Fire damaged engine bay? Found at local auction

[BryanM]

[BryanM]

[aeromech]

[my59]

For Fook sake, I cannot belive the whiny shyte being thrown around here about a hypothetical auction. If the bus is not a bondowagen and it goes for a few thousand at auction, it can be back on the road for a reasonable cost to the new owner, if they have any skills at it.
Even if the engine is complete crap, they can toss in a cheap rebuild and flip it to the east coast after driving it for a season and no one will know the difference.
Of course, now with this tempest in a tin cup here, the likely hood of that is less.
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my59: Well son, my grandfather died before I got to drive it, so does that answer your question?
our79: sunroof bus w/camper interior and 2.0 FI
Other:'12 Jetta, '77 Benz 300D, and a 74 MG Midget.

[alman72]

[tolstoy]

Pull the engine. Strip everything you can off it. Send the long block to Headflow Masters as a core and buy a rebuilt 2000cc with new heads, that will run you about $3000, but you'll have a great engine. If you can salvage the FI, do it. You could be anywhere between $300 to $1000 get the FI up. Have the cooling tins sandblasted and powder coated. Make sure it is all there including thermostat and flaps, prob around $400 or so to get that all sorted. If the FI is toast, there is nothing wrong with putting a set of Weber 40idf's on there. About $800 for carbs and linkage.....order them from Aircooled.net and pay the extra to have them jet and setup the carbs for your engine. While the engine is out, remove the gas tank and have it cleaned out. Replace all the fuel lines, including the filler neck and all the vent lined, use Gates Barricade line wherever you can. If all the brakes need refreshed, about $800 would buy all the parts including new soft lines, rear shoes and cylinders, new front pads and rebuilt calipers, master cylinder and various hardware.

Tolstoy
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The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older. Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.
'70 Westy

[cmonSTART]

Worst thing about that bus is the color!

Looks really solid from an east coaster's perspective! Heck, I can do an engine..
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'78 Bus 2.0FI
de K1IGS

[aeromech]

Back around 1987 I was driving home from work at 2am in my 1971 bus. The engine sputtered and I thought maybe it was burned points. Then the gas pedal went to the floor. The glow in my mirror told me I had an engine fire. I coasted to a stop and confirmed the worst. No wait, the worst was finding out that my fire extinguisher was flat. I started seeing my coworkers stopping until one showed up and had a good extinguisher. I put the fire out.

Once I got towed home I was able to see the damage. It wasn't that bad. New ceiling panels and a couple hundred bucks in parts. I was back on the road. Engine fires don't always mean that it's terrible. I'm here to tell you that this ugly green bus could be repaired and it wouldn't require major engine work. That's it. I'm done here so go and do whatever you want. I don't care.
_________________
Lead Mechanic: San Diego Air and Space Museum
Licensed Airframe and Powerplant Mechanic
Licensed Pilot (Single engine Land)
Boeing 727,737-200-300-400,757,767
Airbus A319,320,321
DC9/MD80
BAe146
Fokker F28/F100
VW type 1 1962,63,65,69,72
VW Type 2 1971 (3 ea.) 1978, 1969
VW Jetta
VW Passat
Capable of leaping tall buildings in a single bound

[rickman74]

Here's a thought; why didn't the original owner fix the damage? Maybe they were happy to be rid of a big problem. If I had an engine fire like that, I would take the insurance money, fix it myself and put it back on the road.

[tolstoy]

I was posting what I posted as a worse case scenario. It doesn't look like the fire was too bad, could just be what aeromech said. I'm talking the unknown. What if the engine was a POS and the fire just put it out of its misery? I to had an engine fire in a Mustang several years ago. New plug wires, cap, air filter, belts and heat shield and I was on my way.

Tolstoy
_________________
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older. Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.
'70 Westy

[CarlosZ]

$10k for the engine? Seems a bit far fetched IMO. OP wasn't looking for a HAM/Raby special.

[Abscate]

[timvw7476]

[dirt4dinner]

[BryanM]

[SGKent]

Reading the overbearing and caustic comments in this thread by a couple folks who have called others full of BS leads me to understand why the next thread down in the forum right now is "TCash" "Did he leave because he got tired of caustic comments and attacks."

Bryan - this was not because of your post right above this.

If Gary thinks he can fix it for $750, maybe he can. That said, maybe this guy got tired of engine and other problems, rolled it onto the street, tossed gasoline, and a match on it, then collected insurance to get his money out of it. No one knows except the guy who owned it and he hasn't commented here unless he is one of you hoping to get a better price at the auction for the salvage rights he took on it. I was in finance enough years to know people actually do that kind of thing. Fires also happen accidentally to nice cars. I set a fire once by simply dropping a socket in the wrong place - bridged a fuel line to a starter wire for just a split second but enough to melt a hole in the metal fuel line and ignite the gasoline that spilled out. Fortunately a good fire bottle was only a foot away so the damage was really minor.
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“Most people don’t know what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin

[aeromech]

From the pictures I've seen I still say that the owner loved this bus. The reason it's up for auction might never be known because the original owner is now out of the picture. One possibility is that a towing company may have racked up a very high storage bill. Maybe the owner was military and had to report before he could deal with this? Maybe he died in the fire? Just kidding about that but the point is we can only look at the pictures and speculate. That bus would be a great project for me. I'll bet I could flip it in about 2 months and make over $5k profit. I just worked on a $9k bus last night, sorry no pictures, but these vehicles are drawing high prices right now.
_________________
Lead Mechanic: San Diego Air and Space Museum
Licensed Airframe and Powerplant Mechanic
Licensed Pilot (Single engine Land)
Boeing 727,737-200-300-400,757,767
Airbus A319,320,321
DC9/MD80
BAe146
Fokker F28/F100
VW type 1 1962,63,65,69,72
VW Type 2 1971 (3 ea.) 1978, 1969
VW Jetta
VW Passat
Capable of leaping tall buildings in a single bound

[pioneer1]

if it has a salvage title from the write off would it be an issue to re license for the road?
_________________
"Always waiting for tomorrow ruined everything"

'85 Porsche 911 Targa

'76 Westfalia project

[aeromech]

[Cap10323]

Salvage titles are no big deal, my bus currently has a Salvage title from the previous owner's little accident. Will just go get it re-inspected this spring once the body work is finished.