My 1968 camper - kind of rough - but mine!

poptop tom · Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2015 10:01 am Post subject:

Those louvered window rebuilds are the worst!

Great progress!
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'76 Deluxe Campmobile

blackivory69 · Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2015 12:58 pm Post subject:

Hi. Congrats on the Bus. If you can, try to find somebody who can weld your patch on the front cab floor to make it permanent. And ask him to do a butt weld. Overlapping like what you did will hide rust. But it's ok for now. Did you apply seam sealer on your patch?
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1970 Double Cab. Stock engine (1600 SP)
1973 Thing (Mexican Safari)
1970 Karmann Ghia Convertible
1969 Buggy

Kevinsvws · Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2015 10:58 pm Post subject:

Man your bus looks great, not much rust compared to one I just got. A '69 Hightop camper with lots of rust. Picked up a '71 donor and will use it for the replacement panels (hopefully), it is in good shape. I plan to use the engine and front suspension from the donor. I have LOTS of work ahead. Keep up the good work and the inspiration.

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Tcash · Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 7:02 am Post subject:

d21998 · Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 9:38 pm Post subject:

Did they do the whole screen frame and all? Mor did you have the frames already? Thanks again.
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David
[O\_/O]
1968 VW Bus

austinb · Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2015 7:52 am Post subject:

d21998 - they just re did the screen - I already had the frame w old ratty screen in it.
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- Austin
68 bus

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austinb · Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2015 12:41 pm Post subject:

ok. so the louvered window rebuilt was pretty frustrating, to say the least!

(And I'm lucky - the damn thing fell onto floor when I was mounting it! my son was helping me hold it in place to mount - we thought it was held in place - we took a few steps away and bam! I walked around the corner of the bus expecting to see a pile of glass and aluminum, but it didn't break. To be honest, after swearing at the window so many times during the rebuild, I would have taken a bit of joy seeing it broken...damn window would of had it coming. )

I took the window apart as gently as I could, was as careful as I could be, but the aluminum frames that hold the glass now have slight bows in them and the window does not close as smoothly as before. I gently bent the bows out of the frames, but still not true. I tried switching out the panes, playing with the order of how they go mount, but no luck. I have to nudge the windows from outside to get them to close while cranking. :-/

And now to mounting the window and the troubles there.

The bus must have been in an accident in a previous life. The front nose is rough, the drivers side door is not original, there was a weld (where the drivers side rear pillar meets floor by rear wheel wheel) rejoining pillar to floor, and rear wheel wheel has some old rivets along the seam...and the middle drivers side window frame - where the louvered window goes - is bent.

The window was askew and not seated evenly when I bought the bus, but it was in with a seal. Now when I try to put window back in with new seal for the body / frame, the window won't fit in the frame.

I mounted the window temporarily without the seal.

I'm going to try again using the old seal that was on the window instead of the fresh one I bought from westcoast metric. maybe the new seal is too springy for my jacked up frame.

I am also thinking about using a non stock seal - some sort of generic rubber seal and then a bit of silicon sealant to fill in any gap - but I am hesitant to gorp up the body with a bunch of goop and have it be crappy.

I did think about a slider window, but I'll have the same trouble there too - bent window frame, and the seal wont sit. At least w the louvered window I can use the screws to hold the thing in.
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- Austin
68 bus

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=619771

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khalimadeath · Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2015 1:21 pm Post subject:

Jealousy windows are a cool concept but I think both ahead of their time and poorly constructed. Dont seal well in any capacity. I am replacing mine with the sliders on Bus Depot.

austinb · Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2015 8:49 pm Post subject:

well..update

took the bus for a spin to pick up pizza...hey speedo started working out of blue!

ok so bus is mobile so time for first sticker on back

and...I had beer or two and started looking at old seal...and noticed hmmm paint marks on old seal, hmm ...hmmm did I have seal SIDEWAYS when trying to mount seal before? yep! i did. aye yi yi. put new seal on, the right way, put window in, and w a bit of fuss...

so. louvered window is in, now w outer seal.

next up is the inner seal, like this one
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VW-Bay-Bus-Westfalia-Louve...0985367688

I took a shot at putting it on, but seal is floppy and hard to get around edge of window on inside.

enough. time to watch blazers game.
_________________
- Austin
68 bus

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=619771

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austinb · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2015 11:22 am Post subject:

Hi folks, another up date, some more progress shots.

I stripped the passenger seat and cleaned up the seat frame. Seat frame is set aside for later when I get to the recovering...

I cut out the rusty old center heater tube.

Found a lighter and some change inside. Smile

Cleaned up the underside of bus, applied POR15 and then painted over that. ( Will replace center heater tube w straight exhaust pipe or some other straight duct material. )

Last night I pulled the engine. The goal is to do the rebuild on myself rather than paying a shop to do it.

Engine teardown should keep me busy for a while. Also on the short term list of things to do is paint the bumpers, clean up dirty engine bay...
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- Austin
68 bus

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austinb · Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2015 4:16 pm Post subject:

Ok. stripping down engine. Engine is down to case and cylinders pistons.

Doghouse is off of engine. Generator / fan is out of doghouse. Front nut on generator is off, and first plate comes off and shims do too. I want to separate fan from generator so I can clean fan and repaint the bit of engine tin that mounts to doghouse. It is unclear to me how to loosen the 'special nut' that holds the fan to the generator.

With the generator front nut and plate off, how do i keep generator shaft from rotating so I can loosen the special nut holding fan? Question

(Update after some more searching...found thins, now I see...
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=592123)
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- Austin
68 bus

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austinb · Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2015 8:21 pm Post subject:

teardown in progress, taking stuff apart, labelling and cleaning...

during teardown, I noticed one piston was half gone. (also noticed different rings types on pistons. )

when I pulled the cylinder off that piston I didn't see any chunks of piston metal fall off...cylinder was stuck to head pretty good, needed a few good raps w mallet, but I didn't do any hard hits that would have broke the piston.

I don't see any metal bits in crankcase, but I haven't cracked it open yet

would an engine run w a piston like that broken one pictured above?

where did the broken piston parts go? could somebody have a piston failure like that one pictured, clean out the broken metal and put the engine back together and have it run?

i knew the engine ran rough but wow
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- Austin
68 bus

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TomWesty · Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2015 11:32 pm Post subject:

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austinb · Posted: Mon May 11, 2015 5:37 pm Post subject:

hi - just posting an update

engine tear down is done, case is off to a vw machine shop for cleaning and inspection.

I found the rest of piston #3, metal chunks at the bottom of the case.

Engine tin is cleaned up and getting repainted.

The engine bay was pretty ratty. I'm in the process of cleaning the engine bay. Grimey grease all over. And I need to fix the battery tray area, and slow down some rust hot spots inside the engine bay w por15, and repaint. And clean up tail light fixtures. And replace tail light seals. And find a firewall. And and and....

I also cleaned up and repainted the back bumper and apron.

Here are some pics:

ok back to the garage for me Very Happy

_________________
- Austin
68 bus

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=619771

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Tcash · Posted: Mon May 11, 2015 6:09 pm Post subject:

Hi
You need to put a strap under the transaxle to support it.
Or the shift coupler will bend, if it has not already. Like this.

good luck
Tcash

austinb · Posted: Mon May 11, 2015 6:28 pm Post subject:

hi - Tcash, thanks for the tip about supporting the tansaxle. I have it supported w a jack stand...like so:

Still need the strap? ( I was going to strap it if I had the bus moved for any reason...but she is stationary for now)

cheers!
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- Austin
68 bus

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=619771

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Skoolieman · Posted: Mon May 11, 2015 6:50 pm Post subject:

Shes coming along. iirc 68s dont have a firewall.
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'69 Westfalia Camper~Cassidy
1600dp with H30/31 carb 009 distributor and alternator conversion

camit34 · Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 3:10 am Post subject:

Good look'n Bus and it's coming along nicely.
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In search of a Vanagon
1971 Westy (SOLD)
1971 Deluxe (SOLD)
1967 Freedom Camper (SOLD)

austinb · Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2015 10:04 pm Post subject:

hi folks - an update on my bus and a question

question first - which way do i orient the engine bay seal that goes along the front of the engine bay...

down?

or up?

ok so update!

engine: case went off to local engine builder for inspection and repair. case was align bored and thrust cut, broken engine tin studs and case studs repaired and case is reusable for engine rebuild. Time vs Money vs sanity has me leaning towards getting engine built and tuned and put into bus for me, but I haven't pulled the trigger on that decision yet.

I got the engine bay cleaned up as best as I could. I painted por 15 over rust, patched up nasty battery tray as best I could w patch. I plan on adding battery tie down trays on both sides of engine bay, one for main battery and aux battery.

Tailight assemblies are back in. Initial tests of rear lights: driver side rear turn signal won't fire, need to check bulb, bulb connection. Also can't see brake lights when lights are on - taillights light up when lights are on, but lights don't get brighter when brakes are pressed - pretty sure I mixed up bulbs between turn signal, reverse light and brake light bulbs. Smile

I also cleaned up my engine tin. I degreased it, hand scrubbed it w wire brush, and then painted w red engine block paint. Some pieces are a bit rough up close, i really didn't want to spend $$$ for powder coating or spend the time grinding away rust off engine tin my self. this is all the tin off engine that was in bus, a few pieces missing:

I am in process of staining and varnishing door and cargo bay panels. that process is slow.

cheers
_________________
- Austin
68 bus

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=619771

http://vw-mplate.com/mcode.php?lang=EN&id=24562

austinb · Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 4:22 pm Post subject:

Here are some progress shots of the interior work on the bus.

I made some panels out of birch. Stained them, sealed them w spar varnish...

Not perfect, but good enough for me Smile

(I got most of the panels done ok, but I am going to end up buying ABS kick panels for the front kick panels. After spending too much time cutting and fussing w the weird shape of kick panels and the vents, the kick panel I made for front cracked on me during final fitting )

Engine update:
I made the decision to have a local engine builder build me a 1904cc 74x90.5 engine w dual 40 idf carbs. I'm taking my cleaned up repaired case and other reusable parts I have off to the builder next week. I wanted to take a swing at rebuilding the engine my self, but I want to keep sane, and not spend the summer in the garage going nuts. Plus, at this point, I am not comfortable w my own skills and the level of patience needed for rebuild.

So at this point, still more interior work to do (getting the cargo bay floor in, getting rest of camper stuff in...), but it's getting there...
_________________
- Austin
68 bus

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=619771

http://vw-mplate.com/mcode.php?lang=EN&id=24562


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My 1968 camper - kind of rough - but mine!
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