Yes, I have too been busy. You know how life likes to change your plans with "obstacles" just for the fun of it?
Let's start with the dryer that wont stop when you open the door. You try to check the "dryness" of your laundry and the drum just spills out all of your clothes when you open the door. Then it dies all together. Well, I am an ex- appl... no make that a "retired household infrastructure engineer." Whirlpool, not a problem, I can get in there and fix it in my sleep. No, I can't. Things have changed since I ... retired. We have these "new" abysmal chinese plastic trash switches on this goodlordactually now
vintage dryer. What used to be a handsome and basic phenolic single-pole switch that had a satisfying "click-on/click-off" is now a rattly flimsy glued-together anyways, here it is:
... and here is the diagram. The little bitty cheepcheep spring had broken off when the copper strip tried to send "motor voltage" through it when something got too sloppy in there. I GOT WET CLOTHES. I had no idea this thing was going to be so obtuse and arrogant:
I had to make the newly-fashioned spring end arrive at the over-center copper leaf at an excruciatingly exact angle and tension. The horror I shall not get into, but suffice to say, there was no experimenting unless the cover was in place. Well, you can't SEE what is or is not happening with the cover in place! Three hours later, the spring angle was exact enough that the copper leaf did not fly out and launch across the garage, AND the tension was "just right" so it would snap smartly from motor-off/light-on to motor-on/light-off and the cover was glued on with epoxy last used in Washington state in 2013 to glue my New Balance sneakers back together (more chinese crap, by THE WAY). It was an oddly triumphant moment to plug in the dryer, turn it on, and even have a light to illuminate the clothes just sitting there when I opened the door. Even got to dry my hot tears with warm towels.
So where to begin with the BobD perfect bus? I can barely drive it any more. Gravel spew, cell-phone zombies, mechanical wear, environmental degradation, there is nothing I can do to avoid the above, but drive and hope to stay out of trouble. Ach, what to do? Clean it:
Stared hatefully at the perfect tire cover with no cracks. "When are you going to crack, huh?" :
Noted the perfect body with the perfect fit and realized that Naranja's disastrous bodywork with the stunningly bad welds gave me a feeling of relief:
And then I wasted four hard days at repainting the NaranjaWesty wheels that had been stuck on the BobD. Removed the right rear wheel to begin the same project that I had just done with NaranjaWesty. Noticed the exhaust system I painted in Texas in 2010 could use a repaint, but the nuts and bolts are still fresh, so are the waxed Konis, and the painted dump tubes (grey primer with clearcoat):
Oh, but hey . . . the left rear backing plate is beset with a wrinkle finish. Tore into the left rear brake drum. Remember when I overhauled the BobD's rear wheel cylinders in that parking lot in La Mesa CA on November 27, 2010, you know, where I didn't have any brake fluid and had to overhaul both wheel cylinders with barely a capful of fluid? Yeah, me too:
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Well, that left wheel cylinder I guess has been leaking while sitting over the past three years. In we go! Look at the photos of the original Volkswagen brake shoes in the above linked article.
Yeayup, same ones below, now at 110,670 miles:
Look at this beautiful original drum at 110,670 miles:
Went to my Itinerant Inventory. Here's the new wheel cylinders! Open up the boxes. Uh, oops. I had already used them on NaranjaWesty. So there are two used (41,873 miles) original Volkswagen wheel cylinders that I overhauled along with the BobD's 110,670 miles original Volkswagen wheel cylinder. The problem with the BobD's was that it was perfect! clean! beautiful bore! except for two strange dents near the center. The problem with NaranjaWesty's was that they were rusted to Titanic proportion. The pistons were frozen in the bores. I had to hammer them out. Did the old sand-honing process, then scuff pads:
Could not use the BobD wheel cylinder. Those dents were weird. Almost as though the seals had worn the bores, but the seals were lovely and still expanded, unlike NaranjaWesty's. Now the BobD has NaranjaWesty's right wheel cylinder in its left rear brake with its original wheel cylinder pistons and seals. Good Grief. Did a gravity bleed and pedal is good. Onwards! :
My back is in hell. So is my neck. So is that poor Craftsman drill that was oiled every five minutes of operation for three of the four days. On Day Three, the drill's trigger switch gave it up. After two overhauls, I just cut the damn switch out and wired the power cord directly to the motor ... and made sure to have quick access to the plug. The work environment devolved towards uncontrolled entropy:
1. brake cylinder repair wrenches
2. Diet Coke 17/24
3. paint stripper sauce
4. brake parts cleaner
5. GumOut hand wash / paint brush cleaner
6. paint stripper bowl / key holder / Dremel accessory dish
7. masking tape roll 2/2
8. Gorilla Tape for tire drop cloths (damn good stuff)
9. RapidDri™ Motel6 towel to dry off rinsed stripped wheels and wheel cylinders
10 E-Z Scrub®Motel6 ice bucket for wheel cylinder overhauls
11. FlashPoach™ boiling hot or not-at-all sink faucet torture device
12. WalMart's finest three-use-then-tears-apart sponge
13. 7/8 Maxxis 751 tire
14. Wicked plier bit removal system for suffering Craftsman drill
15. I Must Be In Hell long-suffering Craftsman Drill presently cooling off
16. Left caliper slightly sticking, needs pads, who has pads, nevermind
17. neatly organized lug nuts before my spirit was broken
18. 8/8 Maxxis 751 tire
19. savage dykes that excised poor long-suffering Craftsman Drill's trigger switch
20. electrical tape that bandaged up the electrical arteries in the half-dead poor long-suffering Craftsman Drill
21. end of screwdriver that helped me overhaul the gear box in the half-dead poor long-suffering Craftsman Drill
22. 6" grinding disc ground down to about 3 1/2" - most of it is in my hair and up my nose
23. dedicated Motel6 acetone/lacquer thinner container tipped over . . . .
Itinerant Air-Cooled is pleased to announce its latest addition to the accessories line-up,
Monogrammed Floor Mats $44.95 per pair:
Finished the wheel painting today. Now I have two buses with nice wheels:
The neighborhood has finally taken note. Today I had three drop-in visitors:
Finally! The BobD gets to have wheels that match its overall condition once more. And I get to go recover . . . :