1973 Bay Window Rescue - Long term project

[AirKooledGarage]

Quick back story, played with VW's as a kid in the 80's, now with kids of my own I seem to be drawn back into the realm of the air cooled.

Since my first couple of VW's I've built a handful of cars and a lot of motorcycles. Bought this bus last year, started it and got side tracked (I'll explain later). Now back at it, ready to share and naturally looking for guidance.

Scored a 1973 Bay Window for $1000 a few cities over. Upside? Minimal rust and straight body. Downside? No motor, no trans and virtually no interior.

Project indeed.

Added bonus is my 10 Y/O son has glommed onto the project and see's it as his first vehicle. Not sure I see that, but building with your kids is too cool an opportunity to pass up.

Kid seems stoked on the purchase.

Found a towing company that would flatbed it to me for $75

It came with a bunch of extra crap.

Interior is barren but relatively rust free. Did some test sanding and so far it's all surface rust.

Knowing I'd face the wrath of an educated forum, first purchase was this.

Kid is working on some concept drawings.

[Red Fau Veh]

It's a good one, I like the orange 73's and that pin striping is interesting. You can do a m-plate search to decipher the code on the plate behind the drivers seat.
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1971 Deluxe Sunroof Bay 1905 stroker, dual idf40's, 74mm Scat forged crank, engle 110 cam. CB 044 heads, AutoCraft rockers, chromoly push rods
1973 Orange transporter stock type 4 with dual 40 Dellortos and Empi single quiet pack
1969 Adventurewagen blue whale Gene Berg 1776 built by Dave Kawell dual 36 DRLA's, Vintage Speed exhaust, Bosch 019 screamer
1961 Swivel Seat camper, L345 grey

[AirKooledGarage]

In spite of the rough shape and hard work ahead, kid seems pretty stoked to be a part of this build.

For now it has to live on the side yard as there are two bike builds ahead of it. It has one exploded tire so the kid scoured CL and found us a set of roll-around wheels for $25. He then charmed the guy into filling the bed of my Tacoma with parts. I now have 12 rims, 8 tires, mats, various electrical parts and a new friend.

He decided the wheels needed paint and scrubbed and rattle canned each one.

End result is pretty clean.

[busdaddy]

Welcome!
I'm digging those stripes! It's also cool that Junior is stoked and participating, looks like a great project in many ways!
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[BusJunky]

Very good father son project!! Those pin stripes are sweet for sure!! Im digging it as is!! Redo your brakes get it running and go camping!!
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[AirKooledGarage]

Skip ahead about thirty days and we're now into the discovery phase of bus ownership. It had only minor rust and according to the M plate was a California vehicle. No motor and trans likely meant one or the other failed, were pulled and that's where things went sideways. That story usually ends with bus in field slowly returning to nature. Difference here, is the field appears to be made of some sort of black tar sand and although it permeates the rig, it seems to have stymied the inevitable oxidization.

Downside of a dry California field would be the blazing hot California sun and the end result of that was disappearing window rubber, completely rotted interior and everything plastic having turned to chalk.

Typical windshield frame rust was mostly surface

Dash was pretty rough

Yeh, that's a 2x4 holding up the radio

Interior consisted of two front seats that look like this and little else.

Knowing that in the near future I'd have to roll the bus off the side yard across a sloped driveway and into the garage, brakes would be a priority starting point.

Some day I'll find the guy that did this.

Finally found some rust. Fairly minor and as I understand typical. Should not be a show stopper.

[AirKooledGarage]

Apologize for the photobomb, hoping to get the build to date posted by tonight.

After pouring over TheSamba and renewing my long lost subscription to Hot VW's we have a plan. Simple interior, factory tan with only the rear bench, an industrial green (ie: vintage Bridgeport mill or modern Fiat), blacked out Fuchs and as much drop as I can muster without cutting major parts off.

Brakes seemed like a good jumping off point and thanks to this forum I entered the project with a fair bit of understanding of the process. Decided on new everything (including braided steel lines). Only piece left is the stock booster and it along with the wheel bearing and various other front end linkage will get binned once the beam gets replaced.

Couple of different sources and we'd collected enough parts to get started.

This does not tell the story very well, it took several big hammers and a fire wrench to get the drum off. GRRRRRRR

Front went together fairly well.

Here's where things got wonky. Brazilian master had smaller register (into the booster) than OEM. Although most said it works just fine, I suspect there is a reasons for a right fitting register. Also noticed the lower reservoir has a different input than the factory unit. Sigh...

Living close to Wolfsburg West has its advantages and after emptying my wallet for a German made version I was sorted out.

Also picked up all my window rubber while I was there.

[AirKooledGarage]

OK, getting close to caught up to real time.

Knowing body and paint would be last and windows come in and out fairly easily the next project would be to fit up all new rubber and deal with any corrosion around the sills.

First discovery is the bus was originally red and the passenger door and slider were not. Have not found any gross bondo or dicey repairs, but it clearly has some history.

Cleaned up and rattle canned the side and rear frame with little drama. almost no rust.

Always wanted to try this stuff. Glad I did, it worked great and assuming it performs as advertised, the windshield frame should remain rust free for the duration of my lifetime.

Four coats of primer and I'm back in business.

Although they get good reviews in photos, the stripes are pretty gross in person. Rear quarter panel was rough and has a small rust hole so it served as a our test bed for bodywork. Boy was not as stoked with wet sanding as I had hoped.


Windows back in and bus is largely sealed up. We tarped it during the rare SoCal rain, but a garden hose test seemed to prove out our work.

[sonofamitch]

What a solid project. It looks great and your son seems to be digging it as well. It would be pretty gnarly if you let him roll that thing to high school

[westcoastmarek]

Great work on the bus... I say put that sketch your son did on a t-shirt.
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1979 Westy Auto
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sold...
1979 VW bus, 2L FI, now with a rivi top
1971 7 pass. deluxe
1974 Beetle

[AirKooledGarage]

Although the garage was occupied with what turned out to be three separate bike builds we never stopped hunting for parts.

This one wrapped first.

Then this one

And then a call from Yamaha inspired this build

While they were in play we scoured CL for a motor and trans.

Found a complete early Vanagon motor and trans for pennies so grabbed it in the hopes of using it as a core.

That dream died pretty quick, but I was able to sell the six rib trans for more than I bought the entire package for so at least I was not out any cash.

Kid found an ad on Samba for a 73 motor and trans for $500. Reasonable deal if nothing else for all the sheet metal and correct peripherals. Here's what we found. Not great, but pretty cheap and the correct year.

We stripped it and readied for rebuild. Knowing I was not going to do the work myself made this a bit less painful and once had some time it'd go to Brothers in Ontario, CA.



First the trans went off to Ben at Benco in Riverside, CA.

Ben seemed to be a straight shooter and after I explained the direction I was headed recommended freeway flyer gearing and trimmed a little off the original price to make it more palatable.


Ben called me about two weeks later and asked the origin of the trans. I kinda got a bad feeling and explained its story. He than went on to share what he believed happened (I only heard part of it, as the cash register sounds in my head were getting progressively louder). Short story is the trans had been run out of oil and grenaded critical parts including the case itself.

Add a few hundred to the total and we were back in business.

Here's what the finished unit looks like.

[AirKooledGarage]

Drivetrain resurrection has been fairly painful.

Forgot to share this gem:

Live and learn. Meanwhile both motors were dropped off at Brothers in the hopes of making something good. They seemed pretty confident I'd get a 2 liter, hydraulic lifter unit back with a year guarantee and discounted it a bit for handing off the second crappy core (I really just wanted it out of garage).

See you in a month guys.

[AirKooledGarage]

OK, last post tonight, I promise.


We're now caught up and rig is happily nestled in the garage.

Spent the day working on the engine compartment. Pulled the tank and started cleaning up 40+ years of goo.

Still a lot of work to do and as of yet not sure what color or paint type to use in there.

Tank was in fair shape (yes, I will replace every piece of rubber that touches it as well as the sending unit and POR15 the interior).

That can't be good

Pretty sure that was not a runner.


OK, we're all caught up, bus is safely ensconced in the garage and resurrection progress should be rapid.

Appreciate your playing along during the evening of photobombing and look forward to your guidance in the future.

[AirKooledGarage]

OK, I lied, one last post.

I'm stumped on the front trans mount. I've sourced a couple, but not sure which is right for this year (1973).

Here's what the cross-member looks like, so I assume the longer version with the rubber o-ring bumpers I've seen in pictures?

Any help is most appreciated.

[rustbus]

good stuff. i sure envy your dry buses down there

keep the pics coming!
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May of '72 Deluxe. 2.0L L-Jet CS & 091 trans conversion
my Bus thread

[BusJunky]

No worries on the pictures! I enjoy seeing the progress. I was surprised to see that engine compartment so clean in the second pic. Mine was not that lucky. Everything else on the bus looks solid as far as a perfect restore candidate. Its a bummer on the trans deal ya got, but thats the labor of love. I too am dropping mine, but at the moment im deep into rust repair. All of the normal rust plus 100x's more lol. Then comes the air ride. Im cutting out parts of the frame and going all out on this one. Im pretty sure you can use the horse shoe plates and notched 1 click in the rear for around 4-5" of drop with no issues. In the front you will have to do an adjustable beam and drop spindles. Ball joint dropped spindles are not the cheapest tho. That'll put you 4-5" drop all the way around. Theres even a "slam a bay" kit out there. I usually make my own stuff tho.
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[archemitis]

Nice bus! Always good to teach a kid skills from an early age, I bet he can wheelie already! Cant really go wrong with VWs and Sporties. Its funny to think (assuming the red bike is a 1200) that the HD motor puts out more than the 2.0 next to it! Hahahaha. Nice bikes, always wanted an offroad type Sportster, and the red one is what HD shoulda made instead of wasting all those failed years with Buell.
Building motorbikes is a cake walk compared to a bus, right?! =]

[AirKooledGarage]

Quite a few hours of cleaning on the engine compartment to get to that point and more to come.

I'll likely keep it simple and go with Wagons West kit http://www.wagenswest.com/partstore/index.php/1968-79-vw-bus-lowering-kit-the-slam-bay-special.html

Looking forward to your build. Can't believe the amount of body restoration you're doing !

[AirKooledGarage]

Some people drink, I have a Sportster problem. Building bikes certainly takes up less room and upholstery is much simpler!

I like the challenge the bus build presents, but know it'll be a long haul. The kid wants us to be able to drive it to the Jamboree in June, that might be dicey.

[AirKooledGarage]

Thanks man. That's the kids plan, but high school is a long way off. He also plans to delete the middle bench in favor of a mini bike chock so he can drag along his 1969 Sears top tank. His plans seem kind of suspect.