Note that the cut brake line is heavily sprayed with WD 40, we're hoping to be able to get that line off the metal line in order to replace it with no damage, they are locked pretty solid. Not so much due to rust, but to a previous mechanic cranking down on it so hard that he probably flared the end of the metal line within the nut. Ray's seen this from experience and is hesitant to force this or we'll damage it and have to replace the metal tubing too.
Backing plate, spindles and kingpin assemblies removed from the tie rods. There is no way to pound out the old linkpin bushings with them on the vehicle. They must be pressed out in the machine shop. Look at the wear of the pin bearings inside the bushing (ribbing inside).
Look at the bushing in this one, it is so offset, it should be flush so that the shims seat better. They were a mess.
After cleaning them up in the parts washer, they go into the 40,000# press (Ray's small press).
After putting in one that had been offset, we realized that the hole had been flared/defaced enough that the new bushing stuck out a bit (about .020), too much for the shims to seat well. So, we had to press that back out and grind down the new bushings before pressing them in.
You gotta love these digital calipers.
Now, carefully putting the new one in. If you get even a tiny bit off angle at first, you will damage the interior shaft by wedging it with the press. Ask me how I know this...
We didn't even do the kingpins, just not enough time and the entire front end needs a good rebuild, blast, paint, kingpins, tie rods. That we'll go back to another time... But the linkpins made a big difference. Even though they were brazilian and still had a bit of play in the brand new ones (disappointing), still will be much better.
Now, the brake lines. The dang damaged nut will not break free. So, poor Ray had to removed the brake cylinder/shoes from the backing plate and spin the entire new line in order to screw the other end into the metal line. Ugh. But at least he knew enough to not force the issue and have to lose another day replacing the metal brake line.
My 3 legged dog, Miles, says it's late and he wants to go home and have dinner.
Joined: July 18, 2011 Posts: 204 Location: Auburn, CA
Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 11:48 am Post subject:
FIRST: A great big Thank You to Joe Patterson (user name "exciter" on thesamba) at Vintage Metal Werks in OH! A member in Canada (user name "velvetgreen") PM'd me that he has the Silver Plat/Mesh Plat long door panel that my bus is missing. But I cannot find an affordable way to get it to CA due to the size. So I posted a request and Joe responded that he's got a customer making the drive from Toronto to his shop and he can bring it to him to get it into the USA, then I can have it shipped Greyhound. YAY, thank you so much to these guys for helping me get this panel! You rock!
Next, Velvet did not come with a back bumper. I got a standard bumper (as opposed to a Deluxe) off the samba a while ago, good deal with the overriders and splash guards. The OG condition matches the front. It is pointed, rather than the more common slash style, also to match the front. Well, I finally found some Deluxe trim pieces in the pointed style to "turn" it into a matching deluxe bumper. So, that is complete now. I came out ahead in price to buying a complete deluxe rear pointed bumper, they were only made for two years, and they are very hard to find.
Velvet's front bumper has this sticker, I wish I could trace it to an owner somehow:
Note the Deluxe Trim pieces that are now on the back bumper to match the front.
Okay, on the agenda today, rebuild the *new* master cylinder.
On the way to Bugorama, Ray was driving Velvet and I drove my RV. I noticed the brake lights were on most of the way, but he said the pedal wasn't triggering it. Well, the new master was not wanting to release very easily. Ray finds that its more and more common to get cruddy new parts, unfortunately. So, instead of exchanging it as a bad part, it is more reliable for him to just rebuild it himself and KNOW that it's right.
Sure enough, the inside wasn't completely finished, you could see the faint rings, even though you couldn't feel them with your finger (it felt smooth). But Ray says that is enough for the piston inside to drag. Luckily, he has a honing machine. We bought a rebuild kit, but didn't even use it.
Put it back together and it operates VERY smoothly and the spring actually pushes the rod back out now, it barely would try before. Next the brake lines needed to be bled and we ran out of time as no matter how much she bled, there was air in the lines. So we called it a day.
Here's the new stance with what we did to the suspension. Sits straighter in the back, although a bit too low for my liking. We will be rebuilding the entire tranny with RGB's (another one that I got from someone), so we can then turn the outer spline instead of only the inner one, which will result in not so big of a drop in the back. Drives MUCH better now, nice and steady and safe compared to before.
Joined: July 18, 2011 Posts: 204 Location: Auburn, CA
Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 1:58 pm Post subject:
My favorite view, looking out the windows from behind. She's rockin' a Skinner Classics sticker now. BTW: I didn't put the JerFab sticker on, although Jerry does awesome work, the PO put that sticker there and I'm leaving it.
I got my personalized plates in: RSAMBA. It looks too new, I need to scuff it up.
Here she is tucked into the breezeway on my farm where the Kubota normally is, since the rain is coming and there's a gigantic hole in her roof.
Saw this at BugORama on a bus in the show. LOVE THIS, I want one. Anyone know where I can get one?
This says it all. I entered this rediculous journey of time and money purely for the love of saving a harder and harder to find OG bus. I wish more of them could be repatriated to becoming drivers, like they were when they were young.
Next up, we are pulling the tranny today to take to Robert Skinner for a rebuilt core exchange. _________________ Dawn
Joined: July 31, 2005 Posts: 1081 Location: United States
Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 5:01 pm Post subject:
I thought I saw that sticker on eBay before? I will let you know if I run across one!
Love the plate. I just got mine too! Say's TYEDYE2. My splitty has TYEDYED. Wish I would have thought about the palm tree plates when I ordered mine. I really like hoe yours look, much better then plain old white! _________________ Kim
Sacramento, CA
Joined: July 18, 2011 Posts: 204 Location: Auburn, CA
Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 7:27 pm Post subject:
Thanks Zuggbug and Kim! I'll check out that sticker.
Well, Velvet's tranny finally went cablooey, completely lost 3rd gear and would barely go into 1st or 4th. She got me to the shop, but she's done. Can't blame her, the tranny was sitting in the bus for 34 years with no engine. Now she gets a rebuild.
I'm getting one from Robert Skinner at Skinners Classics in Vacaville. For those of you that don't know him, go to his Facebook page and "Like" him or "Friend" him, you will be blown at the number of bus recoveries the guy does. He's a bus fanatic and all around great person. Ray can rebuild gearboxes of course, but he is just too shorthanded and behind to get to this one for a long time.
So we pulled Velvet's transaxle for a core exchange. The lifts in the shop are all occupied, Velvet is in the old 912 racecar bay for now. He had to use the floor jack and stands to get 'er done, like the old days. Back in the peak days of the shop, when aircooleds were everywhere and he was campaigning four racecars, he had to do everything this way. Today he kept feeling the compulsion to go to the button and raise the bus now and then, his knees were killing him.... Ahhh, good reminder of how nice those lifts are!
Here's a third wheel that Ray got from Gene Berg (not for sale, but as a friend back in the day). Very handy, it bolts onto the mount by the same two bolts that hold the gearbox in and then the bus can be pushed around very easily later.
Here's another gearbox that I bought a while back from a fellow racer, backing plate to backing plate. Has no play and seems to be in good shape. I have decided to sell this one to help offset the cost of the rebuilt one from Skinner and use Velvet's as a core.
Here we keep the brake pedal down so that the internal parts in the master cylinder go past and block the intake port or it will continuously leak fluid.
We have to remove the drums and e-brake cables.
As you may recall earlier in this thread, Velvet had seriously messed up RGB springplate bolt issues. Some had sheared off, one had been welded on by a PO, and she lost even more of them on the roadtrip to Busfest and almost killed herself and Ray on the drive down there. Seriously, he started smoking again on that trip from the stress, after 14 years.
He had replaced them and now it has 3 on one side and 4 on the other (not even able to use the hole on the one side), he had to drill them out and tap them, and used longer bigger bolts than stock.
Here's one of the shouldered larger bolt that he used. He may use these better ones on the new tranny.
Lots of metal filings in the oil pans. And look at the magnetic center drain plugs.
All clean, shows the amount that was metal filings in the pics above.
Hey, here's a great opportunity to take the gas tank out and clean it up. It also needs a rubber gasket where it mounts and at the filler (I have them from Wolfburg West).
The gauge never worked, suspect that it's 6v, the bus is now 12v (and had been because the tranny was ground for 12v). I was told it should work fine, regardless. But we couldn't find where the wire to the front went, it'd been cut at the sender and we suspected a new one would have to be pulled through. BUT, after poking around while I watched the gauge, we got LIFE after many decades. So, all I need is a new sender. Yay!
Removing the nosecone to use on the rebuilt one. Ray and Robert say that aftermarket ones are often poorly done. Found out the pinion nut was extremely loose. We know the main bearing is shot, but cannot see inside. If we'd had more time, I'd have liked to crack the thing open and see just how trashed the gears were, but it's a core, so we didn't bother.
Joined: July 18, 2011 Posts: 204 Location: Auburn, CA
Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 1:38 pm Post subject:
Now that Hugo's motor is in the car, we can finally move forward on Velvet.
We have the 28 year old 1600cc from Hugo and a rebuilt 3.88 FF trans with RGB's through Robert Skinner (www.skinnerclassics.com), ready to install.
But there are a few things that need to come first since access opportunity is excellent right now.
-- Gas tank.
-- Heater cable.
-- Spring plates.
-- Shift rods.
Ray took out the spring plate that had been welded on by a PO and also was rusted solid to the torsion bar. Pressed it out in the machine shop and got another spring plate from Robert Skinner.
Removed. I love that everything inside and out of this bus is Velvet green.
Cleaned them up:
Mateo (now known as Ray's "Little Buddy") painting them:
We can now turn the outer splines to where Ray thinks we will hopefully get the bus to sit where we want.
Purty:
Next is the small heater cable tube. The cable was broken inside and the tube was FULL of rust and bits of cable. Two man job that I, unfortunately, had to miss due to getting my taxes done (I think I'd have rather been sprayed with rust). Ray would have the blower on one end, they'd spray oil into the tube, Mateo on the other end pushing a wire into the tube and has rags to catch the crud coming out.
2-1/2 hours of this until it finally came out with only oil and now more rust being purged.
The tranny horns and area has to be cleaned, which is a big job of 46 years of grime. Had to spray it and soak it and scrub some more.
Better:
Looking at the left tranny horn clean now. The brown spot is stained from the old axle boot. That shows why it is so important to have it clean because they touch it. Note also the nice clean heater cable tube.
Next up, the shift rods. Here's the new birdies (called this because they look like badminton birdies), bushings.
Right off the bat, the bolt broke off to the rod.
Old birdie, rusty shift rod.
Nice:
Next is the gas tank and the heater ducting. Getting close to installing the trans and motor! _________________ Dawn
Joined: July 18, 2011 Posts: 204 Location: Auburn, CA
Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 2:35 pm Post subject:
Shift rod painted now:
Front half of the rod cleaned. Ray had to repair the threads after having to drill out the broken bolt. Now it's ready, rethreaded, cleaned and painted.
Back half. All clean, repaired, painted.
Ready to install now.
The shift rod tube is clean now also. It is about 7 feet long and we put a long steel rod though it with rags on the end to clean the hole so that the birdy moves freely. It's the hole in the middle.
Gas tank, cleaned and repainted. Going to install the new sender, and new rubber gasket underneath and at the filler.
Torsion bar covers for the spring plates.
For those of you that have asked to see a better view of the PO's "battery door". This is the only cut on the OG body bus, but considering that, it was done well and was very handy for us when we didn't have an ignition or key yet and would jump it every time to start it and kill it.
And while we're at it, here's some pics of Velvet with her butt in the air. Will be so nice to get her rolling again!
Joined: September 22, 2007 Posts: 1136 Location: Rainier/Olympia Washington
Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 10:56 pm Post subject:
when i owned that bus it sat in the shop for years every one that came over would look at it and say man who cut that hole there.. and they would ask are you gonna fix it? Id say nope.. but we looked at that door in the rear corner and played with it and straighted it a bit.. I was never gonna fix it i think its awesome and its been there for ever so i wouldnt feel right welding it up.. I would leave it.. bus is looking good. _________________ RustWagens
Slam shop
narrowed german beams
fab work
Joined: July 18, 2011 Posts: 204 Location: Auburn, CA
Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 2:05 pm Post subject:
50ate wrote:
when i owned that bus it sat in the shop for years every one that came over would look at it and say man who cut that hole there.. and they would ask are you gonna fix it? Id say nope.. but we looked at that door in the rear corner and played with it and straighted it a bit.. I was never gonna fix it i think its awesome and its been there for ever so i wouldnt feel right welding it up.. I would leave it.. bus is looking good.
Same here, exactly. Like the scratches and dents, it's a part of her character. I'm glad that whoever did it, did it well. _________________ Dawn
Joined: July 18, 2011 Posts: 204 Location: Auburn, CA
Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 6:11 pm Post subject:
This is where the heater cables come out in the cab.
New cables in (remember Mateo and Ray took hours removing the bits of cables and rust).
Cable coming out in the back.
Cleaned up and ready to go. I will have heat for the first time this winter (since Hugo doesn't have heater boxes). At least I will as soon as I get the gigantic hole in the roof filled with a sunroof...
Spring plates and covers on, we'll see where she sits.
Rebuilt 3.88 Freeway Flyer trans from Robert Skinner (www.skinnerclassics.com). We kept the nose cone and the end caps off the OG one.
Ray is threading all RGB holes for longer bolts than stock. If you read back in this thread, Velvet's bolts were all shearing off and a PO had welded the RGB spring plates, it was a mess. Stronger is best.
The bolt on top is what we will be using.
Almost time to get the tranny in! _________________ Dawn
Joined: March 27, 2008 Posts: 637 Location: NW OHIO
Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 8:05 pm Post subject:
Shes looking great Dawn!!!!!!!
I got your interior panel all packaged up nice and safely and will get her coming your way Monday!!!!!!
I cant wait to see Velvet (& Hugo) in person come september!!!!! _________________ Joe
Vintage Metal Werks
419-236-9781
Joined: July 18, 2011 Posts: 204 Location: Auburn, CA
Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2012 12:54 pm Post subject:
exciter wrote:
Shes looking great Dawn!!!!!!!
I got your interior panel all packaged up nice and safely and will get her coming your way Monday!!!!!!
I cant wait to see Velvet (& Hugo) in person come september!!!!!
Thank you Joe! And thanks to "velvetgreen" for the silver plat/plat mesh long panel. A real team effort getting that to me from Canada. I can't wait to get it in the bus, she'll have all her panels then, except front kick panels.
Old nose cone/hockey stick before cleaning.
Tranny's in!
Gotta get more of these longer bolts. Then mount the backing plates, brakes, wheels, etc. Can't wait to see this bus back on the ground and see the new stance.
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