The Bad and Ugly (Worst Home Repairs to a VW bus)

[nemobuscaptain]

I agree. There's a great deal of difference between keeping yourself on the road and putting a bondo frame in a bus.

Shark hooked me up with the popcorn:

Keep'em coming, boys.
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Ohio Valley Tribe, Full Moon Bus Club https://www.facebook.com/groups/294422277314227/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/FullMoonBusClub

RIP Bob Hoover https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=427791
Hoover Sermons: https://www.vwsage.com/images/vwsage/Bob%20Hoovers%20Sermons.pdf

[1977_L63H_P27]

This is definitely bad, and I'm not proud that I did it, lol. A friend of mine was tired of having wet feet in his '69 bug, and asked me if I could help him install a new body/pan seal. I said sure and we started on it the next Saturday. As we started taking out the pan bolts I soon found out what the real problem was. The bottoms of both heater channels were gone. The rust would break and the bolts practically fell out. I told him we had better stop as the pan seal wasn't his true problem. After giving him the bad news, he asked me what was it going to take to fix it. I gave him the run down on heater channel replacement. Then trying to relieve some tension, I told him we could fill the channels with "Great Stuff" the blow in foam insulation, and after it dried we could run stove bolt thru the pans. Um, yeah...he went for it. The car was ugly anyway, lol. BTW, he didn't have a water problem anymore . Peace!
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[AquaBus!]

they are 7$.. keep a spare..
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71 Camper- Project phase
71 kombi "Shenanigawagen"


... i remember the days when a bus cost two dollars and you had to push it uphill both ways...

[dubberdaz]

Not VW but a Mini, years ago my mate and i were driving round town one night and the accelerator cable snapped. We threaded what was left of the cable through the dash and i pulled the cable whilst he tried to drive us home! Was much maddness, but fun!!
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Spent most my money on beer and VW's...the rest i wasted...

[MedicTed]

An old Beetle I had years ago, that was resurrected from the parts cars leaked water at the heater channels. I used a large screwdriver and punched a hole underneath the back seat on both sides, so that the water could run back out.
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Ted Wojton
70 VW Bus Westfalia camper
2003 GMC Sierra

[Shagg]

Had a buddy w/ a RUSTED out 67 westy, daily driven. On the way to a campout 1 weekend, he hit a bump in the road, and the driver-side front windowfell out!! Luckily, all the silicone(previous rig job) on the glass held it up until he got stopped. when we got to the camp-out, we had to fix it somehow, as it was raining buckets. Upon closer inspection, the reason for the window coming out was that the bottom lip of the window frame,(the one the window rubber hooks over) was completely rusted out at the bottom (not too uncommon here... ). After careful parts inventory, we Macgyvered it w/ 6 packs of bubblegum(chewed up) and about half of a budweiser can. Its amazing that it actually held for another 400 miles in the rain, and leak free!!
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"no matter where you go, there you are.."

[TrollFromDownBelow]

Had a '71 Sportsmobile (cross b/w a westy interior, and rivie poptop) that had the fuel shut-off valve vibrate out and disapear. Needless to say, it left a 1/4 vacuum hole, and run like s@!$. found a perfect size twig branch and stuffed it into the hole "temporarily". It went like that for several months before I replaced it.
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1976 Westy (aka Tripod)
2.0 liter FI solid lifters
212k miles

[Emily's Owner]

I (according to the posts I've read so far) have a remarkably unscathed bus. The original owner (I'm #3) fixed the big traditional dent along the lower part of the sliding door with a pretty dreadful bondo patch (ran the full length of the door), and then rattled canned it ceylon beige to match the body color. Over the years the patch rusted out from underneath, and the paint turned this bilious green color - it looked like I had some nasty mold on the slider - finally bought a westy sliding door with a slider window and replaced it .

I have fixed the throttle cable with a hairpin, when the clevis pin broke out of the cotter pin, then forgot about it for a couple of years.
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Xargaret

ITMC - OG Den Mother

What (and I cannot stress this enough) The Actual Fuck?!

1974 Transporter
2023 Subaru Outback

[nemobuscaptain]

I love this thread.

Had an vanagon accelerator cable break on the engine end. I bent it back against itself (forming a U) then zip-tied it in place. Then used a couple of more zip ties to connect it to the proper place. Ordered an accelarator cable from Bus Depot but didn't put it on for months because the zipties were holding up just fine.

What a hillbilly I am.

But I do always carry a spare accelarator and clutch cable (with the butterfly nut) these days.
_________________
Ohio Valley Tribe, Full Moon Bus Club https://www.facebook.com/groups/294422277314227/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/FullMoonBusClub

RIP Bob Hoover https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=427791
Hoover Sermons: https://www.vwsage.com/images/vwsage/Bob%20Hoovers%20Sermons.pdf

[Bishop13]

My first car was a 58 bug. The ignition switch fried and the starter crapped out on the Golden Gate bridge late one night, Thank god for running boards, I was able to skateboard the car to a turnout where I wired tail light power to the coil and bump started the car with the headlights on. When I got home I parked on a hill and shut off the lights.
Being a broke teenager I got really good a bump starting the car: by myself, in reverse, at traffic lights, on dates, etc.
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71 westy poptop

[flyingCoyote]

The sliding door guide was rusted out on my first bus, and I was pitifully broke. When it finally flew off onto the shoulder, 2 barn-door hinges from the hardware store and a deadbolt with padlock turned it into a gigantic suicide door. Floor was pop rivets and any sheet metal that I could find on garbage day.

Moved on to a Westy, but still butt-poor:

On the side of the road in North Carolina, replaced a good portion of the exhaust system using metal from soup cans, pop rivets, and some fiberglass-looking heatproof wrap. Had that on there for almost a year.

A New Orleans Wal/K/Target provided a small door hinge when the accelerator pedal broke. Became permanant.

Rust around the windshield rubber started letting water in, but repeated applications of thick primer eventually sealed it up.

Linkage between dual dellorto carbs kept coming apart - until wrapped in a duct tape cocoon that let it flex without the ball popping out of the socket. Like this for about a year.

Engine compartment door hinges worn down, lock broken, so there was a padlock holding it on each side.

Ex-wife didn't like to wait. If the next exit was more than few miles, she'd hop up on the sink to pee and run the tap to "flush". There was no grey water tank, just a hose hanging out the bottom of the van. (repaired by divorce)

Jalousie windows had no knobs, but they had vice grips.

Ten pound propane bottle in cabinet between icebox and clothes closet, connected to a 16000 BTU hydroflame furnace by rubber tubing.

I also drove home pulling a string over my shoulder to operate the throttle. This seems so common that I'm gonna order a backup cable for my current ride.

Bus came to me with so many abandoned wires running through it that I didn't even try to detangle them. When something went, I ran a new wire right through the existing spaghetti.

Bondoed without completely removing the rust, hand sanded for a million years, and painted it bright purple from cans with no UV protector. Always parked in full sunlight in the same spot, and in a few months one side was noticably lighter, and brown shit was starting to seep up through the paint.

I was young and stupid and broke, what else can I say? I'm trying to make up for it now by treating my Vanagon with kindness.
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1985 Vanagon GL / homebrew camper (daily driver)
1974 Super Beetle (Wife's daily driver)

[WestyPop]

Whadda confession collection! It's a wonder more bay folks haven't crashed & burned.

Makes me almost wanna rip the black duct tape off my Westy's full-thickness lower front end rust porosities, and cut, patch, fill, sand, primer & paint. Almost... but heck, it's been like this for 15 years. Some new duct tape will make it look just fine, for now. Windshield rubber is replaced; rust isn't noticeably spreading, thanks to its being in SoCal, but not living at the beach anymore.

Nah, it's time to get ready for Spring camping with kids in the desert. Y'all know; important stuff.

J.R.
68 Westy

[greatlord]

Lets just say I always carrry a big roll of wire feed wleder whire on long trips, that $5 investment has taken me home more times than I will talk about sober. hell my kids don't even worry any more when I hop out and go look under the hood at a stoplight.

[mnskmobi]

My favourite on my bus were the two switches on the dash to operate the indicators! The original had failed so the POs had it replaced with the two switches by a "mechanic"! They drove it for miles like this. Oddly enough it didn't pass the required inspection before I bought it.

My next favourite is the "why use the correct CV grease when any old stuff will do?" job. Back when I first got the bus and was still enthusiastic I decided to check the condition of the CV joints. The grease in the joint in question just poured out like custard when I undid the bolts! The joint was still fine though.

[papapepe4ever]

I heard a story from someone that did some of my bodywork that a guy once replaced a portion of his broken accelerator cable with 10 strings of dental floss to get his bus home. Maybe flossing actually isn't a waste of time...
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VW Camper Bus, "Mo"

Proudly driven (by various hippies) since 1970.

[metalwoodstone]

Just got a beater in the yard right now - pastel tangeriene with " action painting" style splashes of pink and green spray foam in the rust cavities covered with masking tape. Butchered extention cord for battery to fuel pump relay, and plumbers strap holding up 1/2 muffler pipe.

Taking the motor tranny wheels and sending it off to the crusher

[iggi]

[nemobuscaptain]

[nemobuscaptain]

[fusername]

Well I am going to have to go with my old prospective bay. She had somehow burned out everything having to do with blinkers, meaning wires, switch, and relays. The still-owners fix? Two huge push switchs directly attacted to the bulbs. Wanna take a right? Push-pause-push-pause-push....

hazards? Just palm it