Looking for a late bay

[dhoch14]

I took a look at the bus yesterday for Aaron.

Here are my thoughts for the group aka peanut gallery.

Good:
* Body is straight
* Little to no rust
* Westy interior is fantastic. Amazing condition.
* New seals.
* New pop-top canvas.
* Interior in general is excellent.
* Paint is new.
* New coil and plugs.
* Has a vac dizzy.
* FI in tact (as far as I can tell).

Bad:
* Looks to be an aftermarket exhaust setup. Converted to a 72-74 setup. No catalytic converter.
* Wiring is a hack job. Not terrible, it's obviously been toyed with.
* Foam heater wrap is not on straight to do slight bend in engine bay.
* Odd red paint job on the engine tin.
* Oil leak on the left valve gasket.
* Idle was shit on start. And almost stalled a couple times.
* No records/receipts on "rebuild" or engine.
* Guy bought it for less 2 weeks ago and is turning it around for a profit. He's a car collector.
* Will need a new set of Hankooks sooner than later.

Ugly:
* rusted hole through front floor panel. Quarter size.
* no secondary battery.
* cannot confirm if fridge works.
* Has a "hiccup" at 30 to 40 MPH.
* Has a push-button starter on the dash.
* Has a weird epoxy like resin around the front window seal. It's like a por 15, but black. Scrapped off with my thumb, and it looks like it was used to seal the rubber.
* Overspray on the repaint. Under the body.

Overall, it's a seriously beautiful bus. I love the color and an interior that wonderful is hard to beat. Downs are the wildcard for the engine, exhaust, hicciup, wiring, and price.

[aarondonne]

Thanks for the righteous write up Dave....much appreciated.

I'm hoping to take it to either Halsey's or Trafton's tomorrow. I'm Mostly concerned about the quality of the engine re-build and the 'hiccup'. I'd love to hear from the gallery if there are any other specific things that I should really watch out for...

[Xelmon]

Excellent write-up!
New coils/plugs should be treated as "attempts at fixing the hiccup". The engine is either going out/on its last legs, or the FI system is not working correctly.*

The repaint is the cheap way to do the repaint, the seals are more than likely necessary replacements anyways. I am curious how old the paint is, as improper surface prep could make it one ugly bus in a hurry.

The fact that the windshield is also glued back is probably a sign that the lip under the windshield is rusted.

I'd say that the previous owner was the minimal investment type, and the engine hiccup forced the fellow to sell it instead of invest in a new engine.


As for you Aaron?
First thought is get the contact of the previous owner. If you can get his contact, ask him about the windows, engine, etc, so that you really know what you are facing. I guarantee that the LO seller will have some form of contact.

Then I have some conflicting advice...
Being a cheap bastard, unless either shop says "It's fine, just has to be tuned", I'd run. $11,500 is a ton of money for questionable wiring and a dieing engine. At $5000, I'd file all those issues in the "Cross that bridge..." folder, and just budget it to $11,500.

However, I looked a few months ago and even for $5000 there were some rather questionable looking buses, both exterior and interior. If this is really the best the market has to offer, bite a magazine of bullets, and just start gathering parts for a rebuild. At least that way you have a minty chassis needing minimal work.
Oh, and haggle the hell out of him, try $10,000.

[Bleyseng]

Pros: No Gex rebuilt engine

Cons: No idea who rebuilt the engine

Seems too much for a Westy with some problems

$10k at most

[TrollFromDownBelow]

To help answer the question about it's mechanical condition:

- Have your shop do a compression test on all four cylinders s/be 120-140 on all fours if just rebuilt
- Have shop check for helicoils in the spark plug holes (can do this when they check compression
- have shop check condition of the exhaust studs
- have shop check end play on the engine


The 'hiccup' could be caused by many things ... some maddening to find, but many are pretty cheap to fix. Heads and engine work are pricey however, but if you get good answers to the above, then you should be okay.

[dhoch14]

talked with aaron. shop found many body issues and some other surprises. I think he's passing.

hopefully he will chime on here so we can all take a lesson-learned.

thanks for the advice team IAC.

[Xelmon]

Shop found many body issues and some other surprises

... Ok, This I wanna hear.

[dtrumbo]

I think the biggest (no)-surprise we'll hear is how big the ba**s are on the guy who's trying to flip the thing. $11,500.00 for a less-than perfect, and now apparently not-even-close to perfect bus? Shame.

[aarondonne]

When I rolled up to Halsey's the owner's wife (who's the receptionist and owns a '75) said it looked like a really solid body, but when Tom, her husband saw it he immediately picked up on a lot of small indications that much body work has been done (and apparently poorly) - he said that some sort of 'filler' he called 'bondo' was used extensively on the back and on the front he saw a few other things I missed. He, like Dave, also noted the odd seal job on the windshield which likely masks rust.

I don't know/remember enough to articulate all that he saw on the rest of the body - but he saw enough to say that he thinks it's worth it's worth 5K, and could use 10K of body work to bring it back original state. He also said that he'd need work further on the engine to discover why there was a hiccup.

I feel like I've gotten advice from quite a few people that I should prioritize a good body when buying a bus - and because this one had so much done I think I'll pass on it...

Aaron

[Westy78]

I feel like I've gotten advice from quite a few people that I should prioritize a good body when buying a bus - and because this one had so much done I think I'll pass on it...

Aaron

Good choice. An engine will cost a chunk of change but when you start digging into shoddy body work it could add up to a huge pile of cash and endless headaches. I get a little suspicious of any bus I see for sale with fresh paint unless there's documentation of all the work done to go along with it. A tip if you go look at any Bus local to you is to take a magnet and put it in an old sock. Run the magnet along all of the body (the sock is to protect the paint). It should stick to any section of metal that is original or has had a proper repair done to it. If it doesn't have a strong or at least mild attraction to the body there's some caked on body filler where a repair was not done correctly.

[Xelmon]

Ahhh, yeah, things like that are not apparent from small pictures through the internet.
Tom called it right, he could crack open the engine to see whats up, however what's the point when you know that it's a rip-off.

A tip if you go look at any Bus local to you is to take a magnet and put it in an old sock. Run the magnet along all of the body (the sock is to protect the paint). It should stick to any section of metal that is original or has had a proper repair done to it. If it doesn't have a strong or at least mild attraction to the body there's some caked on body filler where a repair was not done correctly.

Golden quote, use this Aaron! Do be careful if the paint is really nice.

[Bleyseng]

Have you checked out this guy?
http://www.peacevansseattle.com/
I was down there dumping scrap metal two weeks ago and he had two aircooled Westys sitting there I think for sale.

[aarondonne]

In my search for a bus I've been steered toward fuel injection because the carbs would take 'constant adjustment'....but I'm looking at this bus for sale (http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/cto/3871487190.html) and the owner recently put in some dual weber carbs and says 'there is no need for valve adjustment'.

I'd love to hear any advice people have on this...how much constant adjustment needed? Did that issue only exist with older carburetors?

Also, @bleyseng, thanks. yes, I've been talking with Peace Vans for a while - they've been helpful. They don't have anything for sale now...

[Bleyseng]

Valve adjustments are done every oil change but really its popping off the valve covers and checking the valve lash (.006 w/ stock stuff) or even the hydros then.
I had dual 40 dells on my 914 and hated them as they have no chokes. Weber are the same as cold starts suck with the missing, popping until they warm up. If you live in Florida or AZ they are great but the stock FI is superior in so many ways.