Category: VW

So my goal right now is to get this bus in a drivable, street legal state.  A big part of that is getting the turn signal and brake lights working.  I’ve downloaded a free color wiring diagram for a 1967 fused bus from Samba, and have been trying to figure out what is still original, what has been changed, and how to connect everything to the 9-pin flasher relay.  I also noticed that both the headlights and taillights are not connected to the dimmer relay, but are instead wrapped together in electrical tape.  Of course when I plug them into that relay, the lights don’t come on. I’m definitely clueless with just about everything regarding this bus, but I also feel like I’m starting to learn my way around the thing!  I’m going to disconnect the two relays, clean all the connections, reconnect everything correctly, and see if anything lights up.

Today I finally got the bus running again.  This is what had been happening:  I turn the ignition key, and then nothing.  I assumed the battery was dead or not holding a charge, so spent the evening trying to jump start/ charge the battery.  I tried a few of the Muir tricks like pushing the bus backwards in 3^rd gear, and tapping on the solenoid/ starter.  Every time I turned the ignition the two indicator lights would flash and then nothing. I checked the fuses, checked all of the wire connections I could find, checked the battery water levels, tapped on the carburetor, the coil, the ignition, kicked the tires a couple times.  In my scramble to get this thing started again, I was doing everything I could think of; banging on the dashboard, shaking the bus, and then finally I randomly tried leaving the cabin light on while turning the ignition.  I heard a small clunk!  This was encouraging, so I pulled out the stopper switch that runs the taillights and headlights.  They came on but were very dim, but after about a minute, something clicked and the lights burned bright.  I tried the ignition and sure enough it started!

In my excitement, I ran to the back to see how she looked.  To my dismay, dirty brown liquid was spraying out of the right exhaust pipe.  I rushed to turn off the engine before I made too big of a mess.  I also noticed that the left indicator light remained on while the engine was running (I know one is supposed to be green one red, but mine are both white…).  I’m thinking this is the generator light, indicating that I have electrical problems somewhere. (this is also made obvious by the fact that I needed to have all the lights on, and it took me all night to get the thing started). One success followed by new challenges!  I’m hoping the liquid is just some water that accumulated in the muffler while the bus was on the trailer (we hit a few pretty bad rainstorms).   I’ll have to wait until the weekend to find out though, because I don’t want the apartment mgmt. to think I’m destroying their garage.  More to come later!

I spent the evening getting acquainted with the bus. I had some work friends come out over lunch, but of course she wouldn’t start. Oh well she looks cool anyways. Overall I’ve got a solid bus. Her engine looks to be in good shape with some newer components, I’ve got minimal body rust, and the underside is 80% solid with a few holes and rough patch jobs in the floor. The dash is totally uncut, and it looks like I will be spending some time learning how to rewire everything. The bad news is it is slowly leaking oil from the underside drain bolt, and the battery doesn’t seem to hold a charge. For a 46-year-old hippie bus barn-find from Georgia, not bad at all!

Another interesting note: I appear to have a few stowaways from Florida, namely a few massive brown spiders nesting in and around the bus, and a small lizard crawling around the windows. Hopefully there is room for a few more additions to the family!

We made it.  1200 miles, 25 driving hours, and one Georgia Peach Spa (read: probable brothel), and we’ve now made it safely home with our 1967 VW bus parked comfortably in her new garage.  What follows is the somewhat epic, and yet also mind-numbingly boring account of bringing this thing home: We left Orlando at 10:30 AM.  Our plan was to wake up at 6, but clearly that didn’t happen despite a few wake up calls and multiple snooze attempts.  The jeep started right up after the previous night’s fiasco,  and we got on our way.  The drive was long, and, thankfully pretty uneventful.  We hit traffic in Atlanta, checked the trailer rig in the parking lot of what I think might have been a Georgia whorehouse, and slept at a truckstop outside of Nashville.When we arrived in Chicagoland, all I needed to do was back the bus off the trailer and park it in the garage.  Small problem – my experience with driving a manual transmission is… minimal…. non-existent.  No worries though, I can do this!  I shift to neutral, turn the key, engine purrs to life – the bus starts with no hesitation.  I shift to reverse, slowly lift my foot off the clutch, the bus starts to shudder slightly, I apply some gas, the shuddering instensifies, and I apply more gas, and then … it dies!  This happened 3 times, on the forth attempt, the engine wouldn’t even turn over.  We panic – I can’t drive this thing, what are we doing here, I’ve got a bus on a trailer blocking half the parking lot that doesn’t start and I’m completely clueless.  Then it starts raining, check that… thunderstorming.

Ok this is getting out of hand – fast forward 30 minutes.  The rain has stopped, and I’ve Googled how to start a VW bus in reverse and realized the shift pattern is different, and I was trying the start the bus in 4^th gear… duh.  We dug out our battery charger, got the engine started back up, and made another attempt to get this thing off the trailer and into the garage.  I shift to reverse (fo real this time), slowly lift my foot off the clutch and the bus starts to move backwards. Yes!  In my jubilation, I lift my foot completely off the clutch, applied pressure to the brakes OOPS that’s the gas! The bus flew off the back of the trailer.  From Noelle’s perspective, it was strikingly similar to the launching of the Space Shuttle.  From my perspective, I didn’t even realize I was on the ground until I shut the engine off.  It wasn’t pretty but at least we’re off the trailer, and I didn’t break anything as far as I can tell.  A few more stalled engine attempts, and I was finally able to idle into the garage.  A fitting cap to a long two day journey.  I bought a bus, now I need to figure out how to fix it up.

I bought a 1967 VW bus today! This marks the beginning of what I hope will be an exciting and entertaining adventure. I know very little about cars, I haven’t ever changed my own oil, and don’t really know how to drive a stick shift. I don’t really know what I’m getting myself into, but at the same time I am extremely pumped to get this project started. My wife Noelle and I bought this bus, and we plan on restoring and converting it into a camper – and hopefully learning a lot along the way. I am confident that I will be able to figure out just about anything that might come up, and this blog is meant to keep a record of the crazy stories and experiences that are sure to follow. I welcome all kinds of feedback and advice – I’m pretty much clueless and you can help me learn as I go!

I bought my bus from John in Florida. He picked it up a year or so ago from a guy in Georgia. It sat in a field there for a number of years, but appears to be in fairly good shape. He claimed the engine ran well, and it looked mostly rust free from the pictures. And, being in Florida meant that we could make a little side trip to Disney!

When you’re at Disney, you know you’re screwed when you’re pissed off before you even get through the entrance gate. It all started when our hotel bus was 10 minutes late. If you’ve never been to Disney – just know that 10 minutes can mean the difference between seeing “Mickey’s Morning Show” – or whatever it’s called – and not. And if we miss the Mickey morning show – Wifey gets a little miffed. Luckily, by grabbing a quick Monorail , then shoving our way through hoards of people on a ferry, we showed up at the gate just in time.

Noelle’s a bit of a freak when it comes to Disney. Which means we typically have our itinerary planned to the minute. That’s not say we actually follow that itinerary when we get there – but we’ve got it. My theory on Disney is – it’s best to have a plan and be flexible. When you spend $200 to get into a place for a day – you gotta have a good time and get your money’s worth. We basically did all you could do in Magic Kingdom, and overall we had a great day – we found a perfect spot to view the nightly fireworks and rewarded ourselves with a taxi ride back to the hotel.

We arrived at midnight, hoping to get as much sleep as we could before the drive the next day – but wanted to check on the bus before we turned in. We walked out to the parking lot and noticed right away that one taillight on the trailer was shining brightly – not a good sign. Sure enough, for some reason the trailer light had come on some time during the day, and the battery in the jeep was dead.

No worries though – it was a U-haul hitch, a U-haul trailer, and we had paid for U-haul roadside assistance. When I finally got in touch with the U-haul representative, I was dismayed to learn that they could not actually send someone to jump start the car because it was personal vehicle. When I tried to argue that it was their trailer and their hitch installation that caused the issue, the woman mentioned she could not send anyone to help – but offered the following sage advice:

“Pump the brakes three times, turn the key one notch, wait 20 seconds, and then try and start the car….and if that doesn’t work…try it two more times ….

I replied “thanks for your …um…advice…that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard” – okay so I didn’t say that last part… but I wanted to

Luckily Noelle has AAA coverage. The guys were there in 30 minutes, and got us up and running – they were really cool and loved the bus. We charged the car for a while, rinsed off a day of residual Disney sweat and glitter, and called it day.