TheSamba.com :: View topic - Adam's 1955 Wolfsburg Semaphore Kombi Build

Mon Dec 11, 2017 8:16 am

I'll have to check them out, thanks!

Mon Dec 11, 2017 8:53 am

andre b wrote: if you go with a 670..look up Power Kings bias plys...there cheep and a stiff side wall for light trucks,,,good luck

These one's Andre?

https://www.tires-easy.com/6.70-15/power-king-tires/super-highway-ii/tirecode/WLD34

Mon Dec 11, 2017 9:59 am

tyzel wrote: andre b wrote: if you go with a 670..look up Power Kings bias plys...there cheep and a stiff side wall for light trucks,,,good luck

These one's Andre?

https://www.tires-easy.com/6.70-15/power-king-tires/super-highway-ii/tirecode/WLD34

https://www.ebay.com/itm/391569267338

These ones on eBay are really similar, great price

Mon Dec 11, 2017 1:29 pm

tyzel wrote: andre b wrote: if you go with a 670..look up Power Kings bias plys...there cheep and a stiff side wall for light trucks,,,good luck

These one's Andre?

https://www.tires-easy.com/6.70-15/power-king-tires/super-highway-ii/tirecode/WLD34

That sounds like them but that stock photo is way off!

Tue Feb 20, 2018 12:55 pm

Well it's been a while since I've updated and I have no good excuse for that but I've got some progress to report.

I cleaned everything out of the bus in preparation for dragging it out to work where I can get it indoors to work on it. The bus has been a storage for parts I've collected over the years for this project. I reduced it down to only the parts I'm going to be welding in or parts I need to bolt on to line stuff up.

Unfortunately the original 6 leg floor is pretty wavy.

Before the corner went in I had to do a little filling where I'd gotten a little aggressive removing what was left of the old corner. I clamped a piece of aluminum angle back there to prevent blow through.

The first tac of many!

I was able to get the rear corner welded in. I still need to put the battery tray in and replace the lower corner but it was a huge step to get this done. I've looked at this bus for years with the corner hacked out.

With a little time to spare Sunday evening I decided to get one of the front signal holes filled in. I think I've mentioned that this bus has had a nose job at some point in its life. Needless to say, those bullets have to go when you have original semaphore posts.

Tue Feb 20, 2018 1:23 pm

The patina on that bus is great. And that corner made it look so different.

Tue Feb 20, 2018 1:55 pm

Okie Adam wrote: Well it's been a while since I've updated and I have no good excuse for that but I've got some progress to report.

Don't know about anyone else, but I love these "peek-a-boo" pictures, when a project is moving forward (literally) from one phase to the next. Love the discoloration too! Keep it going!

Tue Feb 20, 2018 3:50 pm

OMG yes my favorite shot too! Keep up the good work.

62DoKaGuy wrote: Okie Adam wrote: Well it's been a while since I've updated and I have no good excuse for that but I've got some progress to report.

Don't know about anyone else, but I love these "peek-a-boo" pictures, when a project is moving forward (literally) from one phase to the next. Love the discoloration too! Keep it going!

Tue Feb 20, 2018 3:56 pm

I’m excited to just see that bus has moved. Adam is making some tracks now.

Tue Feb 20, 2018 8:05 pm

completely on board with the blinker delete. Semaphores rule.

From the back it won't make a difference and up front you can see what is going on, even if the people can not

Wed Feb 21, 2018 10:14 am

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone!

Tue Mar 13, 2018 12:23 pm

Well, once again some time has passed but I have some work to show for it. I sent some time working on the dash this weekend.

This is where I was starting from. It was real close from when I fit it years ago but definitely lacking final fit.

I went ahead and got the steering column and heater tube out of the way.

And this is what I ended up with after some grinding and cleaning and I'm real happy with it!

I still need to clean up the back side of the nose where i filled in the bullet turn signal holes and speaking of bullet holes, the donor dash came from a bus that had been used for target practice. Luckily the dash survived well enough but the parcel tray/dash support and heater Y-pipe didn't come out as clean. I heated the metal a bit and folded back what I could and I will weld them up from there.

I lifted the bus up when I needed a little brake and did some inspecting and I was really happy to see the lower shock bolts still had their lock tabs in place. It's the little things!

Tue Mar 13, 2018 6:17 pm

I know the guy that used the bus the dash came from for target practice, if you want to return the favor to him.. :shock: :wink:
Looking good!

Tue Mar 13, 2018 6:39 pm

Nice bus.

Looks like my dash swap. I needed to squeeze the front to make the dash fit nice. Appears you have the same issue.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...;start=176

Wed Mar 14, 2018 4:18 am

sgellis wrote: Nice bus.

Looks like my dash swap. I needed to squeeze the front to make the dash fit nice. Appears you have the same issue.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...;start=176

I had not even considered that! There is a gap on each end but I assumed it was where I had maybe ground too much away and would have to fill it. I will measure my other buses that aren't cut apart and match the 55 to them. Thanks for the tip!

Sun Mar 18, 2018 2:46 pm

I'm watchin.....

Mon Jul 02, 2018 1:23 pm

So, I'm not great with these updates so here's some recent progress.

Before getting the dash in there was some patching that was necessary in the A pillars.

Both sides got the same treatment. It was mentioned that the nose might flex without the dash and parcel tray support in there so I measured a couple of my other buses and it looked as if it held its dimension. The dash was a little gaped at the pillar though so I did a little weld line to help bridge the gap at install.

I got the unnecessary holes filled in the dash too.

While fitting the dash and heater pipe and parcel tray support I ran into an unexpected obstacle. Things just were't fitting. Again, luckily I had other buses to measure and I found that the heater pipe had been installed almost an inch to high above the floor when the bus had a nose job. I later confirmed this when I found a donor heater pipe in my collection and could see that the one that came out had been shortened. So out it came! Probably for the better as I would soon find.

While I was down there, I decided to remove all four bumper bolts that were broken off in the frame.

My good friend Dewayne wanted to work on the dents in the buses nose a bit so I halted work on the dash install until we could schedule a time to get together on it. In the mean time I looked for other projects and decided to get on removing the decklid carrier that had been hacked. I had a donor that still needs some serious fitting and cleaning up but luckily it still had the backing piece on it which had been hacked on my bus also.

A couple weeks later Dewayne and I got together with a stud gun and a foot ball and made some serious progress on a nose that at first I had thought wasn't too bad LOL Some other friends joined in on the fun that day too.

Much much more to do to this old bus but I am making progress despite my lack of updates.

Mon Jul 02, 2018 2:51 pm

Okie Adam wrote:

Hopefully you have got those axle boots now turned properly.

Tue Jul 03, 2018 4:21 am

Eric&Barb wrote: Hopefully you have got those axle boots now turned properly.

That's the least of my worries right now! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Tue Aug 07, 2018 8:12 am

Got the chance to spend some time on the 55 recently. My good friend Dewayne offered to come help again. I think he is getting in some good old VW therapy while he waits to get started on the mole. His patience is something I long to learn. I really enjoy watching him pull the nose of the bus. The subtle tugs and use of the shrinking disc to get rid of tin canning is captivating for a BFH guy like me.

I think we were both surprised how good it looked once we shot primer on it. You'd expect it to look worse with a consistent color on it but I'm pretty pleased.

While he is working on the nose we decided to leave the dash out so I was back to working on the rear corner. The donor needs a little straightening but I got it cut down and started fitting it along with the OG battery tray. Nothing fits like OG metal even if it is a little worse for the wear :lol: I removed the pillar section from the skin and I plan to use it to repair the lower corner but decided it would produce a better outcome doing them as separate jobs.

Also go the decklid carrier trimmed and fit better before having to call it a day.