Where were we?

Hapy New Year. It has been a busy holiday season for pretty much everyone I know, and Boo and I are no exception. Today's post will touch on some of the things we have been getting after since my last post. 

CoViD Hangover

Cooper Spur snow

During one of my holiday social engagements, I had a conversation with my niece where we were both remarking on how could we have been able to do all the things we're doing now plus have to commute to work every day. I recall, back before the whole CoViD shutdown / work-remote thing started, I would take a train into the city, work in an office all day, train to the gym to work out for an hour or so and then walk a couple miles home. Around that work-week schedule, I went out to play or listen to music, attended ball games, visited friends etc like most people. And, of course, fiddled on cars a little bit. Now that we are more consistently mingling with others, I am having a hard time rationalizing how I was able to do it while maintaining that daily cycle. I know many people are returning to offices, and I wonder if there are more people out there trying to figure out how to make it all work again. Frankly, I think many people are failing at it and that's why there is such a growing discontent. Maybe it's the holidaze, but I swear I am encountering more surly people than ever lately.

Cooper Spur

Tuukka at rest

Of course, my holidaze had much more going on and much more positive interactions than just my realization about the world's increasing surly. Boo and I spent XmasEve and XmasDay with Boo's family. This was emotionally and spiritually taxing for a couple of introverts, but we were warmly welcomed and had a really nice time. The weekend before, my younger siblings and their families joined Boo, Tuukka and I at Cooper Spur, on the east side of Mount Hood. Boo and I took Tuukka for long walks along the groomed cross-country skiing paths, and shared meals, crafts, music and games with my siblings' families. It was a great kick-off to a holiday season.

NewOldHouse - 1/4 round

Anyway, back to what I was originally going to post on: NewOldHouse projects. Among the things left incomplete, preventing us from moving in-earnest into NewOldHouse was the 1/4 round along the baseboards. I touched on this last time, but simply identifying which pieces were to go where was only part of the battle. Once identified, cleaned and primed, I needed to install them. For this, I got a finish-nailer powered by an air compressor, and then moved my air compressor down to NewOldHouse. Working with the nailer was fun: point, press and shoot. I had the 1/4 round installed in a couple hours. Next, I spackled the nail holes, sanded them flush and then caulked the top of the 1/4 round to the base board. Last, I slid around with a paint bucket and brush, brushing in the 1/4-round with the same paint that I shot the walls and trim last summer. Start-to-finish, it took me a few days, working a few hours a day (let's say 15 hours). I need to caulk the bottom of the 1/4-round to the floor with clear silicone caulk (at least along the outer walls), and then the 1/4 round is complete.

NewOldHouse - bathroom

bathroom floor done

The bathroom was in mediocre shape when we bought the house, even after all the rubbish was removed and it was cleaned. There are meaningful divots in the plaster, the sink cabinet was nasty and the floor under the toilet was failing. First, the sink and cabinet were removed. The cabinet went to the dump; I don't remember what we did with the sink. Then, the toilet was removed, and set into the tub while the floor was cleared. Once the linoleum was pulled, we could see the original hardwood floor was in pretty bad shape. We removed the pieces around the waste pipe and could see that the sub-floor had been compromised at one point. We were around this point when I posted last.

Since then, the damaged pieces of sub floor have been removed and replaced. New flooring has been installed on top of that, a full floor sheet of thin veneer was installed on top of that and peel-n-stick tiles applied on top of that. The peel-n-stick took a full day, which seemed like a really long time for a room not much more than 8 square meters (5 foot by 5 foot). Details take time, though, and tiles will not fit exactly without trimming. So, for aesthetics, you want the trimming to be behind the toilet or under a cabinet with the uncut tiles along the main walls that you can easily see. This means, though, that you need to lay everything out to figure out where the cuts need to be for the heat and the waste. Also, orienting the tiles one direction of another takes some laying out, thinking, and laying out again. Quality takes time; slapping things together is fast, but it will always look... well.. slapped together.

Our last hiccup was with the toilet waste flange in the floor. The studs to which the toilet should mount were stripped and rusted to the flange. They needed to be cut off, drilled out, tapped and then new studs threaded before we could install the toilet. Once ready, though, it was a fairly simple process to set the wax ring and install the toilet.

Bathroom Next

cleaning hardware

The sink and cabinet remain ready for install. We purchased a new cabinet / sink / mirror combination at Lowes and the low price is definitely reflected in the workmanship (or lack thereof). Still, it will work, and after some fiddling with the hinges, the doors close without rubbing. The holes for the pulls were not put in the right spots, so the handles are wonky, but again, it will work. We have all the bits and pieces, just with all the holiday events and family in town, we have not installed the sink and cabinet.

Once the sink is in, we will hang a shower rod, and re-hang the door. The hardware for the door has been cleaned up, though. Prior owners had painted without taping things off nor removing hardware so every door handle, strike plate and hinge was covered in multiple coats of paint. I have spent many otherwise-idle hours picking off paint and then rubbing down with steel wool door hardware, yet more remains.

Moving

With the 1/4-round complete, I have started moving things over to NewOldHouse. It is difficult living in one house, wanting to be in another. So, the items selected to move is not easy. I am finding things that we 100% want/need there but can live without for the time being in the current place. Obviously, this makes the move harder, and slower, but until the bathroom is fully functional, we can hang out there, and even sleep there, but it is not quite ready for full time living.

Around this work, Boo and I have been combing through all of the belongings moved here from my parent's old apartment. It has been a considerable undertaking. We have found homes for over half of the items, and while in some ways we are picking up steam, we also realize that the easy things are running out, and we will soon be left with things which only represent value to their original owners. By this, I mean things like personal correspondence, notebooks, etc that are very personal. It feels wrong to simply discard these things, but I think we will just have to work through that.

Canopy Calamity Again

example wrath of Jerry

It seems that no matter what tricks I try, the canopy known as "Jerry" just will not stand. After more windstorms, that canopy lifted and flipped onto it's side, scratching Zed again. Fortunately, the chrome around the rear window and windscreen has not been further dented, nor have either sheets of glass broken. Still, I have had enough risk of that for one winter. So, Boo and I deconstructed Jerry, leaving the poles in a heap. We used the canopy like a tarp, covering Zed for the winter. To prevent water from pooling in the hole where a sunroof will one day be, we placed a large rectangular sheet of stiff foam under the tarp. After a couple gusty days, the tarp has held firm, so Zed is hopefully protected until Spring. I think, between all of the scratches, the disappointment in both the final finish and the olive-green shade within the 9mm color, I will be sanding and re-shooting Zed before I install the interior. Since every time around is a learning opportunity, I expect this next round will be much better than the last, which was better than the one before that. Of course that means Zed will not be driving around next Summer unless we get a freak warm dry spell in April/May.

With the holidays behind us, our next significant event is the memorial for my father, planned for 21-January. For that, Boo and I will be providing our current home to my sister and her family while they visit from the Bay Area. Boo and I are marking that as the drop-date for when we can live in NewOldHouse without having to run here for various things. Please wish us luck. Thanks, as always, for following along. I hope you have a happy, healthy, and emotionally stable NewYear-

Hapy cube-inet

Taking a leave from the sports car (280ZX and MGB) projects, today's post covers a little side thing I've been clowning for Hapy the Wonderbus. It's not quite a cabinet, it's more than just a cube... it's a cube-inet.

No Stove/sink

pre-cut, starting assebly

I guess this all started when I put the middle row Vanagon seat into the middle of Hapy's floor (See Vanagon Seat Install). I couldn't fit the bench seat with the sink/stove unit that came with the '79 Westy interior installed. The unit jutted out 3 inches too deep into the bus interior. In retrospect, the sink/stove unit never really got used. I hadn't installed the propane tank because the '72 bus comes with an under-panel below the sliding door that I would have had to cut out/off. I have read that that under panel and it's partner panel on the other side (behind driver where a slider would be on that side of the bus) were added for more rigidity. Since this was the first year of the pancake engine, and the non-removable rear valence, this was probably a case of over-engineering. Still, I didn't remove the panels, I didn't install the propane, and I didn't use the sink/stove. I didn't even hook-up the external water source. I sold off the kitchen unit to a local bus guy a couple of years later. I hope it is being put to good use.

Regardless of all that backstory, once the kitchen was removed, it left a dead spot inside the bus. Over the next few years, the dead spot has been a great place to put coolers or milk crates full of gear. When we weren't travelling (read: full of gear), though, it looked pretty bad. The pile of gear didn't look all that great either, but I'm not so concerned about aesthetics, if you hadn't noticed.

Concept

cube

The thought occurred: what if we build something that could fit in the dead spot that was the same height/depth as the fridge storage thing. Remember how I pulled the guts out of the refer to make it a storage cabinet? (See From Fridge to Storage if you're curious.) Our thought was that we could have one relatively flat surface running the whole length from the tail gate to the back of the driver seat. If done right, it could serve as a spot for a passenger to put a drink or a book while traveling, serve as visually blocked storage and then get removed so we have another surface in the camping/parking lot. Then, let's take that concept up another level. What if the thing we built could also stand up tall with something like a counter-top that was still the whole width from fridge to driver seat, but around counter height?

The next level sounded too hard at first, and probably sounds confusing to you. The picture below helps, but I didn't have anything like that as a guide. So, I focused on the dimensions and landed on building a hollow box out of 1" x 1" square balusters. This ended up being a pretty brilliant decision in my humble opinion. The design literally allows us to keep "out of the box" that hard sides would have created for us in how we can use it. Without sides, we can stuff things inside when its in the bus, or use it in much broader ways when we're set up for camping. Again, the pictures below will help.

For a top, we had an old dresser that was completely falling apart. It was pretty cheap when it was built 40 years ago, but because it was so old, it wasn't made of glue-board; it was a combination of solid wood and the plywood of the time. One of the side panels wasn't too beat up, and only had bad splits along one edge. Once I measured down what I needed, I could cut off most of the damage and all that's left is a distressed looking counter-top.

Build

standing tall

As I said, I started with 1" x 1" balusters. Why? I had a pile of them lying around from an old guinea pig hutch we had torn down last spring. A cube has 12 legs, 4 each for length, width and depth. There are 24 90* angles that join these 12 legs, and for that I used 1" angles from Home Despot. That's a lot of drilling and screwing (4 screws per angle * 24 angles = 96). In the end, the box isn't perfectly square, but for an initial concept it worked out very well.

I took the side of the dresser and cut it down to fit flush against the back and sides with a slight overhang over the front. Since it was a side of a dresser, it had wood slats along the inside to keep the tongue-and-grove plywood together. I cut these down so they fit between the legs regardless of the orientation of the box. These create tension, a friction that allows the top to snug-in. I hadn't expected that. After some test fitting and some trimming down, we have a hollow cube with a removable top that can stand tall for a counter or short for a bench or drink table.

standing short

Usability
Boo and I tested it for weight and both of us could fit, sitting side-by-side without the cube wavering at all. Quite the contrary, we tried to get it to wiggle while sitting on it and it wouldn't. Since the top isn't secured with fasteners, we won't be trying that with the "tall" version.

Hapy is in storage for the winter, so I haven't yet had the pleasure of setting the cube-inet into the dead spot to confirm it fits as well as I expect it to. That expectation? I think that it will sit snug against the fridge and driver seat partition and flush with the inside edge of the fridge, but there will be a gap along the outer wall because the bus isn't square. Fortunately, I don't care about that gap. Maybe a subsequent version will have a slightly deeper counter top that will cover the gap. I should probably test fit before I start planning the next thing... Anyway, if the rest isn't perfect, I'm out around $20 for the 90* angles I had to buy. Otherwise, the materials were free from the scrap pile. I love projects like that.

Anyway, that's it for today. I have a replacement radiator on back-order, representing the one big thing I need to do so Hapy is ready for festival season. Thanks, as always, for following along.

Ceiling Sag No More

Quick post today.

Well, That's Ugly
I recently realized that I've owned this bus for more than 11 years.  Wow.  Where did the time go?  A few years after I bought it, I decided that the 1972 Westy interior was a safety hazard for my (then quite young) boys.  I played this scenario out in my head where we got in a wreck and the boys, while unharmed, couldn't reach the sliding door handle behind the sink/icebox unit.  This lead to removing the sink/icebox, and, eventually, removing the entire early interior, replacing it with one from 1979.  Now, the 1979 interior assumed that the ceiling over the rear section of the bus was flat, whereas the 1972 ceiling was rounded.  Because of the difference, I couldn't install the '79 headbanger closet.  The 1972 storage shelf assumed that the closet was on the right side, so I couldn't reuse that either.  So, the net result was no shelf, and the ceiling was left bare... and unsupported.  Fast forward 5-8 years and the Baltic Birch sheet no longer clings to the upper steel sheet like it used to.  Quite the contrary, it droops pretty badly.

Now, That's Better

The solution was really quite simple: sheet metal screws.  I had put one in the center at the very rear a while ago, but that just held off the inevitable.  I used that as a starting point, running a sheet metal screw up into the ceiling, through the ceiling steel sheet a foot apart, front to back.  I set a screw on either side about a foot to each side as well.  While this isn't a final state either, it no longer sags.

Ideas on Final State
I've thought about what the interior of the bus should look like, and I've trolled around the internet a little bit looking for ideas.  I think it comes down to 2 options: buy automotive headliner material in bulk and install it with epoxy/glue -or- do something custom.  I think by now, you know I'll do something custom, its just a question of what.  To give the headliner a fair shake, though, it is the right material for the job, it's anti-microbial, non-flammable (even flame retardant) and comes in a variety of colors and textures.  My challenge is how it adheres to the Baltic Birch.  If it requires solely epoxy, gravity will be its undoing.  Sending staples through it to help hold it in place will ruin it.  Hmm.. more thought and research needed.

That's all for now.  As always, thanks for following along-

One Slammy of a Sammie

A few years back, I worked at one of those Internet startup companies.  I had a lofty title and a pile of worthless stock options.  My situation was pretty common in the computer business at the time.  As Wall Street started to figure out that most of these companies were glorified Ponzi-schemes, the one I worked for strove to stay open by moving out of our fancy downtown digs in the emerging "Pearl District" to a zoning experiment in Beaverton called "the Round".  Originally intended for condos, the 4 story building was virtually vacant a full year after completing the bones.  No one wanted to live there.  So, they dubbed it "office space", and we moved in.  Of course, it was still the days of perception, so lots of customization was done to the space including open stairways and the like.  Well, it was still an open sewer compared to our last location, with a junkyard out one window and an abandoned building out another.  When contrasted to the bustle of downtown hip Portland, I was less than impressed.  Driven to find something remarkable, I would foray out at lunch.  One of my greatest finds is the subject of today's post.

Beaverton Sub Station

Front Entrance of
Beaverton Sub Station

Situated against the train line that runs through the center of downtown old Beaverton, is perhaps the best sub shop in the greater Portland area.  Sure, there's Kornblats if you want specialty sandwiches, but for a pure sub-shop experience, there is none better than Beaverton Sub Shop.  Chuck, the owner and main behind-the-counter-operator, hails from Chicago.  From the Cubs hat to the quality of the meat, he's all-Chicago.  He has a thing for trains, and his decor reflects that interest and the rail-side location with pictures and artifacts from railroading.  Even the menu has a train-car metaphor.  6" sandwiches average around $5 and foot longs are around $10.  The rolls are huge.  The dressings remind me of the subs I used to get at the deli as a kid growing up in New York.  Very Yummy.  From the day I found them as an employee at an Internet startup thru today, I try to make the Beaverton Sub Station a regular stop.


Bus middle-seat Update
Yesterday, I drove over to Always VW and picked up some mounting rails for the middle-row seat I got in Eugene a few weeks ago.  Not knowing how they originally installed, I was glad to be there watching it get removed from the donor vehicle.  4 bolts hold the seat to the rails, 4 bolts hold the rails to the body.  Simple simple.  I'm assuming that the Vanagon has a set of nuts welded into the body, and I won't have that in the bus, so I'll need a buddy (or careful vice-grip use) to get the rails bolted in safely.  If I can suffer today's heat, I'll be removing the sink/stove unit and start looking at seat placement.  If things go well, maybe I'll have the seats in by the end of tomorrow.


Transaxling
Daryl at AA Transaxle in Seattle is just completing the transaxle rebuild.  I've had a few questions about what I'm doing for gearing, etc, so I'll lay that out here.  First, we started with a '75-only (CM code) transaxle.  It has a stock 4.86 final drive (ring & pinion) like the Vanagons do.  We're leaving 1st and 2nd gear alone. For 3rd, we are using an aftermarket, hardened 1.14 and we're pairing that with a .73 4th from the same company/family.  This combination should provide the right power (HP) to torque curve intersections.  I intend to run my stock 14" rims and rubber through the Summer.  If money appears, I'll slap some larger (in diameter) tires on the 15" rims I have in storage.  I may just wait for Winter and slap 15" snows on instead.  We'll see.  Regardless, the transaxle should appear this week, leaving me next weekend to get it installed if I'm going to run it down to Ashland for our family reunion.  It feels tight, but do-able.  I just need a place to do it, and to dig through my storage facility to get some specialized tools... like the ATV-jack adapter I built.


That's it for today.  Time to drink some coffee and get to pulling that sink/stove unit. I'll update with some pictures. Posting from an iPad doesn't seem to support uploading photos. Grr...

More sound killing

Sorry I didn't get back to the final bit about Memorial Day weekend. I covered most of it in the last 2 posts. Today, I'll focus on additional sound dampening, but this time without the batting. There are 2 different kinds of noise we need to deal with, and I'm looking at reducing both of them but without killing my budget in the process.

Vibration Noise

I think the stuff I bought all those years ago was called Dynamat. I blew about $200 on vibration deadener, betwen this stuff and the McMaster-Carr rubber sheets. The "Dynamat" is basically a sticky asphalty black tar with a shiny foil side. The sticky side comes protected with a wax paper which peels off as you stick it. The general concept of Dynamat (or Brown Bread or any of these contact noise dampeners) is to convert the vibration into heat, reducing the noise. For it to be effective, it needs to seal with the metal as completely as possible, so really work it in when you lay it down. On the websites that I visited at the time, the manufacturers and the sound installer experts all said you only really needed to cover about 50% of the exposed steel to notice a meaningful reduction. More often than not, no sooner was this said than the poster/manufacturer shows their install, and they used 2 layers of the stuff on every square inch of metal. What gives?

I guess it all comes down to what you're trying to do. Personally, I want to be able to drive down the freeway without feeling like I'm sitting inside a jet engine. Or a diesel engine. Or any engine.

Others (like those posters I mentioned) are trying to get to an acoustic nirvana where all you can hear is the slight whistle of the road.... until your 2000watt stereo kicks in. Okay, I'll admit, I want to hear some music when I drive. One of the reasons I'm doing the TDI conversion is because driving with one ear listening for an engine failure is tiring. And its boring for your passengers who plainly don't understand the tonal changes of an air cooled engine. Pooh on them, but I guess I'm one of them now. I kinda want to hear some Jerry when I'm driving around sometimes. Anyway, on to what I did with the Dynamat I found.

First, I double-checked the exposed wall where I removed the old insulation. This was before I shot it with the rubberized under-coating. This "check" was basically light rapping on the metal with my knuckles to hear for a rattley clang. I had put Dynamat over about 2/3 of the exposed sheet metal before I'd insulated before. The knocking produced an acceptable thunk-thunk, so I left it and moved on to the rear end.

When I drove this beast to and from the muffler shop (and to/from the tow-trailer), it was loud. I mean real loud. Like "I think there's an airplane landing behind me" loud. I looked at the rear engine hatch. Dynamatted. Rear cargo access? Dynamatted (but only on the large sections of sheet metal). Top-side engine hatch? Nada. Ah ha! I covered it almost completely with Dynamat. Each time I test-closed the hatch the "chunk" became more certain and the "clatter" disappeared. Now, I can drop the lid from about 6" up and it slams shut. Then, I attacked the last 4" of rear deck from inside the engine compartment. And then the short stretch between the spare wheel well and the left side of the top-hatch opening, test knocking along the way. This should meaningfully reduce vibration noise.

Ambient Noise

So, with a well adjusted clutch, a new engine mount and a warmed up engine, how much vibration noise is getting produced compared to the racket of a 100+ HP diesel engine? My guess? Not much. So, how do we reduce the ambient noise? Well, think about your house. In the rooms with the hardwood floors or tile, everything's loud. In your carpeted rooms, its a lot quieter. This simple case explains how we can address ambient noise in a bus: carpet the bugger. We can reduce noise with a vehicular version of a carpet pad first - closed cell insulation. You can buy 1/4" reflective insulation at Home Depot or Lowes that works great for this. I can't remember how much I paid for a roll, but I don't think it was more than $20. It covers a large area. I put some of this same roll under the floor of my bus years ago (between the 2 layers of thin plywood), and it definitely helped noise-wise. I still have a bunch left. I put some in the wall where the old batting insulation was. I'll be putting more behind every spot where I put carpet: walls, ceiling, doors.

This simple step should reduce more noise than the dynamat does. Why? The dynamat enthusiasts mostly are driving cars which have little ambient noise. They have nice foam headliners and plastic interior parts which absorb sound. The 1972 VW Bus has a wood ceiling and steel walls. No wonder it sounds like I'm launching a Mars probe when I'm driving! Once the dynamat is in, followed by closed cell insulation, topped with carpet, it could be a conversational volume in there. We'll see...

More next time,

pictures:

top: top-side engine hatch with dynamat applied.

middle: behind the stove/sink unit closed-cell reflector insulation installed

bottom: behind refer/storage unit closed-cell reflector insulation installed

tear it up

As I hoped, I was able to hit it hard this weekend. I mean hit... it... hard. Some 3-day weekends can be a mis-spent Saturday and then 2 Sundays - nothing gets done, and you laze around. This wasn't one of them. This was more like a Saturday sandwich with a mini-Sunday in the middle. I did too much to cover in one post, so I'll spread it out over a couple.

So I said how the battery was dead on Friday. After slow-cha

rging (2A setting) all night, it was still half-dead, so I let it be and switched to

othe

r things.

Now, first on the list was adjusting the clutch. Of course, that slid right off the list for the weekend. hahaha... so much for priorities. Well, hear me out now... I figured I couldn't really get the electrical done until I straightened up the wires I ran from back to front. That meant pulling the driver-side cabinets out, but first, I had to empty it of all the parts I jammed in there for the move. Yeah, when I said I didn't unpack the garage, that included the bus. So, anyway, I yanked all the crap out and then set to pulling the stove/sink unit and the refer out.

Interior Removal

The late-70's units are not held in by much. I kinda forgot from when I installed it. There are 2 Phillip's head screws behind the driver's seat passing through the partition into the stove/sink cabinet.

One of the screws that holds the top on the refer feeds through into the side of the stove/sink cabinet. The only other thing holding it down (other than weight and gravity) is a bolt through the floor inside the left cabinet door near the hinge. Now, out the backside there's the gray water vent and down through the floor there's the waste-water outlet. Of course, if the propane and city water are hooked up, they're in the way too. The only way to remove the cabinet and not break or scratch things is to slightly tilt it forward so the vent clears and then lift it straight up. Its heavy, so get a friend to help you or you'll feel it the next day - like I did :)

The refer is held down by even less. Like the stove/sink, nothing is holding it to the side.

There's at least one (may be 2) screws again from the refer going into the rear closet. Like the sink/stove, if you're gonna remove it (and not the bed first) without scratching it, you need to lift it straight up. It's heavier than it looks with the fridge stuff in there. Then, the fun started.

Insulation Rip-Out

Behind the cabinets I had put in some cellulose-based insulation. Not a good plan. That stuff absorbs water and can foster mold. Surprisingly, after 4 years of nearly constant rain, and very little fresh air to dry the bus out, the insulation was not in any way compromised. I don't think it even got damp, much less wet. Still, I plan of keeping this thing, and I don't want to take chances.

So, I pulled it all out, scraped the fuzz off the interior and shop-vac'd. The little bits I couldn't get off had to be dealt with. I still had a can of rubberized undercoating, so I shot the walls with that.

That was Saturday. I'll post the rest of the weekend at some point this week. It's a short week, though. I've got the boys tomorrow night (yes!), and I'll be watching the Bruin/Canucks Stanley Cup Final game 1 on Wednesday (stop by if you're local. should be a great game). Before we know it, the weekend will be here again.

pictures:

top - after refer removed, insulation taken out

upper middle - after sink/stove tipped onto its front, insulation taken out

lower middle - after interior shot with rubberized undercoating

bottom - after interior shot with rubberized undercoating