Floors and Door

Today, I am continuing the ongoing efforts on the NewOld house, that farmhouse around the way that Boo bought. Similar to the Creepy Crawl Space, we hired for skill for the floors. So, this post is really just before and after shots. We also replaced the front door. Something that relatively insignificant didn't really warrant it's own post, so I tacked it onto the end of this one.

Clean

cleaning

I regret that I do not have pictures of the floor before we got the house. We saw them and they were scary. Once the place was fully vacated, we could see what we were up against. There were historic pet stains. There was water damage. There were sticky spots, discoloration, kitty litter dust and general filth throughout. So, while Boo was cleaning the kitchen and bathroom for the second time (the first was while I was power-washing the outside), I took a first run at mopping the floors. I found that I was able to rinse the mop two or three times before the water was gray and needing changing. So, I started nearest the water source to shorten my trips. I spent a few hours doing this, and never really got the water to stay mostly clear for more than a few rounds with the mop.

Once the overall mopping appeared to be becoming fruitless, Boo switched to focusing on the worst spots first. This improved the spaces, but, again, there was a lot of floor, and simply getting them cleaner was not going to make them good enough. We needed them to be sanded and clear-coated. This is not a skill I have, nor is it one I want to learn on a floor I intend to see every day. So, we hired the guy who did the floors in the house we're currently in.

Sand and Stain

sanded

Thomas and his crew arrived on a Monday. By the middle of the afternoon, all of the quarter round was removed, the plastic was up to seal off the kitchen and half of the floors had already been sanded. It really makes sense to pay for others' expertise on some things, and, in my opinion, this is one of them. They hit the main floors with an upright belt sander, and did the tighter areas by hand. Once sanded, they vacuumed the entire floor and them applied a thin veneer of putty to fill the imperfections and fill the seams between the boards. The next day, the putty was dry, so they hit the floor with a sander again, vacuumed again and then applied a stain. Why a stain? Well, even after sanding there were some stains that just would not come out. Some of the animal waste and water stains were too deep. By using a uniform darker stain, those inconsistencies disappeared. Our current house is very dark in the winter, so we were really hoping to not have dark floors, but the alternative would be an inconsistent "distressed" look which might look interesting, but may not appeal long term.

Cleared

stained

After letting the stain sit for 2 days, they returned to apply the high gloss clear coat. This is applied with what looks like a long, thin, flat mop. The resulting coating stands up to animal claws, dragged furniture, etc.. all within reason, and has a brilliant shine to it. Boo and I were not thrilled with a darker stain, bit the high gloss may help offset the darkness.

Close the Front Door

When we acquired the house, it was apparent that someone busted the deadbolt on the original / existing front door. The door frame was damaged to the point where a good shove with your shoulder would open the locked door. The existing door was effectively a "contractor grade" door intended to be the door during construction that is later replaced with a fancy door. Back when I painted houses, the reason for this was obvious: we sub-contractors banged into everything, especially if it was nice. It's not like we looked for that stuff, it was just always right in the way.. like the front door. So, one of the last things done before handing the house over to the owners is to hang the fancy front door. Unless they didn't buy one, in which case the construction door remained. Such is the case here. 

Anyway, We hit the Habitat for Humanity rebuilding center and bought a replacement pre-hung used solid wood front door for $65US. It is not perfect in that it does not close perfectly, but it will keep the bad guys out when locked, and it hangs level so it will not swing open or shut without someone moving it. The upper leading corner (the end with the handle, not the hinge) and lower leading corner do not sit all the way into the frame, so we will need some thin foam in the door jam to keep the wind out. Or we may need to fiddle with the middle section so that sits deeper in the frame to help seal the edges. Regardless, it is a much nicer looking door and it locks.

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

Capturing an Escaped Captive... Nut

Rain. and cold. and blustery wind. All of my projects except one are sitting in the driveway under tarps held down with whatever I could get my hands on. My new-ish job has a policy about how much paid-time-off you can carry forward into the next year, so I find myself with days at home. So... what to do? Work on the one project that's sitting in the garage so one day it too can sit in the driveway under a tarp while one of his brothers are in the garage getting worked on. Today covers one of the final steps to achieving that goal.

Captive Nut

test fitting a panel

On the convertible MG, the top fabric is attached to a steel frame. Depending upon the year, the frame could take on one of a few forms. Mine is the last style, which folds straight back with large scissor-style hinges. These hinges mount to the sides of the car just behind the door latch. The steel inner body panel has a flat surface into which 3 holes were drilled at the factory. Inside the panel a nut was welded behind each hole. These nuts are what holds the convertible frame to the car, and therefore hold the top onto the car. Yes, there are clasps along the top of the windscreen and there are little hold-downs along the rear deck, but most of the work is handled by these 6 bolt-nut combinations.

The Escape
With any car, rust and wear take a toll. On the MGB, the little captive nuts (1/4 - 28) can detach from the inner body panel. Once separated, the frame can be attached, but the person doing the attaching must hold the nut with a wrench or pliers or something. Since the entire inner steel skin is usually covered with a vinyl panel (on top of which the convertible frame is usually attached), the owner has a choice: no more panels, no more top or re-capture the nuts. The PO had decided to select multiple options: no more panels and no more top, leaving the frame stripped of canvas and disconnected, but sitting behind the seats after discarding the vinyl cards prior to selling it to me.

Alternatives
I've driven around in plenty of cars which didn't have all of their inner panels. The operation of the car is in no way negatively impacted. It just looks trash. So, I decided I would get the nuts re-captured. There are a few ways to go after it.

Go Crazy, Tear down and Weld - Since these were originally welded into place at the factory before the body was assembled, getting them welded back in the same way is virtually impossible. I imagine someone industrious enough could take enough of the car apart to get access to the nuts. I don't see the value. Maybe if you have dreams of showing your car at concours or something, this would be the most-like-original path. Or maybe you're just sadistic. Either way, rock on.

Ugliest welds ever

Get a Repair Panel - Moss has a repair kit (link here) that could be used to fix this, so clearly this happens often. They run $18 each, which isn't bad, but as I noted at the beginning, I have some time, and I don't want to wait for shipping. I imagine the kit is a pretty easy solution though: set it so it is aligned with the holes, mark the mounting spot with a pen, drill, install. Easy peasy.

Make your Own Panel - While not necessarily the easiest, if you have some time and either don't have the money for the Moss panel, or don't want to wait for it, it's not that hard. I chose this path and I detailed steps below.

Recapture
I have the nuts in hand and plenty of super-thin scrap steel lying around. I considered that the steel to which the nuts were attached did not need to be terribly stout. It just needed to be strong enough to hold the nuts in place against some modest pressure during installation. Once the bolts seat into the nuts, the plate doesn't contribute to holding the top on: its still the bolt-nut combination. With this in mind, I cut a couple (one per side) small pieces of HVAC sheet metal with tin shears to they fit in the hole, around the nut(s) which were still clinging to the inner body panel. I held them in place, marked the nut-holes with a pen and step-drilled holes large enough for the bolt to easily pass. I then sanded the steel to get any zinc coating off. This is important as the off-gassing from welding a zinc coating is really bad.

For some reason, my top had an extra bracket that looked like this, but not chromed. I think it is for a wind blocker (like this) that wasn't with the car when I bought it. Love that. Anyway, I took that bracket thing and used it to provide more meat for the next steps (see the top picture). I aligned the HVAC sheet with the holes in the bracket and then threaded the bolt through, tightening the nut against the HVAC sheet.  Next came some of the worst looking welds I have ever produced (see middle picture). That is saying something, because my welding skills are pretty bad. Still, I was able to get the nuts to hold to the sheet and hold well enough for me to remove and re-insert the bolts multiple times.

"Pop" goes the Rivet

Install
Whether you did the Moss repair panel or you made your own, the mounting to the car is very similar. The panel sits flush against the outer-side of the inner wall (inside the cavity) with the nuts pointing out (away from the cabin). With the Moss panel, you can hold the thing on from the inside and see where the hole will be because it's symmetrical. Must be nice. With the home-made job, its not. Instead, I made judgments based on where the holes in the body were, and where the panel was as I held it up against the wall from inside the cavity. I marked 2 holes on the inner wall, pulled the panel aside and step-drilled to 13/32". This is just a hair larger than 3/8" so a 3/8" pop rivet will fit snug without binding as it goes in. To make sure I got the holes in exactly the right spots on the panel, I bolted it into place and drilled through the holes I'd just made in the body and then through the panel. With the panel still bolted on, I pop-riveted the panels in. I was still able to easily remove the bolts from the nuts (without touching the nuts), so the convertible top frame should now be capable of being installed after the interior cards are in place.

That's it for today's post. Yes, I could have simply ordered panels and this would have taken far less time. Instead, I got to play with my MIG and save myself about $40US. Thanks, as always for following along, and I hope you're having a wonderful holiday season. Hapy NewYear!

United Sucks

After a couple of weeks of move chaos, and no sooner had the boxes been unpacked, I took a 5 day trip to Boston for a huge family reunion. Today's post covers the travel part of that trip.

Size Matters

I don't fly very often. When I do, I usually fly the same airline round trip, so I don't really have a sense of how different the airlines are. On this trip, I flew United from Portland to Boston (through San Francisco) and Alaska (direct) on the way home. They are radically different. United is a huge airline flying all over the world, but the number of centimeters between the leading edge of your seat and the rear of the one in front of you is staggeringly small. Alaska, on the other hand, is a smaller carrier who is just really getting started in international flights. The space between the seats, however, is actually quite comfortable as compared to United. Since I wasn't traveling to fix anyone's car, I didn't have even a tape measure with me, so I can't provide hard numbers. I just have simple anecdotal evidence.

Broken Plane. What a Pain.

airplane igniter

Adding insult to injury, my connecting United flight from SFO to Boston was stymied by a broken plane. The symptoms were not terribly unusual: all the lights and cabin air jets suddenly stopped operating while we were at the gate. I've seen that happen often on working planes, but this time it happened a lot. The pilot said something about the "igniter" after we had pulled away from the gate, taxied partway down the tarmac, and started turning around. Turning around is never a good sign. We returned to the gate, and a mechanic got on. After a while we were told that we'd be on our way in 15 minutes. Then we were told the plane was broken and we needed a new one, so everyone had to get off. I bee-lined for the c-store and bought a beer.

The Airport Bar

small portions & large prices

I drank a Stella, wandering around the terminal cul-de-sac and found another gate advertising a flight to Boston. "Sweet!" I thought and got into the queue at the desk. Minutes later, I was 5th in the stand-by list. Unfortunately, United had overbooked all of their flights to Boston that day (and probably other destinations and dates too), so they were asking ticketed passengers on that flight to accept $1200 in travel vouchers to fly the next day. They made no such offer to the folks on my flight. Instead, I headed towards an airport bar & grill and found my brother heading the other way. He was getting on the $1200 voucher flight. We grabbed a bite and a beer at the Lark Creek Grill and then I watched him board.

The Wait

SFO gate

By now, my flight was over 3 hours late for departure. We had been informed that they were hoping for a new plane by 4. 4 became 5 which then became 6:30. After nearly 6 hours of lolling around the San Francisco airport, we were ready to board. Had I left the airport and hopped a BART train, I could have spent the afternoon in downtown SF, but United hadn't been transparent about how long the wait would be. I suspect they knew all along, but chose to string us along instead. The flight itself was tight-packed, but we arrived just after 3:AM, Boston time. I read a bunch of my book, and napped as best I could in a seat that couldn't recline.

Paul's Revere Cab Ride
Since the flight arrived so late, the free shuttle from the hotel was not running, so I grabbed a cab from the taxi-stand. The cabbie was a local from Revere, and we talked up a storm the whole way. He knew where he was going, didn't bounce me all over the place and was genuine. Frankly, that cab ride was the best part of the trip since getting dropped at the Portland airport by T in the A4 at 8:00 the prior morning. $30 later, I was collecting my room key. I keyed into my room just after 4:AM.

Why United Sucks
There are lots of reasons why United sucks, but the airline flight attendants are not among them. United had the same crew who was supposed to run the original flight (12:30 planned departure) work the actual flight (6:30 actual departure). The attendants are only paid for time in the air, so while they also had to wait around, they probably lost out on some income on a connecting flight out of Boston too. United sucks because they overbook their flights. United sucks because they cram in at least one if not multiple extra rows into their planes, making the trip even more unpleasant. United sucks because they offer hollow apologies to the inconvenienced: go to this obscure web site that you better write down as we say it because you'll never be able to navigate there on your own (go here) and we'll offer you $100 of flight vouchers so you can have another god-awful experience. United, you suck. I spent more than that on the airport food and the taxi. $100 of flight voucher is not an apology; it is a middle finger. Fine. Here's two right back at ya.

That's it for today. I'll follow up with some actual family reunion stuff. Honestly, the trip was great after the United nonsense was over.

Transaxle Transition

I heard once that the most productive time in the US is between Labor Day and Thanksgiving Day.  Something like 40% of all work is performed in this period.  When I think about it, it makes sense.  Come Thanksgiving, the holidaze kicks in.  Shopping, vacations, etc through NewYears.  Then, the Winter blues take hold, and sun-seeking vacation get-aways.  Not that I take those, mind you.  Then there's Spring Break, Spring fever and then end-of-school Summer break.  Family vacations end at Labor Day, school starts, so no one is taking vacation, etc.  With this in mind, my work load is peaking, so I've been too distracted to get back to the blog.

Transaxle Arrives

starter adapter on new

I've already mentioned the gearing, etc. in another posting, and that I got it from AA Transaxle in Seattle. Daryl shipped it in a basic cardboard box wrapped in bubblewrap.  Crazy, but simple.  Since I'm living in a condo without a garage, I was in a bit of a spot for doing the work.  Boo had a funny idea of doing the work in my real estate agent's (we'll call him MS) driveway as a motivation to get a house solution.  So... we asked and that's where I did the transaxle swap.  Since I packed my storage space thinking it was only going to be a couple months, finding my tools and the ATV jack adapter was a fun adventure but I was ready to go leading into Labor Day weekend.

Out with the Old
Dropping the engine has become a bit of a predictable system now.  Disconnect the coolant, fuel, and support the engine with the adapter/ATV jack.  Disconnect the axles, lower electrical, exhaust and intake (with intercooler).  Last disconnect the rear engine support and bellhousing support bolts.  Lower the engine and transaxle as a unit.  Once on the ground, I removed the starter and the other 3 bolts between the engine and the transaxle.  Separating the 2 components was simplified with a furniture dolly (covered with a tarp) under the transaxle and simply pulling on the front mount.  The input shaft slide off of the clutch.  I pulled the transaxle into MS's garage, cleaned up my workspace and called it a Saturday.

Prepping the New

'72 stud on left
'75 stud on right

The nose (front) mount on a '75 transaxle is not identical to the nose mount on a '72.  Fortunately, the mounts attach to the transaxle the same way: 2 bolt holes.  The '72 has longer studs, though, so if you do the swap, the studs need to be swapped with the mounts.  The new transaxle was completely redone, but came without a throw-out bearing.  I know the one that was on the original 002 was relatively new, but I put on a new one anyway.  It made a racket during the initial tests at first, but its nice and quiet now.  Getting the wire clips from the throw-out bearing onto the arm takes a little willingness to get after it, but its much easier if you put a longer crescent wrench onto the clutch activation arm and press the bearing hanger away from the depths of the bellhousing.  Attaching the starter and adapter were straight-forward. That old fast-forward adapter needed the custom detailing to fit the '75 002 as well (I did this before.  There's a post in the archives).  I replaced the radiator fan switch, but I haven't seen it actually work yet.  Too paranoid; I hit the manual switch first.

Mating
When mating a transaxle to the engine, it is important to remember one key thing: remove the mounting studs first.  In reading this, it seems obvious, but when you're removing things, its easy to overlook.  After some sweaty attempts to get the transaxle on (input shaft aligning with the clutch), and a beer in the shade, I remembered.  They were easy to back out and slide back in through the ears of the bellhousing easily too.  Once the studs were out, the input shaft slid easily into the clutch and with a little twist of the transaxle, the stud holes were aligned.  Minutes later, the transaxle was torqued down, the starter was wired and the deal was ready for re-install.  I took the opportunity to get the engine harness buttoned down right, and put a new c-clip on the temperature sensor.

In with the New

new throw-out bearing
on input shaft

Classic instructions: install is the reverse.  hahaha... it was that instruction for the control arm replacement in the Type2.com library that started this blog all those years ago.  Raise the nose of the transaxle more aggressively than the engine.  The shifter needs to get over the rear beam.  If you planned ahead, and put the shifter cage on first, you'll appreciate it later.  I hadn't planned, and regretted it.  Once the shifter clears the beam, raise the engine with the ATV jack into place.  Test alignment with the bellhousing mounts, and when its aligned front-to-back, install the rear mounts.  Then install the nose mount, and then do the bellhousing mounts.  That takes a second to write, but many minutes to get done.  I packed the tranny-side of the CV joints, peanut-buttered grease into the valleys where the CV joints mount, and wrenched it together.  All the remaining electrical bits from underneath were all i had energy left for and I called it a Sunday.  Finish the job by reconnecting the coolant lines, fuel, electrical.  Install the intake and exhaust.  Fill with coolant and burp the system.
I've been having issues with that burping bit.  In fact, I spent Monday wrestling with coolant leak issues, and trying to get a replacement c-clip onto that coolant sensor again.  That thing has been killing me.  I think there's air trapped in my cooling system that's creating funky pressure issues and the weak point is the temp sensor.  So, that's where the coolant leaks out.

What to Do with the Old?
On Labor Day, I drove the bus home.  The coolant leak appeared to be resolved, and he drove unbelievably well.  The amount of pep even in the lower gears was fantastic.  We played it safe at first, taking city streets, but he was able to cruise at city speed limits in the low 2000's (RPM).  Just to see how he'd respond, I spun onto the freeway for one exit, and I got up to 55MPH on the onramp with RPM headroom.  Fantastic drive home.  Since then, I've returned my tools to storage, and I have the old transaxle... sitting on the floor of the bus.... making the bus smell like axle grease..  What to do with a viable 002 transaxle?  Sell it to a dune buggy guy?  Sell it to someone who wants a rebuild core?  Welcoming ideas.

Okay, so this was ridiculously long.  Once I add the pictures, this will be epic-long.  Sorry.  I could have done this over the course of multiple postings, but its been 2 weeks already anyway.

Installing torsion arms - Part I

For my first real blog post, I’m starting my with the front end work I did over the Summer 2006. I wrote this up in August, and languished until I started this blog. I wrote what I could when I could as I did the work. I split this into a few separate posts just to keep them digestible.

I should probably start with answering the question of “why did you do this?” Well, we took a trip into Eastern Oregon (I’ll post on that later), and started hearing this uncomfortable clunk noise coming from the passenger-side front wheel when we hit a bump just the right way. Also, steering became a much greater challenge. Like I said, I’d owned and driven the bus a while, and steering had been an ongoing issue. I replaced the tires and put on new shocks, but bumps in the road and cross-winds were hard to handle. By the time we left Smith Rock (the blog picture was taken there) near the end of the trip, I had to focus all of my attention on driving because Hapy would want to grab any rut in the road and follow it. I looked at the ball joints by crawling underneath the bus, but you can’t tell how good your ball joints are from looking at them. You need the right tools, or know how to read the symptoms.

Bad Ball Joint Symptoms:
grabs ruts in the road
turning the wheel from stop-to-stop is not smooth
holding the bus straight at highway speeds requires lots of focus
clunking noises that can’t be traced to loose shocks or brakes

A no-tools test of your ball joints can be done by following the steps in the Muir “keeping your vw alive” book. On Hapy, I jacked up one side and I was able to wiggle the wheel on the passenger side and hear the clunking. It shouldn’t have had any movement, so I knew at least that one was bad.

As for the repair, I made lots of mistakes, so it was really painful. Hopefully, these install instructions will help someone not fall into every possible hole along their way.... like I did. The Gensler removal instructions (found in the type2.com library under front-end - here) were generally correct, and I have one thing to add: 1968/9 torsion arms are different from 70-79 arms in one way: the lower shock mount on the 1968/9 is 8mm. Starting in model year 1970, it was left at the 10/12mm all the way to the nut. This is important if you’re ordering “new” arms or you’re thinking of getting new shocks.

There's a question about getting "new" arms with fresh ball joints pressed in from bus-boys, versus just buying new joints and taking the old arms to a shop. The only reason for keeping your old arms is if you're one of those really strict original-parts folks that feel that a part from a different car of the same general vintage isn't the same as stock. If you're one of these folks, my blog will grate on your nerves. There are many advantages to using bus-boys arms. First, they hone the steel so there are no burrs, and paint the exposed parts so they look brand new. Second, they only use OEM parts, so the ball joint is the same as you'd buy for yourself anyway. Third, because its a whole set of arms, you don't have your bus sitting in the driveway for a week while you're waiting on the shop. No complaining neighbors, and the job is finished sooner. Last, the cost is probably about the same. I had a shop quote me $200 to remove and install ball joints in my arms. They said that the price started there and went up depending on how much they had to fight the old joints out. "Uh... no thanks". Yes, you have to pay for shipping from Redding, CA, and that could be spendy too, but at least you'll know the exact amount ahead of time. That alone made it worth it for me. I hadn't seen the bus-boys handiwork yet. They turn out really nice stuff. And no I don't work for them, but one of my trashed arms is hanging on their shop wall. More on that below.

I recommend adding to the list of parts to have before you start. They're listed below.
2 Torsion Arm Stop Clips (pn 211 401 279) - because the old ones break real easily, especially if they're rusty
2 211-405-319U Eccentric Bushing, Used from bus-boys ($2 ea) - getting the old ones off may be impossible. It was for me. Skip a morning mocha and get them.
the upper and lower snubbers are now available at CIP1, if you need them. If your old ones are either missing or torn up, get new ones in pairs so both uppers or both lowers are getting replaced at the same time.
2 sway bar bushings -OR- a new sway bar kit (bus-boys has a kit with bushings, etc. I think GermanSupply does too). If you're keeping your old bar, the bushings will probably get torn up badly when you are getting the bar off.
4 brake retaining plates (pn 211615231 5.12/pair at BusDepot) if you don’t have them. If you aren’t sure, you probably don’t have them. I didn't.
2 sets of front wheel bearings (pn 211405645K 18/wheel at BusDepot) if you plan to perform bearing maintenance. Its worth doing now if for no other reason, its less work now because the front end will be in pieces. Food for thought.

You may want to add new brake pads to your list. I just replaced my pads a few weeks before I had to do this job, so I didn't get new ones, but if you're anywhere near due, you may want to do it now.

Add to tools list:
small piece (4-6″ long) of wood 2×4 or 4×4 - for making a muffler for the sledge-hammer
masking tape

The re-install instructions were a little thin, so here’s what you do once the arms are in hand. It doesn’t matter if they’re your old ones with new joints or new arms from bus-boys (what I did). Make sure the grease seals are still on the torsion tubes. They are no longer produced, so you’d have to get new ones at a junk yard or one of the used parts vendors.

1) verify the springs
Check the leaf-springs sticking out of the tube. Are they all clumped together and shaped roughly like a square? Mine weren’t, and chances are yours aren’t either. Wipe the end with a rag and tape the springs together so they form a square, or at least as close to a square as you can. Round won’t cut it, nor will triangle, nor trapezoid… you get what I mean.

2) install upper torsion arms.
Slide and wiggle the arms on so they kinda click in. There is slight tension on the springs at this point. Pick a side, and crank the arm up with a pry bar. Tape the short section of wood (2×4 or 4x4) to the top of your sledgehammer and use that muffled hammer to bang the arms on. Do not use an unmuffled sledgehammer. The arm should move a little with each whack. Don’t swing it like you’re trying to split a log, more like you’re knocking on a door or something. If it doesn’t move a little with each bang, double check your springs (#1 above). If they hang up a few mm from the grease seal, double-check your springs (1 above). The only thing that should be slowing your progress is the friction on the pry-bar and the tension on the springs. Any other resistance means your springs need a re-check. Did I mention the springs? Once the arm sets against the seal, do the other side. My right hand side (RHS) went in nice and easy, but the left (LHS) was a bear. Remember, don’t hit too hard, just enough to push against the spring tension. By now you're wondering why I'm making such a big hairy deal about hitting the arms with a muffled sledge. I make that point because the first set of upper arms that I tried to install I didn't us a muffled sledge, and I didn't check my springs. I beat the crap out of those arms trying to get them on, and effectively destroyed them. I send them back to bus-boys, and they are now hanging in their shop as a shining example of how not to install your torsion arms. The second set I bought from them I installed with the muffled sledge method I figured out, and that worked great... once the springs were properly aligned into a square.
Oh, yeah, put on the set screws (8mm Allen) and torque to 29 ft. lbs. This can be hard if you don't have an Allen socket. I put my Allen wrench alongside my torque wrench, and torqued that way. It actually worked pretty well after a few tries. Put on the lock nuts (13mm hex) and torque to 29 ft. lbs as well. Now your upper torsion arms are in place.

—More next time—

reference picture:

Introduction

I bought a 1972 VW camperbus in 2003 for $1500. I have been slowly repairing and improving upon it in my spare time. The interior was a moldy original Westvalia camper. The engine was heavily butchered by the previous owner: aftermarket distributor, aftermarket carb, etc. The shifter was all bent from the last owner not dealing with a transmission linkage issue. Still, the bus sat straight, had a good body and I loved it the minute I first saw it. My boys named him “Hapy” because of how he made us feel when we drove around in him. We've camped with Hapy, and used him as a daily driver most of the last few years. This blog is dedicated to the work that I perform on him, the trips we take with him, and the things we see and learn about cars, people and ourselves along the way. I have taken notes of everything I've done over the last few years, and I'll be posting that info along the way as well as detail on new projects and trips.