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TDCTDI
Samba Advocatus Diaboli
Joined: August 31, 2013
Posts: 13326
Location: North Carolina
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 Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2025 8:11 am Post subject: Re: Children of the sun |
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Thank again everyone!
Since getting the speedometer functioning last August, it seems that I’ve only racked up roughly another 7,000 miles…
I’ve been driving the diesel caddy the rest of the time. 
Yesterday I decided to pump some more grease into the beam & realized I never finished sprucing up the beam, so I got out the torch & the wire brush & commenced to clean off the old paint & grime.
And gave it a quick shot of fresh paint.
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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OB Bus
Samba Member
Joined: February 09, 2003
Posts: 2745
Location: Ocean Beach - San Diego
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calvinater
Samba Member
Joined: September 06, 2014
Posts: 3591
Location: 802 The Pointless Forrest
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| Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2025 9:08 am Post subject: Re: Children of the sun |
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Any updates on theFlixable?
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"Albatross"! |
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TDCTDI
Samba Advocatus Diaboli
Joined: August 31, 2013
Posts: 13326
Location: North Carolina
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| Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2025 1:14 pm Post subject: Re: Children of the sun |
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| OB Bus wrote: |
| Welcome back. We have missed you. |
Only because I come up with some off the wall crap to scab some old POS along for a few more miles. 
Speaking of which, yesterday I decided to toss a new vent window seal in. Nothing exciting, just the vertical piece that seals the vent wing to the window track.
And using a dull screw driver to coax the new seal into the track. Here it is back in place.
However, this morning I opted to install the other seal. Being a slack ass & trying to avoid tearing the whole door apart to remove the vent wing assembly, I drilled out the original upper rivet.
And gently pried the old rivet out.
After rotating the vent window 90°, I lifted it out.
Once that was removed, I stripped the old seal out, cleaned up the vent window frame & shot some paint over the exposed metal. Being the halfass that I tend to be, I didn’t even wait for the paint to cure before stuffing the new seal into place.
Since the rivets on the lower pivot of the original vent wing were worn & loose, this caused the wing to vibrate or flutter when driving. Having another old window with a rotten frame laying around, I separated it from the frame & set this one back into the bus.
Wondering how I was going to set a new rivet while the assembly was still in the door, I searched for a rivet setting tool. This led me to one for a Ferd truck rivet tool available through Jegs automotive parts.
Alright, with a plan in mind, let’s fuck it up.
First off, not having a lathe, I chucked it up into the drill press.
And proceeded to cut it off with a die grinder.
Which left me with a cute little mandrel. After fitting the rivet & washer in place, I fit the mandrel in place & clamped it with this wonderful pair of Knipex parallel jaw pliers.
And gave it a big squeeze.
Once compressed, I then used a 10mm wrench that I had modified years ago to install a turbo actuator on a TDI, it’s almost as if I made it specifically to adjust the tension on the vent wing pivot. 
| calvinater wrote: |
| Any updates on theFlixable? |
Nothing yet, I’m still trying to hash that out, this self imposed downsizing has definitely thrown a wrench into those plans.
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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TDCTDI
Samba Advocatus Diaboli
Joined: August 31, 2013
Posts: 13326
Location: North Carolina
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| Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2025 12:00 pm Post subject: Re: Children of the sun |
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Today was just performing everything I did yesterday on the passenger side.
Except for straightening the window frame.
I used this donor because it still has the latch.
I removed the window again because I thought it’d be easier to install the seal on the divider while the glass was out.
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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TDCTDI
Samba Advocatus Diaboli
Joined: August 31, 2013
Posts: 13326
Location: North Carolina
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| Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2025 10:40 am Post subject: Re: Children of the sun |
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Who doesn’t love new goodies getting delivered?
With the rear of the old beast doing its best impression of a pogo stick, both audibly & handling wise, I ordered a set of Bilstein shocks.
While Rock Auto had the fronts in stock, they didn’t have them for the rear. However, with a bit of research, I found that rear shocks for a Vanagon Syncro were just a hair longer. Being that the Vanagon was probably pretty close in most other aspects, I scored a pair.
Here’s the source of my pogo stick sound…
You can see where the helper springs were rubbing on the shock bodies.
And, as suspected, the Vanagon Syncro shocks are pretty close.
Hopefully the beast wasn’t dependent on those helper springs.
Moving on to the front, you can see how whipped the bushings were.
In fact, the lower collar stayed on the trailing arm.
So I introduced some heat to it.
Grabbed it with some vice grips, & twisted it off.
Yeah, those bushings were crunchy.
Here we are after installing the new shock.
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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TDCTDI
Samba Advocatus Diaboli
Joined: August 31, 2013
Posts: 13326
Location: North Carolina
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| Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2025 11:18 am Post subject: Re: Children of the sun |
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It never ends.
Last week the beast became more & more difficult to start & I traced it back to a faulty ignition switch, the ignition was not getting power in the start position.
After jumping a wire from the coil to the battery, I got it home until I could source another ignition switch.
Knowing that the replacement Bus switches have the same problem, I got one for a ‘70 Beetle & began dismantling the column & disconnecting the speedometer cable so I could get access to the wiring.
After removing the old switch, I cut the terminal ends off so I could remove the wire sleeve & swap it to the new switch harness & then crimped new ends on.
Then it was just a matter of stuffing it all back together & figuring out just how many other things I upset in my quest to replace the switch.
I ultimately got to replace four terminal ends at the fuse panel, one that had cracked & fell apart, and the rest that were the crappy crimp connectors that I installed as a temporary fix somewhere in California.
I even found several of the screws to secure the instrument cluster & a couple of the vent control levers.
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.
GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!
An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.
Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it. |
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