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

[thewalrus]

Took the inside panels off this summer and found that the previous owner had installed....old clothing for a insulation! Needless to say the mice thought it was a great idea! Found Four pairs of pants, three sweaters, and tons of missalaneous tiems! Took the front kick panels off only to find an intire dining room table cloth whick the mice had also found! VERY messy and VERY grose!
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'73 Transporter 1.7L Dual Carb

[busworks]

LOL!!!

Back in my early days, broke a t-cable on my single cab. Buddy of mine sat in the rear of the bed and worked the throttle(dual kadrons) through the hole PO cut in the bed to fit a Holley Bugspray. Drove approximately 5 miles home through late night Phoenix traffic. What a blast!!


Another time had rocker shaft come loose on a 40 horse in my 65 bug. Popped the v/c, removed the pushrods on that cylinder and closed it up. Drove 40 plus miles home on the freeway. Still kept up with traffic. Unfortunately rubbed two holes through the v/c from the rocker arms flopping about and of course had to pull the motor to fix the head.

[tds3pete]

We fried our battery on our 58 splittie at night on I-90 in Montana in 1970.

Hopped out into a mosquito storm, tied down the points on the voltage regulator relay to "always charge", grabbed the handcrank to start it and took off.....about 30 bites later.

We put a lit coleman lantern on the dash to "see" and be seen, since the lights were so dim.

Made into a town and got a new battery and regulator the next morning and drove another 9,000 miles clockwise aroung the US.

The 36 hp were so simple, almost anything short of complete destruction would be jury rigged....it was great.
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'58 Westy camper-come and gone
'73 Westy-bought new in Holland,now gone
'86 Syncro weekender-come and gone
'79 Westy...Oscar
'95 Eurovan Camper/5 spd...Marsha Mellow

[86syncro]

Worst repair job was actually done on my 72' Squareback.

I know its not that uncommon, but if you put a single weber progressive on one it has to go through the rear engine hatch. Most have a nice riveted cover that seals out heat/fumes. Mine had a DELUXE metal pail with no gasket.

Man that thing would wail when I'd step on it!

[slow_and_the_curious]

My PO posts here sometimes so i hope he is listening...

The usual thing where everywhere there was rust, it was reshaped with bondo and paint olive green with what looked like paint rollers. When painted, PO nicely used masking tape to protect the window rubber and only over sprayed the windows.....

6x6 Hole cut to access sender unit and then patched with a few pounds of putty...

Front kick panels removed and blue and red spray paint was applied....all over wires too....dont get me started on the wiring condition.

Ignition switch fried and after trying to pry it out violently, started hotwiring it daily with what looks like the cigarette lighter wiring. I still hotwire it untill the new switch comes in. PO ordered and gave me a new ignition switch.....for an early splitty.

Front drivers seat has no seat frame to attach to rail so it just sits there unattached.

Middle seat removed and floor holes filled in with amazingly hard putty gunk.

3 regular passenger tires and only 1 proper tire....the spare

I could keep going but you get the idea......


Gotta love that PO ingenuity....

[moxnix]

My 70 westy has a really neat hole in the floor under the jumpseat behind the driver, big enough to put my head through. Looks like it was bashed out with an axe, with the edges all curled down...
Have never figured out what it was for. When I pulled the interior out and found it, I also found a bunch of live 38 rounds under the linoleum...
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Ritterlich im Kriege, wachsam für den Frieden

[aircooledguy]

I bought this . . .

and found this.

Perfect.
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'68 Roadrunner Double Door Camper
'55 Porsche Spyder replica by Beck

[EZ Gruv]

[Joey]

[sped372]

That was not the picture I wanted to start my day off with... I think I feel sick to my stomach.
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1971 Karmann Ghia - 1600 DP
1984 Westfalia - 1.9 WBX

[nemobuscaptain]

Maybe he thought the bond was an attempt to improve aerodynamics???
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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

[WestyPop]

Not on a dub, but on Ford wagon, a weld holding up the auxiliary fuel tank broke & dropped one side of the tank to the ground, while driving around through the bison enclosure at Banff N.P. Driver behind saw spark shower & honked/waved us down. Alerted several of the bison also! They moved toward us, but seemed more interested than agressive.

The shade-tree fix: holes were punched with Phillips screwdriver through deck & 9mm nylon rope held up the tank until we could get back to town for metal to repair. Eeeh-ha! Holds over 46 gallons of gasoline! Coulda been way ugly! Hillbilly dumb luck comes through again.

J.R.
68 Westy
(+ others)

[aircooledguy]

[spyder]

My boss used to guide tours in the back-country of Canyonlands National Park in Split-screen Deluxe Micros. The rotor broke in half one day out on the White Rim trail. A lady on the tour happen to have some finger nail polish and some hair ties which he glued and bound the rotor back together with. He not only made it back to town, but forgot about it until the next day when he was out on another tour. He told his passengers about the problem and hoped they'd make it back ok. The passengers thought he was lying until the end of the trip when he gave it to one of them as a souvenier.

On another trip, the fuel pump broke. He punched a hole in the gas cap and put a valve stem from an old tire in it. By pressurizing the tank with a bike-pump every few miles, he was able to finish the tour. His name is Lin Ottinger

[TeamSpatula]

[aircooledguy]

[Chubber]

Unfortunately, the DPO on most of my bus hacks was my Dad, so I can't go too hard on him.

1) My front floor boards are his-n-hers matching Brim coffee cans. You can still read the paint from the can. Do they even make that coffee any more?

2) My dad lost the oil strainer cover during a rebuild. Instead of mail ordering one or getting one from the shop, he made one out of a scrap of aluminum from an old radio body.

3) I had two front tierod boots that got torn up on some tall grass so dear old Dad tore them off, slathered them with grease and wrapped them in pantyhose, plastic and tape. For about a year.

4) On another bus we ultimately sold he cut the biggest dash board hole you have ever seen to install an 8 track player from an old Chevy. It must have been 6 inches tall and 10 inches wide. Gone was the ashtray and everything to the right of it. But at least we could listen to "Best of Bread" out of the mono speaker under the dash!
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Chubber
'71 Deluxe 7 Passenger Bus (Resto thread)
'72 Fastback
'74 Super Beetle Convertible (Sold)

[atmellovw]

I would like to see the bicycle pump/gas tank repair on Mythbusters!
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1972 Westy ("Bubbles") - Pastel White - 1700(1974 MT) - Dual Solex

[Matt Wilson]

a friend bought a 1967 rusted beetle and upun exhuming the carpet, we found that the only thing that was blocking a huge hole in the floor pan was a 'one way' sign with the corner cut off.
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1972 Standard Beetle
1969 Baja Beetle

[Mike Walters]

Ok,
Not a vw but hideous just the same.
A friend purchased a 57 ford pickup.
Cab corners, kick panels and just about everything else in the door jamb areas were rotted beyond belief.
Being the estute body man that he was, he built forms out of 2x4's and poured concrete in to fill all the voids.