Itinerant Air-Cooled Prep III

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Amskeptic
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Itinerant Air-Cooled Prep III

Post by Amskeptic » Mon May 26, 2014 3:53 pm

Just filling in this 2014 Itinerary Forum with nothing more than my chores . . . but wait! There's a lesson here.

The culmination of the wheel bearing repack ushered in the Memorial Day Weekend. A whole new music event came wafting from the park down the block, this time, the Beatles in the morning. They did a pretty fair job, too, they maintained a tight fealty to the original songs, and the vocals did their very best. From inside the Law Firm, you'd think they were the real thing.

I decided to give a crack at some Mexican Body Work which often includes trees and ropes:

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In late July of 2010, the BobD was hit by a what? sixteen year-old in her parents' New Beetle ( that was a whole story in itself, isn't here somewhere? ), and the impact bonked in the left rear bumper bracket and made the outside corner curl up. Grabbed a come-along and two pieces of wood to fill the bracket where the strap came down. Tightened the strap with the ebrake set firmly.

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Started the engine and pulled in 1st gear a little bit. Measured the bracket against the right side. Look for the red/green highlights at the bolt holes:

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Finally was the same.
Added another 3/8" just in case the bracket might spring back when the tension was released. Bent corners and did a little hammering here and there, and finally had two identically dimensioned brackets:

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This was amusing some of the passers-by.
"Hey buddy! There's a tree stuck to your bumper."
"Hey, that's not the stump, you hooked up the whole tree."
"Who's winning?"

After all that, I thought it best to paint the brackets, might have splintered the paint here and there with all that bending. What the heck, let's paint the bumper/muffler shield too, it is beginning to show some rust at the mounting holes. Took all afternoon to strip, sand, prime and paint:

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Then, what the heck, let's sand, prime and paint the rear bumper!

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Next day, the front bumper! ( looks good without a bumper, actually . . .tightens up the appearance):

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While waiting for the paint to dry, I touched up every single little peck or scratch all over the car! Even did the inside edges of the sliding door and hatch! Did the entire gutter edge! Isn't this like almost perfect?

No. So very no.

All three of my Sherwin Williams acrylic enamel L-90D spray cans apparently lack hardener. We are at the end of the Memorial Day weekend, and not only have hours of prep been for naught, but I have a sticky mess everywhere. Rear bumper, front bumper, rear brackets, license plate bracket, carriage bolt heads, and washers, sliding door edge, entire gutter edge, and every touch up in the interior is sticky. Paint is stuck to the sliding door gasket where I had shut it after the usual four hours of drying time.

This morning, jackstar dropped by in the middle of Mad Chemist Run Amok. I had ripped the nozzle out of the Sherwin Williams Acrylic Enamel l-90D spray can, set up a little bottle with a spray canister and sprayed 4 ounces of L-90D into the bottle, added an ounce of urethane reducer (can you use that?), an ounce of some Greek paint hardener (sheer guesswork here, the instructions were in indecipherable squiggles, but I spied some numbers that looked like 4:1:1), and shook the bottle/spray canister and doused myself but good.
"Do not shake after mixing," reads the side of the spray canister, "paint will spill from the vent."
" Oh."
Stole the still-"drying" sticky front bumper off the water cooler in the Law Firm, threw it on a bench in the back yard and started spraying this potion, this concoction, this leaking mess, and I praaaayed that the hardener would somehow leach down and dry the paint. Touched up every touch up. Repainted all bumper bolts. Left the brackets be. Still praying that the paint dries.

Watching for paint to dry,
Colin
(the lesson? check paint before painting)

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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Amskeptic
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Prep III

Post by Amskeptic » Tue May 27, 2014 7:34 am

Amskeptic wrote: Watching for paint to dry,
It dried . . . :wave:

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Everybody's cleaning up around here in Pensacola . . .

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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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Prep III

Post by Jivermo » Tue May 27, 2014 7:50 am

Man, that's great that it cured. It turned out terrific. Is that the Sherman Williams paint? I'm going to repaint mine while I have the rear bumper off.

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Prep III

Post by airkooledchris » Wed May 28, 2014 9:45 pm

Amskeptic wrote:Everybody's cleaning up around here in Pensacola . . .
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bumpers and undercarriages all renewed for their next adventure.

man that BobD is something to behold, but never to achieve without starting from a factory fresh starting point.
I often wonder how you'd do, long term, behind the wheels of some of these wrecks many of us take out and about. ("there's nothing left un****ed!")
1979 California Transporter

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Prep III

Post by Amskeptic » Thu May 29, 2014 7:57 am

airkooledchris wrote: a) never to achieve without starting from a factory fresh starting point.
b) I often wonder how you'd do long term behind the wheels of some of these wrecks many of us take out and about.
a) one of my morning gratitude/beatitudes. I scored the Road Warrior way back in the day when it was a fresh-but-dinged dumb ol used bus and took 20 years to clean it up. The Squareback was a diamond-under-mold. Chloe is a solid clean-but-screwed-with restoration with a pile of ill-fitting parts. I have been lucky and discriminating in a prissy sort of way. When looking at a potential purchase, my radar is tuned to "unmolested" frequency.

b) I have too . . . I am confident that I could take any Volkswagen around the country no matter the condition, but appointment deadlines could be an issue. Give me a wreck and time, and I will will it into reliability. I can nurse sick engines, dying transaxles, bad bearings, horrible steering, you name it.
BUT
as far as doing restorations, I have been garage-free for nine years now. That sucks. I cannot get into structural rust/welding full body-painting work. If I ever do, I could drive people crazy with demands for exquisite alignment of panels and parts, proper protection of inner cavities, and the need for pretty paint inside the air scoops and above the intake plenum. Add to that the fight with aftermarket part quality, and it would be a stressful undertaking.

You remember that I worked with my uncle in his antique car restoration shop where 100% was the starting point, and they all had to be mechanically perfect? I have been spoiled into a lonely perfectionism. Couple that to some of these roadgoing improvisational hack moments, and you have an enigmatic mix.
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: Itinerant Air-Cooled Prep III

Post by luftvagon » Thu May 29, 2014 1:21 pm

Have you left yet? :bounce:
1981 Volkswagen Vanagon Westfalia - air-cooled Type4 1970cc CV (hydraulic lifters, 42x36 valves, stock cam, microSquirt FI with wasted spark ignition)
1993 Ford F-250 XL LWB Extended Cab 7.3L IDI

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Prep III

Post by jackstar » Fri May 30, 2014 4:43 am

Yes, he left. He will be there shortly. Look for him. He will be the dark haired stranger in the 68 Dodge Dart.

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Prep III

Post by Amskeptic » Fri May 30, 2014 7:29 am

jackstar wrote:Yes, he left. He will be there shortly. Look for him. He will be the dark haired stranger in the 68 Dodge Dart.
. . . with a slant-six.
I sold the BobD when the windshield starting leaking outside of Hattiesburg.
Got a tint/dye at Lashwanda's Kurlz N Knails here in Jackson.
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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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Prep III

Post by asiab3 » Fri May 30, 2014 7:39 am

Your outfit goes well with the new baja on the site logo/masthead.
1969 bus, "Buddy."
145k miles with me.
322k miles on Earth.

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Prep III

Post by hambone » Fri May 30, 2014 9:33 am

That really could be you...
Nice work on the riggy body work, often it's the only way to go.
http://greencascadia.blogspot.com
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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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Prep III

Post by jackstar » Fri May 30, 2014 11:21 am

They call him Bubba Mullet.

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Prep III

Post by weisswurst » Fri May 30, 2014 11:32 am

that guy has too many clothes on to be Colin, but the exposed arms are making you believe it's him :geek:
jeff
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Prep III

Post by Lanval » Fri May 30, 2014 8:42 pm

Amskeptic wrote:. . . with a slant-six.
Don't be so glib. I and a friend once passed two middle-aged guys driving a Lotus Esprit south of Eugene... we were high school punks in a '69 rambler with a straight six. Heh.

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Prep III

Post by Amskeptic » Sun Jun 01, 2014 6:03 am

Lanval wrote:
Amskeptic wrote:. . . with a slant-six.
Don't be so glib. I and a friend once passed two middle-aged guys driving a Lotus Esprit south of Eugene... we were high school punks in a '69 rambler with a straight six. Heh.
Oh, that wasn't glib, it was a requirement. I have fished spark plugs from the bowels of a slant-six engine installed in an old Dodge pick-up truck when I was teaching auto shop, when a kid didn't put in the little tube before the plug. They are tough little engines, leaning over like that, balanced by that big ol baby blue air filter.
ColinRainGoAway
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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