The 447th 1972 bus, A Sierra Yellow Westfalia Tin top build

[DocNexil]

Ah, a good beginning to a VW summer
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1971 Dormobile "Juliett"
1970 beetle "Rudie"

[Ceckert64]

[Ceckert64]

I got the engine and trans back in, hooked up, and running after fighting a lot of different issues with the swap. Good news is that the transmission I put in seems good and it’s smooth. Definitely was a score, it shifts nice and makes no noise and doesn’t pop out of gear.

Today’s adventures included picking up the free bus, still en route back but I got it now It’s a 1977 Poptop Westfalia with the stove option and an Automatic transmission. It is complete, looks like the engine was replaced shortly before it was parked but it’s rotted to death. The suspension is collapsing on itself, the left rear frame rail is completely gone and the torsion tube is about rotted through all the way around. But it was free so possibly good parts or one day find a donor chassis.

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1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop

[Ceckert64]

After getting the new bus home, I took my bus in to get some summer tires that should have a little less friction, so less heat and increase MPG hopefully. Anyways I took it to belle tire and they managed to break my reverse lockout plate I’m not surprised since I had to go show them how to put it in reverse and open the sliding door. I definitely like the old tires better but they will go back on in the fall when I go back up to tech

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1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop

[Abscate]

The best part of this thread has been watching a nice young kid turn into a great grown man.

Love from NY
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.ssS!

[Ceckert64]

[Xevin]

[calvinater]

growing old was fun
being old sucks
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"Albatross"!

[Ceckert64]

Thanks guys, the last year has been a lot of fun growing and changing, a lot of things happened that I never would have thought.

Today I went to a VW show in North Carolina, it was a pretty nice show, I showed up late so I missed some of the cars but it was still pretty good. I met one guy that had even seen my thread on the bus and got to talk with him for a while which was pretty cool. He told me about some other VW stuff in the area that I’ll probably do this summer.

There were also quite a few Bays at the show, the pictures were taken near the end of the show so there were a lot less cars.

Then on the way back the engine started misfiring after a stop and would run bad between 60-75 and I had to go above or below that. I ended up figuring out that the connection to the resistor pack wasn’t all the way tight and once I pushed it back together it was fine but I drove about 45 minutes with that issue. Besides that the bus is still chugging along good. Took a break to eat dinner on the way back too.

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1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop

[Ceckert64]

Took a little trip to Charleston SC this weekend to visit a friend. Historic downtown Charleston is really cool, you can wander the streets for hours and there are so many cool old houses and buildings, especially once you get further from the touristy areas.

On the way there and back was a pretty drive on backroads

I also rolled the odometer to 1,2,3… however many hundred thousands of miles

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1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop

[Ceckert64]

I’m starting to get back to work on the bus, I changed the oil on the bus the other day and it was at 3000+ miles and looked cleaner than any other aircooled oil I’ve changed and it was clean looking.

I also started to embark on the rustoleum projects
I’m doing rims, wiper arms, bumpers, emblem, and front kick panels. I already got the kick panels and one bumper done. I know y’all sad to see the bumper repainted

I’m also working on replace wiper squirters, I also just had to replace a shock bolt, one came out and the other back out a bit and I have tightened them good but the keep coming out. It may be the wrong style washer? I also adjusted the drag link so the steering wheel isn’t crooked. I also got some NLA VW curtains installed that I got as a gift a while ago.
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1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop

[DocNexil]

Lookin' good
Glad to hear that the bus is still serving you well, the work you've done on it has certainly been paying off!
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1971 Dormobile "Juliett"
1970 beetle "Rudie"

[airschooled]

Nice!

Looks so good, you'll be inspired to do the rear, then the wiper arms, then the logo, then the……
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Learn how your vintage VW works. And why it doesn't!
One-on-one tech help for your Volkswagen:
www.airschooled.com

[Ceckert64]

[Ceckert64]

This weekend I got all the rims sanded down and repainted. I also did the electrical box and the spare along with some touch ups.

I also caulked the top edge of the windshield seal and rear vent window. The windshield seal had a gap between it and the body in the upper right corner that was bad and leaked. I masked the edges and put some in. Hopefully they won’t leak anymore

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1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop

[Ceckert64]

Figured I’d post up some pictures from my weekend warrior trips, this weekend was to Charleston and checked out beach since it was super hot. I also bombed the bus to Atlanta last weekend to meet up with a friend to go white water rafting. Somehow the bus is still alive

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1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop

[Xevin]

Having fun in your bus rolling around, tinkering, meeting up with friends, making new friends, road trips, and camping equals winning. Well done.
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Keep on Busin'

[Nicholas D]

Great thread, I've really enjoyed following along. If you make it back down to Charleston and feel so inclined give me a shout. It'd be great to meet another Sambanite in "real" life. Those cobbles on Chalmers Street will certainly give you an honest evaluation of your suspension!
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71 Westfalia
73 Beetle

[Ceckert64]

Thank you guys!

This weekend was more of tinkering. I went to move a Fuel injection relay in the engine compartment and ended up replacing CV boots

I moved the coil and relay and added a clamp on the paper accordion tube for the heat since it kept falling off. Then I remembered that a clamp in another part of the system needed a bolt and it was the end of the heater box going up to the flapper. I got down there and found both of my boots on that side were destroyed and ripped open. When I had last checked they were fine, the rubber looked cracked but nothing all the way through or leaking. So I had already bought some Tiguan boots and had them in the bus so I went to replacing them. The last Tiguan boot I got was a soft rubber, more like the original style, I’m not sure it had a vw part number on it. The ones I more recently got were a hard, more plastic like rubber, but they for sure were genuine vw. So I cleaned everything up, regreased and reassembled. What was interesting was the Tiguan boots included the dished washer they say to get rid of. But everything went very smoothly. Then I tinkered on my other projects

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1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop

[Ceckert64]

Figure I’d post a small update, the bus somehow has been problem free for the most part for the last few months. I had the coil bracket break and the coil fall off and that’s it.

The bus made it back from South Carolina by some miracle with no issues. I cut up a 73 down there to fix the 77 and brought everything back in the bus. Frame rails, front beam, engines, transmission, and a bunch more. I weighed it on the scales at work and I had 1,700lbs of parts in it. It was packed with all my stuff. It went floor to shoved against the ceiling from the trunk the the back edge of the front seats. It made it up the smoky mountains even, it slowed down to 33mph in 2nd gear at one point on the highway but I could cruise 70 on the flats no problem. That trip was about 1,000 miles fully loaded down and all highways and it averaged 17mpg The picture of the inside of the bus is partially unloaded

Then it came back up to school with me so I took the rims off the 77 and threw the mudders back on. I also washed it and it made the 500 miles up only breaking the coil bracket. Sadly the mudders hurt mpg and I’m getting about 14 with them, but that may not be a great average. Then I got to go off roading and camping with it again, same spot as last year but I’ll probably try out a new spot this weekend.

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1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop