I? Now? Own? A? Westy??

[Amskeptic]

So, is it L21H L20A?

Yeah, sure, absolutely yes.
Colin600MilesFromCar

[Squeebles]

That's great news. Given how many of these you have helped save, this can only be an example of the karmic balance of kampers in action.

[Amskeptic]

So, what does the Great Guru do on the first day with a new acquisition of an old Volkswagen?

a) washed the undercarriage of 20 year-old Michigan road salt
b) lubricated sliding door hinge, latch, roller shafts, front doors, engine hatch, key tumblers
c) washed windows
d) did my now-daily cleaning of the fuel filter, which I shall do for the next 1,000 miles, cuz I ain't taking out that engine and gas tank no how:



e) drove it firmly, it truly has the finest original factory build 2.0 engine I have driven. I do love solid lifters, and I am enjoying the holey exhaust, but the best thing about this engine is that it is balanced even better than the BobD's engine. As we get to know each other, I am getting on it more and it is frisky.
f) brakes! I am in one-of-four as of tonight. Michigan road salt made getting the drum off a bit of a chore,




a perfectly unworn drum:




original factory riveted linings with the shorter rears:




The overspray all over this car shall be dealt with in due time, including the overspray on the heat exchangers:

[Jivermo]

Man, this is real cool, as Peter Gunn would have said.

[zabo]

Looks great Colin. I think you need to do a little north GA camping before it gets too cold. we are headed up to NC again this weekend and stopping at Vogel state Park nw of Helen on the way up. I'll let you know how it is.

[TrollFromDownBelow]

Couple of questions:

- How come you don't want to pull the engine and gas tank? I've never known you to shirk from a big job, or even a little one...

- Michigan road salt....thought you bought it in GA? Couldn't have spent too many winters trolling the winter roads of MI otherwise it would look like swiss cheese....

[wcfvw69]

I'm also curious why you wouldn't want to yank the tank out to flush it, especially if you can do it w/out dropping the engine and trans?

As I looked at the disassembled rear brakes, I was wondering why the backing plate looked so rusty. Now I understand with it's time spent in Michigan. The brake pad comments reminded me of what we found on my bus and our creative way to correct it. I'm wondering if those are the original rear wheel cylinders? Are they "FAG"? My curiosity is brimming in regards to how the insides of those wheel cylinders look with it sitting for so many years w/the same brake fluid in it. I wonder if there's rust or pitting inside the bore? I'm sure you remember my "how often do you flush your brake fluid thread".

What's your next steps as far as the mechanical refresh/inspections?

[Amskeptic]

What's your next steps as far as the mechanical refresh/inspections?

So, what does the "grate gooroo" do on the second day of aforementioned acquisition of said old Volkswagen?

Well . . . the right side rear brake. A real mess of leaking brake fluid and gooped shoes and a crushed e-brake cable tube mashed against the torsion bar. Replaced the original "VW" rear wheel cylinder with "PEX/Germany, excellent quality. Part Reference Number: 211611047F" to save time (I will "rebuild" the old one), and rinsed the soaked shoes with several applications of GumOut and sandpaper. Sanded the drum. Reassembled with my patented "auto-bleed method". Adjusted the brakes. Firm pedal right off, too. Excellent ebrake action. Test drive was a horror. The tires, the tires are a mismatched bunch of Sears/Firestone/No Name/Rolling Cinderblox that started tearing apart their plies and never even tried to sort out their flat spots from 20 years of sitting, yes, twenty years:




The original owners lived in Michigan when they bought their new VW in Ohio on October 27th, 1977. Car stayed up there for three years before they came down to Georgia:




I decided to raid the wheels and tires right off the poor BobD and stick 'em on the Westy, which was finally able to give me smooth acceleration up to a never-before experienced 60 mph:




The BobD was outraged, I tell ya, outraged. Such sickening thumpa thumpa thumpa and stumbles under acceleration as the wiper got tossed around, but it was a short little journey to the storage bay:



Scraped and cleaned the insides of the original hubcaps, and the chrome sure was slathered on thick compared to the new stuff. Painted the inside edge of all hubcaps with rust catalyzing primer and let the paint run in a stream under the rolled lip. I do this to all of my hubcaps and even with the crazy rainy driving I do, it stops the deterioration. These things were abused by road salt, but the externals are still presentable.

First rust eradication:

A) Looks OK, right? Nope.




B) Peeled back the separated caulk:




C) Once I saw fresh paint, I knew the extent of the damage, minimal:




Nice driving car, quiet inside, tippy-toe brakes, poppitypopping exhaust reflects through the open windows. Smells like mouse pee or something, so I opened up the pop-top for the first time since Windows 95 and found that it had not been stowed correctly. Movement against the aluminum tubing had abraded a slight gash in the canvas.

So much to do, I should just hit the road and do projects every day across the country as I seek heat and sun. Speaking of heat and sun, that is why I am NOT pulling the gas tank. It is supposed to drop to 29* on Sunday night.
Colin

[airkooledchris]

Thanks for the warning on the separated caulk. I just noticed a long chunk of that stuff hanging under the nose of my bus the other day so I ripped it off.

Would you simply apply undercoating to this now instead, or put a bead of some caulk back here after cleaning it up?



This Westfalia is quickly becoming my new favorite series.

[wcfvw69]

I found similar spots on my bus where the caulking was doing what Colin's bus did. When I removed it, it had both surface rust and rot. The rot I had to cut out and weld new metal in. The surface rust, I used a wire wheel on my drill to remove as much as I could. I then sprayed a rust converter over it to convert that surface rust to a primer. I followed it with an enamel paint, then new caulk and finally, I sprayed new undercoating over the repair.

[glasseye]

A fridge! Four magic words: Ice. Cold. Diet. Coke.

[Amskeptic]

A fridge! Four magic words: Ice. Cold. Diet. Coke.

NEVERRRRRRRRR.
I refuse to succumb to the spirit-corroding descent into helpless dependence upon "refrigeration". You Sodomites go ahead and enjoy your dissipated chilled beverages and air-conditioned ease. I'll just crack open my 110* Diet Coke and take a snort of high-pressure carbon-dioxide foam, and pant pantless in the heat, thank-you very much, my day on planet Earth has to rely on no Thing or Another.

Anyways, I don't think this thing has a refrigerator. What it has is a battery of horrifying secrets:



This car has a new nose panel that was poorly welded to the intake plenum opening. That means it was hit in the front. The caulking was apparently applied with a cloven hoof and it was applied over dirty metal, so the water could not escape, but it sure could rust in quiet peace. The entire floor of the air intake grill was rusted and there were a couple of holes into the cabin. I am going to scrape/sand/paint the plastic air intake grill back to black instead of the unbelievably lazy overspray.




I am going to scrape/sand/paint the plastic air intake grill back to black instead of allowing this unbelievably lazy overspray to remain.
I was going to take more shots of this project, but cold grey clouds scuttled in and froze my little bald head and I seized up. The air intake has been rust-catalyzer primed, the holes were filled with Permatex Ultra-Black, and if it ever warms up, I shall paint the entire thing with the Chrysler Hemi Orange and Bright Chrome Yellow from Los Alamos.



Had anyone told me "you're going to need all of that paint" when I mulled blowing $15.98 on what might have been a No Go experiment with the Bowers' Yellowbird, "because your Westy is going to be the same color," I would have pointedly replied, "no way."
Well . . . "yes way."

[Jivermo]

By the way, your top looks pretty good. That X-14 mildew cleaner works very well on them. You can find it on line. It may not need to be painted since it was inside all those years. Maybe it was already painted...I don't see the Westfalia sticker on the back left.

[Amskeptic]

By the way, your top looks pretty good. That X-14 mildew cleaner works very well on them. You can find it on line. It may not need to be painted since it was inside all those years. Maybe it was already painted...I don't see the Westfalia sticker on the back left.

It has two symmetrical Westfalia decals at the luggage rack/poptop line, but the lettering did not come in until 1978/79.

This has been too fun to drive, so I drove, then the bad gas/varnish/coffee grounds started the fuel pump to whining, the popcornpopper exhaust started popping vigorously, then the engine died. I know the drill.
Get out of traffic.
Get under the car.
Get the fuel filter.
Get spraying GumOut into the filter.
Get the filter blown out into the pan.
Get the chapstick.
Get back in the driver's seat.
Graciously apologize to the pedestrians on the sidewalk.
Drive into traffic.
Die again.
Dive under car.
Discover the fuel line clamp still clamped to the fuel line.
Gracefully ignore the traffic jam.

I am down to four minutes flat.
Colin

[glasseye]

A fridge! Four magic words: Ice. Cold. Diet. Coke.

NEVERRRRRRRRR. .. You Sodomites go ahead and enjoy your dissipated chilled beverages and air-conditioned ease.
Anyways, I don't think this thing has a refrigerator. What it has is a battery of horrifying secrets:

Awwww. Really? I thought all those faggo..... no, Westfag... no...Volkswiggie Kamper things had a fridge. The Dorper even had one.

I'm just all self-justifyingly disgusting after spending nearly two large installing an Engel fridge in Frito last summer. I gotta tell yo, tho, it's heaven. It gets to minus 20C in there when it's WFO. Buy ice? Me? Hell, I MAKE ice.

Sorry about the horrifying secrets. I just know you'll solve 'em all.

By the way, remember meeting Frito in the parking lot in Atlanta? When he was still in the single digit thousands of miles? Well, near Sudbury, ON last month, he turned 100K miles. In seven years, a few filters, some tires, a battery, a couple of light bulbs and one set of brake shoes up front. That's it.

I hope the New One doesn't need headliner dotting.

Peter