VW Sage

It was one of those times where I really let down my own schedule. I had purchased the 1969 Westy in anticipation of doing some road trips before selling it. But since the fall trip that afforded me the opportunity to meet Russ Wolfe
presented me with some maintenance issues. The engine was rebuilt in February at my buddy’s shop. We redid the heads, and replaced the Cylinder, Pistons and Rings. New Spark plugs, oil cooler, and completely clean case and tin.

Everybus was to be the first show I could go to in one of the 8 buses that I owned at the time. When it came down to the departure date; I lost my nerve. It’s wasn’t because the engine wasn’t ready to go, it was because I hadn’t driven it enough to be confident, and I didn’t have a connection in the Blue Ridge Mountains like Russ in Iowa.

I loaded my Toyota with camping things, alcohol, and Polar. The drive was to take two days with 1700 miles round trip. I left in the afternoon and planned to make it to Columbus OH. I drove and drove, it was a nice day. When I got to Columbus, I decided to wash Polar. He had his usual spring stench, and being presentable is always in dog fashion. We found a PetSmart with a U Bathe, and he was clean. We ended up in some little town south of Columbus for the night.

The next morning I was on my way. I headed through Athens, and Ohio University. I used the computer lab for a client call and to check my email, then I continued on my journey.

I enjoyed the mountains in West Virginia, but much of the rest of the trip was just roads.

I arrived, and drove into the circle where the VW’s were parked. I was looked at and after I paid my entry fee, I relegated myself outside the ring next to a fifth wheel owned by some guy who was from the Thumb area of Michigan. I walked around, and finally stumbled on to Teddy. He is a jeweler from Columbus who is a regular on The Samba. We talked, I looked over his spotless 71 Westy named Goldie that he had just sold.

We did what any good VW people do who don’t (actually) have VW’s we started drinking. After a while of walking around looking at the show, I went on a walk.

Absolutely a great trip. There were numerous Split windows and dozens of people I had come across online. Most notable were Lovethosebuses from Canada, Jon and Lindsay from North Carolina, and Lou and Lis. Lou is retired and spends much of his life eating, planning on eating, cooking or talking about how he just ate. I met him origially at the 2007 Buses by the Bridge show in Arizona, but I don’t remember and neither did he. His wife has a really nice earlier bug, and he has a pick up and a 61 Westy. I almost forgot to mention John. He arrived late, left the same day and said about 50 words the whole time. He is a fireman from Durham, and the type of guy that when he speaks, it’s worthwhile. I (on the other hand) too often go for volume.

Most of the rest of the show was pretty normal. Walk around, drink, meet people (Rooster and his crowd were fun until he pointed his Mamma’s gun at me). I brought some parts of my own to sell, but I only sold the gas gauge from my parted 66 to a guy named Mark from South Carolina. It covered gas money.

There was a blue grass band that was pretty good Saturday night, and a barbecue for everyone that was fabulous. It rained and that sort of dampened the experience, but it was fun.

The drive home was pretty normal, you just want to get home. Somewhere in West Virginia my rear shocks failed after all those miles pulling too much weight behind my truck. I bounced the rest of the way home, I thought polar was going to puke.

Although Everybus was fun, I read that they have moved it to the fall for 2009. I probably won’t go back to this one. The FMBC is a pretty tight group, and it is sometimes hard to get to know people when they are there to see old friends. I am sure that where ever I go, I can find Samba pals, and I will plan accordingly in the future for that.
CTS would have been a great show and a better choice, but it was my daughters birthday that weekend, and let’s face it; my little girl is much cuter than the average bus owner…

The Barn became a solution to a problem that was created in the fall of 2006. I have 23 POS cars parked in a back 40 of my buddy Tommy’s property. Then one day I get the call;

“You need to get the shit out of here”

I wasn’t surprised about the call, but it I still wasn’t ready for it. Now what?

I drove past this barn that was about a mile up the road nearly everyday. Then one day there is a “for sale” sign up. I thought to myself that might work.

I start trading phone calls with the guy who owns it, he also happened to be the selling agent for the house I live in when I bought it. My goal is to rent the barn, his goal is to sell it to me. After long rounds of waiting for him to call me back (this is a negotiation necessity) , I finally suggest that I would consider a “rent to own” concept. This is great for me, as I am more interested in the “rent” part, and he thinks the place is sold. The way the project is going, I might want to buy the thing…

The barn has three levels: Basement with a dirt floor and poured cement (not concrete) walls, the main floor, and a upper level, which is really just a few barn board that run across the beams.

The bottom floor is currently storing the engines and transmissions. It would be sweet to pour a concrete floor and put in a workshop. It would be easy to insulate the ceiling and keep this area heated. The main floor could fit 8 vw’s if I really crammed it full, but right now I have 5 buses, and the squareback inside. The third level could be reinforced to become a perfect parts storage area.

There are two flaws with the space. The first is the barn wood floors; uneven, with holes and large cracks. This makes it a challenge to roll around on a creeper or move my tool chests. I could put in a plywood floor with shims to level out a “working area” and I probably will this summer.

The second flaw is a bigger problem. The roof is tin and delivers a load of snow precisely in front of the doors after each heavy snow. Sometimes this just means that I need to shovel for half an hour to get in, but if we get pounded with snow like we have in February and March of this year, then a solid ice block is created. Add a few days of rain like we had, and forget about it . It has been 5 weeks since I secured entrance to it. Saturday was a nice day. Even though it was 22 degrees. I decided to try to get it open.

Loaded with 3 shovels, a hoe, an axe and a hammer, I dragged my kids out to work on this. Now living in a mining town for 5 years taught me a few things; A) Anything can be removed with pressure and force. B) Rocks are harder than ice C) Most chain gangs are successful because they use free labor and the work is simple enough for anyone, even kids. I decided the first step would be to remove snow… this took the 5 foot mound down to about 3 feet. Next, create a trough behind the block of ice in front of the door. Then, start chipping the ice between the door and the solid block… This needed to be gentle work, because we could easily damage the thin steel walls of the barn.

We chip and muck (a mining technique) and slowly, over a period of two hours, we get to within 8 inches of the ground, and hit solid ice. It is time for Calcium Carbonate. I purchased a large bag for this occasion. We put a generous heap across the edge of the block of ice and call it a day. Wine makes a wonderful muscle relaxant. My kids each took hot baths that night.

On Sunday, we return to find that the Cal Carb did it’s job, and the block of ice is now filled with holes. A little chipping with a hammer,we get the track clean enough that with a little pulling, the door opens. Then we can attack the ice with heavy tools… 70,000 BTU’s of heat can really finish a job off well. Once it gets fired up, the track, the block of ice, the channel all start to turn to water and wash away.

Hopefully this will stay like this for a while, and I can start to work on the right door, which is still in the same condition that I found the first one in on Saturday… just a little pressure and force and it will be open. The best part: I now can start on the Squareback engine.

In my previous post, I was complaining about going from a main seal replacement to a more robust renovation. Well… I am now $700 into the project, but the engine is in excellent condition.

Getting the bus back on the road was a bigger chore than I thought.

Challenge One: I assemble the long block. This required tracing all the threads on the block, and taping out 3 that had snapped off screws in them. For the most part, the long block went together well. I learned how to install cylinders on the rings, the wrist pins went in without much trouble, and I torqued everything down. It was later discovered that I have forgotten the tin that goes between the pushrod tubes and the cylinders. It took an extra 67 minutes to pull the heads and install those. We noticed that the push rods were really straining on the rockers. I had to move the rockers back quite a bit.

Challenge two: Building up from the long block to the complete engine was pretty easy, but we installed a few things out of order, so when it was time to put the intake and carb on, we realized that the generator should have been the last thing to place. It also took some extra time to paint the tin, and sandblast everything clean.

Challenge three: Engine installation. This was the hardest part. Mostly because we had to fabricate so much stuff. I had removed the metal spacers from between the case and cylinders, which made the exhaust off set by 4 mm. Now we are trying to drill out cast iron… We got the holes opened up enough so the silencer fit the exhaust holes on the heads.

According to Russ Wolfe the 1969 bus is one of the hardest VW’s to reinstall the engine. It uses the4 bolt system like all older buses, but because it has the newer transmission, it requires a crossbrace at the rear of the engine. This leaves about 4 inches in which you have to work to install the engine, so that you are above the engine mount ears on the bus, yet below the engine area deck so you don’t scrap the tin. It took use 90 minutes to get everything in. Then I start hooking up the engine. I discover that the accelerator cable is lodged between the transmission bell housing and the engine, that I just finished bolting together. AHHHHHH SHIT. It took two hours to undo and redo the engine from the transmission again.

What I have learned: I learned that I must spend a few hours making exactly sure of what parts I need and order them all a once. I have learned to know how the tin goes together before starting to rebuild the engine. I have learned that the accerlator cable likes to be a pain in the ass. I have learned that you triple the time you think it should take, then double that. You should also do this with the cost. I have no learned to walk away from VW’s, and to answer Hazet’s question to me, I have not yet learned whether I’m stupid or an idiot, but I am leaning toward idiot.

Totals: Cost $690.77, Hours: 42, Blood: Less than a pint, Damage: Scratches on thumb, bump on head, grease embedded in hands.

It was to be a simple day. An hour to remove the engine from the compartment, another to replace the throw out bearing and main seal. I even allowed an hour and a half for re-installation.

But simple days aren’t part of this adventure. No, this is a project when 3 wheels on a car that has been sitting for 30 years will spin easily…. Then the last is locked so tight, you have to melt the shoes off after cutting open the backplate with a torch.

So I pull the engine, it took twice the time thanks to the hack job someone did on securing the heater flaps to the cables. I get the engine out, and the main seal (the reason for this situation) was as dry as a bone. However, oil was leaking from the cylinders at the block, the cylinders at the heads, the intake manifold was leaking, as was the oil pump nuts…

In 5 minutes it went from a 3 and a half hour job, to two weeks, and $200. Now I am replacing every seal, the clutch, the oil cooler, and all the rusted out tin. Since I have the time, I am also having Keith in Houston redo the carb, which was monkeed with by Ebert March. Ebert isn’t worth mentioning much, except it always seems VW’s that have his magic touch, are available for sale, usually not running.

I have order the parts. Russ came into some Tin, Bus Depot helped me out of $137.50 and now I clean the engine, the compartment, and anything else I can access while I wait for everything to arrive… At least she will run like a clock when I get it back together.

January hasn’t been extraordinary this year, but it has really placed a crimp on my project. The barn was constructed in such a way that the snow slides off the roof and right into the path of the slider door. This requires much shoveling before I can get the door open, so I don’t open the door very often.

We did have a bizarre thaw in the second week of the Month. This was nice as the temps were in the 50’s and all the snow disappeared. I was able to unload the 65 bus of its booty. I have vocalized to a number of people that I am resembling a horder more each month that I continue to collect VW stuff without liquidating as scheduled.

To combat this concern, I completely cleaned out the T3 Squareback. I also purchased garbage bags, an act that refreshingly inspired me to clean the place. The garbage can hadn’t been emptied since taking occupancy. Old Ken Senior had a lot of crap shoved in these cars. I keep dreaming that I will find a roll of $100’s here or there, as did his son who thoughtfully checked ever nook and cranny of the cars he sent to the crusher.

I have also outlined the parts liquidation on a spreadsheet. I have to enter this as inventory before filing taxes this year. I run simple cash accounting.

Other than emptying out the Squareback, I have been mostly surfing The Samba and other places without a sense of purpose. The cold is too cold for me, and despite the heater that can heat the entire place, I have no desire to turn wrenches on 3 degree metal.

I did get the 69 Westy out during the thaw. It will be getting a new throw out bearing and main seal when I can get it into Tommy’s shop. Let’s see if it warms up.

It is one of those moments in a persons life that you wait for. A 4000 mile trip in a vintage microbus. This time it was a 1969 VW Westy. I had purchased it a few months ago from the original owner. It took some work and the week before departure, I put over 30 hours planning, and tinkering with it. She is running tremendously, or so I thought.

Planning

Included 3 area: Packing, Mapping and coordinating a few client trips with it.

The Map

The original plan was to head across the Trans Canada from Sault Saint Marie to Boise then down to Colorado and across to Minneapolis and home. Then, after some thought about it, the route changed slightly to get to Denver directly then head north to the Bad Lands, and Regina SK and across to Winnepeg and down to Minneapolis, and home…

This was going to be a working trip. I have clients in Boise, Denver and the Twin Cities, so if I was able to bill my trip correctly, I would be able to pay for much of the trip.

To get packing I had assembled quite a list. My 77 camper was already set up for shorter trips nearby, but since the restoration, everything was placed in large plastic containers and put in the barn. Now I have to get re-organized.

Packing

The packing is broken into three categories: Sleeping, Eating and Business. The sleeping part is easy, good sleeping bag, pillow, headphones, shortwave radio, books, reading light, daub kit, travel clothes, jackets and extra shoes. Eating would require different kits than from the 77 as it already has a stove. I took 1 pan, 1 pot, 2 plates, 2 bowls, 2 glasses, 1 presspot, 1 tea pressmug, silverware, soap, rag, wash bin. The food, besides the various teas and coffee, would be purchased every few days while on the road.

The business travel items would be stored on the top of the bus. This list would include my computer, client files, 2 suits, 4 dress shirts, dress shoes, my business daub kit, ties, and separate socks and underwear. I can usually stay out for more than 10 business days with this set up.

My Dog
Polar was acquired from a 40 year Bernese Mountain Dog breeder in Lancaster County Pennsylvania. His sister is a best in opposite sex national show winner in 2005. Polar is shy, so shy that when I went with John and Martha to get him, he kept wanting to hide under the bed. He is very gentle, and protective. He would do anything for me, and I appreciate him.

Polar was to come with me on the trip. This was a requirement of Lynda. She likes our other Berner, Oscar, but Polar will follow her around all day. That drives her nuts.

Packing for Polar was easy: Food, leash, bowls, toy, done.

Departure

I was set. The plan was to head out on Thursday September 27. First stop: Quad Cities.

Iowa

This is where things began to fall apart. First, truck drivers are complete and through assholes in Iowa along I 80. Fast, pushy and driving like they want to be some place else. As I passed the point where Iowa City is to the North, the Iowa / Nebraska football game has let out. This means many many cars zooming by. So the decision is made to get behind a semi and just drive easy.

The Problem

Just about the Armada Colonies, the problems start.

Two significant things happened in April of 1969. Likely the first thing was this Bus was manufactured in Wolfsburg. Later, I was born.

In August of 69 a young bookstore owner and his wife purchased this bus new from the dealer in Traverse City.

He took care of this bus. It carried he, has wife and child across the US down the coast of California, and the Trans Canada. To say there is a bit of Vic’s soul in this bus isn’t an understatement.

37 years pass. Trips to Canada, trips around Michigan and the mid-west. The bus lasted past leaving of his daughter to college and marriage, and grand children. It was there when his beloved wife pasted away.

When I started this project, a few people hear about it. Vic was one of them. These days, he drives a Euro Van Weekender. He has a new wife, and a son adopted from Guatemala who attends the same school that my kids do.

Vic isn’t a chatty guy, starting a conversation with him sometimes strikes me as an invasion of his privacy. But he is very nice, and he likes to talk about his bus.

I first asked about it a while ago. Just in passing. A hint was dropped about selling or buying, I don’t remember which, but after a few months I got up the nerve to ask about it.

“Joesph loves that bus, he wouldn’t want to see it go.” he says. OK

Then out of the blue, I see him and he starts the conversation.

“I want to see the bus, but I will only sell it to someone who knows how to fix it. It needs some work, and I wouldn’t want to sell it to someone who doesn’t know how to fix it.”

We talk, and after another six months, I show up to his house and we take a test drive. The bus pulls to the right, he uses a paint stick to keep it running while it warms up. The interior is emaculate, the exterior has been repainted, and it seems to have been done fairly well.

He is uneasy when I tell him I will buy the bus. The money and title are exchanged, and I am off to do some washing and polishing. Since purchasing it I

• Rebuild the Brakes
• Sandblasted and paint the wheels and bumper
• Sandblast the frame and underbody and paint with Por15
• Replace the hubcaps, and a number of other things
• Fix the Oil Bath, breather tube and a number of other things in the engine area.
• Re-weld the bumper brackets and repair the front valence.
• Clean the interior

This happens all summer of 2007. In October, I decide I have been off the road too long and I need to do a road trip. The plan (outlined in another entry) is to drive out to Colorado, then back home via the Trans Canada Highway, a road this bus has driven before.

As a result of this trip I replaced the Distributor, wires, points, plugs and condenser. Now she has sprung a leak of oil somewhere…but it is a sweet bus.

This was my most ambitious project. It’s a great Double Cab, but it’s got a long way to go to the mother land. The frame is fine, the bed is good, the floors in the cab needs work and the gate is missing. So why do it? Because bringing a bus like this one back from the dead, there is no expectation to reach stock. We want to slam it, and put in a loud fast engine.

I found this when I was looking for my Holy Grail 23 window project.

Fred Olsen is a recluse. His dad grew up in depression, and collected everything. In the quest for one bus, I saw 300 used appliances, and just about every house hold eletronic gadget from 1910 to the late 70’s. This bus had been parked for years. It required the removal of 3 trees, and several hours of work to get it free.

Lind from the Samba helped me out with advice about buying buses from Recluse sellers. The key is to express more passion for the bus than they have for the junk. In my case, I was a little overwhelmed with the project, but excited. Lots of mostqitoes that day. But once we got it on the trailer, I was glad I put in the work.

So I have purchased all these VW’s and I have to move them. Enter one legged Art. He is a passive agressive fellow who lives in a commercial forest district in a rural county in Michigan. He has a trailer for sale on E-bay. Not just any trailer. This thing is a double axel steel plate tank that was built for the post apocolapse. I think it weights more than my truck.Having never bought anything of this girth from E-bay, I drove out to look at it.

Art is a former tow truck driver from Detroit who is about my age. He is missing a leg from a (likely drunken) snowmobile accident. He is also quite racist if you allow the conversation to head in that direction. He claims that he has driven over African Americans with his tow truck. He tells me this assuming A) I would approve B) It is what any good racist should do. I doubt his story.

My trailer is purchased via a winning bid, and I return to aquire it. It has no lights, and the brakes are shot. $433 later the friendly fellas at the brake shop have the wiring and brakes completed. I also install a electonic brake controller in my truck.

Once this is completed, I need the second most important tool of the project…A winch.

WARN History Founded in 1948 by Arthur Warn, Warn Industries began producing locking hubs for surplus World War II Jeeps, converting thousands into useful, on-road vehicles. Originally based in Seattle, Washington, Warn Industries’ innovation revolutionized the hub industry. The WARN® winch, developed in 1959, was the first recreational winch. With pioneering features such as a rugged drive train, the WARN winch quickly became the leading brand for off-road racers, avid four wheelers, weekend adventurers and hard working ranchers.

Warn Industries added to its product family throughout the 1970s with manual and automatic hubs for all 4WD vehicles, new electric and hydraulic winches, severe duty winches and new winch mounting systems. By the end of the decade, the company began its long-standing relationship with Ford Motor Company, established worldwide product distribution capabilities and opened manufacturing operations near Portland, Oregon. The WARN severe duty winches have since become the “winch of choice” for manufacturers such as AM General, manufacturer of the Hummer.

With creditentials like these, is there any reason to buy something else? $390 spent at the Farm supply store. Now I have Trailer, Brakes, Winch and a credit card bill. I am ready for battle…(continued)

Any one who has ever wanted something has had to work for it…In my case getting it was the easy part, making it work is the hard part.
I work at a radio station, and I was talking to a jock about a bus that I had recently purchased and the guy look at me with a grin. Rod had already gone thru the 13 steps to rid his life of buses, but he is so much older and wiser. So he says

“I know where there is a boat load of VW’s including a 23 window…”

Immediately I asked where, and he gave me the name of the town and not much more.

“Oh” he adds “watch out, I didn’t mention that I was escorted off the guy’s property by a shotgun”

A few weeks pass, I have a slow day so I head out to find this place. I go to the township offices looking for the zone code enforcement officer. These are the blyte people. And they consider things like old buses, blyte.

“Ever seen any old VW’s”

I am sent on a goose chase. But I eventually end up buying 2 buses

from that goose chase. So a month passes. I run into Rod at the station.

“Oh, you were on the wrong side of the highway”

I pull up a map and we were soon looking for the property. The next day I am out looking for the bus. I come up this old dirt road and on the right is an old pink concerete block shack. I look around, and behind the barn I spot a bug…

I pull in the driveway and start yelling. If I’m going to be shot at, it will be as I am driving out of the drive way.

I get out. No one is there. The door has a padlock on it. I start walking around behind the barn, and there are 6 bugs, a Type III, a 412, and 12 Corvairs, an old Chrylser, a Pinto, and a bunch of other crap.

There is a two track that goes up a hill, so I start walk, expecting to be shot at any moment. As I come up the hill I see more OG metal. It is the holy grail I was told about, but it’s 30 years too late. In all there were over 120 vehicles on that property, but I was only concerned about one…

My heart was in my throat when I first saw it and thought it could be…It was…

In all there were 22 VW’s on the property, including this 1963 23, a 56 and 58 Ghias, a bunch of worn out bugs, 2 type III’s, 2 other buses.

The next move was to determine how to get them.

Enter Ken Jr. Ken Foster was a grumpy old man who had died 4 months before I found the property. Ken Jr was the exector of the “estate”. Here’s a 50 somthing drunk who things the land and everything on it was worth gold.

I find Ken via some handy work and county records. He is reached through his attorney; a guy who easily works out of his second bedroom.

Here’s how the first call goes:

“Hello, is this Ken”

“Yeah, who is this?”

“My name is (The Sage) and I am calling about some of the cars on your dad’s property. What are you going to do with them.”

“How the hell did you find me?”

This was about 2 in the afternoon. I quickly learned that arranging early morning meetings meant strong liquor breath, but relative sobriety.

I began to explain my detective work to him and we warmed up. We agreed to meet at the property the following Saturday morning. He was open to “letting a few of them go”

I have been in sales over 15 years. I understand value is a subjective thing. If I think they are worthless but am willing to go as high as 25 bucks on each, and he thinks they are worth $100 but is willing to come down, we have an opportunity.

I look around, and realize that (to me) there is an opportunity to be a VW owner in a big way fast. I first start to discuss a few of the cars I really don’t want as a way to feel him out. I soon realized he had no interest in the VW’s and things got out of hand quickly. But the end of the morning, not only had I secured the 23, but also a parts bus, 2 ghias, 2 squarebacks, a 56 bug shell (which covered the total investment when I sold the clip the next spring), and two 60’s era bugs. I wrote a check, he signed the bills of sale.

I now owned 9 vw’s. Then I got greedy. I knew I could sell parts and make money. I knew there was some American steel worth serious dollar to the restoration guys.

I was being egged on by my body guy. He knew tons about 53 Buicks. These were sought after cars. These were highly prized even as junk. But we concluded that this 10 acres of junk must be work something more than scrap. So I did the really foolish thing:
I called Ken Jr back the next week.

“Ken, how about some of the other cars”

“No, they are going to the crusher, I already have a deal worked out.”

“How much is the steel going to be? I can beat it”

“You’ll have to also give the scrap hauler some money, or I won’t do the deal.”

$950 dollar later, my original 9 vehicles become 22. 2 Galaxie 500’s, an Impala, a Chevy 210, a 58 Belaire, a 1973 Deluxe Transporter, and the rest of them were beetles.

Now I owned 22 fucking piles of shit. Hurray for me.

I have since learned about the entire arena of mental health that support the diagonsis known as “Delusions of grandure”.

Now came the fun part: Moving them.