'66 Deluxe

[toolbox]

Who knows anything about seat mounts? It appears this bus was fit with a full width middle seat? There's no middle clamp mounts, only far left and right, with two "foot plates" in the middle two spots. Is that weird for a walkthru? I think I'd prefer a 3/4 seat (like the gay bay seat I bought) so that means I need to install some clamp mounts at the 3/4 point, right? Can anyone verify this?

66 and 67's come with both seat mounts. you will need to install what has been removed in the past.

[parker beene]

i am looking forward to seeing how yours turns out

[slayer]

agree .. update please!!

[Dual Port]

Been working a lot lately so not much has gotten done in the last week or so. I did pull the front axle and start prepping some frame rail repair that needs to be done just behind the beam. I blasted the beam assy last Saturday when it was really nice outside and got it ready for paint, it sucks that work has to get in the way of important things....

[slayer]

This thread inspires me!

[Dual Port]

OK, back in town and back in the saddle.

I wanted a little change from cut/grind/weld/grind/cut/grind/weld, so out comes the axle. I'm surprised that nothing is very loose on it. KP's, LP's, tierods, etc, are all tight. Pivot thing in the middle has only a hint of play so I'm going to leave it alone. Left brake backing plate is bent somehow. Wheel bearings are f'ing toast, but the drums have never been cut. Drag link is about ready to fall off, I bet this was a real trip to drive the last time it was on the road- the dude would have been dancing with the steering wheel a half turn to keep the bus headed straight.



Fugly!


I pressure washed and sandblasted the front axle out in the yard.



I mixed up a cup of paint/hardener and shot it.


Both front frame rails show a bit of rot right behind the axle beam, but only after you poke and prod.




I borrowed Sean's camera for this shot. In this pic, where the park brake cables go into the steel tubes, was built up in a huge way with gunk, not allowing me to remove the cables. Luckily I have a large assortment of brushes, and a .22 caliber gun cleaning brush, run into the steel tube along side the cable, and a bunch of brakeclean finally allowed me to get the cables back through the steel tube. I thought I might have to cut the fukkers.



I ordered some nice rust free rails from Samba and they look great. The left rail was buckled a bit, I assumed from rot. I cut it open right at the buckle to find it was not rotted there! I can only guess a PO caught the beam on something in a previous life and the impact caused the buckle. It wasn't terrible, maybe 1/4-5/16" at most, just enough to see. Miking the rails showed only about a .005" loss due to rot at most of the rail. The .088" is what the "new" rail miked on the outer flange, the inner was



Here's the empty hole:

Here it is, fitted, installed, welded. I welded up a jig that double checked my spacing just like sticking the beam back in, becuase that bastard is too heavy to be messing with. I forgot to take a pic of the jig. I did measure the flanges, and they are just about exactly the 746mm it shows in the Bentley book. (Hooray! I got my Bentley! (used off of Samba) A bookworm like me loves to read the f'ing service manual for fun. And it gives great info I never knew, like the distance between nearly every point on the bus for the crash guys to align panels!)


My welds are getting better, especially on thicker metal.


(Whatcha think, WideFive????)

I'm tired of burns on my balls, legs, ankles, and my wife is tired of me wrecking clothes, so I bought a $20 fiberglass welding blanket off of Fleabay to lay on my lap when welding overhead. It works great but now I'm itchy at the end of the day.



Next: The right rail "looks good" at a glance, but it's tissue paper. Gonna cut and splice it too, but probably behind the axle bolt flange so it should go easier. The left rail took about 5-6 hours to replace, which I thought was pretty good.



The photographer from JC Whitney (Lynn Miller) has been hanging around and shooting pics for a spread on their website about restoring a bus. Kinda cool.

[WideFive]

[wwebner]

Is that a broken tap in the lower rear axle bolt hole

[Dual Port]

Is that a broken tap in the lower rear axle bolt hole

Good eye! Yes it is, and I already blew it out with a torch without hurting the threads. It broke off when I was chasing them and got a little frisky. I like chasing threads. It's one of those little quirky things that gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.

[Six Volt]

That concrete block rocks. If we ever get a "clubhouse", that's the cornerstone!

Wow Bruce, that's a LOT of work. Awesome stuff. Huge "you know what" to take on all that!