Slowly But Surely

Sorry about the huge gap in posts.  I have been slowly getting things done.  My family was here for the weekend and I picked up a box of sheet metal cooling parts for the engine.  It was gifted to me by another Vw enthusiast, so I picked through this pile.

I did not need nearly as much as I thought.  I re posted these on Craigslist locally for anyone that needs them totally free.  I used 2 or 3 of the sheet metal pieces, and cut a tab off of another.  I then went about scrubbing with a toothbrush, and some degreaser these tin parts.  I let them sit in the sun to dry, and sprayed them with a flat black high temperature engine spray paint.  I am super excited.  I think they look fantastic, and I can not wait to see how the motor looks in the freshly white painted engine bay!  Here is a shot of a few sheet metal parts painted.  The largest one is not painted, notice the difference.  It looks clean.  I am happy with clean.  You will understand as I get further.  

So you get the idea, this main piece here is how it looked before painting.  Just old and rough.  The rest is painted with flat black. It is not perfect, but it is matching.  Below is the large piece pictured above, however painted.

I LOVE IT!  I see a problem brewing, all this pretty stuff is going to make the dirty old stuff look even worse! Now I have all the sheet metal cooling parts I think.  Just have to finish the motor to install tin.

Motor Building

I did not finish my engine yet.  On Tuesday I got the old pistons and cylinders off, cleaned the cylinder gaskets, because they are made of metal and I can reuse them.  I started cleaning and wiping down the engine block.  It was a complete mess, grease and grime and years of sludge from oil leaks and who knows what else.  The engine is as far torn down as I will take it at this moment I think.  I am not totally certain.  I have been having this nightmare lately.  When I get the bus done we go for the maiden voyage only to be towed home.  It is a concern of mine obviously that parts I have not checked for damage and or replaced in the bottom of the engine could fail causing me time and money to fix.  I do not want to pull the engine later to rebuild again!  It is a minor concern of mine at the moment.  I am pretty sure Ruby will be so pleased with the freshly rebuilt top end, New brakes, tires, shocks, floors, owners and puppy that nothing will ever go wrong again.  Plus I found that bad luck white lighter and sent it away.  This weekend my brother and sister are visiting.  Hopefully we can find the time to get a few things done.  I am taking it slow with the motor making certain I get everything together properly and I personally do not mess up any important parts along the way.  I should have the motor together by the time they get here.  Maybe we will put it back in.  I guess we will see.....

I got my parts!

So on April 2nd, Lynn and I drove to Youngstown to get our engine parts.  I got new pulleys, clutch, spark plugs, spark plug wires, pistons, cylinders, rings, push rod tubes, clutch, and heads.  Plus all the necessary gaskets.  So here is a picture of my engine as it sits now.  Ugly Dirty Greasy Broken. I have not yet started working on the motor.  I have had all the nice new parts sitting here waiting for me.  Last week I worked everyday, and we went to Hoopla In the Hills.  A music festival in Athens Ohio.  So we were getting ready to camp, and never got anything done.  So we came home from the festival, and cleaned out the car.  Monday consisted of setting the parts out so they looked awesome, and were ready for me to start the rebuilding of the engine.  Here they are.

 I plan to degrease the block today, and if everything goes smoothly, have a motor this evening.  I would really really like to start and tune the bus.  No driving yet, Still need brakes and shocks.  So with fingers crossed I will be building my beautiful new engine.  Wish me luck.  I will post up a picture of my work later this afternoon.

 






                         

 

HAPPY EASTER!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter.  Lynn, Luna and I went to NJ and hung out with the family it was awesome.  We had an amazing weekend and got to see our family.  It was wonderful!  We drove back in the middle of Sunday night.  I had to sleep in the car because I had to work at 7 this morning.  So Lynn had a visit with the Easter bunny today and this is what I got!  I could not believe the Easter Bunny knew exactly how much money I needed to get my engine parts from Rich, and new brakes! 

SUPER EASTER!  I am so excited to get the motor back together.  BUT I have to be patient, If I have a ready to run nice new motor on the bench I will certainly want to get driving..  Time to use my patients!  Thanks Lynn for the bestest Easter basket ever!

Unexpected stoppage.

So I had pushed the bus out of the garage about a week ago to do some pressure washing and painting.  At some point the brakes decided to stick, causing it to get stuck in the driveway.  Motor is still out obviously, and my garage has a step up into it, instead of a nice little ramp.  So yesterday I took the wheels off, sprayed some PB blaster in the rear drums, and beat the crap out of it with a small sledge hammer.  I get them off.  I then jammed a screwdriver between the front disc and the brake pad on the inside of the rotor.  I pried on it a little to loosen the front brakes.  Now my wheels spin FREEEEEEEEE!  So I made two ramps out of wood and pushed the bus up them attempting to put it in the garage.  I broke the ramps of course.  So I pushed the bus back about 20 feet, and waited for Lynn to get home.  When she got home we rebuilt the ramps, and reinforced them with other pieces of wood.  She steered and I pushed.  It took 2 tries.  The first time I almost made it.  So back I pushed the bus another 20 feet.  I put Luna inside because she was so interested in the moving wheels.  So the second attempt I pushed hard as I could and ran.  The bus rolled right up the ramps, and into the garage.  We then put it back on the jack stands.  I got a set of vice grips so I could take the broken screws out of the cabin floor sil plate.  I broke them off.  So I went and got the drill bits.  I broke 4 drill bits, and only got 1 screw drilled out.  So I have to purchase some new ones, Nice sharp ones and drill these screws out.  I cleaned the garage out very nicely today, and organized it.  This weekend we are driving to NJ to celebrate Easter with the family.  I will not be getting anything done on the bus.  I have to work all next week, So I am hopeful that I can pick up my engine parts and get the motor back in next week.  Very hopeful.  When I buy new drill bits they will not be RYOBI.

SNOW AGAIN

So this weekend I did not get anything done.  We had such a crazy weekend here at the house.  At 1 point 3 dogs, 10 people and a jam session.  Lynn was doing dreadlocks for her friend, and our nephews Dylan and Logan were playing video games.  Crazy crazy town.  So I had big plans for Monday morning.  Get outside, get the broken screws out of the floor so I could replace them and put the floor back in.  Thus being the beginning of getting Ruby back together.  I have to put the floor in before the closet and the seats, but I can not put the tack strip in with the screws being broken off in the floor.  So I walk out with my coffee and Luna.  This is what I saw.

Its Tuesday March 26th, and it is still snowing.  It started Sunday night.  I am going for vise grips to get these darn screws out, and interior back in.  I should have some updates later this evening.  

Wood Refinishing.

 So while I was Spring Cleaning, I thought I would refinish the wood panels that are walls of the living quarters.  They were that ugly whiteish paint.  Also they have years of water damage, and wear marks.  So I thought I would clean them up.  I was worried about sanding because the wood is so soft to begin with.  So I started by wet sanding.  It is cold.  So that lasted a short amount of time.  Instead I got some 180 and 220 grit sandpaper for my orbital sander.  That served the purpose just fine.  I just had to make sure to not press too hard.  That would take the wood down below the top layer.  Then it is just crappy filler stuff.  Cheap particle wood.  Here are some pictures of the whole process. I actually installed the wood this afternoon.

Wet sanding, Action shot.  Trying to find the perfect wet to not gum up the sand paper, but not to soak the wood causing more harm than help.

This picture below is the two trim pieces for the cargo area, and the panel to the right side of the rear seat. 

The two cargo area trim pieces are all sanded and waiting for polyurethane.  The wall piece is not.  

I did sand everything with my palm sander after I quit the wet sanding.  And I wanted everything to have matching sanding marks if there were any to see at at all.   So I sanded everything down to the wood, and used a spray polyurethane I purchased from Ollie's.  It was like 1.99 a can, and it performed exactly the way I wanted.  We plan to completely restore Ruby, but if we start now there is no way we will see Phish, or any music with her this summer.  So we are just doing a little bit, kind of enough to be happy with it for the summer. And mainly just a good cleaning.  I could not deal with the ugly worn white paint, so it is gone.   I wanted the finished product to look clean, but used.  I did not want it to look like all the wood was replaced with amazing care and everything else was just thrown in.  So I hung the parts in the garage, and sprayed them with the polyurethane I purchased.  To be honest it came out exactly the way I wanted. 

This picture below is a small piece that is already sprayed.  The large panel behind is still attached to the door.  This should give you an idea of why I wanted to refinish it.  

I hung the panels with some hemp rope from the rafters so I could get the spray can to perform properly, and get accurate coverage and drying.  So I sprayed the panels, and every single one looks different.  On ones with a lot of wear the wear marks are still there.  Just not as dark. And I kept the factory safety and locking function stickers.  I wouldn't be happy without them, and there is a square of discolored wood behind them.  

 

The larger panel I leaned against the wall and painted.  I did not want to chance the string failing and it falling.  I am on a budget and new wood panels are not in it.  While I had everything out, I thought I would do a temporary fix on the rusty holes in the floor.  A poor mans fix, Solely to hinder the water getting up under the plywood floor and causing a musky smell and molding.  I plan to restore fully next winter so this is just a summer fix.  Here is a picture of the floor during the time of wire brush world.

So all these discolored spots are the rust, and most of them are holes.  Good size holes.  The size hole that you could drop you're cell phone through.  So what I did was some really gheetto crap, I wire brushed the area, and spray primed them.  I did this to hopefully slow down the rust a little bit.  And I was planning to tape plastic down over the holes.  Planning.  I bought some "Commercial Grade Duct Tape" at Ollie's.  I know bargain tape, BUT it was made in USA so I had no worries it would be good tape, and do what I needed it to do.  Wrong.  It did not stick at ALL!  so No tape 

Now remember, this is all temporary.  Just to get me through the summer, I know this is not fixing my issue, but it may slow it a little.  So since my tape was not working out I sprayed black paint around the holes, and pushed the plastic down into the wet paint in the immediate area surrounding the holes.  I know super ghetto.  Temporary mold hindrance is all I am going for.  SO here is this ugly bit of work, I don't even want to post it here, but I am going to.  

I took a razor knife after all the black paint had dried and cut the excess off around the holes.  I was not really thinking about it when I did this.  I had not planned to go any farther with this temporary fix, but Luna jumped up in and stepped through one.  So I ran out and got a can or spray undercoating.  The rubber stuff. I sprayed the edges of the patches and sealed them a bit better.  Then just did a quick coat over the patch.  I should have made them better out of screen as if I was doing fiberglass.  But to be perfectly honest I was not thinking when I did it.  Lynn's sister Laura recommended it via cell phone from Buffalo.  I will remember for next time.  So yeah I sprayed the rubber undercoating. I also covered the holes where the rear seat belts mount in both fenders.  They were completely gone.  So I taped over the holes and then sprayed them with the undercoating. I waited for it to dry, and then went ahead and put the wood panels back in.  

You can not really tell here in this picture.  I will get some better ones tomorrow when I get out to the bus.  I did not check the pics out after I took them.  So needless to say you can not really see any of the ugly patch work.  Maybe better. haha.  I made the mistake of putting the wood panel back on before putting the ashtray back in.  That was dumb.  I had to pull it back out put the ashtray housing in and bend the prongs so it would stay in place.  Then put it back in.  So twice the work.  But hey most everything I am doing will be done more than once again while I have get Ruby back to happy life.

 So this was most of what I did today, I also painted the engine bay white, the gas tank panel is still gray.  I re-installed the wood panels and scrubbed the floor.  I was going to put the floor back in, but I forgot that the screws in the metal doorway plate broke, and are still stuck in the body. Here is a shot of the engine bay all taped off.  And Luna helped me out with the taping.  

 

I washed it all out, and put the wood back in.  Here are the trim pieces. All refinished and replaced.

 So we spent the day putting the wood back in patching the floor and cleaning up things.  Luna helped me tape off the engine bay, and paint.  It was actually tough to keep her away from me while painting.  Something about the sound I guess.  But she was certainly helping.  Jumped in while I was painting the floor and tracked her little puppy prints painted black all over. It was quite cute.  Then She played queen of the stump.

We had a long day and got a lot done.  I am happy with where we left off for the day, and I am happy to finally have the blog caught up to where I am in real time.  We put time in, and it shows in the look on Luna's face.