"The Toaster" ~ Personal History and restoration

Abscate

I have trouble getting those suction cups to stick long term. Maybe a thin Schmear ( that's Brooklyn for smear) of Elmers Glue will help?
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.ssS!

Eric&Barb

Looks like it works pretty well!

Think would go with three magnets per speaker in a triangle pattern to make those much more stable from popping loose from road bumps. Nice that the magnets mean less holes drilled and felt protecting surfaces.

The switch on the kick panel would be easier to reach and no hole in the kick panel by putting it up under the dash edge. Could use the stock dash switches mounting screw to also mount the new switch, or mount it below the speedo steering mount to one of those bolts under there.
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In Stereo, Where Available!

nlorntson

So nice to see all three of you at Kelley Park! The toaster looked great!

Safe travels home.

We'll give you a Minnesota welcome if you happen to go through our state on your cross country trip.

Cheers!

DadaCheese

DadaCheese

Another week, another meet...

Only 163 miles away from our home in the Bay Area of California, another VW meet.
This time in Madrea, Califronia, the; "Madrea Spring Fling"

Just north of Fresno, this meet attracts a lot of folks from both northern and southern California
(...and from beyond. Farthest traveled award of $100 went to a man who came up from Mexico City for the meet).

One of the nice things about this meet is that it is peer-adjudicated.
If you have paid the meet's registration to display your VW, you get to vote for your favorites in every category.

Kathy and I were up by 4am and on the road by 4:30am.
We left Kathy's Ghia behind, because Kathy wanted some more time behind the wheel of The Toaster in preparation for later this summer.

Many folks go a night or two early because camping is allowed.
We would have loved to, but had been invited to dinner Saturday night.
At the meet, we ran into several friends and folks that we knew, and met a great many new people too.

We were fortunate to have Kurt ("Funky Truck") pull up along side us at the meet:

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

You can tell that spring is transitioning to summer when in the Central Valley of California; there was a high of 85 degrees.
For the Central Valley that is completely bearable, and beautiful.

It seemed that there were almost more split-window buses in the camping and part-swap area of the meet then in the display area...

...as often is the case, the show has a high ratio of bugs, beautiful, beautiful bugs in all shapes and styles...

A lot of Bay Windows too, but back to Split Buses; this beautiful 1964 Double-Cab was also there:

More, and more, and more buses...

Besides having a great time being able to hang out with Kurt, it was a joy to witness his reaction when he got word
that he had been awarded 1st place by his peers in the category of all split windows buses at the meet:

Kurt was naturally appreciative, but so fantastically humble too; "but, but, there's those other buses... and Funky Truck has rusty gates on it right now, and, and..."
Kurt and Funky Truck deserve the award and recognition. The amount of time, detail and caring that he puts into his work, and such a great guy too.
I believe the VW community at large at the meet saw/respect every bit of that.

We had a great time talking with and meeting folks as always.
Enjoyed our picnic lunch, but most of all seeing such a large variety of VWs.

I took a LOT of pictures of a lot (but far from all) of the VWs at the meet.
Here's a link to any/all of the pictures folks have been submitting to on TheSamba, it includes at least 85% of the snapshots I took yesterday.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_search.php?...ts=summary

The next VW-related event we have is the Bus City 9th Annual Camping in the Redwoods in Guerneville, California, the weekend of May 19th - 21st, 2017.
Link:
http://vwcamperfamily.ning.com/events/bus-city-201...redwoods-g

Our list of what I'd like to complete/fix on the Bus before our cross-country trip this summer is getting shorter:

Correctly wire, and/or fix the high/low beam switch
Open the Fresh-Air flap area again and take millimeters off of the directional flaps again and again until it slides easily, but keeps its seal
Figure out why the rear dome light no longer works, and fix it (could be the wiring, the front switch, wires between...)
Create and install the missing/broken small wooden holder-rail for the jump-seat.
Replace the cracked long square wood piece underneath the Z-bed's bottom seat (the wood that holds the seat in place when in seated position)
Figure out if adding temporary (non-stock) door seal material to the cargo doors will prevent driving vibrations from "unlatching" the rear cargo door's handle
Take a cm (or so) off the back of the ABS plastic headboards so that I can places the aluminum bow strip back up between it and the birch ceiling

I'm sure there must be other things, but these are some of the small projects I need to finish.

Beautiful weather out; I hope everyone is out enjoying their buses.
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Dada as in dadaism.
Cheese as in the stuff I love to eat.

DadaCheese

I'm a little hesitant to put this up (here on this thread) already, but as I am musing...

There are three major lists that I have developing for our cross-country trip this summer.

1) Packing list (camping/clothing/personal non-VW items for the trip)
2) Tools that I intend to bring
3) Spare parts (some needed for along-the-way tune-ups, others in case of breakdown)

I've gone through a few different threads on the Samba over time and the list I have put together is below (so far).

Much of this list I already have.
Some of it I plan to get/have prior to the trip.

Again; this is NOT a tool list!

The easiest tool/spare part list I saw was; Triple-A card, cell phone, and a joint.
The most sensible, yet damning list I read included the warning; the part (or tool) you didn't pack is the one you'll need.

We're doing all we can to have The Toaster ready, so all the "spare parts" are, we hope, just a precaution (ha ha).

We do have the "Premium" Triple-A Membership. We now also have the Hagerty Insurance "High-Octane Plus" plan.
("Hagerty Plus covers the first 150 Miles of guaranteed flatbed towing OR the first $100 of other roadside services like fuel delivery, battery jumps and lockouts.
This plan covers an unlimited number of service requests per year for all of your household vehicles – not just your classics – and trailers towing your classic vehicles.")

In the case of break-down above and beyond what we have with us to fix it, I imagine we are two-working days shipping distance for most parts.
...and/or some kind VW enthusiasts close to our stopping point might have a spare.
We have such a limited amount of time, that I hope NOT to be broken down anywhere for 2+ days, but that's a kind of "fail-safe" plan in my mind.

There are/were longer lists then the one I am about to present with included items like: "generator/alternator with a fan attached already," but again, I can't bring everything.

In the list below, the part numbers listed are from Wolfsburg West, and should always be referring specifically to parts for our 1967 stock 12-volt system bus with a 1600cc single-port engine.

Apologies if the list isn't grouped too well in any order.

Some Fluids:

Some Extra Parts:

So what do you think?
Are we missing things on this list?
Besides tools; that's another list.
Anything on our list just a waste of space for our cross-country trip?
Thanks.
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Dada as in dadaism.
Cheese as in the stuff I love to eat.

wcfvw69

I've gone through my bay buses mechanical and electrical systems. On my last 500 mile trip, I only carried a spare fuel pump, clutch and accelerator cable, points/cap/condenser, valve cover gaskets and oil and v-belt. And the tools to replace those parts. I didn't need any of it. The bus was flawless.

In 30+ years of driving VW's, the only thing that caused a breakdown for me were front wheel bearings and fuel pumps. I say these fuel pump failures were my fault. One, the engine had sat for 3 years and the fuel pump diaphragms are known to dry up and harden sitting that long. I thought about that before leaving. The second fuel pump failure was the pivot pin backed out on a new to me bus on a cheap fuel pump that I hadn't changed back to a rebuilt Pierburg pump. The wheel bearing failure was my fault as well. I was like 16 and massively over tightened the adjustment nut on one side and they burned up.

My opinion is you're taking up a lot of storage space carrying all those items. You stated the bus has just been gone through mechanically by a good shop. It appears to be running just fine since then as well. You can overnight parts in if you happened to breakdown w/out the needed part.

Anyway, my 2 cents. Very Happy

_________________
Contact me at [email protected]
Follow me on instagram @sparxwerksllc

Decades of VW and VW parts restoration experience.
The Samba member since 2004.

**Now rebuilding throttle bodies for VW's and Porsche's**
**Restored German Bosch distributors for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored German Pierburg fuel pumps for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche fuel pumps or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche distributors or I can restore yours**

Abscate

I'm going to raise Bills 2 cents and go all in.

You know your exact number but suppose we break trip into two legs of 3000 miles. Break out the recommended maintenance schedule and carry that stuff

All those chemicals can be bought on the road, carry 2 spare quarts of oil, leave the rest at home.

If your fuel tank is clean and fuel running clean, leave spare carb home.

Plugs point condensers fan belt

Perspective. If you drive 12000 miles a year, that's 3000 miles a season. Would you carry all that stuff anticipating failures over the next 12 weeks? Probably not.
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.ssS!

DadaCheese

sgellis

Instead of having every part that may fail just plan for getting stuck somewhere for a few days while parts get shipped in. You are traveling with your own home after all Smile

The air cooled community seems to be everywhere so getting help on the road shouldn't be a problem.

So general maintenance stuff and maybe a fuel pump and distributer.

Have tools for general maintenance and a few hard to find on the road things... Like an axel nut socket. You can borrow the rest.

Anyway, that is what we are planning when we get on the road. It's all an adventure.

Edit: And also bring a pair of thin coveralls
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My 64 Kombi restoration
My camper interior build
My 54 standard restoration
The Nova Scotian Barndoor (YouTube)
The Nova Scotian Barndoor (CAD drawings)

Malokin Martin

Odd this should come up. I was actually thinking about the toolbox yesterday. The best way I've found to have most of the "right" tools is to do a complete/thorough tune up away from the shop. Like an afternoon cruise to an isolated woodsy spot and take a hike. Once it's cool do the valves/timing/points/oil/brakes/lube axel etc.

You're kind of committed that way and nothing sneaks back into the shop toolbox afterwards.

As an aside: Two sets of feeler gauges are always nice to have. I feel like one is always rusty or gunked up after sitting for a while. I also carry a small jug of premixed antifreeze with me... cause I like to stop for 'average' people too.

vwuberalles

Someone posted on here about a Van Alert phone app a week or 2 ago, it may be a handy tool for you guys during your journey.
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1973 Superbeetle: 1st car, owned since age 12. Update thread --> https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9919140#9919140
1967 Kombi: Owned since age 17, Dad's retirement project.
1966 Beetle: My new project. (SOLD) Build thread--> https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=678040

wcfvw69

I'd just add that the internet has done a great job of enhancing the myth that these old VW's break down all the time. The fact is, the only VW's that break down are-

* VW's that are poorly maintained and serviced.
* VW's that are recently bought used. The fearless new owners then jump into it for an "epic" road trip without having the buses mechanicals and systems thoroughly inspected and gone through. They are then "shocked" when the old "POS" VW breaks down. Very Happy

* People cheaping and out any buying the least expensive (Chinese) parts they can find. Think cheap fuel pumps, carbs, distributors, cables etc..

OP, you grew up with these VW's like most of us "older" members. Folks that have owned and driven VW's for years know what leads to breakdowns. Once an old VW has been completely gone through mechanically while using quality parts, they are pretty darn bulletproof and reliable.
When I was a broke student driving a bug in school, my VW was not serviced well nor did it get much attention mechanically. It rarely let me down and if it did, it was my fault anyway.

There's ton of threads on this site w/folks who have restored their split screen or bay buses mechanicals and are rewarded with drama free trips all over the country.
_________________
Contact me at [email protected]
Follow me on instagram @sparxwerksllc

Decades of VW and VW parts restoration experience.
The Samba member since 2004.

**Now rebuilding throttle bodies for VW's and Porsche's**
**Restored German Bosch distributors for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored German Pierburg fuel pumps for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche fuel pumps or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche distributors or I can restore yours**

DadaCheese

wcfvw69

DadaCheese

wcfvw69

BarryL

Spike0180

Grad a small container of miscellaneous bolts and nuts, and some cable, a bit of wiring stuff with a crimper. A pair of good pliers/vise grips and a screw driver. And you can "fix" most things on these buses enough to get you to an auto repair shop where you can actually fix it.

Remember when you're on the side of the highway, it doesn't matter if it is period correct. What matters is, does it work? Then you can use that piece of plastic in your back pocket to get whatever you need.

But a lot of that you have already recognized, so Happy Bussing! I'm sure toaster will serve you just fine.
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Brutis Patches Izabich: 1970 VW Transporter - 1776cc DP
Current State: Projects never truly end...
Location: Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Other cars: 2003 F150, 2003 Jetta GLI vr6-6sp

Sambastic: adj; the quality of being nit picky, elitist, expecting everyone to do things the way they believe is best with no regard to situation, "sambastic"


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"The Toaster" ~ Personal History and restoration
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