1978 Champagne first bus

secretsubmariner · Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 10:33 am Post subject:

My girlfriend edited some crazy pictures from this weekend. We were definitely NOT hot boxing the bus and enjoying a few drinks. It was a lazy sunday, hence the glasses and scruff. That's my buddy Michael in the back. We chilled hard! This week is going to be working overtime on this bus.

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

_________________
-Tony
ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ
1978 Champagne Edition Bus FI
1970 Auto Fastback FI

secretsubmariner · Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 4:50 pm Post subject: The Arrival of Mr. Zickefoose

Friday, 8 am I've been awake and I head to Tulsa International Airport, some 3 miles from my house. I was really hoping to meet him at his gate. Waking up was not my major in college, I was a little behind that morning. I first mistook him as a Jehovah's witness, white dress shirt, green sweater vest, slacks and dress shoes, but as soon as I saw him I knew it wasn't. There he was, Stuart, of thesamba.com- fame.

-Pics or it didn't happen

After a quick stop at my house, we went to Tally's on Route 66. It's a semi-cool retro diner. Then we went to the Bughaus here in Tulsa. After leaving my debit card coughing up tumbleweeds and dustbunnies, we went to the machine shop that was supposed to be finishing my heads this week. Of course, the machine shop guys give absolutely 0 shits about your business. They were difficult to talk to. After finding out my intake guides I dropped off were the wrong size, I had to go back to Bughaus and see if they had the right ones. They did. So back to the machine shop. Dropped them off, he said they were good, GOOD. They'll be ready Monday afternoon, which put a damper on any engine rebuilding plans.

Back to the house. My slider door rod that connects the forward and rearward latches was busted. After some convincing Stuart got the door off, and we proceeded to F* with that shit on and off until the next day. Wound up having the wrong spare cable, but the latches are in much better shape now, and it does open easier. I'll grab the correct rod in a couple days and it'll be good as new. We disassembled the clutch pedal stuff underneath, and with my newly purchased cable and pin we kinda put them in and finished them about an hour before we had to leave for his plane on Sunday. Cuttin' it close!! Shocked

The Champagne slider door! *mattress not included

My hole is not an oval, but a circle. that's what she said

That's nice!

While I messed with my passenger door (reinstalling the outside handle, mirror, freshening up some things) Stuart changed all the vapor lines. Holy crap. No pics of this I'm afraid.
Upon running around in my daily we heard a tik tak tik tak in rhythm on the road. When we got out we saw this:

Back at the house: I used 3 bottles of brake cleaner on this b*tch and it still needs probably 2 more.

Ooo! Shiny! Never got a pic of it after I was done...

Other engine pics, my view of the cam through the cylinder holes:

Does that lobe look worn out to you?

We also replaced the steering damper dampener dampender damperner. Idk what it's actually called. We proceeded to do the brakes. We did soft lines, shoes, rear cylinders, bled and adjusted. Much, much better now.

I took this apart or whatever

Stuart put this together or whatever

We also replaced the steering coupler while we had the shit apart to do the horn wire.

As you can see, the old one is nassssssssty. My green Adidas reflect my dank personality

Lovely.

All in all, we had a really great time. Here's our work area for the weekend. It was the warmest of the year so far.

Get out of the shot, you goof. I just wanted to get the cars.

On Saturday afternoon, we got a chance to stop by one of my favorite spots, Dead End Air-Cooled. We chatted with Joey and picked up emergency brake arm pin and clip for the rear brakes. (Bughaus was closed but they're much closer) I have bought 2 buses from Joey out at DEA, he's a good dude.

His best Borat impersonation: Very nice, how much?

This bus belongs to Joey's buddy. It is bitching as all heck I'll tell u whut!!

This is a new bus of Joey's. He's going to take it back to Panel at some point. Logo bus for his shop? I'm thinkin' so!

A customer's really nice late bug convertible. Plus some decent bays in back

A customer's Ghia, 1 owner, garage kept. Hasn't run for about 5 years I think he said. It is the nicest survivor/original ACVW I've ever seen in my life. The rubber still looked perfect. I didn't touch it tho. Shocked

In our exhausted/down time, we chatted, ate, and watched stupid videos. One was of great intrigue Saturday night. If you have 15 minutes or you haven't seen this movie since like, 1990, it's worth it. Srs.

Link

He's welcome back anytime. We got a lot done, and I still have a pretty extensive list of things to get done. But it will shift, handle, and stop much smoother when it's finally time to DRIVE.

I'm not a particularly religious dude, but I have been seriously blessed with this opportunity.

Thank you again, Stuart, for helping me out. I can't wait to do it again. Thank you Samba for being there for all of us VW weirdos. Thank you to all who made this possible. Razz

_________________
-Tony
ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ
1978 Champagne Edition Bus FI
1970 Auto Fastback FI

secretsubmariner · Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 12:25 pm Post subject:

I got my heads back from the shop today.
New guides, Valves, and they cleaned them up and tested for vaccuum..WOW what a difference.

before:

after:

Tcash · Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 1:44 pm Post subject:

Do yourself a favor and with the valves facing you as in the picture. Spray WD-40 until it covers the valve seats and look inside the runners for any leaking past the valves.
Nice
Tcash

secretsubmariner · Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 2:12 pm Post subject:

Thank you, Mr. Cash.

Will do!

Cool

_________________
-Tony
ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ
1978 Champagne Edition Bus FI
1970 Auto Fastback FI

Stuartzickefoose · Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 2:13 pm Post subject:

oil will work too.

once my room is clean tonight ill be able to fire up my laptop to post some pics and a story.... Wink

_________________
Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]

secretsubmariner · Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 2:53 pm Post subject:

secretsubmariner · Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2015 7:01 am Post subject:

So, I need new lifters and cam. Going to bite the $$$ bullet and keep it all hydraulic. I'm running FI, it's stock, etc. No worries.

Started breaking it down. Got all the way to splitting the case and that seemed like a good stopping point. As we got the six long bolts undone, the fumes from sealants of the past started farting out everywhere. It smelled so bad that my buddy thought his house might be on fire. Laughing

lifters are shot

Interestingly enough, my case is a VW factory reman'd engine. I'm assuming that's what my blank engine code means, accompanied by a fancy VW recycled logo:

Should be easy enough to remember my case number! 'GE '

OG West German flywheel seal, thought it was pretty neat:

End of the day crusty bits and pieces:

That's it on the engine for now. I'll post befores and afters of my shroud, tins, etc. But that won't be for a couple of days.
_________________
-Tony
ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ
1978 Champagne Edition Bus FI
1970 Auto Fastback FI

secretsubmariner · Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2015 7:26 am Post subject:

Stuartzickefoose · Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2015 8:45 am Post subject:

bro, now that your splitting the case, might as well budget in at least a grand more. Wink

how are you verifying the lifters are shot?

edit: Just saw this...your gonna find this usefull.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=581717
_________________
Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]

secretsubmariner · Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2015 10:47 am Post subject:

Thanks man! I'll read through that.

The lifters are toast- the faces where they meet lobes are slightly concave, and they are slightly mushroomed, creating a small lip around the circumference of the face around the edge

I've read they should be ever so slightly convex. They're all shot.

No big. Just a lil more saving and it'll be done.
_________________
-Tony
ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ
1978 Champagne Edition Bus FI
1970 Auto Fastback FI

Tcash · Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2015 12:37 pm Post subject:

Save this for later.
Boston Bob's history of Hydraulic Lifters

secretsubmariner · Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 2:51 pm Post subject:

Thanks again man

Razz

_________________
-Tony
ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ
1978 Champagne Edition Bus FI
1970 Auto Fastback FI

Abscate · Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 6:53 pm Post subject:

Just for posterior, what is the spec on convex lifter...wondering how you spec that, too? It's a complex shape, after all.
_________________
.ssS!

Stuartzickefoose · Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 10:00 pm Post subject:

Put them end to end kinda like this:
_ _
_)(_

Vs worn but useable:
_ _
_][_

Vs shot ones:
_ _
_()_

Make sense?

If you can see light on the edges when layed end to end, they are still good
_________________
Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]

airschooled · Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 10:37 pm Post subject:

secretsubmariner · Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2015 7:58 am Post subject:

Mine were definitely all
__ __
__( )__

Crying or Very sad

I did some engine compartment dusting and cleaning before the sun went down last night, these are the 'before' shots.
Passenger side is good, although the tray is furled up and buggered where it meets the body under the tail light. There's a nice amount of bondo there too.

My brand new battery and all the cables have to come out.

Guess which finger this is?

The battery tray is much flimsier than when I originally bought the bus, so it's time to make a decision. After I get it all cleaned up, I'll have to cut it out and put a new one in. Thinking of grinding most of it out, leaving a lip to weld to, and then neutralizing the rust, welding it in, and painting. Tentative plans, but a definite issue.

I also added up all the receipts I have for my bus (which isn't even all the money I've spent total)

In total, purchasing the bus, tires, and all the crap I've done all together cost me $4,127 and change to this point. Well, that's the only amount of money I can actually account for.

` Twisted Evil

helloooooo boys
( o Y o )
`) .` (
(` y ` )
\ `/ . /

I remember typing class too!
_________________
-Tony
ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ
1978 Champagne Edition Bus FI
1970 Auto Fastback FI

secretsubmariner · Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 11:29 am Post subject:

Spent a couple hours yesterday cleaning the engine compartment. Note to self* Purple Power will rub your paint off. Embarassed

But hey! I think it cleaned up pretty good! I never suspected there to be oil to all over the inside underneath all the dirt. 5 good size hand towels went from bright white to absolutely black pretty quickly. Lol.

Waiting and saving for cam and lifters!
_________________
-Tony
ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ
1978 Champagne Edition Bus FI
1970 Auto Fastback FI

Stuartzickefoose · Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 11:39 am Post subject:

the spots you got clean, especially where the paint rubbed off....go to autozone, and grab 5 cans of clear paint. coat those spots like i showed you how to paint, 10 inches or so back, left and right evenly. shake the can well, and soak in some warm to hot water for 30 minutes before hand to help the paint lay out smoothly. this clear will help preserve the original paint, and prohibit some rust from happening. not rust proof, but a good help.

was gonna text you soon as see how it was going...havent heard anything since i left. Cool

_________________
Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]


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1978 Champagne first bus
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