal of the Plump truck:

:?