Page 1 of 1

Itinerant Air-Cooled's Annual Texas Interlude II

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 9:11 am
by Amskeptic
I love Texas, even though, as ever, I complain about these pesky bugs. Lucky for Texas, I am also complaining about the rain. But that fine big sky just said hello anyway:

Image

Image

Expansive sunset across the land, gotta find a campsite quick. Once it is dark, there is no way to know if I am camping in the front yard of a huge Texas ranch or just at the fence where the cows congregate:

Image


The next morning brings more trouble:

Image


They start as just little bubbles, but they are trouble. I pried off pretty much the entire right side rocker panel, took a little work, but the fiberglass repair that was performed on this car missed one important step, rust eradication INSIDE the holy rocker panel. There was a golden opportunity to get in there and brush it out, clean it, apply rust catalyzing primer, then do the repair. This thing was merely hiding the continuing destruction of Chloe, one rainy day at a time:

Image

Image

Image


Because of the continual threat of rain, I had to hit these rockers, inside and out, with rust catalyzing primer, even though the surface had to be ground down to metal once again before I applied body filler:

Used a 1.5mm allen wrench to stick the screen in the hole:

Image


. . . then pulled the allen wrench down to hold it in place.

Image


You can see that I utilized the big holes to apply some backstop for the screen, in this case, a 12" 3/8 extension with a 17mm socket on the end:

Image


Used my trusty razor to screed the bondo down to a sandable surface:

Image


Then I got high-tech. Pulled out the Lanval Commemorative Solar Battery Charger to keep my Chitwnvw inverter happy while it ran the Dremel, the Dremel that hates my visits to Texas:

Image


Back at the battery, you can see how I protect my auxiliary 12 volt power source using a certified VW double plastic connector to keep the connector ends stashed:

Image

Image


The Dremel not only helps to grind the damaged rocker surfaces to a shiny clean metal just before body filler time, it also helps me sand down the filler before I switch to my popsicle stick sanding block for final surfacing.

I knocked off at 9:00PM due to failing light, here is the right rocker, thankfully back to factory dimensions (the sill is not all wavy like it was with the fiberglass glop blobbed all over it.

Image


Shall awake to another glorious buggy Texas morning and shall sand and sand and touch up and sand and maybe even put on a primer coat . . . but this is a big state, and my schedule somehow demands that I be north of Dallas by tomorrow night.
Colin

(addendum: started to rain like hail at midnight, no way would I be able to leave the campsite if it got saturated, so I up and left and drove two hours to Wichita Falls. What a gorgeous balmy late night drive through a wind farm's synchronized blinking red lights (of course, this being Planet Earth with Mankind and all, there was ONE light amongst hundreds flashing to its own conductor), following three gloriously tacky big rigs festooned with lights it was like Christmas)

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Annual Texas Interlude II

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 12:09 pm
by dingo
nice use of dremel/inverter/solar panel....very impressive !

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Annual Texas Interlude II

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 7:58 pm
by brandt
Impressive!

What kind of Dremel attachment are you using to strip things?

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Annual Texas Interlude II

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 8:19 pm
by luftvagon
How's the weather south? It's actually cold in Arkansas... perfect camping weather this far North. :sunny:

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Annual Texas Interlude II

Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 5:51 am
by Amskeptic
In Sherman Texas this morning for an appointment.
The entire car is bondo-ed and sanded. Tomorrow, I will do spot putty glazing, then primer.
Will hopefully have a decent paint match at Sherwin Williams,
Hello, I'd like to match some paint for my car."
"Sure, you want it in aerosol cans, right?"
"Right."
"Can you bring a sample or a code?"
"I'll bring a piece of car."
"Uh, OK."
"Bye"
"Thank you for calling Sherwin Williams America's Automotive Painting Supplies And Solutions Superstore With More Than . . . . "

"Here!"
"What is THAT?"
"That's my 'rocker sill', match to it."

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Annual Texas Interlude II

Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 6:11 am
by luftvagon
Hahha! I have a same problem when I call Delphi or other manufacturers..

Me: Hey do you guys make 4 coil tower with external igniters?
Mfg: What is the application?
Me: I don't know, I was hoping you would tell me.

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Annual Texas Interlude II

Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2013 7:11 pm
by Amskeptic
Kirk, a member here and on theSamba, asked me to help him get his '78 Champagne Bus less flat and more fizzy.
Had an enjoyable day with him and his friend, Jerry, tracking down the many causes to poor running. May I mention that if your double relay has no molex connector (just loose wires plugged in), you Might Have A Wiring Problem. It was funny, his cell phone saving the day with a picture of the double relay terminals from the Double Relay article on this site.

I've been camping with cows:

Image


Lots of them, as I spot-putty and sand the rocker panels:

Image


They made me self-conscious at first, just staring at me. The bull came over to stare, too. I talked evenly. "I need to work, so I am going to ignore you, no BS from you please."

Image


In the effort to keep inside the shade line, I pushed the car over the tube of spot putty, splutch, all over my shoe. "Don't have a cow," I hissed at myself, "you don't want to agitate the herd".

Chloe's younger sister was overcome with curiosity. She did an epic (for a cow) stretch of a reconnaissance around the car while her herd looked on with trepidation:

Image


Eventually, like after an hour, they got bored, the bull decided I was no threat, and they moseyed like Chloe on an interstate, off to other grazing spots:

Image

I LOVE it out here! Sunset! Moon! Sky! Stars! Late night jogs! Motel6 ice bucket sponge baths, shaving by feel alone, waking when the early morning sun calls me, the change in environmental mood from day to night back to day is exquisite. Night is huge, morning is golden, and through it all, the natural world, the cow world, takes it all one moment at a time.

Tomorrow . . . I paint.
Colin

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Annual Texas Interlude II

Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 5:23 pm
by Amskeptic
Have you ever been wakened by a cow nibbling your foot?
I have.

I said above, "tomorrow I paint". I did not mean to tip anyone off. A brisk breeze greeted the day's plans. This happens in Texas when I wield a spray can.
So I brush painted, like I did with the BobD, soooooo tedious, soooooo slow. Sooooo much sanding. But!

A true sill line once more.
Image

The left side was so poorly welded that there is no fixing the appalling look to the rocker, but at least I tried to fill the plier tracks all down the sill from the gruesome beating this junky rocker sill had to go through to get welded to the stoved-in panel above it. I filled the holes from the amateur weld job, ground down the ragged edge of the tinny rocker sill, and have been sanding in the sunny heat and the flies and the cows and the ants and especially the cow pies deposited by my inquisitive hosts:

Image


This morning's jog was unfortunately interpreted incorrectly by the herd as a little bald wolf attack or something. I could not figure them out. Ran along the path back to the car from the main road. As I trotted to a breathless stop, I did a cool down walk past the car towards them as they grazed. A whole gaggle of cows *came towards me*. "You expecting food?" I asked them. "Don't have any." The whole group was gathering and Chloe's sister was walking towards me with that entire gang behind her. Can cows go rogue? Were they menacing me with numbers? I turned around back towards the car and heard tumbling hoofbeats behind me. I'm being RUSHED, I panickily thought (note to self: adrenaline system sure as heck still works fine). Turned around and it was the white cow mother and her baby in the lead. "No way, sissy," I thought. "they don't send the calf into battle first." Nonetheless, the whole thundering herd of them hoofed it like a stampede past the car and down the road. I am not past feeling rejected, even by cows. "Stupid cows."

I am heading south to find a new campsite free of the startlingly prolific production of massive quantities of bs.

Image

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Annual Texas Interlude II

Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 8:41 am
by AircoolerKirk
Amskeptic wrote:Kirk, a member here and on theSamba, asked me to help him get his '78 Champagne Bus less flat and more fizzy.
Had an enjoyable day with him and his friend, Jerry, tracking down the many causes to poor running. May I mention that if your double relay has no molex connector (just loose wires plugged in), you Might Have A Wiring Problem. It was funny, his cell phone saving the day with a picture of the double relay terminals from the Double Relay article on this site.

I've been camping with cows:
Howdy Colin! I am Kirk on here, but I'm locked out of it and the email associated with it, so here I been again!

The champagne is MUCH more fizzy, say thankya! Funny, if Colin would print his book, I wouldn't need my phone to display your glorious art. Make mine spiral bound please. Rockers looking good, bus looks better. Cows are just jealous!

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Annual Texas Interlude II

Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 3:31 pm
by Amskeptic
I left the jealous cows "hey, I got opposable thumbs so I can just unclasp the gate and leave . . . " and drove into the sunset and early moonlit night, blessedly away from the biting flies and the biting ants. Found a sweeping hill with a path. Took it. Found a little glen. Took it. Took a moonlit jog, "tomorrow, I paint!"

Here's tomorrow's glen, bathed in brilliant early morning sunshine:

Image


It had shade from real trees that somehow sprouted up higher and higher as I headed east:

Image


My sun-overwhelmed camera, nonetheless made an arty shot:

Image


I had to mix up some Rustoleum Almond Appliance Paint (with genuine enamel!) to moderate the VW Savannah Beige to whichever panel I happened to be working on.
See, this car is many many colors, remember this shot from October 2011?
Image

Mad scientist at the rear deck, practicing proportions against the piece o'rocker sill, timing the spray buttons of the two cans of paint until I had a match for the right sill ( three seconds beige to two almond for the right sill, three seconds to 1 1/2 for the left).

Here's the left before color-sanding:
Image

The right? Oh, I couldn't finish that. Farmer Joe came cruising up on his turbo Kubota while I was mixing paint.
"HEY, WHAT'RE Y'ALL DOING THERE?"
"Painting my bus?"
"LET ME (shuts tractor off) introduce myself, my name's Joe," and he sticks down his hand.
"Pleased to meet you, Joe, I am painting my bus, am I trespassing?"
"You sure are."
"Should I leave?"
"You sure should. The baler's coming down in just minutes, and he will spray hay all over your fresh paint, haw haw haw, that is a nice looking car, didja camp here last night?"
"Yes, it is beautiful."
"I own this property. We have to bale this hay. You get good fuel mileage?"
"Not so good. I better start cleaning up."
"Hey, (tractor starts) TAKE YOUR TIME, I'LL TELL ED TO HOLD UP UNTIL I SEE YOU LEAVE."
"You're a good man, Joe."
"WHAT?"
"YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, JOE."

Now the right side has to wait seven days for the paint to cure before I can finish, says so RIGHT ON THE CAN:
Image

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Annual Texas Interlude II

Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 12:23 pm
by Amskeptic
I did not wait seven days for the paint to cure. Being only half done, I color-sanded down to the just-as-the-primer-started-showing-through point, and painted the whole thing:

Image

I have run out of the real matched paint. My last coats were unfortunately too dark and I do not have enough left to correct them. So, this all can just protect the rockers until I get new paint made up, and I will color-sand it down (using it as primer to fill in the imperfections) and PAINT YET AGAIN.
SpraySysiphus

(I am in Arkansas anyhow . . . the Texas Interlude is over. I am visiting Luftvagon outside of Little Rock tomorrow, then beating it to Atlanta where the storage units for the BobD and Alexus *must be paid pronto* before they have a Storage Wars auction)

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Annual Texas Interlude II

Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 1:47 pm
by yondermtn
Colin,
What is it that you're holding in the 5th pic of your first post of this thread? Is that fiberglass and/or bondo from a previous repair?
Also, what kind of dremel bits do you use for sanding/grinding?
Thanks :salute:

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Annual Texas Interlude II

Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2013 8:00 am
by Amskeptic
yondermtn wrote:Colin,
What is it that you're holding in the 5th pic of your first post of this thread? Is that fiberglass and/or bondo from a previous repair?
Also, what kind of dremel bits do you use for sanding/grinding?
Thanks :salute:
It was a fiberglass repair that had internally detached from the rusting rocker underneath the shiny paint that had a little bubble that made me go berserk on it. Peeled right off.

My dremel bits are a ragtag assortment of thoroughly beaten down implements. I used the orange-ish stone drum looking bit to blast through the bubbles, then I used a cutting wheel to hack out the diseased sections, then more orange drum to soften the edges.
I sand by hand 180 then 320 then paint then wetsand 600 then 800 then 1000 then rubbing compound/wax.

Today I get new paint made up at Sherwin Williams here in Little Rock.
ColinItsABeautifulMuggyMorning

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Annual Texas Interlude II

Posted: Wed Aug 28, 2013 6:22 am
by Amskeptic
Long ago . . . in the Beginning:
Image

Mid-Paint-Matching . . . what a mess. The outside of Chloe has about four different shades splattered over various panels. I had the paint made to the Savannah Beige code. It actually matches the original paint found inside the car pretty well. But SOMEBODY decided to "spiff up" that dowdy old Savannah Beige on the outside. I could not figure out what stupid changes were made in the color. Finally found a sort of match using:
year....................made by......................color
2013 . . . . . WalMart Krylon . . . . "almond appliance enamel"
2013 . . . . . . Sherwin Williams . . . L620 Savannah Beige
2011 . . . . . . Sherwin Williams . . . L90D Pastel White
2010 . . . . . . Polo's Paint Shop . . . chrome yellow in a spice jar
2010 . . . . . . . . . . NAPA . . . . . . . . . . L63H Taigagrun FAIL (way too much red)
2010 . . . . . . Polo's Paint Shop . . . little bit of dehydrated red in a salon-size fingernail polish jar
Image

Each batch was made by a spritz of almond appliance enamel into the cap followed by a spritz of NAPA FAIL, followed by a spritz + another of L90D, followed by a four-second spray of Savannah Beige (carefully aimed or it would blow paint all over the damn place), then a little dab of dehydrated red onto the paint brush and mix thoroughly while wiping the sticky overspray off the outside of the cap with carb spray, then apply to car with stupid little horizontal brush strokes (that felt about as efficient as re-painting the Boeing assembly plant with a mascara brush).

Dry Time
Image
Image

End (just like that ad photograph introducing the 1968 bus)
Image

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Annual Texas Interlude II

Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 6:22 am
by Amskeptic
GeraldBallard wrote:
Amskeptic wrote:I love Texas, even though, as ever, I complain about these pesky bugs.
Very nice set up.. you seems to be well experienced guys with lots of trips in belt.. Great going.
Thank you. Twelve years of these meanderings across the country after a service business that kept me glued to the phone . . . good for the soul.
Colin