TheSamba.com :: View topic - A Black & Blue Su-BUS-aroo Build Thread...

Mon Jul 15, 2013 7:54 am

nice bus...I'll be watching this one.

Tue Jul 16, 2013 5:02 pm

Oof... rough day today. It was 92* out, and I was working outside in the sun. Got a bunch of stuff done tho. First think in the morning, the glass guys game and installed the front windscreen. Looks great! and when you sit in the driver's seat, the gasket covers up all the silver paint. That makes me happy, I was a little worried about picking up a glare.

Then, first on MY list, I removed the last westy cabinet. I took off the last of the headliner scraps and removed the sticky headliner glue with some mineral spirits on a square of old bus carpet. Worked really good, kinda like a green scrubby, only free! Then I wire wheel and sanded the ENTIRE inside of the bus from the front seats back, shop vac'd my mess up, wiped everything down with spirits and then painted everything! We've officially got a blue bus! ... well, part of one anyway:

This particular baby blue is a 1:1 mixture of Rustoleum enamel color Royal Blue and color Gloss white. I brushed everything, and while I have a couple runs, you can't really tell. And even though I laid it on pretty thick to protect the bus from any farther damage, I'll have the lady give the exposed parts a second coat, so it looks nice when we're laying there :D

I do have yet to weld in the patch to fix the sink drain hole, and (unfortunately) I found some scaly rot in the keyhole attachment points for the front-most transporter seats closest to the sliding door and in the middle. I'm guessing-- since it's one of the lowest points-- that water got trapped in there and started chewing the steel. I'm probably gonna cut the entire rectangle out and weld in a nice thick patch, only cause it's bound to happen again... Now, I know I should've done patches before painting, but OOPS, I forgot to bring any steel to my buddies garage, and I felt bad "borrowing" any of his.

Then...

Ta-da! New throttle body reverser! It took me a minute to figure out the angles, but it, and everything attached to it, now fits under the decklid, has plenty of room for the coolant lines, straightens out the throttle cable and SHOULD be leak free! That means the bus should run smoooooooth as butter now, and not be so heavy on the throttle. Unfortunately I didn't buy new throttle body gaskets, so I couldn't hook things up to test that theory.

Oh well, there's always tomorrow!

Thu Jul 18, 2013 8:53 am

Here ya go. Here's some patches of the rot I was talking about in the keyhole transporter seat attachments. You can see it was clear thru and flaky, moreso in the one closest to the slider:

And then here's everything in all it's stages of being completed. The sink hole is welded, the middle keyhole area is welded, prepped and primed, and the near keyhole area is welded, prepped, primed and seam sealed. Later in the day all these spots got painted blue... and no, I didn't bother to grind down the welds. It didn't much seem necessary.

Thu Jul 18, 2013 8:55 am

Oh! does anyone know what that circle tube hole is coming thru the floor? It has a little black flappy cover that I took off to paint stuff. I haven't bothered to crawl under the bus to investigate yet..

Thu Jul 18, 2013 9:09 am

Around the time I was finishing welding, the lady came to join me. Yay! Lemme tell ya, she kicked butt again. She "power-cutted" all the holes in the door panels / kick panels. Stained them to match the cherry pergo (this required a pre-stain of Minwax CHERRY stain, and a scrubbed top coat stain of Minwax GUNSTOCK). and then got 2 coats of poly on them! What a little worker bee she is!

Then I gave her tape measure duty and together we cut out some 1" thick, aluminum backed closed cell foam insulation and insulated under the jalousie window and in that area above the wheel well with the X-shaped brace. That part was kindov a bear. It required half a hundred little pieces to get past the X brace, but I made sure everything was snug, and I might use some metal tape to make sure it stays put. In fact, yes... I will!

And... while we were insulating, I squirted some super 77 on the underside of the roof and attached some aluminized bubble wrap up there. Think of it as fake dynamat, since that's exactly what it is, minus the exorbitant price tag. It only cost $45 for a 4foot by 50foot roll. Tack on another $11 for the super 77 and I should be able to do the entire roof, AND the entire floor.

All in all, another really productive day... thanks to m'Golden Hair'd helper who got the camera all steamy in these pix somehow :roll:

Thu Jul 18, 2013 9:27 am

Ok, last one... I also photoshopped Tom Shiels' latest cooling diagram to reflect a NON reversed coolant manifold. So in order to plumb the car this way, the only thing you need is his Thermostat housing (http://subaruvanagon.com/tom/Thermostat%20housingk.htm), which if you're gonna run any heat is most definitely the way to go!

Thu Jul 18, 2013 9:44 am

Boy you guys sure work fast. Jealous. Lemme know how that super 77 holds up on a hot sunny day. I used the same bubble stuff in Bumblebus and like it a lot, but have yet to find a glue that will hold when it's uber hot in the bus. Now if I can just get some baltic paneling back in it wouldn't probably be an issue lol. :roll:

Don't forget about those EJ photos sometime (no hurry just curious). :wink: Want to see if you have a reversed intake manifold, how everythings plumbed etc.

Good thread, thanks for sharing.

Thu Jul 18, 2013 10:04 am

@BumbleBus:
Hmmm... I didn't think about the heat, but I do have a baltic birch headliner panel cut and ready to go. Just need to stain and finish it (it wouldn't fit in the back of the subaru to bring it to my buddy's shop where we did all this work yesterday). I guess, worse comes to worse, The bubbles'll just flop around up there in between the steel and the wood. oh well.

As for the EJ photos... um, it's probably best if I wait. The more I look at things back there the more of a hacked up mess I see. His way is definitely not worthy of a how-to tutorial. To put things in perspective, the radiator support piece is half mounted to the bus, half mounted to the bumper?! Why would anyone do that? Um, because it was EASY. There's all sorts of silliness going on back there related to it being an EASIER solution.

So, in the next couple days I'm gonna go thru and re-plumb the entire cooling system properly (FYI, it does NOT have a reversed coolant manifold). Hang tight till then! I'll post before pix (his way) and after pix (a generally agreed upon way to plumb these there busses! I just really want to get the rust taken care of so my GF can paint the bus (she's really excited to do that!)

Thu Jul 18, 2013 12:11 pm

Nepenthe88 wrote: As for the EJ photos... um, it's probably best if I wait.

No worries.. thanks. I kinda like the way this guy did his EJ25:

www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=558012

You can see how he reversed the intake manifold to clear the firewall and he also mentioned wanting to reverse the coolant manifold also. Put the alternator in the compressor bracket etc. etc. Check it out if you haven't already... may provide some inspiration somewhere.

I'm looking around for an EJ251 SOHC as I type this. I live in the mountains and want the extra torque over the EJ22. To rebuild my Type IV 1700 I was quoted $4-5k locally "to start". For that kinda coin I'd rather piece together a Subaru swap over time even though I know it will be much more than that once it's all said and done. I love stock dub as much as the next guy, but I want to camp not tinker/fix for the rest of my life. Having owned Subbys my whole life it's a no brainer. .02

Thanks again.

Thu Jul 18, 2013 12:17 pm

BumbleBus wrote: I was quoted $4-5k locally "to start". For that kinda coin I'd rather piece together a Subaru swap over time even though I know it will be much more than that once it's all said and done.

Don't be so sure. I have less than $2k in my Ecotec swap. Granted Ecotecs are cheap and I did all of the work myself, but still.

Either way, driving a smooth, powerful motor you know will last for years makes every penny you spend SO worth it.

Thu Jul 18, 2013 12:52 pm

@BumbleBus
I've looked at that one before. He has a SICK sweet stainless exhaust. Jealous! I guess I just don't see the benefit in reversing the coolant manifold since it just plain doesn't hit the firewall! Here's a pic from... well, a bus thread I can't find anymore (hellBus?). Anyway, here's the HOT out side of a NON-reversed manifold going thru an expansion tank to an under the bus radiator:

and here's the "COLD" side coming from the radiator to the thermostat and back to the block in stock fashion:

The only benefit of reversing the coolant manifold is to make plumbing the coolant HOT lines more of a straight shot (unless I'm missing something). BUT... then the HOT out DOES come close to hitting the firewall. Here's a really great conversion thread for a vanagon. Obviously things are different, but it gives you a good idea of where the line ends up when the manifold is reversed.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2620518

Thu Jul 18, 2013 1:05 pm

Mr. Unpopular wrote: BumbleBus wrote: I was quoted $4-5k locally "to start". For that kinda coin I'd rather piece together a Subaru swap over time even though I know it will be much more than that once it's all said and done.

Don't be so sure. I have less than $2k in my Ecotec swap. Granted Ecotecs are cheap and I did all of the work myself, but still.

Either way, driving a smooth, powerful motor you know will last for years makes every penny you spend SO worth it.

@Unpopular & Bumblebus
I know that I dropped $6ooo+ into a type 1 aircooled engine bored into a 1915cc that leaks oil like a sieve but has plenty of power to climb mountains and still stay cool (I know, I tested it on the hottest day of last summer with the bug fully loaded for a nice camping trip). I also know that I've spent a hair less than $1ooo doing the unfinished Subee swap into my 74 SuperBeetle. The only thing I need to buy for it still is fabricated stainless coolant lines to the front, an exhaust and an expansion tank. That'll come in at less than $1ooo (grand total somewhere around $2k), Though like "Unpopular" I did all the work myself, including the wire harness... I just don't see how staying aircooled makes financial cents if you're gonna actually, you know.. DRIVE your VW.

Fri Jul 19, 2013 4:45 pm

Howdy all! No pix today (I'll edit them in later). I forgot the camera and my phone's dead. But.. I did get a little bit done. First I re-routed the accelerator cable from the passenger side of the transaxle to the drivers side so that it's more of a straight shot. Then I welded a bracket to the throttle body reverser to hold things in place. I wound up having to mess with the pedal connection as well. I used the kid's system cause I don't actually know what a stock Accelerator pedal assembly looks like :? Oh, and I had to remove the valve spring he had wedged under the pedal. I don't think that's stock, as things work fine without it.

Anyway, all that took a little bit of fiddling.

(Insert pix of acc cable)

Then I removed the entire Subaru Wiring harness. I might come to regret this decision (there's 2 connections to old VW stuff that I'm clueless about) but I'm going to use the wiring harness that I built last summer to run the bus. when you see pix of the two side by side I think you'll understand why I'm choosing to go this route. Like most everything else, the Wiring harness is pretty ghastly looking with loose wires all over the place. Now, I wasn't planning on doing this. All I intended to do was switch the location of the ECU and relays from the passenger side (they were in the blindspot westy cabinet) to the drivers side spare wheel well.

(see next post)

Then lastly I took a roll of Ice and Water shield (aka rolled roofing) and covered the entire lower floor of the bus. I did this in the bug and just kinda feel it's the right thing to do. Not only will it help to insulate against unwanted bassy sounds, but it should also dampen some vibration and protect the steel. I mean, VW covered many parts of my Bug in a similar tarboard like panel, so it definitely can't hurt!! I layed it in very carefully, making sure to follow all the humps and ridges as a poor installation job would trap moisture and be worse for the bus... anytime I got a bubble, I popped it with a knife and put a small patch over it.

(Pic of rolled roofing on floor)

Sat Jul 20, 2013 12:16 pm

Today I spent a quick minute and stained / finished the headliner panels that were too big to transport the other day. I tossed them in the sun to dry quicker and got a second coat on them. Yay!

Unfortunately, there's 3 more small panels that I forgot to have m'lady fabricate. there's one narrow headliner panel that goes just in front of the slider, both rearmost panels and the back hatch panel (which she made, but I stupidly used as a test panel for stain color. That was the panel which made us realize the birch was going to need a 2 part stain to match the cherry. And I'm out of 1/4" birch material, Ugh! Oh well, there's something I need to make in the house out of it anyway...)

Also.. I said yesterday that I was going to use MY Subaru wiring harness over his. I think pix can help to explain better than words alone, but lets just say that I spent a LOT of time re-organizing wire so that I could have a nicely designed harness. I soldered all my splices and mounted all the relays and ECU on a piece of scrap plywood to help keep things organized so I can troubleshoot stuff in the future should I need to.

Here's MINE:

and here's his. One of the biggest issues is that he didn't clean up the quick connects and there's unnecessary cut wires hanging out of them. That Sh!t freaks me out-- loose, cut wires I mean.

So, over the winter I'll go thru his and re-organize everything to be an exact replica of mine. That way I'll have the same harness in both the Bus and the Bug. That should make my life easier.

Oh, and I did test my harness for functionality last summer. Here's a video of me hotwiring it while the engine was still in the donor car:

Sat Jul 20, 2013 12:27 pm

SPECIAL DELIVERY!!
Haha, I was kinda disappointed that neither NAPA nor the SUBARU Dealer keep throttle body gaskets in stock, so I had to order them?! NAPA wanted to charge me double to have them shipped in. Subaru was a dollar cheaper per gasket ($2.50) and wasn't gonna charge me shipping, so I ordered mine thru them. Unfortunately when I went to pick them up (they called and said they were in) the Parts Fools couldn't find them?! #-o

Didn't work out too bad in the end. I wound up convincing them to give them to me for free, AND have one of their shuttle drivers drop them off (it's a 25min drive to the Subee dealer, so that was kindov a big deal for me). So, I saved $5 total and they just dropped them off.

...Which means either tomorrow (or more likely) Monday morning I'll install the throttle body reverser and the "new" wiring harness and see how she drives!!

Tue Jul 23, 2013 4:54 pm

We got a CRAZY thunder and rain storm the 2 nights ago (One of the best I've ever seen) and when I opened the bus yesterday I found a small kiddie pool behind the driver's seat... well, crap. The most likely culprit is the jalousie window. Guess I gotta read up on the "how to refresh the jalousie window" thread in the Stickies. there's 2 of them:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=468521
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=479591

Then, since I planned on running the engine yesterday with my harness, I painted the throttle body reverser baby blue to match the bus and left it in the sun to dry. You can see the bracket I welded on to hold the accelerator cable in place:

After that, I needed to swap the coolant lines going to the throttle body so that it could be relocated. I made sure the connections were higher than any other part of the coolant system to minimize leaks, unscrewed the hose clamps and separated them to a gushing pressurized stream of coolant. I got some in my eyes, some in my mouth (ugh...), hell it was going so good I even hit the back of the driver's seat. I don't know exactly what the deal was as I hadn't run the bus in a week or so. Anyway, got that done and then started hooking up my wiring harness to the engine.

and got frustrated.

There are 2 versions of the EJ22 wiring harness. One that has 2 engine plugs, and one that has 3 engine plugs (even during the same model years). Why this wasn't standardized is anyones guess, but you best believe MY harness has 2 plugs and the Bus Engine requires three plugs. Sigh...

I didn't expect that.

I think I might pull the current engine and swap it out with my EJ22, just so I can use my harness. Besides, clearing out the engine bay will make it easier to tidy things up back there.

Tue Jul 23, 2013 5:12 pm

After all that I took a little break to clear my head. A few minutes after I stopped, my adorable little helper showed up to do some stuff. It couldn't have been better timing!! She always puts a little smile on my face and makes my day better 8-[

This is what she started with. A bus with a rolled roof floor:

She put down two layers of fake dynamat (that second layer was needed to shim the floor to the proper height. I was originally gonna just do one layer then use scrap 1/4" ply to bring it to the right height. The Lady used her brain and suggested we put a second fake dynamat layer down to help insulate a bit better. It was a damn good idea and should make the bus a bit more comfy. That and it brings things to the perfect height!

Then I showed her how to lay the Pergo and she was off and running!

Since she had things well under control in Pergo-ville, I quick welded a patch on the driver's floor:

When we were both done with our little projects, we teamed up like Voltron and started installing the interior birch panels. Here's the still not finished product. Obviously installing the bed/seat comes next, then I'm gonna build some cabinets to help fill the space:

As is usual, I teach and assist (in this case I held the panels in place), and she does all the work :D She drilled all the screw holes and screwed everything in place, and even trimmed the panels that needed trimmed. Damn she's a good girl! Definitely worth a plate of Lobster Mac&Cheese at the fishtank restaurant

Tue Jul 23, 2013 5:21 pm

And then TODAY, I fixed this particular piece of cancer under the driver's door. I spent a little bit of time making a nice patch panel that fit really well, and couldn't be happier with the results. Now, I know I've been lazy and haven't been grinding my welds to perfection on the sight unseen parts of the bus, but this is one of those spots that would stand out like a sore thumb if not done right. Check that out, NO BONDO NECESSARY!!

I also welded in a patch on the passenger's step, and another patch on the passenger floor. Still gotta do this exact same patch on the passenger side, but once I do, I'll be done with rust repair up to the rear wheel wells. I just gotta keep plugging away so the chicklet can start painting the exterior

Tue Jul 23, 2013 5:57 pm

BumbleBus wrote: Lemme know how that super 77 holds up on a hot sunny day.

Well, you called it. The Super 77 doesn't hold the fake dynamat for very long. Fortunately, the roll I bought was large enough to where I tucked in 3 of the 4 sides, so it only sags in the middle. After I install the birch headliner panels I might stuff the void with more "dynamat" stuff to keep it up (and provide MORE insulation)

Tue Jul 23, 2013 6:04 pm

Lookin good!!!