The latest. The heads are on, the top cover is on, the oil pan is on Last to do is put the rear cover on with the oil pump, and then figure out the valve train geometry.

The inside off the OTTO pans are pretty slick.
too bad you diidnt take a pic.

sorta makes me miss the corvair days, 150 dollar cars

Inside the pan was all cup and nipples

That thing is rad!

Changed plans today when I found I could pick up a set of vanagon seats for $50. This also means I need to have the swivel changed from the stocker one that is in there, and I need to go cut out the seat rails from the vanagon for the drivers side and have them welded in. Looks like Zach is going to be busy

I tripped down to Corvair Ranch to get the last little parts for the engine today. The engine should be ready to run....now I need to get the bus ready.
pics to come

I am going to be swamped Friday and Saturday. Sunday may be free, or not depending on what Erin has planned. Lets get the battery tray cut out and welded in before we worry about seat mounts. I want to hear that corvair engine run.

Zach

I need to get the engine too you first. I would like to get this wrapped up by next weekend before I am doing internal medicine again.

I rebuilt the calipers and front hubs, the gas tank is almost painted and I swung by your house today to get some more parts and drop off the battery tray (its int he bus). I should have the bumper mounts, front under shield, and gas tank cover repainted by this weekend.

Bah.

Slap the engine on my testing stand. We can go to town.

Run it from my remote starter/tac board. It will be awesome. Glorious. Come on, you KNOW you want to validate all the work you have been doing this past 2 weeks.

And more fun the getting rust in my eyes from chopping out yer rusty ass battery tray.

Zach

I just need to figure out how to get it to your house. I wont have time to get the trailer registered this week. Maybe next week. Engine start on the test stand is what I am hoping for I may need a hand getting it off of my stand as well, maybe someone local I know can help with the lifting.

Trailer not needed. Make some runners out of 2x4s and throw it in the back of the lesbomobile, er, forrester. That is how I was able to move my engine around.

Zach

Not that I don't want you to get the trailer up and on the road. I'll need it to get my monster truck tires to and from the shop that will mount them on the split ring wheels.



Zach

I'll go buy the 4x8 sheet for it tomorrow maybe. I have the big ass transmission to bring down, the seats and the engine.

Mike

I know you are on the samba but have you read about the vanagon seat swap? I think it puts taller guys up too high. I guess just don't ditch the stock stuff. 50 for those seats is a deal

I did read the samba stuff and IIRC the later vanagon seats arent as bad. However, I am not above chopping the seat frame I am gonna see about recovering the seats. I dont have the stock seats so no real loss. I was going to do the 914 seat thing.

I just got back from Lowes with the 4x8 sheet

Ahh, I see, game on

Mmmm, engine pics

All I have left to do on the engine is modify the oil cooler mount and install the dizzy. The install the cooling tin and fire it up.

Pretty Cool Mike.

I am going to *TRY* and get over to Harbor Freight today and get a bag of aluminum oxide for my siphon blaster. That should let us know right quick where the rust ends and good metal starts in your battery tray. Can't weld to rust, after all.

Zach

I found a good source for new retractable seat belts here:
www.autoloc.com
$60 ea, best price in town and they come in a variety of colors They also sell a freight train horn

The belts showed up today

I bought a 45 pound container of 70 grit aluminum oxide and a tarp to put under the bus so I can recycle it. But it is too wet to blast right now, and likely tomorrow as well.

I think that Erin is going to have me on baby duty in the afternoon, but I may be free in the morning.

Zach

Hey Zach,
I am getting fitted for a tux today at noon and will try to stop by after. No promises so no busting your ass on my behalf.

Re: the tray, maybe we can just cut back to the no rusted metal as we had planned, and if enough is left we can rivet the new tray in place and seal it. This has been done many times by other bus owners on the Samba, and was received well. I am just trying to preserve the paint...but Scotty said he could fix it.

I'm not sure of how the new tray fits in. There is a LOT of rusty metal in there. Even if we cut out the bad stuff, there will still be grinding or blasting that needs to be done before we bolt of weld the new tray in. Otherwise, we will be putting good metal over bad.

I'm on baby duty for a while today, so I may or may not be free if you come over. No promises on my part either.

Zach

Yesterday I installed the front calipers I rebuilt with the Pagid pads, installed the hubs with new bearings and seals, new front brake lines, and new front shox.

I sent out the skins of my vanagon seats to my Mom today. She said she would get them done fast for me. I will have pics when they are done.

Things that must be done before it gets on the road:
- I need to get the new front seal from Scotty so I can install the new windshield.
- Welding in tranny mount
- Welding in battery tray
- Welding in seat brackets

The engine is essentially finished, I need to get it down to Zachs, but there are soo many hoops to jump through to get my trailer registered.

Today was a great day, and not just because I wasnt working in the damn hospital I scored a set of slider center windows for my bus, normally $75-120ea for $30 a set and they were within driving distance. Since I had to go towards MD I figured I would drop off some things at Zach's house....like my engine I put it in the back of my VUE by myself and took it out by myself....and now my back hurts Getting it out was easier than putting it in the car.

So the list of critical things that must be done before I can drive it are:
- Weld up intake manifolds (Zach)
- Remove old seat tracks and mounts in front and weld in the new ones (Zach)
- Brakes (Me)
- Axles and CVs (Me)
- Tranny mount welded in (Zach)
- Battery tray welded in (Zach)
- Cooling tin for the engine designed and welded up (Zach and I)
- Reinstall the dash stuff with the shifter (Me)

That should about do it, plus some little things here and there. I wonder if Zach realizes what I got him into

The engine looks awesome. I was implressed that you got it into the garage alone.

Zach

Noel TRIED to help. She is pretty, but not stout. She basically screamed, "Oh my God!" every time she thought I would hit your car with it

Dang, I forgot to post a pic of the semi finished engine

It would be easier to recognize if it had a spare tire over it.

Last time I was over at Zach's I had a chance to take pics of my goof up with the bus. Enjoy

Here is me eyeballing the seat rails I will be installing.Click to view attachment


Here are the slider windows, which are hard to find, and tend to go for about $175-200 a pair, that I scored for $30

After grinding for a while, my Harbor Freight grinder finally gave up the ghost I got another < $20

How many hours did you get with that puppy?

Sorry to see the pictures of the goof up, but don't feel alone. I essentially did the same thing with my car, but instead of a garage door I had my old GMC (read built like a tank) in the street - my run away car, accelerating down the trailer ramp, hit (the truck) right in the middle of the 914's left rear tail light.

No amount of foot braking worked.

I was sure I had that car in gear.

Not sure how many hours, but I have about 7 years of hard work on it Not bad as I originally paid $10 from HF on sale.

Nice thread!

This is for some strange reason, my favorite thread, and the lack of updates is killin' me. I love these buses, and i need to see updates on this, or i am going to end up with one of my own!

Yeah Matt, buses suck up money as fast as a 914 plus you can use leftover 914 engine parts in the bus.

You forgot about time. They suck up just as much time too!

Thread hijack, Bleyseng, did you backdate your exhaust with that camper special? Mine should be gonig in sometime soon, still running the stock setup, just curious what others have done.

-Chris

The lack of update is killing me too, but I have one week of actual work left in school until I am off for the year (so to speak).

The latest:
- I got some center side slider windows for $30 (friggen steal!) that are in great shape, including the seals. I have attempted to tint them myself (cost $40) and am satisfied with the results (not perfect).
- Zach adjusted and welded up the manifold for the 4bbl to my engine. It needs to be ground down, leak checked and painted still.
- I have almost finished replacing the rear bearings, brake backing plates, brakes and drums, but on the pass side the outer bearing wont go in and on the drive side I need to cut the old backing plate off where the parking brake goes in (rusted together).
- I gave up on finding a better set of bumpers so I started to straighten mine with my primitive tools and lack of skills. The front looks pretty good. I filled the small irregularities with quick steel and will finish it with either JB weld or bondo finishing filler.
- The steering assembly is almost all out as I needed (wanted) to replace the coupler for the box. The box has way too much play in it as I can easily turn it about 90* with my two fingers at the box before getting any resistance. I found a spare a while ago in anticipation of this for cheap and am going to see about changing it vs adjusting it.
- I have started to sand the engine bay and fuel tank bay but quickly decided I need to power wash the whole thing to find where the paint is and where the rust is. I will do this when I am done with the bearings so I can protect the bores/bearings that are not fully sealed.

I think that is it.

This weekend I would like to install the master cylinder since I go the new brake line grommets in the mail for the inter reservoir hose. Then, I will finish the brakes so it can be moved around a bit easier. I have the new seals for the side windows so I will swap those to keep the rain out as the louvered ones are crappy on my bus. I will be selling the new louvered window seals, though.

Mike-

I had good luck with adjusting the box, whatever you do (and you may have read this already), don't buy one of the new boxes available. Allegedly they arrive with just about as much slop as worn out german boxes. You had to pull the whole assembly to get to the coupler? That sucks. I guess they changed it between 74 and 76.

Oh yeah, check the splines with your rear wheels apart. Someone didn't torque my axle nuts at some point and the splines were nicely worn. No amount of torquing on the axle nut would keep that joint tight.

-Chris

Your wheel bearing is still in the freezer. bring it out in a small cooler with ice packs and I bet you will be able to get it in. You know where the hidden house key is, right?

Heat up the place it fits in with my MAPP torch first.

Zach

I may just be able to remove the bearing housing section of the lower arm and do it on the bench. I thought not, but think I may have thought wrongly. Ya know?

Chris,
I already have a good used steering house that I picked up for $30. It is it is tight, but I will attempt an adjust on my current one. I did read about the TRW ones and they seem to be poo or a gamble at best.
The steering collumn was not hard to remove for the most part, but the nest of frayed and loose wires makes me think I will be doing some rewiring after I install the steering gear.
really, it is all about the engine. If that runs and the tranny works then all will be gravy. If not, then suck is the word.

Zach, ya'll gonna be around this weekend? Noel wants to come down as well.

Slowly but surely.

Erin and I are going to go biking on Saturday morning. Aside from that, we should be around. Might want to have Noel contact Erin though, so that the girls know each other's plans.

Zach

A great and productive day at Casa Rabite today.
- Installed the damn outer rear bearing, and inner bearing with seals. All assembled and happy for now
- All the rear brakes are on
- Pressure washed the engine bay in expectation for prep and paint
- Adjusted steering box and it is much better now
- Half way installed new steering coupler bushing (I need two more nuts...that sounds bad)
- Cleaned out the upper brake reservoir and will be installing the master cylinder tomorrow.
- Engine is on the furniture dolly now and will be mated to the tranny soon for anticipation of run up. There will be pics of this, dont worry

Today, the bus was cleaned and ended up on its own 4 wheels. Finally, making some progress.

I'll be around again today after all. Stayed up late watching a movie, so biking did not happen. Sleep was more important.

I just have to cut the grass, and then my afternoon is free.

Zach

Pics?

I'll try and take some and post them. I ended up being swamped today. about to head out the door to help my FIL move stuff out of his basement.

Zach

all the way down on page 12??? WTF - i am in need of an update - this project is the best!

Next week will be the offensive with pics. I would like to get the engine running on the engine stand and get the bus ready to stab the engine

coolio - much appreciated.

It is not a air cooled bus build thread without pictures of the crumbling and dusty or moldy bag of pot you find.

Occasionally you can substitute pot for old blotter lsd.


"Why is this picture of the grateful dead cut up into tiny squares............. shit I have been holding this in my bare hands for the past 15 minutes absorbing it..."