I've joined the ranks

[Sneaks]

So I bought all of AJ's trailing arms...




No, I didn't, no worries. He did bring me a shifter with a good boot, both tail light lenses, the headlight ring, visor, and some rotors. He also spent a couple of hours in the brutal humidity and then a thunderstorm working on my FI. He got one side of the motor all cleaned up and refreshed. We determined the fuel pump is bad, I got a replacement at NAPA but it ended up being the wrong one, only 1-4psi. I ordered the correction one tonight, should be here next week. I am going to try to tackle the other side of the motor while waiting. Wish me luck!

AJ got to see the wonderful 'skimcoat' of bondo on this bus. Don't get it, they spent so much time doing a good job on the bondo, including recreating the seams, instead of just pulling\pounding out the dents to begin with. Most of the bondo (so far) is to fill in dents, not cover rust.

Thanks for everything today, AJ!

[Sneaks]

Got a truck today, removes that stress off me so I can get back to work starting tomorrow. Need to finish putting in the gas tank in the baja then I'll get cracking on the bus motor. Question: next to the motor on the right side, behind the wheel, is an exhaust pipe-looking thing with a bilevel tip but it isn't connected to anything? It looks factor by the looks of the hanger but unused? Is it for a gas heater? The bus doesn't have one but it is the only thing I can think of.

[fusername]

I think on 79s they added a dump pipe for the heat exchanger, so when the heat was off instead of dumping hot air under the bus at the flaps, it would dump near the sie of the bus, reasoning being to avoid hot air causing rust and/or heating up the engine more than needed. or it could be a wierd pipe I also have, and am not sure what its for, but I think mine came off an air cooled vanagon. I think the gas heater used a flex pipe that stuck its nose inside the frame rails.

[fusername]

oh since yours is a 79 I think htat may be what it is. if you are unfamiliar, there is a great bay window bus site, ratwell.com. lots of pics and general info.

[fusername]

also if you have this exhaust:

kill it, kill it with fire

[Sneaks]

also if you have this exhaust:

kill it, kill it with fire

I think that is the one I have, hard to tell cuz it is not all there. This is the one I'm thinking of getting, $80 shipped:



As for the hx, yeh, I'll take it. At least one of mine is shot and rotted out, the other one is seized up in the closed position so I'll have to replace that one as well but it's a start.

I'll take a pic of the pipe I'm talking about and post itlater:). Also, I'll take whatever FI stuff you have that you want to get rid of since mine isn't working and I'm not going to have the $$ to switch to carbs, plus as I understand it, once the FI is working, it works well especially on a stock motor.

I'll PM you my new PH# for when you come up.

[fusername]

stick with FI, you'll especially appreciate it in the winter, and nothing is better, esp for the money and reliablitly, on a stock motor. as for exhuast, that is the oen I am currently bolting up to my engine. however if you stick with teh 75-78 style exhaust, which use the F pipes (not the best for flwo) the engine I got from AJ has a good pass side HX, and my old motor has a good drivers side HX, and all the other pipes I have in boxes aside from a muffler. that style exhaust isn't exactly bad for your motor, its just there is better out there. Anyways youll see me in a dayo r 3, so we can chat then.

[Sneaks]

Looks like I'll be getting this fixed up for my daughter. I start tomorrow now that I got my DD through state inspection. Chrissy is already in love with it and has been calling it 'our' bus. Well, tonight we went looking at a Suburban for my son (bought it too; 3/4 ton, turbo diesel, third row seating for $1500) and we go down the hill towards the house...and there's a Super and a Westy in the yard as well. I'm bouncing and yelling 'they're VW people!' and I think my wife already knew we were doomed. The people are moving and need everything gone. They are selling a decent 73 Super roller with new pans and all the body work done as well as an almost rust-free 71 Westy with all the camper stuff (needs popup canvas). Neither have engines but there is a running 1641 and a 1776 with dual 34s ready for assembly as well as 4 totes of parts that goes with it, all for $1000. They can't take it with them. I'm going back Thursday to get it all. I'll probably put the Super on the road first with the 1641 and then the Westy will come after. I'm thinking a mild lift on the Bus, it's already is set up for coil overs in the back. I'll probably keep the westy and eventually sell the Bug to fund the Rally Bug rest.

The sickness continues...

[Stray Catalyst]

"Hi, I'm Sneaks, and I'm a VWaholic."

(chorus) "Hi, Sneaks!"



Hell of a score! Congratulations.

Stray

[Sneaks]

"Hi, I'm Sneaks, and I'm a VWaholic."

(chorus) "Hi, Sneaks!"



Hell of a score! Congratulations.

Stray

God, I feel like it. I need a fix, fast!!

My neighbors so hate me...but it's ok cuz I hate them right back:)

Here's some pics. I'm going up tonight to start grabbing the parts stash, then the end of the week I'll bring the actual cars home.

the Super







Man, I wish I had gotten there a week earlier before they sold off the seats:(



The Westy







So, I'm in the market for seats and wheels for the Super, I know that much right up front, and poptop canvas for the Westy. Like I need more projects.

[Sneaks]

Ok, so I got to work on this one, now Chrissy's bus and she's already named it. I've lost.

Anyway, it still wasn't running so while she worked on cleaning out the inside and Deb worked on the Westy, I installed the new fuel pump. Turn the key, no joy. I replaced the double relay and the air flow meter with ones from fuser's tote of known-good goodies. Still no love. Ran a jumper from the coil to the hot side of the pump, nothing. ran a jumper from the negative side of the pump to a good ground and BAM! Pump kicks in. Crank the key and WE HAVE LIFE!!

Loud life.
No muffler, just pipes off the HXs right into my face. Yeh, I should have stood back, oops. Thing is louder than the Mustang or the 'burban. Ran it for a few minutes, wouldn't idle for crap but considering all the vacuum connections look OEM, I'm thinking that probably has more to do with vacuum leaks than anything serious.

Shut it off. Ran a new ground and swapped back in my parts. It STILL LIVES.

For 3 minutes and then died. No power to the pump. Swapped back in fuser's relay, still no go but my DMM says the wire is good. It was getting dark so I didn't try swapping out the AFM, that will have to now wait 'til Monday but damnit, I made progress!

[fusername]

it won't go for 3 minutes with teh fuel pump shut off, but it will go a surprisingly long time. enough for you to get embarassingly far down the block before bucking out, and spending 5 minutes to figureo ut you never pluged the AFM back in...

[DannyK]

Nice '79 Sneaks, I wish mine looked that good !

[Sneaks]

Thanks Danny, but as fuser and AJ will tell you, the pics can be deceiving. The paint SUCKS, bad house paint. I think the bus weighs about 400lbs more than stock because of all the bondo on it. Not covering rust as far as I can see...actually, I'm really not sure what it is covering because the areas I've pulled off so far aren't dented as well. I really think someone pulled a WCC and coated the entire body in bondo for a 'smooth' look. You know how that works...1/2" of bondo eventually cracks and ain't so smooth any more. The upside is the rust is very minimum. I've found two holes so far - driver's rocker about the size of the fist and the passenger rear corner. Underneath is amazing. Actually, the white one is as good if not better body-wise than the blue one. Fuser shakes his head when he looks under both of them. I need to get these things looking 'pretty' soon, I'm going to be bringing home another Bay in a few weeks (yeh, don't even say it. I know. 12 step program. Did I mention Franz is going to be spending some time with me as well?) and really need to keep the neighbors from calling the city on me. At least the blue one now moves under its own power. Loudly, but it moves. I have to say, a T4 running straight pipes sounds completely badass...

Blue one will be stripped of the crappy paint and bondo and shot stock colors - pastel white and Neptune blue. Right now I'm not going to stress over the body work too much, it's going to be driven by a 17 year old so any dents I pound out...will probably be pounded back in:). Interior is in such good shape that I'm keeping it stock. I need clamps for the middle seat, anyone have a set?

White one, the top is already shot black as well as the bumpers. Exterior is going to be candy red over silver base, interior metal will be silver...just cuz I like the contrast and it will help keep it cooler. Interior is being handled by the wife, she as adopted this one as her's so I'm letting her make all those decisions...Jersey Looker here we come!

I'm hopefully trading the newly-acquired Super for a 73 tintop Westy with a 76 2.0 in it. Again, another very solid NE VW, normally mutually-exclusive terms but they seem to be finding me lately. Interior is rough but workable. Goal on this one is to get it presentable and sell it off. I really don't want to call it flipping since it is going to involve some dedicated work to get it where I want it to be to sell, but the upside is the extra parts coming with it will help my other two projects.

[DannyK]

Looks pretty cool Sneaks ! I plan to put an aftermarket exhaust on my '79 and can send you the stock one if you pay shipping. I haven't found the right new exhaust yet though.