1964 13 Window Deluxe - Running the Rust Gauntlet!

[Major Woody]

Be sure to get a thick layer of seam sealer on the back side of that long butt weld in the nose.

[wertygrog]

Good idea Major Woody, is there any particular brand/type of seam sealer you prefer for this job and for all the other locations on the bus?

[zuggbug]

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SOUTHERN INTEGRITY AIRCOOLERS
58 15 window
56 westy

[VWLooseNuts]

coming along nice.
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Jeremy
www.vwloosenuts.com
www.facebook.com/VWLoosenuts

[MTVDUB]

Great thread! I will be starting my 65 13 window soon and it was really nice to find your pics and I enjoyed the the read too. Looking forward to your next post.

[wertygrog]

Alrighty here's a small update from this weekend. I had taken my windshields ( ) out last weekend and discovered the lower channel/frame area was totally rusted out. I suppose the silicone smeared all over the seal should have been a clue.

So I ordered a gerson replacement frame (lower 6") from Ronnie at Bustoration and tackled the job yesterday and today! The first step was to remove the old frame. This involved drilling out a bunch of spotwelds. I think Hans had a little too much coffee that morning because there were spotwelds everywhere!

I've used the same old spotweld cutter since beginning this bus project, it's a Blair tool. My dad has had it for years and it works AWESOME! I threw out my harbor frieght cutter after trying this one. The trick is to not cut too deep. I went a little too far with some of these cuts.

Here you can see where I've marked off to cut. I like to use the full replacement panel when possible because new metal never ever seems to rust, from my experience with old porsches.

First trial fit:

The driver side A pillar lines up nice....

But the D/S wiper hole doesn't!

And the passenger side hole doesn't either!

And the passenger side a pillar doesn't line up right either.

What I ended up doing was slicing the gerson frame into two pieces (I cut on the passenger side of the center pillar). The pressing was too short left to right (distance between the wiper holes too short, and distance between the A pillars too short). This was a bummer and caused me more work but all was well in the end.

Righto, carrying on, here's me fitting in the small center pillar piece. It seemed to be totally the wrong shape and did not match the curvature of the main outer frame pressing. I cut it to the right shape after I was finished welding.

Here's the first piece fitted, drilled, deburred, and cold-galv'd, ready to go! You can see off to the right where I had to cut the frame to extend it a bit.

Mostly clamped in and ready to go. I used a tapered punch to align the wiper pivot hole. Wish me luck!

Welding proceeds. The cold galv screws with the plug welding a bit so some of them aren't pretty. I was using a ruler to make sure all the straight surfaces were actually straight during this process...

Here's the center pillar. I MacGyver'd some tools to force the pillar to be perfectly straight, confirmed with a straightedge.

Welds all ground down!

All finished and protected from rust. Another part advanced from the metalwork queue to the bodywork queue.

This was a pretty easy job comparatively (little chance of warp issues), so if you need to do this dive right in!

Next up is fixing all the rusted-out door seal channels...that's all for now though so I'll catch ya on the flipside.

Actually there's more but haven't completed/documented yet...stay tuned...

[squareweave]

Great thread. I,ve been following along. Is this really your first stab at bodywork/welding? You mentioned something about Porsche's there that made me wonder. I have a bit if welding to do on one of my busses and this thread has made me wonder if I can tackle this myself with time and patience? Anyways great job, keep the posts coming!

[wertygrog]

Yep dude first time for me. When I was younger I had a replacement longitudinal member welded into my porsche 914 and it's still totally rust free as everything around it has continued to decay haha. I can't speak for the bodywork as that's still in my future but the metal repair is easy with some trial/error and common sense. All it takes is time and patience and a little money. Surprisingly I JUST NOW finished off my first tank of MIG gas (I had a medium sized 80 cu ft bottle), and I've only gone through maybe $12 worth of wire! Read a bunch of these threads (especially the Stall20 one) and dive in man you won't regret it.

[tisius]

really a great job, Wertygrog, especially considering it's your first major project!
I like the way you describe your repairs in detail

Any progress since the last work on the nose, is the bus coming along further?
I would love to see it in paint!
_________________
drive it like you just robbed the bank
you don't have to be crazy to be into VW's, but it sure helps!!
.... if it ain't dutch, it ain't much!

[Cuñado Wear]

What happen to this bus?
I hate to see all that hard work just go to waste sitting in a garage or on the side of a house some where.
Did you crash and burn?
Any up dates ???
Inquiring minds want to know. Or at least this one does.
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[vwjosh6070]

nice job! updates?
_________________
josh, AKA "the infamous josh"

1973 Transporter "Floyd"

****Wheres my old bus?! 1967 Montgomery Ward Camper****

KI4MXO

[Culito]

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6254240&highlight=#6254240

Evidently it's been sitting at a body shop for 7 months.
_________________
© CJ Industries, Inc.
'64 standard w/2.0L type 4
'62 bug

[Cuñado Wear]

[wertygrog]

Well it would seem my good buddy Cunado Wear (Earl) has dragged me out of the murky shadows...so here's a lil update!

The rumors are true, my bus has been down in Tijuana getting painted...for the last 15 months.

The shop is taking FOREVER but is actually working on the bus now and *should* be finished pretty soon. Hence why I've awoken from my bus slumber.

I'll share some pics of the various projects I've been working on in the meanwhile!

First up, before I dropped the bus off, is a complete rear corner replacement! A while back I had welded on an infamous "grinning" corner but of course it came out terrible. The old one was too screwed up to bother with so I welded a new full Gerson unit on.

Shiny!

Old cut out:

Metal prep underway:

Going through the fitting process, it fit quite nice actually!

Cutting tail-light hole:

Almost ready for welding!

Under way!

Welding welding welding....

All done!

Now time to strip back the house paint to at least original paint and pack it up for the bodyshop!

Goodbye Mr. Bus.

Teaser shot of the Type 4 upright conversion.

Here's the bus in TJ sometime last year...a work in progress!

Hoping for a good end product....

Bondo party!

I had a really rusty (but correct) pointed rear bumper. So I welded the ends onto a new WW repro rear bumper!

Earl hooked me up with some interior panels! With a little lovin' I ended up with this!

Then it was time to get some seats ready!

Wa-bam! Upholstery is tricky but I figured it out (more or less) eventually! Lots of cutting, welding, gluing, hog-ringing, drinking beer, stitching, etc got me to here:

And now my current project is to put modern guts in this Ye Olde Sapphire 1 radio I picked up for 25 bucks! Fun!

So the fun continues whilst I wait for my poor bereft bus. Let me know of any questions or concerns on my little side projects! I've been having fun and just as importantly...learning a bunch!!

Cheers,
Brent

[Cuñado Wear]

Brent,
Sorry to bring you out of hiding, I but I know you have been working hard on your bus and have allot to share. I think you and the work that you are doing is awesome!The story must be told and shared with the fellow members on the Samba. This is the type of thing that keeps our buses on the road and continues to give them value.
Hats off to you and I look forward to your next post or updates.
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[Cuñado Wear]

[wertygrog]

Hi all, wanted to share today's project with you! I wanted to see a vintage AM radio in the dash but I also wanted modern sound quality and MP3 hook-up. So I picked up a non-working Bendix Sapphire I at a swap meet, here's a pic after cleaning it up a bit:

Then I tore out all the internals, except for a portion of the push-button mechanism:

Then I went on an electronics supply website and bought this inexpensive but very nice-sounding Class T amplifier:

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=310-301

I tossed the aluminum case it came with, and installed the inner workings into the Sapphire radio case. I hooked up the Sapphire tuning shaft to the amplifier volume. And I'm using the Sapphire on/off knob feature to turn the amplifier on and off along with the factory Sapphire backlight.

Here's a detail of the on/off wiring on the Sapphire volume/power pot. You can also see how I attached the Sapphire frequency indicator thing:

Here's where I attached the Sapphire tuning knob to the amplifier volume. I used the original Sapphire shaft and modified it to hook up to the amp pot:

Here's the back of the unit all buttoned-up:

Here's a pic of the front while it played some Bowie for me:

In the dark pic.

Next I'll be adding a bluetooth module to the radio so I can wirelessly play music from my smartphone. Still have to pick out speakers for the bus and decide if I want to add an FM tuner. All in all a fun little project and I'm now looking forward to having some nice covert sound in the bus.

[EverettB]

Awesome!
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[fresno james]

[zozo]

Now that you've got it down, I'm hoping to see your ads in the classifieds so we can all have one.