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levi20AE Samba Member
Joined: June 24, 2005 Posts: 485 Location: Las Vegas, NV
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Posted: Sun Nov 29, 2015 11:33 am Post subject: Re: Bringing a '73 Westy back to life... |
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Things have been pretty slow still with finishing up the final thesis for school but did get some time to put in a few hours in the past month.
I used the MIG and some K-type thermocouple wire to put together a cylinder head temp probe, no more dorking with the ring terminals.
Also added some rubber hydraulic hose to the outside for the oil cooler hard lines as added protection from any rubbing that may occur. An extra bracket was added as well to prevent rubbing.
Fabbed up a mount for the fuel pressure regulator and gauges from the old motor. Also went ahead and made stainless hard lines to clean things up a bit. I had to guess about where to drill the throttle cable hole since the Type4 tins are from a later bus. I used the same location that was working on the Type1 motor and transferred it over as well. Hope it works out
As an aside... did manage to find out how long a 1.8T can last on stock rods and lost of boost. answer: ~40,000 hard miles. I'll be sidelining this project till the bus is on the road it has been parked for too long already. lots of power in a FWD had got old a few years ago so its probably time to find an AWD project.
_________________ 1973 Campmobile http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=524511&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
20th AE VW GTI - 369hp 340tq @ 26 PSI
1982 Rabbit Pickup - German AAZ 1.9TD - daily with lots of MPGs |
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levi20AE Samba Member
Joined: June 24, 2005 Posts: 485 Location: Las Vegas, NV
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Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 9:20 pm Post subject: Re: Bringing a '73 Westy back to life... |
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Well it has been several more months and the new motor has probably 1000 miles on it. It has been running great and an increase in power over the 1776cc.
I've had it out for probably half a dozen camping trips in the local area so far. Even managed to put a nice size dent in the new exhaust already crossing a desert wash. A few issues have come up over and most have been over come thus far. First I had the bolts on the nose cone mount rattle loose twice, likely due to the vibrations from driving lot of desert trails. I believe this issue has been resolved by modifying the nose mount design and drilling the bolts for safety wire.
Also I found that the GoWesty mount that holds the latches for the swing-aways tend to bend and flex when going over larger obstacles. So those are being remade to something stronger than just some bent thin metal.
I also fixed the saggy but problem by adding air shocks to the rear. They level out the front and rear and ride much better than the blown shocks that were on there before. Its easy to increase and decrease the pressure with the on board air compressor as well. Here is a sped up clip of them airing up and down.
Link
Also found the source to some of the exhaust leaks that the bus had. The sealing surfaces of the manifolds were never prepped and the cooper seals were not annealed. A few long files and reading Ratwell's article on the topic drastically reduced the sound of the exhaust.
Not everything has been great though... just last weekend we took the bus out for a two night camping and hiking trip a few hundred miles from home. things were going great until about 90 miles from home we decided to go explore a dirt road that went along a lake shore in a wildlife preserve. We were cruising in 2nd gear when I noticed the head temp rise to 390 and the power fell off all the sudden. I pulled it out of gear and started to bring the bus to a halt when we heard a massive boom from the rear. i grabbed fire extinguisher and ran around to the back not knowing what to think. There was no visible fire so i popped one the decklid. Luckily the BlazeCut had already put the fire out before we even got the bus to a stop. From the look of things the it appears that the carb for cylinders 1 & 2 caught fire. The fuel lines were still intact and good so im not sure what the failure mechanism was yet, will investigate this weekend to hopefully find the true source. Needless to say the BlazeCut saved our asses and the bus. There is some damage to the wiring harness that will take some mending and some paint bubbling.
Couple of random photos from camping trips thus far in 2016
Local brewery stop to fill growlers before a weekend trip
_________________ 1973 Campmobile http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=524511&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
20th AE VW GTI - 369hp 340tq @ 26 PSI
1982 Rabbit Pickup - German AAZ 1.9TD - daily with lots of MPGs |
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busdaddy Samba Member
Joined: February 12, 2004 Posts: 51057 Location: Surrey B.C. Canada, but thinking of Ukraine
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Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 9:45 pm Post subject: Re: Bringing a '73 Westy back to life... |
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Damn, money well spent on the Blazecut , could have been much worse.
Looks like you are having some genuine fun with the bus, sweet! _________________ Rust NEVER sleeps and stock never goes out of style.
Please don't PM technical questions, ask your problem in public so everyone can play along. If you think it's too stupid post it here
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!
Слава Україні! |
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Amskeptic Samba Member
Joined: October 18, 2002 Posts: 8568 Location: All Across The Country
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Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2016 8:00 am Post subject: Re: Bringing a '73 Westy back to life... |
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Let's do some forensics.
Is that a breather hose leading to the top of the carburetor/air filter?
Did an accumulation of oil give the flashback a source of fuel?
These big aftermarket carburetors like to spit back when cold or lean. Does that mean we need to come up with remote oil breathers?
Colin?? _________________ www.itinerant-air-cooled.com |
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khalimadeath Samba Member
Joined: June 24, 2014 Posts: 768 Location: Reno, NV
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Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2016 9:31 am Post subject: Re: Bringing a '73 Westy back to life... |
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I am interested in your air bag set up. Links to shocks and pics of compressor set up would be cool. Thanks!! |
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Pinetops Samba Member
Joined: March 24, 2007 Posts: 2987
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Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2016 4:14 pm Post subject: Re: Bringing a '73 Westy back to life... |
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Thank goodness your bus was spared from that fire! I'm assuming you'll be installing another blazecut? _________________ "A rolling bus gathers no rust." |
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levi20AE Samba Member
Joined: June 24, 2005 Posts: 485 Location: Las Vegas, NV
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 5:21 pm Post subject: Re: Bringing a '73 Westy back to life... |
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The large line running to the top of the carb is the vacuum from the breather. I haven't actually seen any oily residue coming up that line yet, i was actually concerned the valve on top of the factory breather was not working, another thing that needs to be investigated... I pulled the carb last night and hooked it up to a carter pump and it run. I didn't see any obvious issues immediately like fuel spilling from the accelerator pump, which seems to have gotten the hottest. There is another vent line from the tank that runs into the top of the same carb. It maybe possible that a backfire caught the fumes on fire there, just another possible source.
There are some pics of the compressor a few pages ahead in this thread. Its an ARB compressor normally used on Jeeps for airing up tires and pneumatic locking diffs.
The airshocks are Gabriel High Jackers, pt# 49215. You have to swap the old bottom bolt to the top and get a longer 12x1.50 - 120 bolt for the bottom. It was otherwise a straight forward install.
I ordered the replacement BlazeCut while riding in the tow truck. I wrote Jogr a nice message too since the product worked so well. _________________ 1973 Campmobile http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=524511&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
20th AE VW GTI - 369hp 340tq @ 26 PSI
1982 Rabbit Pickup - German AAZ 1.9TD - daily with lots of MPGs |
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levi20AE Samba Member
Joined: June 24, 2005 Posts: 485 Location: Las Vegas, NV
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Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2016 8:17 pm Post subject: Re: Bringing a '73 Westy back to life... |
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Tonight I finished up all the wiring repairs and actually cleaned things up a bit to reduce the spaghetti back there with the additional senders and such. All the wires going to the motor are now separated from the chassis harness wires so that once I find a good connector I can use a single ~10 pin connector to unplug the motor. My dream would be to come up with a standard pin out and use it for both motors and any future swaps to keep thing very simple. Tomorrow I'll swap the carbs for the ones off the type1 and hopefully be back in buisness! _________________ 1973 Campmobile http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=524511&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
20th AE VW GTI - 369hp 340tq @ 26 PSI
1982 Rabbit Pickup - German AAZ 1.9TD - daily with lots of MPGs |
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levi20AE Samba Member
Joined: June 24, 2005 Posts: 485 Location: Las Vegas, NV
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Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2016 9:09 pm Post subject: Re: Bringing a '73 Westy back to life... |
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Swapped carbs and got it running tonight but I have one funny issue... Once the battery is connected the alternator light on the dash comes on, with no key in the ignition... It starts up and the light goes out. But when I pull the key out the light still states on. I disconnected the blue wire coming from the voltage regulator to get the light out to save the battery while it charges. Any clues what would cause this to happen??? _________________ 1973 Campmobile http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=524511&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
20th AE VW GTI - 369hp 340tq @ 26 PSI
1982 Rabbit Pickup - German AAZ 1.9TD - daily with lots of MPGs |
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orwell84 Samba Member
Joined: May 14, 2007 Posts: 2528 Location: Plattsburgh, New York
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Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2016 5:20 am Post subject: Re: Bringing a '73 Westy back to life... |
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I was curious if you found the source of the metallic debris in your oil strainer when you brought back your type IV to the rebuilder. I had a similar experience when I rebuilt my engine. I rebuilt it again the following year but never found anything to account for the metallic debris in the oil strainer. I would imagine that engine break-in would shed some metal. Thanks. |
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levi20AE Samba Member
Joined: June 24, 2005 Posts: 485 Location: Las Vegas, NV
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Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2016 6:39 am Post subject: Re: Bringing a '73 Westy back to life... |
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The large shavings came from an interference issue with the cam bolts. There was what i considered to be alot of metalic material in the oil filter after tearing it open and also on the magnetic oil drain plug. I assumed most of those were all from normal break-in but the quantity was greater than I recall from previous engines I built in the past. _________________ 1973 Campmobile http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=524511&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
20th AE VW GTI - 369hp 340tq @ 26 PSI
1982 Rabbit Pickup - German AAZ 1.9TD - daily with lots of MPGs |
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levi20AE Samba Member
Joined: June 24, 2005 Posts: 485 Location: Las Vegas, NV
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Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2016 9:25 am Post subject: Re: Bringing a '73 Westy back to life... |
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Update: Bus has been running good and we have been able to get a few camping trips in lately mostly up in the mountains to get away from the 105-115 temps in the Vegas valley.
I finally began focusing efforts on the westy top. The first project was to drill out all the cross bars in the rear section of the fiberglass top. Most of the cross bars were held on with one remaining rivet or the rivets were so rusty that they allowed for a lot of slack and caused significant rattling. After seeing another user on here mount a Renogy 150W up top I decided to go that route. The panel fits perfectly in the space and with some scrap aluminum sheet I was able to make base plates to mount 1" thick rubber idolators to dampen the ride for the panel.
I went with a Renogy 30A solar controller since they seem to make good stuff and they had a flush mount solution that installs very cleanly. It displays battery voltage, %available, Amps and Volts the panel is currently producing and does not have any annoying LEDs. The mounting location allow us to still see the battery state through the night with the bed up or down. It would be nice if there was a button to back light the display at night but oh well.
I did have to drill a hole in a cross member behind the seal in the roof. This was to allow the two power wires to run to the back of the bus above the headliner to help hide them as much as possible. I also put two holes in the fiberglass top to run the lines through and added connectors to make it easy to pull the top at any time if required. All the holes have grommets to prevent damage to the power lines. I used 10 gauge (vs. 12 gauge) wire from Renogy to be compatible with their nice connectors that have really good weather seals and minimize voltage drop.
Also all the hardware has been replaced with SS and the roof sections treated with Por15. More than half to the old hardware had actually rusted through and left small portions of the screws sticking out from the body. Its amazing the top never just flew off with a strong gust of wind.
As you can see from the controller display just the 150W panel makes a significant amount of power. Plenty thus far to keep the fridge running 24-7 and the house battery topped-off during the day.
The next projects are going to be pulling the pop-top and repairing the sections where the wood has completely deteriorated away due to rusty hardware holding the forward hinges in place.
As part of the repair on the pop-top section I'll build some mounts to hold the Road Shower so it raised with the top. This will provide more water pressure and hopefully work better than cantilevering 5 gallons off the drip rails. _________________ 1973 Campmobile http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=524511&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
20th AE VW GTI - 369hp 340tq @ 26 PSI
1982 Rabbit Pickup - German AAZ 1.9TD - daily with lots of MPGs |
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Bala Samba Member
Joined: December 04, 2003 Posts: 2613 Location: Austin, TX
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Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2016 8:22 am Post subject: Re: Bringing a '73 Westy back to life... |
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That solar panel looks great! _________________ 1976 Westy
1966 Beetle |
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levi20AE Samba Member
Joined: June 24, 2005 Posts: 485 Location: Las Vegas, NV
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Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2016 8:58 pm Post subject: Re: Bringing a '73 Westy back to life... |
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Over the past few weekends I have pulled the top and repaired the rotted wood and cracked sections of fiberglass. The wood was pretty straight forward to cut down to the original dimensions with a table saw. I used a 3M naval adhesive to hold the wood in place and then covered everything in a layer of fiberglass to ensure it all stayed in place.
Note the void from the wood frame that completely rotted away
Four of these replacement blocks were required
Sections held in with 3M glue
Based on some web searches i went with Interlux Primer and Brightside yacht paint to cover the bottom and top sides of the pop-top
Went ahead and built a steel frame from square tubing to support a roadshower from the inside using four forward mounting bolts that go through the top. The frame prevents the fiberglass from flexing when the 5 gallons of water are in the water cannon.
Aside from being a great water gun the shower pressure is better when the top is up and and it provides some shade when you hang your arm out the window, like everyone does.
Installed a new grey canvas and all stainless hardware to prevent the wood from rotting away in the future. _________________ 1973 Campmobile http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=524511&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
20th AE VW GTI - 369hp 340tq @ 26 PSI
1982 Rabbit Pickup - German AAZ 1.9TD - daily with lots of MPGs |
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chabanais Samba Member
Joined: July 27, 2002 Posts: 4866
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Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2016 9:55 pm Post subject: Re: Bringing a '73 Westy back to life... |
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Glad the Blazecut did its job. Nice Bus! _________________ "I spud therefore I yam." |
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jmstu76 Samba Member
Joined: March 01, 2004 Posts: 1223 Location: Edmond Oklahoma
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Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2016 10:41 am Post subject: Re: Bringing a '73 Westy back to life... |
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Congrats on an excellent build. Just re read the entire thread. I hope the upgrades continue. _________________ James
'76 Deluxe Sage Green Westy
2258 cc GD case 78mm CW crank, 2.0 H-beam rods 5,325” 22mm pin, JE forged pistons with 15cc dish, JE rings, type 11 clearanced oil pump, CB Eagle 2205 Type-2 “Torque Special” hydraulic cam with matched lifters fed by CB Dual Weber 40 IDF MX with 6” foam air filters, currently 55 idle, 130 main, 200 air correction, 32 mm venturis. 27in General Grabber AT2 All Terrains, Berg Shifter, stock '76 exhaust HPC Ceramic Coated. 11/18/2020 |
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levi20AE Samba Member
Joined: June 24, 2005 Posts: 485 Location: Las Vegas, NV
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Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 12:20 pm Post subject: Re: Bringing a '73 Westy back to life... |
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worked on the heater system the past few weekends. The original center heat channel rotted away years ago and quite a bit of the original steel ducting was in poor shape as well.
I was able to locate some original heater accordion tubes while in a yard in California. Between the two from the yard and the one that came with the bus there was enough usable padding to make two good tubes. I soaked the original asbestos rings in phosphoric acid for a few days to get them down to just the metal then painted them with engine block enamel and used high temp RTV to hold everything in place. The tubes came out good and have worked well.
The ducting that goes over the rear torsion tube was pretty rusted out where it joined the center heater tube. The forward section of ducting with the flap for sending heat to the rear was rusted through in several places that required some welding to patch. All of the tubes got a lot of wire brushing a few treatments with the phosphoric acid prior to paint.
Rear tube coming from over torsion bars.
Patched up forward flapper box
To replace the heater tube I used isolated B-pipe vent for a hot water heater. It was available in just the right length at the local hardware store and is dual walled so the smaller 3" diameter fit inside the rear tube while the outside diameter went around the outside of the rear tube. This really helped to make the joint work since there was such little metal remaining to attach to. For the forward section of the joint I used a short section that i was able to trim down to fit just inside the forward flapper box.
To help keep the hot air from escaping I wrapped the joints at both ends in aluminum duct tape and then held it all together with 3.5" silicone tubing and stainless worm clamps. With it all together it was strong enough to lift myself up from the middle so I didn't bother trying to reuse the old center support for the tube, it was just about rusted away anyways.
Rearward joint
Forward joint
I looked around for a better solution than using paper ducting to go between the flapper box and the rear vent. Couldn't find flexible exhaust tubing that could make the small radius bends and the local hardware store didn't have and flexible tubing that looked like it would leave the bus smelling like rubber. Luckily on the wall there was some stainless steel used previously as intercooler plumbing before converting to aluminum. The stainless is probably overkill but it wont ever have to be replaced and I happened to have a few matching 2.25" silicone couplers that worked perfectly.
Lastly was replacing all the rotten heater cables, the only one I couldn't find new was the one going from the tree under the dash to the flapper box. After a few soaks in WD-40 it moves with some effort. Gotta say it was nice to have heat in an aircooled VW. Still need to find something to replace the original padding that was supposed insulate the ducting but some heat is better than none.
Pics from Busses By the Bridge last weekend.
great shot of our campfire from a neighbor camping across the isle
Balloons
_________________ 1973 Campmobile http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=524511&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
20th AE VW GTI - 369hp 340tq @ 26 PSI
1982 Rabbit Pickup - German AAZ 1.9TD - daily with lots of MPGs |
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levi20AE Samba Member
Joined: June 24, 2005 Posts: 485 Location: Las Vegas, NV
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Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 9:48 pm Post subject: Re: Bringing a '73 Westy back to life... |
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We are getting ready for a road trip from Nevada to Texas in the next few weeks. We will be camping in Flagstaff and Albuquerque for a night or two along the way and spend a week in Austin and the Texas hill country. I want to be able to bring the extra fuel and firewood and the bike... more additions to the racks...
The racks clamp to the rain gutter using latches with and rubber grommets.
Finished up the rack yesterday morning and took it for a test drive to the local trails. I got there and immediately felt like an underachiever, there were two Sprinters with dirt bikes mounted out back.
_________________ 1973 Campmobile http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=524511&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
20th AE VW GTI - 369hp 340tq @ 26 PSI
1982 Rabbit Pickup - German AAZ 1.9TD - daily with lots of MPGs |
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KentABQ Samba Member
Joined: September 11, 2016 Posts: 2406 Location: Albuquerque NM
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Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 9:53 pm Post subject: Re: Bringing a '73 Westy back to life... |
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levi20AE wrote: |
Finished up the rack yesterday morning and took it for a test drive to the local trails. I got there and immediately felt like an underachiever, there were two Sprinters with dirt bikes mounted out back. |
Yeah, so what if they had dirt bikes. You've got the cool VW!!! _________________ -Kent-
1976 Riviera, 1.8l FI chrome yellow VAN - "Chloe"
"I must say, how can you be in a bad mood driving this vehicle full of vibrant color.
Cars of today are so bland in comparison. It's like driving a celebration!" ---WildIdea
Bus ownership via emoticons:
---williamM |
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williamM Samba Member
Joined: August 07, 2008 Posts: 4333 Location: southwest Arizona
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Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2017 8:51 am Post subject: Re: Bringing a '73 Westy back to life... |
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KentPS wrote: |
levi20AE wrote: |
Finished up the rack yesterday morning and took it for a test drive to the local trails. I got there and immediately felt like an underachiever, there were two Sprinters with dirt bikes mounted out back. |
Yeah, so what if they had dirt bikes. You've got the cool VW!!! |
AND for a little over a $100 you can put a motor on your bikes.
[img[/img] _________________ some days I get up and just sit and think. Some days I just sit.
opinion untempered by fact is ignorance.
Don't step in any! |
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