8k+ miles of bussing and smiles - now with more of each!

[wcfvw69]

[secretsubmariner]

[SamboSamba22]

What a read, safe travels Robbie.
Though from the sum of it, I’d feel assured that you are quite an experienced bus owner and traveler of the scenic roads. Capture the adventure, we enjoy to ride the journey with you, man!
Sam
_________________
The Bus Barn Ltd. Co.

Oct. ’67 Double Cab (’68 Crew Cab)
[url=http://www.vw-mplate.com/mplate-44412.png]Click to view image[/URL]
March '69 Delivery (Panel Bus)
[url=http://www.vw-mplate.com/mplate-44414.png]Click to view image[/URL]

[Tom Powell]

[wcfvw69]

[airschooled]

Brian and I had a sweet 3rd of July.

It included a jump in his single cab, a sloooow climb up in Buddy, and a few jeeps backing down. One other bus made it up to watch the fireworks, so we officially had a "show."

Oh, and Brian hit the jump so hard the throttle cable came out of the Butty's Bits…

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming…
Robbie
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[secretsubmariner]

Excellent! No youtube vid of the jump?
_________________
-Tony
ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ
1978 Champagne Edition Bus FI
1970 Auto Fastback FI

[sdalcher]

Awesome thread! Thanks for sharing

[airschooled]

Uhhh, where was I?

Oh yeah, I drove around the country in another thread. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Last week, "The Bus and Us," "Big Emma," and I all hit the beach together. There was much surfing, and only a little wrenching. Here, we see three of the hardest-working Volkswagens on the planet all parked together. Between us, we could have driven around the earth two and a half times 2016. And did I mention they're amazing people?

Robbie

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[airschooled]

Kicking up some thread cobwebs here, after two or three small road trips…

This weekend was Buses By the Bridge in Lake Havasu, Arizona. I started the weekend with a bit of touch-up painting. Not that you can see it here, but the paint just barely cured in time for the rain. (11pm, 15 second exposure!)

The next morning brought weather, and lots of it.

Buddy got us to a casino parking structure where I was able to bang out an oil change, some interior paint touch up, and last minute ukulele practice…

I've had this awful yellow strip on my bus since the day I bought it, from the cheap shit door seals it came with. Finally found a touch up/wet-sand regimen that worked without going too deep! One side, before, since I didn't have time for both:

Other side, after!

I stopped by KentPS' house to spot his right rear glass while he pulled the string… Even had a change to custom-mix some paint to match… What did we use, Farm Implement Orange and School Bus Yellow, correct? Neither one of them were particularly close on their own, but we did ok.

We woke up about six hours too early, and cara-bussed to Buses By the Bridge, which was only acceptable once I saw the sun come up.

My morning grumpiness was subsided by this point, thanks to some caffeine and good views:

Right around the state line, my odometer let out a howl every time the tenths digit passed the 3. Of course I had to disconnect the cluster while the nice Arizona gas pumps hold themselves in place! Got it out as the pump clicked off and I coasted into a parking spot. (No live electronics flailing about, please!)

The cara-bus we were to meet up with was a few minutes out, so that gave me time to properly clean the inside of the cluster glass. (Highly recommended!)

We met up with Bill, Scott, Jim, Lala, and a few others whose names I promptly forgot, relearned, and have now forgotten…

Even had a guest visit from dstimm (did I spell that correctly?) who will be in his freshly painted Sage Green Westy next year!

CarlosZ showed up with his sweet dual-gas-tank '72 and happy new engine. His kids were so independent it gave me great hope for the future bus-owning generation.

Gave out some new business cards…

And wrapped it up with a 320 mile drive home to catch the lunar eclipse.

See you on the road!
Robbie
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[airschooled]

We've got 83,992 miles on these heads, bearings, pistons, cylinders, rods, valves, valve guides(!), crankcase halves, and crankshaft. What a friendly power plant this has been.

It's been a good run. I can't say I expected it to last this long. Compression is all around 95psi, oil pressure is better than I need, and the 4,600 RPM I hit in third gear yesterday sounded like well-tuned music. But we're done, for now.

There is a protesting in the bearings that makes the engine less than perfect sounding under full throttle. It will need to be replaced before my Summer Tour, so what better time than now; the oil leaks are starting! Wait, those are from the transaxle output flanges…

It's a shame how this thing was just pushing me 70mph down The Five today, how the rocker areas look oh-so-beautiful, and how small a Type 1 engine is when you really look at it…

1-2 side…

3-4 side…

Look how clean those heads are! For sale; make an offer; GoFundMe; need an engine? Can you believe I built this thing before I knew that head studs require special 15mm nuts and washers? Can you believe I disassembled it in 2016 and learned about those nuts not one week later? We've got 16 Ace Hardware specials on there. I can't say I've encountered any problems with the heads.… No evidence of combustion leaks, valves have moved less than 1hr in the last two laps of the country.

That was it for the day…

Two and a half days, I think it should take to get the new power plant swapped in, if it's just like last time on Election Day 2016…

Its last drive today was up Coast Highway/101 for about an hour. Lovely ending to a lovely engine.

See you on the road,
Robbie
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[Stuartzickefoose]

Your engine bay sure is dirty...

[airschooled]

[Abscate]

Do you sell it or keep it as a backup?

Maybe position it in Chicago as a tour depot resupply?

Hey. those are Type 3 heads, arent they?
_________________
.ssS!

[71whitewesty]

Good run on that baby! I’ll be curious to see the dissection and debriefing on the findings. That next poor engine doesn’t know what’s coming... lol!
_________________
71 Westy 1600 DP, all stock Bus 1
1970's Snow Trac 1600 SP (sold 12/2016)
1968 Tucker sno cat, sold 2021
1969 Tucker Sno cat 542
2017 VW Alltrac
71 tin top stock 1600 DP (project but runs)
Twin 71 White Westy, Bus 2, that I pulled from a 15 year slumber in a dry eastern WA field in 2015.
1966 Sundial Camper "Boomer"

[airschooled]

Steve that's not a bad idea; keep it in Urbana maybe?

It runs like every budget rebuild now. There was no reason to remove it, other than it's not up to my standards anymore. I'd like to sell as a long block to recoup some of the cost of the new engine. Asking price won't be much at all, as it's high milage and as a few asterisks on the spec sheet, and I don't think the market for single ports is very high yet.

Maybe I'll keep it around here in case any travelers end up stranded? Though Gary's builder cranked out a stock engine overnight (!) last time I assisted with one of those situations… Or, at the milage my mom drivers her bug, she'll need an engine by 2032…

See you on the road,
Robbie
_________________
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[Abscate]

I can find a home in NY of course. IL is more central of course.

I should go see the Emma's next visit to IUC.

Be safe out there!
_________________
.ssS!

[airschooled]

I was able to snag a few uninterrupted hours in the garage just as it started to rain… Tin cleaning showed that the powder coat from 2013 is excellent, and a rinse with hot water and dawn dish soap, followed by an air dry and coat of wax should be good for another half decade.

I pulled the rockers off the old engine for inspection and cleaning. Notice the cross-hatch of the scotch-brite pad before final solvent wash:

Valve train geometry wants a .050 shim," but I have a set of .060" shims, so we're going with them. I can not afford to be without a car for another week, and geometry is easy to change once the engine is installed anyway.

I forget how many hours of raw manual labor go into a project like this… I'm so used to barking orders at folks like "clean your tin!" or "restore these rockers," that I feel like I've lost touch with the amount of work that goes into doing a project properly like this… Last time I had the engine out was Colorado 2016, and there was NO time for cleaning, restoring, or resealing. Now I'm totally behind schedule because I don't expect the engine to be out again for a long time…

All tucked away for the night:

See you on the road, SOON!
Robbie
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Learn how your vintage VW works. And why it doesn't!
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[airschooled]

Alright we're just going to keep this thread rolling!

After doing 350 miles on the new engine, I decided it needed a road trip. Off to Phoenix we go, for a bachelor party. Ryan is a best friend from middle school and went on the Lost Coast Camping Trip with me in 2013.

(He slept on the floor like a champion back then, so he got shotgun privileges this trip!)

I made the drive out at sunset and took this picture where I took the first picture of my mom's bug on Interstate 10.

Camped here for the night, and woke up at dawn…

For a work appointment in Scottsdale with a wonderfully preserved restoration from the '80s.

Others cars in the collection had such lovely tended-to details in one spot…

…While completely missing the mark in others…

Camped here for the night:

And took a significantly worse route out:

That's not scraping, that's shoveled dirt by with my wide-five wheel adapter because I swapped my camping cabinet for a year-correct middle seat and didn't pack my shovel…

The light was changing dramatically all day, and we spent a good portion of the day clogging up Loop 303 just gawking at the cacti.

The next day was an impromptu stop at the only place in the world I can find my upholstery… Tempe Sales!

What it lacks in shininess, it makes up for in every other way. Great people, selection, and prices for fabrics and doodads. The new seats will be easier to clean and not have beading between colors.

Brakes pulling to the left? Fluid level lower that last week? We've got 'yer brake cylinder rebuilds right here…

As it turns out, Larry, who most definitely did not own the place, didn't like me working at "[his] abandoned bank this is private property you know" and insisted that I be gone.

"Sorry Larry, see this brake fluid here? It means I won't be out of here for at least ten minutes."

No more than one hour later, I had returned triumphantly from the local hardware store with some clear tubing to bleed the brakes. Ten minutes after that, I had washed up, and Larry invited me to stay longer and chat.

So I stayed and listened to him talk at me while I sanded and painted the wheel bearing cap.

Picked up the first round of dudes at the airport and drove straight to our first game. (Dodgers lost.)

Picked up the rest of the seven, and did another game the next day. (Dodgers lost.)

The bus did fine, nobody bitched more than necessary about the lack of AC, and fun was had by all. The drive home seemed oddly quiet, but that's expected when I can finally turn my classical music back on the radio and stop whenever I want. I have a new appreciation for this car just doing as it's told after fighting me last month with the engine swap.

See you on the road,
Robbie
_________________
Learn how your vintage VW works. And why it doesn't!
One-on-one tech help for your Volkswagen:
www.airschooled.com

[airschooled]

In 2013 I took my best friend from middle school on the Lost Coast Camping Trip. It was the week he started dating his future wife.

Yesterday I drove him to their wedding.

It doesn't matter what oil you use. What matters are drives like these.
Robbie
_________________
Learn how your vintage VW works. And why it doesn't!
One-on-one tech help for your Volkswagen:
www.airschooled.com