1977 Westy - Colonel Mustard

From one Colonel to another...inspiring stuff. I am off to a one-day workshop at Type2Detectives later this month just to try an learn a bit about how to keep mine running...don't think I'll ever get to doing that amount of work!

 

Colonel Mustard is awesome, top job.

 

Thanks guys.

Unmasked everything in the engine bay and put in the gas tank:



Firewall back on.
Before:



After:



Changed the gear oil in the trans and bolted it back up. The stud for the ground strap broke off so we had to grind it and weld on a new one. Also had to use the set screw from the parts bus as I lost mine:



Broke the old pressure regulator so took the one of the parts bus (that really comes in handy), also with new fuel lines:



Gapped the points, before I had my dwell meter:



Adjusted the valves, my first time doing so. Followed the Bentley so it wasnt so bad, then put the covers back on with new seals:



Replaced the hose clamp with the proper clamp from the parts bus:



Engine ready to go back in:



Getting there:



Took a while to figure out the vacuum lines and some of the electrical, but got all new vacuum lines on it and everything but the batteries hooked up. Also attached the rest of the fuel lines and put on the starting motor:

Before, note the unsightly rust on the wheel well on the right side that is gone now. Also keeping the fan out as it wasnt doing anything:



After:





So Friday I did an oil change. Used my heater to get the oil warm:



New filter and gaskets:



Next, we bolted up the exhaust. Annealed the copper gaskets:



Mounted with some new rubber:



Crappy exhaust on:



Wired up the batterys with some new ground straps:



Filled it with gas.

Taped up the open fan shroud ports that went to the heat exchangers that I no longer have. Now I am not losing air that could be cooling the cylinder heads:

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It ran, but not very well. Seemed like a vacuum leak, then I found my S-boot had a huge tear in it:



Put in one out of the parts bus and zip-tied and hose-clamped my vacuum connections.

Readjusted the valves, they were a little lose:



Put in new points and condensor:



New plugs:



New fuel filter:



New rotor and cap:



Timed it:



Aaaaaaaandd....it ran perfectly! Sounded great, ran steadily at 350 (much lower than last year). But then...



Oil is leaking very bad.

Found some tie-downs for the batteries, havent had any all last year:





Had my brother make up a stand for my propane heater, it is catalytic so it is safe for indoor use:



Groove in the front fits into a heater slot so it stays in place:



Wired up the stereo:



Then took it on the Dub Run and besides the oil leak it was perfect for the most part, but then it started to lose power and sputter again.

 

The oil leak was going everywhere:



Replaced my oil breather, thinking that the pressure will cause oil to leak from everywhere:



Removing stuff:



Oil covered parts:



Installed my engine bay light:



Put a quick coat of paint on my batter tie downs:



And mounted my plate:



The oil breather wasnt cutting it so I thought the seal behind the fan was leaking causing the fan to shoot the oil around.

Hub off:



Seal and o-ring out:



Was hoping this is the only spot oil is leaking:



Took apart some handles in the green parts bus:



Not perfect, but they all work much better now:



Gotta finish some wiring in the front and figure out a few issues, so thats still a mess:



Got a package:



Spare accelerator cable (broke mine on the engine install so had to use my spare, cant leave home without an extra)
Plug wires (one of mine broke)
Spare Cap, Rotor, Condenser, Points, plugs, and fuel filter (put all my new spares on the bus after the engine install)
Oil pressure switch
Steering damper
Flywheel seal

Engine waiting the flywheel seal and new o-ring that I already have.



Cleaned my oil soaked parts from the stupid oil leak. Hoping the new seals will cure that:



Where my bus has been sitting since the oil leak started.

 

Replaced my fan hub seal and o-ring:



Finally back together after a week and a half:



Adjusted valves
Set Points
Timed
Cleaned rotor and cap (rubbing tip of rotor over a tire is perfect to clean it)

Old plug wire :thumbdown:



New set of wires :thumbup:



Put my engine seal on the right way:



New oil pressure sensor:



Put all the engine bay back in order and fired it up.

Hooked up my Hella 500s
Fixed my cigarette lighter socket
Hooked up my tach correctly
Wired the light for my CHT gauge

Interior back together, have to do the speakers and give it a good cleaning:



After I thought I had the oil leak sorted, I took it on a trip, but it just got worse:



Got another oil breather from German Supply, with a new gasket, just to see if that would help relieve the crankcase pressure and stop the oil leak:



Also got a new signal switch and relay to see if I can fix that problem.

But the oil breather didn't help:



So, time to remove the engine:







Then stripped it down:







Almost 3 months parked next to the garage trying to get finished:

 

I feel for you, my engine had to come out twice as well.

 

Yeah if I had my time back, I would have just rebuilt the engine when I had it out the first time. My hope was to clean it up and just use it for the summer before I did a rebuild, but clearly that didn't happen. Summer 2011 was a whole lot of working on the bus and no enjoying it.

 

Oil was being pushed out everywhere due to pressure being built up in the case. I tried the oil breather but it was clearly more serious than that.

Well pressure was being built up due to some bad rings, and I mean very bad. They were all cracked up and not doing anything, plus the pistons looked like this:



Not to mention the heads were pretty shot:



And the bearings:



Some other small issues, like the pin hole here:



And the exhaust studs here (heads from the parts bus):



So I ordered:
-Cam bearings
-Crank bearkings
-wrist pin bearings
-piston rings
-new seals

Now I just needed heads, pistons, cylinders (also had some damage). So I went to the green monster, aka my parts bus. This is a bus I got for free from a fellow bay window owner:



Taking the engine out of this one was a bit easier as we just cut the rear apron off. Using a backhoe to move a bus resulted in the bumper damage lol:



Abra-Cadabra... its out!



Pretty dirty engine, I didn't have a lot of hope about it having good parts inside:



Started digging into it:





So far so good... heads might be usable, cylinders are ok:



Pistons look good, and the rings look great:



Had enough stuff to clean up to make an engine, along with the new bearings, rings, and seals:

Picked up one of these at PA to help with the cleaning:





One of my fathers friends took on the challenge of putting the puzzle back together for me.

Had a shop do the wrist pin bearings for me, as well as put in new exhaust studs. Have to say I was not very happy with the work at all. It was done quick, which was good, but the heads had damage from whatever type of machine held it. Unfortunately, damage on surfaces that mate with the cylinders. Luckily, my builder was able to clean them up and make it work.

New studs:



While the engine was being rebuilt, I cleaned up some oil covered parts (yet again):





And the Colonel waited patiently:

 

Lovely bus mate. Brilliant thread. Hope you get your engine sorted.

 

Good luck with the build, check the main bearing on the flywheel end of the crank case it should be a very tight fit if not the case needs welding & machining.

 

Im just taking my time catching this post up cause of all the pics. This work is all from Summer 2011.

The case was luckily in great shape.

After a while, I got my engine back and started to assemble it:





I have done this far too many times now:



While I was in there, I took the much better clutch from the parts bus:



Ready to go back in the bus:



So back in it went:



Had some issues getting it running. Thought I had it figured a few times and ended up swapping injectors, plugs, wires, coil, cap, rotor, condenser, points, etc etc until I finally swapped out the distributor with the one from the parts bus (that thing has saved me so many times):



And it ran again but I didnt have a lot of time with it before I left.

Put the parts engine back together to store away:



Moved the Green Monster back up with Peachy:



Took one final cruise:







Then put it away, once again. My shelters are still going pretty strong:





It was a very trying summer to say the least. Too many hours gone into the bus to count, but never had one camping trip and only a few actual cruises in it. But that is the joy of owning an old VW, especially an air-cooled one.

Also during the summer I finally upgraded from the passenger car tires to some that are proper for the bus:





And that was my summer or 2011, tons of work. Summer 2012 to come next

 

When I got back home for summer 2012 I finally got time to use the bus after I had the engine rebuilt and work out some of the issues.



Well after going all last summer with no right signal light, I finally found the issue. I tried a new switch and relay last summer but it was no help. So today I started chasing every wire. Turns out the wire had pulled out of the back of the connector. Put it back in and bam, it flashes. So happy.

You can see the end one in the top is pulled out:



Also gave the bus a tune up, adjusted the valves, set the dwell and timing. Seems to be running pretty well, and no oil leaks. Also fixed the wiring to my horn





Throughout the summer I did a few other maintenance issues.

Got in a new fuel pump and filter, caps, sway bar mounting kit, H4 headlights and pertronix electronic ignition.





New and old:



Thats better:



Thats not going to work:



Much better:



The brackets have been broken like that since I got the bus, about time I finally fixed it. A noticeable improvement in handling as well.

Had some difficulty getting the pump out but managed to fab up something to get it back in after some cutting. Old:



And new:



Also replaced this cracked up old fitting:



Better:



Got the electronic ignition in, no more points. Also got the pertronix coil to match. Im sure my other one would have been fine, but this one is shiny haha:



And a trick I learned from The Samba to fix the gap in my engine seal:



Clasps from a bandage:



Next I got some new front brakes:



Old and busted:



New hotness:



Old and even more busted:



Bam:



And finally, out with the old lines:
>

In with the new,



The rears were pretty good but needed two new e-brake cables.

old:



new in:



Also put new star adjusters in as the old ones were corroded and hard to turn:



Got some new cheap front signal light covers as mine were cracked up.

Old:



New:



Switched up the decals on the rear, 'eat' went on a little crooked so Ill have to fix that:



And what is my fave update to the bus so far, retractable seatbelts:



Old:





New, retractable goodness:





Got a new deep cycle battery for the auxiliary set up in the camper:



During a camping trip I got an oil leak. Was dripping down onto the muffler and out the back, all over the bumper. Was leaving a nice trail of white smoke behind the bus on the highway as it was being burned off the muffler



Leak was coming from the oil cooler:



Pulled one from the stash:



Oil leak fixed :thumbup:



With all that the bus was running very well so I enjoyed driving it as much as I could.

 

Cool I got to do my brakes soon.

 

Looking sweet, nice job. You gotta be pleased with that effort

 

Thanks guys, pretty soon Ill have replaced everything there is to replace haha. It runs beautifully now though, need to actually watch my speed on the highway now, can get up to 80 pretty well. Plus it handles better and stops better now.

 

This thread is so refreshing...........................not just a trail of rust and rot photo's!!
You live in a very beautiful part of the world, I've flown up and down your coast many times, and seen the deserted beaches and roads (dirt).
It must be great to just pull up miles from anywhere and camp by the sea.
Tony

 

Well, rust sucks. But I wanted to wait until the winter before I can get real metal work done. So, my brother and I did a quick job over two days to make the bus look a little better for the summer. Over the winter the rust will be cut out and new metal welded in. So dont worry about the quality for now haha.

We had a few issues with runs, painted in the evening when it wasnt very warm due to time constraints. May try to fix it up but its only for another month and a half so I dont really mind, looks better than before.

Had to make room in the shelter to work. Oh, over the summer I picked up some Beetle parts haha.



The first spot, the one that ruins all my pics, drivers dogleg:



So very nasty:



Bit of fiberglass mat:



Shortstrand:



Sanding:



Whole dogleg:



Some bondo:



Next, started down the drivers side rocker area:







And the rear quarter, lots of bondo already on there:



Fiberglass repairs:











And the rear of the fender, more bondo found:







Rear section:









Sliding door:



Yep, more thick bondo:









Drivers side ready for paint:







Yay, no more hole:



Its a different color, but like I said, this was a super quick job just to make it look better for the rest of the summer. Its a huge improvement.



Close enough....



Rear section:





Sliding door:





Also did a quick and dirty respray of the bumpers, and rust under the headlight.

Before:







After:





The Colonel looked much better and actually got a ton of comments from people on what great shape it was in haha.

 

Good time as any to show off my trailer and hitch builds.

I'm sure most of us know that while our buses make great use of space, there isn't a ton of storage room. And I like to keep the inside of the bus as tidy as possible when camping so I figured a small trailer to pull behind would be idea. also wanted a way to carry my bikes.

First was the hitch for the bus. I purchased some U Channel steel and had my brother cut some angle iron for brackets.

I got him to let me do a little welding on it, my first time really doing any.





One of my welds:



Tried to do as much with scrap stuff we had around as possible, here is the hitch so far along with an old hitch that will be donating its receiver.



Had my brother weld on the receiver and added some eyes for safety chain:





Test fitting it on the bus:



Decided it wasn't cute sturdy enough for what I had planned so we beefed it up:





Boxed in the U-Channel steel:



You can see the hitch mounted up here, with a plastic cover I have on it: