How Long Does It Take?

Fastback, Squareback, Notchback, T-3 Karmann Ghia.

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Amskeptic
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How Long Does It Take?

Post by Amskeptic » Sat Nov 10, 2007 6:44 pm

to check the tire pressure in the spare?
. . .
. . .
. . .

All day?
Yep. See, when I took the spare out I thought, that looks like water has visited this spare tire well (and we all know that will not do).
The '73 Type 3 cars have a huge nerf bar attached to the bumper with ends that traverse the spare tire well and end up not 1/2" from the front beam. This monster is the "5mph bumper" standard required in 1973. You clonk the front bumper and this u-pipe sends the impact directly to the beam/front tunnel. So anyway, they have plastic accordian sleeves that had changed shape over the years, so I ultrablack-RTV'd the interface with the front sheetmetal. Then I saw daylight between the removeable spare tire bucket and the well's sheetmetal. If you are lazy and drop the wheel down, you bend the sheetmetal wonky, and no more seal for you. Oh, and the seal was torn and loose. Then I saw water incursion traces around the fender bolt seam as the piping has shrunk and distorted over the years.

Sooooo, after a little metalwork with my elbows and fingers, a good wax job on all the pretty paint in the trunk, a rust catalyzer touch-up, aforementioned RTV, some gluing of seals, I have a water-tight trunk, save for two discreet drain holes, one at the bottom of the tire bucket, and the other the factory snuck in under the bucket's forward retaining lip. Then I applied a coat of rubberized undercoating around the bottom perimeter of the spare tire bucket. Nice n snug, but I must say, that sure is delicate sheetmetal under there.
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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Westy78
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Post by Westy78 » Sat Nov 10, 2007 7:00 pm

Hey Colin, can I lend you my bus for a year? Feel free to detail and fix whatever bugs you. :profileleft:
Chorizo, it's what's for breakfast.

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Amskeptic
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Post by Amskeptic » Sun Nov 11, 2007 9:22 pm

Westy78 wrote:Hey Colin, can I lend you my bus for a year? Feel free to detail and fix whatever bugs you. :profileleft:
Sure. I'd like to buy a bug next and drive it across the country fixing something at every rest/gas stop, and taking pictures this time. That Squareback was a hoot, stripping the sound deadener out in El Centro, rust-primering the floor pans at the Chevron in Casa Grande with the battery perched on two paint caps, top-coating in Tucson, rubberized undercoating in that truck stop parking lot, fixed the dimmer switch at an Amoco, anyways. . . .
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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