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BobD Back To Atlanta

Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 5:59 pm
by Amskeptic
Northbound on I-35, I stopped at a Chevron at exit 175, fill up, go inside for a receipt, suffer the long line, come back to no gas cap. Ask for perusal of security tape on cameras, "sorry, we can't." That was a nice gas cap if you have to suffer these late model bus gas caps. What is wrong with people?

Went to the local VW dealer on a Hail Mary quest for a gas cap. The Volkswagen Dealer Parts Counter Professional snickered into his monitor,
"No."
I took furious photographs of this DODGE CARAVAN (I should KNOW, I had to DRIVE ONE all the way across the country):
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I yelled "look's like that ugly DODGE CARAVAN I DROVE ACROSS THE COUNTRY LAST MONTH" as I snapped the rear shot here:
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Then I threw my voice with a question "HEY, will the gauge glass fog up and corrode LIKE THAT NEW DODGE CARAVAN I DROVE ACROSS THE COUNTRY LAST MONTH?" at which point the salesman pointedly directed me to the exit driveway, but I didn't care, the missing gas cap was buzzing me with fumes or something:
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So I drove out of the driveway and BobD was twittering the whole way. "Don't twitter HERE" I hissed at BobD, "what is it, your spring plate bushings?" Immediately (two driveways south of the dealer) I pulled off and jacked up BobD with the genyoowine Bilstein jack using the Probably Never Used Jacking Port:
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Then, using the Itinerant Air-Cooled Trick to make spring plate covers come off and go back on like greased lightening, I installed this socket here between the upper surface of the spring plate and the upper stop:
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. . . and jacked the rear wheel bearing housing here:
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At this point, the battery in the camera gave it up. So much for my first BobD procedure. Anyways, jacking the wheel bearing housing under the diagonal arm bolts with a socket between the spring plate and the stop, allows the arm to pivot at the socket and that magically helps keep the spring plate cover unstressed. I rotated both bushings 180* and dusted them with real talcum powder, chased the threads with a tap and die, greased the bolts and reassembled. BobD no longer twitters insolently:
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I was going to go to Colorado. I was going to help Bret and Troy strip the Road Warrior. I can't do it, I won't. Call me a wuss, I don't care. I choose to keep the energy and memory of that wonderful car intact. If I like you, for example, I will not look into your casket either.

There will be parts for sale, including a complete engine and some nice windows with deluxe trim and some other stuff. I will take the parts that could apply to the BobD, tail lamp and turn signal lenses, a brake warning light lens, a right door switch that the '78 buses cheaped deleted (fie! assholes), and a few others.
Colin

Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 6:27 pm
by werksberg
So, BobD is going to be THE BUS now?

Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 6:55 pm
by Ritter
Good for you, Colin. Sometimes reaching a decision is simply exhausting, taxing the soul like nothing else. Put your old friend to rest and get to know your new one.

That BobD is one fine looking (if cheaper than the RoadWarrior) specimen. Drive the hell out of it!

Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 7:48 pm
by Sylvester
Coming back to Atlanta? Boy I do not for one minute know where, or how you go. You are just like a "YOU ARE HERE"

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Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 8:12 pm
by dreadnotmusic
It sure is good to see Colin back in the groove. I get sick at my stomach when I think of the Road Warrior. But DAMN!!! That BobD bus is a beauty!

Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 8:53 pm
by vwlover77
It's been suggested that the slight sag in the butt of my Bus could be corrected with just new bushings. But do I need to replace both the inner and outer on each side, or would this easy technique to do just the outers be good enough?

Where did you get the pure talc?

Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 6:01 am
by Birdibus
vwlover77 wrote: Where did you get the pure talc?
Pottery supply businesses... Laguna Clay Co. for instance. It is used as a glaze ingredient.

Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 7:22 am
by Amskeptic
vwlover77 wrote: But do I need to replace both the inner and outer on each side, or would this easy technique to do just the outers be good enough?

Where did you get the pure talc?
The 10 minute 180* Anti-Twitter Bushing Talc/Rotation Operation is a stop-gap on-the-road quit-embarrassing-yourself-at-the-VW-dealer sort of deal.

I recommend that you replace both the inner and outer bushings.

At no point did I write "pure" talc. I wrote "real" talc, like I used Johnson&Johnson Hypoallegenic Talcum Baby Powder to distinguish from Johson&Johnson Hypoallegenic Cornstarch Baby Powder which would truly not work at all.
Colin :blackeye:

Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 10:42 pm
by glasseye
Truly lovin' yer new avatar pix, Colin. It says it all. :cheers:

Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 9:05 pm
by zblair
Agree with Ritter; glad you've come to a decision on what to do.

I have noticed in my life that when decisions involving pain are settled, it becomes much easier to get back into a balanced state
and move past pain. Good for you, Colin. :flower:

Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 9:24 am
by Manfred
Damn, you can tune a VW like tuning a musical instrument. I probably would have never thought a twitter was something that shouldn't be happening.

Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 10:26 am
by Gypsie
Jolly good show, old chap.


Hope this doesn't sound crass but I am trying to figger a part I can get from the RW (ooh maybe a dual relay...).

I would be honored to have even a smidge of this energy flowing through the Gypsie Wagon.

Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 3:54 pm
by Amskeptic
Gypsie wrote:Jolly good show, old chap.


Hope this doesn't sound crass but I am trying to figger a part I can get from the RW (ooh maybe a dual relay...).

I would be honored to have even a smidge of this energy flowing through the Gypsie Wagon.
Bretski and caliVW have been industriously stripping the Road Warrior in Colorado and will soon present all of you with the few remaining parts available. I am hoping they show steely discipline in pricing these parts, these half-million mile hacked and massaged parts, what would you buy that engine for???? It has JB Weld gallery plugs, hard-worked used satchmo pistons, endplay creep, and burned less oil than the BobD and had 110-120-110-125 compression, I am leaving all that to them.

I am very appreciative to them (very), that they took it apart carefully inside a garage. I insanely needed the assembled spirit of that car to dissipate in its constituent components with some sort of respect. I had visions of junkyard buzzards busting stuff and torching spring plates to free up wheel bearing housings and stomping through the car in the rain, but the photographs have a nice energy of moving the legend along by people who like these cars. That helped.
Colin

Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 4:27 pm
by werksberg
Just an idea....why don't you keep most of the small parts and pieces that you might need to repair a customers bus in your travel rig? Not a full engine...but the little and hard to get parts?

Just an idea....

Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 4:49 pm
by Amskeptic
werksberg wrote:Just an idea....why don't you keep most of the small parts and pieces that you might need to repair a customers bus in your travel rig? Not a full engine...but the little and hard to get parts?

Just an idea....
Can't do that. I will not cart around parts that I have known since the age of 19 and dispense them one painful memory at a time. I gave the Road Warrior over to some willing and capable people who have an idea of the clean break I need. And I thank them.
Colin