The Air-Schooled 2019 Tour Thread

[airschooled]

You and me both, Tom! That is one of the last interior pieces I am flat-out MISSING.

Truth be told, I’m just glad it’s running well enough to concentrate on the interior after the engine tear-down and reassembly last month.

—

It was a joy seeing BigEmma on the road!

I even got a bumper sticker!

Washed the car for the first time in the central time zone..

Saturday was a local meetup in appleton, Wisconsin, and I even took time to touch up my rims while I was camped at Kevin’s house in New London.

Before:

After:

Took a disproportionately long time to look up my mixing proportions from the Sherwin Williams Auto “Close Enough Tangarine Mist” to reducer.

But it was worth it to hang with good people, snug up some loose PDSIT idle solenoids, discover a vacuum leak on a vanagon, and find a faulty ‘79 Hall Effect sender plug. (Not necessarily in that order....)

All Roberts are “Bob’d“ at birth. This one drives his bus more than 500 miles a day on long trips. What a kindered spirit.

The Air-Schooled alumni crowd!

Illinois freeways need to chill the fuck out (and stop texting.)

Test drove AndreWTF’s bus Murphy tonight. It was quick and snappy, like always, but actually had an interior this time!
Robbie
_________________
Learn how your vintage VW works. And why it doesn't!
One-on-one tech help for your Volkswagen:
www.airschooled.com

[78BusGA]

[cdennisg]

[airschooled]

Yep, between that light grey and tan is what my paint will fade to in a few months. To be honest I’d love the tan, but I dont think i could get it perfect after fade, so I want it to match the interior white paint instead of the upholstery. When I worked in the Unnamed-Plastic-Model-Shop, we used this exact primer and paint on ABS structures and it always faded and lost about a thousand degeees Kelvin (color temperature) in about a month. Since I drive with my doors shut, I’m giving it a few months longer before I tear them down and mix a lighter grey/tan paint.

Hello from Illinois this morning, Indiana for work today, and Michigan tonight!
Robbie
_________________
Learn how your vintage VW works. And why it doesn't!
One-on-one tech help for your Volkswagen:
www.airschooled.com

[SGKent]

[airschooled]

[airschooled]

Illinois was a hoot, and too short.

We had a few good sunsets:

…And then I was parked in bumper-to-bumper traffic at a toll plaza for the next 15 minutes… Missed the final sunset…

I DID visit BigEmma and MurphyBus in Urbana! See?

Ok, so Murphy isn't in there, but I promise he shifts better and sounds MUCH better after a little CLA of the valve adjusters and shifter mechanism!

Had to wash the windscreen on this random ramp, after a few too many bugs and butterflies…

And had a nice sunset into Indiana last night… Michigan today! (Camping at 70crew's house in the rain right now. That makes 4 of the last 5 visits in the rain for me, since 2016!)

Robbie

_________________
Learn how your vintage VW works. And why it doesn't!
One-on-one tech help for your Volkswagen:
www.airschooled.com

[airschooled]

Lost my left front turn signal operation somewhere in the midwest. Found out why at 70crew's house…

(EDIT) I just realized that my phone picture doesn't show the broken wire at all. Black w/grey tracer was broken. I pulled some slack out of the sheath and resoldered it.)

My soldering iron repeatedly threw the inverter for a loop, so I had to run my extension cord to the kitchen… Barely made it!

I now have all four turn signals that cancel on their own. Full disclosure, I did not have the heart to tackle this repair until 70crew lent me a BRAND NEW switch as a backup. (It will be in the mail back on Friday!)


Michigan continued to deliver the express lane to ball joint wear…

Why are the interstates so shitty to drive on, while the local state highways seem to be doing fine? Detroit is kicking the federal government's ass at maintenance. And that's saying something……

Brews and jams at Spike01800's house were totally worth the drive. I even got to meet WheeliePete, from the Split Bus forum, who takes giant road trips too.

Painted and traded some dash ducts away before I even spent 24 hours with them…

Visited my favorite watering holes in Detroit, the Jolly Pumpkin! Not as impressed as with Griffin Claw's offerings, but they were still tasty.

Got to fill up at a brand new Loves! No greasy fingerprints or gum on the ground here, just pristine new pumps and soda fountains!

Visited my wardrobe/merch wizard in Pittsburg and took no photos, but we went to an excellent concert so there. Camped here for the night, not 45 minutes out of Pittsburgh.

And now I'm camped here. Amongst mostly empty beer cans and occasional trees. Only losers litter.

Empties picked up, bed is made, laundry is done, and I'm eating dinner watching the sun set over a corn field tonight. Not bad.

Robbie
_________________
Learn how your vintage VW works. And why it doesn't!
One-on-one tech help for your Volkswagen:
www.airschooled.com

[Spike0180]

It was good seeing you again Robbie. Wish we had more time to jam and drink, but family calls sometimes. Thanks for being willing to help. Pete is a good guy and I'm glad you guys had some time together. More reasons to come back and visit Detroit.
_________________
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"

[jtauxe]

[quote="SGKent"]

[airschooled]

I'll see you next year Gabe!

jtauxe, the interstates sucked in Michigan and were fantastic in Pennsylvania! New York is not impressing me so far.

I'm sorry for the Kelvin discrepency, this isn't the first time I've been corrected on it… My family is in the movie lighting biz, and our dinnertime conversation routinely involves phrases like "that new sconce is 200-degrees too warm." So you are totally correct, but I'm probably going to let it slip again.

--

I have not needed to add oil in 2,487 miles. I HIGHLY recommend having all your piston rings intact!

In fact, the car has enjoyed more "maintenance" in the last two weeks than it has since the engine went in last February. I forgot how clean I can get my rear glass if I Windex the INSIDE!

Ahhhh, that's better!

We've camped in some great scenery, but I've found trash EVERYWHERE on almost every dirt road I've travelled. Only losers litter.

Which one would you pick?

I would pick the 1971 Karmann Ghia Auto-Stick Convertible in the corner, just out of frame. It was the first car in my career that, when tuned correctly, was still slower than Buddy!


Found another dirt road, and followed it until it became a grass road.

Had a video chat session that made my back seat look like a damn Apple commercial! (What chiropractor designed the early Westy rear seat back angle?)

Cooled off here with only two mosquito bites:

And took this for proof of the actual sunset color…

_________________
Learn how your vintage VW works. And why it doesn't!
One-on-one tech help for your Volkswagen:
www.airschooled.com

[Jetfxr69]

Please stop posting beautiful pictures of east coast sunsets. We right coasters wouldnt want any of you left coasters to know whats available over here. The litter you keep finding is meant to be a deterrent. Safe travels.
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You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. Zappa

‘77 westy Seamus
‘76 tintop Crusher
‘77 westy The Judge
‘72 tintop bastard westy Hudson

[Abscate]

Just tell them it goes below 68F in winter sometimes, and they scurry away back to guacamole on everything land...

Drive safe Robbie
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.ssS!

[Tbob]

Ok, I guess I am getting addled in my later years, but I do think guacamole on everything sounds better than being stuck in frozen whiteness 3-6 months of the year.
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1969 Deluxe, owned since 1973
1973 Westfalia, owned since 1983
1980 Westfalia, watercooled conversion
1985 Westfalia, stock!
1986 Westfakia, Audi I-4 conversion
A couple of trucks and a couple of Jeeps

[HoboBus]

I hate winter as much as the next guy, but having winter is the only way to really and truly enjoy a beautiful Spring day. How do you guys handle the same weather, every day all year long?

Enjoy New England!

Hobo
_________________
Salt air it ain't thin, it'll stick right to your skin,
it'll make you feel fine. Makes you feel fine.
And I wanna be there. -- Jimmy Buffett

Just a beach-oriented camping Hobo with a bus.

[SamboSamba22]

[notchboy]

[HoboBus]

Ok, ok, Spring is apparently too deep for the Samba.
I'm still a new guy, I didn't know.

Let's get back to Robbie's reports.

Hobo
_________________
Salt air it ain't thin, it'll stick right to your skin,
it'll make you feel fine. Makes you feel fine.
And I wanna be there. -- Jimmy Buffett

Just a beach-oriented camping Hobo with a bus.

[notchboy]

[Whaanga]

I had a great day working with Robbie in Rochester, NY. It was the first time we've worked together and I thoroughly enjoyed the day.

We started with some electric bass work:

I am a professional bassist and Robbie (as you may know) is also a successful musician. We spent the first portion of our day working on ideas and concepts about playing bass. Robbie is a quick study and made great progress on his skills as a bassist.

Eventually we moved to the garage and began our bus work. The first issue was dealing with the bucking and stumbling caused by my single Weber carb. We opened things up and cleaned the jets and emultion tubes. We also reset the float level - which was way off (thanks to my miscalculation). We got everything buttoned up and then turned our attention to the ignition system.

It soon became apparent that the components of my distributer (points, condenser) were not working correctly. We swapped out the distributer for a spare one Robbie had with him. We took a drive and the engine ran magnificently.

Robbie helped me appreciated the attributes of my 1970 1.7 engine that started its life in a Porchse 914.

We had some lunch and then dove into what I'm told is the messiest task in all of Volkswagen-dom: Replacing the CV joint boots. Here's Robbie and I knee deep in CV joint grease:

Upon recommendation, I used these:

Here's to hoping they will last.

I was glad to see that at least one pair of the joints were original to the bus from September of 1973:

We then readdressed the issues with my distributer and eventually came to the conclusion that the components in mine are junk. Robbie kindly let me borrow one of his spares to keep me up and running as I work to correct the issues with mine. I'll be tracking down a quality set of points and condenser from NAPA. Also, mine is missing the copper ground wire so I will need to address this as well.

Here's Robbie getting packed up and ready for his next appointment:

And it was nice to see both our busses parked in the driveway.

This was a great day and my bus is now operating and running much better.

Thanks Robbie! Looking forward to the next one.

Jeff
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Late 1973 Bay w/a transplanted 914 Engine