Colin Visits Carleton, MI (again)
Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2014 12:16 pm
So, I was peacefully sitting at my computer drinking some coffee and mentally organizing what I might do this warm, humid day to be. Then, I realize someone is knocking on my door! Hmmm...,, who could possibly be knocking on my door on a Saturday morning? Maybe it was the Jehovah Witnesses again. I always have a smile and a couple polite sentences for them.
But no! It was Colin. Somehow I had him scheduled in my brain for September 6th, but his schedule (and all our previous communications) had firmly set the date for August 23rd. As I stepped on the porch, trying to keep the dogs in the house for the moment, I went through a whole 12 step program in about 15 seconds. First there was surprise... "Hey! It's Colin! What is he doing here?" Then denial... "You aren't supposed to be here today!" Then panic... (internally, I have a bunch of other stuff to do today, but Colin is here now!). Then acceptance.. (again internally, OK, we can do this!). Then finally some manners... "Hey Colin, why don't you come in and have some coffee."
I never really did recover, and was mostly scattered throughout the day. I displayed even more than my normal lack of organizational skills and had trouble finding just about everything. Anyway, we sat down at the table with some coffee and worked out the following list:
1) 1975 Blue Westfalia Camper
a) Front Tire Wear - inspection and ideas
b) Cold Idle Issues - what, if anything, to do
c) Test Drive - Looking for input on a couple noises/vibrations, and just an overall opinion on the state of things
d) Rust Eradication Inspections - I knew this would be painful
2) 1979 Orange Deluxe 7-passenger
a) Get it running (engine is installed, shouldn't be too hard)
We started by looking at the front tires that had an odd scalloping to them. It seemed pretty severe to me, and Colin agreed. Colin seems to think it is mostly due to the tires being imbalanced. I'm not convinced, but I don't have a better idea as to what it might be. I had to take my son (Gabriel is 10 already!) to a party, so this was a perfect opportunity for the necessary test drive. Of course, I missed the address and we couldn't find the place right away. I left my phone (and wallet) at home, so Colin and I wandered not quite aimlessly through the thriving metropolis of Newport, MI and Berlin Township. We eventually find the party, punt the bugger bot, and get back to our previously schedule bus agenda. The test drive was calm and reassuring, although Colin wanted to try to increase my idle speed a bit to try to fight my cold idle issues.
Once back, we investigated the steering box. Colin had me turn the steering wheel until the magical divit was detected. I had never done this before, and was happy to finally be giving some attention to it. The divit was finally found when the steering wheel was turned about 115° to the left. This can't be good. The poor bus had been driven like this for 10s of thousands of miles. On my list of things to do now is to get the steering box back to its centered (find the divit) position, remove the drag link, get the wheels straight, then turn the drag link in until it can be reconnected. This should put the centered location of the steering box in line with the tires pointing straight down the road. Once this is done, the steering wheel can be popped off and put in the right orientation.
Next, the rust eradication inspection began. Some previous owner (at least 2 POs ago) had sprayed the bus with Rhino Liner from just below the belt line all the way down. I knew in my heart that this was covering bad body work, and also suspected it was trapping moisture and making things worse. I was correct on both parts. We peeled a bout 15% of the stuff off, in places where it was not adhering well. Colin was going through a full on rant/diatribe about how people who do things like this to poor innocent buses should be drawn and quartered (or have other equally unpleasant consequences for their transgressions). The picture should give you an idea of what things are like.
There was rust in ALL the usual places, and even in some not so usual places. Most of it was pretty bad. My follow up for this is to scrape whatever comes off the bus off. Clean the rusty areas as best as I can with compressed air and/or water. Let it dry thoroughly, then hit anything that might be rusty with rust catalyzing primer. After that, I can stop and think about my long-term plans for this bus.
So we somberly set off to check on the '79 deluxe. We had some troubleshooting to figure out what POs and I had done as far as the wiring was concerned. I had driven this bus as my daily driver for several years about 15 years ago, and it has always just run until the engine blew. I had re-worked the engine and drove it for several thousand miles (in a different bus) before realizing that I had not set the deck height correctly and was running with super high compression. I tore it down, cleaned it back up, got the deck height right and ran it a bit four years ago. It should have been easy to start
Once we got the wiring figured out a bit, I was still pretty scattered, and it took three tries for me to get the wires to the starter connected properly. This does not include the premises-wide search for the missing D-bolt (including the discovery of an impostor D-bolt). Colin walked me through his approach for re-starting an engine that had been sitting for a while. Pulling a fuel hose revealed there was some gas in it, that had turned to varnish. We used the fuel pump to pump it out, and there was only a quart or so. We added a couple gallons of fresh gas to it, and used the fuel pump to circulate it a bit before going further. We checked voltages, and decided it was time to start it.
When the key turned, "BANG, click click BANG". A nasty, internal-sounding noise was produced. Neither of us were happy. We discussed what it might be, and decided it was too loud and low to be rust inside the cylinders or something similarly just a little nasty. That engine gets to come out, get at least the heads torn down, and inspected. This was happening just as daylight was failing. We were hoping for a happy bit at the end of the day, but got a Type IV sucker punch. I do not suspect I will have time to address this engine until 2015.
After this we had a deep philosophical discussion that went something like this: So, DJ... what are you going to DO with ALL these buses? Which do you have plans for, and how do you think you will be able to keep up with all (or any) of them moving forward? I mentioned that I have solid plans for 4 of the buses, but not the other four.
Two of those buses are good candidates for projects. They are unrestored, unmolested survivors, with a bit less than the usual rust for a midwest bus. If someone is looking for a project, and will promise not to part out and scrap it when they get frustrated, I may be willing to let one go. One is a brown '79 with an unknown 2.0L motor (uninstalled) and no trans. The second is a '76 Westfalia automatic with an unknown transmission and no motor. I could provide a core trans (3rd gear known bad, otherwise fine) for the '79 or a core 2.0 L motor for the '76 if needed. PM me if interested. I suppose I should post this in the classifieds section, and I will eventually
Thanks again for your work and providing your awesome service Colin.
But no! It was Colin. Somehow I had him scheduled in my brain for September 6th, but his schedule (and all our previous communications) had firmly set the date for August 23rd. As I stepped on the porch, trying to keep the dogs in the house for the moment, I went through a whole 12 step program in about 15 seconds. First there was surprise... "Hey! It's Colin! What is he doing here?" Then denial... "You aren't supposed to be here today!" Then panic... (internally, I have a bunch of other stuff to do today, but Colin is here now!). Then acceptance.. (again internally, OK, we can do this!). Then finally some manners... "Hey Colin, why don't you come in and have some coffee."
I never really did recover, and was mostly scattered throughout the day. I displayed even more than my normal lack of organizational skills and had trouble finding just about everything. Anyway, we sat down at the table with some coffee and worked out the following list:
1) 1975 Blue Westfalia Camper
a) Front Tire Wear - inspection and ideas
b) Cold Idle Issues - what, if anything, to do
c) Test Drive - Looking for input on a couple noises/vibrations, and just an overall opinion on the state of things
d) Rust Eradication Inspections - I knew this would be painful
2) 1979 Orange Deluxe 7-passenger
a) Get it running (engine is installed, shouldn't be too hard)
We started by looking at the front tires that had an odd scalloping to them. It seemed pretty severe to me, and Colin agreed. Colin seems to think it is mostly due to the tires being imbalanced. I'm not convinced, but I don't have a better idea as to what it might be. I had to take my son (Gabriel is 10 already!) to a party, so this was a perfect opportunity for the necessary test drive. Of course, I missed the address and we couldn't find the place right away. I left my phone (and wallet) at home, so Colin and I wandered not quite aimlessly through the thriving metropolis of Newport, MI and Berlin Township. We eventually find the party, punt the bugger bot, and get back to our previously schedule bus agenda. The test drive was calm and reassuring, although Colin wanted to try to increase my idle speed a bit to try to fight my cold idle issues.
Once back, we investigated the steering box. Colin had me turn the steering wheel until the magical divit was detected. I had never done this before, and was happy to finally be giving some attention to it. The divit was finally found when the steering wheel was turned about 115° to the left. This can't be good. The poor bus had been driven like this for 10s of thousands of miles. On my list of things to do now is to get the steering box back to its centered (find the divit) position, remove the drag link, get the wheels straight, then turn the drag link in until it can be reconnected. This should put the centered location of the steering box in line with the tires pointing straight down the road. Once this is done, the steering wheel can be popped off and put in the right orientation.
Next, the rust eradication inspection began. Some previous owner (at least 2 POs ago) had sprayed the bus with Rhino Liner from just below the belt line all the way down. I knew in my heart that this was covering bad body work, and also suspected it was trapping moisture and making things worse. I was correct on both parts. We peeled a bout 15% of the stuff off, in places where it was not adhering well. Colin was going through a full on rant/diatribe about how people who do things like this to poor innocent buses should be drawn and quartered (or have other equally unpleasant consequences for their transgressions). The picture should give you an idea of what things are like.
There was rust in ALL the usual places, and even in some not so usual places. Most of it was pretty bad. My follow up for this is to scrape whatever comes off the bus off. Clean the rusty areas as best as I can with compressed air and/or water. Let it dry thoroughly, then hit anything that might be rusty with rust catalyzing primer. After that, I can stop and think about my long-term plans for this bus.
So we somberly set off to check on the '79 deluxe. We had some troubleshooting to figure out what POs and I had done as far as the wiring was concerned. I had driven this bus as my daily driver for several years about 15 years ago, and it has always just run until the engine blew. I had re-worked the engine and drove it for several thousand miles (in a different bus) before realizing that I had not set the deck height correctly and was running with super high compression. I tore it down, cleaned it back up, got the deck height right and ran it a bit four years ago. It should have been easy to start
Once we got the wiring figured out a bit, I was still pretty scattered, and it took three tries for me to get the wires to the starter connected properly. This does not include the premises-wide search for the missing D-bolt (including the discovery of an impostor D-bolt). Colin walked me through his approach for re-starting an engine that had been sitting for a while. Pulling a fuel hose revealed there was some gas in it, that had turned to varnish. We used the fuel pump to pump it out, and there was only a quart or so. We added a couple gallons of fresh gas to it, and used the fuel pump to circulate it a bit before going further. We checked voltages, and decided it was time to start it.
When the key turned, "BANG, click click BANG". A nasty, internal-sounding noise was produced. Neither of us were happy. We discussed what it might be, and decided it was too loud and low to be rust inside the cylinders or something similarly just a little nasty. That engine gets to come out, get at least the heads torn down, and inspected. This was happening just as daylight was failing. We were hoping for a happy bit at the end of the day, but got a Type IV sucker punch. I do not suspect I will have time to address this engine until 2015.
After this we had a deep philosophical discussion that went something like this: So, DJ... what are you going to DO with ALL these buses? Which do you have plans for, and how do you think you will be able to keep up with all (or any) of them moving forward? I mentioned that I have solid plans for 4 of the buses, but not the other four.
Two of those buses are good candidates for projects. They are unrestored, unmolested survivors, with a bit less than the usual rust for a midwest bus. If someone is looking for a project, and will promise not to part out and scrap it when they get frustrated, I may be willing to let one go. One is a brown '79 with an unknown 2.0L motor (uninstalled) and no trans. The second is a '76 Westfalia automatic with an unknown transmission and no motor. I could provide a core trans (3rd gear known bad, otherwise fine) for the '79 or a core 2.0 L motor for the '76 if needed. PM me if interested. I suppose I should post this in the classifieds section, and I will eventually
Thanks again for your work and providing your awesome service Colin.