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Daniel G Crazy Amish Guy
Joined: April 23, 2004 Posts: 828 Location: Central Alabama Amish Country
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Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2014 12:00 am Post subject: |
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My next few posts will be some of the random things I have done to the bus the past few months, in no particular order.
First is the hatch repairs. A lot of the seal lip was gone on mine when I took the old rubber out, so I tried to fix just that. However, I was not happy with it so I just cut the top of a bay hatch off and welded it on. I left the inner supports for the hatch alone, so to keep it as strong as possible. There were a few places I had to weld up rust holes as well. But once the filler was on it was pretty much undetectable...
All I really have left to do to it now is paint the repaired section Sea Blue.... _________________ 1967 13 Window Deluxe
1966 Beetle
1971 Panel
1978 Westfalia Camper
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Pinetops Samba Member
Joined: March 24, 2007 Posts: 2987
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Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2014 7:50 pm Post subject: |
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Nice job on the hatch! I'll stay tuned for more... _________________ "A rolling bus gathers no rust." |
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Daniel G Crazy Amish Guy
Joined: April 23, 2004 Posts: 828 Location: Central Alabama Amish Country
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Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:03 am Post subject: |
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Here are a few more pics to get my thread up to date...
These are the only ones I took during the reduction box rebuild this past year, on the transaxle that ended up going out on my driveway. Thankfully the oil in them was clean afterwards, so they will be going on my rebuilt transaxle.
Driving the top bearing on the axle shaft. I just found a socket that fit the inside race and used some washers to take up the slack...
I don't know why I didn't take pics of the rest of the rebuild.
Here is the fuel shutoff valve I mounted on my firewall.
I tried to make a bulkhead fitting with the lamp parts and a steel tube, but gave up on that finally and just ran the rubber line through a grommet. I plan to redo all this with a fuel shutoff solenoid at some point. I plan to wire it with a relay hooked to the ignition wire on the coil so I can stop the fuel flow in case of a fire.
That is a ratty original corner panel I covered with burlap. I think it looks pretty good and should fit the interior I am making...
Bamboo headliner mockup...
Fixed my broken front popout latch, painted the rusted areas in the cab with Masterseries silver....
I also bought all this cherry plywood cheap from a guy with a cabinet shop. All my interior panels will be made from this, and I will be gluing it on the front of the base for my camping bed.
I planned to do a 2/3 width bed, but I wasn't happy with it after I mocked it up. The dog did not care for it...
So I modified the hinges to make them full width...
Here the first try at the westy bed. The plywood I bought was warped pretty badly, so I ended up redoing it...
I also built this rear-facing bench to go behind the bulkhead. I am going to make this easily removable in case I need to haul something or want extra space for camping.
My QC team hard at work...
Final version of the westy bed I built from scratch. It's not perfect, but I had to use trial and error to get the measurements for it. If I ever redo it I can measure this one to get everything perfect.
_________________ 1967 13 Window Deluxe
1966 Beetle
1971 Panel
1978 Westfalia Camper
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karl h Samba Member
Joined: October 10, 2005 Posts: 573 Location: austria
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Daniel G Crazy Amish Guy
Joined: April 23, 2004 Posts: 828 Location: Central Alabama Amish Country
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2014 1:49 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for the positive comments! Here are some more pics to get my thread updated...
This is why I decided to replace the top of my rear hatch...I tried to patch just the seal lip, but I wasn't happy with the results. The rust is far worse than how it looks.
When I pulled the rear stationary glass, there was some rust starting to eat holes in the metal, so I hit it with a wire wheel, then some Ospho followed by Masterseries. The Masterseries filled all the pinholes pretty nicely, though at some point I am going to go back and weld them up. This should at least keep the rust in check until then...
I polished up my jailbars and installed them too...
I had pulled some seats from another '67 in a junkyard and put them in the bus, as the covers and padding were in better shape than mine. However, it turns out the bottom of the driver's seat was pretty rusty and it was broken on one side...
I got tired of the seat being uneven, so I took the bottom spring from my old seat and cleaned and painted it. I then transferred the horsehair padding and cover from the rusty seat over to it, It's a huge improvement, at least until I can redo the seats with new covers and padding. No pics of the finished product though...
I have also replaced my center pin, thanks to Jon's thread and the 24mm reamer I bought from JOGR. Out with the old...
In with the new...
Knocking out the old bushings was not fun, reaming them wasn't bad though. I ended up having to take my drag link off completely to get the swing arm back on the pin because it wouldn't fall into place. It looks like a bushing sticking out of the beam in the pics, but that is actually the tube welded in the beam. I couldn't figure out why it looks copper plated on the bottom, it just seemed odd to me...
You can see that I added some angle iron (from old bed rails, turns out they are spring steel and very hard to drill) to brace up the bed. The plywood just wasn't strong enough not to flex without the braces. You will see that my work met the standards set by my quality control team...
This is a sliding window from a Vanagon Westy...
You will probably guess what I have planned for it...
I still have to finish fitting it up, and piss off some Vanagon owners by drilling a couple holes in it so I can attach it to the wood. I will also glue it for added strength...
I want a cab divider so all the heat will stay up front during winter, and to cut down on noise during long road trips. I am going to figure out an easy way of attaching it so I can remove it in the warmer parts of the year. _________________ 1967 13 Window Deluxe
1966 Beetle
1971 Panel
1978 Westfalia Camper
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donald.lemay Samba Member
Joined: March 01, 2009 Posts: 484 Location: Rhode Island
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2014 3:27 am Post subject: |
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I'm doing the same with the cab divider. I'll be using a stationary glass from a rear hatch. Prob gonna take a while before mine gets done. Big winter honey do list
don _________________ 66 13 window deluxe
2085cc
9to1compression
ported polished heads 40x36 valves
010 distributor
VS 42mm exhaust
40 IDF carbs |
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brettsvw Samba Member
Joined: November 22, 2007 Posts: 2145 Location: Florida
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Pinetops Samba Member
Joined: March 24, 2007 Posts: 2987
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2014 9:14 am Post subject: |
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That bed is going to be nice! The 3/4 bed is a tad cramped in my bus only to be made smaller in the back by the spare tire. I'm not sure what they were thinking with that design. I wish I could have a full width bed, but alas I can't since I have the original westy camping kit in good condition. It's a great and comfortable bed don't get me wrong, but that's the nice thing about being able do design your own camper layout. You can build it around your needs. I dig the wood panels too, they seem appropriate on this bus brought back from the dead and will save you a ton of cash. _________________ "A rolling bus gathers no rust." |
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Ran When Parked Samba Member
Joined: September 26, 2013 Posts: 781 Location: Birmingham, AL
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2014 5:20 pm Post subject: nice. |
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Nice. |
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Daniel G Crazy Amish Guy
Joined: April 23, 2004 Posts: 828 Location: Central Alabama Amish Country
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 2:21 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for the tip Brett. I actually considered that since the hatch does take a lot of force...But there are some pretty thick supports which take the brunt of it behind the sheet metal, so I didn't think it would crack at the weld joint. Time will tell if that was a correct assumption or not
Yeah, the 3/4 bed layout was pretty cramped, especially since I am 6'2". I made the bed longer also so I can sleep at an angle if my feet still hang off. Plus full width beds are better if you are camping with a female companion
My transaxle has been shipped out, so it should be here in the next few days. I am going to have to pull the old transaxle and take the reduction boxes off now. That will be fun. I am waiting on WW to get the upper bearing back in stock. I figure I will end up destroying them when I try to pull them off the axle shaft, because I don't have the right kind of puller. I have to get a new throwout bearing too, since I had Rancho put the late style on it. I don't wanna have to pull my engine on a road trip because one of those damn early clips fell off. _________________ 1967 13 Window Deluxe
1966 Beetle
1971 Panel
1978 Westfalia Camper
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Abscate Samba Member
Joined: October 05, 2014 Posts: 22568 Location: NYC/Upstate/ROW
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 4:31 am Post subject: |
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Just found this thread, and you are an inspiration to those of us wondering if we can dive in to restoring a car having never welded since high school....many decades ago. Did you just pick up the technique as you went along?
People with cars and dogs rule both sides of the universe, by the way.
I have a 64 Ghia and 54 Beetle body off restorations on my plate for next summer when the last kids leave for college. _________________ .ssS! |
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Daniel G Crazy Amish Guy
Joined: April 23, 2004 Posts: 828 Location: Central Alabama Amish Country
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Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2014 1:11 am Post subject: |
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Abscate wrote: |
Just found this thread, and you are an inspiration to those of us wondering if we can dive in to restoring a car having never welded since high school....many decades ago. Did you just pick up the technique as you went along?
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I pretty much taught myself, but I still have a long way to go to be where I want. The key to starting out is being good at grinding.... Once you have mastered that, you can make some pretty ugly welds look presentable. That and patience. I have found that I need to be in the right mood to do any welding on my bus, if I am not then it shows. It might not be the same way for everyone, but for me I have to be in good mood to do good work.
Oh here is an update...
_________________ 1967 13 Window Deluxe
1966 Beetle
1971 Panel
1978 Westfalia Camper
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Daniel G Crazy Amish Guy
Joined: April 23, 2004 Posts: 828 Location: Central Alabama Amish Country
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Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2016 2:24 am Post subject: Re: July 1967 13 Window-Saved from the junkyard |
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Well, I guess it is about time to update my thread, given I have been driving the bus for the past two years. So I will start where I left off and update the thread over the next few days.
When I got my new transaxle from Rancho, I pulled the old RGBs off my blown transmission (the one that went out backing down the driveway). Thankfully no metal shavings got in them, as they were freshly rebuilt. I decided to find out why the old transmission went out while I had it almost taken apart already. Turns out those damn snap rings must not have been seated correctly, and they popped out of the differential.
You can see where the side gears and spider gears got shredded...That's what the popping noise and awful grinding sounds were before the bus stopped moving...
Afterwards I resumed the RGB swap and reinstalled the transmission...
I found some damaged threads on one of the axles, so I bought the correct die from Amazon and fixed them.
Done!
This engine is no longer in the bus. I drove to Bug-A-Paluza and to the Charlotte Transporter Show in 2015, and the engine started knocking and wouldn't run right. But that is a post for another day. I will update the thread some more tomorrow night... _________________ 1967 13 Window Deluxe
1966 Beetle
1971 Panel
1978 Westfalia Camper
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khalimadeath Samba Member
Joined: June 24, 2014 Posts: 768 Location: Reno, NV
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Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2016 11:00 am Post subject: Re: July 1967 13 Window-Saved from the junkyard |
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Bummer about the motor. Cool to see progress none the less. _________________ The United States Constitution
(c) 1787. All Rights Reserved
1970 Bus Westfalia
1964 Kombi |
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Pinetops Samba Member
Joined: March 24, 2007 Posts: 2987
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Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2016 1:51 pm Post subject: Re: July 1967 13 Window-Saved from the junkyard |
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+1 _________________ "A rolling bus gathers no rust." |
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rowdy1972 Samba Member
Joined: January 03, 2010 Posts: 18 Location: PEARLAND
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2016 10:18 am Post subject: Re: July 1967 13 Window-Saved from the junkyard |
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Love the stickers, great progress. |
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Daniel G Crazy Amish Guy
Joined: April 23, 2004 Posts: 828 Location: Central Alabama Amish Country
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Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2016 3:36 am Post subject: Re: July 1967 13 Window-Saved from the junkyard |
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Here are the pics of the interior mostly done, I still have to build the rear-facing seat and finish the bulkhead panels though. I'm gonna try to have all that done before CTS next year. The bed works great, but were I to do it over again I would probably just get a Bay Westy bed and go from there. This one is a pain in the ass to close because I didn't give the brackets enough room to catch when you lift the bed up to close it. So you have to lift the back and the front at the same time til it grabs and folds up correctly.
I also built this cab divider, which I used for the past two years. But it started rattling so I took it back out. It worked great otherwise though.
_________________ 1967 13 Window Deluxe
1966 Beetle
1971 Panel
1978 Westfalia Camper
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SplitBusVanatic Samba Member
Joined: August 16, 2005 Posts: 338 Location: Co. Mayo. Ireland
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Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2016 5:11 am Post subject: Re: July 1967 13 Window-Saved from the junkyard |
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Cab divider is a great idea.
Only after reading the above thread on it. |
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Pinetops Samba Member
Joined: March 24, 2007 Posts: 2987
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Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2016 6:27 am Post subject: Re: July 1967 13 Window-Saved from the junkyard |
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The panels looks great. _________________ "A rolling bus gathers no rust." |
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mandraks Samba Member
Joined: November 28, 2004 Posts: 7045 Location: Lawrenceville, Ga
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Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2016 8:54 am Post subject: Re: July 1967 13 Window-Saved from the junkyard |
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Daniel G wrote: |
Here are the pics of the interior mostly done, ...
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panels do look great, but that doorhandle needs to be turned the other way, would not want some poor dog or so to accidentallly fall out _________________ regards
Uli
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'53 3-Fold Oval, L35 Metallic Blue, looking for a narrow hatch panel |
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