The momentum on the bus has improved considerably lately. In my past post, I mentioned that the radiator was going to move up into the luggage rack like the roadcow. I really didn't love that, but I was becoming resigned to it. I pulled the luggage rack off the last weekend of June to prep for welding up a radiator support. I didn't realize how dirty it got up under there. Eeek.
It is removed with a simple phillips screwdriver. There are 3 screws that run through the rear of the rack, through a rubber foot and into the steel top. One of mine broke off, and the other 2 were badly eaten by rust, so I bought some replacements at Lowes. The front is held down on the front
lip by 2 screws and 2 bolts. All 4 are phillips heads, and the 2 bolts ( the middle 2) have a 10mm nut on the bottom. These can be reached between the ceiling wood skin and the steel top. It takes a thin wrist, but a rachet fits.
With the rack off, I was able to really sweep off the roof. There were years of built up crap on there. I still need to go back at it with a strong cleanser. Anyway, I hit the luggage rack with soft-scrub w/bleach and a stiff brush. Three times around on the outside and once around on the inside was enough to get it pretty nice. In the process all but 2 of the metal racks fell out. Upon deeper examination, many of them had their rivets replaced with screws or bolts by previous owners. I resolved to remove the rest of the racks, rust treat and paint them before re-assembling. After all this, I'm not going to put the radiator up there.
"What?" you ask. Yeah, well.. I had a friend over that works on more than just a few VW's, and he was convinced we could fit one in the engine compartment. His thinking is that no matter where you try to hide a radiator, it won't get sufficient air flow unless its on the nose. Figure, we're pushing a loaf of bread through space so there is considerable disruption of the air. To think that it will hug the bus in any way, in retrospect, isn't really thinking it through. As a result, any placement would require fans running most of the time when the radiator is on a cooling cycle, so we might as well plan for no air flow. This lead us to the engine compartment idea. Now, this isn't new either. I know a guy that's running a naturally aspirated (NA) / non turbo diesel powered '73 bus that has radiators inside the engine compartment. Turns out, my friend was right, there are a number of radiators that fit in there. Just the '98 Jetta TDI radiator that I have doesn't. I'll be acquiring a different rad and selling off the old one.
The picture is from the Astoria waterfront.
It is removed with a simple phillips screwdriver. There are 3 screws that run through the rear of the rack, through a rubber foot and into the steel top. One of mine broke off, and the other 2 were badly eaten by rust, so I bought some replacements at Lowes. The front is held down on the front
lip by 2 screws and 2 bolts. All 4 are phillips heads, and the 2 bolts ( the middle 2) have a 10mm nut on the bottom. These can be reached between the ceiling wood skin and the steel top. It takes a thin wrist, but a rachet fits.With the rack off, I was able to really sweep off the roof. There were years of built up crap on there. I still need to go back at it with a strong cleanser. Anyway, I hit the luggage rack with soft-scrub w/bleach and a stiff brush. Three times around on the outside and once around on the inside was enough to get it pretty nice. In the process all but 2 of the metal racks fell out. Upon deeper examination, many of them had their rivets replaced with screws or bolts by previous owners. I resolved to remove the rest of the racks, rust treat and paint them before re-assembling. After all this, I'm not going to put the radiator up there.
"What?" you ask. Yeah, well.. I had a friend over that works on more than just a few VW's, and he was convinced we could fit one in the engine compartment. His thinking is that no matter where you try to hide a radiator, it won't get sufficient air flow unless its on the nose. Figure, we're pushing a loaf of bread through space so there is considerable disruption of the air. To think that it will hug the bus in any way, in retrospect, isn't really thinking it through. As a result, any placement would require fans running most of the time when the radiator is on a cooling cycle, so we might as well plan for no air flow. This lead us to the engine compartment idea. Now, this isn't new either. I know a guy that's running a naturally aspirated (NA) / non turbo diesel powered '73 bus that has radiators inside the engine compartment. Turns out, my friend was right, there are a number of radiators that fit in there. Just the '98 Jetta TDI radiator that I have doesn't. I'll be acquiring a different rad and selling off the old one.
The picture is from the Astoria waterfront.
We'll be welding engine mounts tomorrow. We'll make design decisions on the radiator as well. Plus, there is news on the starter front, and the ATV jack adapter. Last, I need to finish the story of the Dead in the Gorge too. Next time will be sooner,
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