Another Bus Resto picture book

[Chubber]

This little guy is your best friend when fixing everything above the belt line. Nothing is flat and the weight and power of the 6" DA will quickly burn through paint. This little 3" DA floats along and gives you perfect control. Run it wet or dry.

And you can cut three pads out of a single 6" pad and have a few bits left over for nib sanding.

Flattened all of the curves down to about 320 or 400 grit.

I decided against sanding and polishing the roof, I'm leaving it just as sprayed.

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Chubber
'71 Deluxe 7 Passenger Bus (Resto thread)
'72 Fastback
'74 Super Beetle Convertible (Sold)

[Chubber]

The first step after painting was to install a new WolfsburgWest wiring loom. This job scared the pants off me and a lot of internet experts said that it was too big a job and to only fix what was broken. After going through with the install I can only say that they aren't right. I found the install to be straightforward and the instructions to be pretty clear.

The first part of the job is removing the whole existing main loom. IDK why I tried to keep it all together, but I only cut what I absolutely had to cut.

But before I started I wanted to document the existing wiring colors on each switch to help with installing the new ones in case there was confusion. Ignore this part unless you are also stuck.

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Chubber
'71 Deluxe 7 Passenger Bus (Resto thread)
'72 Fastback
'74 Super Beetle Convertible (Sold)

[Chubber]

I finished up the removal by pulling the dash wiring along with the fuse/relay box. I used a Dremel wire wheel to clean up the contacts for the fuses and the wires.

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Chubber
'71 Deluxe 7 Passenger Bus (Resto thread)
'72 Fastback
'74 Super Beetle Convertible (Sold)

[Chubber]

Happy 2022!

I started the year off tackling some front end work while I had it torn down for wiring. No better time to clean up the steering components and paint the dash.

First up was to do the rubber hockey puck on the steering box. The old one had surface cracking.

I was playing around with plating too, so I plated the hardware with nickel, giving the cast iron a golden hue.

Then it was time to repaint the dash. I last painted this while it was in the car when I fixed the windshield rust in the late 90's. It's just rustoleum sprayed with a jam gun.

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Chubber
'71 Deluxe 7 Passenger Bus (Resto thread)
'72 Fastback
'74 Super Beetle Convertible (Sold)

[Chubber]

I also had a loose piece of glass in the left-hand gauge cluster. Probably the result of 50 years of tapping on the gas gauge to see if it was really as low as it looked. I also wanted to give it a detail clean and make sure everything was good to go.

I scrubbed 50 years worth of spilled Slurpees out of the dash vinyl and treated with plastic protectant.

All back together and no more rattling glass!

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Chubber
'71 Deluxe 7 Passenger Bus (Resto thread)
'72 Fastback
'74 Super Beetle Convertible (Sold)

[Chubber]

One consequence of test fitting the wiper arm motor was some chipping of the paint around the hole. I tried to be careful but it was I dropped it a little and it chipped. But this is single stage paint, so I went in to fix it. Clean, sand, build up white until it's even, sand, paint, etc. Once flat, color sand and hand buff. It took about a day to layer enough paint a little at a time, then about an hour to sand and buff. I was hot at myself when it happened, but I think I fixed it ok.

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Chubber
'71 Deluxe 7 Passenger Bus (Resto thread)
'72 Fastback
'74 Super Beetle Convertible (Sold)

[Chubber]

More wiring fun. I was wiring up all of the dash switches and the fuse box and stuff with the dash out, it made it so much easier.

Another thing I've wanted to add for a long time was an ignition relay box. It always bothered me that all of the power for everything in the car has to go through the ignition switch. All modern cars use a relay to send power. The actual ignition circuit is usually not fused but I also wanted to add relayed power legs for additional ignition triggered circuits like headlights, accessories and interior lights. I found this box with space for 6 relays but I only had space to wire in 3 with heavy gauge wiring, but I also installed 2 self resetting circuit breakers for the ignition and light circuits. It lives underneath of the steering wheel support bracket so I can access fuses and relays.

The little clips on the fuel gauge hookups were also loose from a broken plastic tab so I hot melted them in.

The new dash top looks smart.

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Chubber
'71 Deluxe 7 Passenger Bus (Resto thread)
'72 Fastback
'74 Super Beetle Convertible (Sold)

[Chubber]

Found this relic from Less' Bug Shop in Arlington, VA. We could walk to Less' from our house and some days we had to: to buy parts or get advice!

The best part of this is that charge for $3.00 worth of random nuts and bolts was probably the best investment my Dad ever made. It was a full #10 can full of random VW hardware that Less had cleaned out of the lube pit. A dropped nut or bolt or a broken nut was often found in the can of parts and I still have the can and about 1/2 of the nuts and bolts.

Always chase threads

Look at the difference in construction between these two stampings!

Another electrical project was this charging station inside the glove box. It runs on it's own fused circuit from the relay box and can be turned off.

And lastly I grabbed this piece of generic radiator hose at a yard sale for $1 and it fit the walkthrough heating vent just perfectly.

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Chubber
'71 Deluxe 7 Passenger Bus (Resto thread)
'72 Fastback
'74 Super Beetle Convertible (Sold)

[Chubber]

Not a lot of busses out there with the original 4 hub caps it came with from the factory! I've never bought another hub cap. I think I might have sprayed some waxoyl on the inside of them in the 1990's and I think I waxed them the last time I washed the bus, about 2003. They were crusty inside, but no real rust throughs and I wanted to try to save them.

On the outside I just worked it over with aluminum foil in water to get the rust out and converted to ferrite. It works remarkably well but it's a lot of manual work in cold water.

To clean the inside, I first used the wire wheel to knock rust free inside, then Evaporust, then I used a number of rounds of prep-etch to get the last rust out of the inside.

The inside gets Masterseries silver primer. Later I top coated it.

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Chubber
'71 Deluxe 7 Passenger Bus (Resto thread)
'72 Fastback
'74 Super Beetle Convertible (Sold)

[Chubber]

Bending brake lines. It's nerve wracking and you have to build the loops in at the right places to give flex and not trap bubbles. I use a coat hanger to mock up the run and then bend the tube to fit. I remember brake lines being easier to bend, maybe they are made of harder stuff now?

Can you tell I'm paranoid about a brake fluid leak?

Fluid went in, only a little leaked out at the rear T, and a little tightening solved that.

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Chubber
'71 Deluxe 7 Passenger Bus (Resto thread)
'72 Fastback
'74 Super Beetle Convertible (Sold)

[Chubber]

Wasn't anything else I could think to do with the transmission, so I used my jack and cinch strap to hold it in place and get it bolted up.

I finished some more sound deadening foam

After my engine fire in 2000ish, I created an aluminum cover for the insulation above the motor. It had a little oxidation and staining on it over the years, so I cleaned it up as best I could and gave it a good polish with ceramic wax to keep it from oxiding any more.

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Chubber
'71 Deluxe 7 Passenger Bus (Resto thread)
'72 Fastback
'74 Super Beetle Convertible (Sold)

[Chubber]

I changed the headlights over to H4s from Bus Depot with the euro spec lenses. The light is certainly more horizontally spread with a lot of brightness below the line.

E-code H4's on the left, original Sylvania 55s on the right.

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Chubber
'71 Deluxe 7 Passenger Bus (Resto thread)
'72 Fastback
'74 Super Beetle Convertible (Sold)