TheSamba.com :: View topic

Sat Apr 18, 2015 7:32 pm

I knew this was the bus I saw at Woodstock '94! It was parked right up in the middle of the whole Shmutz, kinda on display. I was 17 at the time, from a small town, and thought this bus was the coolest thing on four wheels. Passed it on the highway on the way home after. So cool to know it's still around and being saved.

Sat Apr 18, 2015 8:59 pm

Chicken would park the Bus anywhere that wasn't a real parking spot. Nobody ever said anything, the Bus always got a free pass. :wink:

Sun Apr 19, 2015 6:25 am

This bus Rocks!! Any chance you would let a diehard bus junkie and deadhead come down for a look? I can almost taste the history this bus has made, kinda taste like a Freedom mixed with BO;)

I'm sure I can get vetted so you know some nut job isn't showing up.

Wed Apr 22, 2015 4:39 pm

Hauled the Bus over this afternoon. Jeremy RockJock towbar in action.

Thu Apr 23, 2015 8:13 am

Like everyone else has said, great bus and good to see it still getting some love.

Scramble will do a great job on it. I had the pleasure of seeing him perform his tallent recently on Jam Cruise. Wish I would of known he had a bus at the time I would've talked buses with him on the boat.

Thu Apr 23, 2015 4:30 pm

Me and Scramble

Thu Apr 30, 2015 7:50 pm

Haha scramble got a great pic of him and one of his brushes somewhere.

Nice tour ride!

Wed May 06, 2015 7:21 pm

First, I changed the name of the thread. I've learned that the owner was named Chicken, however the Bus is actually named Bessie.This week I've been working on the Bus between other stuff, always a lot going on at my shop. First I tried to remove the axle nuts. I got the passenger side off with lots of heat from a propane blow torch and my custom 30wt/ATF mix and my normal impact. The driver's side, not so much. Had to cut part of the nut off, soak it with the mix for awhile, and hit it with a full blown sledge hammer and my 36mm gear wrench tool. Eventually, I went out and bought a new 1/2" Husky impact rated at 800 ft/lbs. My friend Andrew aka. BavarianWrench came over and smacked the snot out of it and it budged a little. Hit it with the impact and got it off finally. No damage to the stub axle threads.

Took the engine out with a few headaches. The lower nuts were hard to get to because the urethane trans mounts had squished so much around the nuts I could barely get a wrench on them. I don't give up easy so I finally got them off.

Looks like the center section of the transmission has been rebuilt, but the reduction boxes are pretty beat. One is being held in with only one bolt while the other side has three out of four. I know I have at least one half to replace one side, might have to drill the bolts and tap the other side.

This thing has some definite funk in the engine bay that I'm going to wash out with some soap and water in the next couple days. Still has the original '67 hump style gas tank. I'm also going to remove the oil filter and cooler that isn't being used anymore. Chicken knew better :wink: .

Will update more as I tear the engine down to clean and paint the tin so it looks fresh again.

Fri May 08, 2015 7:42 am

I hate to admit that I love that bus...

Good job, Ian!

Fri May 08, 2015 1:06 pm

That is so great that you got that bus Ian!
Just. Wow. 8)

Fri May 08, 2015 1:36 pm

It's not mine, it's Scramble Campbell's! I'm just working on it 8) .

Fri May 08, 2015 1:58 pm

Some fine day I would love just to lay my unworthy palm agents the MOST AWESOME FREE LOVE BUS EVER SEEN!! and try to gain a small amount of LOVE, CARE, FREEDOM , RESPECT , it has seen! And bestow it to my vw! AWESOME WORK TO ALL INVOLVED!!! :D

Fri May 08, 2015 6:32 pm

This is the ' 74 Scramble painted.

Sat May 09, 2015 2:25 pm

way to go Ian !!!

Sat May 09, 2015 2:48 pm

Amazing!! epic fail oil cooler there off to the side. I wish I was closer, I would have brought "the motivator", my old school 1940's Armstrong 3/4" Ratchet welded up to act as a breaker bar with a 6 foot cheater pipe and my 6'6" 280# of whoop-ass delivering the goods. Iodine pre-treatment also helps. Good job NOT hurting the threads. Danks for sharing and keeping the vibe alive. Those that were not there will never understand......

Sun May 10, 2015 6:34 pm

I started taking the motor apart. I think taking it the rest of the way and cleaning it all up and regluing the case would be a good idea....probably do main bearings, rod bearings, and cam bearings at the same time if everything else checks out OK.

Crusty!

'71 only back tin will be replaced with the right tin

Not the worst ever.

Intake fell apart upon removal. There was a huge crack in the aluminum casting surrounding the metal pipes that we noticed before. Looks like it got pretty corroded.

The reason for the wonky pressure plate.

Oil cooler missing a nut.

Rust flakes inside the exhaust port? Must be from the preheat tube or exhaust rusting.

Cool old shop stamp "OCALA VW CENTER"

Ready for power washing!

Mon May 11, 2015 8:18 am

Hard miles/follows hard times. I spend more time cleaning ACVW than doing the actual repair..simple green is my friend! Odd fail on the intake,never seen that one before. How was the endplay? Keep up the good work, art Bus's help remind people that,for awhile,society was much freer........

Tue May 26, 2015 10:54 pm

Couple of things to report. First off I washed out the engine compartment area. No more weird grime. Shop vacuum'ed a lot of stuff and then washed it out with some simple green.

Scramble came over and painted in some of the missing areas:

Here's an old picture of Scramble with the Chicken and Bessie:

Also, we got the passenger side door open. It had been stuck closed for a long time. I moved the part of the latch up from the inside that prevents the handle from opening the door. My friend pulled on the handle from the outside and it opened! Unfortunately, the hinges pretty much came right off from the door at that point. They were barely hanging on before, as was noted by the huge gap between the front of the door and the nose. I thought I was going to have to find sections of the hinges to repair it, but I was able to weld the hinges back to the door from the inside. Not the prettiest job but it's working smooth as of right now and does what it needs to do. I cleaned and lubed the lock mechanism too so it works right. Since it was sitting in the swamp down in Florida for the last 15 years, it really needs cleaned out and having the doors working is going to help with that endeavor.

Half of the mirror arm as the hinge pin, very worn out:

Lower hinge comming apart

Upper hinge area distorted as well

Tue May 26, 2015 10:57 pm

I ended up carefully taking the complete window frame off and aligning the door up. I welded the hinges from the inside with flux core wire, and while it wasn't the prettiest thing, it definitely got hot enough to stay put. I have now put the window and frame back in and got the latch to work well. Greased up the door stay and it all works really nice again.

Wed May 27, 2015 6:52 am

Nice those hinges can be a nightmare.