Rustoration on a '72 kombi

[scrivyscriv]

Got a few things done, and a bunch of stuff in the mail.

Got in all of my brake system parts - I removed the master cylinder and rear compensator to clean them up, since they were pretty rusty. All of the rust cleaned up easily, so I gave them a thin layer of POR15 clear with a POR Chassis Cote topcoat. I had been debating with myself on sandblasting and shooting them with my epoxy, and ultimately decided that I didn't really want to sandblast them and worry about getting blast media in them... That stuff gets E-V-E-R-Y where.
Still have the backing plates to sandblast and paint, and my master cylinder reservoir grommets to order - then the brakes will be done.


Same thing with the aux battery tray... Since both left and right battery trays get so much water from the air intakes, I decided to POR and Chassis Cote instead of primer and paint.

Spent a good bit of time this week sanding, blasting, and grinding to get my rear ready for paint. Stripped everything down to the bare metal and sprayed out the seams with the blaster (thanks for the idea on that btw, Skills), including the engine and cargo hatch seal areas, which were a huge hassle to clean up, but thankfully not very rusty.
Used this wheel:

It's a 4-1/2" polycarbide abrasive wheel, made for removing paint and rust. It took me about an hour and a half to strip everything that you now see in primer here, compared to a full day of sanding with the DA to get half as much work done!
;'
Sprayed two thin coats of Summit Racing epoxy primer http://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-up230, then topped that with Summit 2K primer - http://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-swsp310q-12 to tie in the epoxy and eliminate the scuffing stage.

Got both belt line trim pieces, my engine door, one of the bumper overriders, and both dash vents in epoxy; went ahead and sprayed the engine door in 2K primer but ran out of what I had mixed before I got to the other parts. I still need to replace the battery tray and lower right corner, but I hit the corner with epoxy just to keep any good metal from rusting further.

I've done as much metal work on the back as I can for right now, and what's left should hopefully be pretty thin body work with a little filler and putty. I'm holding out for some Evercoat Rage, and resisting the temptation every day to use that Bondo I have on the shelf from a few years ago

_________________
Robert in Memphis
Dünkelgrügen 1967 Java Green bug thread
Engine rebuild thread
If you're ever in the Memphis area, you are welcome to stop by for advice and help.

[dasdachshund]

[benzzz]

_________________
On my 3rd spool of Mig wire ... lol

[scrivyscriv]

My rebuilt heads just came in, and I need some advice!! I posted in the Engine & transmission forum with my questions, and I really need to get some insight here on what to do next. Check out the forum post here:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=565409
_________________
Robert in Memphis
Dünkelgrügen 1967 Java Green bug thread
Engine rebuild thread
If you're ever in the Memphis area, you are welcome to stop by for advice and help.

[scrivyscriv]

I shipped my heads back to the vendor for my money back, since they ended up being just halfway cleaned up heads with no work done on them. Thanks to that issue, I did more research into local machine shops and remembered Memphis Motor Werks does work on air cooled VWs! These are 'rebuilt,' according to the vendor I bought them from. There was even lead build-up on the valve guides!

I've been steadily sanding, sandblasting, welding and grinding on the engine compartment and rear of the bus, and spraying it with Summit Racing epoxy primer & 2K tiecoat of hi-build as I go. It's almost impossible to sandblast and prep for paint all in one big swoop, and then prime it all at once. I just don't have the time, tools, or shop area to do it all at once like a pro shop would do; so although I'd *prefer* to blast everything at once and follow up with priming everything at once, it has to happen in sections.
I wouldn't let that be a deterrent to anyone who is considering the challenges of stripping, rustoring, and priming a bus - you can do it in stages, but be super clean and follow all of the prep instructions for whatever paint you're using.

And let me just mention an aside - if you're considering restoring a bus, don't rush out and get POR-15, Rustoleum rusty metal primer and white paint to restore it like I started out doing. It's just a dumb idea, if I may be frank. Numerous posts talk about the importance of paint, primer, quality materials, and automotive-grade parts/expendables/tools, so if you've been thread searching, you should really already know that Rustoleum isn't what's best in the long run. I'll end up removing a lot of the Rustoleum and going back with sandblasting & epoxy primer - that's how it should be done! Good materials do cost more, that's a fact. But if you're planning on having a daily driver, isn't it worth spending the extra hundred here and there for quality work that won't require do-overs in the future? I say it is, and I've been working very hard to eliminate ALL rust and ALL crappy PO paint jobs, by going down to bare metal every chance I can.

Here's what I do for paint prep.

1) Use a poly abrasive wheel to remove 90% of the paint and rust in one area.
2) Sandblast the crevices, seams, and pitted areas in that area to remove any hidden rust.
3) Weld up any pin holes, and grind them with
a) a metal grinding disc, followed up with
b) a 40-60 grit flapper wheel for contouring the repair
4) Sand the entire area with my DA and some 80-grit paper to get a uniform surface.
5) Wash the area with a cleaner - MEK or lacquer thinner.
6) Spray the area down with wax & grease remover ($6, Auto Zone), then dry it off.
7) Go over the area with a tack cloth to pick up lint and dust. $4/pack of 3 at Home Depot.
8 ) Mix up your epoxy primer - most are one-to-one ratio - and spray one medium wet coat. Wait 30 minutes (in most weather) and follow with a second cross-coat of medium wet.
9) My epoxy gives me up to 4 days to top coat with primer. You need to topcoat it, called a tie-coat, to give the 2k primer a chemical bond into the epoxy. If you pass the window, you'll have to scuff the epoxy before you spray your 2K, because epoxy gets really smooth and won't let anything adhere well after its chemical reaction window is past. I topcoat anywhere from 1-1/2 hours after epoxy to three days, depending on how much time I have to work. In the photos you can see I need some more body work, and I'll be going down to bare metal at that stage. I don't have the Evercoat Rage I plan on using, or a slide hammer setup. Just hammers and dollies.

And here's a photo of my most recent brake work. I sandblasted everything except the piston and bore, which need to have a polished surface, soaked it all in concrete cleaner etcher (muriatic acid), cleaned them up, and gave everything a thin coat of epoxy primer, including the exterior concave side of the pistons, and the dust seal groove. Installed new Bus Depot seals (211698471C http://www.busdepot.com/211698471c ) and lubed the square piston packing with a very light coat of Sil-Glyde. Used my piston-orienter-plate-things as a reference to get the pistons lined up correctly in the bore, and pushed them home with hand pressure. They were very firm, but should never need more than hand pressure to install. I followed up with lubing the inside edge of the dust seal with Sil-Glyde to slow down corrosion in that area, and tapped the seal home with a light hammer.
After that, the halves go back together - didn't replace the bridge seals, they were good - and torqued to Bentley specs. The book says initial torque is 7 ft-lbs on the inner two bolts, then the outer two bolts; followed by a final torque of 24 ft-lbs, again inner to outer. I know Bentley says not to 'needlessly' break down the caliper halves, and I agree, but I think after 40 years of service, you can make a case for needing to do it. Even if it's just to get the dust seal completely seated.
The rebuild is simple. Just a note, Bus Depot's photo looks like it includes the bridge seals, but it in fact does not! The two smaller parts at the bottom of the photos are actually two new spring washers to go under the caliper mounting bolts.

I'll be spraying a thin coat of cold zinc paint over the caliper exterior surface before installation - that pot metal flash rusts like crazy the minute you pull it out of the cleaner, so I want extra assurance of no rust.
The other caliper in the photo has a crack in the bore, and I'll be trading it in for a rebuilt from O'Reilly locally. I'll actually go through the same process for the O'Reilly rebuild, re-using their seals since it hasn't been in service, but epoxy and cold zinc coating them, and reassembling with Sil-Glyde. I've had enough with trusting rebuild shops, and will be breaking down as much rebuilt work as I can when I get it, to check everything. In reason of course, I won't be tearing apart a brake booster or anything like that.

_________________
Robert in Memphis
Dünkelgrügen 1967 Java Green bug thread
Engine rebuild thread
If you're ever in the Memphis area, you are welcome to stop by for advice and help.

[scrivyscriv]

Got some rust on the rear cargo door window sill that needs some looking at!

There's another spot in the middle, no photo. I started by laying out my cut lines with masking tape, then went to town with the angle grinder. I have some metal I cut out of a super nice '74 Beetle in the junkyard, was a shame it was junked. It's complete, and looked like it had been restored at one point. Sunroof and all. Anyway.

Took me four patches to fab this repair, since I don't have a metal shrinker/stretcher to fab up one single piece. The corner is now rust free, just needs a little touchup with the sand wheel. Side note, the corner radius there is almost exactly 4-1/2". I was able to radius my new pieces out just by holding the cutting wheel to it.

Then I hit the middle spot. Tried to just weld the holes, then realized I was wasting time and wire. Honestly I was just scared of making a horrible-fitting patch that would look like crap and not match the beltline curve, but it needed a patch, so I went ahead and taped my area, cut it out, and started fabbing my repair.

I clamped the metal in my bench vise and used a pencil to help make the radius in the bend while I tapped the metal over with a hammer. It came out decently, and pretty close.
Welded in:

I went to town grinding and flap wheeling, and unfortunately started wearing through the metal as I was fixing the pinholes. I think the main reason I had problems was because I beveled both the repair patch and the surrounding metal - I was trying to clean the edge up, and in my head I was thinking of a welding technique for thick metal plate penetration. Obviously this isn't the application for beveling, and I'll be cutting my repair out and starting over.

Here it is now, waiting to be cut back out:

While I let that area cool off, I hit the remaining rust on the sill. Same story - laid out the repair with tape, cut out the rust, and started fabbing the repair. It was getting dark and I was getting frustrated so I made some heavy tacks and left it for tomorrow.

Once I wrap up the sill repairs, the last rust repair is beside the Volkswagen logo:

Simple cut-and-replace, hopefully. I've been using flux .030" for all of the sill repairs, but will probably do this patch with .023" and gas. The 20CF bottle I got was a bad choice, since gas goes super fast, even at 10-15CFM. I'm using my .030" flux any chance I get until I swap up for a bigger bottle.

As you can see, I'm not very good at metal work. I'm trying very hard to pick it up, since that's what put this bus in my price range.

Before I leave this topic, here's an in-work photo of the accelerator pedal floor repair. I thought it was ironic that this thread popped up about the same time: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4605659

PAINT:

I finished getting the cargo and seating floor and walls in paint. I do not recommend going the Rustoleum route I did. If you are going to repair your bus, do it right and go with epoxy primer. These buses are only getting older and epoxy will hold rust off for a lot longer than I think any cheap Rustoleum will.
That being said, since I had completely covered the walls and cross braces with the Rusty primer, I went ahead and hit them with Rusty white to finish. It would have been a nightmare blasting it all back off to go to epoxy. I have not sprayed the cab yet, and have elected to sandblast and epoxy it properly.
The cargo floors are rough and will need replacing in the next few years. When they come up, I'll be shooting the floors 100% in epoxy.

_________________
Robert in Memphis
Dünkelgrügen 1967 Java Green bug thread
Engine rebuild thread
If you're ever in the Memphis area, you are welcome to stop by for advice and help.

[scrivyscriv]

Just wanted to give a little update so my project doesn't fall of the face of the Samba map

My wife and welcomed a little boy into the world two months ago, and I put all of my bus project work on the back burner! I had planned on getting everything above the belt line in paint before cold weather started, but that didn't happen, so I've got a revised early spring 2014 date for getting the body in paint now.

Finally got a good used set of 1800 FI heads to overhaul locally, and a complete 75-78 heat exchanger setup, since my stock '72ish boxes need skins. You have no idea how hard it is finding parts locally in Memphis. It's a dead-end for decent parts, and the few guys you find on Craigslist selling stuff act like they are sitting on bars of 24k gold. Then they get offended and upset when you make an offer on their junk!
_________________
Robert in Memphis
Dünkelgrügen 1967 Java Green bug thread
Engine rebuild thread
If you're ever in the Memphis area, you are welcome to stop by for advice and help.

[Stuartzickefoose]

just try and be camping before the kid gets past age 3, the memories will change his life
_________________
Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]

[scrivyscriv]

Tackled most of my brakes today! I've been sitting on the parts for a while now, waiting to epoxy and paint my rear backing plates. Finally decided to go ahead and finish cleaning them up and POR & Chassis-Cote them yesterday.

Chassis-cote doesn't hold up to brake fluid, by the way. Just found that out.


Replaced all of my soft lines, both rear wheel cylinders, all four brake shoes, installed my rebuilt RH front caliper, and new RH pads WITH CORRECT PISTON SHIM PADS INSTALLED. Was super excited to find out I actually had it all. I don't have the LH caliper replacement yet, had to order it from the local FLAPS *coughcoughO'reilly'cough* today since mine has a crack in the bore.
Check this out though: The front left flexible brake line was so completely collapsed on itself internally that I can pump my brakes with no LH caliper on and NO fluid will come out of the hose!


I will say I'm irritated at the BD drum hardware kit! I could only use four springs out of it because everything else was crap. The shoe pins are way too short, the shoe pin springs are way to tall and load up too much, and the caps don't fit the stock pins. So the only thing you can use are the shoe retract springs!! What a load.

This is the BD pin

This is the (probably) stock pin.

I had to take a photo of my left brake for reference, since my right doesn't have the parking brake paraphernalia:

My left drum sounds like it's rubbing now, and doesn't spin as easily as the right. I'm going to finish bleeding and adjusting them but I might have bent the backing plate and not realized it.
_________________
Robert in Memphis
Dünkelgrügen 1967 Java Green bug thread
Engine rebuild thread
If you're ever in the Memphis area, you are welcome to stop by for advice and help.

[scrivyscriv]

It's starting to get chilly here in Memphis now so I took advantage of our warmer temps today and did some work on the transmission. I've been debating painting it or not, but decided that since I've already sand- and soda-blasted it, I might as well.
Took off the nosecone and inspected everything. Was expecting to find a broken or worn shifter ball, but it was actually in great shape; only showed some shoulder wear on one side. I rotated the ball to even out the slight wear, inspected the bearing areas and back of the cone, and checked the shifter bracket - all in good shape. I put everything back together with a gasket adhesive and finished cleaning the case.

Acid washed the case with watered-down muriatic, neutralized with baking soda and water, and finished washing with soapy water and thinner. I prepped with the grease and oil remover but it was hard to use it with all the ribs. You can forget about a tack cloth!

Taped off and primed with Summit Racing epoxy primer. Can't decide what the final color will be, but I have a few little things left to finish before it goes in anyway. I have the t/o shaft bearing and will also replace the input seal, nosecone bushing, starter bushing and pack the CV's, then put it all back in the bus.
Getting closer to a daily driver every week!!

_________________
Robert in Memphis
Dünkelgrügen 1967 Java Green bug thread
Engine rebuild thread
If you're ever in the Memphis area, you are welcome to stop by for advice and help.

[1967250s]

Had same problem with BD's brake kit, had to dig up some ancient pins, rusty keepers and springs. The springs are ok. Keep upthe good work.

[scrivyscriv]

Here's an update so nobody will make the same mistake I made.

My epoxy started peeling off, and I realized I should have used an etch primer first before putting any paint down. I ordered a can of Zinc Chromate primer and just had to strip all of the paint off the transaxle. I'll post more photos and an update once I get the zinc chromate in and start working.

Don't put any paint or primer on bare aluminum except zinc phosphate/chromate!


I would post a photo but it's a really sad photo of several hours wasted, so I'll spare the samba world.
_________________
Robert in Memphis
Dünkelgrügen 1967 Java Green bug thread
Engine rebuild thread
If you're ever in the Memphis area, you are welcome to stop by for advice and help.

[busdaddy]

[scrivyscriv]

No kidding, magnesium? I knew the shroud was mag but didn't know about the transaxle.
_________________
Robert in Memphis
Dünkelgrügen 1967 Java Green bug thread
Engine rebuild thread
If you're ever in the Memphis area, you are welcome to stop by for advice and help.

[scrivyscriv]

I will not be painting my transmission or fan shroud now after the above advice and a little research into the alloys used.

My brakes are finally all installed, adjusted and bled! I bought a reman ATE caliper for the front left from O'Reilly auto parts, grand total was about $52. I don't like the dust seal or its installation, comparing it to original and to the BD rebuild kit. It's thin, flimsy, and not nearly as well built. In fact, it's held on to the caliper body with a metal snap ring! The seal pops right off without the ring. So, boo on that.

It took a while to bleed everything, since the right drum did not adjust correctly when I initially adjusted them. Once I got the shoes adjusted, found that my right caliper upper bleeder wasn't seating very well and acted like it was letting air in. I snugged it but will be replacing it due to excess axial play!

So for the first time in years this bus has brakes at all 4 wheels! Quite excited about that. I had to move the bus up my hill driveway several months ago with a friend using his truck to push it: my front brakes were removed, and as soon as we pulled chocks with my foot on the brake pedal, the back brakes locked the tires up and I slowly skidded down the driveway into his brush guard!
I got a shallow dent in the nose that popped right out, but I learned a lot about how important a functional brake system is.

I'm done with paint, welding and bodywork until the weather warms back up, so right now the mechanicals are getting worked on. My job has been slow so I'm nowhere near as close as I had projected, but I've had a lot of time with my wife and two little boys as a result
_________________
Robert in Memphis
Dünkelgrügen 1967 Java Green bug thread
Engine rebuild thread
If you're ever in the Memphis area, you are welcome to stop by for advice and help.

[scrivyscriv]

Welp, just bought a bunch more parts. All of my little projects and side projects kept stopping due to needing some misc $2.00 or $.50 part that I could not get locally.. So I saved up all my little orders and made one big fat order tonight on the Bus Depot website.

I'll post the gratuitous "Large Box of Fresh New Parts for the Bus" photo as soon as my BD box gets here

Right now I'm still working on getting everything together to install the transmission. Decided to coat the transmission in Cor-Ban (or similar) instead of painting it, and that will happen right before it goes in the bus. Can't wait to start freeing up some floor space!

We are getting some super cold temps here in the South, so there has been zero chance of getting any sandblasting, bodywork or priming done. I want to have the engine bay and fuel tank area completely rust-free and in paint ASAP, and have a few spots left:
Ceiling is still in OG good condition blue paint, but has a lot of the insulation adhesive stuck to it. Need to remove all the glue, scuff and prep for paint, and lay down an epoxy + 2k. Same goes for fuel tank area - clean, scuff, and lay down epoxy and 2k primer.

I ran my tank out of gas, so once the temps start to warm up, I'll get a bigger tank and start welding all the parts I have. Got a complete RH rear window lip and a new WW battery tray just waiting to go in

Many pics to come in the next post!
_________________
Robert in Memphis
Dünkelgrügen 1967 Java Green bug thread
Engine rebuild thread
If you're ever in the Memphis area, you are welcome to stop by for advice and help.

[Thrasher22]

Getting stalled out by winter hurts! This year I broke down and bought a propane heater for the garage so I can slowly keep progressing with the body work. I can still only paint on the warmer days, so I check the forecast a couple times a day so I can time everything to not leave bare metal sitting out to rust.

Looks like you're making great progress though on the mechanical side, good luck!
_________________
1975 Westfalia - http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=516701

[Tcash]

Don't know if you seen this?
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1582179

[scrivyscriv]

[scrivyscriv]

Out of all the resto & repair threads I've ever read and followed, the most common thread end is when they just simply peter out, no more updates, never ordered parts.. All the owner did was pull a bunch of parts off the bus, maybe lay some POR-15 or Rustoleum down, then get discouraged and stop.

So here's my gratuitous, slowly-making-progress, never-gonna-quit status update, complete with my parts order

I pulled out the shift rod - I had already bought the 3-piece bushing kit from a vendor on the samba classifieds, and will be drilling the rod for the 3rd bushing like the VW service bulletin calls out for. Here's the new and the old:

So I'll just assume I'm looking at the typical wear pattern for that particular bushing. I damaged the rear bushing during removal, but it was similar. Lots of that rusty grease! Soapy water cut the old grease pretty fast.

Here's my order from Bus Depot:

This is what I got:
113.311.113A Elring transmission input shaft seal
001.301.200 Shift lever bushing & seal kit
21.611.817A ATE-brand master cylinder reservoir grommets
Three feet of 7mm german fuel hose for the vent lines
211.611.833D Grommet/bushing for the upper brake reservoir tube (Just one bushing, since my tube has been cut and spliced with rubber hose underneath)
211.711.197 front shift rod bushing under shifter
113.301.155 Starter bushing
823.711.477 Euromax shift coupler bushing (more on that later)
211.609.601B Brake anchor pin for e-brake parts
211.609.619 Horseshoe clips for pins
211.609.701T PEX-brand e-brake cables x2 (more on that later)
111.957.855B Speedo cable grommet
211.721.365A Clutch tube boot x 2
111.905.449A Euromax-brand pedal/spark plug wire seal x 2 (more on these)

A few other things are on backorder.. Needed a Just Kampers brake adjuster spring, two shift rod boots, and the bowden tube rubber seal. Shift rod boots are supposedly one day out, but there's not ETA on the others

So here's the deal on the Euromax shift coupler bushing: I haven't installed it yet but it looks pretty decent. It's not sloppy rubber - it's very firm, like a thick flexible plastic. I ordered just one bushing since I still had one good VW bushing left, but once it's all installed and driven a little, I can post an update on it.

The Euromax pedal seals are junky. The plastic is flimsy and thin, and there was a ton of flashing to pull of. I will end up buying the Wolfsburg West repops, since I really like the few other seals I bought from them.

The e-brake cables I'm iffy on. I'll be busy with work for the next few weeks but when I get a little time I'm going to remove one of the cables from on the bus and do some photos side-by-side. The repops looked flimsy, and they cracked a collar at one end during manufacture:

The swaged collar is cracked. I don't think it will hurt, but it's evidence of sloppy work and careless QC. If the actual cable swages were improperly manufactured, this cable would already be boxed back up for return and replacement, but I can live with it as is. Shoot, they were only $9 and some change, so I can't be that upset!

Going to get my Co2/Argon tank in the next several weeks and will hopefully get back to actual rustoration metalwork soon!
_________________
Robert in Memphis
Dünkelgrügen 1967 Java Green bug thread
Engine rebuild thread
If you're ever in the Memphis area, you are welcome to stop by for advice and help.