The Preservation of Lori

[BulliBill]

John, you in Europe yet?
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I'm looking for these license plate frames for my fleet:
Coeur D'Alene - Lake Shore Volkswagen
Mission VW - San Fernando
Thornton VW - Stockton

Thanks for any help!

[drpete]

The perfect gig for that truck. Very cool.....
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Happy to be alive. Hey Dad, Mom, wish you were here to see all this.

Pete Keesling
Driving a VW every day.....

[johnshenry]

[johnshenry]

Haven't posted in a while.... but I have been driving this truck a lot and having a ball with it.

Tried to fit the "NOS" front bumper I paid dearly for last night. After hours of straightening some mangle brackets that had gotten..... I didn't mess with it much once I tried to bolt it up. But it doesn't follow the curve of the nose well at all. Touches the dog legs on the ends on both sides and the front middle part is flat and doesn't follow the curve of the nose skin bottom. See pics.

Those holes in the blade do line up fairly well with the ones in the brackets and end supports. Left everything real loose.

Suggestions? I'll probably not mess with it again for a few days, and will make sure I have lots of patience when I do.

How hard are these to fit? Common to have to tweak and bend them? Are there reinforcement plates that fit between the blade and brackets? If so, I don't have any.

I found on the left mount that the later bracket was used, extra holes drilled into the girder end. Then found M8 weld nuts there that matched to location of the holes for the earlier/correct bracket. Chased them out with a tap, then bolted up the bracket.

On the other (right) side, I found that it did have the correct early bracket, but only one bolt through it to hold the later bumper that was on it when I got it. And, no weld nuts on that side in the girder, just holes with a Kamax M8 bolt, washer and nut. Is this correct? Seems odd to have weldnuts only on one side, but it is very hard to reach both sides on the left with the steering box there, so maybe that makes sense.

Any tips/ideas welcome. I do think that this bumper is NOS, but likely could have been bent/tweaked over the years. I'm sure pulling the ends apart will make it clear the doglegs better, but think that that would do the opposite of what is needed for the center section.

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John Henry

'57 Deluxe
'56 Single Cab

[campingbox]

[EverettB]

[BulliBill]

Hi John,

Assuming that your bumper is NOS, it sounds like during it's long storage life it may have been bent inward a little. You might have to carefully press it back out again. Maybe first make a cardboard template of one side of the inner curve of the blade, then flip the template to the other side and see if there is any significant difference in the bend? One of those H.F. porta-power tools or one of their hydraulic rams ( https://www.harborfreight.com/3-ton-super-heavy-duty-long-ram-hydraulic-flat-bottom-jack-36468.html ) for pressing metal outward might help to slowly re-shape the front blade?

Bill Bowman
_________________
I'm looking for these license plate frames for my fleet:
Coeur D'Alene - Lake Shore Volkswagen
Mission VW - San Fernando
Thornton VW - Stockton

Thanks for any help!

[johnshenry]

Well I made some bumper straightening "tools" out of 2x4s and sort of did what you suggested Bill, I traced the curve of the later bumper on the floor of the shop with a sharpie. Then basically stepped on and manhandled the thing.

When I finally ran out of patience and cuss words, I had the right side fitting really nice, but the left side hangs out a lot. Somehow that left bracket doesn't slide back in far enough. Anyway, good enough for now.

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John Henry

'57 Deluxe
'56 Single Cab

[bally]

any updates john - I'm having withdrawl symptoms

Dave

[Who.Me?]

Could you do me a favour and take a picture down the drivers side A pillar showing how the dogleg meets that pillar? Mine (October '56 truck) is set in slightly compared to the passenger side.

It in your pic above, yours looks the same, although that could just be a shadow in your picture. My front bumper has a slight kink in it where it's been made to conform to the drivers's side.
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Andy


Looking for info on my truck's history. Are you from Campbell California or nearby. Do you recognise it? ... http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=636786

[johnshenry]

No real updates at this time. We actually bought a second home on a lake in New Hampshire, actually an Old Farm and a barn, that has been consuming 110% of my time. I hope to get the truck up here next spring and take some really neat pictures. I will be home next week however and will replace an emergency brake cable on the truck that broke and get it ready for transporterfest at larz Anderson in Oct.

I will get pictures of the requested dog leg next week.
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John Henry

'57 Deluxe
'56 Single Cab

[johnshenry]

A little bit of much deserved work on the truck prior to driving it to TransporterFest on Oct 13th.

Finally fit the splash pan. I think that the MC is the newer, longer style and the pan interfered with it. So I put right angle spade lugs on the wires, then bent the tabs back and it fit.

One slot on the right side didn't line up with the bore in the girder by about and inch, and one had no bore at all. So this pan probably isn't exactly correct for this truck, but for now, I'll keep it. Everything else lined up OK.

So I had this idea to create a "second brake light" (LOL) for when I was on the road. This is an adhesive strip of VERY bright red LEDs on a piece of 5' plastic molding with 3 magnets heat shrinked to it. Connected to the brake light circuit in the engine bay via a 6 to 12 volt converter board (see below). IMPOSSIBLE to miss and easy to yank off at a show. I think I may split it into two pieces and add 2 more circuits for turn signals on other, shorter strips on each side.

Here some more hack-tech. I got 3 of these voltage converters from eBay China, shipped, for like 92 cents each. They are adjustable and good for about 2 amps each I think. Small PCBs maybe 3/4" x 1.5". Here one is piggybacked on to the guts of a cigarette lighter USB charger/adapter and voila, I can charge my phone in the truck. Wrapped the whole think in shrink wrap and tied it to the ignition circuit on the dash.

I use these Wiz Gear magnetic phone mounts in my daily drivers. But didn't want adhesive anything on the dash. So I found a deal for two of them for $14 shipped, stuck the adhesive sides together and voila, instant magnet phone mount for a metal dash.

The longblock rebuild of the original engine is complete! Once shipped back to me, I will re assemble it over the winter and should have it in the truck in the spring.

Here's a thread on the rebuild:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=726781
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John Henry

'57 Deluxe
'56 Single Cab

[EverettB]

[zozo]

I did the same a couple of years ago after a near miss on an exit ramp. Too close for comfort, and I couldn't shake the thought that OG brake lights, in today's distracted world, just aren't enough. With these, at least so far, I've not had any close calls. Ounce of prevention vs. a pound of cure.

Small zip ties to the jail bar, wires routed through the various holes made for the dealer AC install in it's past.

[johnshenry]

[johnshenry]

Lori's appearance in a music video is released. A few shots starting at 0:44 second in.....!


Link

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John Henry

'57 Deluxe
'56 Single Cab

[Lind]

[thom]

SnuggleCab™
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-Thom
1956 Single Cab
1957 Porsche 356A Sunroof
1957 23-Window Deluxe
1957 Mercedes Westfalia single cab
1963 Unimog 404
1965 E-Type

[johnshenry]

[BulliBill]

Yeah, I kinda like "SnuggleCab" too...

Nice video, nice SC!

Bill Bowman
_________________
I'm looking for these license plate frames for my fleet:
Coeur D'Alene - Lake Shore Volkswagen
Mission VW - San Fernando
Thornton VW - Stockton

Thanks for any help!