Hammered Rims (part 2)

Continuing the saga of Hapy's rims...

Sorry Mate

As I indicated in the last post about these rims, I tried every trick in the internet playbook to get these rims off the hubs. I finally gave up and took the bus over to the local Firestone. We met Dan the manager man and Mat the Tech and explained our situation:
We have a new set of rims.
We do not want to mount tires onto them until we know they will fit properly because we can't return rims after tires have been mounted on them.
We are unable to get the old rims off.
Please remove one rim, demonstrate the new rim will fit, then we'll mount some tires, they slap them on the bus, and we're done.

Clint cutting rim

First, Mat needed to remove a rim. Mat is an old longhair VW'er with a car he intends to get buried in, so he understood what he was working on: a family member. We moved Hapy outside one of the bays, and he chocked the wheels. Some quick work with a floor jack and a tire tool and he had the front end in the air and the lug nuts off. That was where the easy stuff ended. He tried a few of the things I had tried, and added a long pry bar to the mix, but he couldn't get the wheel off either, though he put his sweat into it. He and Dan conferred. They decided that they could not remove the wheel without risking damage to a bus that they could not repair because parts for a 50 year old bus aren't as plentiful as they once were. They pointed across the street to an old VW repair shop which I had never seen before. They figured that shop could get the wheel off, and could replace whatever parts they break along the way. They didn't charge us anything for the effort, and said they would hold the tires for a few days in case we could get the old wheels free.

Disappointed, Boo and I left in separate cars. She headed for Beaverton Sub Station (treated Mat to a foot-long 2-car for his trouble) and I headed for that old VW shop. Since it was Saturday, the shop was closed. So, after a morning of hope, I was looking at an afternoon of trying to solve it myself. Again.

Food First

First, we ate subs. Now, the Beaverton Sub Station is under new ownership. After many years, Chuck has finally retired, and sold the shop to 2 of his longest tenured employees (like 20 years there), so the shop will probably remain very much the same. With food in my belly and about 1/2 a bottle of Pineapple Jarrito's in-hand, I returned to Hapy's rim.

Cut Hammer Cut

While looking at the rim with Mat, he indicated that wheel was stuck on either by the center bore or by the lugs. It was difficult to tell for sure, but it was one or the other. It was not held on by rust between the 2 surfaces. I decided I would take the most desperate of measures and start cutting the rim down with an angle grinder until it came off. With the front right corner of the bus back on a stand, I decided I would sacrifice the front passenger-side rim to figure it out. I donned my full face-shield and gloves and then started cutting around the center bore of the rim. After a few cuts, I would swing sledge-hammer to see if it would break free. I did this over and over again until I was running out of meat around the grease cap. It was about this time when a couple of our friends dropped by for an afternoon / evening of visiting. Clint likes clowning on cars and his current living situation has him without tools and a project, so he wanted to jump in. More hammer swingers always welcome.

Clint set to work on the rim, determining what Mat and I had concluded: this is not stuck in any typical way. Since I had already decided to sacrifice the rim, Clint got bold. He suggested (I agreed), and then cut the spokes in half, removing the outer rim (see the picture above). This left the hub still attached, but with greater access. We talked about various ways we could continue, but decided that drinking by the fire pit was a better idea, especially since it was getting dark, the fire had been started and our wives were already a drink ahead of us.

The following morning, I started up again. Since it was a Sunday morning, I grabbed my quiet manual hacksaw and cut along the mating edge where the rim meets hub. I cut all the way down to the studs. No effect. By then, it was after 11AM, so with the angle grinder and the hacksaw, I cut from the outer edge of a spoke towards the hub. Then, I cut between the spokes towards the center. Then, I made a cut along the backside of the spoke. I thought this would weaken the alloy enough to brake off pieces. And, I was right. Bit by bit, over the course of the afternoon, I was able to make 3 cuts, and then hammer with the 4# sledge to free some pieces. This left broken alloy against the hub and studs, but the outer edges of the studs were visible.

So... What Was It

cut, cut, cut. then
pound, pound, pound

With the alloy coming apart, I was able to see something wrapped around the studs inside the stud-hole of the alloy (see picture below). It was the inner edge of the lug nuts. These lug nuts had a small shaft that was designed to go between the hole in the rim and the stud for a snug fit. That little shaft broke off inside the rim... on every wheel... on all but one stud. So, when you buy lug nuts, make sure they are the right ones, and don't buy the cheap ones. Cheap nuts break, and the cost could be really bad if it's while driving, or it could cost you a rim. Someone once said you rarely regret buying good tools, except at the sales counter; in contrast that is the only time you don't regret cheap tools. Replace "tools" with "car parts". My lesson learned.

So, to complete the removal, I chiseled the lug nut shaft to break it and then chiseled off the remaining bits of rim, leaving a pile of alloy under the hub. I sprayed the rotor with brake cleaner and brushed the studs with a wire brush. Last, I verified the threads were clear with an old original lug nut. Now, I could test fit the new 15" rims.

Replacement Shoes

note gunk on stud

Bear in mind, I had been cutting and hammering for about 6 hours, so I was getting loopy. Still, I wanted to enter the week knowing if the rims were a fit or had to get returned. I bought these rims off eBay marketplace, and had 30 days to return them. I had possessed them for less than a week, so I had time, but I have little trust in return policies, so I wanted to get one rim on relatively quickly. I got it unboxed and unwrapped fast, and it popped right on. There is a little wiggle around the center-bore and the studs have a little too. I can rotate the wheel/rotor as a unit and nothing scrapes. So, they technically fit. But how do they look? For that, I defer to my more aesthetically aware half, Boo.

She noticed that the lines on the rim bring out all of the horizontal lines on the bus which I hadn't really noticed: the air vents in the back, the jalousies window, and then the body lines of the pop top, the sliding door, the window top/bottom, the belt line, etc. I guess there are lots of horizontal lines. The new rims are smaller in diameter than the 16" rims, but the new tires will be taller, so the bus will look more like it did with the original tires, in terms of rim -to- tire ratio. Last, the check from the front. It looks like the rim sits a little bit deeper in the wheel well, so I may be able to fit a spacer in there, if I want to.

Regardless of that decision, the next step was easy: get the new rims to the tire shop and get the new rubber installed. The step after that, getting the other 3 rims off, was the step I was most concerned with. It took me 2 full days of cutting and hammering to get the first one off. I don't think I could repeat that if I wanted to. So, thinking "work smarter not harder", we consider the root cause: junk threads on the studs holding the rim like lug nuts that don't have anything to put a wrench on. So, maybe the right cuts to make are with a hole saw around the stud. If I can run a hole saw around each stud, I should be able to remove the rim. 9/16" is just a hair larger than 14mm, and the stud is 14mm. Since a 9/16" hole saw would bind against the stud, I'm going one size bigger: 7/8". I have a shallow one from an old hole saw kit and the size should be perfect. A quick trip to the Home Despot and I'm ready to remove the other 3 rims.

That's it for today. I'll follow up once I get the tires back, the 3 old rims off and the 4 new rims mounted. After that, I'll be able to focus on the rear brakes like I intended to when this saga started. Thanks, as always, for following along-

Flash fixes

I realized that I hadn't posted on a collection of things that broke all around the same time on Flash, the Jetta, so today I'll cover what went wrong and what I did to fix them.

Snow Shoes Grow
With a plan to hit the mountain for a taste of snow over the Christmas holiday, I pulled out the snow tires I got for Flash last Thanksgiving (Nov 2017). I got them new off of craigslist for $400 already mounted on universal steel rims. I say universal because they fit the 2 standard VW 5-bolt patterns. In looking back on my old posts, I don't think I ever posted on this purchase. Anyway, they are i-Pike tires and hold firm in ice and snow like no tires I have ever owned. Since we were down to one car, I had to swap the tires after Boo got home from work, so, on the night of December 23rd I set to swapping out tires in some nasty weather. I found, however, that the brakes were in pretty shabby shape and needed to be done as soon as possible. I found some locally-sourced pads (Adaptive One brand) and on Christmas Eve I did a brake job before we left for the mountain.

Lights? Who Needs Lights?
The pads fit well, and have performed extremely well, considering I'd never heard of them, and I didn't go with one of the usual VW-friendly brands. If Discount Import was still on the West Side, I would have gotten pads there. Anyway, while I was digging around the driver front wheel, I noticed a light bulb dangling by a wire. I concluded that it had fallen out of it's holder on the front bumper on one of the many times the bumper got ripped off by a parking curb. Yes, this happens often, and apparently happens to anyone owning a Jetta MK4. The TDI engine is an engineering marvel; the body it was delivered in, however, is not. Anyway, I put the bulb into the little hole, and finished the brake job. When I went to take a test drive, though, the brakes were great... but I lost my dash lights. That is, I lost all of the lights on the dash except the idiot light telling me I needed to replace my brake pads. Suddenly that light was on now. Love you, Flash.

Mountain Fun
We drove to the mountain anyway, having no idea how fast we were going. While we were still near the city, this was not much of an issue. We just stayed with the speed of traffic. Once we got onto US26 east of Sandy, though, we were alone. So, I checked speed periodically with a flashlight. We arrived in Welches after the local grocery closed for the holiday, so we just hit the cabin for the night. Christmas morning, we (me, Boo and T) drove up to Timberline Lodge, and we rode snow until sunset. We drove down, again without the benefit of dash lights, but the traffic was so heavy it didn't matter. By the time we hit the Damascus turn-off, the traffic was so crazy it really didn't matter how fast we were going; someone else was going to come racing up from behind anyway.

Dash Light Fix
As you may have surmised, the cause of the dashlight failure was that otherwise uninteresting bulb I found hanging. A small section of bare wire had become exposed, probably when it was force-ably removed from the bumper. When any one of your running lights creates a short, it blows a fuse... which also routes 12V to the lights on your dashboard. Either side can cause this. I find it so hard to understand how a fuse box with so many fuses doesn't isolate the dashboard from the running lights. Engineering marvel. So, I taped up the bare wire, replaced the fuse and the dashboard lights returned.

Brake Warning Light Fix
When I did the brakes, I plugged in the sensor in the new pads. Apparently, the sensor doesn't work. Maybe there is not enough metal material in the pad to conduct electricity or maybe these AdaptiveOne pads are NOT that great. Regardless, I check the condition of my car often enough that an idiot light should not be necessary. So, I cut the wire from the "sensor" in the brake pad and removed it from the car. I stripped and spliced the two wires together and plugged it back in. Warning light off: but also will never light up. So, I will be sure to check my brakes when I switch over to regular tires in March, and may just add that check to my oil-change routine.

Wipers Not Wiping
No sooner were we back to having an operational car than the wipers stopped working. Seriously, I fixed the lights on a Sunday night and on Monday morning the wipers stopped working. If you turned them on, the wiper would move a few inches and then stop. You could hear the motor, and since they tried to move, but failed, I thought the problem was in the linkage between the wiper arms and the motor. While waiting for linkage to arrive, I applied Rain-X water repellent. That stuff is magic. The following morning, we were greeted by ice on our windows. While letting the car warm up, I set to scraping. The windscreen was the only glass to which I had applied the Rain-X, and it was also the window which was freed of ice the easiest. Also, as we drove down the road, the little bits of left-behind ice quickly melted and beaded away.

I'll post on the wiper repair and the other fix (reverse lights) next time. Both of those jobs have more tale to tell than I can put in one post. Thanks, as always, for following along-

New Shoes!

All bus content today. Hapy gets new shoes!

Background

on the way home from
Black Sheep Family Reunion

If you've been reading this blog for a while, there are a couple of things that have probably popped out. First, I've been wanting to get bigger tires since I did the engine/tranny swap. Second, our cars appear to break down in bunches so we rely on the bus as a "life raft" when one of the regular use cars fails. Until last Summer, this had been a fine pattern: when emergency struck, I'd abandon whatever project I was working on and drove the bus while fixing whatever was wrong with whichever car was broken. Last Summer on our trip to Wheeler (see Santa Clara by way of Wheeler), we lost a tire. This forced a tire replacement decision. I chose not to decide, and to instead take my chances and drive the bus as little as possible.

Rubber Ages

Wheeler

The current set on the bus is over 10 years old, and they spent most of their life sitting still. The tread is awesome, but the rubber is starting to break down. This is normal. To the consumer, hearing a tire salesperson explain that "while the tread looks good, your tires are dangerous" rings hollow. Most folks have the same immediate reaction: you're just trying to sell me tires I don't need. I know I think it. In truth, the oxidation of the rubber does cause it to become less capable of holding air. Eventually they develop slow leaks. In some cases the sidewall can become unstable and rather than frustratingly running flat, it could blow out. Yikes.

Research Leads to Solutions

mid- paint job, winter 2014

Since I'd been wrestling with this problem for a while, I had lots of research to depend upon when I had to make decisions (see: Wheels, Studs, Chrome and Backspace). Decision time was now. With 2dot0 gone (see Oh SNAP), Boo and I had to re-possess her old Saturn named Dude from the person we had long-term-loaned the car to. I haven't blogged much about Dude, but that car has been the cause of a fair share of life-boat emergencies. With our stable reduced by one, I needed Hapy back road ready right away. So, I hit craigslist, hoping to find some old 15" Vanagon rims. Instead, I found a set of 16" x 7" wheels with some 50/50 rubber on them.

I ran the current size rim/tire combination (215/60R16) through my spreadsheet. According to my calculations, I had less than 8mm between the edge of the rear tire and the rear fender, but otherwise it easily fit: 14mm away from suspension, over 40mm between the edge of the tire and the front/rear fender edge of the front wheel. Comfortable that these would fit, I bought them.

Acquisitions

new shoes, p-side

It turned out that the seller (name withheld to protect the innocent) knows my old friend Justin. The seller has a stable of Vanagons, including a mid-80' Subaru-powered Westy, a TDI-powered single-cab and a regular '87 7 passenger. I totally drooled over the Westy and the single-cab. The Westy is his wife's daily-driver (very impressive). I could have talked VW's and crawled over his Vanagons all evening, but the weather was for rot and he and his wife had dinner on the stove, so we traded cash for wheels and I hit the trailing edge of rush-hour traffic home.

Install
Changing a tire isn't exactly hard. Block opposite side wheels. Crack lugs. Raise vehicle until rubber no longer touches the ground. If possible, put a jack stand under frame for extra safety. Remove lugs. Remove wheel. Install is reverse, with final torque performed when the tire is back on the ground, "jumping the center" as you go. Doing this 4 times can take some time and energy. I think it took me 2-1/2 hours to do all four. Along the way, I convinced myself that the rear end has too much float to it. I had to raise the rear end too high into the air, I almost ran out of threads on the BusDepot jack, and the tire still wasn't off the ground. I resorted to putting a small rolly jack under the lower shock mount to get the wheel up. I have to address this rear suspension.

new front rim

The wheels fit over the rear castle nuts and front grease caps. In fact, there is a hair of room to put little covers over them to clean up the look. The rims, though, only had one cover included, so I'll have to find some. The original lugs fit, though it was tight. I was able to get them on with the tips of my fingers, and had to use a 3/8" driver with a socket to set them. The old spare that was put on in Wheeler went back onto the nose, for now. I'll need to replace that soon too.

I haven't had a chance to take a test drive yet. I am mid-way through a few projects, but I may clear the bus of half completed work so I can take a spin tonight. The wheels look great, IMHO. K, my oldest, says it has a throw-back beach bum look. I'll take it. I'll be replacing these tires when the need arises, and then I expect to put on 215/70R16 for a slightly lower revs-per-mile than the current set.

Thanks, as always, for following along.

Flash gets new shoes

It's been a busy month and I haven't taken the time to post about it. I've said before, if I'm not posting, I'm probably having adventures. This last stretch has been no different. I've been improving my daily-driving Jetta lately, so today's post is about that.

Humble Beginnings

sample image. can't find an old pic

When I bought the Jetta, it was 3 years old and had about 50k miles on it. I got a fair deal on it, and concluded after the fact that the dealer still got the better end. It was a no-options TDI available at the time: steel wheels, cloth interior, no power anything, no sunroof, the base AM/FM/cassette stereo, etc. That was what I wanted, thinking that the fewer fancy bits, the fewer things that will break. That's mostly held true. Unfortunately, when I got the car, the interior had already been destroyed. I think someone let their little yappy dog loose in there after spending an afternoon swimming in a swamp. It stank. I mean it really stank. It stank like when someone takes their sweaty, dirty feet out of an old pair of sneakers. And everything was carved up. The gear shift. The door pulls. If it was plastic, it had scoring all over it. Or it was broken. The cup holders (front and back), the center console, the rear ashtray, the front ashtray... That wasn't all. The exterior had a small scratch or little dimple or dent on nearly every body panel. Both fenders, all doors, rear quarters, both bumpers, hood, trunk and top. Yep, every single body panel. Maybe the prior owner liked to follow gravel trucks on the freeway. The driver door lock barely worked, and there wasn't a remote key. The front struts were sagging, the brakes made noise, the sound deaden-er under the engine was held on with zip-ties.... Simpy put, I could get over 50mpg out of it, but it wasn't going to be pretty.

New Car Grip

new VR6 rims

I'd been suffering along with Flash being not so flashy for years, and I was even considering getting a new-to-me car. Fuel prices last Fall got me to go another way. Why give money to the bank for a car that costs me more to drive every mile? I decided to put the money into the car I already had. I started with the front suspension (see Daily Driving). Once the alignment was done, Flash held the road much better. Last weekend, with the help of C, I swapped out the old steel wheels for a set of 16" VR6 rims. Now, Flash holds the road almost as if he was running lowered coil-overs, but he's at normal ride height. He grips the road very well, and I can steer with one finger. Very nice improvement. I definitely recommend refreshing the front end, upgrading to the TT bushings and replacing the struts and rear shocks. I did not go with the Bilsteins on the advice from MetalMan. The ride could have been too stiff for comfort. YMMV. I installed COFAP instead.

That's it for today. More next time on my other improvements.

Wheels, Studs, Chrome and Backspace

Today's post is about wheels, rims and going larger-than-stock. There are so many opinions on this topic, that finding the gems of key information in the sea of religious wars is really hard. Case-in-point, there are literally thousands of threads each dating back years, covering hundreds of pages on TheSamba. Seriously, try a search for "tire" in the Samba search engine. Ridiculous. Trying to find actionable intel is virtually impossible, but, frustratingly, it is in there. There are some great sites, though, and Google can help. I'm putting everything I figure out here so I can find it again later.

RAtwell
I've mentioned Richard Atwell before. He's like the new Bob Hoover for bay window buses. I've never met him, but we've emailed over the years. His site (www.ratwell.com) has a section on tires, and it, like the rest of his site, is much more geared towards those who wish to keep their bus as stock as possible. There is a short section about going larger than stock, and the show-your-work math helped me build a spreadsheet to figure out what rims would work. If I can figure out how, I'll upload that spreadsheet so you can leverage it too. If I don't, this is a neat calculator I stumbled upon after I'd already created the spreadsheet.

Chromed

Anyway, with the info from RAtwell in my head, I found a set of Mercedes 15" aluminum 5x112 rims with flaking chrome. Yucky looking but the $50 price was right for perfectly round, undamaged rims. I started my usual way: learn how to remove the chrome first, then see if it makes more sense to pay someone else to do it. Well, with muriatic acid, it is possible to remove the chrome at home. This is strongly discouraged. No matter how many sites say that it is easy and you can handle muriatic acid safely with the right gloves, etc, the resulting chemical (Cr-6) after the stripping is highly toxic. Think "your own personal super-fund site" or Erin Brockovich. There is a reason why chroming companies are disappearing across the US. The waste produced is some of the nastiest stuff around. In short: don't do this.

So, if I can't do it, I can pay someone else to do it, right? Yes. In Portland Oregon, August 2015 it will cost $100 per wheel for an environmentally responsible shop to do it and it will take up to 6 weeks to get them back. So, my $50 rims just became $450 rims. Hmm.. Maybe I can simply scuff them up a bunch with sandpaper and paint them?

That's what she said
With the reality of stripping the chrome still stinging, I thought I'd test fit these things while I thought about it. The memory of the failed jacks (see Santa Clara by way of Wheeler) still in my mind, I slid a 2-ton floor jack under the shock absorber mount and pulled the driver-side front wheel. The kinda grody 15" rim's holes aligned, but the rim couldn't slide home. This brought up my first new discovery: many MB rims, like the ones I got, have 12mm bolt holes, some have 14mm holes. VW buses need 14mm, so the stud is too thick for the hole. This can be resolved with a 9/16" or (better yet) 37/64" 19/32" drill bit, shaving that little bit of material out of the hole so the stud's fit.

Yes, Size Matters
I also noted that the thickness of the rim at the bolt-hole is much thicker than the old steelies. Yeah, that's obvious, but its about 20mm thick. The existing studs aren't long enough to stick out the other end with enough threading for the wheels to be safely held onto the hub by lug nuts. These studs aren't very expensive, and many people claim swapping out the studs isn't that hard.

used without an "ok"
from AirCooled.net

For posterity, I derived these numbers from GermanSupply.com. The bay-window bus studs are all press-in, after 1970:
Rear (drum brakes): 37mm long, 14mm thick
Front (disc brakes): 44mm long, 14mm thick

If I were to replace the studs with a set that would fit, I would need 57mm rears and 64mm fronts (stock plus 20mm) plus or minus. AirCooled.net has studs available which are close, and after conferring with John, the 2.2" (55.9mm) should work on the rear and 2.5" (63.5mm) should work on the front. I know my history enough to know that it could take me a day per wheel (I'm slow. I make mistakes and I don't like doing too much at once). Once I run that math, I expect mounting these $50 rims to cost me thousands in my usual charge-myself-$50/hour planning. Before I take that plunge, I switched my focus to thinking about simply buying rims from Cip1 or jbugs.

Rub Rub Rub

nicked from JBugs

There are all kinds of really nice looking, shiny rims on the market. They so pretty. Unfortunately, the new rims out there are not designed for the rear fenders of the bay window bus. Those rear "flares" don't flare out very far, and most of the rubber above the top of the rim is covered by it. This limits the ET the bus could support.(from RAtwell's tire section: ET is German for Einpress Tiefe. and it's the measurement in mm from the rim center line to the mount where the brake drum or hub contacts).

The websites don't publish the ET of these new rims. They talk in terms of inches of backspace. Backspace is the distance from the inner lip of the rim to the wheel mounting face. Since we know the backspace and the ET for the stock wheel, we can figure out the ET, though. Ha! The stock rim has a backspace of 4.75 inches and an ET of 39mm. Most of the new ones have a backspace of 3.75 or 3.5 inches. These lower numbers push the wheel further out from the hub, lowering the ET. If you've ever tried to put tire chains on the stock rear tires, you know there simply isn't that much room. Once we add in the section width, pretty much any tire that isn't one of those extreme low profile (requires special tire-mounting equipment) tires won't fit. Still, let's do the math: 1 inch equals 25.4mm, so shifting the ET of 39mm down by an inch puts it around 14 (39-25=14). I ran another math model where it was closer to 20, but the point is the same: the new rims are designed for a Vanagon at best, but more likely a beetle or squareback. Some metal work, either to the rims or your rear flares, will be required to make them fit.

Hope Glimmers?
There's one last glimmer of hope for a relatively quick swap rim: the newer Passat rim. The newer Passat, and some Audi's, were shipped with a 15" steel wheel on the 5x112 base. Unfortunately, the center hole for these rims are closer to 1.5" than the required 2.5" needed to clear the grease caps and castle nut on the old bus. I happen to have a set of these 15" rims. Of course I do. You knew I would. I've read about expanding the center hole, but tire shops won't do it out of fear of getting sued. Gotta love the American system sometimes. Anyway, it is entirely possible to figure out the right line to cut and then cut it with a special drill bit, or a Dremel. Frankly, that sounds like a bad home-mechanic idea. The probability of making the rim unusable is pretty high. And, while the tire shops fear lawsuits, they fear someone getting hurt or killed because of one of their rims failing even more. That fear is contagious; now I fear that too. I suppose, if I knew a tire guy who could assure me that it could be done right, maybe my fear could be eased. Until then, that set of rims will sit, and eventually fall onto craigslist for someone to use for snow tires.

So...
I'm back to the original grody-looking rims. I picked up a 9/16 drill bit last night, and tonight I'm going to have a go at one of the rims.

UPDATE (August 24th, 2015): 9/16 is too small. While it did shave some material away, 9/16" is 14.29 mm and the threads are bigger than .29 mm. I have since ordered a 37/64" (14.68 mm) and a 19/32" (15.08 mm) bits. I'll update once I've determined which one worked best, removing the least material.

test fit success

UPDATE (August 29th, 2015): 19/32" is right. 37/64" didn't make a large enough hole for the rim to fit. 19/32 made it fit without wrestling, and the rim isn't flopping about sitting on the studs. As you can see from the picture, the 15x6 MB rim should look pretty good, once that chrome is covered up. Next, I'll have to get after the studs, etc. I'll post about that separately, when I get to it.

Thanks for following along... if you did. There's many hours of research distilled down into about 1400 or so words.

Santa Clara by way of Wheeler

While so many folks around the San Francisco area were celebrating the Supreme Court decision to allow same-gender marriages, deadheads looked to the southern end of the SF Bay to the final pair of concerts to be performed by the guys who used to be called "Grateful Dead" on the West Coast. The well-heeled or well-connected got tickets at exorbitant prices while the rest of us watched with wonder... through $100 worth of simulcast access. Today's post is about how I saw the Santa Clara shows with some family and friends, complete with a bus repair adventure!

Getting Out
I've mentioned the MT3. Up until late Friday evening, our plan was to take a car and a bus (8 people) to my friend Mayhem's place in Wheeler to camp in the bus for the Santa Clara shows. As the evening got late, though, it was clear that Boo needed to stay home to get some work done and the MT3 wouldn't be going. So, rather than 8, only the older 3 boys (T, C and K2) got to go. My boy's mom got herself tickets, travel and hotel (once the support check clears, no one really knows where the money goes, do they?) to get down to the show in person, so T and C knew a little bit about the shows' significance. Saturday morning, I got up like it was a workday. I hit the grocery store for supplies, and loaded the bus. We were loaded with fuel and ice and ready-ish to go when Grateful Ed arrived with Belle.
MPG note: 35 MPG since the last fill. That's high, but should we factor in the top-off?

To Wheeler

With 2 boys in the middle row and T as my co-pilot, we set off following Belle to US26. As always seems the case, we were met with smiles and waves as we passed. Or, more often, when we were passed. Hapy ran great again, through troubled traffic between the US26/OR6 interchange through the US26/OR47 interchange. It's pretty farmland out there, but someone did something they weren't supposed to and for a stretch that should taken about 10 minutes, we slogged for over almost an hour and a half. In intense sun. Where no AC means hot driver. Still, the traffic let up just past the Dairy Queen in Manning, and we got back to normal pace: 55 downhill, 35 uphill. We proceeded like that through the Coast Range to the US101 interchange and down the 101. Just before Hug Point, Belle pulled into a view area with a deep lot. Driver Ed was hungry, so we parked with sliders facing each other, popped the tops and broke out the hoagies.

Summer Sights

No sooner did we shut off engines than the folks who had been taking pictures of the ocean were now taking pictures of the 2 buses. Of course, I should have too, but I was hungry... and then the small crowd formed, and there were questions to answer, and such. There's s great line in The Bus Movie about a menu of things you can ask, and how much you get to pay for the driver to listen to the question and maybe answer. Very funny, but I love talking to folks about the bus. You have to, if you're going to drive one. After the last visitor left, we fired up the buses and completed the few miles to Wheeler. I'd never been on the stretch of US101 just south of Manzanita before; it is very pretty and seems less touched by the micro-mansions that have appeared along other areas of Oregon coastline. As you pass through, do remember: the stop sign in Nehalem is right turn permitted without stopping. It creates quite the stir among the locals when someone stops and confuses everyone :)

Casa Mayhem
We arrived to two little Mayhem's watching the Octonauts with Grampa Mayhem. Some times, arriving at someone's house can be like arriving home, and Mayhem's felt that way. The boys settled into the easy conversations between familiars, and before long we were trading stories and laughing. Grateful Ed broke out the flags that usually adorned Belle and presented them off the front deck while I readied Hapy for "camping". The boys decided to sleep on the front deck with a view of the bay to wake to. Great choice. Once our sleep arrangements were set, we grilled up our traditional post-Jerry music food: meat snax. There's nothing quite like grilled steak in small bite-sized chunks, only improved by chilling after cooking and then service cold. Yummy.

Santa Clara, Day One

With food in hand, we fired up the simulcast of the Dead show going on in Santa Clara. The fine folks at Jambase (see here) have a much deeper set list and opinion piece about the performance than I could possibly create. I don't agree with their glowing report, though. I thought most of the performance was mediocre, the vocals thin, and the timing was off. There were a few missing pieces: first, none of them would assertively lead. Bob would try to get Trey's attention after he disappeared into his guitar solo (staring at his feet), only to become frustrated and give up on the segue. They almost gave up on the Eleven entirely. I would agree that the show-ending Morning Dew was pretty good. Bob found his vocal strength in time to nail that number. The encore Casey Jones (lead-vocal by Bruce Hornsby) should have reminded everyone that he has a great voice, and that was what singing in front of 80k people was supposed to sound like. The vocals was another missing piece. Furthur used to travel with backing vocalists to help make the sound fuller. Without them, the vocals were thin and pitchy. The last missing piece was the ability to either segue or stomp and ending. Most of the songs just petered out, especially in the second set. Lots of miscues and bumbling endings. Overall, those at Casa Mayhem reflected with memories of plain-Jane shows of years past, or some of the performances during Jerry's last year with us. Not good, but always hope for another day. Like the next day...

Santa Clara, Day Two

Sometimes, the Dead was a Jekyll and Hyde routine. One night coming out flat and disinterested and the next night firing on all cylinders. With a train-wreck in the rear view mirror, we hoped for Dr. Jekyll on Sunday. We got something close to it. The JamBase folks liked it too (see here), but I think they again oversold how good it was. To their credit, the band tried much easier songs the second night, increasing confidence in the singers that Trey wasn't going to screw it up. Also, Trey pulled his head out of his ass and looked at the other members of the band for cues. There were still plenty of awkward endings and missed transitions, but the meat of the songs went well. Unlike the first night, when it felt like any song could fall apart at any second, the songs held together well the second night. The first set had many more songs sung by Bruce Hornsby and fewer sung by Phil, also good. The Death Don't Have No Mercy was probably my highlight of the 2-night run.

Like the night before, we wished John Kadlecik had gotten the gig, but after Kreutzmann's comments in late 2010, it comes as no surprise John didn't get the spot. Well, Billy, your chickens have come to roost. Warren Haynes is great, but John had the right vibe for the spot. If the band intended to do more than 5 shows, do a tour or two, for example, I could see the point in working with Trey. Eventually, he could be pretty good with this group. I don't think there's enough time for the band to fully gel before the final note in Chicago, much less before the first. I'll be watching anyway, because with Phil and Bob, you just never know. They've pulled some magic before.

Pair of Jacks to Open

Between the two shows, Grateful Ed noticed that the right rear tire on Hapy looked awfully low. He was right and it seemed like a simply fix, what with the full-sized spare sitting on the nose. While everyone else lounged about, I pulled out the BusDepot jack and started raising the bus. Within a few minutes, the jack got much harder to raise, but we couldn't tell why. Soon thereafter, the handle of the jack broke off. Drat. Good thing Belle is here with her original (40 year old) jack. Before we started this time, though, we pulled the sleeping bags and tent out of the back of the bus. Not much weight, but we figured it was better safe than sorry. The jack went in, the bus started to rise, and then the part that slips into the jack-point split in two. One flat tire, 2 broken jacks. So, we dug into the trunk of Mayhem's modern Lexus SUV for a third option before resorting to AAA. Since it didn't fit into the jack-point, we tried something entirely different: putting the scissor jack under the rear hub where the shock absorber is bolted. the wheel left the ground, and I was able to get the rim off the hub, but I couldn't get the tire and wheel out from between the hub and the rear wheel arch.

Now, we're really getting that Dead parking lot feel: solve with people. We arranged everyone around the rear corner of the bus, grabbing rear bumper or the underside of the body and lifter together while I quick pulled the tire out. The new tire, with much more air, couldn't fit in the same way and the hub was too low even if it could fit. We needed to raise the bus more, so we team lifted while Ed turned the screws on the jack. After a few attempts, we had it high enough to slip onto the studs. I threaded the nuts on while Ed lowered the jack. The boys quickly disappeared on their skateboards.

Homeward
We left shortly after the second show ended. In fact, the show ended a minute or two after 11 and we were on Hwy101 before 11:30. We arrived home a few minutes after 1:AM this morning. Hapy drove like a dream. With a low purr, he took the hills well, carved the fog and never broke 192*. I had the opportunity to try the new windshield washer, and it works great, mechanically. I need to adjust the spray pattern: it currently shoots straight up, so if I'm driving fast enough, it ends up on the windscreen... sort of.

That's it for today. Next weekend, the Dead invade Chicago, and I'll be there by way of Grateful Ed's back yard broadcast, camping music festival style under the trees. As always, thanks for following along-

2015 Hoot

A year ago, Boo and I took Hapy to our first Horning's Hideout Hootenanny (HHH). Today's post is about our triumphant return this year.

Pant... Pant... Pant...
After a crazy can-I-finish-it month of April and May, we entered Memorial Day weekend with a bus in one piece. I took the bus on a few short test drives, starting the Tuesday evening prior to Memorial day with T. We simply drove down our street, turned up the hill, drove about 500 feet and drove home. Thrilled, we parked and called the bus ready to roll. I drove the bus to work that Thursday, to prove that he could handle traffic, as well as to get him all the way up to normal operating temperature. While a little nerve-wracking to drive to work with a mystery car, I was grateful for the proof on Saturday morning.

Exodus

proud owner

Saturday, we awoke having done virtually no planning nor packing. We hit the grocery store the night before, so we had food and drink, but nothing else was ready. I've lamented preparing for the first camping trip of the season before, never really being sure you had everything you needed. This time, the week leading up to the trip was 80* or hotter and we were super-focused on getting the bus ready. So, we didn't notice that the weather forecast changed, leaving us a little under-dressed for the Hoot. Still, the camping stuff is pretty well sorted now, so packing is simply tossing a couple of storage shelves worth of stuff into the bus, some clothes and the food and we were off.

We stopped first at the fueling station. Since the last filling, we pulled 32mpg. Again, that's amazing, and its starting to appear to be a trend. After a final stop for forgotten bits, we headed for highway 26 West and Horning's Hideout.

When I re-assembled the bus, I neglected to install the outer door seals in the front doors. One of them was damaged anyway, but because they were not in, the drive at highway speed was louder than it used to be. Boo and I agreed that putting outer door seals in before the next, longer, drive would be a good idea. Unexpectedly, the overall noise in the bus at city-traffic speed is quieter than expected, especially after removing all of the wood floors and leaving the steel floor in the center of the bus uncovered.

Give a Hoot

Scotty with Hapy

Since we slept a little later than we had meant to, hadn't packed the night before and had to make a couple stops before we left for the Hoot, we arrived a little later than we wanted to. Still, the first band started at noon and we arrived at 12:15. Close enough.

So, what's the Hootenanny anyway? Starting 10 years ago, the organizer (Scotty, in the pictures) decided to celebrate his birthday with a few bands, some disc-golf and whoever else wanted to join in. 10 years later, he throws himself a birthday party requiring a staff of 23, 12 bands over 2 days and a disc golf tournament that attracts up to 500 people. For Boo and I, it represents the start of the music festival season with a very mellow send off. The attendees are an interesting blend of disc-golf fanatics and jam-band music fans. While there are a few that cross-over between the groups, most disc-golfers miss the daylight music, but make the evening shows so there's a good sized crowd after dinner.

Besides the music and disc-golf, there are vendors. Boo and I trolled the booths before we set up in the music bowl on the first day. One woman had Indian tapestries, there was a couple slinging tye-dyes from an ancient yellow school bus, an espresso cart, T-shirts, etc. Central to the car-camping side of the bowl was an old green school bus from Montana running a wood-fired pizza oven. Their call for "pizza" during song breaks became a dependable running joke through the festival.

There have been concerns about whether the Hoot can or will continue at Horning's Hideout. Last year, some attendants were unruly, creating noise the Hormings objected to. This also made Scotty question the integrity of the event, and whether it could continue. We saw some curious behavior, mostly from the Trust-afarian couple next-door, but the security folks contained things very quickly. For the most part, there were lots of returning families with little kids, twenty-somethings playing disc-golf and a virtual melting pot of good vibes folks otherwise.

Band Preview
I'm going to dedicate another posting to a deeper review of the bands, but there was a strong crop this year. Returning favorites from last year included Yr Daddy, the HillWilliams, JoyTribe and the Garcia Birthday Band (GBB). Returning after a few years absent, were Kina Lyn and Jesta. New to the festival were the Grateful Buds, Bottleneck Blues, Rainbow Electric and Shafty. Urban Shaman was new, but featured most of the folks from Vivid Curve (one of my favorites from last year). The music was good, and while the styles were not as widely varied as last year, the music-fans had a great time.

Homeward

entrance volunteers

Leaving the Hoot is hard. It lasts for such a short period of time, and just about the time you get your groove for the event, its time to go. We took our time, enjoying our coffee and slowly pulling our things together. We weren't hassled out at all. We took that as a good sign for how the Hornings considered the event. We talked to Scotty about the event both on our way in and on the way out. Based on those conversations, and his stage announcements, it sounds like my fellow Hoot-villers collectively behaved much better this year, and the Hornings will welcome us back next year. From Boo and me to the Hornings, thank you.

That's it for today. The drive home was uneventful, though I think my tires are low on air. I'll post a band review soon, hopefully before I forget all of my mental notes. As always, thanks for following along-

Hapy at Hoot

Prepping for Paint

While working on the windshield washer effort, I got to thinking about the paint on the front of the bus. Those 2 tiny nozzles were original as is the paint on most of the bus, and the paint is in about as good a shape as those nozzles were: barely functional. So, once I got the washer bits done, I resolved to getting the paint looked at and decided that I was going to prep and paint the nose.

Organization is Key

headlight can rust
from 12 o'clock to 5

One thing that John Muir was always harping about was the need to properly tag and bag your bits an pieces. I wholeheartedly agree. No matter how optimistic you are about spending every spare moment on your project, things come up. There's a Bruin game on tv or there's a freak snowstorm you want to go play (or have to work) in. So, as bolts come off, collect them into zip-lock baggies and write with a Sharpie on the bag what the bits are for. The only exception to following this religiously is when you can thread the bolt back into its originating location (bumper bolts, eg) where they won't get in the way, or lost.

Beyond the baggies, the parts I removed needed to be categorized. Some things, like the front bumper, don't need any additional work done to them except maybe a soap-water wash or a polish. Others, like the headlamp cans need to be rust sanded, primed and painted. A final pile was created for those things which just needed to be replaced because they were beyond rust repair or a replacement was less expensive than trying to save the old part.

Removing the Bright Work

turn signal during removal

I love that British phrase for what we colonists call "the chrome pieces". Bright work sounds so much more refined. Rather than tape off things, I chose instead to remove everything and go deep on rust while I was at it. The front bumper goes first with 8 bolts: 2 each under the doors and then 2 each on either side of the belly pan. I'd hand-painted it with white rustoleum paint (see Front Bumper part 4) about a year ago. It held up okay, but the white looks dirty already. I guess I should have washed it more often. Regardless, I set the bumper into the back of the bus to start the wash/polish pile.

Once the front bumper was off, I pulled the headlight surrounds (one Phillips-head bolt and it pops out), headlamps and the cans. The original cans have rust spots on them, and the body cavities where the cans reside have a little too. Considering the bus is 40+ years old, I thought that was a really good sign. The headlight surrounds went with the front bumper. As I pulled the cans out of the nose of the bus, I labeled which side each can came from. I separated the bolts and spring and put all of that stuff into a single headlamp baggie. The cans started the rust treat pile. Next, I removed the front turn signals. The lenses are good, but filthy (clean/polish pile) but the housings were spotted with rust. I simply touched the reflector with a finger and it started flaking off. So, the turn signal housings started the "replace" pile. The housings were then joined by the fresh-air vent intake: rust appeared on the back/inside, and a replacement is available at busdepot.

stripped of what could be removed
and the sanding started

The last thing to remove (in my case) is the spare tire hanger. Held on by 3 thick screws, the tire mount appears more universal than I'd realized. It had a dusting of surface rust / patina in a few areas, but, again, it was in great shape for its age. Clearly, it wasn't original, though, as I found a sloppy peace sign had been spray-painted on the nose prior to the tire mount being installed. The tire mount went into the rust treat/paint pile and the screws into a baggie.

Now, the nose is ready for paint. Except... the windshield is still in... and won't it look funny if just the nose is painted, and the doors that match up against the nose aren't? The story continues next time.