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

[jim928]

In my first vw, a 68 bug, I had a light switch for the coil and a doorbell for the starter, a guitar string to patch the accelerator cable, and a pair of vise grips for a window crank and a trunk pull.

[stupidsongs2]

After a night of heavy drinking (I was moving my car so a sober friend could get to his and drive us around) I had the accelerator cable of my XJ6 short out on the battery, starting a small electrical fire and melting the plastic coating inside the cable.

So we put out the fire only to find that the cable won’t move at all. The solution? A piece of extension cord tried to end of the cable and then threaded through the moon roof.

It worked great; I drove it for a week like that till the new cable came in the mail.

[TRN9]

The worst home repair to a vw bus was done by myself. I installed a GEX Motor!!!!

[1967250s]

HAHAHAHAHA! I have to restart this thread, so funny. I think everyone has a throttle cable story.Brazilian clutch cable broke, now u-clamped to old threaded end, carry extra cables of everything now. My 72 Bus has had the whole gamut. repairs in the middle of the night, in the snow and rain. I made one trip to the Grand Canyon, no heat, 1200 miles, not starting with the key, had to crawl under and cross the terminals on the starter, then the battery died! Then it started leaking oil from the main seal! REpairs finally at end of the trip in the parking lot, thanks to lots of space I always carry a floor jack( and lots of tools). Past year has had the windshield busted at a bar, luckily had a spare but could not get a seal so it's taped in with heavy metal foil tape. Doesn't leak anymore! And of course, wood under the floor and battery, easy to replace! No concrete, though, that was great. And the front left chassis so rusted I had to put angle iron in so I had a clutch and steering, now it's at the shop all being replaced, can't let that happen anymore--Peace!

[old dirty]

I love reading these kinds of "whatever keeps it moving along" stories. I don't have any really good ones,... except:

Fiberglassed a rocker panel on a K5 Blazer, filled holes with insulation foam and bondo'd over them, cranked the starter with my dune buggy in gear to get it off the road so I could clean the points with a matchbook, installed a replacement floorpan with rivets and high strength marine adhesive because I didn't have a welder, plugged a tire with a larger screw than had punctured it that I slathered with the same marine adhesive, painted over rust, painted over dirt, held an aftermarket radio in place with a piece of rubber hose and duct tape (in a friend's car and she would have never known because it was behind the dash trim), created a 1.5 inch stack of washers to use the only too-long bolt I could find, epoxied stolen road sign parts over holes to stop leaks, punched holes through floorboards with a nail to let water drain out when previously mentioned road signs were ineffective, secured sliding seat tracks with coat hangers, and used a beer can to fix a clutch cable.

I hope all my confessions resurrect this thread, I can't wait for more inspiration.

Disclaimer: for each transgression listed above, hundreds of legitimate, by-the-book repairs have been performed to bicycles, vehicles, and boats for several years.

[greenbus pilot]

Well, I had just brought home my first Bus, a '73. It had two different rear intake vents on it(the original '73 on one side and an older, smaller one on the other side. I guess the "body shop" that fixed it had no better ideas, and no proper panel to harvest. Looked pretty dumb if you saw both sides. But , while busting out the inevitable rotten rocker panel to assess damage, it was stuffed full of seeds of some kind( no, not that kind....) to hold its shape while the mud dried. Lots of work to fix that. Also, it being a '73, of course, someone stuck a lowly ( and tired) type 1 engine in it, but I knew that had to go as soon as i got it home.
Thats my story and I'm sticking to it.
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Sent from a white van down the street.

[drumming123]

a friend wanted to shave his door handles off of his bug, so being drunk, we welded coffee can clippings into the handle grooves, then lathered it up with caulking as smooth as we find in the garage, the $1 can from walmart. looked good from 10 feet away. we were done in less than half an hour

[WestyPop]

For temporary band-aid treatment of rust holes through front floor of a bay: wire brush top & bottom, cover both sides with duct tape, press firmly, spray rubberized undercoating on the bottom, and just put the rubber mat back down on top! It's totally amazing (and embarrassing) how long this even-lower-than-ghetto approach will last!

Out to do a second & final inspection of a "near-perfect 1971 d.c." I was buying for a friend, I went during the day. Oops... inpection of i.d. plates said it was a 1968 model, and the front end that had looked quite reasonable at night was found to be 30% rusted out, but stuffed with newspaper backed by sanded-down spray-foam, then skim-coated with body filler before painting. The seller was as amazed as I was, because he'd bought it that way and merely concentrated on quickly building a nice DP 1776 motor for it, never really investigating the body or cosmetics of this newly-painted bay. He settled for less than half of what he'd been asking... fair enough. It eventually got all the front end cancer replaced with good metal; OTOH it still runs great to this day!

non-Vdub Oops: A college friend had sent his 50s Ford coupe to a buddy who did bodywork & painting at home, to have the hood & deck shaved, all bodywork done right (steel & lead), and a metallic charcoal paint job applied. It came back looking very good, but about a year later, when my friend nailed a pothole in the road, from out of the hood where the large factory chrome ornament had previously been mounted, dropped a 3-inch thick blob of hardened bondo. He hadn't even checked the underside of the hood before that revelation!
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Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
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J.R.
68 Westy
(+ others)

[Blaubus]

[peaceful warrior]

[TheRustySuper]

Before I knew anything about my Beetle, my dad convinced me that it was a good idea to spray rust converter in my rusty headlight buckets, and then slather it with bondo I'm not really concerned, they were rusted out to begin with...as is the rest of the car.

Once again, before I knew much about my car, I decided to patch all rust holes with some galvanized sheet metal, and epoxy sealer. I got rid of all of it recently, except for the spots around the battery...since I don't want water getting near there.
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My '72 Super

[peaceful warrior]

[78Kombi]

[TheRustySuper]

[78Kombi]

my buddy had a 77 with the rocker panels full of holes, so we stuffed them with newspaper. got some flashing and roofing tar to cover the holes, then spay can over it..
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78 hightop 2.0 FI

[peaceful warrior]

[drumming123]

I love this thread, makes me chuckle.

Anyway, down at my local shop today, there was a bus today that had a front bumper made from pressure treated 4"x4"s, and even had the bumper blades made from wood, with astro-turf stapled to replace the original blade rubber.. Ingenious

[VWNica]

Got a new carb and went to put it on. 34 PICT3 for my dual port 1600. Found out that it wouldn't fit because the PO had cut the plate off(top thing where the carb bolts on) and then welded a smaller one on to fit a smaller carb.

Found a bunch of epoxi? inside the intake. I guess to prevent leaks?

[HelmutofBuffalo]

A picture says it all, not my bus the purple one in the background!

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1979 Type I Convertible

[Stuartzickefoose]

push button starter, with the button installed just above the upper seat belt mount screw on the driver side, with wiring draping down the length of the bus, and the switch grounded to the outside of the base of the steering coloum....


why not just mount it in the dash????
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Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]