Naranja Westy Refresh Wrap Up

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Amskeptic
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Naranja Westy Refresh Wrap Up

Post by Amskeptic » Wed Jan 20, 2016 8:46 am

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I broke up the Naranja Rust Eradication Marathon on January 12th by driving off to camp in the preserve outside of Inverness FL. Yeah, I camped for all of twenty minutes. Said I to myself, "you have not had a shower in four days and your hair is matted with undercoating and your teeth taste like sand and it is coldddd, and I must watch the last State Of The Union by this, my favorite, President."

Camped at a terrible (and they are all inexorably becoming more terrible) Motel 6 in Wildwood where the surly check-in clerk tried to tell me unconvincingly that the reason it costs $54.99 instead of the online $38.99 is because is because is because online costs $38.99 and it is $54.99 if you just walk in. I got a little heated with a review of my experiences over the last fourteen years where online reservations only give you a ten percent discount, so what is with this 30% mark-up? Surly dad/manager/franchise owner came out and hovered behind the clerk I guess to see how she stood up to my withering disdain, or perhaps to punch me in the nose. I cancelled my check-in, walked out to the Naranja Westy, fired up the laptop, found a wifi signal, and made an online reservation for $38.99. Smirkily, I sauntered back in to the counter, "I have a reservation." Her dad/manager/franchise owner came out and darkly stared at the computer screen.
"You can't just . . . "
"Oh, but I just did."

The State Of The Union address always gives me an infusion of feeling like an American. This tradition is a sorely needed moment for me, where I get to see a group of human beings who call themselves a nation come together and chart a course into the future. Sometimes, SOTUs are just a laundry list of accomplishments or a list of priorities. This one was was different. Professor Obama gave a four point decision matrix, where the choices we make will answer the immediate need for a decision, yes, but also define who we are as a nation. What I liked about this SOTU, was that it felt like an adult discussion. The chatter on CNN afterwards made me feel like slitting my wrists, such mindless gossipy inanity, God Help Us. The shower on the other hand was a magnificent cleansing moment.

Next morning, I stomped out of NAPA because the counterpersonhowmayIhelpyou was too interested in helping this befuddled guy figure out what engine he had in his old Camaro, see, I was standing there with a $34.99 gallon of StaLube GL-4 gear oil, and the price for this gear oil was making me as annoyed as waiting for fifteen minutes. The price of crude folks, is 28% of what it was eighteen months ago, why is gear oil still so damn expensive?

Drove to the gates of the Weisswurst Waddle Worry where hens worriedly waddled, and pulled into the building for Round Two. What a mess.

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What an unmitigated unchecked unkempt disaster of cans and caps and extension cords and lamps perched on tables and there's the vacuum cleaner cord ready to pull over the halogen lamp tree, a rickety thing at best, and sand. Sand is the natural ground cover here, but it is an organically sticky sand that clots to your feet in the morning dew and after the rain that likes to pop up occasionally. The equipment here is comprised mostly of side-of-the-road type acquisitions. That means much of it has problems. The halogen lamp tree has collars that allow the lamps to slide downward any old time, if you lift them back up, the collars fall out of the tubes. The vacuum cleaner did not have any sort of filter. I found this out when vacuuming the interior and discovering that the peppery sound behind me was the outlet discharging sand and bits against the ceiling. In the spirit of creative improv and rumpled object churn that permeates this place, I fashioned a filter out of a roll of screen and a wrap of paper towel held together with duct tape. Worked splendidly. Good for two full days per paper towel rewrap:

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List of Things Done
*painted headlamp rings and buckets

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* door seal channel rust eradication
*lubricated window regulators and door latches

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*disassembled door handles, removed paint overspray, repaired key return springs, lubricated door pull springs
*replaced right vent glass frame

*re-adhered door panel vinyl in 48 steps of visegripped 1x1 wood clamps and 3M Super 90 adhesive (this did a good job of straightening the warped lower areas of the water-damaged masonite)
*painted door panel masonite with engine enamel clearcoat
*made new vapor barriers with new! improved! weighted! flaps

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*painted door seal channels
*waxed all inner door painted surfaces
*toothbrush-cleaned air extractor slides and grills
*removed "Spark-O-Matic" 6 x 9 door speakers
*painted speaker grills satin black

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*repaired sheetmetal at tailgate button and painted

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*re-keyed new tailgate button to work with my old key (a bit sloppy seeing as the new key was a later symmetrical style, but I dremeled the tumblers and it'll do)

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*cracked the pricelessly perfect tailgate panel but good when I couldn't get a stupid black retainer button to come out - had to epoxy that thing as perfectly as possible then paint in the wood grain pattern with Chloe brown kick panel paint, man that was a disheartening moment:

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*painted all worn wood panelling with acetone reduced clearcoat + Chloe brown kick panel paint (need to shoot an "after" shot)

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*removed front bumper, rust-eradicated nose panel and "deformation element", and painted (no "after" shot)

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*cleaned all upholstery and carpet

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*painted the bleach burn in the passenger compartment that had been covered with a most hideous throw carpet. I used Chloe brown kick panel paint again to imitate the brown specks in the original carpet. Although it looks too green under the halogen lights, it looks fine in the daylight:

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Shall I go on?
. . . there is so much more.
Colin

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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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airkooledchris
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Re: Naranja Westy Refresh Wrap Up

Post by airkooledchris » Wed Jan 20, 2016 6:57 pm

Amskeptic wrote: Shall I go on?
. . . there is so much more.
After photo's of painted wood grain and bumper area's, then .....

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please sir, may I have another update?
1979 California Transporter

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Amskeptic
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Re: Naranja Westy Refresh Wrap Up

Post by Amskeptic » Wed Jan 20, 2016 8:22 pm

Some day or another, maybe Day Five at the Weisswurst Mouse Munch 'N' Crunch Mausoleum , I forgot to mention that I took apart the left taillamp and cobbled in the *original left rear reflector* that Fred had left off the car. He just bondo'd and painted over the holes. WTH? I found the left rear reflector fallen under the rear seat, mangled by the hinge action of the seat bottom. That's where it was, FRED.

Drilled through the bondo and paint. Pretty dang thick. Scraped the rust and failed seam caulk and the undercoating applied all inside the engine compartment. Got that sweet air compressor to blast the gaps with rust catalyzing primer and painted three coats of Chrysler Hemi Orange, Bright Yellow, and BobD green, using the Preval sprayer last used in December of 2010 on the nose of the BobD:

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Cleaned every electrical contact, spade, bulb socket, bulb, and waxed every wire in the rear harness, then assembled the rear light assembly with the wires laid out rationally inside the housing and used duct tape as a taillight cover plate:

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Here, the left rear reflector is mounted with through screws. The original rubber boot for the reflector wiring was supple and perfect:

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Here's the completed left rear reflector. This was the last obvious flaw. From twenty feet, this car now looks pretty complete:

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Throughout the Naranja Restoration Marathon, life on the farm proceeded with a chorus of guinea hens, goats, chickens, pigs, turkeys . . . here, I am taking my morning rounds with my poultry posse:

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Say hello to a goat whose name I heard many many times.
"Bob!"
"Bob! Get out of there!"
"Bob! Bob!! Bob! NO! Why don't you take care of your OWn family and stay away from here!"
Here's Bob's family, the little bleater is especially cute:

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This little turkey took a shine to me and hung out with me a lot. I had to warn her not to drink the gasoline or eat the scouring pads:

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Another Westy on the property, this one belonging to a friend who needed to park it for a bit . . . in need of ministrations that I could not provide:

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This guy got to have his very own very urban chic red light district on the cold nights. His aversion to cold matched my own perfectly. 55* and we both shut down and stare at walls:

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. . . speaking of stinger exhaust Beetles:

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We got the choke assembled correctly so it would start in an instant when cold. Got the headlamps going, high/low beams! turn indicators, and finally the brake lights. Then we drove it around the neighborhood. It has a willing spirit, but has been hobbled by unfocused hopes and inattentive workmanship. I could have given it a year, but only gave a couple of hours.

There's more! But I have to go. Today I spent the 66* sunny afternoon disassembling the original fuel pump and now I smell like that horrific first day with this car when I had to battle that stale fuel varnish after poking the gas tank outlet with a coat hanger.
I have pictures . . . later!
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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Re: Naranja Westy Refresh Wrap Up

Post by Jivermo » Thu Jan 21, 2016 6:48 am

Jeff has some joint going on up there! I hope you took that turkey on the road with you-the cactus needs some company.

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Re: Naranja Westy Refresh Wrap Up

Post by cek347 » Thu Jan 21, 2016 8:41 am

Awesome read. More More More. Really, I hang on ever word of waxing, polishing, rust eradicating. You can't type enough fine detail to bore me. Great stuff. I think a lot of people are like me, we read and read and read but don't comment often. The story of bringing this bus up to your benchmark is great! Keep it coming, fill in any blanks, love all of your PAIN staking work.
15 Jetta Tdi 23k
01 Golf Tdi 267k RIP 2/4/15
WTB: Bay West or Vanagon Westy

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Re: Naranja Westy Refresh Wrap Up

Post by vwlover77 » Thu Jan 21, 2016 12:15 pm

Excellent! More! We want more!!!
Don

---------------------------
78 Westy
71 Super Beetle Convertible Autostick

"When we let our compassion go, we let go of whatever claim we have to the divine." - Bruce Springsteen

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Re: Naranja Westy Refresh Wrap Up

Post by Jivermo » Thu Jan 21, 2016 5:40 pm

African Spur tortoise...where did he come from?

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zabo
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Re: Naranja Westy Refresh Wrap Up

Post by zabo » Thu Jan 21, 2016 5:56 pm

where is this lock fixing procedure documented? i thought i once saw it somewhere on here. my drivers side has never worked and now my passenger side is showing more and more resistance.

nice work on naranja- the undercarrage work looked intense. :)
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78 bus

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weisswurst
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Re: Naranja Westy Refresh Wrap Up

Post by weisswurst » Fri Jan 22, 2016 8:28 am

Jivermo wrote:African Spur tortoise...where did he come from?
We raised him from a hatchling my wife rescued from a closing pet store about 7 or 8 years ago. We were waiting for a table at an Outback Steakhouse and wandered in to a pet store next door and left with him!
Jeff
"I drink, therefore yes ma'am..."

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Amskeptic
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Re: Naranja Westy Refresh Wrap Up

Post by Amskeptic » Sat Jan 23, 2016 8:09 am

Well, I got two days of "this car now looks pretty complete" until someone at a Pilot gas stop managed to crack the right rear reflector in half and leave a score down the right rear bumper. Whoever you are, you know what you did, and so do your kids.

My unexpectedly beloved Kodak EZ Share camera, whose efforts were behind every single photograph and video I have taken since 2006, has died. It went into a seizure yesterday, could not focus, and struggled to set the lens with a tic that would not stop twitching.

We both have patiently endured the precursor of this malady since April 14th 2010 at 10:45AM at the Hoover Dam (when I dropped it on the stone steps), but recently it had begun to go into a cycling of servo motor being instructed by an errant position sensor followed by shutter snaps. I hammered it with my 12# sledge a few times to see if I could discover what was wrong with it. And I did. Like an aircraft accident investigator, I had to distinguish between the impact of the hammer and the chronic wear-out of whatever screwed up the aperture/zoom. Apparently, in 2010, the camera hit the stone step with the corner of the lens and it dented the plastic spiral track that changes the aperture as the lens zooms in or out. After a half decade of glorious itinerant life, the metal guide pin riding the dented plastic track broke through to the adjacent track. That is what got my poor Kodak EZ Share's electronics all in a tizzy. It was a stunningly complex and dense little piece of equipment, and it turned out to be a damn fine quality piece of equipment too. So long, little Kodak, thank you for tolerating the 130* Pahrump Purgatory while you discretely chattered in your efforts to focus on the kerosene lamp flames while I tried to play the piano, and thank you for all of these photographs that have graced and charted my internet Volkswagen career.
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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Amskeptic
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Re: Naranja Westy Refresh Wrap Up

Post by Amskeptic » Sun Jan 24, 2016 2:31 pm

Amskeptic wrote: My unexpectedly beloved Kodak EZ Share camera, whose efforts were behind every single photograph and video I have taken since 2006, has died . . .
Colin
. . . thus no pictures for the last few operations performed on Naranja before I dumped it unceremoniously at the storage unit yesterday and scurried into the Lexus for some real heat.

*cleaned/waxed paint under luggage rack/re-bent brackets for less wind noise
*lubricated pivots/cleaned and waxed jalousie windows
*disassembled and cleaned sliding door latches/rollers, new lock/handle seals
*replaced fuel filter, reverse-flushed fuel pump with WD-40
*adjusted valves, re-greased breaker cam
*cleaned and de-ox gelled all major electrical connections + & -
*removed jackets on heater pipe and rust-eradicated distribution box
*removed heater ducts, freed sleeves from valves, cleaned and greased
*replaced thermostat
*painted sliding door upper roller cover/tailgate hinge cover/windlace caps
with Fusion satin white plastic paint
*lubricated poptop hinges/rollers/latch

When I hit the Georgia border, temperatures had dropped below freezing and the winds were mighty gusty. Naranja was a champ in the wind and maintained a decent 60-65 mph until it didn't. Yep. She waited until pellets of ice were pinging off the windshield for the fuel pump to start singing a sick little song and the engine began to buck in protest. Whanged an exit and looked desperately for a wind break at the least, cover was too much to ask for. Coasted/staggered over to a truck stop alleyway between the scales and the door to the restaurant when All Idiot Lights told me, "you're doing the filter HERE, Idiot." Shoveled on my work sweatshirt over the black hoody, braced for a wet windy cold filter pull, and had a moment to consider, what if the filter is not clogged? Pulled the filter, reverse-rinsed it with GumOut, blew into the outlet and sprayed a clot of GumOut rust-laden lip-chapping fluid into a Motel 6 ice bucket. After a couple of bone-chilling rinses, I stuck the filter, primed with an ounce of WD-40 to help clean the fuel pump rollers of any extraneous detritus, back on. Car started up with a quiet pump and we hit the road through sixty miles of Atlanta's finest fast-moving commuter traffic on
(after this epic marathon of rust eradication, what else but . . . )
heavily salted roads.
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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weisswurst
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Re: Naranja Westy Refresh Wrap Up

Post by weisswurst » Tue Jan 26, 2016 6:13 pm

Amskeptic wrote:
When I hit the Georgia border, temperatures had dropped below freezing and the winds were mighty gusty.
Colin

Oh no! I made it back from my trip and found this in the building!! :pale:
Jeff
IMG_7547.jpg
"I drink, therefore yes ma'am..."

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Re: Naranja Westy Refresh Wrap Up

Post by Jivermo » Tue Jan 26, 2016 7:04 pm

I'm guessing that's Colin's. He has a bit of packratitis going on...he always leaves one tool or another down here. I currently have a nice, large straight Craftsman screwdriver here. Last time it was his favorite socket drive.

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Re: Naranja Westy Refresh Wrap Up

Post by Sylvester » Tue Jan 26, 2016 7:06 pm

Amskeptic wrote:
Amskeptic wrote: Car started up with a quiet pump and we hit the road through sixty miles of Atlanta's finest fast-moving commuter traffic on
(after this epic marathon of rust eradication, what else but . . . )
heavily salted roads.
Colin
This was fun weather huh? It hailed up here too on the north side. Love that traffic too, that is why I take the bus (Not VW bus) to work. I might have another camera for you.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue, I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace. Where never lark, or even eagle flew. And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod, The high untrespassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

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Amskeptic
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Re: Naranja Westy Refresh Wrap Up

Post by Amskeptic » Tue Jan 26, 2016 9:27 pm

weisswurst wrote:
Amskeptic wrote:
When I hit the Georgia border, temperatures had dropped below freezing and the winds were mighty gusty.
Colin

Oh no! I made it back from my trip and found this in the building!! :pale:
Jeff
T-t-t-h-h-a-a-t-t's th-th-the onununuh, yes it-t-t-'s c-c-c-o-o-o-l-l-d-d-d-d,
C-c-c-o-l-in-n-n
(throw it in a Post Office EZ ship bad and I will PayPal you shipping)
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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