Author Topic: How are the Bay projects coming along?  (Read 29552 times)

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Offline pittwagen

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #90 on: January 03, 2016, 06:43:22 PM »
I managed to spot that token bay amongst the splitties in the pic.  Great idea G.   My buddy and I are ready to go.


Offline silas

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #91 on: January 04, 2016, 08:08:08 PM »
...There's a local VW Spring camp out in the works, more details to follow.

sounds like it could be fun...keep us posted!!

Offline Brenticon

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #92 on: January 04, 2016, 09:12:10 PM »
Time to get those Bay's finished up for Spring! There's a local VW Spring camp out in the works, more details to follow.



Awesome! Nothing better than camping with a bunch of buses.

Offline Alp

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #93 on: January 11, 2016, 09:04:44 PM »
sure there is....camping with a bunch of women and one bus......

Offline pittwagen

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #94 on: January 15, 2016, 08:39:54 PM »
Just got a BN4 installed in the bus. Temps inside are downright tropical even with outside temps near freezing.  Dual controls - standard switch in front and rv thermostat in the rear.  Still a few items to tidy up but it is in and running perfectly.  Just one more step in making it an all season vehicle.

Ready for the spring camping trip.

Offline Geoff

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #95 on: January 16, 2016, 06:15:30 PM »
Now that sounds like a nice addition to the van! Hopefully details next week

Offline kinggeorge13

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #96 on: February 04, 2016, 11:28:17 PM »
Reading tonight, I realize I have written nothing on my 3 bus progress since......2014.  Well, that's because due to work and family, life and a small stint at website idea, I have not had any time.  I did do some bodywork on the my white 1978 bus but the fall weather stopped me from painting so it will need some more work done in the spring and then painting will commence.   Picked up a really nice pair of paint guns from KMS on sale this past summer so cannot wait to try them out.   I did get all the missing (rusted away) rocker panel parts and outriggers and jackpoints welded in under the white bus so it's good to get ready for painting once weather gets warm again.   

Speaking of welding.  One of my last posts was about my KMS 3 hour course on spot welding 2 years ago that is basically all the training I've done.   But my oldest daughter, the one who owns and drives and helps maintain the orange 1975 bus, dropped out of University Biology a year ago and switched over to taking the Welding Foundations Course at University of Fraser Valley in Chilliwack where hopefully she graduates in another 2 and 1/2 months from now.  She has absolutely loved it and thrives on it.   Welding styles and gear and types and things I have no idea half the time what she is talking about........except the endless "bend tests" her welding has to pass.  I get that.  Bend Tests sounds absolutely horrifyingly frightening and she has to go through them continually.   But?  It seems she's pretty darned good at it.   In fact, fathers pride aside, it seems like shes really darned good at it.   What did my 19 year old daughter want for Christmas this year?  A 220v TIG/MIG/Stick welder.   Easily the most expensive gift I have ever given for Christmas but if it helps her along and keeps her interest and skill up on this life she is embarking on, I'm more than happy to help.   So that is what she got.   Then I got to spend the weekend after Christmas ripping a large hole in my interior wall and running very stiff thick wiring from two new ganged breakers in my circuit breaker panel and out to the outside wall to one of those giant 220v receptacles that the welder could then plug into and draw ample power from.   

So this summer?  THIS summer?   We are going to make some serious progress on body work and frame work on the orange bus and the yellow bus and get them all fixed up.    I smile when I think of a posting I put on Craigslist 3 years ago asking if anyone was doing welding on bus frames and got zero response.  So...........instead I grew my own personal welder:  my daughter.  ha ha
1975 Westy, Serenity
1975 Westy, Jack Sparrow
1979 Kombi, Pistachio
1979 Kombi, Oliver
1977 Tin top camper, Cosmos
1974 Westy, Garfield
1973 Tin top camper, Bart (now thinking he's 1976)
1974 gutted Riviera, Casper
1975 Westy, Stella
1979 Super Beetle, Penelope
1967 Fastback, Green Hornet

Offline kinggeorge13

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #97 on: February 06, 2016, 07:17:26 AM »
Picked up a 1979 VW bus yesterday afternoon from Surrey.   My first tin-top, non-camper bay.    I love the campers but this one had a few things that drew me to it.   A very decent price.   A great-sounding engine.   All gears seem good, brakes........work, all the lights work and the interior is in really good shape.   I guess a po had planned to do something with the back seat because it has like three of them thrown back there but not sure exactly.   Lots of body rust but the outriggers and jack points and main beams all seem plenty solid and body work I can handle.    The sliding rail for the side door has no pits or holes.    She's green and always has been green but someone at some point painted 1/2 of one side with a brush and a green that does not quite match.  But she drove all the way from the West side of Surrey to 176th in a ton of stop/go rush hour traffic and then rolled along decently on the highway slow lane to 200th and then made her way easily to Fort Langley and into her new parking spot on my driveway, right in front of my house where tomorrow morning my neighbours will wake up and look out their windows and think to themselves "Are you kidding?  Not another one!"   

I don't know about the rest of you, but this past year or two decent bay buses sure have been hard to come by that have any kind of a decent price.   People want $3000 for non-running buses and $5000 for ones with lots of rust these days on Craigslist.  Finding one at a decently low price seems to have become almost impossible on Craigslist/Kijiji these days.  Not that I really need more at this point.  My three projects plus my daughters bus are more than enough to keep my spare time busy getting them fixed up and finished.   I just worry that when they are done, then what?   I guess as time marches on, 70's buses simply get rarer and rarer and far less likely to suddenly appear from families who were still using them.   

 
1975 Westy, Serenity
1975 Westy, Jack Sparrow
1979 Kombi, Pistachio
1979 Kombi, Oliver
1977 Tin top camper, Cosmos
1974 Westy, Garfield
1973 Tin top camper, Bart (now thinking he's 1976)
1974 gutted Riviera, Casper
1975 Westy, Stella
1979 Super Beetle, Penelope
1967 Fastback, Green Hornet

Offline gsun

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #98 on: February 06, 2016, 02:34:33 PM »
I saw that one and it looked like a decent bus at a decent price. Good score!

BTW - you are a bus ho.... ;)
9 years and counting....

Offline kinggeorge13

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #99 on: February 06, 2016, 04:42:01 PM »
Here is one picture of the 79 bay bus I picked up yesterday.   You know you have an interesting project when you open the engine door and you see a bottle of oil sitting in the RV battery tray.  I'll post other pictures later but believe me, this is by far the best angle.    Every other angle shows the ugly bits and missing bits and crumpled bits and the rusty bits.   My dad (86) came out to look at it and give his opinion like he always loves to do as he taps his cane against the worst looking areas and looks at me like I have completely failed him.  ha ha.   
1975 Westy, Serenity
1975 Westy, Jack Sparrow
1979 Kombi, Pistachio
1979 Kombi, Oliver
1977 Tin top camper, Cosmos
1974 Westy, Garfield
1973 Tin top camper, Bart (now thinking he's 1976)
1974 gutted Riviera, Casper
1975 Westy, Stella
1979 Super Beetle, Penelope
1967 Fastback, Green Hornet

Offline pittwagen

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #100 on: February 06, 2016, 05:58:07 PM »
Well the nose looks decent.  I hate nose jobs.  Let's see the rest. 

Nice to see another 79 in the neighbourhood.

Offline kinggeorge13

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #101 on: March 19, 2016, 08:53:47 PM »
We have started a project I've wanted to do the past 3 - 4 years.   Our 1923 house in Fort Langley has no garage.   We have three of those temporary storage tents in the back yard from Canadian tire but as I've learned (and was reinforced a week ago during that windstorm), even though they are advertised to be UV-resistant, there is no doubt after 3 years or so, the sun does enough damage that heavy wind will rip those things up.   So, given all that, we have embarked on planning a 3 bay garage for our house, along the driveway, mostly in the back yard.  For this summer, we plan to just make it into a carport and look into walls and doors later.   The main thing is to get it up and get the buses under a roof.   

I managed to get a brand new 4-post car lift through a friend who lucked into 4 of them, all in original packaging.   So Ill have to plan the height of the inside ceiling to be able to handle that.   It would seem lifting a bus into the air is going to require a fair amount of space up there.   We spent the past two weeks demolishing and carting away a very solidly built 8' x 6' tool shed that was attached to the house but in the way of the new garage.  Next we have taken down and mostly emptied one of the three storage tents to make space for the new building as well.   Then just have to finish off the drawings of the proposed garage, the yard/lot layout of current buildings and apparently I have to submit a drawing of the location of the septic tank and septic field.  Then hopefully we'll get a building permit without too much trouble and we can start putting down post foundations (cement and rebar) deep into the ground.   Woo-Hoo.....   

I'd have been in better shape to do this in my 40's rather than my 50's but it should go ok.    I built a single car garage about 6 years ago so this will just be a wee bit bigger.   Even at that, it's not as big as it could be but will be approx 20' deep and approx 35' wide.   Simply don't have the space to make it wider. 

I'll post pictures along the way, just for fun.
1975 Westy, Serenity
1975 Westy, Jack Sparrow
1979 Kombi, Pistachio
1979 Kombi, Oliver
1977 Tin top camper, Cosmos
1974 Westy, Garfield
1973 Tin top camper, Bart (now thinking he's 1976)
1974 gutted Riviera, Casper
1975 Westy, Stella
1979 Super Beetle, Penelope
1967 Fastback, Green Hornet

Offline kinggeorge13

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #102 on: April 17, 2016, 07:19:32 AM »
Ok, well we have waded into the body repairs on Jennifer's orange 1975 bus.   This one has a fair amount of rust and the sliding door track completely failed with the previous owner so we have never opened it.   Then Jennifer got T-Boned on the driver side coming home from school 3 years ago by a pickup truck and did significant damage to the body, and some minor structural damage (front left wheel area, outriggers crushed, bumper mangled, etc).   ICBC wrote it off and we managed to literally hammer it back enough and replaced wheel and bumper and signal lights to get them to give it an inspection pass and it was back on the road but looking like it had been through a war.   

Jennifer passed her welding course and has her foundations ticket and is now working in Aldergrove.   On the weekends we plan to work on her bus in Fort Langley and get it all fixed up and repainted......including rusted out pieces, body repair, accident damage repair and replacing the track for the sliding door.   Some parts we will repair and some will be outright replaced with new or parts we have gotten from others.   

This weekend Jennifer started cutting out all the bad parts.   Most of the lower driver side body panels, the driver side dog leg, the two drivers side outriggers and jack points.   Some parts we got from CIP1.   Some we got from our friend LateBaySteve (such as the dogleg he had at the Dubs In the Barn show in Cloverdale last weekend). 

I took a few pictures yesterday of the area we are working (mostly Jennifer doing all the work).  Hope you like them.   

By the way, most of the body panel sections we cut out: we intend to hammer them back into shape and re-weld them back on again.   It was just too damaged to fix them in-place so we decided to cut them off, fix them on the bench and then re-attach them.   Heck, why else would she take the welding course???   

Todays goals are to get the dogleg fully cut off, get the two outriggers/jackpoints cut off and grind down the mounting areas flush and hopefully have time to weld in the two new outriggers/jackpoints.    The dogleg welding will likely be next weekend.   This bus has been repaired before, some time ago and I'll post the pictures of what we found on another post but the work was extensive on the body panels which makes this all just a little more interesting.   
« Last Edit: April 17, 2016, 07:41:17 AM by kinggeorge13 »
1975 Westy, Serenity
1975 Westy, Jack Sparrow
1979 Kombi, Pistachio
1979 Kombi, Oliver
1977 Tin top camper, Cosmos
1974 Westy, Garfield
1973 Tin top camper, Bart (now thinking he's 1976)
1974 gutted Riviera, Casper
1975 Westy, Stella
1979 Super Beetle, Penelope
1967 Fastback, Green Hornet

Offline kinggeorge13

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #103 on: April 17, 2016, 07:22:16 AM »
Here is Jennifer cutting out the drivers side dogleg.  The 2nd picture is the crushed area (one of them) where the truck hit her and took out the area behind the front left wheel and made the outrigger and jackpoint 1/2 their original length.   But heck they were rusty as anything and had to go anyway.
1975 Westy, Serenity
1975 Westy, Jack Sparrow
1979 Kombi, Pistachio
1979 Kombi, Oliver
1977 Tin top camper, Cosmos
1974 Westy, Garfield
1973 Tin top camper, Bart (now thinking he's 1976)
1974 gutted Riviera, Casper
1975 Westy, Stella
1979 Super Beetle, Penelope
1967 Fastback, Green Hornet

Offline kinggeorge13

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #104 on: April 17, 2016, 07:29:51 AM »
Last pictures for now:  First one is the very typical rotted out outrigger with jackpoint which will be removed today.   The second picture made me happy because the cross-members support pieces are in nice shape with only fairly minor surface rust on them (the three between the two jackpoints) so other than cleaning, painting and eventually undercoating them, they don't need any major surgery.   

Of course we'll have to replace the inner and outter rockers but that was expected.   I picked up (to try out) a locally fabricated inner rocker from a guy out of Victoria (I believe) who is fabricating bent steel parts for buses (had a box of outriggers too) who I met at the Dubs In The Barn in Cloverdale last weekend.   I'll find his name somewhere and post it later.   I'll say one thing: it's plenty heavy-duty so I'm looking forward to seeing how Jennifer likes it when she installs it later.   
1975 Westy, Serenity
1975 Westy, Jack Sparrow
1979 Kombi, Pistachio
1979 Kombi, Oliver
1977 Tin top camper, Cosmos
1974 Westy, Garfield
1973 Tin top camper, Bart (now thinking he's 1976)
1974 gutted Riviera, Casper
1975 Westy, Stella
1979 Super Beetle, Penelope
1967 Fastback, Green Hornet

Offline silas

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #105 on: April 17, 2016, 08:28:37 PM »
thanks for the updates, great work kinggeorge13 & jennifer! full steam ahead! also cool to hear jennifer passed her welding course!  :cool:

one friendly suggestion...i can very much appreciate the use of the safety equipment (respirator, face shield, gloves, boots, jacket, jeans, etc)...but please modify the way the grinder is held. jennifers left arm/wrist is dangerously close to the cut off wheel and a slip or if that thing kicks back or the disc shatters  :(  grinder guards can also help protect the user from the tool too.


Offline gsun

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #106 on: April 17, 2016, 08:55:14 PM »
Agree. Ask me how I got the scar on my left wrist..... >:(
9 years and counting....

Offline Bruce

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #107 on: April 18, 2016, 12:30:31 AM »
.... we intend to hammer them back into shape and re-weld them back on again.   It was just too damaged to fix them in-place so we decided to cut them off, fix them on the bench and then re-attach them.   
I recommend against this.  Don't weld back in a panel that has been damaged.  Get a panel from a donor Bus that isn't damaged and weld that in.

Offline kinggeorge13

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #108 on: April 18, 2016, 06:36:27 AM »
Howdy guys! 

Grinder control:  good advice on the usage of the grinder with the cutting wheels.   It does have a grinder guard installed (although hard to see in these pictures) and I will talk to Jennifer about how she is holding her grinder when doing her vertical cuts.   I looked at the other pictures of her cutting the other areas and she had it properly.   I'm guessing she found that angle difficult but I agree it's not worth the risk. 

Reuse of the body panel parts.   I think for now we will likely continue with our current course of action.  I realise there is a wrong way and a right way and many variations between the two but this will never be a show bus and she just wants it looking better than it was after the accident.  The bottom of the metal panel is in pretty good shape because what we discovered when we cut it off is someone riveted new metal all along the bottom, probably to replace the usual rusted-out area some years ago.  We will fully replace the inner rocker and outter rocker with all new metal because they are 75% gone and/or destroyed.   The same with the back left corner metal.  While I'm sure there are many who will cringe at some of the decisions we will make, in the end, I think it will look ok.   Consider that we will be painting it in open air on our driveway because that is currently what we have available.   We've done it before and while it certainly is not showroom quality, it will still be lightyears better than it is now and wayyy better than two of the buses I have where someone painted areas with what clearly had to be a paintbrush.   In the end Jennifer will be happy and she'll get to drive her bus with happiness for at least another few years.   Please don't get me wrong, I appreciate the suggestions and pointers because everything helps.   It's just that on this particular bus, with limited time and funds, we are not setting the bar really high, we just want it better looking than the crumpled, rusty mess it currently is.

I will promise one thing though.   I've now worked on two buses where I had to replace rocker panels and on one of them, most of the rotted rocker section was full of tightly crumpled newspaper and great wads of body filler.   The other one was the same thing only this person used crumpled tin foil instead of newspaper.    I won't stoop to that low, at least.   I will actually replace metal with metal (new or old) and conservatively use body filler only for final smoothing areas before painting.   
1975 Westy, Serenity
1975 Westy, Jack Sparrow
1979 Kombi, Pistachio
1979 Kombi, Oliver
1977 Tin top camper, Cosmos
1974 Westy, Garfield
1973 Tin top camper, Bart (now thinking he's 1976)
1974 gutted Riviera, Casper
1975 Westy, Stella
1979 Super Beetle, Penelope
1967 Fastback, Green Hornet

Offline kinggeorge13

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #109 on: April 18, 2016, 09:39:47 AM »
Here are a couple of pix from yesterdays work.    The Dogleg area is now cut off and we started evaluating using a spare used dogleg we have but has rust that will need repair or use the brand new one from CIP1.   Gotta say, I personally am leaning towards using the used one and fixing the rust because it's simply more heavy-duty and has the double-wall construction where the CIP1 is lighter material and only single wall-construction.   

Picture one is the bus with the dogleg area cut away (required removing the door to get into that corner properly)

Picture two is a little drain pipe or something that was a surprise.  Anyone know what this is for?   Surely liquids of some type did not drain down into the dogleg internal parts did it?  Or is this a chopped off tube that originally went out the body below the bus somewhere but during some previous repair it got cut short?    Anyone know?   
« Last Edit: April 18, 2016, 09:49:56 AM by kinggeorge13 »
1975 Westy, Serenity
1975 Westy, Jack Sparrow
1979 Kombi, Pistachio
1979 Kombi, Oliver
1977 Tin top camper, Cosmos
1974 Westy, Garfield
1973 Tin top camper, Bart (now thinking he's 1976)
1974 gutted Riviera, Casper
1975 Westy, Stella
1979 Super Beetle, Penelope
1967 Fastback, Green Hornet

Offline kinggeorge13

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #110 on: April 18, 2016, 09:47:41 AM »
And just two more to add to the 2 pictures above from yesterday.

Picture one:  one of the pieces we found riveted in from a previous repair someone did some other time. 

Picture two:  Russell got bored as we worked on the bus.    She loves being in the buses while being worked on but not when the grinder was going........ and especially the air chisel.
1975 Westy, Serenity
1975 Westy, Jack Sparrow
1979 Kombi, Pistachio
1979 Kombi, Oliver
1977 Tin top camper, Cosmos
1974 Westy, Garfield
1973 Tin top camper, Bart (now thinking he's 1976)
1974 gutted Riviera, Casper
1975 Westy, Stella
1979 Super Beetle, Penelope
1967 Fastback, Green Hornet

Offline Hansk

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #111 on: April 18, 2016, 12:13:42 PM »
Wow Big project guys , very cool , can't wait to see it finished !

 btw is it possible that tube is a sunroof drain built in along with the roof ?
« Last Edit: April 18, 2016, 12:22:09 PM by Hansk »
Big fat black fastback

Offline BUSDADDY

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #112 on: April 18, 2016, 12:24:12 PM »
The tube is the atmosphere vent for the brake booster.
RUST NEVER SLEEPS

Offline kinggeorge13

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #113 on: April 18, 2016, 12:38:18 PM »
The tube is the atmosphere vent for the brake booster.

Ahhhh........ok, that makes sense.   Apparently I've never followed that particular brake booster tube to see where it ultimately ends up.    That is good to know.   

Thanks!
-George
1975 Westy, Serenity
1975 Westy, Jack Sparrow
1979 Kombi, Pistachio
1979 Kombi, Oliver
1977 Tin top camper, Cosmos
1974 Westy, Garfield
1973 Tin top camper, Bart (now thinking he's 1976)
1974 gutted Riviera, Casper
1975 Westy, Stella
1979 Super Beetle, Penelope
1967 Fastback, Green Hornet

Offline Hansk

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #114 on: April 18, 2016, 03:15:27 PM »
The tube is the atmosphere vent for the brake booster.

ah ha ...
Big fat black fastback

Offline kinggeorge13

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #115 on: April 21, 2016, 10:38:11 AM »
Just doing preliminary work on the 1979 green Kombi/Transporter.   Last month I got it all cleaned out (years of dirt, mud, pine needles, sawdust, construction screws and nails, wood bits, more dirt and mud, rust, etc) and dried out.   So, and some of you will curse me for this, our intention is to build cabinets and install a spare z-bed I had picked up a few years ago and make it somewhat like a tin-top Westfalia (i.e. no poptop). 

Yesterday I went to remove the back bench seat and as you likely already know, the bottom section of the bench seat is attached via two big bolts to the floor and those came off easily.   The back piece of the bench seat has a release mechanisms that allows the back part to disengage and hinge forward onto the bottom section making a more or less flat area for cargo carrying (but not sleeping as there is a big gap and.......yeah, no foam mattress.    The two large bolts (one at each end) of the hinge piece of that back seat section go through to the wheel well which turned out to not be a great design cuz it gets rusty in a hurry.  On my bus, it clearly completely rusted out right there and at some point the back of the seat likely no longer was held in place at all. 

So rather than replacing the rusted out section with metal, some previous owner made a semi-permanent repair by filling in the holes with some combination of body filler/epoxy/whatever and sunk the bolts into it where they would remain forever (or until that repair failed one day with more rust or an accident).  Anyways, kind of a tight area but a 4" cutting wheel on my angle grinder and out they came.    I'll fix those two spots later after I figure out where the z-bed needs to be bolted in.   

Kind of a slow VW Bus news story day today but here's a couple pictures of the bolt mounts as I found them.  Oh yeah, and that is the same place the seat belts are anchored.  Jeez.   
1975 Westy, Serenity
1975 Westy, Jack Sparrow
1979 Kombi, Pistachio
1979 Kombi, Oliver
1977 Tin top camper, Cosmos
1974 Westy, Garfield
1973 Tin top camper, Bart (now thinking he's 1976)
1974 gutted Riviera, Casper
1975 Westy, Stella
1979 Super Beetle, Penelope
1967 Fastback, Green Hornet

Offline kinggeorge13

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #116 on: May 10, 2016, 06:03:07 AM »
Ok, jumping all over the place and back to working on the 1978 White Bus.    I almost got this bus painted last fall and simply ran out of good warm mornings (windless).   Body work was done, primer paint was done.   I was taping it up to do the full paint (blue) and the weather changed and I wrapped her well with tarps and it just never got warm enough again to do it.   A week later I removed the tape before it became a problem (and all the newspaper) and she sat outside on the driveway all winter, partially covered but still getting plenty wet from dampness and splashing and tarps blowing off, etc.    As you know, primer paint is not waterproof so now she has minor rust streaks in several places down her outer panels.   But you know what?  I've decided this was a huge blessing in disguise.

This shows me exactly where she is likely to start rusting again after I'm finished because of areas I did not pay enough attention to.  So I've photo-documented those areas and will now re-sand and re-primer those areas much better than last time.   But the big surprise was how much rust reappeared all around the engine bay door at the back.  I kinda knew I did a bit of a crap job on that but I completely missed just how much water gets in there and stays stuck between metal and rubber gasket and just rusts merrily away.   

This time I'm removing the engine bay door to deal with it separately, removing the rubber seal around that opening and then fixing/removing all the rust, painting it properly and then installing a new rubber gasket from CIP1 that I ordered on the weekend.   

Getting the door off is kinda simple other than the rust/seized fun of the one large Phillips machine bolt that holds it on.   For those of you who have not removed this door before, it's really easy (other than the seized bolt).    Remove the license plate light housing and disconnect the two wires (I marked the connectors just to make sure they go back on the same way in case one side of that light bulb socket is supposed to be ground).   I also had a PO's trailer wiring plug to remove so I labelled all those wires, cut them and removed that as well.   The two hinges are the trick:  The one on the right side is has the bus-side welded to the frame.   The one on the left has the bus side held to the frame with a single Phillips head machine screw/bolt that once you remove that, you can slip off the little arm out of the right side hinge and voila your door is off.   

My machine screw/bolt was rusted and seized badly (see pic below) but as always, a darned good blast of propane torch heating that sucker up and liberal sprayings (and waiting) of penetrating oil always works.   You can kinda tell from the pics below that I used a fair amount of heat before the thing finally broke free it's seiziness (I just invented that word now).   Since I'm repainting the bus, I did not really care about the heat damage to the paint.   Then easily pulled out the old rubber seal gasket and yeah, look at that rust (pics below).    I'll do it right this time.   

Also removed the old RV battery which turned out to be a regular starting battery (no wonder it worked like crap) and replaced with a larger RV deep cycle battery and installed new battery wires and post connectors so it's all nice and new and should be problem-free for a very good long time.   

Here are the photos apres-torching:
1975 Westy, Serenity
1975 Westy, Jack Sparrow
1979 Kombi, Pistachio
1979 Kombi, Oliver
1977 Tin top camper, Cosmos
1974 Westy, Garfield
1973 Tin top camper, Bart (now thinking he's 1976)
1974 gutted Riviera, Casper
1975 Westy, Stella
1979 Super Beetle, Penelope
1967 Fastback, Green Hornet

Offline kinggeorge13

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #117 on: May 10, 2016, 06:06:10 AM »
This was the seized machine screw/bolt before torching.    2nd picture was the rust found under the rubber seal/gasket.
1975 Westy, Serenity
1975 Westy, Jack Sparrow
1979 Kombi, Pistachio
1979 Kombi, Oliver
1977 Tin top camper, Cosmos
1974 Westy, Garfield
1973 Tin top camper, Bart (now thinking he's 1976)
1974 gutted Riviera, Casper
1975 Westy, Stella
1979 Super Beetle, Penelope
1967 Fastback, Green Hornet

Offline kinggeorge13

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #118 on: February 11, 2019, 09:13:08 PM »
I guess this is still a decent place to post a project update or should I start a new post?   Anyways, this is another area of my 1975 Westy "Serenity" that I'm working on.   The rear "apron" /valence/skirt had many rust holes along the bottom and as usual, as I got into it there was so much rust and so little metal left inside and the inner piece that is right behind the engine cooling fan was 30% just completely rusted away.  Not much fun cutting away all the metal to get the two new pieces fitted and welded in.   But?  Everything lined up pretty good and flat and Woo-Hoo the door latch fit perfectly with the engine door closing.   

First photo: it is about half way-through the welding (the inside piece is already welded in behind this).   I had gotten a little ahead of myself with the body fill leveling of the back corner not realizing all that welding was going to be needed so I'll be doing that corner over.   

Second photo: I was about 25% through cutting out all the old rust.   The rear outer valence has already been cut away.....what there was of it.
1975 Westy, Serenity
1975 Westy, Jack Sparrow
1979 Kombi, Pistachio
1979 Kombi, Oliver
1977 Tin top camper, Cosmos
1974 Westy, Garfield
1973 Tin top camper, Bart (now thinking he's 1976)
1974 gutted Riviera, Casper
1975 Westy, Stella
1979 Super Beetle, Penelope
1967 Fastback, Green Hornet

Offline 52 split

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Re: How are the Bay projects coming along?
« Reply #119 on: February 18, 2019, 01:56:39 PM »
if we could only wave a magic wand for the rust to disappear. keep plugging on.