Here another quick update.

I've been trying to sort the carb out.
Got a list of instructions from"vw-resource"

Set tappets
Set dizzy
And then tried and tried to set the fuel mixer screws on the pict 34 3.

Closest I got was it to fire into life after a long while cranking and would cough and spluter and pop with my foot to the floor, but as soon as you lifted your foot of it just died.

I remembered something about vacuum advance and I could just feel a little notch to the left of the TDC on the front pulley.

Tried setting to that with varies setting I the carb.

No joy.

In the end it got to dark and late and had to give up.

I've since re read the trimming bit and I missed out something.

Single vacuum advance is 7.5 degrees before TDC.

All the time it was the timing out.

At least I know now.

Can't wait to get back and try again. I'm 99% certain the next time I'm up there I'll be taking her for a drive !

COME ON !

Hello once again, and Happy Christmas and New Year to you all.

really and truly I had lots of time off over the festive season and should have got lots more done to Laura but basically I worked my ass of 2014 and just needed a rest and a catch up with friends.

with all that done I had today to get some work done on Laura and as it was the last day off and a friend had said he would lend a hand I got one of the 2 man jobs done.

bit of a mile stone aswell

all windows in




I also made excellent progress on the electrics !

Everything works

having been sent the wrong 9 pin relay - a bay window one and not the one they advertise on their site I ended up ordering one from the states via ebay.

even with the postage it worked out to be about the same as ....... I can't remember their name, but they can hang their head in shame, sent the wrong part , told me no refund as I'd fitted it, wouldn't have complained if it had worked but it didn't, asked for a refund and they said no, i can have a credit note

so thanks for sending me out the wrong part - not working for what i needed

anyway, I'm not sure what the guys from the US did but there was no VAT which was very nice.





Just like the OG one







cleaned up the fuse cover I bought a while back and everything tucked away neatly - ah lovely








I really feel I made good progress today.

I can feel myself getting excited.




fit new water washer tubes and bottle ( something I would have done today but missing a T section )
get the BLOODY DASH TRAY FITTED ! ( constantly in the way of hand break, pedals, getting caught when trying to close the door etc etc )
fit new seat hair to the OG 2/3 front seat and cover with the read seat cover I bought years ago.
fit kick panels

with that lot done that will transform the front of the bus.

then it's try and sort the carb out.

I have had a go but I can't get it anywhere near right - I had a read up and I'm convinced there's an air leak. but to find out I need a friend to turn the engine over whilst I spray WD40 around the part I think maybe sucking in air, if there is an air leak it should increase the revs and I can fix it - i just hope it's not the inlet to the heads as I don't think I'll be able to tighten the nuts up.

If its the carb ( which I think it is ) there's a guy on ebay who'll refurb it for £75, new bush etc , again , which i think it is.

so next up is a t section but I may have a problem.

Ah, the old two steps forward, one back routine......... but you're getting there.

rusty1962 wrote:Ah, the old two steps forward, one back routine......... but you're getting there.

Ha ha ha

Ain't that the truth.

I had a busy few hours with Laura at the weekend, photo's and update coming soon.

I just had a read of Rusty's thread and noticed some comments about sweeping up.

you'll see what I mean soon.

Jason

jayvanman wrote:I had a busy few hours with Laura at the weekend, photo's and update coming soon.

I just had a read of Rusty's thread and noticed some comments about sweeping up.

you'll see what I mean soon.

Jason

Ahem.... need the pics

ok rusty here's a quick update with a quick pic, more to follow shortly.

so,

as you can see in the above pics I got the electrics sorted but something I haven't mentioned ( well might of had a moan about earlier ) is, for now years !, the metal dash tray has been connected to the speedo cable and caught around the pedals and hand break and this was a job I was really looking forward to getting done.

I managed to find a suitable t section for the water pipes and connected the washer up and got the dash fitted. even found the old 8 track and put that in for nostalgia sake

put some water in and the bloody thing dosent work

BRAND NEW !

from some show from yester year, no idea who from now.

took the top off and noticed there are two holes underneath. one had a "rod " inside and the other looked like dirt - this was the culprite. I got my trusty stanley on it and discovered it was in fact gauze. rusty gauze to be precise and not worth sh!t. I picked it off and it was just dust really so obviously causing and obstruction.

Inside I could feel the top of another "rod" but it was surrounded by dirt so I had a dig and a clean and the something happened !

something happened that made me think " there's now way I'm repairing this now - this is going to cost ANOTHER £60"

you see , it wasn't a "rod" inside but a small ball bearing and I had just flicked it out and heard it land - somewhere - and then roll somewhere, on the cab floor. roll off the cab floor and onto the gravel drive way and it's going to cost £60. roll over the cab floor and through one of the holes for the foot pedals onto the gravel drive way and it's going to cost £60.

I did however, carefully, manage to find said ball bearing and will endveour to fix soon.

"why don't things work like they should do" - how very true




But with the dash fitted and the electrics working I was in good spirits and ready for a clean up and some putting the interior back together action.

where to start.

here I suppose.







got my OG under seat cover swept up and tucked in just to "get me in the mood" as I had a lot of cleaning ahead







from this








sifted through dirt like this






found these






and this thing
any idea's what it might have been for - candle holder maybe ?










ended up with this






I was then onto the second cabinet and mostly found some of my own tools and notes I had made on the wiring diamgram that was now rubbish but there was something that caught my eye and I just had to find out more.




What is this secret little box hiding under there ?
some old forgotten hippie treasure ?

I just had to have a look.

took out the fiberglass insulation and there was something else, big, i heard it.

reached into the darkness and pulled out ........


at this point you have to remember that I'm all relaxed and enjoying the afternoon, but when you 1st see what you've got in your hand, there's a moment when you don't know that the things dead, and for all you know, there could be a bunch of wasps or bees or spiders come crawling out !

my heart skipped a beat





but do you know what - I kind of like that I found this one, of course, whatever made these has long gone but it's kind of a bit of Laura's history that I'll be able to keep.




disconnected the bolts on the box and removed this









had a good clean under the seat box and found some dimes, a cent and what I thought was an earring but there is a thread and the end winds in and out, could still be an earring I suppose.





also found the gearstick the extension and knob.





BEFORE





AFTER






more to come soon

J

Hi Jason, you've been busy.

Glad you found the ball bearing. I thought things like that only happened to me. I resort to using the boys little metal detector when it does

Do you also wander around for ages looking for tools that you've just used, put down and then can't find

You'll be on the road soon, I've got a while to go........

Steve

rusty1962 wrote:
Do you also wander around for ages looking for tools that you've just used, put down and then can't find


Steve

oh my days,

like you can't believe.

I had to "sweep" up the tool boxes with my hands as I couldn't find my "hand broom".

I knew I had it recently and there's only a few places that I put it. I found it later in the afternoon on top of one of the twin exhaust pipes

Jason

Right , here goes for another photo heavy update.

FRONT SEATS

this is my OG front 2/3 seat.

the frame itself, like most on my camper, is in pretty good shape. it's just the rest that's had it.

It has been stored in another barn and there have been pigeons roosting, I did cover it a while back but some bits were left exposed.











Good job I'm ok with spiders





I recently read an article on here about covering seats. I found it useful but not having any experience on the seats I was lost on some of the descriptions - it was all text. there was talk of tabs going behind a wire - now I understand.

So for those of you who may be tackling seats soon here is some photo's of how the seat covers are attached.













once the tabs are up I found to get the slack you need, give the seat a squeeze.










** please note : I was lying about being ok with spiders - bloody hate the creepy things ! **

Whilst playing at getting the cover off.

what I can only describe as a F<>KING GREAT BIG SPIDER decided to show itself, of course being so close to it I nearly had a heart attack.

It crawled back under the remain seat cover.

I took some photo's of it as I shoo'd it away.

The 1st photo shows it curled up but it was about as big as these things get.

So glad I had to replace the covers.

Imagine if this thing was had popped out to say hello when I was driving .............











so with the barn's new rent free tenant away and hiding somewhere else, it was back on with the seat.

at the bottom of the back rest cover is a slip of card that is stitched into material. this folds over and goes into a slot that runs along the bottom horizontal tube.
It needs quite a bit of slack to get it out, well, I should say would need quite a bit of slack to get it in as I didn't succeed in removing it in one piece.












next the base, basically very similar to the back but had a wire that you wrap together to tighten.








these are what the tabs look like.

I flattened mine back down as the covers I am going to use are a temporary measure.

I bought these a good few years back and needed a good clean but they come up fine







I read somewhere that is is worth getting some hesian material to help stop the springs coming through the seat pads.
Got this from ebay for just a few £.

And I was put onto the seat pads by someone on here a while back, £40 the pair - can't remember who it was but thanks you're a star.
It's what makes this site so nice. The way we all help each other out with out expecting anything back.
So thanks again - you saved me a few quid there

once fitted I also found some old kick boards, they're for a RHD but they'll do for now / photo purposes - I'll prob make some myself and spray them grey rather than use vinyl.








HELL YEAH !








BEFORE




AFTER

Ah. That looks like it might be a "false widow" spider. There were quite a few of them about last year. They can cause a nasty reaction with some folk if they bite.

Have a bit of sympathy for anyone renovating an old bus in Oz. The spiders will kill you there The Sheila says "they probably get the seats fumigated first out there"

Things are coming along nicely

Steve

ok here's some fun I've been having with my brand new unused and broken window washer

I had a look on ebay for some stainless steel mesh and for £3 got a little a5 size inc delivery - bargain.





I then had to work out how to shape and cut it.

1st thought was find out the size of the hole and cut out a piece the same size





upon reflection I wondered how I would place it inside so instead got a slight smaller drill bit and done this.











at this point I wasn't happy about the fit around the edges where it was going to be glued in place and trying to cut up to a drill bit with wire cutters was proving fiddle.

so made a rubbing of the hole and then cut a piece to size. happier with the result. but the supper glue had dried in the tube so couldn't finish the job, but needless to say I am just about there.







now on to something else.

A while ago I bought this off of Falstaff






I wanted to strip it and rebuild the case around it and then refit as many of the OG parts like the side table, sink and tap etc, So good woodwork with classic OG parts. I also wanted to replace the inadequate insulation with some polystyrene.









There is one thing that has niggled away at the back of my mind for a long while with Laura's ice box and that is that the shelf is broken.




I have long thought about taking the shelf out and replacing it, but, it not that simple.
These shelves are very old and brittle. they are glued at the front side and back. Not only that , they also wouldn't just slide out. You would need to unpick the staples that hold the front metal frame in as it blocks the shelf in. PITA.

Whilst I was in the middle of working on my other fridge project a decided that if I could swap the front doors I could use the good fridge case I got from Falstaff with the good shelf and by jingo Laura's fridge would be as good as new

1st tho was a rather delicate job of getting Laura's ice box out of the delicate and brittle 1/2 rotted wooden case. This was done very gently.










on one of the side walls the bottom 10mm has rotted and disintegrated. this bottom 10mm is still stuck to the OG 1X1 strip of wood which just dropped out the bottom when I picked it up some time ago. This meant that front 1x1 piece was only held at on end. I tried to put a couple of small pins but the wood just collapsed when the case was moved, so I decided to fit a new 1x1 piece.




you can see the top piece is missing







you can see that the side wall is still not connected to the new strip at the bottom, basically because the wall has rotted off.

The plan plan is to screw a batten at the back edge of the wall, and then with a right angle bracket, attach it to the rear frame piece. The front of the wall is going to be pinned back to the new fridge so will gain it strength from that.

before I can do that tho the vaneer needed to be glued back on.







That's all for now.

Jason

As you can see this is Laura's OG fridge and it fits really snug into the cabinet, it's held in by pins through the side of the cabinet and into the tin frame on the front that the door sits in.






All this effort basically to swap a shelf over





Whilst I was fixing up the other fridge I was using a thicker Polystyrene sheet but I am having to use the thinner stuff , doubled up, as Laura's cabinet is too snug a fit.

here you can see the difference.









The hinges on the doors are slightly different, so the screw holes don't correspond to one another. to make sure I drilled in the correct place I used a piece of masking tape the stuck it on the other fridge.
The catch needed to me moved aswell.









The base, top, and back I used the thicker insulation as there was room. I also tried to fill all the little gaps with insulation aswell.

I was just having a look at this picture as I looked over my posts and had a brainwave.........

back aagin.

so , the brain wave.

the plan was to take the OG panel and use it on the side of the water container that is so far gone that I cannot repair it, using this would have been ideal, even if the colour is a bit light ( more on that in a bit )

but anyway.

the panel pins holding it were too tight ( see pic ) and I would have damaged it too much so I left it alone





But on with the fridge,

So I had insulated the fridge with new polystyrene and done away with the old fiberglass, but once back in the cabinet I thought I could add more so packed it out.

I think , however, I am going to be cutting some back to make room for the spare wheel bulge

Here's the repair I made to give it a bit of strength.




more insulation











once I'd got the fridge in I had to replace the top draw. i had a bit of a job getting it out but a nightmare getting it back in.

In all the time I'd owned Laura I had never emptied the draw, now was the time as something was making it difficult. It turns out the was something stuck between the base of the draw and the back wall, once removed the draw went back in, but look at the memorabilia.












Who says the Americans pollute the environment, they were into Solar back in the late 70's







And another magazine