Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Florida I

Moderators: Sluggo, Amskeptic

User avatar
asiab3
IAC Addict!
Location: San Diego, CA
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Florida I

Post by asiab3 » Wed Feb 24, 2016 3:02 pm

But seriously, Ian, how much waxing was there of the paint under that rack??

Robbie
1969 bus, "Buddy."
145k miles with me.
322k miles on Earth.

Jivermo
IAC Addict!
Status: Offline

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Florida I

Post by Jivermo » Wed Feb 24, 2016 3:42 pm

Robbie, it had not been hit with the wax yet, and Colin mentioned that he had found bee's honeycombs and mud daubers nests built under the luggage rack. Bees seem to be a part of the South Florida itinerary, but it could be worse with the infestations of Burmese pythons, and now, Nile crocodiles; yes, the man-eaters. Peabrainers down let stuff go in the Everglades when they get tired of animal care, so we get a lot of exotic creep down here. We don't want a python slithering into Naranja, while Colin is logging Z's at Manny Diaz Tree Farm.
Continuing work on his pop top, Colin enjoys the spacious painting venue.

Image

We moved to the attic to retain the intimate proximity, for inspection purposes, as he lays down another coat.

Image

User avatar
zabo
Old School!
Location: earth
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Florida I

Post by zabo » Wed Feb 24, 2016 5:37 pm

what type of paint is being used here?
60 beetle
78 bus

Jivermo
IAC Addict!
Status: Offline

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Florida I

Post by Jivermo » Wed Feb 24, 2016 6:03 pm

The same Interlux Brightside White that I used on my pop-top.
See:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12771

Jivermo
IAC Addict!
Status: Offline

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Florida I

Post by Jivermo » Thu Feb 25, 2016 7:05 am

A final detail to the paint job.
Image

Naranja's newly painted top.
Image

Coffee, and a scratch for Sugar, then off to VW Treasure's for a full day of work.

Image

User avatar
sgkent
Addicted!
Location: Citrus Heights CA (near Sacramento)
Status: Offline

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Florida I

Post by sgkent » Thu Feb 25, 2016 3:10 pm

zabo wrote:what type of paint is being used here?
water colors :bounce:
TBone208 wrote: "You ppl are such windbags. Go use your crystal ball to get rich & predict something meaningful. Nobody knows what's going to happen. How are we supposed to take ppl who don't know the definition of a recession & "woman" seriously?"

Merlin The Wrench

User avatar
Amskeptic
IAC "Help Desk"
IAC "Help Desk"
Status: Offline

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Florida I

Post by Amskeptic » Fri Feb 26, 2016 6:55 pm

asiab3 wrote:But seriously, Ian, how much waxing was there of the paint under that rack??

Robbie
Seriously, Robbie? Seriously? How much waxing was there?

Thhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisssssssssss muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccccccccccchhhhhhhhh:

Image


There was a lot of washing, 3M Rubbing Compound, Mother's California Gold Cleaner Wax, Mother's California Gold Carnauba Wax and even some buffing, and I remember thinking, "must I? I only have two days to do what Ian did in three weeks."

Right off the bat, I bailed on any notion of removing the top, not when Ian started talking about the three-man job of extricating it from the roof after unscrewing sixty thousand million screws holding the canvas to the roof, I only have two days.

I told Ian I was going to just tape plastic drop cloth to the perimeter of the roof and paint on the vehicle. Miami's weather conspired to agree with Ian and make me look like a weirdly striped and very cranky idiot. Here's why. Miami's weather remained utterly beneath comment until I got just enough plastic taped up to get a good flap going, then the winds flared and the trees shed tree detritus. The poptop betrayed me with a delightfully Candid Camera-esque horrendously awful surprise when I peeled off the twenty feet of poptop seal. Someone. Someone had ... SOMEONE JUST HAD TO use black butyl windshield seal black stringy goop between the seal and the poptop, why would someone use black butyl stringy snot windshield sealant, why? Why? WHY? So the black stringy goo-snots were getting flapped but good by the plastic drop cloth and the plastic drop cloth was trying to impart the Jackson Pollack effects against the canvas, oh yes, I could see the efforts get ever closer as the stupid stupid stupid tape started letting go because this is some talented tape, it is sticky as hell for just three minutes then it releases. Flapping sticking plastic tape releases tree debris wind gusts ladder lurches, I have only two days, canvas billowing closer yet to certain black butyl sticky glooped glop,oh there goes another piece of tape, now the whole left side "drop cloth" whips up over the poptop with black butyl strings glomming onto the gutter. My hands were now black glopped tapeFail plastic sheeting and I am trying to see if the upside of the plastic is contaminated or is it the down side? Hey, did I mention that I CANNOT tape the outside paint of this car? It lifts up like it was painted an hour ago, not twenty years plus. I had to trap the plastic sheeting in the tailgate and doors and tape it to the window glass,
Anyways, eventually, I mummified that car with an ugly wrap of plastic and got to fiberglass-repairing the luggage rack. Amazing really, to visit Jivermo just after he did his poptop. There's the sander, the sand paper, solvents, the resin, the hardener, the glass, the paint, the paint tray, four new rollers, saw horses, there is the roll of paper towels, and, by jove, a Bugatti - should I need to reconnoiter over to the commissary, I say:

Image


So, I have never fixed a Corvette or a boat, and I was CLUELESS about how much to sand. This job was all guesswork. I have never set a roller to a vehicle, ever, either:

Image


Then it rained. Of course. Blasted through the taped doors and got the car into the garage. "Blimey you Bugatti, budge up, I can't fanny around here." Second day first coat on the main poptop by 10:45am. Sanded it at 3:00pm, a good eleven hours before the recommended curing time, "well, I am sure there is some leeway here." Slammed on a second coat at 5:30pm just before a surprisingly good sushi spread and another installment of a series of conversations that bracketed this two-day operation:

Image


I was pretty much up in the rafters:

Image


... ... ... with an average of two inches between the car and various artifacts:

Image


Charming, I say, totally charming in this cozy spot, and moreso because I was hating on the outside world's wind and tree debris, and rain showers that were all conspiring to sabotage this project:

Image


Stuck the luggage rack back on the roof at 8:30pm, found the luggage rack carriage bolts and blindly guided the rubber spacers to the centers of the luggage rack holes, ran my hands deep into the headliner fiberglass insulation over the headliner which I never did remove, and stuck the washers and nuts on with pretzeled wrists and fiberglass insulation rasping the skin of my forearms.
Read the writing in the accumulated dust on the passenger door glass:
"CALL AMY 10:00PM!" So I called Amy at 9:30pm.
Stuck that horridly gooped goobered poptop seal back on at 11:45pm.
Struck out for the cottage at the stroke of 1:00am, this two-day project was dun did ding-dong done.
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

User avatar
airkooledchris
IAC Addict!
Location: Eureka, California
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Florida I

Post by airkooledchris » Sun Feb 28, 2016 1:03 am

terrific update. I just love the shit out of that bus and what you've done for it, after following along the way.

... can hardly imagine finding just ONE MORE CRAZY ASS PO THING, but holy hell they just keep coming up under every single bit of that loved but previously misunderstood machine.
1979 California Transporter

phaedrus76
Getting Hooked!
Location: Bloomington, MN
Status: Offline

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Florida I

Post by phaedrus76 » Sun Feb 28, 2016 10:16 am

I'm constantly amazed by what you're able to accomplish despite the adverse conditions you encounter along the way. Truly inspirational, Collin.

What sort of damage did you repair on the front luggage carrier? Are you happy with your first-time fiberglass work?
76 Sage Green Deluxe Westy w/ manual trans.

Jivermo
IAC Addict!
Status: Offline

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Florida I

Post by Jivermo » Sun Feb 28, 2016 3:06 pm

All this painting fun aside, we did get some time in to work my bus. Colin cleaned years crid from my brake booster area, as we set up to replace my failing master cylinder. We found the old one pitted when we took it off, the "why" of my brake pedal sinking to the floor on occasion. We pulled the servo, cleaned and repainted it, and reinstalled, then bled the system. I have nice brakes now.

Image

Image

Image

Jivermo
IAC Addict!
Status: Offline

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Florida I

Post by Jivermo » Sun Feb 28, 2016 3:10 pm

VW Treasure came by, and there began a mighty, and fatiguing round of bus work in the drive.

Image

Jivermo
IAC Addict!
Status: Offline

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Florida I

Post by Jivermo » Sun Feb 28, 2016 3:36 pm

Colin scored a set of visors at the swap meet, but the pickings were meagre. Real, used clean parts were few, with the Empi type stuff, toys and glitz being the main offering. A disappointment, all in all, the swap part.

Image

Image

But then, enjoying things like this guy's 1952 sedan, with this 25hp work of art, made the world all right.

User avatar
Amskeptic
IAC "Help Desk"
IAC "Help Desk"
Status: Offline

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Florida I

Post by Amskeptic » Sun Feb 28, 2016 7:54 pm

I'll follow up with the VW Treasure visit #2 and #3 if I have time before this joint closes down, but for now, the damn clutch cable started snapping strands on Dixie Highway US-1 in evening traffic. Poor car. Every start became a starter-in-1st-gear lurch, bam-yer-going-into 2nd, sorry, have to catch 3rd because the traffic is insane, try to hit a green light catching speed, but cars fill in all the spaces and pour out of side streets and duck in in front of me to make slow turns into driveways and it is way too much drama for clutchless manual transmission driving. I have to bunt the gear shifter into neutral at 6 mph as I draw to a stop, shut off the engine (which kills the headlamps) wait in darkness, then come all to life in a headlamp blasting lurch to the startled little Honda in front of me.

Driving without a clutch pedal has certain requirements:
a) do not worry about other drivers and their schedules

b) do NOT ever let the engine rpm drop below coasting rpm in whatever gear - this puts a load on the gear shifter and you can't ease it out of gear

c) shift at as low an rpm as possible to spare the synchronizers and do NOT muscle the gear shifter, if it does not go in, you have not found the synchronicity zen spot

d) apologize to the poor transmission at every shift

I still don't know if I have a spare clutch cable, but I do have two new sun visors with Reel Metal-like hinges unlike the OEM sun visors that had switched to awful cheap plastic.

So, yeah, jivermo is a hospitable veritable saint.

The day before yesterday, I did spend four and a half hours surrounded by palm trees and a soft breeze under the brilliant sunshine at about 75* with a q-tip and some Goof-Off, goofing off as it were, removing overspray from the right side jalousie window:

Image


Image


Some parachutists dropped on by to see how it was coming along:

Image


"Good . . . a bit slow," I replied:

Image


Today, I finally did get around to painting the right side lower tin and the accelerator pedal.

Image


Image


The rust (!) slowed me down to the extent that I had to stop sanding the left tin at sundown.

Image


That was just before I went onto the Dixie Highway to try my hand at driving with a broken clutch cable. I have maybe two strands left for an emergency application of clutch, then it is done. I do hope I have a spare, but I greased the heck out of this thing and installed it SuperNotStressed back in November, so what is UP with these crap ol' parts from Volkswagen?? Is 39 years like too much to ask of them??
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

User avatar
Amskeptic
IAC "Help Desk"
IAC "Help Desk"
Status: Offline

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Florida I

Post by Amskeptic » Mon Feb 29, 2016 8:12 am

Amskeptic wrote:I greased the heck out of this thing and installed it SuperNotStressed back in November, so what is UP with these crap ol' parts from Volkswagen?? Is 39 years like too much to ask of them??
Colin
Wasn't even the clutch cable's fault . . . it was the Bowden Tube and the fight I had in November to reinstall the original cable where I laboriously threaded the entire clutch adjustment threads through the Bowden Tube not asking myself why, and more importantly, not inquiring further.


Image


First, some mood lighting. I closed down Panera last night, really, the staff was shooing me out the door an hour past their closing time, "but I am watching a YouTube video of a cute squirrel scolding an adorable kitten through a window, come on, just one more minute?" Not really, I was posting to you all and answering PMs. Drove down the Dixie Highway just a couple of blocks and pulled in behind the Home Depot blowing stop lights and stop signs and being rude at parking lot aisles where the alternating yields of courteous people were brought to a monstrous orange unstoppable end, I couldn't stop, the clutch was not able to disengage in any way. I found a straight enough spot to accelerate just enough to release the throttle and unload the shifter, bunted it into neutral and coasted to a stop . . . here>

Image


I had heard such a snap right under the floorboard when the clutch pedal sank earlier in the evening, that I was convinced that the cable was snapping at the yoke at the lever. Nope. I went to the back of the car in the dark and felt around for the wing nut, and removed it. I could pick the clutch pedal up off the floor up front easily by pulling back on the threaded end of the cable, Everything seemed OK, what is going on? Decided to pull the cable out and re-grease, and that is when all seizure broke out, I could not get the cable to move forward or backward. Remembered that the Bowden Tube had demanded that I thread the cable end through its bent end, so I tried to unthread the Bowden Tube, nope. Everything ground to a halt. Then I spied a tight little knot of wound up spaghetti strand jammed in the upper end of the Bowden Tube. Fished it out and snipped it surgically at the cable, just one strand, I can work with this. Nope! Cable still jammed and jamming worse as I try to extricate it from the stupid Bowden Tube. Finally sawed the damn cable in half and got the damn Bowden Tube the hell off and HERE is where the cable was about to break:

Image

Yeah so long story short, got my new cable out from under the back seat "'68-'71 use # 21172133...(torn off) 3185mm"
Well, I have no choice here but to use it, right? Call it "suspense". Stuck it in greased all lovely like LAST TIME, and the damn Bowden Tube said, "no" again. It is 1:10am, and only now am I asking myself "why does this Bowden Tube fight the cable?" Turns out the metal wound conduit inside the vinyl had developed a spur, a sort of metal-conduit-unravel spur and it is being jammed backwards and into the "cable stream" where it took 5,000 miles since the last lubrication to saw the cable down to where it started snapping strands. I ask Mr. DeWalt to settle this argument. Reamed that Bowden Tube with a monster cobalt metal chewing bit at high rpm, and now the cable just glided through like it should have in November. Got it all together, yay, correct cable! clutch adjusted to 1", pressed the pedal and it sounded like a hack saw back there. Grabbed two pair of vise grips. Twwwwwwwwwwwisted that damn Bowden Tube ( under installed tension! ) exactly 180*. I figured that we have new wear surfaces now . . . :blackeye:
It is pretty smooth so far.

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

Jivermo
IAC Addict!
Status: Offline

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Florida I

Post by Jivermo » Tue Mar 01, 2016 4:34 am

Colin's return, after dealing with his clutch cable, to finish up my brake job. The front discs proved okay, and we thought we were going to have an easy time of it, but nooooo. That last wheel, the only one we did not pull, defied adjustment. It was heating up during our test stopping.

Image

Image

So the afternoon passed into the night, and the inevitable stumbling block presented itself to us, and how we dealt with it, I'll leave to this spooky fellow to relate.

Post Reply