Onward to Colorado - Day 3

Sunday morning. It was my intent to head up Highway 50 into South Lake Tahoe, and on to Fallon Nevada. From there I was going to take Highway 80 to Wendover and find a hotel. Joe, Gene, Romy and Jen all told me otherwise. Apparently I would be heading to Spencer Hot Springs.

Hwy 50 is nicknamed the loneliest highway in America. The number of cars on it is less than 1/20th the number of cars on Highway 80. It is also the rout of the former pony express and the Lincoln highway. You can still see remnants of the Lincoln highway on the side of the road. It travels through three deserts, and has occasional small silver mining towns scattered at decent distances from each other.

I left Finnon Lake around 11:30 and took 50 up through Kyburz, and over the pass into South Lake Tahoe.

Moved on through Carson City, past the infamous road of legalized... um... physical services that are offered at the Kit Kat house and the Moonlight Bunny House (conveniently located across the street from each other, truckers and bikers welcome!).

Through some small towns, and stopped at a Sonic in Fallon for food. I parked next to this guy who was traveling back to Sacramento.

I head out to the dessert and cross through several small mountain passes. Some cars didn't do as well.

The shoe tree is a landmark of sorts. There isn't much else out there, so there's this tree. Why not decorate it with shoes?

The sun was just starting to set when I reached the little mining town of Austin. You twist up and down a road before heading out on a dirt path to reach my place for the night - Spencer Hot Springs. I arrive there around 8:00pm and climb in for a 20 minute wind down after a long day driving. There is nothing but the moon, the starts, and the clearest milky way that I have seen in years.

I arrived at night, so I woke up the next morning to see just how desolate it is out there.

The Burros who brayed all night competing for water won't come near me this morning.

Next up - days four and five - my trip to Moab. 

Days One one and Two - Camping

I finished packing when UPS shows up with a tent. I don't need to bring a tent, I have the bus and the side tent, but my wife might want it, so why not? It goes in the last place I have any room, and I'm out the door, across the bridge, and on my way to Napa to meet Big Blue.

We worked our way to the lake, and I did a little engine testing through the turns on the hill. Works just fine! So does the suspension. Just Saying. ;)

We found our spots near John "Tent of Doom" La Torre, and had a beer with the rest of the usual suspects before zonking.

There were a few newbies, Brian and his sweet set up "ready for anything mobile", and John enticed a friend to show up in their tear drop trailer.

Fall Finnon Fest was not as hot as last year, nicely mellow, and and excellent chance to say good bye to joe who is off to China for at least six months.

Fall Finnon Fest - Road Trip

I'm off to the annual "harvest moon Fall Finnon Fest end of the summer why not camp out" tomorrow. There should be about 10 Busses there.

Immediately after, I'm actually taking a vacation after a couple of months of vicious travel. In the spirit of to much travel, I'll be traveling. :)

Road Trip to Ft. Collins, in the Bus, trying to take the slow route.

I'll try and post pics as I go, but likely will make a post well after I'm done.

In the meantime, here are a few drive-by shootings (tm big blue) from Europe.


This is a hightop California Westy that is not available in California.

Seen in Cologne

I've never seen these delivery trucks before, also seen in cologne.

Seen in Edinburgh

Also seen in Edinburgh

And finally, this lovely syncro was ready for anything in Seattle.

Time to Cruise

Airhead parts does this annual cruise down Hwy 1. I woke up early to join them down the Lombard stretch. Photos say it all so I won't bother typing anymore.









They headed toward San Simeon, I went to Blue bottle for my morning fix.

Nice way to start.

Victory!

It purrs nicely. I'm doing the happy dance.



I have four new CV joints and new heat exchangers.



The gas tank is refurbished, released, has a new fuel gauge sender, and a repainted firewall.





This is the engine rebuilder doing a final carb adjustment.



Several Thanks are due here.
First to John Marignac who not only sourced his finest people and parts, but took the time to make sure that everything would be as if it was his car. He has been picky and meticulous, and when I helped out, checked my work for perfection.
My Wife - who let's me have a vehicle for a mistress. Love you honey. I really do.
VW Camper Family - who has been patient with me while I work on it and miss campouts.
My random friends who have given me rides to places to pick up parts while the vehicle was in the shop.

Next stops. A valve adjustment at 200, 500, and 1000 miles. Then a road trip.

-Peter

Almost there

Success! Carb acquired. Installed. Engine tuned. Dry ran (out of the car) the engine, started up flawlessly within seconds. I have a little tweaking to do, but this baby is almost ready to roll.

Pics:






And heres a movie of it firing up for the first time:



Tomorrow I put the gas tank/engine/cv joints in and give it a test run.

Someone recently told me that Squoot was the love child of "squee!" and "Woot!" SQUOOT!

Getting closer

Next round of progress:
My original heat exchanger on the passenger side finally died. So I had to get a new one.

I'm still missing the carb, but that is on the way.

Pics from all four sides here:





While I'm at it, the gas tank is done, and the firewall has been repainted:




Now a quick lesson on CV Joints plates.
The CV joint plates are necessary to strengthen the connection between the CV bolt and the boot. The metal on the boot is relatively thin for the kind of forces that the CV joint is capable of making, so the plate is necessary.

There are three types of plates. Pictured here are the two wrong types for the boot that I am using:


They are wrong because they don't fit over the slightly raised part of the boot that makes the boot structurally stronger. The flat plate completely missed the alignment:



The raised plate is closer, but still not exact:


The best solution is the "real" plate that looks like this:


The image is blatantly stolen from German Supply in Canada, I'll post the real pictures once I get my shipment in (Thanks Scott).

I'll continue next week. Thanks for tuning in.

Progress

Gas Tank Resurfaced:




Cylinders and Pistons put on, new heads on, slowly adding the rest of the it:




Maybe finished on Saturday?


Larger Versions of these photos can be found here.

Remember that German Comedian?

Julia Weber was kind enough to send me the you tube link. I'm both horrified (that he's big in Germany) and proud (that my bus is better than his singing).

It's here, at the 35 second mark.

Weekend Progress

The first round of crazy overhauling madness began Saturday. Red was driven down to Johns shop, put up on the hoist and drained of oil.


All pertinent parts were disconnected, engine got pulled, gas tank was removed, both CV joint sets were taken off.


The old engine was broken down to recycle the parts that I don't need to replace (such as my very pretty exhaust system).


I didn't remove the heads yet, but when I do I will take the pictures of the damage that a sunken valve will do. In the meantime, here are a few shots of something very familiar to Bus owners: Oil crud and buildup.






The Cylinders and Pistons that were shipped were the wrong ones, so I have to wait for them to show up before they get put back on. In the meantime, this is the current state of the new engine:









A little bit of history on the Engine Case if you are interested:
John will only use AS21 cases, not AS41 cases. The article is slightly incorrect - you can re-machine AS21 cases, but you get 1 chance to do it. By the third re-machining, the case is out of spec and beyond use. It has to be perfect, there are no second tries.

The gas tank is getting cleaned up and resurfaced so there are no more rust flakes in my fuel filter. I replaced the CV joints on the passenger side, but both of them have been damaged already, so I'm replacing them while the engine is out.

I'll keep you posted.

P.S. I love air powered tools, and Stalwille wrenches. John has a full set and damn if they don't feel... just right.

Let's get this party Started

If you recall our last episode, the story thus far was:
-Valve Sinking into head.
-Decided to replace engine while I was at it
-And since I'm there, I'm also:
--Fixing CV Joint
--blasting/resurfacing gas tank
--rebuilding steering box
--upgrading engine from stock single port 1600 to slightly faster dual port 1641

Step one - get engine built:
This has taken the longest as my uncle is both anal retentive with parts and tolerances. If it doesn't meet his standards, it gets sent back. He works on Porsches, his demands are slightly higher.
This has taken him a couple of months as his suppliers are in high demand. Go figure.
But this is what we are starting with:



The short block is done, the Cylinders and Pistons are on the way.

Step two - get car down to the shop. This has been the problem all along - there has been no room at the shop, but that problem has been solved.

Tomorrow I drive down (slowly) and pull the engine/tank/steering box and begin the work.

I'll take pictures as I go. Wish me luck.