Itinerant Air-Cooled

Had a good mellow day with Hippie and who do you suppose was just sitting there in Des Moines yesterday. ?



. . . and his famous dog too:


I was there to do the usual . . .
spring plate bushings:



. . . but Hippie and I were treated to an awfully tight confine as we battled to reinstall the spring plates in their correct orientation. Apparently, the '69 buses are a bit less inclined to forgive us our trespasses against their emergency brake cables. Eventually we had to release the cable adjustment nuts to get the wheel bearing housings to clear the spring plates:




You have to listen carefully to catch Hippie's dry droll humor, but you are well-rewarded when you do . . . some little muse about we ought to present Bill Gates a car run by Windows, "brake file not found".

We were buzzing on coffee and doughnuts and listening to an 80's retrospective on the radio with a little Ipod interlude that was lovesick for Bob Dylan. The dogs did not mind:



Meanwhile, chitwnvw was puttering about his Maupin-acquired bus that looks like a twin to Vdubtech's RustyBus:




I left the house around 9:30PM to head up to Minneapolis, came back at 10:30PM to pick up my laptop that I left behind (ahh duh), and camped at the border of Iowa and Minnesota. Then the rains and the winds came. This morning, the winds developed a very urgent easterly blast, and the skies darkened very rapidly, and I thought " I want to leave the Interstate right NOW." So I ducked into a Shell station and almost got pasted by the door into the store. The winds were whipping. Got back on the Interstate . . . and not 1/2 mile up from the exit was this fresh wind-blown result:

Holy cow! I didn't even see that at first glance.

Makes me glad we adjusted my steering box!

Looks like you boys had fun, except for chitwnvw who looks like he might be trying to work himself down from a KrispyKreme sugar high. Kidding!

It's been raining and windy here all day, but it appears as if the skies are beginning to brighten. Tomorrow weather is supposed to be perfect.

Be safe.

Amskeptic wrote:

In the midwest, that's called "breezy." What we have here is just a little breeze damage. Nothing to worry about.

Thank you.

Thanks chitwnVW for the rear shocks - complete with all the parts that go into shocks to make them installable.
As the ones from O'Reillys are missing the sleeves in the rubber bushings.
(They require kit number 107, BTW, but don't bother because they don't sell that kit. But you can always hang the shocks on the wall and look at them. SINCE THEY F'ING CAN"T BE USED!)

Thanks Z, again for the phone number.

Iowa = God's country.

Colin if you are driving anywhere you have to stop and check this place out:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=w ... RJAwcZOzmw

It really is the jewel of Nebraska.

And Colin, get in touch with me if you'd like to stop in on Chuck "Iowegian" Kloster. I haven't had the honor of meeting up with him in person yet, but he is very good company by all reports.

Amskeptic wrote:

Chitwnvw kickin an old-school White Sox hat. I dig it!

Mr Blotto wrote: Chitwnvw kickin an old-school White Sox hat. I dig it!

With the Maupin aught eight shirt to boot. I dig that retro script, and with the way they are playing this year, we can only look back. Colin forensic'ed my bus and it appears as if it has a new top!!! We were guessing that maybe a tree fell on it, because the area above the driver door is slightly hinky as well.

BTW, it was way, way, way windy in eastern Iowa, western Illinois, didn't see any overturned rigs, but I was battlin' for a couple hundred miles. Troutmobile never made me feel my life was in danger, just had to be vigilant for the gusts.

Great time, Hippie. I had a blast and thanks for the pancakes!

Randy in Maine wrote:Iowa = God's country.

Shh..you'll make it hard to get a campsite. Hope you can drop by in August.

BellePlaine wrote:Looks like you boys had fun

Indeed wish you could have been here too.

chitwnvw wrote: Great time, Hippie. I had a blast and thanks for the pancakes!

Me too! Now let's get together for a family campout.
(Also, Your parts are on the way.)

MeyerII wrote:I haven't had the honor of meeting up with him in person yet, but he is very good company by all reports.

I can vouch for that.

Mr Blotto wrote:

Amskeptic wrote:

Chitwnvw kickin an old-school White Sox hat. I dig it!

And rocking on coffee and Krispy Kremes. Nice!

And LOTS of crank. "Steady Eddie" he could drive a truck thru pudding, rock solid nerves. Crush cans on forehead. You know.

hambone wrote:And LOTS of crank. "Steady Eddie" he could drive a truck thru pudding, rock solid nerves. Crush cans on forehead. You know.

???

That picture is a little misleading, since I ate one donut to be polite, and two other guys polished off the dozen.

But I'll own it. Maybe I missed my calling in law enforcement?

What's with all your ???????????????? lately? Cantcha laff no mo?

It's been 800 miles since the big IAC day, and time for the follow up report that I promised.

1. The bus is much more stable in the crosswind with the new bushings and KYB rear shocks that chitwn fronted me. =D>

2. The hot restart problem seems to be fixed or 90% better.

3. The catchy parking brake cable seems to have completely resolved itself. Maybe the lube soaked in.

Colin, lemme know if you got your wrench on time?

Hippie wrote:It's been 800 miles since the big IAC day, and time for the follow up report that I promised.

1. The bus is much more stable in the crosswind with the new bushings and KYB rear shocks that chitwn fronted me. =D>

2. The hot restart problem seems to be fixed or 90% better.

3. The catchy parking brake cable seems to have completely resolved itself. Maybe the lube soaked in.

Colin, lemme know if you got your wrench on time?

Excellente. Hey, expect some hot start cranking, read the owner's manual, it tells you allaboudit.
ColinInIdaho