Naranja Westy Road Trip - Done!

Bus, Microbus, Transporter, Station Wagon, Vanagon, Camper, Pick-Up.

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airkooledchris
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip

Post by airkooledchris » Tue Dec 15, 2015 1:51 pm

Id be worried that the fuel filler cleanouts will be needed for a long time before it clears itself completely.

That exhaust is just nasty. Glad you made it to that conclusion eventually and just beat it like a redheaded stepchild.
1979 California Transporter

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zabo
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip

Post by zabo » Tue Dec 15, 2015 2:03 pm

those exhaust pics bring back bad memories- my flanges and bolts looked just like that.
I used a dremel cutting wheel and hacksaw combination.
60 beetle
78 bus

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asiab3
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip

Post by asiab3 » Tue Dec 15, 2015 2:17 pm

Jeff, we need a shot of your kid in that coat and the bus together to compare generations of Chrome Yellow.

Wait, is the windscreen missing in that picture???
1969 bus, "Buddy."
145k miles with me.
322k miles on Earth.

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Amskeptic
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip

Post by Amskeptic » Tue Dec 15, 2015 2:21 pm

Another h.o.r.r.i.f.i.c. repair operation . . . to the windshield channel, pictures later.
The guy who repainted this car really needs to be sent out back and shot.

Remember those long pieces of water-trapping rust-enhancing fiberglass that I had to rip off Chloe's rocker sills?
This guy built up fiberglass under the windshield on a new nose panel because he errantly thought the rubber lip of the windshield seal should be hidden under the body line? I don't know, but this car had millions of rust holes in the channel. Pictures later! Must complete this marathon here at the Weisswurst German Hill-Billy Compound Replete With Pigs Goats Chickens Tortoises Guinea Hens Dogs Kids Neighbors.
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

Jivermo
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip

Post by Jivermo » Tue Dec 15, 2015 2:35 pm

Gawdawmighty! Is it as bad as mine? This guy down here does a great repair, as you see. By the way, new slab poured today. Smooth and level...no rough concrete and rock for the engine dolly or creeper!

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Amskeptic
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip

Post by Amskeptic » Tue Dec 15, 2015 9:37 pm

Jivermo wrote:By the way, new slab poured today. Smooth and level...no rough concrete and rock for the engine dolly or creeper!
Beautiful. Let's pull an engine!
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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weisswurst
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip

Post by weisswurst » Tue Dec 15, 2015 10:23 pm

Amskeptic wrote: I Must complete this marathon here at the Weisswurst German Hill-Billy Compound Replete With Pigs Goats Chickens Tortoises Guinea Hens Dogs Kids Neighbors.
Colin

Ha! You forgot about the turkeys! :geek:
Jeffijustmadeitbackfrommy24hourmarathontomiamiandback! :pirate:
"I drink, therefore yes ma'am..."

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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip

Post by Jivermo » Wed Dec 16, 2015 6:28 am

No engine pulling right now. I've had my fill with dealing with the Adrian Rebuild Let's Practice Pulling Because of This or That Problem and Get Real Good at the Ol' Type 4 In and Out, whilst Developing a Real Appreciation for Exhaust Hardware in Excellent, Dremel Free Condition. But, I digress...what about Naranja's windshield channel? What did you find? Did rust not occur if there are no pics? Inquiring minds want to SEE. Don't let Jeff bloat you with German beer...there is work to be done.

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dingo
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip

Post by dingo » Wed Dec 16, 2015 1:30 pm

lamentable that noone scratched their name in that wet concrete.....
'71 Kombi, 1600 dp

';78 Tranzporter 2L

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

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weisswurst
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip

Post by weisswurst » Wed Dec 16, 2015 6:02 pm

Now I wish I did leave my initals while I was in Miami I was right there! Or at least in Doral but I think Ian is further than where I was..
"I drink, therefore yes ma'am..."

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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip

Post by Jivermo » Thu Dec 17, 2015 4:10 am

I'm about 20 minutes south of Doral. The concrete is pretty well cured now. I resisted the impulse for initials, date, etc. because it just looks so good. However, the guys are pouring ramps today, so I might succumb to the temptation yet!

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weisswurst
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip

Post by weisswurst » Thu Dec 17, 2015 4:18 am

asiab3 wrote:Jeff, we need a shot of your kid in that coat and the bus together to compare generations of Chrome Yellow.

Wait, is the windscreen missing in that picture???
without taking any thunder, Oh man is it missing in that pic let me tell you, (or not! :cyclopsani: )
either way Colin is planning an epic post soon I believe.
He has left for Pensacola and I have "empty garage syndrome" :pirate:

I don't have a shot of the boy and the bus together but here is one of him catching Guinea fowl near where Colin slaving away!
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asiab3
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip

Post by asiab3 » Thu Dec 17, 2015 7:22 am

It's so refreshing to see that kids still grow up outside. I'm tortured by vapid cell-phone-babysitting parents most days at work. I think that's part of why I've never considered having kids. The more I see people on here (71whitewesty?) making awesome family lives regardless of what The Jones's are doing with their kids, the more I seriously reconsider my lifelong goal of being a DINK......

Robbie
1969 bus, "Buddy."
145k miles with me.
322k miles on Earth.

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sped372
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip

Post by sped372 » Thu Dec 17, 2015 7:41 am

Pretty sure all kids naturally want to be outdoors. Ours definitely get antsy if they're cooped up inside too long!

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Amskeptic
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Re: Naranja Westy Road Trip

Post by Amskeptic » Thu Dec 17, 2015 8:15 am

Jivermo wrote:there is work to be done.
Oh there was . . . don't we all start so nice and organized-like?
Yeah, so there's the fresh cup of coffee before the addition of a sedimentary layer of rust particulates, bondo dust, primer, and paint accumulated in the bottom over the next two days, there's the cactus pushing its blooms before being subjected to the unbelievable indignities of fumes and light into the night and one Serious Hurricane of Sears Shop Vac to knock down the layer of pink dust:

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. . . and the kids played on this bucolic farm:

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Farmer Jeff, the German Hill-Billy, spun his Ford tractor around and went to deepen a trench:

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I applied a center mark on the windshield before pulling to better CENTER the new windshield seal seam:

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Surrounded by various Vanagons, I set to work cutting out my first seal, never done did that before, but this original VW/Audi windshield has a bad pock and some nasty scratches (from the painter/body guy losing it with his mat knife) and I did not want to so much as push it out:

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Lifted the windshield out with nary a push hardly really, and look at this, look at this:

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Look at THIS! We all saw a nice enough looking car when I bought it! Who would have thought to go tearing into it? It looked fine from the outside . . . save for the evidence of shoddy work like sander-damaged windshield washer jets and turn signal lenses with a weird resin drips and sander damage and the painted over plastic air intake mesh screen:

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What horrific secret destruction . . . this repair looked like it was trying to cause problems. A fiberglass dam! :

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THis painter/body guy from hell had decided to use fiberglass on a NEW NOSE PANEL for reasons I may never never glean, but it served to cover over the bottom of the windshield seal lip:

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Both Farmer Jeff and Friend James watched with their own horror as I attacked the front of the car with my dremel, cutting a groove across the entire beltline. I had to get rid of all fiberglass, get down to good metal, and see the extent of the rust that had indeed made several holes. James and I decided to pull out that inexplicable dent at the right washer jet:

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First application of rust catalyzing primer. No mercy. I dribbled that stuff through every millimeter of pinch weld, every hole, and I went to the inside and removed the fresh air ducts, heater ducts, windshield wiper assembly, washer jets, antenna, and hit every bit of rust I could down at the nose panel lower weld line (which was rusting away from all the new holes along the channel, unbelievable destruction for a car that had been sitting in a garage for twenty years):

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Look at this hack:

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I have to conclude that the person who worked on this car was overworked, underpaid, in a hateful rage.
Well, this job was no longer simple and I told Jeff I would be pretty much right here for a couple of days:

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Day two, first layer of hole filling bondo:

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Second layer of bondo and first already sanded primer/filler:

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Working the primer in between the pinch weld. On the left side of the car, we had THREE layers of metal welded together at the pinch weld, I never could figure out what the hell was going on:

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First full primer coat, did I mention that James and I decided to pull out that inexplicable dent at the right washer jet? It made for difficult sanding because the dent went below the perimeter of the repair area:

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I fooled with the "exposure" here, to show that we have restored the nice little crescents over the wiper shaft holes, they were globbed with fiberglass originally:

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Through it all, I was being treated to a real farm with three eager little piglets, cacophonous guinea hens, a totally friendly dog, background sounds of turkeys, a big rooster, and it was all a wonderful backdrop to a critical repair that I knew would make the car feel better:

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Wet primer to see which defects needed to be addressed:

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First color coat was around 10:30PM day two. Tricky paint, very translucent, very difficult to get the color right. These were spray cans of VHT Engine Enamel (Chrysler Hemi Orange and Bright Yellow plus a dab of Overpowering Green from a herb container that harkens back to the BobD desert painting marathon of 2010). Well how do you get the color correct when you have to make two batches per pass times four coats? You don't:

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Day three, I screwed up and had residual acetone in the suffering paint brush that lifted the four prior coats. What a mess. Had to let it dry, color sand it down, repaint with the above recipe:

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Stuck in some new washer jets and windshield wiper grommets as I reassembled under the dashboard.

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Jeff helped me install the windshield yesterday after my last color sand/polish/wax.
THANK YOU, JEFF for putting up with my barking "No heaves! protect the gains! push down no inward!"
Looks all right, the seal fits properly with an original windshield:

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There's more! but I have to run!
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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