'70 Riviera: The Continuing (Mis)Adventures

[skills@eurocarsplus]

[skills@eurocarsplus]

let's see....

rocker time

bondo worms... rocker was original but thin

thankfully the mid and inner rocker were real nice

this SUCKED. i despise drilling spot welds

inner (really mid) rocker cleaned and epoxied

got the rocker dialed in and was looking at this mess. they just plowed filler right over the rust

out came the sand blaster and i made a couple passes. this was after the first pas and look...all the rust is almost gone....imagine that

while i was stripping stuff we decided to attack a dent that someone did in a hit and run incident.

once i stripped everything back i found more onion rings of filler...FML

so, there was a dent there to begin with and just paved over. 2 words motherfucker..... UNI SPOTTER

after discussing what i have found with d/a/n and neena we kind of made the decision to go just as far as needed to complete the repairs.

in a perfect world, we'd strip the panels to bare metal and start all over...but where does it end? i mean this bus has a LOT of product on it...many layers of primer, fillers etc. i mean it's excessive to say the least.

lets count the layers:

you have the factory dark grey, then light grey and white...the bus was originally white from what i gather.

then you have on top of that...light grey, white, light grey AGAIN...BLUE white and the top coat blue. by my count...9 fucking layers. this isn't a fucking tootsie pop and none of us really want to know what's in the center.

add to that all the filler work and it just becomes a case of work with what we have, or strip the whole bus and start over.

i hate stacking more product on top of this mess but there isn't much we can do other than a full panel strip....and honestly where would it end?

i almost had a fucking stroke when i pulled the tape back

it's pulling paint off with it. d/a/n confirmed they have spots where the paint flakes off with water when they wash it....you've got to be kidding me....


the best i can do is use the epoxy i know and trust and build off of that (this is what i have been using all along on this)

pulled the water inlet cover only to find this gem. looks like it was cut into the bus with a butter knife.... AFTER the paint was done and they never put anything on the raw steel

it gets better... above the electric hook up was a "DANGER 120V" sticker....

COVERING FUCKING HOLES!

and a bunch of "oops i missed" holes UNDER the electrical plate all of which got welded

here it is outside baking in the sun while i tried to clean 9" of dust out of the shop

i feel dirty blending in all of this mess. in the end i ground everything up a few more inches higher so i could have a blend zone. totally sucks but hopefully it will work out ok.

i really feel this bus didn't need all of this primer/filler etc. most of it's issues had the been handled properly would have only required basic metal work but instead they just kept piling on layer after layer.

crazy shit....
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[danfromsyr]

sorry to say the frosting and paint is how most "non-Professional" restorations would and have been done for the last 40yrs.
if it's not getting a top dollar make over it's just going in for the quickest new top coat that can be applied.. back alley or body shop.

bondo covered dents and a quick overspray was just as easily an insurance job or cosmetic refresh.

your work ethic and your time involved take it to a level most won't pay.
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[skills@eurocarsplus]

sad thing is even most DIY guys attempt to do better work.

even if Tram sub'd the work out...he was a project manager and failed. I only know 1 side of the story but seeing email's etc it has become clear that they got screwed.

never were they told about the extent of the rust or what the options were to properly repair it. all they got were messages about "rust cleaning up nicely" when clearly it wasn't.

i'm a lot of things....dickhead, jerk, loudmouth, cynical, abrasive and whatever other words you want to throw at me....they probably would describe me and i'd accept it. one thing i'm not is a liar or a thief. i couldn't imagine taking someone's money for work like this.

[skills@eurocarsplus]

spent all day out in the sun to make sure everything was good and dry before doing the deed

doing the final sand to blend the paint in i saw this

for fucks sake, they painted over a bunch of pits in the A post.

then i noticed this

i don't even want to know....

anyway, final bag. i tented off the window frame so i could get some paint on the inside of the sill. it's been epoxied, but figured i'd do the best i could to get some paint in there

i opened the paint and almost gagged

first it smelled like rotten haddock in August with a hint of sidewalk shit rotting in the sun. i have smelled a lot of paint, but fuck me, this stuff was rank.

granted it separated but whoever poured this out of the can must have had 1 eye. never in my life have i seen such a mess in the lid ring.

speaking of lids...

i guess the rust is just built into the paint

after stirring for what seemed like a decade it turned blue

i did a quick spray out on some scrap to see if it would behave like single stage should. it seemed ok...seemed.

that said... i have laid out a LOT of paint in my time. this stuff wouldn't be my first choice. it really doesn't lay out nice. when doing single stage it's important to have a decent overlap in passes so the next pass has good coverage.

this stuff....holy shit. it did NOT want to melt into itself. hard to explain if you don't paint but basically it went on like popcorn. it was not very easy to work with.

basically i had to drop the pressure, up the volume and go s-l-o-w. i have to wonder if some of the solvent evaporated from the can seeing that it was so wonderfully sealed.

i really thought about over reducing it to get it to actually flow but no fucking way was i going to risk solvent pop.

in the end, it's blue again

i really have to think some of the goodies evaporated out of the paint. it has in fact gotten a bit better since that photo was taken but still nowhere near what i'm use to

as an example this is literally right out of the gun on some paintwork i did on the vanagon

we'll see what it looks like when it stiffens up a but. it's not horrible... kind of has the GM orange peel to it. i'm just sad to see it didn't lay out like glass.

well, it's 1am and i'm going to wash my dirty ass and seeing i laid paint all night i'm going to see what i can do about laying some pipe
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[Abscate]

All paint looks crappy parked next to 417 Nautical Blue Pearl metallic.
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.ssS!

[neena]

We have so much good stuff to post dating all the way back to July but we’ve been lazy and now we’ve got a problem that’s really stumping us! About 2 weeks ago we noticed a loud metallic scuffing noise from the passenger rear wheel. The wheel isn’t getting hot like with a locked up brake or collapsed soft line.

It really sounds like it’s the drum rubbing the backing plate but we pulled the drum and there are no signs at all of metal-to-metal contact or wear. No shiny spots or anything like that. To top it off, we haven’t even opened up the drum or replaced anything in almost 3 years so it’s not an issue of new aftermarket parts not cooperating with each other.

Here’s our parts:

Wolfsburg West German drums. They’ve been on there for 5 years. Original (as far as we can tell) backing plates which we’ve never removed. Brake work 3 years ago consisted of new shoes, adjusting stars, springs, and wheel cylinders.

Here’s the noise with the wheel off the ground and the brake shoes backed all the way off. It’s like a few spots on the drum are rubbing….it’s not all the way around and some parts are quiet


Link


Why would the drum suddenly rub the backing plate? I made the mistake of driving with the parking brake on once for a few miles over the summer but that was almost 7 months ago at this point. If something was warped, wouldn’t it have warped a while back? Things seem pretty good in the bearing housing.

What should we look at/do next?


Link

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'69 Fuel Injected Squareback. "B" D-jet. 1600 with balanced rotating assembly and lightened flywheel. Full flow and external filter.

'70 Riviera. 1600 SP with 30 PICT 3 carburetor, 205M distributor, stock muffler

@chaseyessi on Instagram

[neena]

And just for the heck of it, here’s a video of our new motor breaking in back in November. 1904cc. So much fun to drive!


Link

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'69 Fuel Injected Squareback. "B" D-jet. 1600 with balanced rotating assembly and lightened flywheel. Full flow and external filter.

'70 Riviera. 1600 SP with 30 PICT 3 carburetor, 205M distributor, stock muffler

@chaseyessi on Instagram

[neena]

The noise we posted about back in March turned out to be rear wheel bearings on the passenger side rear wheel. That was a big misadventure back in August involving a tow truck and a bunch of other craziness. But that’s a story for another time.

This morning, I looked out our bedroom window and saw this

Turns out the dregs of Hurricane Ian were no joking matter

Not such a big tree that it would’ve killed the bus, but big enough to have busted a window, cracked the fiberglass roof, or dented the drip rail and messed us up for a while.

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'69 Fuel Injected Squareback. "B" D-jet. 1600 with balanced rotating assembly and lightened flywheel. Full flow and external filter.

'70 Riviera. 1600 SP with 30 PICT 3 carburetor, 205M distributor, stock muffler

@chaseyessi on Instagram

[richparker]

Man, I’ve been missing out on this. Any rubbing noise in the rear is most likely bearings.

Hope that’s not idle of that 1904. You definitely should’ve went bigger. All the cooling additions you made for a 1.9 would’ve even suitably for a 2.3.
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’71 Westy build
Adventure thread
’65 Deluxe Build
’63 Deluxe Build

[D/A/N]

[richparker]

60-65 is the goal. You’re not going to a larger displacement to go faster, you’re going larger to maintain those speeds with ease.

I’ve had lots of T1 engines. The larger I went, the easier the driving became and the better the fuel economy became.

My current 2275 crushes. I’ll be on the road Friday morning to a VW event in Albuquerque. That’s 177 miles away from my house, I bet I’ll make that in 1/2 a tank. Maintaining, not speeding.
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’71 Westy build
Adventure thread
’65 Deluxe Build
’63 Deluxe Build

[Abscate]

My Godson just got his gold shield in Brooklyn. I’ll have a collar on that tree in no time, neena……
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.ssS!

[skills@eurocarsplus]

fuckin-a

either you guys or the bus is cursed, or it's just being associated with me...

that can of surstromming I was threating to open last time you guys were here ballooned up so much it very well may open itself. My wife discovered it and told me to "get that fucking thing out of the house" that was about 2 days ago when the drawer she tried to open wouldn't....due to the can expanding haha

my twisted daughter however wants to open it and toss some in the teachers lounge and a couple of kids lockers she doesn't like. apple don't fall far from the tree
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[Xevin]

Inspiration for my prequel novel.

“A Tree Falls in Brooklyn”

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Keep on Busin'

[skills@eurocarsplus]

[Abscate]

If your wood falls off in Brooklyn and no one notices, do you pick it up and polish it?
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.ssS!

[neena]

[D/A/N]

I don’t know if we’re cursed of if we’ve got the curse of skills, but we’ve had a ton of misadventures over the last 6 months—more than in the last few years all together. Kinda like a metaphorical can of Surstromming blowing up in our faces. I like that your kid wants to weaponize it, Don. She’s got spirit!

Bus-wise, t’s been a real fucking trip lately. Here goes:

1. Back in March, I discovered a whole bunch of rot in the front crossmember. It actually pokes through the nose out front. There’s more than in the pic below. Also some in the bottoms of the doglegs. We’ve been trying to pretend it’s not there with limited success while thinking “what the fuck are we gonna do with this POS? Should we just buy a Vanagon?”

2..Then in May, one of our oil lines popped off on the highway and we lost all of our oil

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=768576&highlight=

So I had to redo all the blue rubber hose with braided stainless and AN fittings.

3. Then in July we did our front wheel bearings and drums but on one side had a weird noise like someone running their finger over a wine glass but really loud. The spring from the grease seal was riding on the bearing. Had to put the old drum and bearings back on one side.

4. Then we had a bunch of stupid problems trying to get the correct inner front wheel bearing for the shitty side. Still haven’t gotten it in. One side has a new drum and bearings, one doesn’t.

5. We lost a hubcap on the highway. A few days later I chiseled a stubborn broken piece of hubcap clip off the rim and straight into my eye and couldn’t see out of it for over a week. Eye doc said it was the worst torn cornea he’d ever seen.

6. In late August, our rear scuffing noise suddenly got so loud and added such a squeak that we didn’t want to drive so got towed from Paradox Lake, NY down to Albany and had a whole drama there doing the wheel bearings (too long to go into). The bearings were dry as hell though.

7. Finally, we were packing up to go home on a Sunday morning about an hour from home and one of us (not me or the kid) threw a solar light up on the dash and cracked the fucking NOS/OEM VW windshield. Getting a new one turned into a 3 week ordeal and the new fucking seal leaks.

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'69 Fuel Injected Squareback. "B" D-jet. 1600 with balanced rotating assembly and lightened flywheel. Full flow and external filter.

'70 Riviera. 1904cc w/ 40mm Dellortos, 019 distributor, Steve Tims “super stock” 37x32 heads, Web Cam 218, Vintage Speed SS143 Super Speed exhaust, 1 1/2” heater boxes

[skills@eurocarsplus]

you've got my luck. I've always said it could be raining pussy and I'd get hit in the head with a dick.

This old Woody Woodpecker cartoon sums it up pretty good:

https://www.b98.tv/video/missguided-missile/

but instead of a missile I have a giant penis following me around. I know you guys are busy, but feel free to message me and we can set up a call when it suits your schedule best. At the very least we can be miserable together
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