Zach, I am worried about you.

This is very hard to believe. Did you get a picture????

Tom

No. I wish that I had though. It was mind boggling - I was just not prepared for what waited outside my door.

Elvis was a really nice guy.

Zach

This story is too amazing to be lost at the end of page 4 where no one will see it. I HATE being the last post on a page. Especially when it is THIS EPIC!


Anyway, I just had the most amazing thing happen.

I am eating dinner with the fam, and there is a knock on the door. I see a red shirt and figure it is either Mike coming over to work on the bus, or the Pizza guy forgot something when he dropped off dinner.

I really could not have been more wrong.

Elvis was at my door. No, really. Complete with a pink silk shirt with big collar, unbuttoned to mid chest showing off thick gold chains. His sideburns were superb, though his pompadore was a little long at the back. I went to shake his hand, and Elvis swung his hips and thrust out his arm, practiced to the point of being natural. I was a little thrown by the slightly too tight dockers, but even Elvis wears dockers, right?!

Elvis was REALLY excited. He wanted to buy the bus. He wanted to buy the Evil Bus - RIGHT NOW. He was driving down the road in his beat up pickup (complete with a plywood billboard bolted to the back that stated the he bought property - even Elvis has to work...). Any way, Elvis was driving down the road, a road he said he does not usually travel by, when he saw the Jeep and the Bus. He had to stop. He had to have the bus.

I would like to say that Elvis is also a cat guy. He was thrilled to see two of my cats meowing at him through the window, and went to great lengths to tell me about how he loves cats. It makes sense, really. Elvis always got a lot of pussy.

Anyhow, I gave Elvis the bus tour. He tried to tell me that is name was really Bob Neal, that he would trade his services as a plumber for the bus, but I know its just Elvis's cover.

Elvis then asked if I would be taking the bus to Bug Out in Virginia next month. Sadly, I said I did not think it would be ready yet. Elvis was impressed with the engine swap, but admitted he was not a mechanical guy.

Elvis was also really interested in guys making tricycles out of VWs, but I did not know of any off the top of my head.

I said I needed to get back to dinner with my family, and Elvis understood. He swung his hips, gave me the double finger guns and a hearty "Thank you, thank you very much for taking time to tell me about the bus. God Bless." Elvis got back into his pickup, and drove of into the sunset.

This may be the most amazing encounter that I have had on account of the vehicles in my driveway.

Zach

PS - I really hope the Bus is still here tomorrow morning...

Cliff notes - Elvis stopped by to buy Mikes Bus.

I knew Elvis was hanging around Pennsylvania.

I knew it!

is he still fat?

Yes, but not overly so.

Zach

Elvis is everywhere
Elvis is everything
Elvis is everybody
Elvis is still the King

Mojo Nixon

Michael J Fox is the Anti Elvis!

You leave shaky alone!

To be fair, Mojo recorded that song well before MJ Fox had any signs of Parkinson's.

I'd bet that if he performs the song today, the Anti Elvis is somebody like Simon Cowell.

were you eating the mushrooms that were growing next to your garden.

I TOLD YOU NOT TO EAT THOSE !!!

mojo has mucho elvis in him... along with beer, scotch, amphetamines, LSD, orange soda and i think some raid....

DON'T. EAT. THE BROWN. ACID.

I think Mojo's best song is Don Henley must die (don't let him get back together with Glen Frey.) Although it was funny when Don Henley came up and sang it with him at a concert.....I still don't really like DH though....and yeah, I know, he speaks soooo well of me......yada, yada....

Pics of Bus progress from tonight. I'll let Evil explain what everything is.

Overspray, but otherwise nice looking hatch panel


Barn door panel in, with sound proofing behind.



Fabbing up the engine mount bar.
This took several days of creative thought before we started welding htis evening. Went through about 9 other ideas before we came up on this super simple and STRONG one. Mike can tell more.
[http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3519/3860196233_4dcec92c39.jpg[/img]



Oh, and the Evil Bus will be getting side pipes. Its going to be bad assed!

Zach

Yup, Zach came up with the smart and kick ass looking idea to run the mufflers up forward, since that is where the headers point out anyway, and have the pipes point out in front of the rear wheels like a hot rod. This looks cool and frees up a lot of space in the rear.

The engine bar will be attached to the bumper mounts with an addition of a large bolt on each side. More to come later on this....I hope tomorrow

The door and hatch were painted and ABS panels were installed after I laid down sound dampener and insulation.

Why not bring the pipes through the cabin and add a little more chrome, if your going for the hotrod look??

see pic.

Function ----- form

Here are the progress pics from tonight. The mount we devised utilizes the original tranny mount rubber pucks. The yellow arrow depicts where a 13mm bolt will be added to strengthen the mount to the frame.

S'more

In the last picture, the engine is sitting cockeyed. That will be leveled when we are all said and done.

Also the clamps are there just until the super glue dries to join the metal bits together. They will be taken off before we bolt the engine on.

Zach

is that the same super glue i used on my glasses the other night

maybe.
Its what I could find first. Since its an engine mount we wanted to use something really strong, that was also fast drying. It was about to start raining so we did not want anything that would still be setting up once the rain hit.

Zach

Mmmm.... superglue......

Stuff scares me. It's ok in tension, but one hit from the side (shear load) and it all lets go......

Super clean surfaces, aircraft structural epoxy and a rivet or 2 to squeeze the parts together to thin out the glue is the best bet. But, if you glue steel, the rust can separate the glue joint later....

Welding gud.

FINALLY I have been waiting for someone to bite on that for days! I was hoping for a full on "ARE YOU CRAZY" but I'll take what I can get.

It will be welded. No glue.

Zach

Did Elvis help with the glue?

I hear he uses it to keep his hair in place....

Tonight Zach hooked it up. We both decided that we wanted the bar to be bent so I busted out the trigonometry and got pretty close to perfect. We will finish it up tomorrow

That looks sweet.

Very nice job guys. Now what, little rustoliem and bolt it in there.?

Little more welding yet.

I want to reinforce the mounting plates and also the cut area- fully box that part in.

Mike cut the pieces tonight after we got back from the pool, but I was too wiped to start welding. I'll KO that tomorrow after work.

Zach

Is that bar stong enough?

Possibly add an upper section to make it like a truss???

Seems a little small/thin???

Rich

We are considering a truss, but we also consider it over done at that point. Not that being over engineered is a reason we consider for stopping

This is what I would like to add.
We have the metal sitting in my shop.

Click to view attachment

Does not add complexity, really. Does add strength.

It is probably not needed. But I'd rather over do it.

Zach

We already have the metal ready for adding in the darkened areas of the pic

looks sweet guy's, I feel very gud about that holding up based on you're pics . NOT that I am endorsing and or warrenting anything agaianst breakage.......LOL

Yah, tonight as soon as I get home I have a lot of welding to do. The good news is I get to do the fun parts (welding) and then hand it off to mike for grinding and painting (the unfun parts )

Zach

Why not just use JB Weld?

...not serious...

Tonight was victorious! We mounted the engine bar and hing the engine....then we decided it needed the extra bracing The finished product looks bad ass! The engine is in, hanging and this is the best conversion like this that I have ever seen thanks to Zach's help and willingness to go the extra mile The bus has landed!

Nice job!

Now get thee to a powder coater.

When you dropped the bus last night and the drivers side shocks and springs compressed and bounced a little and there was NO movement or flex in the engine and bar? Yeah, that felt good.

Zach

I keep looking at the pics and smiling

Looks awesome, estimate until you fire her off? I hope there will be video documentation!

I've been thinking about the cooling tin.

If we mock the tin out of some of the cardboard around my shop, we can then make templates to be cut out of 24g sheet steel.

Its not structural, so using thin metal will allow us to make whatever bends need to be made. We can make a brake using my vise and some of the spare stock we have on hand.

I don't think this is going to be a big deal. At all.

Zach

Make it this weekend....! I will drive up to see!

As long as I am there, there will be. If he fires it while I am in class, he is on his own.

We need to get the carb and induction in place, and tin made. Attach a battery, and ignition bits. Then start it and run in the cam.

Zach

But... I'll be away. You can't have a party at my house if I'm not there. That just wouldn't be fair!

(if you do it, get my 914 perfect while you are there... )

Zach

I dont have an estimate of when the quickening will occur. I am currently applying to residencies, starting 2 more MPH classes, and getting ready for my national tour so time is tight. We shall see....

Zach, for the tin I think that the stock corvair tin will fit in the bay as it is flat and small. Then we just need to start cutting the stock bus tin until we get it to match. Then, weld the two together. If I can make it down today I will get started on that...I need to get more cutting disks

Do you know where we can get some stock bent pipe to just make different length runners for the carb???

So today I managed to start another part of the program, the instrument panel. I wanted a tach because the blank spot in the stock panel drives me nuts. So, I have make the 914 stuff fit. The speedo is for mock up only. I will be sourcing a 120mph silver buttoned one for the final set.

This is what we did in the ThunderBus.

Click to view attachment

Ya, I saw the thunderbus one and thought I could do it differently

Since I am up here and my bus is an hour away in at a place that it would be unkind to work at odd hours, I decided to finish my gauge cluster

First I gutted a 911 tach and carved up the case to fit into the stock cluster. It fits PERFECT! Crazy how lucky that was.
Click to view attachment
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Click to view attachment

I repainted the inside of the housing.
Click to view attachment

Then I painted the tach and speedo needles.
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment


Notice the extra light bung I added in the tach housing in the 12 o'clock position