Post by djbio on Jul 25, 2008 13:07:52 GMT -5
Well - I've finally got space to work, and a modicum of spare time, so real work has actually begun on my bus, which I affectionately refer to as "The Heap".
First - here's what I'd like to see - one day. I'm about a million hours away from this though....
I am the third owner of this bus. There are a lot of records from the first years of this bus's life in the glove box. It was originally purchased from Felix Garage in Vernon BC on March 17, 1970, and it had 4 miles on the odometer. The engine was exchanged on August 18, 1973 by Union 76 Lake Motors in Salmon Arm BC when the bus had 31554 Miles on it. The second owner purchased the bus on May 29, 1976 from Lake Auto Service in Invermere BC, with unknown mileage on the odometer (ie, this wasn't on the bill of sale). I purchased this bus on December 16, 2005 in Calgary with 49983 Miles showing on the odometer. I'm unsure of whether or not this odometer has rolled over or not. It seems likely though, as the previous owner converted the bus over for camping trips with his family. The amazing part is that he did the conversion in 1976 when he bought the bus, yet he kept EVERYTHING that he had removed. It was all in pristine condition stored away in his shed.
Here's the bus the day I brought it home - December 17, 2005. It had been sitting indoors for most of the 10 years previous to this, and hadn't been registered in 5 years before that. It was at least 25 below - and I managed to get this thing started and drove it the 5kms home with no plates or insurance (shhhhh.... don't tell!). Yup, those are 10 year old tires I'm about to drive it home on!
Here's some shots of the camperized interior. This stuff was gross - Mold, Mildew, Nasty. FIRE was the only solution. I burnt everything in here.
The engine looks a little... greasy.
I didn't do much with the bus for awhile. It was cold and wintery, but I'd gotten it home, and that was half the battle. The other half of the battle had been convincing my beautiful, intelligent wife that I needed to haul this thing home. She of course disagreed, but because she loves me she let me do what I wanted in the end. I cleaned most of the interior stuff out on a warm day in February 2006, and burnt all that gross stuff in my fire pit.
Here's some pics of the interior after much cleaning - and trust me - this thing is still DIRTY!
I'd gotten an angle grinder for my birthday, so I had promptly removed the spare tire mount from the front of the bus. I'd also put on the eyebrows, because, hey, they just look cool!
I managed to actually be driving the bus by this point - I'd thrown on some better tires, and the engine was running quite well thanks to Dave coming over and helping me get it tuned in, when something I call the 3 week curse kicked in. Thats right - I've never been able to drive this thing for more than 3 weeks in a year without something bad happening to put it right back in the garage.
Here's the engine with a new carb (minus the auto-choke), new coil, and after a little cleaning up had been done. Its a little less greasy.
The first instance of the 3 Week Curse was pretty scary - I thought I was going to lose The Heap when my dash wiring caught fire - luckily less than a block from home! Some singed hairs on my knees, and the bus got put into storage because, well, I was 2 days from starting construction on a garage, and I was going to need that garage to do the work on the bus anyway. This was around June 23-26th, 2006.
It doesn't look like much, but on further investigation I discovered that there had been many previous fires under the dash of this bus. It looks like the previous owner just put in bigger fuses when the old ones kept blowing - resulting in too much amperage going through the lines for who knows how long, melting off the insulation, and causing all sorts of chaos. I found pieces of wire 8 inches or longer with no insulation on them, wrapped in electrical tape. Yea. That's safe. Needless to say it needed rewiring. I was able to find a main harness for the bus, but of course, there is no pre-made dash wiring for these things, and since everything was a mess it all needed to be redone. Thank goodness for wiring diagrams, and Brett's brother Blair. In July 2007, just in time for Das Volks Blair and I managed to get the wiring back together, and at this point ALMOST everything is working - with the exception of the brake lights, reverse lights, rear plate light, and rear side markers. The taillights do work, as do the signals.
I'd also done some unexpected, and admittedly haphazard rust repairs to get the bus ready for Das Volks last year. I'd discovered some rust spots on the roof of the bus, I think as a result of the bus sitting inside under a leaky garage roof. Unfortunately, at the front of the bus this resulted in some smallish holes, which I have filled with the old standby - JB Weld. However, halfway back, the rust didn't result in such a small hole. I ended up JB Welding a piece of chimney flashing into the hole. Can't have water getting into the bus now can we? While these repairs are far from what I'd consider acceptable, under the circumstances they are holding up remarkably well. Why'd I do it like this? Well - I didn't want to remove the headliner in order to cut out the rust and weld in a new piece yet - budget and time wouldn't allow for it. So I sanded like crazy till almost all the rust was gone from the metal, put rust killer on it, dented down around the hole in the roof , and patched in my piece. It works, and it almost sits flush. But - we'll fix it properly at some point. I wish I had pictures of this, but it's not my most proud piece of work.
Back to the 3 week curse though - I drove the bus 3 weeks almost to the day when the generator bearing seized, and now the engine just won't start. It could be the points, but until I get the generator replaced, I won't know.
Here's the bus in the garage I'd just finished building...
First - here's what I'd like to see - one day. I'm about a million hours away from this though....
I am the third owner of this bus. There are a lot of records from the first years of this bus's life in the glove box. It was originally purchased from Felix Garage in Vernon BC on March 17, 1970, and it had 4 miles on the odometer. The engine was exchanged on August 18, 1973 by Union 76 Lake Motors in Salmon Arm BC when the bus had 31554 Miles on it. The second owner purchased the bus on May 29, 1976 from Lake Auto Service in Invermere BC, with unknown mileage on the odometer (ie, this wasn't on the bill of sale). I purchased this bus on December 16, 2005 in Calgary with 49983 Miles showing on the odometer. I'm unsure of whether or not this odometer has rolled over or not. It seems likely though, as the previous owner converted the bus over for camping trips with his family. The amazing part is that he did the conversion in 1976 when he bought the bus, yet he kept EVERYTHING that he had removed. It was all in pristine condition stored away in his shed.
Here's the bus the day I brought it home - December 17, 2005. It had been sitting indoors for most of the 10 years previous to this, and hadn't been registered in 5 years before that. It was at least 25 below - and I managed to get this thing started and drove it the 5kms home with no plates or insurance (shhhhh.... don't tell!). Yup, those are 10 year old tires I'm about to drive it home on!
Here's some shots of the camperized interior. This stuff was gross - Mold, Mildew, Nasty. FIRE was the only solution. I burnt everything in here.
The engine looks a little... greasy.
I didn't do much with the bus for awhile. It was cold and wintery, but I'd gotten it home, and that was half the battle. The other half of the battle had been convincing my beautiful, intelligent wife that I needed to haul this thing home. She of course disagreed, but because she loves me she let me do what I wanted in the end. I cleaned most of the interior stuff out on a warm day in February 2006, and burnt all that gross stuff in my fire pit.
Here's some pics of the interior after much cleaning - and trust me - this thing is still DIRTY!
I'd gotten an angle grinder for my birthday, so I had promptly removed the spare tire mount from the front of the bus. I'd also put on the eyebrows, because, hey, they just look cool!
I managed to actually be driving the bus by this point - I'd thrown on some better tires, and the engine was running quite well thanks to Dave coming over and helping me get it tuned in, when something I call the 3 week curse kicked in. Thats right - I've never been able to drive this thing for more than 3 weeks in a year without something bad happening to put it right back in the garage.
Here's the engine with a new carb (minus the auto-choke), new coil, and after a little cleaning up had been done. Its a little less greasy.
The first instance of the 3 Week Curse was pretty scary - I thought I was going to lose The Heap when my dash wiring caught fire - luckily less than a block from home! Some singed hairs on my knees, and the bus got put into storage because, well, I was 2 days from starting construction on a garage, and I was going to need that garage to do the work on the bus anyway. This was around June 23-26th, 2006.
It doesn't look like much, but on further investigation I discovered that there had been many previous fires under the dash of this bus. It looks like the previous owner just put in bigger fuses when the old ones kept blowing - resulting in too much amperage going through the lines for who knows how long, melting off the insulation, and causing all sorts of chaos. I found pieces of wire 8 inches or longer with no insulation on them, wrapped in electrical tape. Yea. That's safe. Needless to say it needed rewiring. I was able to find a main harness for the bus, but of course, there is no pre-made dash wiring for these things, and since everything was a mess it all needed to be redone. Thank goodness for wiring diagrams, and Brett's brother Blair. In July 2007, just in time for Das Volks Blair and I managed to get the wiring back together, and at this point ALMOST everything is working - with the exception of the brake lights, reverse lights, rear plate light, and rear side markers. The taillights do work, as do the signals.
I'd also done some unexpected, and admittedly haphazard rust repairs to get the bus ready for Das Volks last year. I'd discovered some rust spots on the roof of the bus, I think as a result of the bus sitting inside under a leaky garage roof. Unfortunately, at the front of the bus this resulted in some smallish holes, which I have filled with the old standby - JB Weld. However, halfway back, the rust didn't result in such a small hole. I ended up JB Welding a piece of chimney flashing into the hole. Can't have water getting into the bus now can we? While these repairs are far from what I'd consider acceptable, under the circumstances they are holding up remarkably well. Why'd I do it like this? Well - I didn't want to remove the headliner in order to cut out the rust and weld in a new piece yet - budget and time wouldn't allow for it. So I sanded like crazy till almost all the rust was gone from the metal, put rust killer on it, dented down around the hole in the roof , and patched in my piece. It works, and it almost sits flush. But - we'll fix it properly at some point. I wish I had pictures of this, but it's not my most proud piece of work.
Back to the 3 week curse though - I drove the bus 3 weeks almost to the day when the generator bearing seized, and now the engine just won't start. It could be the points, but until I get the generator replaced, I won't know.
Here's the bus in the garage I'd just finished building...