My Workshop

For those who may be interested, here's some pics of my (ahem) impeccably neat & organized workshop.

Yes, I know, I have some serious cleaning & picking up to do, before I trip & kill myself, or set the place on fire (or both).

Richard

Bus Interior

Here's some pics of the interior, & my efforts to spruce it up a bit. My goal is a casual, well used, well loved look, with a 70's motif, though I'm already stretching that with the "Cars" stickers!









You can see inside the rear hatch where I'm using the little boxes that the parts come in to create a collage of sorts. The goal is to brighten up the interior, while preserving important part numbers, keeping them with the vehicle.




My headliner came with a lot of holes, some of them huge. I'll probably replace it someday, but for now , I need something a little easier on my budget & my sanity.

I chose to bridge over the large holes with denim patches cut from some old jeans, and, in one case, a Syracuse Crunch pennant.

To cover a hole, I trim off the ragged edges, & clean the area where the patch will go with some acetone on a paper towel.

Then, I apply Weldwood contact cement (Home Depot) with a disposable chip brush (Harbor Freight) arond the perimeter, & apply the patch.

Once the center of the patch is applied, I work out from the center toward the edges, brushing on glue & smoothing out wrinkles as I go.

I'm covering the small holes with stickers, hence the "Cars" stickers my wife bought me at the drugstore.

She's a keeper!

Says she likes the decor, but maybe she's just being nice....

No, I don't have Filmore yet. Must.. Find... Filmore....

Also visible in a couple of shots is the Sapphire AM radio I bought on thesamba, & the speaker I installed for it.

It works fine, & makes the dash look much better, but talk radio is even worse than I'd remembered. Fortunately, there's a local oldies station that broadcasts on both AM & FM. I can live with that.

The afghans belonged to my grandmother, who passed on in January at age 99.

I hope she approves.

Richard

Bus In the "Assembly building" -- Exterior Shots

Moved a lot of furniture & a lot of snow, but got the Bus into the shop about 2 weeks after bringing her home.

Notice how clean the body is, rust-wise. Even the wheels are nearly rust-free!!

One of the first things I did was to seal some major cracks in the front turn signal lenses. I used Liquid Nails Clear. Should work.

As you can see, Wild Willie the Biker Hamster (Put-Putt's official mascot) is ready for the road!

Richard

Engine Room: "Aye cap'n, Scott here!"

Here are some pics of the engine compartment, where I've done quite a bit of work lately.

The quickie battery terminals are scheduled for replacement soon, probably with cable savers from NAPA. I also need to work out a battery hold-down.

As you can see, there's typical battery tray rust, doctored up with a piece of plywood. But, except for a few pinholes in the front floor, that's the only significant rust!!

I found the grommet that's supposed to keep the positive cable from rubbing on the firewall missing. Until I get a real one, I've put two layers of slit gas line hose around the cable, and secured them with electrical tape. I hate to think what would happen if that one grounded out!! Fortunately, I found the insulation undamaged.

Don't have a pic, but I found Bob Hoover's favorite part, the grommet for the fuel line in the forward engine tin, intact & pliable! Fuel pipe in perfect shape! It'll do for now, but I'll probably do a Hooveresque bulkhead fitting in the near future. Changed fuel lines using correct 5mm German hose, & located the filter before the pump, under the Bus.

The carb, a 30 PICT-2, has what looks like a welch plug on the back of it that will weep a tiny bit of gas if you pump the pedal a few times. I've applied a few layers of old-fashioned gasket shellac (the brown stuff) to see if that will cure it temporarily. I've also discovered that the rearmost stud has stripped out it's hole in the carb base, & it's impossible to completely tighten the base. Seems to run OK though; need to take a vacuum reading to see if the base gasket is leaking. I expect I'll need to replace this carb.

Found the coil flapping in the breeze. A huge lag screw had been stuck into the threaded hole for the coil bracket, just enough to keep it from falling out, & the whole assembly was swinging from it. I removed the lag screw, retapped the poor, abused threads 1/4-20 SAE, & screwed the coil down. I'm sure it's much happier.

With a tune up kit from Bus Depot, I replaced the plugs, points, condenser, & cap. Set the 009 (blech) distributor at 7.5BTDC; I'll get the timing light on it later. Plugs were black & icky; whether from excessive running w/choke in winter, or carb issues, I don't know yet.

Put on nice, shiny fresh air tubing (2" preheat hose from NAPA) which you can see in the wide shot of the engine.

Oil change, valve adjustment, new valve cover gaskets, Inspected air cleaner & found it clean as a whistle, put it back on.

DW is now a "Bus Widow; I've been up late, having too much fun, too many nights. But, she's taking it well... hasn't complained once about "the other woman"!

Richard

Checking Out the Brakes

Been real busy since I got the Bus home, but finally took some pics of the different areas I'm working on. Brakes first:

I was pleasantly suprised to find the brakes in excellent shape. All I've had to do at the wheels was to adjust the rear brakes & clean up one frozen adjuster. Bus pulled to the right when I was driving her home; now stops straight! Woo-Hooo!!!

Front vacuum hose to brake servo was rotted at the servo end; trimmed it a bit & clamped it. New hose is on order from Bus Boys.

Rear vacuum hose was disconnected; haven't connected it to vacuum yet to test the servo. That's on my "to do" list.

Next:

Engine Room

3/3/2007: "Putt-Putt" Arrives!

We brought our new (to us) '71 VW Bus home March 3, 2007.

Images are a bit jumbled, I'm afraid. PO says this bus spent most of it's life in Texas and Arizona, & once was a "school bus" for a day care center; hence the unique graphics.

Richard