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Mon Mar 20, 2023 7:36 am

Looking great ! :)

What made you choose that bumper style - it's a 58 or earlier one I reckon..

Mon Mar 20, 2023 2:11 pm

Matt_H wrote: Looking great ! :)

What made you choose that bumper style - it's a 58 or earlier one I reckon..

I really like the look of a pressed bumper (up to 1958) on a dove blue bus with the bullet turn signals. I know they are not correct for a 59, but aesthetically they just complete the look to me. This 1960 was recently freshened up with a set of pressed bumpers and one of my favorite buses is this dove blue Kombi that is here in SoCal for inspiration.

http://www.cookersvdubs.com/tims-og-paint-60-kombi.html

Wed Apr 05, 2023 1:35 pm

Running both hard and soft radiator lines and brake lines on the bus. We tried to use an off the shelf air tank for the bags but they were all too big. Fabbed up an old piece of tubing to serve as the tank that sits outboard of the frame rail and is tucked up and out of the way. 8)

Sat Apr 08, 2023 2:28 pm

Cut the steering shaft down for the wheel placement. Also a picture of Jim’s brake booster with some plumbing.

Sat Jul 15, 2023 6:41 am

Again something different on the Frankenbus. Here is the clutch cable made by Control Cables. No bowden tube and it avoids any interference with the air bags.

Sun Jul 16, 2023 4:20 pm

Shoyrtt wrote:

Being an engineer, I want to mention that the holes you've cut out of the frame for the cooling tubes, have severly weaken this part of the chassis. It now has probably not even 50% of its original strength. The original heatertube was positioned in the middle of the height of the frame beam and left the upper and lower part of this rectangular beam intact, and has very little effect on it's strenght. Structurally it's comparable with a so called ''Castellated steel beam''. https://cmqconsulting.com/construct_material/castellated-beams/
If you close the holes in the beam under the pipes by welding in some metal plates of sufficient thickness, you'll probably be fine. The underside of the beam needs to be in one piece to be able to function as a beam. ;-)

Mon Jul 17, 2023 12:43 pm

ddutch wrote: Being an engineer, I want to mention that the holes you've cut out of the frame for the cooling tubes, have severly weaken this part of the chassis. It now has probably not even 50% of its original strength. The original heatertube was positioned in the middle of the height of the frame beam and left the upper and lower part of this rectangular beam intact, and has very little effect on its strenght. Structurally it's comparable with a so called ''Castellated steel beam''. https://cmqconsulting.com/construct_material/castellated-beams/
If you close the holes in the beam under the pipes by welding in some metal plates of sufficient thickness, you'll probably be fine. The underside of the beam needs to be in one piece to be able to function as a beam. ;-)
Thanks for that input. Yes we capped that lower beam, I just don’t have a picture of the final product. Here is a picture from the front looking rearward with the heater plumbing.

Mon Jul 17, 2023 6:00 pm

Shoyrtt wrote:
Thanks for that input. Yes we capped that lower beam, I just don’t have a picture of the final product. Here is a picture from the front looking rearward with the heater plumbing.

Good to hear that you've fixed it. Keep on going with the work on this nice project.

Tue Jul 18, 2023 5:14 pm

ddutch wrote: Good to hear that you've fixed it. Keep on going with the work on this nice project.
Thank you again for the advise! My youngest daughter just graduated with her masters degree last month and sent me this picture from her phone. She wanted to remind me that the bus was supposed to be driving by the time she finished school (apparently I said that at some point). I'm making a trip to Idaho to work on it in 10 days, so hopefully it is on the road soon. :D
Her picture from 2019:

Wed Jul 19, 2023 11:25 am

I found these old pictures from when I picked up the nose. Hopefully there is a date on the back of the OG speedometer that will tell me what year it was built. My guess was 62-63 and that it was once converted into a "snail" camper with the bracing around the base of the B pillars.

Wed Jul 19, 2023 12:46 pm

Probably early 63 (built in 62) since it has a spot for an emergency light switch but no emergency light on the dash.

Sat Jul 22, 2023 10:01 pm

Shoyrtt wrote: The stainless exhaust is finished. Lots of cutting and tig welds to get it nice and tucked in.

Nice, I need to figure out something like this for my type 4.

Sat Jul 29, 2023 11:17 pm

I took a non-stop flight from John Wayne to Idaho Falls on Friday and worked on the bus today. Pulled the engine and trans and all of the accessories on the underside and then pressure washed and cleaned everything.
Beautiful part of the country.

Sun Jul 30, 2023 7:48 am

Shoyrtt wrote: Matt_H wrote: Looking great ! :)

What made you choose that bumper style - it's a 58 or earlier one I reckon..

I really like the look of a pressed bumper (up to 1958) on a dove blue bus with the bullet turn signals. I know they are not correct for a 59, but aesthetically they just complete the look to me. This 1960 was recently freshened up with a set of pressed bumpers and one of my favorite buses is this dove blue Kombi that is here in SoCal for inspiration.

http://www.cookersvdubs.com/tims-og-paint-60-kombi.html

I think pressed bumpers compliment my early 59 kombi.

Wed Aug 02, 2023 6:39 pm

brettsvw wrote:

I think pressed bumpers compliment my early 59 kombi.

That is a great looking bus Brett!

Wed Aug 02, 2023 6:53 pm

Lots of work completed on the bus this past weekend, but not a lot of pictures. :? After pulling the engine and trans and spending a few hours cleaning, I painted and did some work to tidy up the frankenbus. We were then able to reinstall everything and did a little dimple die work in the engine bay, installed the wiring harness from AV Subaru Conversions and did the final routing of all of the plumbing, air lines, heater lines and brake lines. New shocks all around and I had some fun putting on the bullets and a set of headlights. We also installed the new bench seat and brackets. As you can see, we still need to work on adjusting the cargo doors, but it was a great time in Idaho. I need to do a big window purchase soon and plan another trip maybe in the fall.
https://avsubaruconversions.com/

Tue Aug 22, 2023 1:39 pm

Working on all of the details in the engine bay, new hoses, spark plug wires, air cleaner etc. Picked up an alternator relocation bracket from Outfront Motorsports. Still some hose clamps and other minor items to button up. Next up is wiring with a fuse block I got from Torque Resto Parts.
https://outfrontmotorsports.com/products/subaru-ej-offset-alternator-bracket-kit
https://www.torquerestoparts.com/product-page/bus-box

Wed Sep 06, 2023 1:41 pm

A few more updates on the Frankenbus. Jamar gas pedal from Moore Parts and platform are in up top. Down below we used the Butty Bits linkage to another silky smooth Control Cables set up. Finally, a picture of the fuse block so we can start the wiring.

https://www.mooreparts.com/jamar-performance-black-pro-x-aluminum-gas-pedal-with-round-openings/
https://resto-bus-parts.myshopify.com/products/throttle-pedal-kit-for-60-to-67-buses-by-buttys-bits
https://www.controlcables.com/

Sun Sep 24, 2023 9:24 pm

I made the drive this weekend to help with the wiring on the Frankenbus. The goal was to get it running. I sent Jeff at AV Subaru Conversions/AutoVentures the stock Subaru harness and the computer. In the ordering process I had to specify the make and model of VW it was going into along with the transmission. He returned it with everything tagged and labeled to help with the install. On the few items where we had questions, he was available by text message to send pictures etc. I can’t say enough on how easy he made the process. Nice to hear it rumble! 8)

Here are the gauges in test mode:

And I finally pulled the speedometer only to find it was not original to the nose:

Thu Sep 28, 2023 2:45 pm

Here is a picture of the Speedhut GPS speedo and tach:

Also prior to the start up of the engine, I mounted this Long Tru-Cool unit that I picked up at Kartek. It has a small fan between the cooler and the nose to serve as the heater. I can control the amount of hot fluid going through the system with the ball valve. We had a set up like this in one of our desert cars and it worked great.
https://www.kartek.com/parts/long-tru-cool-12-plat...-1-12.html
https://www.kartek.com/parts/spal-30103009-low-pro...4-cfm.html