Naranja Westy Road Trip - Done!

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yondermtn
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip

Post by yondermtn » Wed Dec 23, 2015 8:10 am

After seeing all of this gunky fuel I had to go wake up my bus a little early and top off her tank. It was a beautiful December day.
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1977 Westy 2.0FI
1990 Vanagon MV 2.1 Auto

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Amskeptic
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip - Done!

Post by Amskeptic » Wed Dec 23, 2015 9:01 am

A whole new adventure in Pensacola FL after the marathon windshield channel repair at the Weisswurst Volkswagen Petting Zoo and Animal Showroom.

Naranja Westy had driven the 400 or so miles from Homosassa Fl with aplomb, averaging 18 mpg at 60-65 mph, brakes getting a little pulsy and a little swervy, engine beginning to backfire on deceleration (with my new exhaust??), and the temperatures had dropped severely enough to require pulling down on the heater cables with two fabricated coat hanger hooks that held the heater valves open hooked against the frame channels. I ran a wire from the ground spade station on the intake plenum that I stuck into the brown and white wire that leads back to the blower fan relay when I needed additional heat. Good heat too . . . :

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The timelessness of the Law Firm is an anchor for the traveling itinerant. There's the cats. There's the outside painting table. There's the garage. There's the lawyer, Jack (jackstar on the forum), there's the utterly perfect shell of a 1979 Westy in flawless Dakota Beige showing me with stark relief the extent of the catastrophes unleashed by dumb collision damage and dumb repairs on Naranja, and looky there, why there's the 1979 Cabriolet! refusing to move out of the bay until we clean and gap its plugs:

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Pulled Naranja into the bay and removed the battery. There is more damage here than I realized:

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This car was hit on the right rear. The frame was duly shortened. The body work including the hatch/tailgate cross piece, the vertical support alongside the hatch, and the entire quarter panel are all *detached* from the frame. This car was repaired only to look sort of acceptable on the outside. The bumper was up against the body because the shortened frame houses the bumper bracket bolts.

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God, I was feeling so bitter about the surfacey shiny fakery "work" done on this car. All of this hidden damage was just secretly eating the car alive. See the fiberglass over the frame channel hole? See the bondo dots? See the shortened frame with the captive bumper nut rusting in a depression on the frame rail? Did I mention that the bumper was being held on with dinky little 1/2" bolts and nuts with split washers that barely bridged the holes in the bracket? Appallingly indifferent, incompetent, and lazy shoddy work . . . . :angryfire:

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The pinch weld is a mess of tig-welded burnt metal fragments. The unprotected metal under the fiberglass and bondo and shiny paint, exposed since 1995 at the latest, has been rusting away:

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A horrendous glob of silicone "caulking" has made a den of hidden rust along the replaced rear quarter panel which has rusted enough to be almost perforated:

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After I cut out the battery tray, leaving a support shelf at the front and partially along the side, I was able to access the splash shield that had been crushed by a boulder strike or something:

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It was bashed up against the rusted out battery tray and had buckled into a "z". This hit was severe enough to also pull the rear fender in and up. I used a 2X4 to bash it back a little, but needed to haul out my bottle jack to press and keep the wheel well from bowing forward. Some serious pressure going on and the bottle jack push also managed to push the front wheel well metal forward a bit as I pushed back on the splash shield. Under tension, I hammered the buckled metal above the splash shield and pulled down on the fender just behind the wheel opening. Eventually, it "latched" into position and stopped springing the h%@! back up. Every hammer blow released a shower of metal chunks and rust. Poor car:

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That is bondo under the taillight, you can see the rear brace eaten away, and you can see the devastated bumper bolt holes, but you can also see how we are working our way in like archaeologists puffing away the dirt (rust, dammit) to uncover the artifacts (metal, dammit) underneath:

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I spent the night cleaning away any friable rust, trying to scope out and clean remaining good metal. I had the old battery tray "support shelf" in place, and I straightened it to as factory like as possible so it would meet the new flimsy piece of work from Bus Depot for $27.00 battery tray's profile as closely as possible. Then I brushed and applied 120 psi air to the entire right rear of the car all passages, caverns, hidden compartments, drain holes, support pieces, frame channels, rear apron, brushed some more, tapped and tapped, blew more air, brushed and cleared debris, then painted with the good Marhide One Step Rust Catalyzing primer, every exposed bit of metal, every hidden area, every seam, every crevasse, paint was driven up the internal bracing with air pressure. The thoroughness of this effort was matched only by my desperation to stop this surprisingly advanced cancer. I knocked off at 1:00AM.

Here is our Clint Eastwood-Meets-Atticus Finch Criminal Defense Lawyer in Japanese Rice Rocket Wannabe headgear checking out how much metal we have to work with to weld in the new battery tray.

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Jack did a test weld with some fragments from the new battery tray. It looked easy. Didn't look too good, though. I wanted to try my hand, but there was no more test pieces.
Jack heard me a little later declare, "hey! I think I can JB Weld this battery tray in place!" (that was because I was thinking to myself, "I will be DAMNED if we are going to touch this car with that infernal metal killing welder")
"Oh, sure, suit yourself, it looks like it might work, need a ride to get some?"
Then I looked at the whole unsupported rear of the battery tray, and miserably concluded that we HAD to weld the damn thing in. So, I backtracked a little. What could he practice on without me puking?
"Hey Jack, can you weld the cut off piece of new battery tray to the side here?" (it was new metal to new metal and it matched the profile of the pinch weld seam beautifully, and if it turned out to be the disaster I was anticipating, well, it is only a $27.00 tray . . . . )

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"Colin, get the dremel on it and clean it up," said Jack The Migger. Well, wouldn't you know it, under the burnt outside of lumpy crusty crispy burnt-looking metal, was a decent-looking brass sort of welded joint. Now I wanted to play.
"Jack, I AM going to weld the rear brace MYself."
"Oh, sure, suit yourself, but I don't think there is much metal to work with there, it will probably burn through."
"How the HELL do you see in here?" I asked from the mask.
"It auto-dims."
With an exceptional display of incompetent thrashing and mask slipping and sparking and weld rod wastage, I conducted two spotty looking welds at the rear corner with a little bubbling of the paint on the outside.
"This is harder than it looks."

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Here is the welded-in new battery tray. There is a mess of mangled metal from the long-ago impact, but our welded remnant of new battery tray front is matching the pinch weld line nicely and the tray is *solidly* in place:

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Here is four hellish hours later, after applying bondo to the metal moonscape and a butyl-tenacious-mucky-caulk (the same stuff I used on Chloe's windshield) line around the perimeter of the battery tray with my fingers, then finding out that I did not have a suitable cleaner solvent (finally discovered chlorinated brake parts cleaner worked . . . that, and a roll of paper towels):

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Here, I used the wrong spot filler and discovered that it needed "hardener". It never set. It never set. It never set. It never set . . .

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Many many many hours later, I scraped off the NeverSet Body Filler and reapplied real bondo and followed through with the correct spot putty. Vacuum/sand/vacuum/sand all night, then hand painted primer:

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After some trying spray can cap paint-mixing . . . . and even more vexing brush painting through that infernal taillight opening . . . :

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Meanwhile, under the car I had brushed, blasted and driven rust catalyzing primer up into pinch welds and seams with air pressure, followed by an air-pressure-turbo-assisted application of black paint, followed by a turbo-assisted application of undercoating:

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I found the BobD replacement rear bumper bolts purchased in Albuquerque in 2012, and tapped and anti-seized the suffering bolt holes on the car, elongated the bumper bracket holes with the dremel grinder, and got that bumper looking proper-like (next to my hideous battery tray weld screaming at the viewer of this photograph, "don't let this guy weld!":

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As I was finishing up and putting away tools, I spied the left rear wheel with bubbled paint and a wet spot. That was one wrecked BobD wheel paint job. After my stated departure time had arrived, I
a) had to replace left rear wheel cylinder, decontaminate shoes and drum, and adjust brakes
b) change oil
c) adjust valves
d) get that left lower tin removed and retorque all eight exhaust manifold nuts
e) adjust AFM wiper 1/2 tooth rich
f) Rainex the windshield
g) thank Jack for hosting this most challenging and interesting repair (we did good, Jack).

Have been driving through a pounding driving rust-promoting rain for two days now.
The Universe is so funny I forget to laugh.
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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Amskeptic
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip - Done!

Post by Amskeptic » Thu Dec 24, 2015 8:31 am

This car has now gone two thousand miles since I have owned it . . . very easy miles.

It has been an atrocious amount of rain since I left Pensacola in the rain. The new-as-of-July-2014 BobD Maxxis tires ate some big rain puddles in the roadway with very little drama. Six accidents in the rain on Florida I-10 eastbound, most were simple off-road excursions due to inattention in the rain, one was a Honda that appeared to shorten an Audi pretty good. In the rain, I peeled off the interstate to head north just before reaching Tallahassee.

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US 231 North was a stoplight-infected four-lane road throttled down to surface streets at each town. Kudos to a lovely downtown in Eufaula Alabama for its stately mansions on the main street. Got in a stupid pissing match with a stupid car hauler on 431. He was doing 55, I was doing 60, I changed to the inside passing lane and accelerated to get past his massive tire spray as quickly safely possible. Well, he accelerated too. I am up to 72 mph on a sweeping right hand turn with this bobbing and weaving car carrier and he is going onto the shoulder and throwing up gravel against the front of NaranjaWesty and I finally get past him by deciding that he *will* lift off for the curve coming up while I am surely not going to. He slowed after I got past him, and even when I went back down to 57 mph he kept falling further behind me. Why do people do this?

Car ran beautifully, the new exhaust, AFM adjustment, and valve adjustment, all made this engine a model of unobtrusive smoothness. Fuel economy declined due to both rolling resistance in water, wind, and AFM adjustment towards rich, to a calculated 16.7 mpg. 409 miles of straight rain more rain heavier rain and more rain still, and here I am aiming at puddles. Aiming into the puddles? Yep. This poor car had twenty year-old Michigan road salt stuffed into every crevasse, every seam, every enclosed box channel, and it had activated on every humid or rainy day in the PO's garage in Duluth. This drive, this was a celebratory 409-mile pressure wash, a celebration of no more road salt, and it was a very stern test (to be later assessed) of the last ten days of rust-eradication.

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Camped on a dead-end road past a strip mall with a slight downhill on a slight curve to the left with a decidedly unslight huge pile of brush blocking the dead end. The rains they kept a raining. Crashed out to the drumming on the poptop. Came to to a policeman's rapping on the driver's door. It is pitch dark outside.
"Hey, what are you doing here?"
"Too tired to drive safely, on my way to family for holidays."
"Oh, OK, Merry Christmas."
Well, I am awake NOW, might as WELL get goING . . . turn the key, idiot lights merely dim and the engine barely gives a turn.
Good lord, Mr. Officer has already floored it off to the next police call.

I shut off all lights last night, there is no reason for the battery to be dead, the cables were cleaned and de-ox'd just in Pensacola, tried again, come ON . . . no.
I have barely six feet before the brush pile consumes the front of the car. Hop out of the driver's seat into the . . .
" . . . into the what?"
RAIN, and try to push the car. It is frozen in place. I have to waste precious battery trying to unstick the brake drums. Worse yet, I wasted a full foot towards the brush pile, but hey, the brakes did let it go with a clank.
Will it first-start-of-the-day push-start in the rain in five lousy feet? Turn on the ignition, jump out, push car, jump back in, dip the clutch, catch second gear, feather the gas, pull the e-brake, crash into the brush pile anyway, keep feathering the gas, thank the car, all in five feet?
Dang tootin'

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BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

Jivermo
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip - Done!

Post by Jivermo » Thu Dec 24, 2015 9:05 am

Good Gawdawmighty! What a nice repair job, and what a grand adventure. I love a good, successful pop the clutch push start...immense satisfaction! I'm wondering what new, hidden secrets Naranja will be revealing to you in the future.

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wcfvw69
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip - Done!

Post by wcfvw69 » Thu Dec 24, 2015 10:25 am

http://www.eastwood.com/internal-frame- ... le-qt.html

This may be something useful for you Colin. I'm going to pick up a few cans myself.

I continue to be inspired by your tenacity, energy and passion to "right" the "wrong" of the sins of the past hacks that abused that bus. I'm also astounded by the destruction of the road salt on the metal of any automobile. While I've never lived in the rust belt, I have worked on cars from there and it wasn't fun.

I'm glad to see ya back, updating your progress as you navigate through the repairs. I know it takes lots of time to stop and take pictures and then load them and put together updates.
1970 Westfalia bus. Stock 1776 dual port type 1 engine. Restored German Solex 34-3. Restored 205Q distributor, restored to factory appearance engine.

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dingo
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip - Done!

Post by dingo » Thu Dec 24, 2015 3:54 pm

so whats the procedure for isolating a drain on the battery ?
'71 Kombi, 1600 dp

';78 Tranzporter 2L

" Fill what's empty, empty what's full, and scratch where it itches."

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sped372
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip - Done!

Post by sped372 » Thu Dec 24, 2015 7:26 pm

Test light and/or ammeter and selectively pulling fuses.
1971 Karmann Ghia - 1600 DP
1984 Westfalia - 1.9 WBX

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Sylvester
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip - Done!

Post by Sylvester » Sat Dec 26, 2015 12:27 pm

sped372 wrote:Test light and/or ammeter and selectively pulling fuses.
Is that process detailed on here somewhere?
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue, I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace. Where never lark, or even eagle flew. And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod, The high untrespassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip - Done!

Post by sped372 » Sat Dec 26, 2015 5:48 pm

Sylvester wrote:
sped372 wrote:Test light and/or ammeter and selectively pulling fuses.
Is that process detailed on here somewhere?
Not sure. Basically you disconnect the battery and hook a light or meter in series so all current must pass through it. Make sure your meter is fused or you will kill it with any appreciable draw. Pull fuses one by one and watch the amps (or brightness of test light). Should be next to nothing (<15mA) with key in off position. If you have a draw and pulling a fuse eliminated it, you have it narrowed to that circuit at least.
1971 Karmann Ghia - 1600 DP
1984 Westfalia - 1.9 WBX

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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip - Done!

Post by airkooledchris » Sun Dec 27, 2015 1:30 am

What an experience for a bus to go through after all those years. LOVE, and piles of it, as well as a sense of urgent accomplishment.
1979 California Transporter

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Amskeptic
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip - Done!

Post by Amskeptic » Sun Dec 27, 2015 8:01 am

airkooledchris wrote:What an experience for a bus to go through after all those years. LOVE, and piles of it, as well as a sense of urgent accomplishment.
The urgency is unrelenting. This serious rain here in the south east has shown me every weak spot in the car.

a) windshield - leaks due to incorrect welding of new nose/windshield channel
b) steps rusting under rubber foot pads
c) lower nose - water incursion inside of kick panels and rusting at lip just above "deformation element" where bumper bolts on
d) passenger door - leaks due to initial collision damage / a-pillar is slightly displaced rearward
e) passenger side rear side panel - incorrectly welded to wheel well rust at welds
f) both front wheel wells rusting at passenger compartment kickpanel seams
g) rear apron box exposed to road splash due to missing right rear frame section
h) rear window leaking at channel
i) left rear corner collision damage causing rust at left side battery tray-to-fender
j) engine hatch edges

More rain in the forecast and temperature drop due, can't paint. Might need to hit to the road southwest to get out of humidity. Then sell car when all projects are done for $6,000.00 over purchase price of $11,000.00.
Well, that's the plan
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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satchmo
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip - Done!

Post by satchmo » Sun Dec 27, 2015 3:22 pm

This stuff is great:

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for sealing pinch welds and other seams. It is brushable and paintable, plus it sticks better than pine pitch on your fingers.

I've also used the Eastwood internal panel coating referenced in an above post on internal frame channels and rocker panels. Good stuff. It comes with a long plastic tube with a radial spray nozzle that makes application easy, even two feet into the frame.

Tim
By three methods we may learn wisdom:
First, by reflection, which is noblest;
second, by immitation, which is easiest;
and third, by experience, which is bitterest. -Confucius

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Amskeptic
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip - Done!

Post by Amskeptic » Mon Dec 28, 2015 4:07 pm

satchmo wrote:This stuff is great:
eastwood sticks better than pine pitch on your fingers.
Tim
I *will* test any repair most severely just in my crazy long-distance driving through whatever the elements.

It is driving me crazy, this rain. A whole new area of hidden rust destruction has been uncovered at the tailgate seal channel on the right side where this gawdawful repair tried to "join" the rest of the car with some wood screws.

I discovered it as I discovered that the car had been broken into at the storage unit. The tailgate knob is missing entirely, the contents of the car ransacked, the cactus damn close to dismembered and killed knocked onto the floor and stepped on, all of my clothing stolen inside of the two travel bags that I have carted around since going off to prep school at the age of 14.

Other than the wanton destruction of the tailgate knob and denting in of the tailgate panel and ripping the rubber mat off the passenger seat pedestal as they bashed around in there, I feel only sad that someone would ever fall so low, so very low as to need to steal *my* clothes aka tired rags once known as clothing. They made off with my terribly leaky New Balance sneakers. They are going to be so disappointed, so disappointed in fact, that I made sure to remove the car from the storage premises fearing a savage reprisal from what has to be a profound disappointment in their miserable haul. Oh, and they took my car wash/laundry quarters.
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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Sylvester
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip - Done!

Post by Sylvester » Mon Dec 28, 2015 4:34 pm

Is there any security cameras at the storage unit? Are the owners responsible since this is a locked up facility?
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue, I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace. Where never lark, or even eagle flew. And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod, The high untrespassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip - Done!

Post by TrollFromDownBelow » Mon Dec 28, 2015 5:34 pm

Colin - That really bites. Obviously monetarily the loss was not much. I've had minor pilferage happen to me a couple of times in my life...mostly felt violated - someone came into MY space uninvited. Last time this happened, my wallet was stolen out a locker at a YMCA along with my work cell. I had one whole dollar in it, and cancelled the cards immediately (yes i had a lock on it; thought at first that i had forgotten to push it shut, but a month later, I gave it a good yank to test and it popped open ....last time i bought a masterlock knock off).

As far as physical loss, i had my undergrad student ID card from MSU in it...had kept it in my wallet for over 25 years. Student number 1103795. That bummed me out ... probably similar feeling as losing the bags you had since prep school.
1976 VW Bus aka tripod
FI ...not leaky, and not so noisy...and she runs awesome!
hambone wrote: There are those out there with no other aim but to bunch panties. It's like arguing with a pretzel.
::troll2::

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