dirt and goo and grime and what-not

Definitely my least favorite part of restoration, engine assembly, etc. is the preparation of parts; i.e. disassembly, seperation, removal, degreasing, scraping, cleaning, scrubbing, blasting,  prepping, metal-etching, priming, painting...well, you get the point? Just give me a nice clean part and let me install it! That is why I love having the tin blasted and powdercoated all in one! Unfortunately, with the below stack of parts, this is not possible- too much subjectivity involved, as you will see. There is some asbestos, there are different colors, rust, POR-15 paint, yada yada...

Pile o' engine parts I'm currently working on, minus the shroud:

The original asbestos-containing sleeves between the heat control boxes and flex tubes. As you know, asbestos has to be dealt with very carefully. These will be replaced by silicone type flexible sleeves.

Wow, the original asbestos-containing exhaust gaskets! These were between the heat exchangers and the elbows. This means that they were (likely) never seperated.  It's a good indicator of a relatively low mileage part. And, these flanges are very nice and thick and solid. Me likey! But me no likey trying to scrape this asbestos off before they are blasted. You can NOT blast these with any of this white stuff left! Pretty much guaranteed asbestosis, mesothelioma, or whatever.  Even just doing this freaks my wife out, because asbestos DOES get airborn when messed with.

Here are the newer (non original) metal gaskets. These were between the exhaust manifolds and elbows, an indicator that they have been changed- likely with the new engine. Again, very good and thick flanges on the manifolds. All of the exhaust parts are in great shape!

Here's the California cat. converter exhaust, in case anyone in the future ever wants/needs to reinstall it...

Now some fun...here are the intake manifold sections after media (glass) blasting. These will now be self-etching primered and painted; the plenum semi-gloss black and the runners/manifolds gray. Pretty cool to see them naked. If you zoom in, you can see the copper brazings in some areas. Very well made parts.

Fan shroud was seperated, cleaned, lightly wire-wheeled, lightly blasted, and the interior sprayed with clear-coat/lacquer to assure smooth air flow and easier cleaning.

Shroud reassembled and having one coat of metallic silver.  Since then it has gotten an additional coat of hammerite silver, looks very nice. That picture on the next blog.

These are the things that a regular "mechanic" shop will not do when installing an engine. It simply takes too long for them to make any money at it. Many restoration shops won't even go this far. But, you can be assured that every screw will get attention with this engine assembly. After completion, it will power the bus AND heat pizza, right on top.

Sliding door works

I get so many emails with this: "my sliding door does not work. I need all the rollers." Bam! I just made a ton of money, right? No, I actually tell my customers "you know, consider that 40 years of sliding has been a pretty good thing. Now, your sliding door parts just need removed, cleaned, potential broken pieces replaced, relubricated, and reinstalled."  Crap, now I only made 10 bucks instead of 300. But, I sleep better. Here goes...

Here are the 3 rollers: the rear hinge/roller, the lower roller/s, and the upper roller. As you can see, they get dirty and need maintained. On the rear hinge/roller, the nylon guide breaks. This is the dirtiest piece above the wheel there- hard to see, I know.  The lower roller takes the brunt of the beatings because it is holding up the weight of the door. The upper roller is pretty much just there for stability. Let's clean these up and take care of them...

On the rear hinge/roller, the nylon guide is held on by a large rivet-type fastener. These are pretty hard to get and install so the recommended replacement is a simple cheese-head bolt with nut and wavy washer. This rivet gets drilled out.

Here's the new guide installed, with the assembly having been cleaned, the roller wheel free'd and cleared and all relubricated (with lithium here):

The lower roller cleaned and free'd. White lithium on the horizontal roller and Sil-Glide on the vertical:

Lower roller installed with its shims. The lower roller is the adjustment point for the door's "in and out" position from the bus. This will have to be re-adjusted when the new door seal is installed. Then, as the years go on and the new seal gets broken in, you adjust things IN.

Upper roller ready to rock:

Each of the three tracks that these rollers ride on must be cleaned and relubricated as well. Here's the lower track pre-cleanage. Eeewww.... And cleaning this one takes a while. No fun.

Rear track, post-cleaning and with door on, being lubricated (using roller to spread sil-glide). The new nylon guide is a bit tight but she'll break in. This is better than too loose! :-)

Door back on, sans sliding window. It works. Well. Even the rear catch and release works now, thanks to our thooper dooper captive nut repair. :-)
The rear track cover goes on after the new rear side window seal.

Other misc. things... the upper alternator adjust/heat exchanger bracket welded/repaired:

Here it was before, cracked. Always nice to save a part, especially when it's a part that is not reproduced and/or rare to find good  used.

New muffler's EGR feed was cut off and welded:

You can see it here before. Again, even if EGR were to be used on this bus in the future, this muffler could not be used with it because it can't be used with cat. converter so would not pass smog anyway:

My assistants for the day. May I present Mr. Owen and the lovely Ms. Kaya. They were going "to school." hint hint to us parents that they are ready for preschool!

Enjoy! More to come tomorrow...