Stranded on the highway right now and need help - solved

[greenbus pilot]

I would certainly try welding, or brazing if they are some kind of cast steel.
What do you have to lose by trying? I would do it right in situ, making sure it stays straight, then remove and finish welding off the Bus. Its a lot of work, but you have nothing to lose by trying, and of course someone will pay you for your time and labor, right?
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Sent from a white van down the street.

[Wildthings]

Get them to buy you a new heat exchanger and forget the welding. That is why they are licensed, bonded, and insured.

[jtauxe]

Is the heat exchanger damage due to the towing guy? If so, they must buy you a new heat exchanger. What did he do, wrap a chain around it?
_________________
John
"Travelling in a fried-out Kombi, on a hippie trail, head full of zombie..." - Colin Hay and Ron Strykert
http://vw.tauxe.net
1969 Transporter, 1971 Westfalia, 1976, 1977, 1976, 1977, 1971, 1973, 1977 Westfalias,
1979 Champagne Sunroof, 1974 Westfalia Automatic, 1979 Transporter, 1972 Sportsmobile, 1973 Transporter Wild Westerner, 1974 Westfalia parts bus, 1975 Mexican single cab *FOR SALE*, 1978 Irish 4-door double cab RHD

[tootype2crazy]

Well the tow truck people are coming by to look at it now. Hopefully they will be nice about it and work with me. I do just want to get a different exchanger, not a new one though. Those Dansk jobs are totally inferior to the VW original. I bought these exchangers from vw76westy aka raul. I wonder if he still has some.

As far as I can tell this is what happened. The truck was a flat bed. He hooked the chain up to the front tow ring , which is big and strong, and he hooked up a chain to the teeny weeny tow ring on the rear bumper, whereas he should of attached the chain to the torsion tubes or something like that. As we were going around an on-ramp, we could feel a big shift in the truck. We looked back and the bus was rolling toward the front of the truck. What happened was the rear bumper spot was too weak and it pulled the bumper off on the drivers side. The bus stopped short of running into the truck because the bumper was clinging on to the passenger side. When the bumper pulled away from the bus, the passenger side curved around and put a big dent in the battery tray area behind the rear wheel. Then the bus started rolling back, and as it was rolling back, the bumper must have gotten caught up on the exhaust and the weight of the vehicle must have been pressing down on the exhaust and it broke.

The tow company's mechanic just came by and looked at it and they are not willing to admit fault on account of my bus being rusty where he hooked up the bumper. They say they were just hooking it up on the tow hook and couldn't anticipate the problem. I say the guy should have been more thorough since he was dealing with an older vehicle. The mechanic is a welder and he was willing to try welding it for me. Why must life suck so very, very much?
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air-cooled or nothing for me
1978 Sunroof Deluxe Bus (daily driver)
1978 Transporter (mom's, making into a camper)
1970 Single Cab 2.1 turbo/EFI 6 Rib, 78 front beam, vanagon backing plates on rear (project)
2001 GTI VR6 (wife's)

[Wildthings]

[Daverham]

I just brazed a cracked F-pipe (late T4 exhaust manifold). That was a couple weeks ago on a daily driver. So far so good.

I don't believe it's steel, unless it's some REALLY high nickle stainless or something as Busdaddy has suggested. Magnet won't stick. Brazing has worked perfectly so far. I have no idea how long it will hold up. Maybe forever. Maybe another month. Either way, you'll have to remove the heat exchanger because you have to grind the seam perfectly clean for the brass to stick.

Scroll to bottom:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=381102&start=0

[tootype2crazy]

If i remove it i am extremely concerned it will get out of alignment. Not sure what to do here. Clearly the tow guys will not pay for another.
_________________
air-cooled or nothing for me
1978 Sunroof Deluxe Bus (daily driver)
1978 Transporter (mom's, making into a camper)
1970 Single Cab 2.1 turbo/EFI 6 Rib, 78 front beam, vanagon backing plates on rear (project)
2001 GTI VR6 (wife's)

[Wildthings]

[Daverham]

If alignment is your concern, then clean and braze the bottom half - which is accessible as it sits - enough to hold it together and properly aligned. Then remove it and finish the rest of the repair on your bench.

[Desertbusman]

[tootype2crazy]

I think brazing would work. The heat exchanger part is still hanging in there and really firm at that. This shows that those pipes going in to the head don't really have too much to do with holding up the heat exchanger when it is installed correctly with the proper brackets and such.
_________________
air-cooled or nothing for me
1978 Sunroof Deluxe Bus (daily driver)
1978 Transporter (mom's, making into a camper)
1970 Single Cab 2.1 turbo/EFI 6 Rib, 78 front beam, vanagon backing plates on rear (project)
2001 GTI VR6 (wife's)

[tootype2crazy]

[tootype2crazy]

Well I fixed them by brazing:

I went ahead and took off the other one too and now they are off to the powder coater's. The VHT paint did not hold up at all over the 7 months. I will post pics of that when they are done. Thanks everyone for your help and moral support. A lot of really bad things have been happening to me lately and this one just made made me crack. No pun intended.
_________________
air-cooled or nothing for me
1978 Sunroof Deluxe Bus (daily driver)
1978 Transporter (mom's, making into a camper)
1970 Single Cab 2.1 turbo/EFI 6 Rib, 78 front beam, vanagon backing plates on rear (project)
2001 GTI VR6 (wife's)

[Jockomo]

Well I see you've already fixed it, good job.

Now get their insurance company on the line and send them the bill.
Don't let them get away with that.

As Wildthings said, that's why they are insured, licensed and bonded. Perhaps they shouldn't be.
_________________
'75 Westy with '78 2.0L engine.