IAC Greetings From New England

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Amskeptic
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IAC Greetings From New England

Post by Amskeptic » Thu Sep 26, 2013 5:11 am

On the schedule I had an entry, "Niagara Falls - crazy and you know it". It was, too.

Cindy just had to dangle in front of me an enticing riot of music that I love some 300 miles from the preceding day's appointment, and another 350 miles from the next morning's call. So I said,
( ) "gee, I'd love to, but . . . "
( ) "what? are you crazy? do I own a private jet or sumpin?"
(X) "when does it start?"

As customers scrambled to re-arrange their schedules, I asked Chloe, "are you up for this?" Checked the valves (didn't need a single tweak), checked the compression (135/135/140/145)(carbon build-up on the left? seeing as ther numbers were 15-20 psi higher than the last one?), stuck in a set of plugs for the first time since I have owned this car, and took off into the rain and plummeting temperatures towards upstate. You would have done the same to hear the Gipsy Kings:

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Stuck in a visit with Herrnkind in the Leatherstocking region to help finance this reckless pursuit of Experience, it is worthy of its own thread, and therefore has one:

The morning of the concert, I visited the Department of Motor Vehicles in Albion New York to renew Chloe's registration, grab a set of plates for the Lexus, and went to the old barn to exercise the plucky Squareback:

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For the first time in my VW ownership stretching back some 34 years, a Volkswagen of mine? would not start? "What? What? What?" says I in disbelief. "Dayam, I have to preserve the battery here and stuff." That battery, sitting all winter and summer, is planning on playing only briefly here. Sure, it is easy to diagnose everybody else's no-start, but when it is your own car, you don't get to play "maestro" "hero of the morning" "guru". You have to just get in there and find out why. My breaker point test pointed out the culprit . . . the breaker points. Although they gave me a nice spark out of the coil when I opened them with the screwdriver, they were very intermittent about it. That led me to believe that the screwdriver was doing the actual electrical conducting against the moveable point's arm to the ground. When I took them out, the contact surfaces were blackish crusty oxidized damp. Filed the points (took a bit of sawing to get down to fresh metal), and the battery gave us just enough to fire up.

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After driving a little ol' 1600 engine all summer, this Squareback engine was treated to some Chloe Scales Mountains brisk rpms. Such a nice little car.

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The concert was a beautiful wall of 12 string guitars (sample below):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Usxz6d2EJRY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp8W-RlZgK4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqpYNWBkIVE


especially when Canut Francois Reyes led.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W0h51SNBbY


I managed to drive a Pontiac Bonneville all the way there and all the way back. Cindy remembers how many of our drives included flashing lights dancing on the headliner of VW Passats, Mercedes 450SELs, Lexus LS400s, and BMW 530s, as I "explained" our various hurries to various cops. Not any more. I drove that Pontiac like an old Volkswagen bus. "Am I driving fast enough?" "It'll do." Man . . .

Started off for Connecticut the next morning at 5:15AM. "I'll beat the rain if I don't dally," I noted to myself. At 6:30AM, "where's my wallet?" Drove back to Cindy's, "there's my wallet, just under the Pontiac's driver's door, yay!" now totally sodden in the now thoroughly falling rain. Long Day's Drive:

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Had a good day with drozdenko and Ethan in the suburban scrum of teeming Connecticut, working on a Vanagon and drozdenko's Westy. They have the sort of banter I enjoy. Pretty much offered sparse instructions to drozdenko and left him to re-setting the torsion bars on the Westy while Ethan and I did a tune-up on the Vanagon and persuaded the horn to work. Drozdenko knocked it out pretty efficiently, I might add, he was done by the time Ethan and I test-drove the Vanagon.

The next day's driver's door latch repair required some improv. The symptoms were that the inside lock release was not unlocking the door. An old spring in my "springs and whatnot" bag saved the day:

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Off to Kittery Maine, NOW.
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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Cindy
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Re: IAC Greetings From New England

Post by Cindy » Thu Sep 26, 2013 7:28 am

I forgot to tell you what Tiffany said when I told her you had to come back for your wallet: "Dang it. I'll have to hide it better next time."

She misses you. Let's go visit next time you're here.

Cindy
“No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side.
Or you don't.” ― Stephen King, The Stand

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Re: IAC Greetings From New England

Post by nedsavoie » Thu Sep 26, 2013 7:29 pm

Colored for effect? I now know that Colin likes color...

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Re: IAC Greetings From New England

Post by nedsavoie » Thu Sep 26, 2013 7:32 pm

Wow, and now I feel like I just lost my "first post" virginity with quite the simple post. Oh well, I'm sure many others have felt the same way...

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Re: IAC Greetings From New England

Post by Amskeptic » Fri Sep 27, 2013 7:52 am

nedsavoie wrote:Wow, and now I feel like I just lost my "first post" virginity with quite the simple post. Oh well, I'm sure many others have felt the same way...
Now here's your First Reply:

Visited nedsavoie (that's just his username) yesterday to consult (actually consult for once).

Nedsavoie likes to adjust his valves at a comfortable level, so he removed the engine and stuck it in the back of the Ford pick-up:

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There were many many many notes spewing from The Consultant pretty much all day, simple notes like "reverse the intake manifolds so they actually line up with the intake plenum", and "why am I so chilly?"
"Oh no! CALL:
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and "utilize your air compressor to clean out all of the cavities in your 78 Westy's undercarriage", and this critical little observation, "the windshield channel does not have cut-outs". Ned gets to explain that one:

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Ned has this beautiful dutiful vehicle sitting there:

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This double cab Vanagon uses an inclined diesel that looks like a dodo bird in a sparrow's nest to me:
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It also has the most circuitous oil fill pipe on record I believe you can dump an entire quart into the fill pipe and it still will not register on the dipstick until you go into the house and knock out a nice cup of coffee and shop online for a half an hour:
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So taken was I by this unassuming but seriously compelling vehicle, that I never took pictures of the beautifully painted 78 Taigagruen Westy I was hired to check out.

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Nedsavoie, it was good to meet you and fam and straggling neighbors.
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: IAC Greetings From New England

Post by nedsavoie » Sat Sep 28, 2013 5:40 am

As you can see, Colin was quite smitten by Olive. I told him I thought it would make the perfect IAC support vehicle...

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I have much more to say, but a two year old hanging off my leg at the moment. Hope to have a more in-depth update later today.

Had a great day, and learned a ton.

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Re: IAC Greetings From New England

Post by nedsavoie » Sun Sep 29, 2013 7:00 am

Colin took a couple of tours around the neighborhood trying to find my house. I'm not sure why he had difficulty, the streets are all labeled in the common New England style (which is to say, they're not). My morning had a bit of chaos with a sick babysitter and my trying to find coverage. Luckily our neighbors were able to help out and my wife was able to come home early from work. We had it all covered by the time Colin arrived, but I was a bit frazzled and I'm pretty certain I'll be paying dearly for the next 6 months....

As noted above, Colin found an instant attraction to Olive. You can see the sparkle that must have caught his eye...

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(He was even polite enough not to ask what was in the safe. I'm not sure I even know...) She is a rare find in the states because of the protectionist "Chicken Tax" from the 60s. Wikipedia has a good writeup on it, but essentially our Government put a 25% tax on all light trucks coming into the U.S. Once a vehicle is over 25 years old, there is no tax. I've been bringing in 1 or 2 a year for the past few years and selling them. It lets me drive a fun vehicle for a few months and makes for a great beach vehicle.

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Once I lured Colin away from Olive with the promise of a hot cup of BLACK coffee, we got to talking about the tasks at hand. I've owned my bus since 1995, had lots of great memories, but about 6 years ago she was getting a bit crusty about the edges. I had a good friend do the body work (he owns a commercial garage) and he had his paint guy shoot it. All in all, I'm very happy with the results (but we'll get into the details later). I also had Boston Bob build an engine for me about 8 years ago, and it has about 10k on it (and we'll get into the details about that later as well). Unfortunately it was allowed to sit outside for a few months (unbeknownst to me) and has rusted up the flywheel and essentially crusted up the visual appeal. We discussed my goals for the bus (both in the next 8 or so hours and long term). I've been a lurker on the Type 2 list, the Samba, etc. essentially utilizing them as an information source, but I'm not a big fan of all the chatter. I stumbled upon the IAC after looking for a good writeup on the sliding door, and as they say, Bob married your mother's sister, or something like that.

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Those lists have, of course, informed me with lots of opinions and best guesses, and like any good prosecutor on cross examination, Colin lured all sorts of drivel out of me. He then gave me his opinions on such varied topics as tires, valve adjustment, CHTs, and the surmised trauma that must have happened to some engine builders early in their youth.

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I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but Colin is very scientific about things (3X is a trend!) and believes the engineers over in Germany had good reason for the things they did. I tend to believe him because of the science and reasoning behind his opinions, and he has given some good debunking to what is considered by many to be "common knowledge."

We got back out to the garage and used Olive as a tool bench and Old 37 (my trusted retired F150 fire truck (Use Your Ashtray!)) as an engine stand, and dug into it. We dug into the valve adjustment (it has hydraulic lifters, you don't need to adjust them...) and Colin's bullshit detector started firing off immediately. "Why are the adjustment screws at different heights? Why is the inside of the valve cover marred up?" I, of course, believed I was in possession of a Boston Bob engine, one I had plunked down plenty of hard money for, and it only had 10k and should be close to perfect. Pfffffttttt. I'm sure the motor will still be good, but the small details Colin was pointing out sure were crumbling my supreme confidence (I mean, really, why does a new rebuild have 3 Bosch sparkplugs and 1 AUTOLIGHT! WTF.). But Colin is nothing if not upbeat when he gives you the bad news (You won't die from this, but you will need to attend to this motor, and try to cut down on the trans fats. Nobody else can do this but you.).

I have a 2 year old who is requesting breakfast, but I did want to get some update out. I'll post more later.

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Re: IAC Greetings From New England

Post by nedsavoie » Sun Sep 29, 2013 12:09 pm

Once we finished with the valve adjustment, we turned our attention to the endplay. The motor showed us about .007. .006 is the wear limit. Maybe Bob built this engine after consulting with another builder, but neither Colin nor I was very happy about it. So into Colin's shim pile we dove. My micrometer is in inches, his shims are in metric, and we had lots of fun trying to do the associated calculations. Eventually we got it down to about .0036 or so, and he didn't even have to part with his beloved .38 shim (it's for the Bob D!). Senior moments abounded, but my friend Jeff stopped by, if not to help, then to at least offer a little levity. Colin offered me his spare seal, but I assured him whoever he couldn't remember it was for needed it more than me, and I had plenty of time to add it to my list of parts to order. I'll be putting that list together and sending it over to you for review, professor....

Once we got through with that we had a bit of pizza (good crust, he said) and I ran around attending to some things while I assume Colin tried to pick the lock on the safe. It would have proffered about as good a result as Al Capone's did. Then we started in on the bus.

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Right away Colin noticed the cutouts in my windshield channel (that alone was worth the price of the day) and let me know that they were not supposed to be there, and would need to be corrected. Apparently Brian, my friend who welded them in, thought he was supposed to match the inside cutouts (which are there because the metal gets bent down to hold the tinnerman nuts and hence the dashboard) and made the unfortunate decision to cut them out.

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This, I now find, is a tragic flaw, and I'm trying to figure out how I can fix them without having to weld new patches in. On the other hand, it may be a good excuse to finally buy that welder I've been squirreling money away for (any suggestions?). If anyone has any other thoughts on how to proceed, I would love to know.

We continued going through the bus. Front beam looks great on the passenger side, passable on the driver's. Discussed how to get some more life out of it with some well placed holes, rust removal and a case or two of rust catalyzing primer. Colin, what is your preferred brand?

We also discussed the rear structure where the bumper mounts, and the same treatment. For the most part the bus is very solid, but I'll be going slowly through the underbody one section at a time (much like dotting a headliner) so I can make small progress without being daunted by the overall task at hand.

We discussed, at length, the sound-proofing options. Essentially I just want to bring the decibels down a bit (from both the bus and the wife), especially at the higher range. I'm not sure just how much I can buy into Colin's philosophies here, as I don't get quite the amount of pleasure that he does from listening to the constant music from the motor. Much like the Gypsy Kings, here it really is a matter of opinion. And the quieter the bus is (I'm presuming) the quieter the wife will be....

We titravated for awhile longer, adjusting doors, tweaking this and that, and then I finally got a look at the book. Fantastic. A tribute to OCD in the most complimentary way ever. Colin, a page layout program like Adobe InDesign or Quark could and would make your endeavor much more efficient. Let me know if I can help in any way.

To cap it off, my friend Brian stopped by (he's the mechanic) with his 88 Westy. A bit more discussion and banter ensued, then both were off with a toot-toot, leaving me to wonder "What the hell just happened?"

Since Colin left I've continued, with renewed vigor, my attack on this project. Yesterday I stripped off all the FI and tin from the engine, and I'm getting a parts list together. I'm also going to (hopefully today) get my 3HP 60 Gallon compressor set up so I can make some headway. I'll try to keep everybody posted on my progress.

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I'm already looking forward to next year.

PS, I think I also realized it doesn't matter what the weather is, Colin's going to bitch about it. We had perfect 74* temps at midday, but that didn't keep him from complaining about it. At least I didn't have to see the cutoffs...

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Re: IAC Greetings From New England

Post by Amskeptic » Mon Sep 30, 2013 4:52 am

nedsavoie wrote: I'll be putting that list together and sending it over to you for review, professor....

I ran around attending to some things while I assume Colin tried to pick the lock on the safe.
PS, I think I also realized it doesn't matter what the weather is, Colin's going to bitch about it.
Awaiting with bated breath for the list.

While you ran around phone-to-ear, I sat on the Ford's bumper in the stupid glorious sunshine.
Colin :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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glasseye
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Re: IAC Greetings From New England

Post by glasseye » Mon Sep 30, 2013 7:58 pm

nedsavoie wrote:As you can see, Colin was quite smitten by Olive. I told him I thought it would make the perfect IAC support vehicle...
First thing I thought when I saw Olive. Absolutely perfect. Plus, he wouldn't have to sleep on the floor anymore. :salute:

And, it's a diesel. :cheers:

I have good experience sound-deadening Frito, who was basically a big tin drum and is now much better, thanks. Frito is a Sprinter van. Lemme know if I can help.
"This war will pay for itself."
Paul Wolfowitz, speaking of Iraq.

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Re: IAC Greetings From New England

Post by nedsavoie » Tue Oct 01, 2013 2:35 pm

Actually, I would love any advice you have on the soundproofing. Your name actually came up when I was talking with Colin. The fuel filler pipe to tank connector is NLA I believe, but the Sprinter piece for the same connection is a perfect fit, and has this bulb that allows it to turn the corner. It's a great fix for our bay window tanks.

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glasseye
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Re: IAC Greetings From New England

Post by glasseye » Tue Oct 01, 2013 5:35 pm

Sprinter donor parts for ailing VWs. How cool is THAT? :cheers:
The Fatherland knows all. :study:

For details on how I soundproofed my Sprinter, see this link

http://sprinter-source.com/forum/showth ... s+Bulkhead

It's a long thread, but the soundproofing stuff is in there. Somewhere. : )

More info offline if you want at:

peter@signalfilms.com
"This war will pay for itself."
Paul Wolfowitz, speaking of Iraq.

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Re: IAC Greetings From New England

Post by Amskeptic » Thu Oct 03, 2013 4:34 am

Sprinter schminter . . . back in the magical world of the Volkswagen Phenomenom, I visited RandyInMaine at his compound . . . in Maine, strangely enough.

RandyInMaine has gone all out since I last saw him. Who knows the deep currents that drive Randy. He now has a two-bay + workshop garage with built in central vacuum and central radiant floor heat, and soon to arrive compressed air. I pushed hard for the wet bar, pool table, neon lighted "Randy's Garage N Bar", but he is a bit more focused than that:

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We had a plethora of car parts at our disposal. The mission was to assemble some bus out of the strewnishness. Strewnishness?
Strewnishness:

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Somewhere in there, we set the end play on his Camper Special, did some alternator swapping and soldering of the main B+ wire. He let me drive his Jeep Comanche to NAPA. Maybe I did not understand the special relationship he had with his Jeep. I TOLD that straight-six 4 litre to GET moving with a thrashing pull to 3,000 rpm in most gears, you know, blow out the carbon? We swapped a gas tank, yes, we must have, because Randy had to drive to NAPA again to buy a fuel filler hose. I HEARD him as he left,
"Baby baby, we won't make you go all the way to 3,000 rpm."
Spoils that thing, I say. Randy came back in 15 minutes.
"Randy, now you've done it."
"I did? What?"
"Now Chloe wants to know why she always has to do 3,000 rpm."

Visited Foxmon nearby. His bus has a beautiful automatic transmission that kicks down like I wish Ethan's in Connecticut would.
But his engine was laggard at low rpms, a malady that he tried to cure with an engine overhaul and several visits to specialists.
After subjecting him to a valve adjustment, breaker points, timing, and fuel injection spiel, he adjusted his hydraulic valve lifters, set his points, timed his engine, adjusted his AFM (after we tweaked the wiper contact patch), no more malady. Chime in if you read this Foxmon.

Must run to Vermont. I am far away this morning, and must knock out some serious miles in the next 81 minutes!
Colin
(got some fall foliage pictures, must put up)
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: IAC Greetings From New England

Post by hambone » Thu Oct 03, 2013 10:26 am

Randy nice to see a photo of you finally, don't think I ever have. "Ehhh what is in a meatbag?" - Shakespeare
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http://pdxvolksfolks.blogspot.com
it balances on your head just like a mattress balances on a bottle of wine
your brand new leopard skin pillbox hat

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Randy in Maine
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Re: IAC Greetings From New England

Post by Randy in Maine » Thu Oct 03, 2013 10:56 am

Yes Colin showed up at the "garagmahall" on a beautiful sunny fall Maine morning. For the record, yes I do in fact have hot and cold water available at the outside silcocks at the shop. Quite handy to have. And yes, I am able to heat both the shop (to 55º) and the house (to 67º) using radiant floor heat for about $1500 a year (600 gallons of propane at $2.49 a gallon). The main reason for the radiant floor heat was to keep sources of igniton out of the garage. The shop was built out of structally insulated panels and is R-40 or better everywhere. It is also very tight with respect to air infiltration. For the record, I have over 1 mile of 8" shiplap pine that I have sanded (3 times) and poly'ed (2 times). It is quite comfy even on the coldest days. Plus, I just like the look of real wood. I am trying to preserve as much floor room as possible and that is why I have some shelving built about 7' above the floor. Plus I have a lot of stuff. I have been organizing it as best I can but sometimes life just gets in the way.

The shop is only 40' wide and 28' deep with 12' ceilings due to the setbacks on my tiny little lot here at the beach. 12' x 28' of the shop is dedicated to my woodshop that has a dust collection system. Not perfect but it helps.

We were able to get my Camper Speical back into presentable shape before it gets re-installed in the "keeper bus". I am waiting for a rear main seal and it will be just about ready to go in. We spent a fair amount of time getting the tinwork to fit correctly as it has been a little beat up from mostly my abuse. The plan is to swap over the engine/transmission/fuel tank/konis from the old bus to the new bus. that will likely happen next week or so.

I have a few extras going on the new bus (Berg shifter/SS brake hoses/Unilite distributor/heated seats/kickass stereo etc) that Colin tolerated pretty well. Did not approve of, but at least tolerated. I will be rebuilding the Westy furniture, mostly because I can. I will be doing that over the upcoming winter so that I can take a ride out to New Mexico or someplace nice next fall.

Anyway, always nice to see Colin roll up in the driveway to assist in moving my project forward. May the road ahead be free of potholes and with Panera Bread not far away Colin!

And yes hambone I am still a "hotty".
79 VW Bus

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