Driving Daisy – 72 Deluxe Refresh

[secretsubmariner]

Dude, great progress. Sorry to hear about your job. I wasn't going to crack into my fan shroud for my rebuild, but now I am. You've inspired. Thank you.

[nathansnathan]

Thanks, man. Hopefully it won't be too hard to get another job, it's been 10 years.

I've done quite a few 914 shrouds which are easy - bus ones are tougher on account of the diagonal dipstick tube. Easy to pry it apart enough to clear the 2 pins, then you wiggle it and twist to get the dipstick tube free from the other side. Just a little patience, it's not too bad.

Mine had all the wrong hardware holding it together, like phillips and hex bolts, so I swapped them with slot cheese heads while I was in there.

[nathansnathan]

I've been looking for a replacement half year only deck lid as the one on there had been tweaked, both layers, and didn't sit quite right. I found 1 up in Ventura, again, at an aircooled vw wrecking yard up there, Buzz or Lewis. He's a pretty cool guy.

I thought about fixing the original, using door skin pliers to separate the layers, straighten them, put it back together. That's lot of work though. Even though the new one was $250, I bought it, on account of its rarity. I thought it was the right color but learned that the engine compartment is the beige as is the original lid. This was not as apparent when they weren't side by side - in darkness, the compartment looks dirty white.

The rust around the seams along with the not matched color made me want to do something about the paint, original or not, patina or whatever.

I don't have pics of the blasted, lost the camera there. It just fit in my blast cabinet. Glass beaded it, then sanded it to 400 grit. There were a few dings I couldn't back to knock out, 1 on the brow and another by the release, but I wanted to do it bare metal, so I left them. I etched it with ppg dx520 and dx579.

The paint shop 2 doors down, Beach City Motor Sports did an awesome job. $150 and they primered it, painted with waterborne paint. They matched the Kansas beige off the inside of the old lid, different companies' versions of the same paint color differing as they do. They wet sanded and buffed it out, the pink stuff you might see.

I have been waiting to use this on something, a 3m schutz gun, a domestic version of the gun Karmann used to apply seem sealer to 914's, it also has a wand attachment for shooting 3M Rust Inhibitor, a clearish waxy oil.

I picked through the best parts. The license plate stuff is dealer install, so it differs and is english SAE. The new decklid release had the plastic cover; original didn't.

I made gasket for the license plate bracket, of soft black rubber from a well equipped hardware store. The justcampers hinge and license plate light seals I had, actually only need 1 set of hinge seals. Weird the fiche says to use a 17mm od washer 6.4mm id and a lock washer that looks serrated, but none of that could possibly fit.

The license plate is like nos, California plates go by starting number, 4 is like 2003 or so. Not as cool as blue plates, but...

Not the best pic here, but to see the color difference. The sun is the wrong way for ideal viewing. Also need to get an engine lid seal in there.

Mayby silly to paint it a color the outside of the bus isn't, but I wanted it to be original Maybe silly to get rid of original paint or patina, but I felt it didn't match the rest of the bus which had been kept up with more, been redone continuously to preserve it. So I did that here sort of all at once. Also, the outside is kind of easy compared to the inside and I wanted that to be right, match the rest of the engine compartment. Someday would like the rest of the bottom to match, shiny color sanded kansas beige.

[nathansnathan]

I've been messing with the interior.

Someone had plugged the rear seatbelt holes with silly expanding plugs. The threads on the wheel wel ones were pretty rusted and had to chase with a 7/16-20 tap. A real pain to remove all these plugs as they are all glued in/silicone, any number of things holding them. Some duct tape on the right (left) wheel well inner there, no reason, this is how it looked when I pulled the late seat that was in it out.

I have only 2 rear seatbelts, better than none

I glued the vinyl back on the panels in back. THis is before I really figured it out for the back one. THis looks better after I sharpied the shrinkage to blacken it. On the back, I rubbed glycerin on the whole of the vinyl, used a heat gun on it just before I would glue and clamp it, a little at a time, came out near perfect, or well...pretty good comparatively. I added some spare tire bumpers I had.

The rear hatch was sticking out at the left not closing all the way. It turned out the seal had been patched with a lot of home depot weather stripping and silicone. I have to wait to get one from bus depot as they are back ordered.

The hatch situation messed up the board over the motor a bit, but I have reused it. I peeled off a lot of the messed up nasty carpet, removed the rest with a welding brush.

I got some industrial carpet from the home depot, only $7 for this much.

Probably a little too blue, but the greyer stuff was too light; probably should have anyway though.

I swapped out the early seats, the rear and middle, so i can mount the back with the right brackets. I still have no seat plates, but I have a real middle seat kick panel. These had tmi covers I had put on years ago. The black looks ok on account of the black trim on the wall vinyl, though if I replaced them I'd try to find horizontal heat stamps in in a cork trying to match the fronts here. I may swap the fronts also, as the driver has a broken spring currently. For the back I have the other arm rests, but I don't have the 6x30mm phillips screws, and have just 1 cap for all 3 arm rests. I've been cleaning the rear mat some, too.

[nathansnathan]

I took out the linkage to put new bushings in. I sanded and painted the parts that were exposed and oxidizing. I got new bellows/boots for the shaft. The rear boot was a royal pain to install.

I blasted and painted the shifter. I used the flexible paint and did the spring too.

The rear torsion bar by the trans nose cone, the undercoat was all compromised by oil. I removed it and redid the undercoat.

I took out the firewall and fuel tank. Someone had been in here before, the bent firewall where they forgot the 2 lower screws.

And the tank is pretty funky, the paint on top is gone and there is surface rust covering the top outside. also a dent in the corner.. I made a string rotisserie using paraline and got a lot of funky varnish out with denatured alcohol. The fuel sender was glazed stuck but I freed it up with dunking it in alcohol a bit.

The outside I stripped sanded and etched.

I used rustoleum semigloss and primer

I super 77'd the felt strip back onto the bottom, did it backwards but that's ok

Cleaned up some stuff and painted it.

The fueltank compartment was filthy.

The resin

I changed out the vapor line connections, and I got a new elbow for the center, a wolfsburg west part from pierside parts.

Straightened and cleaned the firewall and used an "automotive grade" seal that I'd got from Home Depot, it's rubber and not just foam, was snug but decent fit.

I'm going to clean the engine compartment some more. I'll post as I get stuff done.

[nathansnathan]

So, the motor....

It was tough deciding what to do about carbs, linkage, and air filter. I decided that the end goal would be running it totally stock with the oil bath air cleaner and Solexes, but I would first fire it up and give it a run down with a pair of Dellortos that I am more familiar with.

I decided to rebuild them myself; got a gallon of carb dip and the gasket kits. I had a few parts carbs to work from.

POR15 Factory manifold grey after bead blasting.

I cleaned up the motor some more. I got some nkg plugs. I painted the cylinder fins with grill paint. Also, I installed a dakota digital cylinder head temp sensor, slotting the head on #3with a dremel. I used a ... I think it is an accelerator cable boot, like by the pedal, for the grommet through the stock hole.

I put in some stock aluminum pushrods and the proper hardware, if I didn't mention that from before - I'd started awhile ago sorting it out. I swapped out 4 of the adjusters as the ones in there were in some various states of wackiness. That seems to sort out the valves

I resealed it, with new Reinz fan seal and a thick 10mm Sabo seal at the flywheel. I measured the endplay to be .009" and swapped a shim to bring it to .004". I got Viton pushrod tube seals inside and out and I'm trying them dry. The bail wires were in wrong before, corrected that.

Spot welded a new strap for the alternator harness.

Straightened, blasted, sanded, etched, lacquered, and silicone beaded.

finished painting the engine parts.

And then got on to the heat exchangers which were a real challenge.

[nathansnathan]

I need to get the motor in to get the axles off to get to the brake backing plates, so here it has sat.

while I tackle the heaterboxes which were a mess

The one side, someone had patched some holes with like these sqquares of aluminum with like nails through them - seemed like some kind of roofing patch and there were a bunch of them, all covered in epoxy...including the drain hole. I didn't get picks of the whole of it in its original state. I used some door skin pliers to separate the shells. Here is the bad one.

I blasted it to see what I could save; it's all pretty thin and pitted.

I made a jig/fixture

I have a late 914 door that I used the skin of, 19 gauge equivalent, like the body.

if I were a better welder this would have been easier maybe. I use a Miller Synchrowave 200 Tig with a #9 torch, 3/16 electrode.

It was even more tedious to actually do all this. By god if they only sold skins. Stainless ones with welded square nuts to hold them together as long as we're dreaming.

Die grinder with a 1 1/2" x 1/16" abrasive disc on a quarter inch arbor, didn't bother sanding, etched.

I did stainless screen and aluminum shim stock, thicker than the oem but went Dansk on the fabric/mesh stuff and left it out. The stuff I'd gotten I had second thoughts that it was too thick and would retain moisture.

Ratcheting tiedowns were crucial to reassembly. I used some POR fire seal 2000 filler, pushed it in with a body filler squeegee thing around the flanges which I'd hammered down around the tubes as they go in and at the output flanges.

[nathansnathan]

Once I'd decided to do the solexes and the oil bath, I decided to use this nos center exit muffler and the short coil with the bosch 12v sticker. The timing scale I had got before, I used acrylic paint, mixed to match the off white to fix it, the numbers were good but chips in the white.

leistritz

POR High temp. I stole the heat shield from my other bus to complete my 72 engine porn

tail pipe hardware

money shot

reluctant to use braided german fuel hose, but at least it is the right size and porn-worthy in this context. Busted out the red and green vacuum hose I'd been saving.

I'm not really sure about the return spring setup. I have short springs for both sides but 1 is off presently. I don't think they are stock?

I'm going to run it with the Dells 1st, before I attempt to tune this stock stuff. I'll update with that in a few days.

[nathansnathan]

Wanted to post for comparison

[nathansnathan]

Seems there is still a bit missing for the exhaust, the shield #35 and the tailpipe clamp #6. It would be cool to see one of them irl. I guess it is a shield to keep gravel and such from hitting it from the front. I will probably have to do without.

[61Ragster]

[nathansnathan]

[Tcash]

Engine Compartment Lid/ Decklid/ Engine Cover/ ID

[61Ragster]

Nathan and Tcash:
Thanks for clarification and all the good additional info. I keep learning more about my '72. I knew the engine hatch brow was shorter cuz it's parked next to my dead '78, but didn't know it changed mid-year. When I read your post It seemed to say that the early hatch is somewhat rare, so I figured mine with the different plate mounting holes was not the early half year model. But in fact it is. VIN is 22220039xx which is obviously one of the first four thousand made. and so far most everything else seems to be original, less the grenaded engine and trans. So my work continues, with one less item to correct.
Thanks again! And good luck on job hunting. Just dont let it interfere with your priorities . That's gonna be one primo ride rolling through Forest and PCH. I'll keep an eye out for it.
_________________
[url=http://www.vw-mplate.com/mplate2-12938.png]Click to view image[/URL]

[61Ragster]

[quote="nathansnathan"]I took out the linkage to put new bushings in. I sanded and painted the parts that were exposed and oxidizing. I got new bellows/boots for the shaft. The rear boot was a royal pain to install.

Doesn't that round clip/spring go on the inside of the big end of your rear shift rod bushing? Maybe you just have it as shown in a "Don't let this guy get lost" mode?
_________________
[url=http://www.vw-mplate.com/mplate2-12938.png]Click to view image[/URL]

[Tcash]

[nathansnathan]

[61Ragster]

[nathansnathan]

[Tcash]