77 Riviera Rebuild

longboardskier · Posted: Tue May 06, 2014 7:50 am Post subject:

Looks amazing! Great work!
_________________
1977 Sunroof Bus w/ Riviera Top
1996 Jetta GL
2007 Rabbit

77 Riviera Owner · Posted: Tue May 06, 2014 9:09 am Post subject:

Thanks longboardskier, Wasted YA, and Bala. Being that most of this was done last summer it's sort of fun going through and reliving all of the effort. And fun to share the details with folks who are interested Smile

77 Riviera Owner · Posted: Wed May 07, 2014 11:25 pm Post subject:

Here's the Panel that I made inside of the main cabinet. I mounted the power inverter on the door of this panel, along with some switches so that I can turn off the 12v meter, USB outlet, LED cabinet lights, and the furnace. All items that pose a bit of a power drain on the RV battery. The Propex furnace is not supposed to be switched, but I found that there's a relay within the unit that draws about .06 amps. Not a lot but if parked for a week or to without a charger, that's enough to kill the RV battery. I was surprised to find this. Propex should really say, "wire the furnace with a master switch, however only turn that switch off once you have allowed the furnace to complete cool and turn it's self off."

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

And inside. It looks like a bit of a mess. The relay here is so that the refrigerator can't run on 12v until the engine is running and alternator kicks in. Triggered by the sae D+ from the regulator that powers the dual battery relay.

And the new 100 watt solar panel. I added this 30 amp solar controller from eBay to manage the power. This is a nice unit. I can switch the power off at the controller, and it reads the amperage of the power coming in when in the sun..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LCD-30A-MPPT-Solar-Panel-R...1142991620

77 Riviera Owner · Posted: Sun May 11, 2014 1:37 pm Post subject: Drop Spindles

Picked up some drop spindles from WagonsWest. 2.5" drop. This should account for the saggy rear end and level the bus out with a decent stance.

I got them on Friday and installed yesterday. I'm having a bit of an issue though. You can see here that the little shoulder at the base of the spindle shaft is smaller than the original. It's not big enough to brace against the inside bearing. End result is that I can't get the inside bearing tight. I run out of threads on the adjustment nut, and the brake rotor is sitting too far to the inside. It rubs against the brake back plate a little and a little rubbing against the inside of the caliper when I hit the braes.

I've emailed WagensWest, but has anyone else had this issue and come up with a good remedy?

Bus looks great lowered though!

I'll have to put smaller tires on... My 195 60s on stock rims clear.

I have these old fox shocks that I might install. My old man bought them years ago to put on a Honda Pilot but they've never been installed on anything. They look like they'll bolt right up.

77 Riviera Owner · Posted: Sun May 11, 2014 6:56 pm Post subject:

The guys at Wagons West emailed me back quickly. I missed that the difference is that I missed the little sleeve from the originals needs to be transferred to the new spindles. I felt like a bit of a dumb ass for missing that. At least I figured it out quickly.

All is good now. I have a bit of brake hardware rubbing the rotor on the right side, so I'm going to order new hardware. That and some smaller front tires and I'll be done with suspension.

luckyth13teen · Posted: Mon May 19, 2014 6:16 am Post subject:

Looking awesome dude! Thanks for the ideas, I know i'll be doing solar soon on my bus.

77 Riviera Owner · Posted: Sun May 25, 2014 12:11 am Post subject:

Thanks Lucky.

I finished adding the FOX Shocks today. The old shocks were a bit tired, but MAJOR upgrade in the ride. This was the best upgrade I've done. Between this and the HD swaybar the thing really drives fantastic. Since the lower shock post is quite big, I had to pull the FOX swivel unit out of the lower mount and trimmed up some rubber strut mount pieces for the lower.

I added a CB this morning as well. I'll get some more pictures of that later, but here's the antenna. I found this side body mount that fit in the holes that were already there for the old antenna. I'll get a multiplexor/splitter so that I can use this antenna for both FM and the CB.

77 Riviera Owner · Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2014 2:43 pm Post subject:

I have new white canvas coming. Coincidentally if anyone is ordering new fabric from BusDepot or Custom Home Campers (the only two places that show them for sale) the tents are actually made right in Seattle. The shipping notice says it's coming from "COMMERCIAL FABRIC MFG" with one day turn around on shipping. I wonder if you could just order from them directly... Here's their web site if anyone has a Riviera and wants to contact them.
http://www.commercialfabricmanufacturing.com/

larrydeville · Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2014 7:55 am Post subject: 77 restoration

Tell me if your fridge is working well. We installed a Dometic 182B in our 77 Riveria and it wont keep up with the heat in California. Perhaps we have a lame unit. You did a beautiful job on the cabinets. Larry

77 Riviera Owner · Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2014 8:53 am Post subject:

Hey Larry. Thaks!

Yes, my refrigerator is working pretty well on 12v, propane, or 110v. Before I installed it I did to some work to clean it out and make sure it was running well. There are other posts/sites with decent guidelines on how to freshen these things up. Many of those say that the best you'll get is about 40 degrees cooler than the interior ambient temperature. That might be what you're fighting with the California heat.

If you've got it running well some things to look at are venting of your cabinets, and the bus in general. I've got a roof top solar vent fan that I picked up from Amazon for around $50 that pulls warm air out of my bus when the sun is on it. I also upgraded the fan on the back of the refrigerator to a generic RV refrigerator vent fan. The new fan came with a switch that comes on at around 90 degrees, I rewired that switch to a computer fan that blows air out of the cabinets, and wired the new fan into the original switch that is on the refrigerator coil tubing that kicks on at around 160 degrees (I think).

If nothing else, I'd recommend the roof solar fan. It will at least get you a cooler rig to come home to.

Poptopcamper · Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2014 7:10 pm Post subject: Riviera Rivet size

I just painted my tub for my 78 Riv that is just like yours. What size rivets and rivet gun did you use. I drilled out the rivets, but my rivet gun doesn't seem to handle rivets that large. Thanks.

77 Riviera Owner · Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2014 11:58 pm Post subject:

Hey poptop. The rivet gun I've got is just your basic unit from Sears. I'll have to look up the rivet size, but they are big, and seem identical to the originals. I bought a bag of 100 from eBay, so I'd you want to PM me your info I could see what it would take to send a few to WY.

77 Riviera Owner · Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 12:06 am Post subject:

These are the rivets that I have.
http://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/e11400.m1842.l3160/7...AUS%3A3160

Poptopcamper · Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 5:24 am Post subject:

I have 3/16 in rivets and the gun to pop them. The 9/16 wide flange is the info I needed. That helps a lot. I will look around my little town and if I can't find them I will get back to you about buying some of yours. Many thanks!

Poptopcamper

I found 3/16 x 9/16 in wide flange rivets at Fastenal. They had a case if I wanted but I only needed 6. The woman who waited on me looked disappointed so I bought 12 and told her I needed to practice riveting. $1.95 including tax. Thanks 77 Riviera Owner for the good information.
If you have a Riviera with a fiber glass "tub" on the front and decide to paint it, I highly recommend that you take it off and see what's under it, if you aren't sure when it was last off of the bus. Mine had leaves, branches, road grit and RUST under it. No good having a shiny top if there's a rust hole under it.

19BUG70 · Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 7:49 am Post subject:

What type of wires and how did you run them when you were putting things back together for all of your electronics? I have taken everything out of my 72 and will be putting things back in as I can afford them. I want to make sure I run the proper wires so they are there if needed.
_________________
1970 Bug (sold 12/2014)
1972 Riviera Camper
1961 Bug (sold)
1966 Fastback TL

77 Riviera Owner · Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 1:21 pm Post subject:

Casey Ryan · Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2014 5:03 am Post subject:

Hey man,
Do you have or could you take some pictures of how you finished the interior ceiling of the pop top? Any comments about what you did there would be helpful too.

I've got a 78 rivi and the ceiling in the pop top is the only thing I've not done yet. My roof is leaking so I am going to open it up, replace the material, run more wire so I can have more lights and install a panel like you have there.

If it's stock don't worry. Pics of that a on the inter webs are limited

Thanks much. Very nice job

Casey
_________________
'78 Riviera Camper

Blog: www.facebook.com/VWBusBlog

77 Riviera Owner · Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2014 2:30 pm Post subject:

Hey Casey,

All I did with my top was I used a heat gun to soften the glue, then pealed the white plastic layer from the wood that was already there. It didn't come off 100% clean, but it's not bad and looks OK. I really wanted to do a thin Birch venir, but was running out of steam at this point. Maybe some time in the future I'll be inspired.

If you do a replacement on yours please post and send me a link. Also on the leaks I would focus on the outside rather than the inside. Patch cracks with epoxy, sand smooth, an then paint the outer top. I painted mine and it is so much easier to keep clean than the old oxidized fiberglass.

Casey Ryan · Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2014 3:31 pm Post subject:


Hello! Log in or Register \| Help \| Donate \| Buy Shirts	See all banner ads \| Advertise on TheSamba.com

	Forum Index -> Bay Window Bus	All times are Mountain Standard Time/Pacific Daylight Savings Time Page: Previous 1, 2, 3 Next
Page 2 of 3