The 1959 Franken Project

[Matt_H]

Looking great !

What made you choose that bumper style - it's a 58 or earlier one I reckon..

[Shoyrtt]

[Shoyrtt]

Running both hard and soft radiator lines and brake lines on the bus. We tried to use an off the shelf air tank for the bags but they were all too big. Fabbed up an old piece of tubing to serve as the tank that sits outboard of the frame rail and is tucked up and out of the way.

[Shoyrtt]

Cut the steering shaft down for the wheel placement. Also a picture of Jim’s brake booster with some plumbing.

[Shoyrtt]

Again something different on the Frankenbus. Here is the clutch cable made by Control Cables. No bowden tube and it avoids any interference with the air bags.

[ddutch]

[Shoyrtt]

[ddutch]

[Shoyrtt]

[Shoyrtt]

I found these old pictures from when I picked up the nose. Hopefully there is a date on the back of the OG speedometer that will tell me what year it was built. My guess was 62-63 and that it was once converted into a "snail" camper with the bracing around the base of the B pillars.

[EverettB]

Probably early 63 (built in 62) since it has a spot for an emergency light switch but no emergency light on the dash.
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[Culito]

[Shoyrtt]

I took a non-stop flight from John Wayne to Idaho Falls on Friday and worked on the bus today. Pulled the engine and trans and all of the accessories on the underside and then pressure washed and cleaned everything.
Beautiful part of the country.

[brettsvw]

[Shoyrtt]

[Shoyrtt]

Lots of work completed on the bus this past weekend, but not a lot of pictures. After pulling the engine and trans and spending a few hours cleaning, I painted and did some work to tidy up the frankenbus. We were then able to reinstall everything and did a little dimple die work in the engine bay, installed the wiring harness from AV Subaru Conversions and did the final routing of all of the plumbing, air lines, heater lines and brake lines. New shocks all around and I had some fun putting on the bullets and a set of headlights. We also installed the new bench seat and brackets. As you can see, we still need to work on adjusting the cargo doors, but it was a great time in Idaho. I need to do a big window purchase soon and plan another trip maybe in the fall.
https://avsubaruconversions.com/

[Shoyrtt]

Working on all of the details in the engine bay, new hoses, spark plug wires, air cleaner etc. Picked up an alternator relocation bracket from Outfront Motorsports. Still some hose clamps and other minor items to button up. Next up is wiring with a fuse block I got from Torque Resto Parts.
https://outfrontmotorsports.com/products/subaru-ej-offset-alternator-bracket-kit
https://www.torquerestoparts.com/product-page/bus-box

[Shoyrtt]

A few more updates on the Frankenbus. Jamar gas pedal from Moore Parts and platform are in up top. Down below we used the Butty Bits linkage to another silky smooth Control Cables set up. Finally, a picture of the fuse block so we can start the wiring.

https://www.mooreparts.com/jamar-performance-black-pro-x-aluminum-gas-pedal-with-round-openings/
https://resto-bus-parts.myshopify.com/products/throttle-pedal-kit-for-60-to-67-buses-by-buttys-bits
https://www.controlcables.com/

[Shoyrtt]

I made the drive this weekend to help with the wiring on the Frankenbus. The goal was to get it running. I sent Jeff at AV Subaru Conversions/AutoVentures the stock Subaru harness and the computer. In the ordering process I had to specify the make and model of VW it was going into along with the transmission. He returned it with everything tagged and labeled to help with the install. On the few items where we had questions, he was available by text message to send pictures etc. I can’t say enough on how easy he made the process. Nice to hear it rumble!

Link


Here are the gauges in test mode:

And I finally pulled the speedometer only to find it was not original to the nose:

[Shoyrtt]

Here is a picture of the Speedhut GPS speedo and tach:

Also prior to the start up of the engine, I mounted this Long Tru-Cool unit that I picked up at Kartek. It has a small fan between the cooler and the nose to serve as the heater. I can control the amount of hot fluid going through the system with the ball valve. We had a set up like this in one of our desert cars and it worked great.
https://www.kartek.com/parts/long-tru-cool-12-plat...-1-12.html
https://www.kartek.com/parts/spal-30103009-low-pro...4-cfm.html