Nice bus, even nicer sister

[bcs]

During the next step the 3 belly-pans and the middle heater-tube-section were welded in.
Fortunately the parts fit perfect without any complex adjustments
After some consideration, it was decided not to insulate the pipe-section (like it was done in factory):
The thermal insulation is not visible in the floor cavity and
moisture may collect in the thermal insulation and promote corrosion of the pipe from the outside (I don’t know if this is really an issue in future … )
I think it is better this tube-section will be covered by cavity-wax later on.

The little sheet-metal-strips for mounting the brake-line were cut from KF-material.

________________

benjamin

[Two Glove Boxes]

Clean! Nice work!
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1950 Deluxe Sedan Build

1951 Split Standard Hoffman Build

1960 Dove Blue Double Cab Patina Build

Two Glove Boxes IG

[bcs]

... many thanks!


_____________

benjamin

[bcs]

The welding of the belly-pans was one of the last major works in the coachbuilder's workshop and the departure was in sight.
The passenger floor got its seat-bench-mounting-points …

… and the air-outlet. Unfortunately, the coachbuilder removed this item to build in the passenger-floor without any trouble, and missed taking the measurements of its original position
But I was a lucky guy, to have this forum to get the needed information.
Many thanks to the guys who discussed and gathered all the details to this topic in a thread!

A few little holes were closed by welding …

… and both wrinkled rear corners have been smoothed …

Unbelievable, at this point of time I had already spent weeks and months underneath the bus.
But only now did I notice another spot with old (overpainted) dirt …

So, time to say ’Goodbye’ to the coachbuilder ( … maybe we will meet again later on … ).
The trip to my workshop started to bring the bus back home with a little detour (which will be described in the next post …)
In sum the bus was 201 days at the coachbuilder’s workshop
During this time, the coachbuilder had 2 other cars in his workshop that he worked on alternately (and some days for vacation).
So not the complete 201 days were spent on my project.
The period for visiting the sandblaster (29 days) and the paintshop (11 days for the primer) are not included.

________________
benjamin

[bcs]

The next point on my to-do-list was removing the remaining adhesive residue inside the bus.
It was still present in the areas of the ceiling, around the windows, the luggage-compartment, the dividing-wall between passenger- and driver-area and the sheet-metal were the sun-visors are mounted.

The upholster deserves a clean and smooth surface
No chance for little bumps which may occur later on under the new interior-material.

I already tried to remove the old glue with different tools, chemicals and efforts.
But there was no chance: It was too resistant and time-consuming without resounding success.
More abrasive methods would have damaged the original paint. The solution: An ice-blaster
After picking up the bus at the coachbuilder’s workshop, a little detour was made by visiting the ice-blaster …

Until that day, I have read a few reports in vintage-car-magazines about this technique and had no idea how it is to ‘enjoy’ this happening ‘live and in colour’.
It was extremely loud and so windy like a hurricane …

After that treatment the glue was removed. Here is for example the dividing-wall before and after …

One additional good news: During the ice-blasting appeared suddenly pieces of the headliner-material and its piping.

The complete treatment took about 45 minutes.

… and during this work I saw the passenger-floor with the unattractive points

Although the scope of work was discussed in detail with the ice blaster before he started, he made a mistake:
He treated 2 areas at the dashboard although there was no glue there at all, which would have had to be removed.
Because of that there is now in 2 corners a little bit original paint missing.
Left corner before and after …

Right corner before and after …

Let’s call it additional Patina

After this exciting day it was time to get to my workshop:

________________
benjamin

[bcs]

O.k., back in my workshop.

To be honest: Without the hint of the painter and the magazine-report, I would have kept the cavities as they were.
Just protect them before the sandblasting with a lot of masking-tape and foam. This is just an example of the engine-compartment ...

Otherwise no special attention, just control the areas from outside by knocking:
If they sound good and still make a strong impression, no additional efforts needed.
And after finishing the restoration fill the cavities with a lot of wax.
I would never have thought that there would be so much old dirt inside!

So, thanks to the painter for driving my attention to the ’neglected’ cavities and their inside condition.
First of all, the cavity in the front-nose-panel behind the bumper was cleaned with brushes and the vacuum-cleaner (… he was my best friend for hours and days …).

… about 650gr. (= 23 oz) old dirt was removed. Now this cavity is completely clean …

The dog-leg-cavities under the driver- and co-driver-doors had a lot of little stones inside …

The cavity between the front-nose-panel and the floor-pan of the driver- / co-driver-area was cleaned too ....

... a safety-needle and an old piece of printed paper was found ...

If anyone of you have additional information about this paper, please let me know. I'm very grateful for any hint!


… by the way: During this work I saw again the passenger-floor with the unattractive points


The dirt inside the 4 cavities in the mainframe was really solid (not just loser dust) ...

The right and left rear main-frame-section was filled with a lot of dirt and little stones.
You can see on the left the part of the rear-frame-tube - which crosses the main-frame-cavity - and on the right the space which is fully filled with dirt ...

This took days to get it out completely. Again and again and again with different tubes, wires, brushes and always controlled with the endoscope-camera.

But it was worth it, because after this session the dirt and little stones were removed completely and the rear-frame-tube in the cavity is now fully visible …

Unbelievable but the cleaning of these cavities took in sum about 42 hours non-stop until there was no dirt inside anymore.
After these days I still heard the sound of the vacuum-cleaner while lying at night in the bed

It's time for a little pause …

________________
benjamin

[70bus]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trading_stamp

Dig around some more; if you find enough maybe you can redeem them for another bus! :)
_________________
Craig K
70 Neunsitzer
65 Pritschenwagen
"If Von Dutch was alive, he'd walk in there with a pistol and shoot these people." - Robert Williams

Raul the 65 singlecab

Karl the 70 nine-seater

[bcs]

Hello 70bus,

many, many thanks for your helpful hint with the very detailed information

Sorry to say, that there were only 3 of these stamps in the bus.
Probably this is enough to get a little air-freshener for the rear-view-mirror

Many thanks again!

_________
benjamin

[bcs]

All the large cavities were cleaned. But what about the heater tube?
The heater-tube in the double-floor-section was renewed, but the remaining section to the front was still the original one.
Of course this section should also be inspected like the rest.
It was on my to-do-list before the middle-tube-section was installed, but I forgot

So I had to do it more complicated via the air-outlet under the dashboard.

A first look inside the tube with the endoscope-camera offered just a view to a layer of sand and dirt.
So, my best friend – the vacuum-cleaner – started to be busy again …

After the first 10 minutes one additional security-needle was in front of the clogged cleaner-tube ...

… later on a small piece of wood with perfect edges and a little hole …

… and I was wondering why such a piece of wood is inside the heater tube and to what it belongs to?

Later on, the cleaner tube was clogged again.
This time by a dirty and small bended piece of wire.
Removing the dirt and inspecting it in details I realized that is was a little Jesus-figure …

I’m sure you can imagine how excited I was about this find

Now it was obvious that the small piece of wood is part of his cross.

After this sensation, the tube was controlled again with the endoscope-camera.
Until then, most of the sand and dirt was removed.
But now a blue piece with a golden middle appeared.
Do you have an idea what it is? A rare piece of plastic? A penknife? Golden coins?

To build up a little bit suspense, the riddle will be solved in the next post ...


_________
benjamin

[bcs]

…. here is the solution of the riddle

After fishing about 1 hour in the heater-tube with different tools, tubes, magnet, gripper, etc. the mysterious item was get out.

Finally my patience was honoured with ……

.. the original keys of this bus

Without a question, this treasure-hunt belongs to the ‘ups’ of this project.
To get the heater-tube completely clean from the front to the back, a brush with a long extension - that is normally used for cleaning chimneys - was pulled, pushed and rotated numerous times through the heater-tube.
The vacuum-cleaner finally picked up the rest of the dirt.

To make sure, that no treasures got unnoticed into the vacuum-cleaner during the process,
the complete content of the bag was checked afterwards in every detail.
But no additional items were found (… no idea where the missing remains of the wooden Jesus-cross have gone?)

_________

benjamin

[EverettB]

That's great you found the original keys

[matthew henricks]

Fantastic story. Love the vacuum adventure. Keep posting.
_________________
1964 Original Owner build Thread. https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=702135&highlight=

Ambulance Fan's. https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=627707&highlight=

Parts i am looking for:
64 bug nice used front/rear Black LHD floor mat.

[BarryL]

Do you think that stuff went down the deflector holes or up top at the defrost vents?

[Eric&Barb]

[bcs]

Hello Everett,

only heaven will know ...

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benjamin

[bcs]

Hello Matthew,

many thanks for your interest

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benjamin

[bcs]

Hello Barry,

I’m sure that the items disappeared through the defrost vents.
Even if one of the pre-owners was very clumsy, there is no chance to get it unintentionally through the deflector hole (… although: I would probably manage it ).
_____________

benjamin

[bcs]

Hello Eric & Barb,

Mark Watney has already been asked, but his answer is still pending

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benjamin

[bcs]

After this exciting treasure-hunt in the cavities, it was time for something less spectacular (and without any vacuum-cleaner-noise )

To prepare the splashpan for the sandblasting, the old insulating-strips were removed and the correct fit was checked ...

The colour-tone seems to be the same like the fuel-tank (near to RAL 7031 ‘Blaugrau’) ...

After sandblasting, the splashpan and the fueltank were finished by the painter and look like new

_____________
benjamin

[bcs]

The 34hp-engine which came with the bus was not matching to the builtyear.

Fortunately a 30hp-engine from 1957 was found in the Netherlands, but it was incomplete and in a poor condition, as was the carburator (Solex 28 PCI).

So first of all the carburator was given to a professional workshop and they made a perfect job.

Here are the ‘before and after comparison’-photos …

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benjamin