Projects from THE COMPOUND
- Thread starter DRIVEN
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Nova update. He's about 30 hours into the bodywork and planning to get it in primer tonight. He said he hopes to have it blocked out in 12-15 more hours.
I don't have any jobs scheduled for today so I'll probably work on the hippie house.
I don't have any jobs scheduled for today so I'll probably work on the hippie house.
Nova's in primer:
VW engine has been torn down for a check-over, reseal, repaint, reassembly. Hoping to have it buttoned up today:
VW engine has been torn down for a check-over, reseal, repaint, reassembly. Hoping to have it buttoned up today:
Devoted a few more hours to the bus yesterday. Got the engine mostly done. The carb still needs to be rebuilt but the parts spent the night in the dip tank. We also have to swap the alternator stand. The one that's on it now is for a generator. It was looking pretty bland so I gave it a tie-dye treatment on the alternator backing plate. Hippies love tie-dye.
New clutch:
My brother came by to address the battery tray. This is what happens when you do hack repairs. Unfortunately the only real rust on the car was completely avoidable and self inflicted. The tray had been "repaired" at least 3 times causing lots of places to collect debris. This is the pile that came out from behind it. Cell phone for perspective:
The outside:
Inside. Old tray COMPLETELY removed, metal cleaned and treated with POR15. The new tray will get glued in with AutoMix today.
I'll be working on brakes today. New wheel cylinders (yes, 6 of them) and good used master:
Our dad will be working on the steering. The box was reeeally worn out and the column was loose and missing some parts. He found a guy parting out another '68 and picked up some parts from him. The master cylinder pictured above, this column, and a box (the one in the photo is actually the old one):
The best part of his find was the Z-bed rear seat with fresh upholstery, rear mattress pad, door panels and some deluxe interior pieces.
New clutch:
My brother came by to address the battery tray. This is what happens when you do hack repairs. Unfortunately the only real rust on the car was completely avoidable and self inflicted. The tray had been "repaired" at least 3 times causing lots of places to collect debris. This is the pile that came out from behind it. Cell phone for perspective:
The outside:
Inside. Old tray COMPLETELY removed, metal cleaned and treated with POR15. The new tray will get glued in with AutoMix today.
I'll be working on brakes today. New wheel cylinders (yes, 6 of them) and good used master:
Our dad will be working on the steering. The box was reeeally worn out and the column was loose and missing some parts. He found a guy parting out another '68 and picked up some parts from him. The master cylinder pictured above, this column, and a box (the one in the photo is actually the old one):
The best part of his find was the Z-bed rear seat with fresh upholstery, rear mattress pad, door panels and some deluxe interior pieces.
Quick catch-up on the bus. Finished the steering. Finished the brakes (all 6 wheel cylinders, 4 hoses, master cylinder). Had to make another trip to the store because they gave us the wrong wheel cylinders. Installed an actual ignition switch in place of the toggle and push button that it came with. So much hacked wiring :? . Installed the engine but not without having to remove the clutch and take it back -- they gave us the wrong one. Routed and mounted an external spin-on oil filter and cooler.
Got it fired up and my dad drove it around the block.
And it even came back under it's own power!
Still have some work to do on some of the lights. At that point it will be legally drivable. The rest will be mainly cosmetic stuff that hopefully doesn't involve me.
Got it fired up and my dad drove it around the block.
And it even came back under it's own power!
Still have some work to do on some of the lights. At that point it will be legally drivable. The rest will be mainly cosmetic stuff that hopefully doesn't involve me.
The Nova is back outside of the booth for now. It's been primed, blocked and then reprimed and reblocked. He now has the hood, trunk, fenders and doors inside the booth and is doing the second blocking after the second prime. It'll be ready to either leave or prep for the interior paint this weekend depending on what agreement they come to. The owners REALLY want my brother to shoot the car but he's not too excited about it. We'll see what happens.
I had hoped I was done with the bus but no such luck. We started into the punch list and found tons of stuff wrong. Ended up replacing some light housings that were too corroded/damaged/broken to repair. Also replaced the front signal lenses.
The left headlight assembly was on the right side and the right was on the left so the bulbs wouldn't seat correctly. The backup light wiring had been cut out and needed to be replaced. Almost all the dash lights were bad. The horn wiring was shorted out. The license plate bulb socket was sloppy. The oil pressure wiring had a break inside the main harness. The alternator wouldn't charge because the indicator bulb was burnt out. The turn signals wouldn't work because the relay was dangling under the dash and needs to be grounded by the mounting screw. The dimmer switch is stuck on low beam. Once the lighting was all done we added an under dash heater.
Then we turned our attention on getting it to run better (stronger). I was having very little luck tuning the carb and ended up replacing it with the spare. It didn't make it any faster but at least I could fine tune the idle. It was still pretty inconsistent though. It would run okay for a while then just start running horribly. I swapped in the spare distributor too just to see if it changed anything. A little better but not quite. Did a compression test and found #2 is a bit weaker than the rest but not enough to explain the erratic behavior. I finally found that #3 plug wire was intermittently going open. I'm kind of embarrassed that it took me so long to figure out such a simple problem. New wire -- all better. Runs great now, but still pretty gutless.
I had hoped I was done with the bus but no such luck. We started into the punch list and found tons of stuff wrong. Ended up replacing some light housings that were too corroded/damaged/broken to repair. Also replaced the front signal lenses.
The left headlight assembly was on the right side and the right was on the left so the bulbs wouldn't seat correctly. The backup light wiring had been cut out and needed to be replaced. Almost all the dash lights were bad. The horn wiring was shorted out. The license plate bulb socket was sloppy. The oil pressure wiring had a break inside the main harness. The alternator wouldn't charge because the indicator bulb was burnt out. The turn signals wouldn't work because the relay was dangling under the dash and needs to be grounded by the mounting screw. The dimmer switch is stuck on low beam. Once the lighting was all done we added an under dash heater.
Then we turned our attention on getting it to run better (stronger). I was having very little luck tuning the carb and ended up replacing it with the spare. It didn't make it any faster but at least I could fine tune the idle. It was still pretty inconsistent though. It would run okay for a while then just start running horribly. I swapped in the spare distributor too just to see if it changed anything. A little better but not quite. Did a compression test and found #2 is a bit weaker than the rest but not enough to explain the erratic behavior. I finally found that #3 plug wire was intermittently going open. I'm kind of embarrassed that it took me so long to figure out such a simple problem. New wire -- all better. Runs great now, but still pretty gutless.
Don't feel bad, I went through "almost" my whole ignition trying to figure out a random missfire while on a road trip out to MD, started with coil after a test showed slightly out of range, went to msd box: swapped back to HEI, swapped cap, rotor, and wires, checked grounds, messed with timing, and carb adjustments. Never dawned on me to check the plugs I had put in a week prior to the issue happening, sure enough, porcelin crack on #7. 
Oh and one more, chasing another misfire, again cap, rotor, wires, checked the plugs, nothing worng with any. Look to the msd box,
The theft safety wire, had come un wound and was just barely not touching a metal support under the dash, so every bump, or quick take off, contact would be made and the car would sputter, yup I really felt dumb on that one. :lol:
Nice progress on the bus though, you work very quickly. :shock:
Oh and one more, chasing another misfire, again cap, rotor, wires, checked the plugs, nothing worng with any. Look to the msd box,
The theft safety wire, had come un wound and was just barely not touching a metal support under the dash, so every bump, or quick take off, contact would be made and the car would sputter, yup I really felt dumb on that one. :lol: Nice progress on the bus though, you work very quickly. :shock:
Talked to the local VW shop owner this morning and got some good info. Swapped back to the first dual diaphragm distributor and replaced the wires along with ditching the new Bosch plugs for NGKs. Gave it more timing than the 30* that everyone else recommended. Now it runs like a completely different vehicle. My dad just left my driveway with it 10 minutes ago headed over the hill to his house 15 miles from here. Hopefully all the mechanical issues are behind us. That thing sure sounded great when it was leaving 😀 .
Just ran across a CL ad for my old Rambler wagon. Cool to see it's still on the road and relatively unchanged.
http://eugene.craigslist.org/cto/3292176769.html
http://eugene.craigslist.org/cto/3292176769.html
Pressure washing after the final blocking:
Fenders, doors and decklid back on:
Hood back on and waiting to be picked up and taken to the painter:
He had estimated the job at 40hrs and probably has over 60 in it at this point. It's also taken 2 weeks longer than projected. Part of it was just life getting busy and the rest was attention to detail. The hood was a HUGE pain in the *ss and he still isn't completely pleased with the results. The metal is thinner gauge than a stock hood and seems to be temperature sensitive. Plus the owner had sat on the edges in an effort to match the fender profile. It's really not noticeable unless you are sitting in the driver's seat and looking for flaws. "Normal" people would never see it. The rest of the car came out beautifully.
Fenders, doors and decklid back on:
Hood back on and waiting to be picked up and taken to the painter:
He had estimated the job at 40hrs and probably has over 60 in it at this point. It's also taken 2 weeks longer than projected. Part of it was just life getting busy and the rest was attention to detail. The hood was a HUGE pain in the *ss and he still isn't completely pleased with the results. The metal is thinner gauge than a stock hood and seems to be temperature sensitive. Plus the owner had sat on the edges in an effort to match the fender profile. It's really not noticeable unless you are sitting in the driver's seat and looking for flaws. "Normal" people would never see it. The rest of the car came out beautifully.
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