Refresh the Luggage Tub

Over ten years ago, I purchased and installed the Riviera pop top, bed and luggage tub. In an Agile-like spirit, some of the steps I took were good enough to demonstrate the feature, but not great for the long haul. Today, I re-approach the luggage tub.

 

Why Now?

finished work

A logical question to ask when you take apart something that is functioning is why now? This is an especially good question since I am in the midst of a significant noise control effort already. Well, it was the noise control effort that brought this to my attention. When I was working on the cab ceiling, I discovered that some of the original 1972 Westfalia stuff was not keeping the ceiling sealed. To access the leaks, I had to remove the luggage tub, and things kind of grew from there.

Ceiling Repairs

I mentioned that there were ceiling seal issues. Consider that the hinges and the front-center latch for the original 1972 Westfalia pop-top attach to the top of the bus above the front seats. These are mounted by passing bolts through the ceiling and then threading into some flashing which have embedded nuts. The bolts had been removed, or broke off, but the leaks were coming from where the flashing/nut bit touched the ceiling. These had broken down over the last 10 years and were weeping. So, I removed the flashing, the nuts, and anything else remaining related to the old pop top mechanisms, leaving six holes.

 

cleaning under the luggage tub

In an ideal world, I would have used no-longer-with-us Travis' welder and repaired the holes the correct way with replacement steel cut into small circles. Unfortunately, when Travis passed, a grave-robbing vulture (Bob) swooped in, claimed he and Travis were "like brothers" (say it all deep and blubbery to get the effect), and took everything he could fit into his truck and trailer over multiple trips while my sister-in-law worked through her grief. Bob the vulture took all 4 of Travis' welders. Yes, that's right; all 4 of them (Travis was a pipe-fitter by trade so welded pretty much anything) and a TON of other things, like all of Travis' other tools, for example. Like the Grinch, Bob disappeared as quickly as he had appeared and cleaned out all of Travis' valuables. Just as he was a non-entity before Travis passed, no one has heard from him since. May you die alone, Bob; you are the worst. I was suspicious of you then, and deeply regret not honoring Travis' memory as you cleaned out his legacy. I digress, but suffice to say I do not have access to a welder anymore, so I solved in a more ShadeTree way.

 

heat shrink before/after

First, I closed up the holes from below with the Constrained Layered Dampener (CLD) since I was applying it anyway. This left small, shallow, circular indentations, about the size of a US dime (in diameter) in the top. I filled the indentations with FlexSeal. Once dry, I painted over the FlexSeal and the rest of the top with the same white Rustoleum. Of course, around this work, I removed the tub, cleaned the top (picture above-right shows how filthy it was), and addressed the surface rust with converter and then encapsulator, both from Eastwood. With the tin-top good enough for another 10 years, I shifted to the luggage tub.

Tub Cleanup

The luggage tub needed it's own help. The rack bars were starting to show some rust, and one of them had become disconnected at one end. 10 years ago, when I initially installed the tub, I quick painted it with the white Rustoleum and attached it to the top with 4 long wood-screws. I had completely forgotten I had done that, but it had held on without issue. To my surprise, all 4 screws threaded right out of the metal top when I went to remove the tub. These holes served as the starting point for the more robust mounting I did later.

doing the doing

With the tub now on the floor of my garage, I drilled out the rivets holding the bars to the fiberglass. Over the course of many hours, I sanded them down to bare metal, and got off most of the rust. What remained got the converter/encapsulator treatment and then some white Rustoleum. Unlike the bars, the metal supports that run from side-to-side were in perfect rust-free condition, after sanding off the paint. I chose to leave them unpainted, and polished them with steel-wool before shooting them with clear-coat instead. When I purchased the top and tub, one of the luggage cleats was missing. I chose to replace all of them with stainless steel cleats (footman loops) which I bolted (M3 Allen bolts) instead of rivet'd in place. Incredibly, the footman loops that I used to mount the big speaker box into Oliver, the 1978 MGB, were a perfect fit. While everything was apart, I hauled the tub outside and applied a fresh coat of white Rustoleum to the fiberglass tub. Once the paint was dry, I set the tub on some old carpet bits to protect the finish a little bit.

 

Before I bolted (rather than rivet'd) the now-rust-protected-and-white bars back to the tub (M4 hex bolts), I tried 3/4" inner-diameter clear PVC/Vinyl tubing onto the round part of the bar. I thought this might help the paint last a little longer as well as soften the rack for things placed onto it. Unfortunately, the tube is just a shade too loose. I did not want moisture to wick underneath, and the gaps at the ends just didn't look that great. So, I pulled that off and used 3/4" inner-diameter clear heat-shrink instead. I warmed it carefully with a propane torch, just enough to engage the shrink and have it snug up on the bar. The picture above on the right shows how well the heat shrink sealed the bars. Honestly, FlexSeal probably could have done the same thing.

riv-nut tool set

Keeping with the whole noise reduction thing, I added some Noico to the hidden inside of the tub. I figured that it would reduce the vibration noise a little bit. Similar to the effect of adding this stuff to metal, the sound from tapping on the fiberglass changed to a much deeper note after the Noico was added. There is no way to know if this helped at all, but it seemed at least a little logical. The addition of the Noico added maybe a couple of pounds to the luggage tub, but if the noise on the highway is meaningfully reduced, this could be a contributing factor. Something is increasing the noise once we get up above 50mph, and since the luggage tub is right above our heads, it is a reasonably assumed source.

The last thing I did before installing the tub, I added a white pinch-edging around the outer edge. Originally, the Riviera pop-top shipped with a white edging like this. When I purchased this top, it did not have one. I don't think it really does much other than dress the edge a little bit. I could reduce some vibration transmission into the roof from the wind-whip at higher speeds, though. Again, like with the addition of the Noico on the underside of the tub, I'll take every fraction of a decibel reduction I can get. For those thinking of doing this to their luggage tub, it took 15 feet of piping. I had purchased 30 feet, thinking that woudl be enough to do the luggage tub and the pop-top. Clearly my guestimates were way off. I'll need to get more to do the pop-top, and I have enough left over for someone else to do just their tub. 

Tub Install

parts-express foot

Of course, I did not want to return to 4 long wood-screws holding the top on. While that appeared to work for 10 years, I did not want to press my luck. In a traditional install, the ASI/Riviera folks would bore 4 holes into the top and weld nuts in place from the underside. The top install would consist of 1 bolt per corner from above, passing through a thick rubber puck into the welded-on nut. Again, I do not have access to a welder, so I could not exactly repeat the original design. I could, however, pop in riv-nuts. A riv-nut installs like a pop-rivet: using a squeeze gun that has a mandrel and riv-nut sized for the job, you put the riv-nut on the installed mandrel, set it through the hole and pop it like a rivet. For the rubber puck, I found 4 rubber feet at a stereo-supply place (parts-express) that are 1-1/2" tall by 1-1/2" across. These feet have a central hole through the center.

 

I drilled out the old mounting holes large enough for the M5 riv-nut to fit. I applied the riv-nut from below: Since the riv-nut has a flush side (side where it is installed from) and a sticks-out side, it would be better for the sticks-out side not to be pointing down towards my head. As you can see from the stock picture of the foot, one end is wide, allowing the sticks-out side of the riv-nut a ready-made home inside.

 

view with the edging

I thought I could counter the Riviera install, and I run M5 stainless steel bolts from inside the cab up through the stereo-supply feet. This did not work for a reason I could not determine. So, I followed the original model with the bolts heading down from above instead: bolt through a fender washer, then the tub, through the rubber foot and into the riv-nut. Fortunately, the bolts I had were long enough to reach the riv-nuts but not so long that they protrude past the flush-side.

This whole affair became an incredible time consumer that I did not plan for. Once I saw the holes, I had to solve. Of course, I did not have to repaint the tub/top, nor swap out the cleats, replace the pop-rivets with stainless hardware, etc. This finished product looks better, will work better and is set up for seasonal maintenance. Which prompts me to encourage you to consider when was the last time you removed any of the plastic bits off your ride to clean up accumulated organic material. Your paint, and perhaps the integrity of your ride, will thank you.

Well, that's it for today. Thanks, as always, for following along-

Why Does Dead and Company Suck?

Today is a complete rant about nothing car or bus related. Enjoy or ignore. Either way, I'm sure this will upset someone. To keep things calm, I will turn off the ability to add comments to this post.

Who the Hell Do I Think I Am?

Before Jerry Garcia died, self-identifying as a DeadHead was similar to self-identifying with a national (US) political party. People knew where you were coming from. You're not a metalhead, not a jazz aficionado and not a generic "fossil-rock" or classic rock fan. Being a DeadHead was specific. Nowadays, similar to identification with a political party, self-identifying as a DeadHead is not so simple. Like the many versions of political thought within a single party, there are many versions of "Dead fan" under the DeadHead banner. I know 'heads who feel that once Jerry died, it all changed and they'd never go to see a fragment of the Dead. There are those who will reflect on earlier days believing that things were better when (insert non-Jerry former member name here) was with them. There are some who will twirl to the sound of a child banging pans together. For others, all you need is a shuffle beat and it's worthy of praise, whether its a Dead fragment or a couple folks hammering on guitars in the parking lot. For the most part, all sides tend to agree that being off key or having some difficulty instrumenting doesn't matter. It's all good if you're groovy. Do whatever you're doing, but be genuine, push your limits and keep improving.

I'm somewhere in the middle of all that. I guess, if pressed, I'm sort of in that second group of  'they were better when'. Let me explain. I started following the Grateful Dead in the 80's, and my last tour with Jerry was in 1992. Except for my first few shows, I went to every show completely sober and danced my ass off. I missed the mid-90's through the early 2000's, picking back up with The Dead in 2009 and catching about a dozen Furthur shows before they stopped. I was at the JGB show in Milwaukee, WI that was just released on CD, drove overnight from Las Vegas to SF for the Golden Gate Park memorial when Bill Graham died and spent my honeymoon in 2012 (thx, Boo) witnessing the final New Years Eve run any Dead fragment performed.

So, who the hell am I? I'm someone who listened. I completely enjoyed every nuance of what greatness came from the stage and endured every plain-Jane set list, missed vocal note, and missed lyric, knowing more greatness would follow, and danced on. For that reason, I've waited 2 years for Dead and Company to follow the mess they create nightly with some greatness. It hasn't happened yet, and I don't think it will. Today's searing post details why I think that. Honestly, if this assemblage of players toured under a name that didn't have the word "Dead" in it, they would be playing bars, not stadiums. Agree or don't, but I have to get this out of my head.

Phil

Let's start with what's missing: Phil Lesh. He's the soul, the last remaining member truly believing that when the music leaves the speakers its everyone's. He embodies the freedom that the Grateful Dead packaged and delivered. As a player, Phil approaches the bass like it was a lead jazz instrument unlike just about everyone else who plays bass as part of a group. He is able to lead a group of musicians from song to song with little more than an encouraging smile (see photo) and a few little teases on the strings. He doesn't seem to approach the same chord change the same way twice, each time coming at the shift from a different angle, keeping the underpinnings of a song fresh and interesting. Sometimes, these experiments don't go as planned, but the experienced players he surrounds himself with are able to adjust and move with it. This was true with the Grateful Dead, the fragments of the Dead he worked with as well as his most current projects. While his voice hasn't been a benefit to any group of musicians he's played with for a long time, it was actually better during the Furthur days than it was for many years before or since.

Bob

Moving on to what's wrong, listen to a bootleg from just 10 years ago. Bob used to sing. Black-Throated Wind, Cassidy, Sugar Magnolia were some of the nicest vocal lines in the Dead songbook with his name on them. Check this video or this video from '78, for examples. Such sweet and powerful vocals. Sure, that was 40 years ago, and he was a much younger man, but now, he does a blend of barking, yelling and talking. He doesn't even try to make it sound like how the songs go, or to even sound like singing for that matter. So, while Phil's singing may not exactly be in tune, at least he's singing and trying to stay true to the melodies as best his voice can.

Bob's guitar work, however, remains just as interesting as it was in the 70's, only ripened with age. He voices chords and plays poly-rhythms in an extremely unusual way and he attracts players like bees to fresh flowers because of his innovative approach to the guitar. His bark-yelling the words to songs that used to have beautiful melodies, on the other hand, is just atrocious.

Drumming
In their hay-day, Billy and Mickey were able to set a groove. Sometimes the songs moved their beat and other times their beat moved the songs. The early half of "Drums" was one of my favorite and arguably most consistent spots for a show. It was highly rhythmic, encouraging dance like a tribal beat does. If a show was exceptionally plain-Jane, it was often this part of the show that turned it around. You could feel a hum-drum show turn. Something great would flow out of Space, completing the show with a strong handful of songs all thanks to Drums pulling the concert out of the bin.

After not playing together for a few years (since Rhythm Devils split in '08 and The Dead stopped in 2010), I figured it would take a while before Billy and Mickey hit their stride. Unfortunately, they still haven't and it's been long enough for them to get it together. There are definitely two drummers, not two instrumentalists making one rhythm. Perhaps they can't decide or agree on what they're doing. As a listener, it doesn't matter; they are less of a cooperative unit and more like two guys banging on things in the back. There are points when it sounds like there is a team of carpenters erecting a shed or drum-riser on stage rather than a cohesive percussive rhythm driving and complimenting the music.

John Mayer

One thing that sets Jerry Garcia's sound apart from everyone else, especially in the psychedelic space, is the most simple thing that John Mayer doesn't ever do: use the Mixolydian mode of the scale. Jerry didn't use it exclusively, but John never uses it. Ever. Even on the songs that cry out for it (The Other One or Terrapin, are examples, but there are plenty). He insists on only playing blues-style solos. That's great on Bobby's cowboy tunes or some older blues songs, but to only play that way against the Grateful Dead songbook feels like you're petting the fur the wrong way most of the time. When Warren Haynes toured with the Dead, he was able to bridge the gap from classic rock / blues to shred on some of the more psychedelic numbers. So, it can be done; John Mayer hasn't shown that he can, but then he's no Warren Haynes either. Of all the things that are wrong, John's approach to solos is the back-breaker for me. It just doesn't work in so many songs, I just can't take it.

John can sing (yeah, that's hardly news given his Grammy's). It's on key and pure. It just sounds a little old-style crooner which makes Dead tunes sound contrived, and the lyrics less powerful. Just as Aerosmith has to be sung with a little edge in the voice, the Dead can't be sung by Mel Torme. To me, it needs an edge; it needs a little sorrow. One cover song here or there is one thing. Singing half of a show without that soul just doesn't work.

Oteil

Oteil has a great voice. I hadn't heard him sing before last Summer and it is just beautiful. He sang a "China Doll" that was just amazing. When contrasted by Bob barker, I can't help but wonder why Oteil doesn't sing more and Bob sing less. It would probably make his main job (playing bass) much harder.

That bass work is just not the same as with Phil. Unlike Phil, Oteil plays like bass is a complimentary instrument that doesn't have much freedom. It's almost as if he had spent the last 20 years playing in a classic rock band. Oh yeah, he did. With the Allman Brothers. Yes, there are fills and runs here and there reflective of his years with the Aquarium Rescue Unit, but nothing like an old "Phil and Ned" or even some of the tasty lines Phil would drop into more straight-forward numbers like Scarlet or Music Never Stopped. But, Oteil has it in him to get out of the box. The guy can totally groove; I don't know how much freedom he has to do so in this group for two reasons. First, he is in a rhythm section comprised of him and the carpenters I described above. To keep the song together, he really can't move too far from dead-center or the shed construction could completely unravel a song while he is pushing the creative envelope. Second, Bob will need to let Oteil loose. Having watched video of Bob working with other players, I know he runs a tight ship. But having so much of the responsibility for keeping the song together may be the true barrier to Oteil really blowing some minds.

Jeff
I haven't mentioned Jeff Chimenti, and I really should. He's fantastic. Really fantastic. Really really fantastic. He's been playing with members of the Dead for 20 years, and he totally gets it. I first caught him with The Dead and have enjoyed every show I've seen him play since. In my mind, he's reached, and maybe surpassed "Brent status" in terms of his keyboard. On those occasions when I gave Dead and Company a try, it was Jeff's keyboard work that kept me listening well beyond my patience would allow had he not been crushing it so hard. He is simply inspired. I hope to see the Golden Gate Wingmen one of these days to see how he and JohnK play together in their new group. And maybe hear what some of his original material is like? That would be so great. Okay, I've run out of descriptors. Let's just summarize with: he's awesome.

That's my rant for today. I'll get back to my usual car or bus work and road trips next time. Thanks for bearing with me, and if there's a jam band that you like (that's not Dead and Company), I'd love to hear them. I'll be trying on String Cheese this summer, and really want to hear whatever else is going on in the jam-band space. Have bus, will travel-

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2023-August days-between update... now that Dead & Co's final tour has ended, I am hopeful for the next incarnation. I had not been following the news items about them, so I missed the part where they parted ways with Billy, leaving only Bob and Mickey as original members. Arguably, Mickey was a later addition, but lets not split hairs. I heard some of the final tour, and the new drummer was great. Awesome energy and ticking like a flippin clock. It seems like the "creative differences" between Dead & Co and Billy may have been Billy's contribution to the drum riser construction I mentioned above, seeing how it was not going on anymore. Also, Oteil was WAY more active and present, implying that my theory that he was under-playing just to hold things together may have been somewhat on-target. Anyway, RIP Dead & Co, and may a greater phoenix rise from these ashes, preferably without John Mayer. Musing... maybe just swap out JohnM for JohnK and drop the word "Dead" from the name so they aren't playing stadiums full of 50k persons chasing their personal pasts. Instead, they can return to more intimate venues like Further played, and return to the experimentation we got to witness in doing so. One can dream.

The Other One

I watched the Netflix original documentary "The Other One" over the weekend, today's post is mostly about that. I'm sure there will be some bus / travel content mixed in somewhere. The documentary is a somewhat autobiographical look at the life and times of guitarist Bob Weir.

First, an Apology

the man, the legend

After watching the documentary, I think I understand now why Bob stopped touring. In my blast of the Fare Thee Well shows (see: Fare Thee Okay), I kicked up a rumor that maybe Bob is sick. Maybe he is, how the hell would I know? In the documentary, you can see small glimpses into his daily life with his family. I hadn't really thought much about what an endless life on the road must be like. Personally, I'd hit the road, catch a few shows and be back in my normal routine after being gone for maybe a week. Bob spent most of his life from 1970 through 2013 on the road. I feel the heel for actually getting upset that he was going to stop. I have teenage kids, so I can absolutely relate to his unspoken motivation: I've spent too many years away from them, and I only have a few more years before they leave me to start their own lives. It totally makes sense.

Jerry

Trixie

Maybe I'm in an apologetic mood. Watching Jerry's daughter Trixie describe the burden Jerry felt really got me. Similar to my guilt over wanting Bob to tour more, I feel awful knowing that my friends and I who simply wanted "more" were part of the dynamic that led to Jerry's demise. Of course, Jerry owned his decisions, and after the diabetic coma in 1986 he chose to re-introduce heroin, but how great must the pressure have been? 20+ years under the radar to have In the Dark and Touch of Gray to launch them into stadiums. I was just a teenage kid, not knowing any better when the change happened, so I'm not sure what to do with this feeling. I'll go with "I'm sorry Trixie. No other guitarist could make me smile the way your dad could. It was magical and better than any other stimulus available at a Dead show."

Phil

Where's Phil?

As present as Bob's relationship with Jerry was in the documentary, his relationship with Phil was absent. As a bass player, I was expecting a great deal about how he and Phil worked together. Consider too, how many years the 2 of them toured together as Furthur. I think Bob looked at these later years as more therapeutic than anything else, working through his mourning for Jerry, the man best described as an older brother figure. Bob and Phil spent so many of those late years together, I'm surprised and a little disappointed that Phil wasn't involved in the documentary project at all. As I think back, I don't think he was even mentioned by name, which is a little weird. Phil was effectively lumped in with Keith, Donna and John Constanten.

Bob

John Barlow

Some of the best parts of the documentary, to me, didn't last long enough: the parts that focused on Bob's approach to the instrument. Maybe the producers and director thought that the average audience wouldn't be as interested. Personally, that's what I really wanted to hear: how did he construct songs with Barlow, where did Barlow go (why did he and Bob stop working together), what are Bob's triggers for changing his voicings on songs, etc. Still, getting a long-overdue reminder of his humanity and personal limits was welcomed. It was a good watch, and I'll watch it again. Knowing Bob's current life situation, I think it's time we went to him rather than continue to wait for him to come to us.

Ok, some bus stuff
I spent some time working on scraping the chrome off those 15" rims. I used a Dremel to soften up the skin and then used a putty knife to get under the edge and peel away some chrome-skin. Overall, 2 rims are almost completely cleared of chrome. As time presents itself this week, I'll hopefully get after the other 2. I am not up for driving too far on those old tires. They are over 10 years old, and spent far too much of their life sitting in one place. After the tire fail in Wheeler (see:Santa Clara by way of Wheeler) I'd rather drive contemporary transportation until the rims are cleared, painted and new rubber slapped on. Net-net, the bus may not be operational again this dry season. Oh well.

As always, thanks for following along. I'll be keeping my eyes and ears out for a Bob Weir show announcement. Maybe he'll be ready to hit stage about when Hapy the wonderbus is ready to hit the road. It would be really great to have the two in the same location one more time.