Walkabout - escape

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asiab3
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Re: Walkabout - Westbound

Post by asiab3 » Wed Sep 19, 2018 5:45 am

Boring? Hell no. It gives me ideas for my next day off! Plus, these kinds of posts back in 2012-2013 reminded me that, uhh, maybe these cars shouldn’t leak and whistle on the highway.

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

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Re: Walkabout - Westbound

Post by Ronin10 » Wed Sep 19, 2018 8:22 am

I concur as well. This is not boring. I keep a running list of ideas based on these little projects.
Oscar: 1976 Sage Green Bus, Stock Motor, Solid Lifters, Manual Transaxle

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THall
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Re: Walkabout - Westbound

Post by THall » Wed Sep 19, 2018 12:26 pm

Ronin10 wrote:
Wed Sep 19, 2018 8:22 am
I concur as well. This is not boring. I keep a running list of ideas based on these little projects.
Agreed. Keep 'em coming, love the project/walkabout reports!
'78 Westy 2.0 FI

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BusBassist
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Re: Walkabout - Westbound

Post by BusBassist » Wed Sep 19, 2018 1:06 pm

Ronin10 wrote: ↑
Wed Sep 19, 2018 11:22 am
I concur as well. This is not boring. I keep a running list of ideas based on these little projects.
Agreed. Keep 'em coming, love the project/walkabout reports!



- - - - Same Me. The attention to detail is inspiring and an ideal for which to strive.

Thanks for keeping us on track Colin.

JC
Late 73 Bay w/a transplanted 914 Engine.

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Re: Walkabout - Heater Duct Check + Great Victory

Post by Amskeptic » Thu Sep 20, 2018 12:07 am

This photograph (already posted above) was supposed to be labelled "Route 66 New Mexico". It is indeed Route 66 in New Mexico, slipping under Interstate 40:

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That little tour was to heat up the oil in preparation for an oil change, my first since all the way back on August 13th, three thousand miles prior. Here back at the last good shade trees in the west, I am preparing the strainer plate for paint. The breeze has picked up, so I had to fill the strainer plate hole in the bottom of the crankcase with paper towels that got nicely oil-soaked (my oil bath air cleaner) and did a fine job of keeping things hygienic:

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While waiting for the three coats of 500* Rustoleum Engine Enamel black paint to dry, I realized that I had a predicament. That freshly painted black strainer plate was going to get marred by the thistle plants overgrown in the middle of my path to the shade:

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Yes. As a matter of fact, I did mow the grass with a pair of scissors. NOW I understand why lawn mowers are such a great invention:

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Mowing the driveway with a pair of scissors gave plenty of time for the paint to dry.

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So did changing the transaxle oil . . . this is 22,000 miles on the drain magnet:

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Hit the road west to Moriarity via this little stop to lean out the fuel mixture:

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Back out on the road, I was passed by eight Chevrolet vans from Ohio, "Van Nuys Or Bust!" They were so enthused to see a real VW bus out there, a passenger was entreating me to join them, the others all waved as they went past:

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I demurred, to gas up here:

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Even this place was entreating me:

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But I had things to do. Sunny! Painting weather! And an opportunity to discover why there was that insulation blowing out of my heat registers a couple of months back. The plan was to strip the insulation blankets off the heater ducts (that was a trip, trying to get the button snaps to let go), remove the paper ducts, paint the "wye" above the rear torsion tube, and paint the remnants of the old rusted distribution box at the front of the Big Heater Duct. Everything was sludged with undercoating, both the factory cosmoline and my more recent WalMart Rustoleum Paintable Rubberized Undercoating (Professional Grade). The WalMart stuff is tough, let's give it that. Here are the clamps, blankets and plastic ties all laboriously removed with great great care and washed in gasoline:

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The "rusted distribution box" was actually just FINE, it wobbled because it is welded only at the bottom of the circle to the cross member. The movement I had felt was not because it was crumbling off the cross member. Yay.

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Likewise, the rear wye was in good shape too! So there, Chicago, you let one get away from your evil salty winters. . . :

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I brushed the insignificant surface rust and applied a couple of coats from my dwindling supply of rust-catalyzing primer.

THE GREAT VICTORY

viewtopic.php?f=47&t=13694

My lovely civilized quiet NaranjaWesty is back. You can barely tell a difference between off-throttle and full-throttle on the highway. You can't hear the engine with the windows down. Lawdy lawdy if the BobD shows the same improvement I have heard here, I will not only be very happy but on the war path to visit every single VW bus owner in the country who has all that dudududu under load. Stay tuned . . . at the above link.

NOW THEN, I must go to sleep, more to come.
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: Walkabout - Heater Duct Check

Post by Amskeptic » Thu Sep 20, 2018 7:10 pm

More to come has arrived. Some of these projects will be distilled into the Technical Forums so I don't know how much to explicate all this minutiae. For example, you really need to know this little gem of German engineering. You late model bus people have a distribution lever for the heating system. You want cabin heat? Push the lever up all the way.

In the old days, you had to a) pull over, b) get out of the driver's seat, c) open the sliding door, d) move the kids' legs, e) slide the heater levers under the rear bench to open the rear foot wells, f) then close the sliding door, g) go back to the driver's seat, h) pull a knob sticking out under the seat to turn on the aisle heater, i) then kick the front footwell lever up. There. Now you have "cabin heat".

Late model bus people can shut off all the cabin heat and send it to the defroster by pulling that same distribution lever down. Early bus people merely have to execute instructions a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, in reverse.

The distribution box at the front of the Big Heat Duct, and a little daisy chain cable at the front footwell lever allow this amazing new convenience introduced in the 1973 model year, back when I was 13-14 years-old. Here is the brilliant-but-maddening trick that the engineers pulled off on us. You only think you are a pulling a cable when you pull down on the distribution lever. You're not. That very cable is anchored! to the exterior of the distribution box. Yes, it is:

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Here's the first look at the inside of the wye after forty years (ya like that shift rod? Yeah, how it is centered in the hole?):

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Assembled distribution box. Cable is installed with dash lever UP and distribution box lever pulled BACK and fiddle the evil clip over the edge of the lever to clamp the sheath. Have "fun":

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Rear insulation blanket likewise installed with plastic ties because the button snaps were terminally rusted:

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Enjoyed a gloriously smooth drive from Moriarty NM to some local road south off of I-40 to avoid Albuquerque. Joined up at I-25 southbound in Socorro. Camped here along a power line trail that was seriously washed out. Took a night walk under the quarter moon. The most-frightening sound of breathing/snorting greeted me in the bushes off the trail. It is a good thing, folks, a good thing to exercise the fright or flight reflex in its purest animal incarnation. I flooded with adrenaline. Suddenly, my thoughts were GONE. My hearing was acute. My eyes scanned for the merest movement in the dark. My muscles were quivering. The hair on my neck stood up (sure, neck fuzz, that'll scare the mountain lion), and I had a thought.
"You! Too naively trusting of nature! This nature thing is for keeps! You're a late-night snack now!"
I could hear rustling and another breathe/snort event.
"Damn, they're surrounding me. I will look like a dumb ox circling wildly as they lunge!"
Then my prefrontal cortex finally kicked in (it has a slow processor these days, an Intel 80486 in an Intel Core i9-7980XE world),
"Opposable thumbs! I have opposable thumbs!"
I picked up some nice rocks and threw several just off the path in a progression to make a facsimile of a primate crashing off over there, in that direction, over THERE, nothing to eat here. Sure . . . the lion probably just locked its hungry gaze on me throwing rocks - "this monkey sure is dim-witted, will it make me stupid if I eat it?"

Made it back to the car all hyper-vigilant and made a note to my body, "nice job, you still have your millions of years of engineering under all this bitching about the rain and lousy sneakers from Walmart." This was good to know. There is something vital in getting the heck scared out of you:

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Next day, south of Socorro, I decided that I could finally paint. I had so much touch up to do. Front bumper, all exterior dings, a scratch on the passenger door sill, a few touch-ups on the sliding door, and check out the bubbling along the driver's door edge.
It is such an event to mix up the exterior color. Found this spot:

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With fast-moving shade and sun, I was able to get an "acceptable" sort-of match that went orange in the shade and punched up yellow in the sun:

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Sawed into the door edge with a razor blade, "I shall attack until all rust has a border of VW phosphate grey."

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No. I shall not. The rust had spread under the paint, but it was not new rust. It was old rust that had been stopped by the inside-the-door application of rust-catalyzing primer down at the French Guinea Hen Holiday Farm Animal Spa in Homosassas FL in December 2015. Therefore, I merely sanded it down and hit it with primer just in time:

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"Just in time for what?" you ask . . .

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Yeah, the rains found me. The next photographs were all in a 50 mile span:

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You, too, can enjoy 373* CHTs at 65 mph on a 93* day ...................................................... at 12 mpg:

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I couldn't care less. This lovely lovely automobile has been a flawless companion during my cross-country freak-out flee:

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Mile after mile after mile, it has not hiccoughed in the slightest since the fusebox freshen, I am riddled with guilt just running this thing down:

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Those poor hitch-hikers in Truth Or Consequences. Their eyes opened wide, they jabbered with each other, one sauntered over to the pumps to make small talk with me followed by a "we're going to Albuquerque, man, it would be so cool if ..." " Sorry, I am going south to Las Cruces." "oh, yeah, hey, uh, drive safe."

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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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Amskeptic
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Re: Walkabout - painting projects

Post by Amskeptic » Mon Sep 24, 2018 7:19 pm

We are lolling about the endless expanse of New Mexico's vistas. It is very hard work. I fear it shall be the death of me.

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So, I hung out in this cemetary, just in case:

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It sort of looked like a party. It was astonishingly beautiful:

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I don't know, but the real horse might have been under my feet:

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Anyways, I got my color-sanding in on that driver's door repair of the day before:

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Then I drove. I am impatient, it is true. Three hours in any one spot gives me the impetus to hit the road. I love that:

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So the color-sanding looked smooth enough to go ahead and mix up my paint alchemy including Maringelb Screw-Up, a spray of Rustoleum @X Gloss White, a five second blast of VHT Bright Yellow engine enamel, a shot of Lacquer Thinner stirred-not-shaken, and then get that stuff on the car before it congeals in the heat:

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The fricken light failed beautifully on me:

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Oh yeah, I'm PAINTING, hello?

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Will it look OK in the daylight? Who knows? Under the flash, it looked OK:

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Conked out here at the end of the dirt road in the middle of nowhere, against a fence. So quiet. So peaceful. Such a long hot day. Drifted off to sleep . . . in the silence . . . under the moon . . . .

Woke up to this:

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Yep. A fricken race just on the other side of the fence. This is my life.
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

78wkndr
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Re: Walkabout - escape

Post by 78wkndr » Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:46 pm

I continue to enjoy and appreciate your musings Colin....especially those that are late bay related.
-Dan :bom:
-78wkndr-
1978 westfalia tintop bus 2.0 FI

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asiab3
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Re: Walkabout - escape

Post by asiab3 » Tue Sep 25, 2018 8:03 am

I wonder of all the places and 'events' you've woken up next to, which have been the most surprising? I cheat and use satellite imagery for finding camp spots after dark…

Still heading South-er West-er?
RobbieFromUrbana

PS- Regular Emma says hello!
1969 bus, "Buddy."
145k miles with me.
322k miles on Earth.

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Amskeptic
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Re: Walkabout - escape

Post by Amskeptic » Tue Sep 25, 2018 8:50 pm

asiab3 wrote:
Tue Sep 25, 2018 8:03 am
I wonder of all the places and 'events' you've woken up next to, which have been the most surprising?
RobbieFromUrbana

PS- Regular Emma says hello!

Urbana. Enjoying any humidity?
We are 94* here in Phoenix at 9:47PM 25% humidity.

You give all of them Emmas Andrews Svens Whomever a rodeo hug from me.
Colin
(and look for my 11mm red fingernail polish SK wrench somewhere out in that garage)

(oh yeah, the most-surprising wake-up was really only due to disassociative terror, I could not figure out that unbelievable crescendo of noise that just kept building. I had apparently parked *right next to* the train tracks on an incline, so the engines were at full-bellow)
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: Walkabout - painting cont.

Post by Amskeptic » Tue Sep 25, 2018 9:21 pm

Because I have to try desperately to amuse you fickle folk, I left a "cliff-hanger" on the Facebook page that I must now resolve.
Oh, such a cliff-hanger,
tomorrow I shall post about how I attacked the right rear quarter panel with a Dremel and made a gouge 3/8" deep and about four feet long. Yeah, I did that. With a Dremel cutting wheel. A gouge.

You all may remember my hacking this chunk of fiberglassed beltline off the nose of NaranjaWesty in December 2015. I can remember the look of consternation of a observer (James, at the Weisswurst Florida Farm) when I tore across the car with my Dremel cutting wheel and ripped that huge ol' painted thing off the car. I'd do it again.

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Well the same body man who fiberglassed the windshield channel, also bondo'd the right rear quarter panel seam, just bondo'd over it and painted it. Volkswagen uses a caulk seal between the quarter panel and the right rear panel for good reason. These panels do flex a bit (I make sure of it with some of my rock path trips) and the lack of a seam back there meant that the paint has been continually cracking after my touch-ups.

September 2016
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September 2018, Let The Dremel Attack Begin:

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There was some old rot going on under the hidden caulk seam, so I had to rust-catalyze prime it yesterday:

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Then, re-caulk it with some of that NAPA black caulk crammed into the seam and really worked in as deep as I could get it:

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Made a "screed" out of a Motel6 room card so I could make a consistent seam groove to "match" the incorrect left side and splatted car wax all over everything so that horrid black caulk would not just lift and stick to everything:

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Then, I had to laboriously wax the panels and the seam groove, and get rid off all unnecessary caulk. Finished up with several Q-tip runs, soaked in carb spray to lift the wax from where I needed to prime. Hit the road to let it all evaporate:

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I shall top-coat over the primer tomorrow, before the temps climb too high here in Phoenix:

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I must leave this very establishment, it is closing time:

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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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Re: Walkabout - painting cont.

Post by Amskeptic » Wed Sep 26, 2018 6:11 pm

Yeah, still talking to myself, I do that. I have a call tomorrow, an electrical weird behavior call. That is why I am in Phoenix.
Phoenix said "welcome back, here's some sunshine and warmth. You want more warmth? Here. More?" Yes, it was 104* and sunny, and I like it just fine at 25% humidity. Drove into the warm desert night. Popped the poptop, 4th time since I have owned the car. Opened all available ventilation with screens. Perfect.

Woke up here, you get one photograph per window:

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Always check your rear view mirrors . . . :

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I could hear traffic almost all night. At full telephoto, I could see it, too:

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And I set to top-coating the newly recreated caulk seam. It takes time to catch the correct recipe, and I gave up long before perfection.
Jack The Atticus Finch Meets Clint Eastwood Lawyer would appreciate this repair. Superglue and a wire tie. I have had this brush since 1985. I shall not tell you of the reason it got broken, not yet:

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After all that work, it looks you know, normal? Well, I'm glad I did it, somebody better be "glad" around here, dammit:

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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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tommu
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Re: Walkabout - painting cont.

Post by tommu » Wed Sep 26, 2018 7:53 pm

Well I'm amazed it turned out like that. I have used that black caulk and it is evil.
And where did you learn to mix paint like this? Alchemy!

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Re: Walkabout - painting cont.

Post by Amskeptic » Thu Sep 27, 2018 7:51 am

tommu wrote:
Wed Sep 26, 2018 7:53 pm
A) I have used that black caulk and it is evil.
B) And where did you learn to mix paint like this? Alchemy!

a) I fear that the evil lurking under the festive yellow/orange shall ooze forth in time. I am hoping that the primer keeps a barrier between the caulk and the topcoat.

b) I learned to mix paint like that only in desperation. I had to. Part of my Loss Of All Hope occurred when I could not buy a decent paint match for the original paint on the BobD. Later, I tried to buy matches for Pluck The Squareback, Chloe the Cow, and this here orange popsicle.

Slowly and thickly did I start to grasp that they all talk a good line, "it'll match perfectly, trust me".
No. It never did.
"Oh well that's because of:
a) the aerosol changes the tint
b) California VOC regulations have destroyed our industry
c) it takes a few weeks to cure to the correct color
d) that looks perfect, I don't know what you are talking about."
Sure you don't.
Colin

(7841)
viewtopic.php?f=49&t=9101#p163803
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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xyzzy
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Re: Walkabout - painting cont.

Post by xyzzy » Thu Sep 27, 2018 6:39 pm

This whole walkabout is amazing -- thank you Colin for sharing.

How far west are you traveling?!? I'm in love with your bus!
---
1973 Westfalia
Encinitas, California USA

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