Florida Interlude

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Amskeptic
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Florida Interlude

Post by Amskeptic » Fri Mar 04, 2016 5:55 pm

It was a lovely peaceful sunny warm day in the middle of Florida at a different wildlife refuge than the prior one mentioned in the IAC Greetings From Florida II post.

This one I happened upon in the night. I had no idea that the road itself was the only dry place for miles around. Naranja puttered down in 1st gear with bucks and stumbles (what a lovely place to rebuild the fuel pump I sez to myself). There was NOWHERE to turn around. I did see a sign that said "no vehicles beyond this point" and thought it might be wide enough to allow a turn around but the reflection of the headlamps suggested no. So did the morning walk:

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At any rate, the road finally came to an end 4.5 miles straight into the swamp, and there was my turn around. I camped there to the sounds of peepers and bull frogs and bird calls. Here is the morning dew on Naranja Westy just before my one mile walk up to the road sign that said "no vehicles beyond this point":

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It was a smelly walk. That swamp has a lot of decomposition going on. I was about to leave in a huff when I realized that my nose had gotten used to it. So I tore out the passenger seat. Look at that perfect horsehair from the factory. This might be a rust-traumatized car where it got hit here and there and there and over there and there and there again, but let's remember that it only has 46,000 original miles, too:

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Re-glued the passenger side rubber mat with 3M Super 77.
Waxed the paint at the seat pedestal and the pivot plate and lovely it was:

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Here's the driver's seat area and loosening wheel well mat before I started:

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Here's the driver's seat area when I was done. GummiPflege is magnificent on these rubber mats:

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Because I had to disassemble the sliding door sill plate to loosen the front edge plate to remove the aisle carpet so I could glue the mats, I took the occasion to apply three layers of clear packing tape to the sill plate, like I have to the Road Warrior and the BobD and Chloe:

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A "Hi ho! Sorry to disturb you! What a beautiful day, EH?" startled me and wrecked the first application of clear tape (that took an extra half hour to clean all traces of adhesive off and re-apply). Some guy who looked like he stepped through an African Safari wormhole is standing there.
"Well, how many miles was your walk in?" I asked testily, hoping for a brief answer.
"Wellllll, let's see here . . . it was aboot . . . well, if I factor in . . . hang on . . . . . oh I guess . . . no wait, he he he , I'd saaaaaaaaay aboot 4.63 miles."
"Nice job," I said with all finality in my voice.
"What a great day to do projects all by yourself out here!" he boomed. "What are you doing out here all by yourself?"
"Taping the sliding door sill plate."
He spent 15 minutes staring at his phone and tapping and sliding fingers around, then boomed out his intention to walk back from whence he came.
"You be sure to enjoy this beautiful day out here all by yourself!"
"Have a nice walk back," I replied as I continued to wash tape adhesive off the sill plate.

Lubricated all sliding surfaces, painted the horse hair pads with clearcoat (maybe that will slow their deterioration into Kellogg's Shredded Wheat . . . ? ), glued the driver's side rubber mat, and waxed the brake reservoir storage area and behind the seat:

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So does anyone else have a 1977 with old style driver's seat on rails with the swivel passenger seat? Does your Westy have a higher driver's side seatbelt anchor and a lower passenger seatbelt anchor in the aisle?

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GummiPflege!

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Spent a good hour repacking the car, because I had everything strewn everywhere to access the front seating area.
Friggen phone chirrupped out there. Cindy! 40 minutes of a phone call that has distracted me into a deep twenty years-in-the-making reassessment.

Took off with my clean clean seats and seat tracks and secure rubber mats into the golden afternoon sunshine:

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There's more. For example, the Road Warrior's tachometer is back in service after a seven year hiatus in plastic bubble wrap:

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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

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skip
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Re: Florida Interlude

Post by skip » Sat Mar 05, 2016 8:06 am

Nice work as always. I removed my destroyed seat stand mats on my 14Jun76 westy and found each side has an upper and lower seatbelt anchor.
When I replaced with retractable belts I used both upper mount points for more room (gained some weight).

Be careful out there, don't let a gator sneak up on you.

Skip
Complexity is the enemy of reliability.

76 Westfalia
74 Type 181

RinTinTin in Waldorf Astoria 1956

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Bleyseng
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Re: Florida Interlude

Post by Bleyseng » Sat Mar 05, 2016 10:21 am

I am still trying to figure why you would put three layers of clear packing tape on the sill? You know there are beautiful repo's now in the exact right color too.

:scratch:
Geoff
77 Sage Green Westy- CS 2.0L-160,000 miles
70 Ghia vert, black, stock 1600SP,- 139,000 miles,
76 914 2.1L-Nepal Orange- 160,000+ miles
http://bleysengaway.blogspot.com/

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Amskeptic
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Re: Florida Interlude

Post by Amskeptic » Sat Mar 05, 2016 5:41 pm

Bleyseng wrote:I am still trying to figure why you would put three layers of clear packing tape on the sill? You know there are beautiful repo's now in the exact right color too.

:scratch:
It serves as a scuff guard. I don't want repro parts if I can help it. I want it to be original. I like seeing that little VW logo everywhere. It makes the car itself.

On the Road Warrior, BobD, and Chloe, the clear tape stops me from having to touch up the vulnerable painted sill plates.
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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Re: Florida Interlude

Post by Amskeptic » Sat Mar 05, 2016 6:16 pm

A most unusual solution to my colicky little engine over the past 1,000 miles was to remove a metal plate banging around inside the exhaust collector, the curved pipe at the left rear of the engine. I thought it was the filter clogging up when it was the loose metal plate literally stopping the exhaust flow. When the engine would die, it would fall down and I could restart. All that stumbling and hesitating, not to mention "messy" sounding shifts (like a snare drum), was eradicated. Now I am going to drive the bus until the fuel filter really really does clog, so I can reset my diagnostic detector.

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This was a brand new part, $116.00 from Bus Depot, that could have precipitated a real circus of missed diagnostics and expensive guesses were it to have happened to a novice. The weld for this plate had missed entirely on one side, you could see just a string of weld wire stuck on the inside of the pipe, the other side quickly broke off from vibration. I had wondered about the muffler's baffles a while back (and the engine itself a while back further still). Once again, shoddy parts made by disinterested manufacturers, in this case, I think our old friend friend Dansk. Thansk Dansk.

Had to grind the flange welds at two points to help extricate this exhaust . . . gate:

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There it is, finally removed. I have emailed Bus Depot for a replacement.


Discovered why I was so creeped out here below:

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I had entered a Master-Planned community called Celebration, FL.
A Stepford Wives/ Truman Show /Utopian creepfest of too-tidy clapboard houses (that turned out to have serious structural issues due to rushed construction X manymanymany) and "town logos" on every manhole cover. I love that this place has been panned by architectural critics, community planner critics, and the market.

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Car is running extra-splendidly with super-cleaned instruments and glass, freshly fingernail polished brake warning lamp, and the indefatiguable Road Warrior tachometer now in its 37th year with me.
Colin

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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

phaedrus76
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Re: Florida Interlude

Post by phaedrus76 » Sat Mar 05, 2016 9:48 pm

Sorry to see you got burned by another Dansk part. The VW community would do well to completely boycott Dansk parts, but of course that only leaves the rapidly diminishing used and hardly-ever-seen NOS stuff. When I overhauled my exhaust/heat/cooling recently, the only repro part bought for the system was a Dansk EGR filter from BusDepot. It was the only part that didn't fit. I've yet to see an NOS or used one, so blocked off the system and threw the filter back on the shelf, likely destined for the trash at a later time.

Your steering wheel looks amazing. Is it original?
Your green carpet makes me salivate. If you ever come across another *good* one, Collin, please let me know. I'll pay well.
76 Sage Green Deluxe Westy w/ manual trans.

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skip
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Re: Florida Interlude

Post by skip » Sun Mar 06, 2016 11:09 am

Does your self cancelling turn signals work with that space under your steering wheel?
Complexity is the enemy of reliability.

76 Westfalia
74 Type 181

RinTinTin in Waldorf Astoria 1956

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Amskeptic
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Re: Florida Interlude

Post by Amskeptic » Mon Mar 07, 2016 3:33 pm

skip wrote:Does your self cancelling turn signals work with that space under your steering wheel?
Yes, but you did remind me, I must take off the steering wheel to do my combination switches maintenance and re-configure of the horn brush. You can set the gap between the steering wheel and the turn indicator switch by loosening the set screw on the left lower side of the steering column support. Since it is a "tamper-proof" screw, you need to make a slot with a dremel cutting wheel, then you can loosen it, pull up on the support, and set it 4mm below the lower edge of the wheel.

John, if I run into a nice Westy front carpet, it is likely to be in a nice Westy. Should I "appropriate" it? I sweep this damn thing at least twice a day. This is not a mechanic's car.

Yesterday's projects included some more OCD Madness. But what a beautiful day! 80* and sunny and dry and no bugs in Florida? Amazing. Heaven!

OCD M i
Refreshed the fuse box. Used a short phillips screwdriver as a fuse contact hole cleaner. See the little shiny circles? :

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Dielectric greased twelve new fuses and installed the new fuse box cover from Wolfsburg West. You will note that the prior photograph's dust on the fuse box plastic was duly dusted out of existence:

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OCD M ii
Polished every stupid snap in the interior. First I removed them. Then I washed them in Tide. Then I smeared polishing compound on them. Then I plastic wheel-Dremelled them + the phillips screw that came with each one. Then I reinstalled them. The curtain snaps are smoother now. I am so thrilled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


Fired up my new Five Can Paint Recipe and touched up the hideous door jamb/perimeter of that crusty overspray from Fred The Oversprayer. It was a textured mottled brown pepper with greenish yellow topcoat. I do hate that look in VW door jambs:

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I need to shoot the as yet undone driver's side as the before photographs. The difference in a vehicle's aspect with nice door jambs cannot be underestimated:

Did the rear sliding door pillar as well, but I ain't got no pitchur.

The tail light housings are tired. That plastic gets attacked by the atmosphere and literally crumbles away. Nonetheless, I had to use these new black (wrong! black makes the taillight lenses darken around the perimeter, that is why the factory seals were grey) round taillight to body seals that were supposed to jam into the crumbling channels of the taillight housings. By stretching the round seal almost to breaking point, I could lay the stretched seal gently into the groove instead of stuffing it in like you could with new housings (ask VW Treasure how well those new housings fit into the body openings). I had dots of Gorilla Glue every inch (three dots in the corners). Fit fine! Here is how you arrange the taillight wiring on late model buses so you can get the plastic covers on easily:

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OEM VW plastic taillight housing covers, snapped right in place . . .

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Today was Look At The Front Brakes Finally day. I incorporated this inspection with a wheel rotation. Fred's cousin must have worked on these brakes. Brand new front pads (14mm thick still). Do ya think they would put the glorious 40,000 mile old pad shims back in? Naw, they instead sprayed sticky "disc brake quiet" all over the rears of the pads, thus gluing them to the caliper piston dust boots, which of course pull off the pistons because they are glued to the pads, thus promoting rust in places that are not supposed to rust!
I can just hear it.
Fred, "hey Dick, what are those square thingys? They belong to the brakes?"
"No, I don't know Fred, it don't need 'em."
"Oh hey, I hear you, Dick. I had bolts galore all over the floor after doing that body work. It don't need 'em."

Everybody is back in place, brakes are releasing more crisply with cleaned pins and spreader springs and pad sliding surfaces. No pictures! I was in between a flatbed trailer and a box trailer at the tired old truck stop. I was too shy to take pictures of my own tire rotation.
"Hey buddy! Need help?"
Some guy is sauntering towards me.
"HEY, I said, 'need some help?' I can help you. I can get parts, we could go for a hamburger, I don't care. It's what I do. Whatever you need, I'm on it. hahahahahahaa"
"I am just rotating my tires, I will be done real soon here, thanks for asking, I'm good . . . bye."
Geeze.
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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SlowLane
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Re: Florida Interlude

Post by SlowLane » Tue Mar 08, 2016 8:02 am

How can you sleep at night knowing that your taillight terminals haven't been soda-blasted, De-Oxited and buffed to a soft lustre before being lovingly coated with a drizzle of dielectric grease?

Just kidding of course. Once again I'm agog at your attention to detail, coupled with a skill set that McGyver could only dream of.
'81 Canadian Westfalia (2.0L, manual), now Californiated

"They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it is not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance."
- Terry Pratchett

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Amskeptic
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Re: Florida Interlude

Post by Amskeptic » Tue Mar 08, 2016 7:26 pm

SlowLane wrote:How can you sleep at night
Oh, I can't.
Disobeyed a "No Vehicles Past This Point!" sign in the Citrus Wildlife Preserve last night, drove in a couple of miles and found a nice little cul-de-sac and backed up in. I was grateful for effective reverse lights with all that reflective HVAC tape:

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But, every ground-based sound made me think the Florida Wildlife Preserve Police were coming to get me. You can't sleep when you are a scofflaw. So I fell asleep here and there, woke up, noted that the rear vent window sill could use a little wax. Then I wondered if it had ever been opened this century. Apparently not, the knob would not move. So I ripped the vent window out of the car because when you need to vent, you best vent:

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Thus, the reason I am painting the vent window frame and the glass frame too:

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Whilst waiting for the rust-catalyzing primer on the vent window items to dry, I color sanded the driver's side door jamb:

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Came up with a better-yet formula for the paint recipe AFTER the first course of paint along the driver's wheel arch and footwell. This is a test patch over a nick in the passenger door. See it?

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Here's the completed footwell with the slightly missed paint match WHO CARES? Better than it WAS:

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While waiting for the door jamb paint to dry, I reassembled the vent window and utilized the tricks found on that original vent window assembly. I followed closely the generous use of caulk at the top and bottom of the vertical frame piece and "glued" the rubber flaps to it, nice idea! :

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Here's the vent window back in after some hideous scraping of the pinch weld as I pried the thing in diagonally and bunted it upright, ouch ouch ouch:

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Curtains back in place, paint waxed, grab handle cleaned, windows washed, all while ... ... ... ... :

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... ... ... ... getting my summons for going past the point beyond which no vehicles are to go:

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"It's just a warning," the Florida Wildlife guy said. "This thing looks beautiful."
"Thank-you, you just missed me getting this window back in."
"You took the window out, out here??"
"Yes, and painted the entire driver's door jamb."
"Out here?"
"Out here."
"I don't want to give you a ticket, there are some real jerks who come blasting through here, littering and tearing the place up, I can see that you are not one of them, is that a litter bag?"
"Three smashed Diet Coke cans, a lot of paint-soaked paper towels, blue masking tape, three cigarette butts, a broken raz. . . "
"OK, I get it, thank-you, look, if you want some driving trails, I have a map I can give you."
I now have an opening vent window and a map.
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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Ronin10
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Re: Florida Interlude

Post by Ronin10 » Tue Mar 08, 2016 10:11 pm

Every day that I go out to my tired old Greta with her rust bubbles, faded yellow paint, banged up corners, hodge-podge interior, hinge-popping-not-able-to-close-properly-driver's-side-door, I think of the Naranja and die just a little.
Oscar: 1976 Sage Green Bus, Stock Motor, Solid Lifters, Manual Transaxle

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Re: Florida Interlude

Post by asiab3 » Wed Mar 09, 2016 12:41 am

Amskeptic wrote:So does anyone else have a 1977 with old style driver's seat on rails with the swivel passenger seat? Does your Westy have a higher driver's side seatbelt anchor and a lower passenger seatbelt anchor in the aisle?
I don't know about how it came, but my '69 Westy has two mounting holes on each side. Did all the buses come that way?

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

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Bleyseng
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Re: Florida Interlude

Post by Bleyseng » Wed Mar 09, 2016 5:54 am

Nice work as removing/installing that rear vent window is a pain and tough to not have leaks.
Geoff
77 Sage Green Westy- CS 2.0L-160,000 miles
70 Ghia vert, black, stock 1600SP,- 139,000 miles,
76 914 2.1L-Nepal Orange- 160,000+ miles
http://bleysengaway.blogspot.com/

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SlowLane
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Re: Florida Interlude

Post by SlowLane » Wed Mar 09, 2016 8:22 am

Ronin10 wrote:Every day that I go out to my tired old Greta with her rust bubbles, faded yellow paint, banged up corners, hodge-podge interior, hinge-popping-not-able-to-close-properly-driver's-side-door, I think of the Naranja and die just a little.
Ditto.
'81 Canadian Westfalia (2.0L, manual), now Californiated

"They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it is not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance."
- Terry Pratchett

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Re: Florida Interlude

Post by 71whitewesty » Wed Mar 09, 2016 9:12 am

Now are you pulling out the Westy bed and getting a decent nights sleep after working out worth those dumb bells? I'm hoping you are taking half as good care of yourself as you are with this Westy, my busses depend on you. All are looking forward to your visit.
Naranja sure is looking sweet.

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