It’s desperately cold + lots of snow + an awesome ski trip to Utah + a week of the flu = absolutely no work done on the bus.
I did buy these very restorable Hehr Jalousie camper windows. I got a great deal on this set of three, and I only need two for the bus. My plan is to replace all of the rusty screws and rivets, clean up the frames, replace the delaminating glass, and install in the back two side windows. I’m sure I’ll get all that done someday!
I know that as this project has developed, I’ve started throwing out some technical terms and part names. I don’t usually know what I’m talking about, but I’ve been slowly finding my way around the engine compartment. I made this diagram for anyone interested so that they can roughly know what goes where on this crazy bus.
The engine code starts w/ AK, indicating that it is originally from a 1974 Super Beetle (I’m thinking it has been rebuilt at some point since). It is a “1600 Dual Port”, and since I bought this bus in June, I’ve replaced the spark plugs (twice), spark wires, fuel pump (which then stopped working so I put the old one back on), voltage generator, intake manifold, carburetor (originally a 34Pict3, now a new 30Pict3, and air intake cleaner. I’ve also cleaned a bunch of stuff, and set the distributor timing to 30degrees before TDC w/ a timing gun. I’ve struggled with air leaks, dirty fuel, and crappy aftermarket parts, but now have an engine that fires right up, and runs until I tell it not too!
We took the bus out for its first big road trip! Well kind of… I got approximately 1.5 miles into a 35 mile trek up north to the VW shop before breaking down… well nothing really broke.. but it didn’t want to shift into second gear, and the traffic was freaking out around me so I gave up pretty quick!
The bus has been running really well, so my plan was to drive it up to a VW shop that specializes in air-cooled restorations. They are going to put this thing up on a lift so we can see exactly what needs to be repaired/ replaced. I’m also going to have them do a thorough mechanical check to make sure the brakes, steering, engine is all in general working order (I mean I can stop, turn, and drive now, so I’m hoping for the best). I took the day off work to drive it the 35 miles north. Noelle followed me in the car, and we have AAA as backup. We started out strong, the bus fired right up, I got out on the road and quickly found myself going 30mph in 3rd gear with no problems. Sweet! The steering felt light and responsive, the engine sounded great, and the ride was smooth. As I pulled out onto the main road though, I tried to shift back up to second gear, and immediately the engine bogged down. I quickly pushed the clutch back in and shifted to first – tried to rev the engine and shift again, same result – not good! I’m now going about 10mph with cars darting around me like crazy. One lady literally drove into oncoming traffic to get around me – wtf! I eventually turned into a side road, and parked the bus in a parking lot. Time for plan B – calling AAA to for a tow.
Turns out the basic AAA membership only gets you 5 miles of towing… so it will actually cost over $100… oh and the lazy tow truck driver isn’t willing to come get me in “rush hour” (its 6:15 in the morning) so the earliest he will be here is … 3.5 hours from now… right… time for plan C – limp the bus back home, sign up for AAA premium, wait the obligatory 3 days, “breakdown” in the apartment parking lot, and finally get this thing up to the shop. So thats what we do – turn back out on the main road – again with cars coming out of nowhere and all trying to run me down – its like they can sense weakness, and are going in for the kill! Thankfully I had Noelle on my side – She wielded that car like a blocking machine – applying liberal amounts of horn, and I’m sure some colorful language. But seriously, people need to calm down. I had one car literally speed up as I turned the corner to try to hit me or something – I don’t get it, if I saw some cribbled up vintage bus chugging down the road, I would certainly slow down – but not these crazies – I guess they are in a hurry to get to “work” or wherever their self-absorbed, inconsiderate selves are trying to go. Anyways, we finally made it back home and could breath some relief!
I spent the some more time test driving the bus around the parking lot. It’s entirely possible (Noelle might say probable) that I just don’t know how to drive this thing yet. It seems like as the engine warms up, it gets harder to shift, the engine bogs down and almost dies. I’m wondering if I am just shifting incorrectly?! I’ll have to keep practicing… of course after the 2 – 4 inches of additional snow that is coming tomorrow… yay winter…
Check out the salty hellscape that coats the roads around here… salt, water, and metal get along great don’t they?
This is my new 4-1/2″ angle grinder! I bought this thing from Harbor Freight to help remove the welded front bumper brackets, and strip the old paint & rust from various parts of the bus. Bottom line is that this tool is a beast – its not that big, but it spins at 10K RPM – I’m definitely not messing around! I tried grinding down, and then cutting into the bracket weld. Unfortunately, with all of the sparks flying and the loud screeching of the grinding wheel, I wasn’t willing to keep it up for very long – so far, the apartment mgmt has been very lenient with my tinkering, and I don’t want to mess that up.
I also spent some time banging away at the stuck front hinge bolts. I need to remove these before I can attach my replacement side mirrors. I bought a new type of penetrating oil, but still didn’t manage to move the bolts. I guess I’ll keep working on that!
Finally, I braved the cold and wet weather to test drive the bus some more. It performed beautifully! I backed the thing out of the garage, shifted smoothly into first and then second gear, drove around the parking lot. I came to the dreaded stop sign where I’ve had so much trouble before – the engine either dies as I brake, or it coughs and dies as I shift in first to get going again – but this time, the engine dropped to a solid idle as I came to a stop, and did not hesitate as I got going again. Success!
I parked the bus out front to clean out the garage a bit – came back later, fired it right up, and pulled it into the garage. As far as I can tell the bus is working well, and ready for the road! Now we just need to survive the additional 5 – 10 inches of snow forecasted for tonight, and then Monday’s “coldest temperature ever recorded in Chicago”. Hopefully the weather clears up in the next week or so, and I can actually drive this crazy bus down the street!
It’s 5 degrees out – we just survived a 3 day snowfest – and yeah, I went out and started up the bus. It struggled with the first turn of the key, the starter slowly chugged to life – the engine fired up, but then died. I pumped the pedal a couple more times, turned the key, it roars to life! I kept my foot on the pedal for a few seconds to keep the engine going, and then backed off the gas. The engine idles smooth, sounds great. No, I didn’t drive it around in the snow, but still – if the stupid thing starts when its this cold, I have to think it is good to go.
I snapped the pic above as a car drove by to illuminate the awesome event, and I made another video of my beautiful engine running, even in the cold, but I didn’t want to post it because then people might come across my youtube channel and think I have some weird VW engine fetish… which I don’t! … I think
I also spent some time crawling around underneath the bus, confirming that some genius of a previous owner had decided to add a real hack-job of a weld to the front bumper brackets. They are now solidly attached to the bus, and I can’t actually fit a wrench behind them to put the bumper on. I’ll be figuring out the least destructive way of removing these shortly.
Its supposed to be -15 below next week – lets see if any more body panels try to fall off!