Flywheel...

...resurfaced:

And, the replacment fan shroud has been split and super-washed, inside and out. It will be painted on the outside and clear coated on the inside to create a slick surface for optimal air flow. This replacement shroud has the mounting tabs intact (one that came on bus did not) for the non-return flaps to be installed. These must be installed if the auxilliary heater fan is being used; if not, the fan will blow ("return") hot air into the shroud (at idle speeds) and into the cooling system! Many folks ignore this VERY important part (duh, "non-return" flaps), as was done on this bus.

Merry Christmas! :-)

Fuel tank level sending unit

It has been reported that the fuel gauge reads FULL when it is only 3/4 full.

Fuel gauge troubleshooting quick instructional:

http://type2.com/library/misc/vwggauge.htm

Sending unit test first. Should be reading about 10 ohms at full and about 70 ohms at empty.

FULL:

EMPTY:

I don't believe the 7.2 reading would have made the gauge read full when actually only 3/4 full BUT I've moved the adjuster tab in a little so that it now registers 10 ohms at full and 69 at empty. We will reinstall it and see what it does. Might need to test voltage stabilizer ("vibrator") at gauge. Or, might just install new sending unit as they are fairly cheap (though they are aftermarket Mexican and NOT German VDO like original).

Metal Work Continues

Dented and rusted metal cut out

Patch tacked in

Smoothing out the patch

Battery tray in

Air cleaner stand in. I was able to reuse the original hacked one, with a lot of work but just barely...

Progress

I love the smell of freshly powdercoated cooling tin in the morning...yummy.

Redline MT-90 at the ready. The best juice you can put in the tranny.

POR-20 will be applied to parts that get hot, such as the heat exchangers, heat pipes, heat control boxes, etc. They will be blasted and etched first.

Flywheel is being resurfaced. You can see the scorch marks on it here:

The only hiccup so far- some stupid hippy painted a big butterfly on the bus. Don't worry, it will buff right out. ;-)

2 parts buses ready to make the ultimate sacrifice...

Enjoy!

Battery Tray Removed

The battery tray is removed and the metal has been cleaned. Soon the rusty metal will be treated with rust inhibitors and top-coated with a rust preventative paint. Then the tray will be welded in.

JStiles

Battery Tray out before cleaning

Battery Tray out before cleaning

To get to the battery tray, more than 2 dozen welds have to be drilled out.

Right Rear Quarter has some body damage that needs to be adressed soon.

After the battery tray is out, this is what is left.

Cleaned and ready for rust prep

Cleaned and ready for rust prep

Metal Work Begins

Well the bus is starting to get ready for some new metal. The light assemblies have been removed, the wiring harnesses have been pulled away and secured and any other pieces of the bus that may get damaged by welding are protected. We found some pretty typical rust and this bus. This good 'ol Champagne Edition will be prowling the highways and byways of America's midwest again in no time.

J.Stiles

Right Rear Marker Light Location. Some pretty grumpy pitting, but not too bad. Also some body damage on the rear wheel arch. It is pulling the seam open to the elements and should be repaired at the same time.

The Battery Tray looking in the rear light housing opening.  It appears the rust has stayed put and not creeped into the wheel well or splash pan area. But as far as rust goes...we shall see.

Another view of the battery tray. Looks bad doesn't it? Just wait till the new one is in...

I'd like to meet the feller who took out the Fuel Injection Air Cleaner stand...and smack him. Why chisel into the splash-pan area? It doesn't need ventilation. No worries, we will get it patched back up.

There is a lot of surface rust along the seal lip and on the top of the frame  area. All will need rust treatment and need to be sealed before any paint is applied.

The right rear corner of the bus as viewed as now.

Metal work! And, new parts!

The bus has now been transported to JStiles Studios where it will get a new battery tray, have the fuel injection air cleaner bracket re-welded in, and have the adjacent areas refinished. You can see Chris' 76 Double Cab there behind it. It (double cab) is on our super-duper Twirler- a rotisserie lift that enables you to spin the whole car around like a chicken, making things MUCH easier to work on!

Some new parts arrived! :-)

Seals, gaskets, brake lines, etc...

Exhaust system replacement "eliminator muffler." The EGR tube will be cut off and welded closed.

And these very beautiful new pistons/cylinders! Mmmmm.......

Window seals removal

The windshield has been replaced before and appears to be in good reuseable shape- no pitting, blasting, or chips. When you see bubbling coming out the lower lip area of the seal, it's always nerve-wracking to remove the windshield and seal...

The big reveal...windshield lower lip rust:

Obviously, that rust is going to have to be addressed before installing the new windshield seal. But wait, the installer of the previous one did not address it! The extent of it is the proof. Also, they painted the dash top (which was previously CE brown) black; and they painted that black over rust (non-treated rust). Expand these below 3 pictures to see.  You can see the rust behind their crappy masking job and you can also see the line where the rust is, under the paint. This rust WILL soon creep out.  Again, I'm no longer surprised to see things like this. People just too often fix the "face" problem and not the underlying issues.

Left side, rear- Good! :-)

Left side, center- Good! :-)

Right side, rear- mostly good, some rust on the front:

Rear hatch seal had been replaced. Rust on rear hatch lower lip:

Notes:
1) Not pictured here, the sliding door window opening appears to be good and rust free.
2) I have not removed the front cab door seals yet. There is some rust bubbling on the driver side.
3) As you may know, CE's have a stock greenish tint on the glass.  On this bus, the rear hatch glass was replaced with a clear (non-tinted) piece. Likely, the old glass broke and thus the reason for the replacement. We do have tinted glass in stock. :-)

Sliding door and door locks

Let's start fixing that sliding door and get the door locks all rekeyed to one matching key...

Sliding door track cover, sliding door, and front door panels all off:



One problem with the sliding door- rear hinge mechanism nylon guide broken. This is common. Just needs replaced with a new one for the door to slide well. We will also remove that whole rear hinge mechanism and refurbish it. It has many moving parts that, after 33 years, needs maintained!

This is hilarious! It's the catch mechanism. It is on the sliding door and holds the door in the open position. It is then activated by the sliding door handle to release the door in order to close it.  One of the captive nuts in the door broke off so someone used a sheetrock wall style anchor (in the door) with this long screw (left side). The second picture shows you the anchor that did not hold. As a result of this botched hippy-fix, the whole mechanism was loose and thus not holding and releasing the door properly.  We will have to remove a captive nut piece from a parts bus and re-install it in this bus.  I have never seen this problem in a bus before. Congrats on a first.

This was stuck in that hole. There SHOULD be a captive nut behind in instead.

Door panels removed for exterior handle/lock removal. The old plastic will be replaced with new. We will likely refurbish the window regulators and the door latching/locking mechanisms. All new seals going into these doors. Not one of my favorite jobs.

Door handles removed. In the middle is the engine hatch lock. At the bottom is the sliding door lock. The first 3 will be matched to the sliding door lock/ignition/rear hatch so that all are on one key.

Voila! Here is why we took the sliding door lock off- to get the bus' key code. This will be given to the locksmith in order to rekey the others (though they can probably do it without the code -just the key- it is nicer/more accurate to do it from the code and also cut a new key from the actual code

These gold-ish tabs activate the door locking mechanisms. These ones are not stock. Someone replaced them (stock ones likely broke) with aftermarkets. This is a sign that the door locking mechanisms are sticky and, after 33 years, need refurbished (removed, cleaned, relubricated).  UNLESS, they recognized this problem and did it when they changed these. I doubt it. People usually just fix a problem and don't actually determine why that problem happened and fix the underlying problem/s.  We might replace these tabs with stock ones from donor locks, unless I deem these to be strong enough. It's nice to have as much German factory parts as possible though!

Enjoy!?