Yes, the Curtains Match the Drapes

It goes to say that I'm not much of a whiz in the kitchen or on the sewing machine, for that matter.  The first is irrelevant in this situation but usually seems to go hand in hand with the second.  Penny was in desperate need of curtains, as the old ones were yellowed and could actually be described as crusty. (Yuck!)

Our first trip to the fabric store was only about a week after we had acquired our new charge.  In the midst of perusing tons of fabric bolts the 2 year old had a bit of a meltdown so we had to abandon ship.  We tried a week or two later and after much back and forth about color schemes, texture and durability we finally settled on a white and grey damask.  Eventually we want to paint Penny white with a gunmetal grey pop top, so these curtains would fit in perfectly and will look decent in her current state of school bus yellow.  (I'm sure you've caught on that I have a hard time not making stupid faces in photos...enjoy.)

 We enlisted the help of Jason's mom for her sewing expertise (as well as kitchen expertise, among many other things).  I wasn't of much assistance as the pieces were cut, measured and carefully stitched together... although I was trying to be a great cheerleader and learn a thing or two in the process!  I was a bit short in my fabric measurements so one more trip to the store for the back window curtain is on our agenda, but all-in-all they came out exactly how I imagined!

The family (including the dogs) piled into the bus for the inaugural hanging and now I'm happy to report that no one can peer in at us sleeping during our camping trips anymore!  Nothing to complain about there.

 A very big thank you to Mama Hammock for taking the time to make Penny even more awesome then she already is and for being patient with my lack of cutting and measuring skills!  The curtains came out great!  

Right On Babe, Penny Made It!

We were packed and ready to go...apprehensive but ready.  Should we be taking Penny on a trip so soon?  (it's only 45 minutes, but still!) She had been running so smoothly around town but our faith in the 27 year old tires, aging brake lines and notoriously unreliable engine was not at an all time high.  We both must have had either a good feeling about the trip or a death wish becuase we just smiled at each other and set off on our way.

We were avoiding the interstate for safety reasons, but the highway that we had to take up into the Wyoming mountains still provided us quite a steep grade to climb before we reached our destination.  About 20 minutes into the trip everything was going well, but we decided that it would be a good idea to pull off and double check.  (We weren't nervous at all...okay, maybe a little bit.)  Jason opened the engine compartment door only to be engulfed in smoke.  Oh great.  After a bit of inspection he proclaimed that it was just old oil burning off from the outside of the motor...no biggie.  We climb back in and cross our fingers.  (Come to find out later after a beer or two that he was a bit less optimistic about the smoke as he made it seem. Apparently I'm somewhat of a pessimist who has to be calmed in situations such as that.  Hey, it worked.)

The driver may have been annoyed as I was motivating the bus up the steep hill, chugga chugga, choo choo!  The little vanny that could, but I'm pretty convinced that is what got us up that big hill.  Maybe that and the fact that Penny is pretty awesome.  Whatever the cause, we made it to the turn off safe and sound while breathing a collective sign of relief because that part was over.  Now it was time to test the tires.

The last 20 minutes of the trip was on windy dirt roads that have been made into washboards by the multitudes of summer traffic.  Needless to say it didn't make us overly comfortable to be traversing this terrain on rubber that was as old as we are.   I distracted myself with the gorgeous scenery and before I knew it we reached a spot that was perfect for us to make our camp.  We looked at each other and simultaneously proclaimed, Right on babe, Penny made it!  (a little line that we picked up from a list of 50 things you find yourself saying as a bus owner.)

We got some strange looks, a wave from a fellow Westy owner and even a 4x4 full of rednecks screaming hippie, hippie at us (we retaliated with a peace sign) but all-in-all we were pretty elated about the success of our first outing.  Never could we have imagined that a month and a half after towing her back from Salt Lake City, relatively pessimistic about the condition of the vehicle we just bought, would we be road tripping with her.  See, I know she had potential!

Click here to check out some more Penny pictures from our trip!

Preface to the Maiden Voyage or What's in a Name

It's official.  The bus, Jason and I are going to go camping this weekend!  Our plan was to go on our first outing next summer once she's all spiffed up, but now that the motor is running decently we're itchy. Itchy to feel the wind blowing through our hair as we make our way to Vedauwoo at a snail's pace...all the while listening intently for any sound or bump that would indicate our motor isn't as primed for action as we thought.  Sounds like fun right?!  Personally, I can't wait.  (check out the awe inspiring-ness that is Vedauwoo if you're not familiar here)

With our weekend destination set it was time for me to get this baby camp ready.  Over the winter we will be reupholstering, turning our carpet into hardwood and refinishing the wood wall covering...HGTV here we come!  But in the meantime I needed to transform our mess of a bus into something relatively respectable, clean and most importantly, not gross.

Yes, we already cleaned but that was more like degunking, now it was time for the spring cleaning to commence. As much as we'd been getting plenty of praise for our bus while driving it around town, the inside was nothing to write home about.  Ripped cloth, dirty carpet and an even dirtier dashboard and floor mats were what I was up against.

 My tools of choice were a Shop Vac, paper towels, spray and one brand new set of 600 thread count sheets that will be our temporary cushion covers (of course we have to sleep/sit in style).  Oh, and a can of Armor All which I was instructed not to use because that would be the epitome of polishing a turd.  Oh Jason, every girl deserves a facial now and again...of course she will be Armor All'd.

I turned on my Tom Petty station on Pandora (it's become my bus music)  and went to work ripping out fabric, scrubbing like Cinderella and going vacuum crazy on the carpet.  Things even started to look up just after I managed to get all of the fabric out and the cushions vacuumed.

As I was scrubbing the dirt-caked plastic floor mats in the front I was thinking about what we should name her.  We had been pondering it and had even been told by a few different people that it was time for a name.  Jason and I were pretty adamant that she had to come by her name organically and nothing had sounded just right as of yet.  And then it dawned on me as I was silently praising my bus for shining up so nice and getting excited about actually seeing crud free mats...she shines up like a new penny!  It was perfect, as Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles played softly in the background, Penny fits.  That's it!

Luckily my co-bus owner agrees, although he's still not off the polishing a turd bandwagon just yet.  Below our semi-shiny bus with her after-camp-prep clean and a new moniker!

Rite of Passage

The bus is finally running and street legal. I will go into detail about just how we got the bus running in a later post, but for now there are a couple valuable lessons that we have learned from driving the bus around town that I would like to discuss.

LESSON ONE:  VW buses are not the most reliable vehicles (granted our bus sat in a field for the last three or so years, but the fact that buses are unreliable is confirmed by the next lesson).

LESSON TWO: Everyone has a story about a time their bus or a friend's bus broke down. As you may be assuming from reading lesson one, we now have a story about a time our bus broke down.

I had taken the day off to work on our house and was excited to run some errands in the bus. However, the bus (as it sat at 8 A.M) was not running. I suspected the carburetors were badly out of sync and headed outside to remedy this. If you own a bus, you know that syncing dual carbs is not an easy task. It requires a special tool and a lot of patience. We don't own this special tool, so I relied on patience (kind of) and ratwell.com. After an hour or so of adjusting mixture screws and throwing temper tantrums, I finally got the bus to idle and it was time for a test drive.

I started small by making an attempt around the block and it went surprisingly well. I pulled up in front of the house and the idle had smoothed and the backfiring was at an all-time low. Its ready for the next test, I thought, so the dogs piled in and I turned the bus towards my dad's house. At each stoplight, the bus purred (and sputtered a bit but it didn't die!). Wait till the old man sees this, I gloated to myself. My confidence in my mechanical skills was riding high. Then it happened.

At the last stoplight before my dad's house the bus was sounding better than ever. The light turned green I eased off the clutch and we were on our way. I shifted into second, third, and finally fourth! This was a milestone as the bus hadn't previously been able to go fast enough to make fourth gear a viable option. I think the mental fist pumps I was going distracted me from realizing that motor had died sometime after shifting into forth gear.

It wasn't until the road leveled out and I stepped down on the gas that I realized I had no power. I quickly analyzed the situation and decided that a left turn into the McDonald's parking lot was a good idea. (A left turn on a busy street in a vehicle that wasn't running!? I'm amazed how these thoughts pass into consciousness, are processed by 28 years of acquired logic and reasoning skills, and are finally given the cognitive stamp of approval.) I had to hit the brakes to time the small opening in the oncoming traffic, and with the little momentum left in the bus I made a left turn then died shortly after clearing traffic. With the traffic backing up behind me, I began to panic.

After a several minutes of key-turning, gas-peddle-mashing fury, I realized that I couldn't hear the fuel pump turn on. SHIT, I yelled! In a fit of rage, I pumped the gas peddle as hard and fast as I could determined to force enough gas pass the pump and into the carbs to get the bus started and running long enough to reach the parking lot. Satisfied that I had done enough pumping, I cranked the key and the engine roared to life. I put the gas peddle on the floor, side-stepped the clutch and the bus lurched forward throwing the dogs to the rear of the bus and giving us just enough momentum to get safely to the parking lot. The worst was over. Eventually, I coerced my embarrassed step-brother to tow the bus to dad's house where we found that years of poor wiring choices had left the fuel pump without power. It was a pretty easy fix.

If you have read this far and you own a bus, I'm sure you have a slight grin on your face as you know that breaking down in a bus is a rite of passage. It's something you get used to and eventually plan for when taking trips in a bus. We have been officially initiated into bus ownership and I feel pretty good about that. Our bus has transitioned from the eyesore in front of our house to a part of the family and I'm not sure exactly why yet. What I do know is that many other bus owners feel the same way. I will leave you with a quote I found that best sums up why we will be bus owners for life.      

"Sure, they broke down, ran badly and slowly, but while in a state of disrepair, what other vehicle solicited the milk of human kindness as the did the lowly bus as stranger after stranger stopped to kibitz on what was wrong with it and what the proper prescription for its healing should be? Many a new friend was made alongside the road or at the parts store or junk yard because of the VW Bus."   

A Budding Mechanic

So, I'm a girl.  Most people assume I'm a really girly, girl.  I must admit that I do obsess over my hair, outfits and refuse to leave the house without makeup, but I also have a pretty mean tomboy streak.  I grew up loving cars, sports and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  That being said, I was really excited to get greasy and learn some new manly skills when this bus came into our life.

This weekend I learned things!  We're waiting on a few parts to be delivered, so we figured that it would be a good time to make some small diagnostic efforts and see how the engine is really running.  Before tackling the engine Jason and his dad took a giant pry bar to the tie rods, which were quite bent.  (Never fear...this is a temporary fix, as we are planning on ordering new ones in the very near future).  This served to quiet the squealing of the tires that was present whenever we drove it anywhere...who knew having two front tires that faced in the same direction was so important!  (Hopefully the dumbfounded looks from other drivers that clearly said, what is that god-awful noise coming from that beautiful piece of yellow machinery will cease to exist.)

I was instructed on how to use the ratchet & socket to extract the spark plugs from the engine and after a quick Google search we figured out that our particular plugs needed to be gapped to a measurement of .028".  I ratcheted, gapped, applied some thread lubricant (since they are aluminum heads) and put them back in.

Next, it was time to check the compression on the pistons.  We were shooting for between 85-90 psi on each piston for a ship-shape diagnosis.  I was optimistic (it has potential!) but readings between 75-120 made us less hopeful that the engine was not in need of a complete rebuild. 

On top of needing new spark plugs (we realized that a good set of Bosch plugs instead of the montage of different ones in there might do us some good) there are a few other diagnostic checks that we need to make before tearing the whole thing apart.  Nonetheless, it was fun to get my hands dirty and learn a little bit more about how to make this baby run!  

We Need to Drive it Where?

It has come time for our bus to be legal.  From the looks of things it hasn't been registered since between 1996-1999, but that's about to change.  Armed with the Utah title, bill of sale and a wad of cash we stroll into the court house on a mission.  The title clerk knocks us down a few rungs when she informs us that in order to get the title transferred to Wyoming a VIN inspection needs to be performed at the police station. This police station is inconveniently not located in front of our house and requires us to drive the bus there.  Drive?! And not just down the block, but on real roads!  This was going to be quite the feat.

The next day we arrive home on our lunch hour and cautiously get in the bus, realize that the seat belts are currently of no use and start her up.  Miraculously, between the squealing of miss-aligned front tires and the grinding of trying to find the evasive gears, we make it the mile to the downtown police station.  The officer's expression was priceless as he walked out of the station and caught a glimpse of our yellow beauty.  He remained stern and made no comment, but a look was worth a thousands in this case.  He confirmed the VIN matched the title and sent us on our way.

After a few more lines, forms and signatures at the courthouse we were officially co-owners of a shiny new 1973 VW Westfaila Campmobile.  Maybe those adjectives are a bit too flowery for our new baby, but sometimes it's a face only a mother and father can love...rust spots, squealy tires and all.

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Surprise...It's Leaking!

If you have read the previous posts and looked through the pictures, it should come as no surprise to you that our VW bus was not watertight. The driver side of our bus came from the factory with a rear vent window that initially seemed like it was just jammed in a slightly open position.

After getting the bus home, closing the window and protecting the interior from further water damage was at the top of the to-do list (three plus years of sitting in a field with an open window had badly stained the wood paneling next to the fold out bed).

The Odyssey:

A check of the weather forecast revealed that we were in for a unseasonably wet week so, I headed outside armed with a screwdriver convinced that this was going to be an easy fix (oh the naivety of first time bus owners). It took a matter of peeling back the vent window's weather seal to reveal the cause of the frozen window. The entire upper part of the frame was rotten from years of leaking.

Well, I will just order a new one and we will have it fixed by the end of the week, I thought to myself. So, to BusDepot.com I went. Nothing. Ok, surely WolfsbergWest.com will have it, I reassured myself. Nothing. This continued until I exhausted the list of VW bus part websites. With hope dwindling and thoughts of what did we get ourselves into racing through my head, I checked the last place I could think of.

TheSamba.com, for any other VW newbies, is the holy grail of VW information. Here I began to find out that I was not the only one that was trouble finding a driver side rear vent window for a VW bus. In fact, the rear vent window is such a sought after item that there are several forums solely dedicated to hunting them down. Here is a summary of my research: Good luck finding one. With my tail tucked between my legs, I sulked back outside to cover the window with plastic wrap and duct tape.

The next day, I was telling my dad (the person that taught me everything I know about cars) how I had struck out in my attempt to locate a vent window. In typical dad fashion he began to tell me a story of a time that he helped one of his buddies restore a VW bug and that they had found the hard-to-find parts in Fort Collins from a guy named Al.

Bria and I, got to Fort Collins as fast as we could.  We tracked down Al and he proceeded to tell us that he had sold all of his VW parts long ago, but pointed us in the direction of VRBA parts just down the street. The place was closed on Sundays so the search would have to wait until Monday.

Luckily, when I called on Monday, the guy that answered the phone knew exactly what I was looking for and headed into is parts yard to pull the window for me for $75. Finally, the bus would be watertight. If you are reading this because you are looking for a rear vent window for your bus, give this guy a call. You can find his number on his website www.vrbaparts.com.

The Installation:

The driver side rear vent window is a very simple design making removal very simple. Removing the rest of the rear window is unnecessary to replace the vent window. There are two tabs on the inside of the frame that keep the vent window frame in place. From the inside of the bus, use a screwdriver to peel back the weather stripping and reveal the tabs. Next, bend the tabs back and simply push the vent window out.  If there's any rust on the body metal after the window is removed spray a quick coat of rust encapsulating paint before you put the new one in.

The installation is just as simple with one caveat. Apply petroleum jelly (thanks to the nice folks at theSamba.com, we now know that petroleum jelly eats rubber so use dish soap) to the weather stripping before attempting to re-install the window.

Once the window is in, simply bend the tabs back in place and voilà, you have a nice watertight window.

A Little Dirt Never Hurt Anyone

Cleaning is one of my least favorite things to do in life.  People who work with in a 500 foot vicinity of my desk can attest to that fact.  Mind you, I'm not a dirty person (I do shower) I just selfishly hate spending my time picking up after myself or others. (I realize it's not one of my better qualities)  Be that as it may, one of the first orders of business on this new acquisition of ours was a deep clean.

The bus (from here on out known as she - according to some she's temperamental like some females who are clearly not me) had been sitting, unloved somewhere in Utah for the past 3+ years.  Seems like the last time she was registered was in 1999, so more emphasis on the + part of those years.  I was expecting bugs, roadkill and other unmentionables to be stuffed in every nook and cranny, so we prepared ourselves.

After a trip to the dollar store to stock up on any and every bargain priced cleaning supply they had, we ventured in.  To my surprise it wasn't as bad as I was expecting!  No bugs, no nested creatures in the cushion foam and no STD filled used condoms (although the germs could still be lurking).

A few hours of hard scouring, scrubbing and a healthy dose of the Tom Petty station on Pandora found our bus much closer to shiny then it was before.  I would show you an after picture, but I'm not sure you would really notice a difference (dirt and rust all look the same in pictures, right?)  But nonetheless I feel much less icky sitting in the bus now then I did before and that is what I call progress.

Utah Bound

Bidding is so easy, really just the click of the mouse. Such a big commitment in one tiny finger motion.  I clicked and then picked up the phone, "Jason, I bid on a bus."

We had been talking about investing in a fixer-upper VW Westfalia Campmobile for a few months, but hadn't found the right one.  How could anything be more right then an email from eBay in my inbox stating that one of our watched items had been re-listed.  Sold.  Apparently we were Salt Lake City bound and one more vehicle heavy - the total now being 4, in addition to the 2010 Tundra, 2007 Mini and 1968 Mustang.   

        

The 6.5 hour drive was long, but made a little shorter when we reached Utah and actually had some scenery to take in. (Western Wyoming isn't the most attractive road trip route, in case you were thinking of taking a drive.) Mid-afternoon we reached an unmarked store front which matched the address on the PayPal invoice. (Strange?)  We were let in and discovered that it was a buzzing office attached to a warehouse which appeared to house tons of items for sale on eBay and similar sites.

Five guys pushing, two wooden boards and 30 mins later our new-to-us bus was loaded onto the trailer. It begrudgingly started up which was a good sign, although it sounded like the engine had definitely seen better days.  I kept pointing out it's potential to Jason, secretly hoping that he wasn't hating me for my semi-impulsive bidding.   Come to find out, 10 minutes later, he wasn't hating me for my bidding, but he was hating my choice of a hotel smack in the center of downtown Salt Lake City.  After we de-stressed a bit from towing our new "toaster on wheels" through the unfamiliar city blocks (more him then me since I was just the backseat driver) we settled in for the night and tried to forget that we had to pull this thing out of the deep valley that is Salt Lake the following day.  After 2 hours of searching we finally found a restaurant that had a bottle of wine to serve us after our long day. (We're not Mormon, give us some booze!)

The next day after 8 hours of scenery-less driving back through Where's the Next Town Wyoming we found ourselves home safe, plus one relatively unattractive vehicle (it has potential!) and hoping that the neighbors were going to have mercy on our new project that has to be parked outside the house.

What did we get ourselves into?  Hopefully by next summer the potential I saw on eBay will be realized in the form of a beautifully restored white and grey 1973 VW Westfalia Campmobile with a kick-ass HGTV'd interior.  Wish us luck!