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DocNexil Samba Member
Joined: January 19, 2021 Posts: 145 Location: Southern Utah
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Posted: Wed May 03, 2023 4:35 pm Post subject: Re: The 447th 1972 bus, A Sierra Yellow Westfalia Tin top build |
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Ah, a good beginning to a VW summer _________________ 1971 Dormobile "Juliett"
1970 beetle "Rudie" |
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Ceckert64 Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015 Posts: 1955 Location: Manitowoc, WI
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Posted: Wed May 03, 2023 9:59 pm Post subject: Re: The 447th 1972 bus, A Sierra Yellow Westfalia Tin top build |
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DocNexil wrote: |
Ah, a good beginning to a VW summer |
Yeah, something like that Won’t be too much vw stuff this summer, I took
an internship in Florence South Carolina with Nucor Steel so I’m headed down there next Thursday with the bus and driving it down there so I wanted to get the transmission issue fixed before that and get everything in good shape for the trip down and so it will be “reliable” for the summer since it will be driven literally every day till the end of the internship. Should be a fun experience for the summer though and I’ll get to do a lot of exploring. But first the bus got to work
Anyways, today I dropped the engine and transmission, I wanted to replace the intake runner rubber tubes that connect to the intake air distributor as I think they were leaking a bit and old boots. I did that fast and had to align the runners with the IAD so they weren’t at weird angles and not seal as well. I also wanted to pop off the 3 rib to put the 6 rib on and I started cleaning up the 6 rib and getting it ready. I had to clean up the input shaft and the throw out bearing arm as it was sticky, still having some issues with the arm… I thought the three rib arm would be the same but it’s not after I got it apart
I also found wu it was running lean, my gasket blew out for the exhaust right before the sensor
_________________ 1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop |
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Ceckert64 Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015 Posts: 1955 Location: Manitowoc, WI
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Posted: Mon May 08, 2023 11:05 am Post subject: Re: The 447th 1972 bus, A Sierra Yellow Westfalia Tin top build |
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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.
_________________ 1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop |
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Ceckert64 Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015 Posts: 1955 Location: Manitowoc, WI
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Abscate Samba Member
Joined: October 05, 2014 Posts: 22639 Location: NYC/Upstate/ROW
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2023 4:09 am Post subject: Re: The 447th 1972 bus, A Sierra Yellow Westfalia Tin top build |
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The best part of this thread has been watching a nice young kid turn into a great grown man.
Love from NY _________________ .ssS! |
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Ceckert64 Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015 Posts: 1955 Location: Manitowoc, WI
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Posted: Sat May 13, 2023 3:46 pm Post subject: Re: The 447th 1972 bus, A Sierra Yellow Westfalia Tin top build |
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Abscate wrote: |
The best part of this thread has been watching a nice young kid turn into a great grown man.
Love from NY |
Thank you, I’ve definitely changed a lot in the last few years since this project started Definitely didn’t think I’d be spending a summer in South Carolina a year ago
The bus made it down to South Carolina fairly good, the starter crapped out on the trip but I wasn’t too surprised, it was the one on the transmission when I had gotten it. I was able to find one in stock on the route in Knoxville Tennessee and installed it in the parking lot. Besides that there were no other issues besides it getting hot on the hills.
It averaged 18 MPG on the trip which was decent for the speed and mountains, averaged around 65-70MPH and tried to keep CHT between 400-410 at highway speeds which seems a bit hot but not overly. I was surprised how well it did on the trip. I’ve put 1,600 ish miles on the bus in the last two weeks.
The new transmission has also been great, it’s never popped out of gear and it doesn’t make any bad noises so I’m pretty happy I did the swap.
_________________ 1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop |
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Xevin Samba Member
Joined: January 08, 2014 Posts: 7623
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Posted: Sun May 14, 2023 2:24 am Post subject: Re: The 447th 1972 bus, A Sierra Yellow Westfalia Tin top build |
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Abscate wrote: |
The best part of this thread has been watching a nice young kid turn into a great grown man.
Love from NY |
X2 and more.
“Growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional” as said by Carroll Bryant _________________ Keep on Busin'
67rustavenger wrote: |
GFY's Xevin and VW_Jimbo! |
Clatter wrote: |
Damn that Xevin... |
skills@eurocarsplus wrote: |
I respect Xevin and he's a turd |
SGKent wrote: |
My God! Xevin and I 100% agree |
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calvinater Samba Member
Joined: September 06, 2014 Posts: 3327 Location: 802 The Pointless Forrest
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Posted: Sun May 14, 2023 5:26 am Post subject: Re: The 447th 1972 bus, A Sierra Yellow Westfalia Tin top build |
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growing old was fun
being old sucks _________________ "Albatross"! |
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Ceckert64 Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015 Posts: 1955 Location: Manitowoc, WI
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Posted: Sun May 21, 2023 7:54 pm Post subject: Re: The 447th 1972 bus, A Sierra Yellow Westfalia Tin top build |
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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.
_________________ 1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop |
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Ceckert64 Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015 Posts: 1955 Location: Manitowoc, WI
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Ceckert64 Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015 Posts: 1955 Location: Manitowoc, WI
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Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2023 6:33 pm Post subject: Re: The 447th 1972 bus, A Sierra Yellow Westfalia Tin top build |
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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. _________________ 1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop |
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DocNexil Samba Member
Joined: January 19, 2021 Posts: 145 Location: Southern Utah
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Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2023 1:45 pm Post subject: Re: The 447th 1972 bus, A Sierra Yellow Westfalia Tin top build |
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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! _________________ 1971 Dormobile "Juliett"
1970 beetle "Rudie" |
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airschooled Air-Schooled
Joined: April 04, 2012 Posts: 12721 Location: on a bike ride somewhere
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Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2023 5:06 pm Post subject: Re: The 447th 1972 bus, A Sierra Yellow Westfalia Tin top build |
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Nice!
Looks so good, you'll be inspired to do the rear, then the wiper arms, then the logo, then the…… _________________ Learn how your vintage VW works. And why it doesn't!
One-on-one tech help for your Volkswagen:
www.airschooled.com |
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Ceckert64 Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015 Posts: 1955 Location: Manitowoc, WI
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Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2023 8:59 pm Post subject: Re: The 447th 1972 bus, A Sierra Yellow Westfalia Tin top build |
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DocNexil wrote: |
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! |
It certainly has paid off! I’m really surprised how well it’s been doing, it still always has some issue but nothing too major ever. I’ve been happy with my mystery engine that went in it
airschooled wrote: |
Nice!
Looks so good, you'll be inspired to do the rear, then the wiper arms, then the logo, then the…… |
Thanks! Yeah, slowly I’ll get to all that, I have a whole summer after work so I should get to it soon
I just got back from a camping trip with my friend, we went to Table Rock State Park in South Carolina. I drove the bus there Friday after work and backpacked in at the park and spent the night. Hiked about 11 miles today yesterday and today. It was really pretty, saw and heard a few bears in and around the park. The bus trip was about 3.5 hours each way highway
_________________ 1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop |
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Ceckert64 Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015 Posts: 1955 Location: Manitowoc, WI
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Ceckert64 Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015 Posts: 1955 Location: Manitowoc, WI
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Xevin Samba Member
Joined: January 08, 2014 Posts: 7623
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Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2023 9:41 pm Post subject: Re: The 447th 1972 bus, A Sierra Yellow Westfalia Tin top build |
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Having fun in your bus rolling around, tinkering, meeting up with friends, making new friends, road trips, and camping equals winning. Well done. _________________ Keep on Busin'
67rustavenger wrote: |
GFY's Xevin and VW_Jimbo! |
Clatter wrote: |
Damn that Xevin... |
skills@eurocarsplus wrote: |
I respect Xevin and he's a turd |
SGKent wrote: |
My God! Xevin and I 100% agree |
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Nicholas D Samba Member
Joined: November 06, 2012 Posts: 224 Location: Charleston, SC
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Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2023 4:56 am Post subject: Re: The 447th 1972 bus, A Sierra Yellow Westfalia Tin top build |
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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! _________________ 71 Westfalia
73 Beetle |
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Ceckert64 Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015 Posts: 1955 Location: Manitowoc, WI
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Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2023 6:47 pm Post subject: Re: The 447th 1972 bus, A Sierra Yellow Westfalia Tin top build |
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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
_________________ 1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop |
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Ceckert64 Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015 Posts: 1955 Location: Manitowoc, WI
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2023 8:44 pm Post subject: Re: The 447th 1972 bus, A Sierra Yellow Westfalia Tin top build |
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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.
_________________ 1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop |
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