Chippuller's "65 Split Microbus"

[chippuller]

I just uploaded a few pics to the gallery (Chippuller's "65 Split Microbus" ) of the progress I'm making on the floor substructure on my '65.

[BarryL]

Using those irons it looks really lined up.

[chippuller]

Hey Barry,
I was really fortunate... while a lot of the sheet metal "below the water line" was pretty crusty, all of the hard points at the ends of the floor cross members (except at the jack pads) were in tact. I was able to run a piece of angle stock along the ends and pull the jack pads up against the angle, and a piece of plate across the top of the floor cross members. That gave me the correct inboard/outboard location and the vertical location. If you look at one of those pics you can see that there is only one clamp holding the angle in place, but every cross member hits right on it!
I'm getting very nervous now...I'm gonna have to start welding all this stuff in place....no turning back!

[chippuller]

I just finished removing (what was left of) the old battery tray and fitting the new one...nasty job with it tucked back in a hole like it is! I had to remove most of the old floor just to gat access to drill out the spot welds in the flange! I spent a lot of time with my head in the engine bay with a drop light in my left hand and my right hand, with a die grinder, reaching through the tail light hole....same for working from below and through the tail light hole!?!? It was a bit of a PITA, but looks like it will work out OK.

[jeremyrockjock]

looks great
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[chippuller]

I

'm having a lot more success working on the split than I am having figuring out how to post stuff on this site!?!?
I just loaded several more pics on my progress... I think!?!?... (outbord floor sections installed, rocker panels installed, mostly primered ... I still have to install the lower cargo door repair panels,)
I found a local St. Louis MO) paint supplier who can provide Sealing Wax Red paint in a single stage paint!!! I got a sample and sprayed a new engine cover, and it looks pretty good. I will post pictures of that (if I can figure out how!!!)

Mario

[timjames722]

Really nice work!! One question as I have to replace the rockers on my 66 and other topics don't seem to address. How do you remove the inner rocker from cross members on the cargo door side? Is there spot welds to drill out or did you grind off from the back? Trying to learn as much as I can before I dive into the project.

Thanks!
Tim
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66 SO42 L87

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[chippuller]

Hey Tim,
Thanks for the kind words.... The inner rocker is spot welded to tabs, or ears, at the outboard end of the crossmembers. You need to remove the outer rocker first, then drill out or grind out the spot welds from the outboard side of the inner rocker.
Take a look at the pics in my Gallery and you will see what the ends of the crossmembers look like. In some of the pics there is a piece of angle iron clamped to the 'ears' on the crossmember to make sure they are all in a flat plane. The vertical flange of that angle is where the inner rocker attaches to the crossmember.
Just to be clear, when I say 'outer rocker' that is really a two piece subassembly... the outer rocker you see from outside, and an 'intermediate' web welded to it. The inner rocker is behind that.
Let me know if you have any questions....

[chippuller]

While i am far from being ready to paint, I have been thinking about paint. I want to do it in the original colors (Beige Grey over Sealing Wax Red.) I always remember really liking the SWR (Sealing Wax Red) color.
I started searching here on the site and found lots of discussion about how hard a color that was to match and lots of pics looking very different.
Note; If you don't have a lot of time to waste reading my 'odyssy In Search of SWR' you can skip to the end for the actual source info!

I was at the VW event at Benton Park in St.Louis this past summer and asked if there were any SWR Splits there.. . and there was! A very nicely restored '66 with a recently done high quality paint job. I almost gagged! It looked PINK!!! That's when I said I had to find "the real SWR" color!
The Wolfburg West site has a good secion with lots of info on the original Segurit paint colors. I went to the Segurit web site, which was a bit confusing, but I found out that Segurit was now owned by BASF. I went to the BASF site and found one distributor in the St. Louis MO area (actually Collinsville IL) who could mix the original Segurit colors. They said they could mix me up a sample for $15! I realized it was a 2 stage paint.... called back and asked if they could do it in a single stage paint.
The initial response was "no", but after a bit of discussion (these guys were EXTREMELY helpful!) he said they have different line of paint which is aimed at the industrial market (trucks, tractors, machinery...) and it is a single stage paint! ....and after checking, said they could actually mix the Segurit colors in that single stage paint, and yes, they would mix up a sample for me!
I have a new engine lid so I sprayed it, and it looked really nice...until I got it out in the bright sunlight. It then had a lot more of the pink that I saw on the "Benton Park Pink Lady"! Not anywhere near as pink, but I was not happy.
Called back and explained the sitution and asked if they could tone down the pink. I went back when their tinting expert (he has been to the BASF factory school on tinting!?!?) was there.
Adam spent over 45 minutes adding tiny drops of different 'majic stuff' until I thought it looked like what I wanted.They also gave me a sample of the beige grey!
Botom line is I am tickled (not) pink!!!

The source for the paint is;
Auto and Marine Finishes
North Bluff Rd 907
Collinsville,IL 62234-5816
Phone; (618) 365-6358
You are interested in their LEMCO (Line 22) single stage paint.


I have uploade some pics (I know pics on line do not really represent the true color!)..... the first one shows one of my old cargo doors with the "real SWR" and the Beige Grey. the next is a pic of my old engine lid that I sprayed with the first SWR and then came back and sprayed the lower part with the 'final' SWR...you can really see the difference.
The last pic is of a model that a friend gave me...(it was white over yellow)
but I figured, what better way to see what my bus will look like , than to paint it with the actual paint i will use!?!? I hope my real bus looks this good!?!?

[chippuller]

I have been playing with my side windows to see if I could get them apart. Some are pretty crusty and I will have to replace the frames on several of them.
I see that Wolfsburg West has them for $60 apiece and West Coast Metric has them for $40 apiece! Anyone have any experience with the ones from West Coast Metric?

[BulliBill]

Keep up the great work on your Transporter!

Bill Bowman
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I'm looking for these license plate frames for my fleet:
Coeur D'Alene - Lake Shore Volkswagen
Mission VW - San Fernando
Thornton VW - Stockton

Thanks for any help!

[chippuller]

Here's an update on the pop out window frames... I crossed my fingers and ordered the frames from West Coast Metric, hoping they would be of reasonable quality. They arrived the other day and I am happy!!! Seem to be very good quality everything is same gage as original, made in USA!!! I'm sure I can find something else to buy for my bus with the $120 I saved.
I included a few pics ...

Also, I started dismantling the front door windows. The biggest challenge was removing the glass from the frame of the wind wing. I ended up sitting it in my 'slop sink' and running hot water over it until I could start to pull the frame away from the glass at the upper aft edge. I then started squirting simple green into the gap. it was slow going but I kept repeating hot water and soap.
The lower edge was really hard to get loose. I cut away as much of the old rubber as possible with a utility knife. It took a while , but I didn't break any glass

As an aside, I ran across this original Clymer's "Volkswagen Transporter owner's handbook" on an online used bookstore.... cost less than $10 including postage!?!? Kinda cool.....

[chippuller]

It looks like these pics did not get included in my previous post!?!?.....

[BonTonRoulet]

That vent window glass to vent window frame restoration can be a task. I wasn't up to doing it "the correct way" with the rubber strip and the wooden frames and clamps and stuff, I wasn't really enthused about the electrical tape method, and then when I found one of the "Vendors" here in the classifieds offer a molded rubber seal, I thought even at $60 or so for a pair would be the cats meow.

$60 later and with the "ears" that fit around the window latch trimmed off, I think I threw them in the trash. Other's experience may be fabulous.

I resorted to a modified version of the electrical tape method that worked really well, and at the time thought about photo documenting the process to share but didn't and just got on with the process.

Good Luck with yours. Then you get to fight that vent window to window frame seal!

Edit: I also purchased one of the pop out frames from WCM and looks to be of pretty good quality. Have yet to do anything with it other than keeping it inside the house so it doesn't flash rust. Contemplating methods of painting it so that the inner lip of the outer seal area gets well covered or having it powder coated. Looking forward to your methods with this.

[chippuller]

Hey BonTon,
Thanks for your response..... I think!?!? Not really confidence building

I'm not familiar with the "electrical tpe" method, or any other method for that matter. I'm assuming there is a post talking about them. Now thaty you point out how challenging it can be, I guess I better go find it!!!
It'll be a while before I get the frames painted, but will let you know how I make out.

[chippuller]

New question here.... I am putting together the engine for my '65 Standard. I am using stock stroke and 88mm thick wall cylinders. I plan to do a full flow oil system and install an external oil cooler. I have read all the posts I could find on oil coolers and full flow systems but haven't found an answer to this question...."Should I eliminate the stock oil cooler to allow better air flow over cyl inder #3 or is there any reason it might be better to leave it in?"
I have seen several posts saying that you shouldn't bother with an external oil cooler...just use a T4 oil cooler. I suspect that's right, especially since this will not be run hard (except for keeping up with traffic on the H'way!)
The problem with that is that I have an external oil cooler that I picked up fo nothing, about 30 years ago, and feel I MUST use now, to justify dragging it around all this time !?!?
I was also wondering if anyone had any opinions (silly question on this site! ) as to the best location for the external oil cooler. I know some have suggested up front somewhere, but I'd rather not run oil lines that far.

As a side note, when I went to install the air deflector tins on the bottom,between the cylinders, I found that the bigger 88mm jugs prevent the normal installation... for one the crankcase nut and bold interfere! I'm going to have to do soem 'whittling' on them and find another way to secure them. Anyone else eer run into this?

[chippuller]

I know I haven't uploaded any pics of my structural repairs for quite a while, but uploading photos is a really a chore...download from phone to my email, then to my 65 Bus folder on my computer, then to my gallery on Samba!?!? Almost as bad as going to the dentist
Besides, there are lots of pics of folks drilling out spot welds and welding in new panels purchased from 'the usual suspects'. However I did have a little challenging issue I had to solve and thought I would share it....
The rockers and outer edges of the cargo floor were pretty rotten but available rockers and the 12" wide outer floor panels took care of that...almost.
The floor panels covered all the original rusted areas ... except a small area at the front just inboad of ths new floor panels and mating with the bulkhead.
(see the first 2 pic)

I had to create a piece (left and right) that incorporated the floor corrugations, ending and tapering down to a flat, and bending up 90 degrees to mate the bulkhead. They also had to incorporate the"plateau" at the bulkhead.
I started with a piece of generic corrugated floor and practiced a little "sheet metal origami". It would take a long time to explain each step, but if you follow the pictures I think you'l get the idea. If you have any questions I'd be happy to try to answer them.

[LAGrunthaner]

Nice job on that floor section.
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[chippuller]

Thanks LA.....