Happy Thanksgiving! I had some great time with family this week – I also had a little time to work on the bus. I’ve been trying to diagnose the ongoing engine troubles, and I decided to start tackling one of the bigger restoration projects: the front bumper!
I noticed that my brand new spark plugs are completely fouled with carbon – most likely due to the new carb running rich. I replaced them with even more brand new plugs… even though I think the carb might still be rich, so I probably just wasted like $10. I’m thinking about opening the carb and replacing the main jets with smaller sizes – if these new plugs get fouled right away I’ll look into that.
The engine is still dying after its warmed up – this time, it started up great, I made it almost all the way around the parking lot, shifted to first after the stop sign – the engine lost power, I goose the pedal for more gas, but nothing happens – its dead. After it dies, it doesn’t start unless I spray carb cleaner in the carb fuel bowl. My theory now is that 1) the gas tank has some rust which is constricting the lines and clogging the fuel filter, 2) the gunk in the fuel lines may have blocked a carb jet, 3) the fuel pump rod is getting stuck at higher temperatures, resulting in less fuel flow at idle. All of these are relatively easy to fix except for fully replacing the gas tank – I’ll keep you posted on the progress!
The front bumper is actually in pretty solid shape. It has some surface rust, the paint is chipped and coming off, there are a few dents – but it doesn’t have any holes, it is straight, and has accurate curvature. My plan is to strip the thing down to bare metal, neutralize any rust, fix any dents, spray paint with professional grade primer, base coat, and clear coat automotive paint. I spent like 3 hours with various grinding wheels and a wire brush on the drill – this is taking quite a while! I’m about halfway done, but so far its looking like I will have a really nice bumper for a fraction of the cost of a new one!
