My new Bus Murphy

[Amskeptic]

[andrewtf]

Well - its been a while since I posted about my bus's progress (moving at glacial speed). So I thought I would post an update. Murphy has been at the body shop for........ about 9 months now. They have worked on it s..l..o..w...l..y over the first 8 1/2 of those months, but I wasn't paying storage fees, so what the heck. When I dropped it off last November, I was assured I would have it back by March 1, that creeped to June 1, and lastly to August 1. Now here it is the end of the first week of July and these are the photos I took at the shop last Thursday. Anyone think I'll get this back (paint job completed) in three weeks?

And every time I go visit it, I feel my wallet getting lighter, but I knew that going in.

I have made almost acceptable progress on other projects sans the bus over the past several months. I rebuilt a new jalousie window - it came with a slider on each side (thanks KentPS), I've sourced all(?) of the parts to convert back to fuel injection, recovered all the vinyl trim bits for the riviera top, cut and finished most of the new wood interior panels (doors, hatch, ceiling, etc), refinished the front fiberglass tub, and a few other odds and ends.

Luckily I got a 'fix' for a little bit of real work last week when we visited Emma and Sven and Big Emma in Mexico (see GoBigEmma.com). We did some tinkering with a new TSII (it starts and initially idles much better now), installed a new solar panel controller (ok - I just drank a beer and watch Sven do that) , and we had a full hearted (but failed) attempt to install a new sway bar bushing clamp. Never - and I mean Never - buy one of the Brazilian clamps. There is no way in Hell that thing was ever going to fit. When I left, Sven was going to try to get the original one bent back into shape at a local shop. We needed to bend the little 'ears' back into position and lacked the proper tools to accomplish that on a part with some actual metal used in its manufacture.

More to come.... hopefully sooner than 4 months from now !

I will try to post some photos of the bits I've managed to accomplish so far.

Andrew
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'75 Riviera - 'BIG EMMA' (Pan American highway trip paused for a make over)
'77 Riviera - Murphy' (being reborn.... slowly)
'63 Austin Healey

[KentABQ]

You are an extremely patient person, Andrew!

I rarely get upset, but after 8 months to see that rate of "progress" would have had me spewing Skills-like verbiage at the responsible party. Unless they spend full-time with a very experienced body work team, it's going to be summer 2018 before Murphy gets to hit the road again.

Maybe it's time to cut your losses, take your bus back, and find another shop that can do the work.

(On the plus side, though, you have an excellent opportunity to install the notorious battery access door!)
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-Kent-
1976 Riviera, 1.8l FI chrome yellow VAN - "Chloe"

"I must say, how can you be in a bad mood driving this vehicle full of vibrant color.
Cars of today are so bland in comparison. It's like driving a celebration!" ---WildIdea

Bus ownership via emoticons:
---williamM

[TomWesty]

[andrewtf]

well - in all honesty, they did get an ear full from me a couple of weeks ago.

They - at least now - are working with a purpose. I realistically think I'll now maybe get it back by the end of August. (pray for me).

Unfortunately, they are the best cost/value shop in town and about the only ones who would tackle the project. I first went to the high end place and they didn't want to touch it. I guess since it wasn't a '68 mustang, it wasn't in their comfort zone !

I will admit, looks are slightly deceiving. They have patched a couple of bad spots in the roof, rebuilt about 1/3 of the rain gutter, replaced sills of both rear side windows, replace all the jack points, and a couple of the horizontal structural supports underneath. Essentially everything above the rain gutters and on the underside of the bus is done. So pretty much what is left (although admittedly the majority of the work) is to replace where it is horizontally cut to the bottom of the body panels. This includes total front doglegs. They have all the panels, in hand, so I am again hoping it goes more quickly and smoothly. But also admittedly, they have not yet started on the driver's side.

I really had not planned on driving it - at least not much - until next spring since I really need to have the bus in hand to fit all the cabinets and do the build out stuff. This will just move from the fall/winter to winter/spring. I'm pissed at their less than tortoise on Valium pace, but life's too short to let it raise my blood pressure to boiling.....................yet.
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'75 Riviera - 'BIG EMMA' (Pan American highway trip paused for a make over)
'77 Riviera - Murphy' (being reborn.... slowly)
'63 Austin Healey

[skills@eurocarsplus]

well, I hate to say it, but you got what you're paying for....as you found out, the majority of shops out there just don't want to do this work...and when you find one that does...it takes forever to get done. looks like the work so far is solid...

and we all know how tedious the stuff is...lets say they put 2 guys on this thing for a week....there is 80 hours at what? say 70/hr for a body shop? that's 5,600 a week for 80 hours of labor. unless you're prepared to write that check say 3 or 4 times, it will take forever to get it done.

fast, cheap or correct....pick 2. at the end of the day, you should have a pretty nice bus...but you need to think about what "deal" you made with them to do the work. if it was just "filler" work between profitable jobs, any deadline goes out the window....
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[Abscate]

It's good to hear from the people who actually make a living doing this. If you don't have work in a business, hourly people go home. I'm not sure how you get filler time to finish a job.

Unlike mechanical repair, body work requires equipment and skills that are neither economical to buy or practice. Pretty much anyone in the upper four quintiles of smarts can put an engine back together well enough to drive the PCH, bodywork is a different matter.
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.ssS!

[SamboSamba22]

Traveling across Central America AND building a bus?!
I don’t know if that’s ingenious or ridiculous!
I’d say for what the monthly rate is for storage $100? you’re putting cash forward to the completion of the bus rather than the forgetfulness of a project at hand, and all in all, from what you mentioned body is indeed a dueling task, time seems to disappear and nothing to be shown from hours upon hours of effort.
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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]

[TomWesty]

[SamboSamba22]

[andrewtf]

To reply two-fold.....

First, I am willing to live in my bus for three days. I aint crazy (or young) enough to do it for three years. Yes, it is my daughter and her boyfriend (by now common law husband) who are traveling. So far from Illinois to the top of Alaska and back down to about the south end of Mexico. On their way to the southern tip of Argentina..... and back? We were just visiting. I am safely tucked in the middle of Illinois with air conditioning and indoor plumbing.

Skills - you are exactly correct. I could have found another shop in town to do my bus, but these guys are the best value to quality we have and I knew it would be a long process. Additionally, I really want to give business to people who do this work - so they will continue to do it. I have deliberately given the shop some leeway in scheduling. I cannot say they are/were trying to take advantage of my laid back scheduling schedule, but I want to give them their best chance of staying viable and able to do more for our VW community if and when, I or anyone else needs it.

This shop - and many in town, make their living doing insurance work. That pays their bills and working on my bus probably only breaks them even. We happen to have (how politically incorrect can i be?) the largest population of foreign University Students I believe of any University in the United States. There are 6,800 students from China alone. That generate a LOT of insurance work in the fall and winter. i.e., last February a kid from China (with no license) crashed his brand new (as in 2 weeks) Ferrari, going 100mph on a busy 35mph street in town. He sideswiped a car and ran about 50' off the street and crashed into a building - destroying a shop and making mince-meat out of his car. So the next week - he just went out and bought another one. I am an architect and last fall/winter personally worked on three buildings that were hit by foreign student drivers (only one of which had a license).

Bottom line is that I am indeed frustrated at the slow progress the shop has made, but understand that if I want them to be around five years form now to maybe work on my next bus, this is a cross I will bear. Not happily, but understandably.

At least now (less insurance work in their shop) they are really giving it attention and should stay on it until completion.

Andrew
_________________
'75 Riviera - 'BIG EMMA' (Pan American highway trip paused for a make over)
'77 Riviera - Murphy' (being reborn.... slowly)
'63 Austin Healey

[skills@eurocarsplus]

Andrew, good on you for knowing what you got into....so many times rust work is a 100% no money job for the collision world. sadly, it's just the way it works.

I see my friend at 401 resto's deal with this. he was in the collision world, and can no joke have ANY car done in 4-6 weeks IF the parts (and money) are there....sometimes a job gets hung up on a back ordered part

at the end of the day, your bus may be there say a year, but you'll only be billed that 4-8 week labor. restoration is a funny process sometimes. be glad about the storage of the bus too. I know shops that have no joke pushed sand blasted cars outside under a tarp because the owners ran out of money, and they refuse to be a storage center.

it will be worth it in the end!
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[Xevin]

"I Heard it From a Friend" about the college kid driving and crashing a Ferrari near you (must be on the basketball team ) His parents just "Let him Go" buy another Ferrari when his "Wheels are Turning" like that. Well thank goodness he didn't "Take it on The Run." "I Do Wanna Know" how much damage that cost his parents. I seem to hear a lot of these uber wealthy foreign college kids "Riding the Storm" and smashing up exotic cars. I guess "Accidents can Happen" to anyone. At least he wasn't driving a REO 1/2 ton Speedwagon Hope you get your bus back soon. Nice to see all the work you doing to preserve it. I'm sure it will "Keep on Loving You" for many years.
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Keep on Busin'

[andrewtf]

just because it is interesting and sort of on topic (sorry Everett).
I hope these post correctly.
I think this kid is lucky to be alive - let alone unhurt.

the crash:
I think I must stand corrected - apparently he did have insurance. But an 18 year old with a brand new Ferrari !?!?!?!

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2017-04-13/probation-ui-student-who-crashed-ferrari.html


A video from a neighboring business of the Ferrari before the crash. It has some images of post crash status as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPa3Lhq3tcA

These students have SO MUCH money that it is unbelievable. My firm does a lot of campus apartment buildings. On a new one finished the year before last - a student from Korea actually rented two apartments for the sole purpose of having two secure parking spaces so he could park his brand new Maserati centered in the two spaces... so it would not get dinged.
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'75 Riviera - 'BIG EMMA' (Pan American highway trip paused for a make over)
'77 Riviera - Murphy' (being reborn.... slowly)
'63 Austin Healey

[KentABQ]

Your patience and foresight are very admirable, Andrew. Maybe if more of us had that attitude, there would be more and/or better quality replacement parts available too.

I'll keep my fingers crossed that Murphy is rebuilt and rust-free by August.

(Edit: Murphy's Law should have come into play with that kid. )
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-Kent-
1976 Riviera, 1.8l FI chrome yellow VAN - "Chloe"

"I must say, how can you be in a bad mood driving this vehicle full of vibrant color.
Cars of today are so bland in comparison. It's like driving a celebration!" ---WildIdea

Bus ownership via emoticons:
---williamM

[andrewtf]

mini update:

Here is my bus yesterday. Making steady (but not lightning fast) progress. We had a heat index over 100* every day this week, so I understand them not wanting to live under a welding mask for hours.

panels being fitted.

I think it looks a little odd with the donor doors (slider is from the same bus as the front doors)

Here you see the fit of the dogleg. The gap above the step is spot on. The gap at the bottom is for sh!t. And this was supposedly the best fitting repair panel available. I hope it goes without saying that I am having them fix this so it looks as correct as possible.

This is one of the other recent projects..... Jalousie refresh.
I won't bore you with rambling on about what a b!t(h this project is. Others have covered that for me.

An example of one frame cleaned against one that was not:

Here is the finished window. One interesting thing: The window arrived with 2 broken panes of glass, so I bought another one that was as cheap as I could find just for the glass (the glass is an odd thickness and our local companies could not fabricate proper replacement) When I was polishing and sprucing up all the parts, I decided to use the connecting rod from the second window since it was actually in a little better condition (not sure what it is actually called. It is the rod that attaches to the crank and the pivoting frame mechanisms). When I was done the window would not close tightly. I thought it was due to new weather stripping not compressing enough. It turns out the rods are different. One is for a window with the crank on the left and one was for a crank on the right. I never knew they were different. After swapping them out, it closes perfectly.

That's it for now.
Maybe a new update next week!
_________________
'75 Riviera - 'BIG EMMA' (Pan American highway trip paused for a make over)
'77 Riviera - Murphy' (being reborn.... slowly)
'63 Austin Healey

[KentABQ]

Woo hooooo!!! Progress is still progress, no matter what gear it's in as long as it's not reverse.

The window turned out great! Sorry about the two broken panes, though. I'm glad I kept one of the jalousies, since I'm thinking about installing it in place of one of the sliders. Would it be weird to have a jalousie and a slider across from each other?
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-Kent-
1976 Riviera, 1.8l FI chrome yellow VAN - "Chloe"

"I must say, how can you be in a bad mood driving this vehicle full of vibrant color.
Cars of today are so bland in comparison. It's like driving a celebration!" ---WildIdea

Bus ownership via emoticons:
---williamM

[andrewtf]

I hope not........ I'm going to.
_________________
'75 Riviera - 'BIG EMMA' (Pan American highway trip paused for a make over)
'77 Riviera - Murphy' (being reborn.... slowly)
'63 Austin Healey

[sebgi1]

i think the door gap at the bottom is supposed to be like your picture 3/8'' to 1/2''.... i know its not pretty.. probably made to drain water out...

picture of original door and dogleg on a 73

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SEB

Dogs are the most precious and valuable possession of mankind. VWs are second!

'73 Neptune blue safare camper
'71 Neptune blue tintop

[lil-jinx]

I am into the same repair with the dog leg,my door fit about the same,at the inner lower door it looked close enough for the seal to seat,the restoration manual implies that a wider gap was to be expected.I have sense moved on to drilling out the spot welds at the step.Will the fun ever end!
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https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620186
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=668799
1974 Bay Westfalia. she likes to be called Ethel.
1968 Dune Buggy
1974 parts bus
A smart man learns from his mistakes,a very smart man learns from other's mistakes.