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Category Archives: Bus
Engine Cleaned
I cleaned the engine and checked everything out. I had noticed that it would lock up just short of completing a full rev so I pulled the cylinder heads and discovered a small piece of metal in cylinder #2. The origins of this piece of metal are unclear but there is no damage anywhere, so it does not appear that this happened while it was running. The intake manifold has been off for some time now so the metal piece probably just fell into the open intake port. Overall it’s in great shape with very little wear and good compression, I have a gasket kit on the way since some of the seals are questionable and they’re much easier to replace now then when everything is back together.
Best of all, the lightweight magnesium construction means I can, for now at least, move it around by hand.
Back to work (again)
There’s been another months-long break in bus progress due to house projects, traveling, and the Golf restoration. I’m back to working on it now since there is less than a year left until it must be completed. This weekend I started by degreasing the engine and polishing some of the aluminum trim.
The plan currently is:
#1 – Install everything that can be installed that won’t be in the way later. This includes trim, gauges, headliner, etc. This will get stuff onto the bus and out of the way.
#2 – Finish restoring all ‘small parts’, particularly engine parts over the winter since it’s now too cold to paint the blue area around the bottom of the bus. As parts are completed they can be installed.
#3 – Reassemble engine and get the bus drivable. This will allow more flexibility in where the bus is worked on (i.e. can drive it into driveway to paint, avoiding overspray) and also allow progress on the rehabilitation of the garage floor.
#4 – When the weather warms up all that should be left to do is mask off the entire top and paint the bottom blue. The entire bus can then be wetsanded/polished under direct sunlight in the driveway.
Roof Painted!
The roof was painted today, it’s starting to look very different. There were a few minor runs and other problems but these can be wet-sanded/polished out fairly easily.
Roof Sealed
Roof sealed with epoxy primer to isolate the bodywork from the top coats. The bodywork and high build layers can slowly absorb moisture and cause rust if they have any path to the elements; the epoxy sealer is impervious to moisture and prevents this from happening.
Roof Primed
Roof primed in high-build primer to smooth any imperfections in the bodywork.
Roof Bodywork
Progress made on the roof bodywork. The roof doesn’t have any major damage or warping but there is some minor distortion along the roof hard points that makes it look like the roof was used as seating on occasion. It’s also giant spider season, there are dozens like the one shown around the garage.
Roof Tweaks
Bus moved even lower to allow better roof access; working on smoothing out front of roof
Windows Masked
All 21 windows and the sunroof were masked in preparation for exterior paint. The masking will keep the recently painted interior clean while the exterior is painted. The wheels were taken off to get the roof even lower to allow working on the roof without a ladder. The next phase is to complete the bodywork on the roof in order to paint all white above the trim line. After this is completed the white areas will be masked off and the bus raised as high as practical to work on the blue areas.
Garage Cleaning
The garage was thoroughly cleaned and the last sections of the bus bubble were taken down. It wasn’t doing much for overspray and was starting to block a lot of light; the garage is kept clean/sealed enough that the bubble was also not needed to keep the paint area clean. For the next phase I need as much light as I can get and also needed more room around the exterior of the bus. Once the bubble was taken down the bus was moved over and taken of the moving dollies to get the bus roof further away from the garage ceiling.
Front Window Frame Assembled
The driver side front window frame unit was assembled today. Although it looks simple the window unit consists of 3 different pieces of glass, 8 different rubber seals, and 4 metal frames. Installation of the vent window seal into the vent window frame is widely regarded as the most difficult tasks in all of VW bus maintenance, right next to headliner installation: it lived up to the reputation. The unit was installed into the door frame and it sealed well, although readjustment of the door hinges will be necessary. Unlike any modern vehicle, or even other vehicles from it’s era, the bus has a sliding window (back/forth) instead of a retractable window (up/down; Because of this the fully open window opening is surprisingly small but between the flow-through ventilation, vent windows, and safari windshields there should be plenty of airflow.
