TheSamba.com :: View topic - 1974 Riviera

Mon Jun 15, 2015 12:14 pm

Hey everyone! It has been two years since I purchased my first VW, a 1974 Riviera. It all started as jokes to my wife that I wanted to buy a camper, quit my job, and drive to the desert. I occasionally would peruse craigslist and thesamba's classifieds and day dream. Then one day my bus came up for sale in a neighboring town and I jokingly said we should go look at it expecting a laugh and sarcastic remark. Surprisingly the wife agreed and we made an appointment to go check it out. I think the smile on my face driving the bus was enough for my wife to know that we were buying this old vehicle. Fast forward two years, moving to a different state, changing jobs, and other life "hiccups" along the way and here we are.

I have been absorbing as much info as I can from this great site and everyone on here. I am at a point now where I think posting my project progress will give me a butt kick to get this project done.

Thanks for everyone's contributions and please feel free to chime in on anything you see.

I will post some photos to bring the project up to speed.

How I bought her.

And this is how she looked when she lived in Bellingham, WA......... after some research online I found this picture and that she was called the Bellingham Bengal

Mon Jun 15, 2015 12:18 pm

I drove her like I bought her for about a month after doing some small repairs and tune-ups. Then I started tearing into the interior thinking I would clean it out.

Sadly the previous owner had slapped adhesive tar paper on every surface below the windows without taking care to properly seal any leaks or treat surface rust. I set into a task that was punishing. Scraping tar paper off corrugated metal in the summer...... :shock:

Mon Jun 15, 2015 12:24 pm

Seriously.......there was lots of cursing when I found this:

Pulled the torn old canvas out:

And purchased a new one:

Found some West Coast remnants:

A little bit of rust through in the front floor pan:

And I bought some Westy furniture but I don't know if I like having that much cabinetry.

Mon Jun 15, 2015 12:53 pm

Some graffiti remover pulled away the primer and three crappy paint jobs.

The undercarriage has pretty minimal rust and a nice thick undercoating that just flakes away with a plastic scraper.

Original paint.

Pulled the engine and the gas tank. Cleaned engine bay and fuel tank enclosure.

I bought this Legacy with a slipping automatic transmission for really cheap off a couple in their 70s who have had it since brand new in 1992.

Mon Jun 15, 2015 1:03 pm

Next up is paint and body work.

I am hoping that Rocky Mountain Westy and some other vendors/fabricators start producing the cooling solutions soon. Marshall had a sweet post recently on RMW's products on his VolksarU blog (http://volksaru-incubator.blogspot.com/). I will be ordering all of my conversion parts soon as well.

The EJ22 that I have has 170,XXX miles on it. I have been tempted to get a rebuilt motor from someone like CCR Engines in Colorado for peace of mind. We do plan on doing some cross country roadtrips in this thing when we are all done. I was quoted ~$3k for a rebuild ($300 core exchange fee). To me that seems worth it for a "brand new" motor. Thoughts?

Tue Jun 16, 2015 8:43 am

Looks like a great project, nice work so far!

Please tell me you cleaned this little guy up and he now rides on your dash! :D

Ives676 wrote:

Wed Jun 17, 2015 7:46 am

Definitely! He will be my little co-pilot. :D

Wed Jun 17, 2015 11:01 am

I can finally chime in with some knowledge! that little guy is a Fisher Price Adventure person! he is the Race Car Driver, and would be more valuable with bell bottom pants. ( I looked that part up, not off the top of my head)
I played with those guys back in the 70s. He is very period to the bus.

Wed Jun 17, 2015 12:33 pm

Awesome :popcorn:

Wed Jun 17, 2015 2:01 pm

Very jealous of the pop top. I finished up my busaroo project also and it is a lot of fun. Still working out the cooling kinks, but got a TON of great help from people on this site to make it happen. Good luck with the build and if there are any questions I could try to help.

Thu Jul 16, 2015 7:47 am

Thanks ryDANGERry!

Got this yesterday........

Sat Oct 24, 2015 10:18 pm

Still plugging away and checking things off the list. Any progress still feels good. Got my Benco 002 rebuilt transmission, and a new wiring harness from Rebel wire. Subaru wiring harness was done by Jeffrobewesty (http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1388977).

I have been working away at refreshing the fiberglass pop top and the front tub over the cab while waiting for the bus to get media blasted.

Off to get blasted.

Sat Oct 24, 2015 11:28 pm

Awesome! I have a 74 Riviera too...and am also planning a Subaru swap! Subscribed :wink:

Sun Oct 25, 2015 9:30 am

Looking forward to more progress reports!

What engine did you go for and if you're up to sharing, what was the cost?

Sun Oct 25, 2015 10:07 am

Ives676 wrote:

this is exactly what I see when people make threads here on 'insulating' and 'soundproofing' their 'restored' buses.

Sun Oct 25, 2015 4:26 pm

wcfvw69 wrote: Looking forward to more progress reports!

What engine did you go for and if you're up to sharing, what was the cost?

Engine is an ej22. I spent $3300 for the motor. Seems crazy expensive but after comparing to building a nice air cooled motor it isn't bad.

Sun Oct 25, 2015 4:36 pm

scrivyscriv wrote: Ives676 wrote:

this is exactly what I see when people make threads here on 'insulating' and 'soundproofing' their 'restored' buses.

Let's just say that it really sucked peeling and scraping that stuff. And the surface rust and moisture under the tar paper is proof that it isn't a good idea. Pretty sure the only leak was from the middle driver's side vent window but the moisture still found its way under the tar.

Sun Oct 25, 2015 4:39 pm

Ives676 wrote: wcfvw69 wrote: Looking forward to more progress reports!

What engine did you go for and if you're up to sharing, what was the cost?

Engine is an ej22. I spent $3300 for the motor. Seems crazy expensive but after comparing to building a nice air cooled motor it isn't bad.

Thanks for sharing. Is it a remanufactured/rebuilt engine? As far as the price, I don't think it's bad at all either. A very good Type 4 engine rebuild would probably be more than that.

Sun Oct 25, 2015 4:42 pm

wcfvw69 wrote: Ives676 wrote: wcfvw69 wrote: Looking forward to more progress reports!

What engine did you go for and if you're up to sharing, what was the cost?

Engine is an ej22. I spent $3300 for the motor. Seems crazy expensive but after comparing to building a nice air cooled motor it isn't bad.

Thanks for sharing. Is it a remanufactured/rebuilt engine? As far as the price, I don't think it's bad at all either. A very good Type 4 engine rebuild would probably be more than that.

Sorry, I guess I could have given a little more info. Engine is a rebuilt engine from Colorado Components Rebuilders. They only rebuild Subaru engines and have a decent warranty and use only Subaru parts to rebuild to factory specs.

Tue Dec 08, 2015 9:20 pm

Sand blasted and starting body work. Spent about 7 hours getting sand out of all the nooks and crannies. Sand in all my nooks and crannies too....😁

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