Friday, January 20, 2012

Fuel tank, etc.

While that sliding door captive nut is "curing," let's put the fuel tank back in! :-)


No fuel smell in this bus...New lower fill tube. This is a cut (about 6 inches) of 2.25" fuel fill hose. There is a slight angle cut at the tank side, then it makes a slight bend.  Also, new upper fill neck installed.


All new tank vent line connections. You can see them at the yellow lines. Also, here is one hidden between the spare tire well and rear quarter panel. This one is often missed.


Firewall in and getting peripherals attached:


Fuel tank sending unit hatch installed. This is my personal modification to the Bentley manual's service bulletin to cut the sheet metal and create a recloseable flap. Really? This is much nicer.


Now you can easily gain access to the sending unit. This is a new one.


Starting to install fuel injection peripherals, the fuel pump wiring harness had some hacks (for the aftermarket carburetion fuel pump) that had to be repaired. Wires had to be replaced into the double relay plug (spade terminal clips repaired) and 2 wires had been cut. These were able to be soldered pretty easily and looks nice. This was much faster/cheaper than replacing the whole harness.


Starting to put the fuel injection parts in is SO exciting! :-) Here we have the series resistor block and double relay:


In other news, here is the driver side heat control box. Unfortunately, the cable was seized/rusted into the barrel nut that holds the cable to the control box. It could not be freed and the cable had to be cut. We will install a new left side cable- hoping the old one's sheath is not stuck into the body tube that it runs in front front to back (common and sucks). Cross yer fingers.


Cleaned the rear bumper. The inside is very rusted. No holes though.


:-)

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Nut

Remember? The forward captive nut of the sliding door's catch was gone. It was attached using a household drywall anchor. Sweet. Here's what the hole with no captive nut looks like. It did get egged out a bit from the loose anchor but this will not affect anything once we install a replacement captive nut.

Here is what it should look like. We will use this door for the donor nut. Don't worry, the door is trashed anyway.


Here it is cut and peeled back. There's our hidden treasure! :-) Why cut this out/remove the nut instead of just using a regular nut? Well, this is much more fun! And, since it IS an actual nut designed to be a captive nut, it should hold better.


Here is the piece cut out with nut removed. The nut is/was attached via 4 brazings- just chiseled each one steadily to get the nut off in good shape. I'm still wondering how the other one came off. Someone had to bang on it, or the brazings just released, weird.


How will we attach the nut? Can't really get to the back, don't want to cut any door. Let's use good ol' cold-weld. Yup- JB Weld to the rescue! :-) Sanded down the attachment side of the nut AND the area on the door where it is to be attached to.


Ready to schtick...

Set it in place and tighten its screw into it to hold it on while the cold-weld dries. Greased the threads of the screw to help assure they don't stick in case any weld got squeezed into the threads.  After drying, screw removed, and- voila- captive nut.


Also done today but not pictured... fuel tank cleaned/prepared for installation and inside of engine bay painting completed.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Back with BustedBus

JStiles has completed the metal work and exterior paint.  We're waiting for paint in order to finish the spray of the interior of the engine bay. Until then, the bus is back at our shop. Here are some finished product pictures...









just needs the finish coat



air cleaner stand back in


new battery tray

Obviously, the interior area will look better after the final finish coat.
What you can't see is that there are 2 coats or primer (one self etching), phosphoric acid metal etching/rust ridding, POR-15 rust prevention paint coat, and seam sealing. Overall, this will make things last 10 times longer than they would have from the factory, assuming one doesn't let water or battery fluids accumulate in this area.

Monday, January 2, 2012

PAINT!!!



Not too bad

The cut line is visible, but fresh paint vs. nearly 40 year paint...

Another Shot...

the blend was tough, but it worked!!! I haven't done a blend in years...

I have to hand it to the paint matching company. Impressive match...

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Christmas is over, New Years is on!

After Sanding this area, the very thin rust broke through and revealed the inevitable. More metal replacement.

Replacement patch in place to mark the cut-out exactly

Body cut out and ready for the patch

Santa brought JStiles Studios a couple set of panel clamps from Eastwood for Christmas!

Welded in and blended

Oh Bondonium how I hate thee...even when necessary

Self-Etching primer coat

High-Build Colored Primer is on and curing for the morning. Color goes on tomorrow!!!