Texas To Atlanta

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Amskeptic
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Texas To Atlanta

Post by Amskeptic » Fri Sep 09, 2011 8:18 am

I was pining for peaceful after the noisy cows and thundering trains, but had resigned myself to the encroachment of civilization known as Dallas-Forth Worth. The real ranches like Milton Brisbee's were long gone, but we still had the curlicue brick or stone grand entrances to wrought iron gates ... leading to little 3-2 att gar 1/2acre houses.
Just when I thought, "it's over, no more big Texas", I spied a dirt driveway slipping into the brush along a very suburban side road. Now there was a big Texas ....
tree:
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And this tree had a whole meadow surrounding it. Gorgeous quiet hot summer afternoon and magically all the houses and gates and trucks and traffic were gone. Just like that. Just a big meadow with a huge overarching tree canopy, I was enjoying my own Avatar Moment. A quarter moon gave me just enough light to do an evening walk around the perimeter of the meadow with silhouette shadows along the edges and moon bathed silver grass in the middle. A heavy almost crashing rustle in the underbrush let me know that no matter how emmeshed in human civilization I get, I am still an animal. The hairs stood up on the nape of my neck and a flood of adrenaline put me in hyper-vigilant stand-by, is it going to be fight? or flight? I continued along with quiet padding and told myself "no fear! you send out pheromones". Considered the State Of Nature on the way back to the car. Nature has rules. Most of the animals we see get them. Otherwise they are already someone else's lunch. I felt the conundrum of animals in that moment. Woke up to this, which was more gorgeous than my poor camera could capture, Dawn Light Through The Tree:
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Took a dawn walk and expectantly awaited the sunrise. When in a perfect Frolicking Through The Buttercups and Daffodils state of bliss, how do you suppose Nature brings you back to Earth? Try Skunk Aroma. That'll do it.
Came back to the car:
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There it is:
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Car lit up in the early sun with that maddening-to-match chrome yellow hidden in the taigagrun L63h3:
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Today's project in this beautiful isolated spot in the middle of suburbia is to paint the heater control valve dump tubes. As you know, any time I set out to paint anything in Texas, the winds pick up. What you can't see so well, is the ridiculous engineering under this pedestrian scene, the wind-absorption bowed branch strut. Looks like praying mantis:
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I had originally used "New Ford Grey" Duplicolor Engine Enamel, but I really have to say, I am done with Duplicolor. Lousy! Dried so fast in the wind that there were bubbles in the surface, and the color was all wrong. So, I reverted to the Squareback intake runner trick: Primer grey followed by a light clearcoat. Excellent color match:
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Then, because Sylvester shamed me months ago about the accordian tubes clogged with nasty way-over-applied undercoat, I washed and polished them:
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... and repainted the engine hanger wings which were somewhat rusty under the way-over-applied undercoating. I am glad I will never meet the people who charged Bob D. so much money to undercoat the bus:
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Reassembled left side:
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Reassembled right side:
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I was in love with that big old tree by the time I wrapped my two day layover in the meadow. I love reading about people who save old trees from the march of "progress". This gnarly old tree had Presence.
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I am near the border of Arkansas on my way to Atlanta. A call in Florida then Kentucky, then I fly to Portland to start a whole new fall adventure with the TBRRupturedDuck.

The BobD has been a loyal hardworking and incredibly competent companion through all of this. Other than a couple of stupid junky CV boot failures and a melted Pertronix, the original components have performed flawlessly over the past 46,600 miles.
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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glasseye
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Re: Texas To Atlanta

Post by glasseye » Sat Sep 10, 2011 7:07 am

That last pix is another CalendarCandidate (tm)
"This war will pay for itself."
Paul Wolfowitz, speaking of Iraq.

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Re: Texas To Atlanta

Post by Amskeptic » Sun Sep 11, 2011 5:34 pm

glasseye wrote:That last pix is another CalendarCandidate (tm)
It was so much more gorgeous in reality. The colors! What camera can faithfully reproduce what I see from high noon to dark dusk. I am still wanting to share with y'all how the scoops light up at night from the side marker lamps.

Here in Arkansas, I have finished the annual undercoat with some extra rust eradication.
The front beam, oh man, the front beam had clogged drain holes that I had cleared out last summer. Rust rust rust flakes had piled up inside the stamped frame forks. I cut a motel room card into a skinny strip along half its length and crammed it up the drain hole. Every time I sawed downwards, rust flakes came down. I just kept sawing until the rust flakes stopped. Then I got a can of Duplicolor RustFix rust-catalyzing primer and took the paint spray nozzle off and replaced it with a carb spray nozzle with bent straw. The pressure and volume was excellent. That beam stamping filled up with primer in no time and dribbled down through the drain hole with more rust flakeage rapidily turning bluish black as it came out. What a sticky mess as the primer began to dry. I sawed at the straw to keep the hole open as the primer began to set up. Then I used the RustFixCarbSprayStraw to blast the suspension stopper tube where it goes through the frame fork on both sides. Then I watched my Rustoleum Professional Grade Rubberized Undercoat @ $7.87 per can just empty out those cans in rapid succession. Ouch.
Threw a fit at the tatty fiberglass/plastic bag look to the heater ducting. These ducts are already insulated. Ripped the ducts off so I could pull the plastic bag/fireglass fluff off for good.
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Now I could have a look at the front air distribution box. Gratifyingly free of rust, it was nonetheless painted with RustFix .... :
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.... as was the split at the back, too. You can see a little bit of the weeks and weeks of scraping off the last undercoat job. The entire bottom of the car was wiped down with a gas-soaked rag and followed by a Tide/water rinsed rag. Lot of surface area under your bus:
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The air distribution box and the right/left split at the rear of the center tube both have blankets. The front one opens like a ziplock bag. The rear has snaps:
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After the blankets were washed (the insulating property of these blankets requires that the air spaces in the blankets not be filled with 34 years of sand and silt), they were reinstalled with cleaned sanded and painted and greased hose clamps ..... :
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Even the snaps were cleaned and sanded and painted and greased, they snap nicely again, whoa:
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Then I stripped down to a bare minimum of "clothing" and undercoated the entire underside of the car. Once again, you will look like a coal miner after a cave-in if you do the deluxe EveryNookAndCrannyUndercoatOtherwiseYouAreWastingYourTime:

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I have found a good use for WD-40. It wipes up any overspray of undercoat (especially if you, as I did, attempt to apply it on a very windy day) off the painted surfaces of the car, and it makes a decent saturated paper towel bath before you take your carb spray bath before you take your Tide/water plastic bucket bath behind the closed Industrial Signs And Billboards company.

I am done with the projects. Tomorrow, I perform the last rocker sill touch-up and then this car is pretty much done, no more dirt roads, just smooth interstates to Atlanta.
ColinAnyBrainCellsLeft?
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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Hippie
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Re: Texas To Atlanta

Post by Hippie » Sun Sep 11, 2011 8:33 pm

Amazing.
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glasseye
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Re: Texas To Atlanta

Post by glasseye » Mon Sep 12, 2011 7:46 am

Amskeptic wrote:
glasseye wrote:That last pix is another CalendarCandidate (tm)
It was so much more gorgeous in reality. The colors! What camera can faithfully reproduce what I see from high noon to dark dusk.
Your biggest photographic enemy? Your eyes.

Remarkable instruments. When combined with their data processing brothers in the brain, your eyes make it all look too easy. They compensate for a myriad of issues that confound the camera.

It IS a bit of a stretch, y'know: real world vision vs a five-inch web-rez image. What's amazing is that it looks as good as it does.
Keep at it. You're the second-best photographer here. :joker:

"Stare. It's the way to educate your eyes. Pry, Listen, Eavesdrop.
Die knowing something. You are not here long."
Walker Evans
"This war will pay for itself."
Paul Wolfowitz, speaking of Iraq.

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Re: Texas To Atlanta

Post by Amskeptic » Mon Sep 12, 2011 2:55 pm

glasseye wrote: your eyes make it all look too easy.
Happens every time I draw, too ... my mind's eye says, it's easy until the pencil hits the paper.

Completed the 2011 BobD Projects Week this morning with a touch-up of all rock chips and dings since every gravel road since forever. Had to repaint the entire sills front to rear, and painted the inside corners of the rear bumper:
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Now the car no longer has the appearance of having spent a good part of the summer off-road:
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.... and it doesn't look like it was undercoated with an indiscriminate mop:
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I am 300 miles from Atlanta, all on paved roads now, trying not to feel claustrophobic with all of this civilized concrete tidiness. I must be slipping into feral (and I like it). This was the view from my "motel" ... no check-out time deadlines to meet, either.
Colin

Image
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: Texas To Atlanta

Post by airkooledchris » Mon Sep 12, 2011 4:48 pm

that there sure is a purdy undercarriage, if I do say so myself. :cyclopsani:

glad to see the bobd both being put to use AND coming out the other side better than it arrived - though I often wonder what sorts of stories we'd be reading had some other suitable replacement been found to serve on the intinerant tour.
the horrors of PO's discovered along the way, and to see how Colin deals with the monumental starting points that many of us have faced with our busses compared to those of the BobD's. thankfully that didn't need to be and the bobd has served this role, or we'd have potentially lost access to these services for the next 5 years while a less than desirable starting point is meticulously groomed back into proper service. somewhere at the end of county road T, 6 miles down an abandoned access road. :flower:
1979 California Transporter

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Hippie
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Re: Texas To Atlanta

Post by Hippie » Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:12 pm

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That's my kind of motel. I'm buried in disinteresting, high pressure work right now, and envious of your living the dream, greasy and engaged.
You go guy. :salute:
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glasseye
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Re: Texas To Atlanta

Post by glasseye » Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:30 pm

Hippie wrote: That's my kind of motel. :salute:
No kidding. Somebody wrote: "I can't remember most of the motels I've stayed at, but I can recall every single campground".

Is that tobacco? Or soybeans? What is that crop?
"This war will pay for itself."
Paul Wolfowitz, speaking of Iraq.

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Re: Texas To Atlanta

Post by Amskeptic » Wed Sep 14, 2011 1:27 pm

glasseye wrote: Is that tobacco? Or soybeans? What is that crop?
I think it was cotton after picking. Across the other road was an entire field of unpicked cotton still waiting, looking rather like some of the pillows I have seen in some of the less meticulous motels.
airkooledchris wrote: glad to see the bobd both being put to use AND coming out the other side better than it arrived - though I often wonder what sorts of stories we'd be reading had some other suitable replacement been found to serve on the intinerant tour.
the horrors of PO's discovered along the way, and to see how Colin deals with the monumental starting points that many of us have faced with our busses compared to those of the BobD's.
I will be graduating to more severe work with the TBRRupturedDuck, as it has undercarriage and mechanical issues. I really feel the threat of Wear in the BobD. It has been an amazing experience to just hit the road in an original Volkswagen where I can trust the car to stay under me and just execute like any modern car. It has "spoiled" me, but I have consciously appreciated almost every of the past 47,100 miles.

The TBRRupturedDuck is far from original in behavior and condition. Some of the issues are going to be too involved to pull off in America's utility access roads and underbrush and abandoned railroad beds ... you will discover with me, which ones. :blackeye:

("Still here in the power station gravel parking lot. It has been three days of sanding, but the crankshaft is still .0023" too big for these .010 bearings. I am down to my last can of Protech carb cleaner and a half a roll of paper towels. If the wind picks up and coats the rocker arms with sand again, I'm out. If the battery of my micrometer fails, I'm out. At least the bears don't like oil soaked paper towel trash."
:flower:
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: Texas To Atlanta

Post by airkooledchris » Fri Sep 23, 2011 12:20 pm

Amskeptic wrote: ("Still here in the power station gravel parking lot. It has been three days of sanding, but the crankshaft is still .0023" too big for these .010 bearings. I am down to my last can of Protech carb cleaner and a half a roll of paper towels. If the wind picks up and coats the rocker arms with sand again, I'm out. If the battery of my micrometer fails, I'm out. At least the bears don't like oil soaked paper towel trash."
:flower:
That sounds familiar...

One Timex digital watch, broken
One unused prophylactic, One soiled
One black suit jacket, one pair black suit pants
One hat, black
One pair of sunglasses
and $23.07

the only difference is that Colin is on a mission from BOB, and it's well over 106 miles to Chicago.

I hope the universe played nice with the rest of the above day's intentions. I look forward to following the progress of the early bay as it comes into it's own.
1979 California Transporter

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