Welcome to the Ocean Beach California VW Bus report. This is the ongoing trip, maintenance, and upgrade log for our 1976 VW Camper. The intent is to track the progress of "Independence" and to meet other local VW enthusiasts.

Friday, December 31, 2004

Trip Report: Rain check please

So we were going to go out to the desert for New Year's Eve. But the weather report has rain and high winds and a storm warning. We figure there will be a nicer weekend to break in the bus. Instead, we are going to stay at home and cook and play games and watch the storm from inside.

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Repairs: Windshield glass

All Star Glass came out today to replace the windshield glass. All new! The repairman suggested we had quite a bit of rust and a couple of holes already. Apparently this is common as there are not any holes so the water just sits and rusts. Not sure if it is an issue.

Indy started fine this morning and again around noon. So far so good on that front.

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Repairs: Rear axle

Rich's Service replaced the two rear axles yesterday. The knocking when accelerating has stopped. /cheer. They decided to keep her overnight to double check the battery issue.

Today, after the torrential rain stopped, they also looked at the battery, starter, and charging system. Nothing apparent was wrong so they rechared the battery and performed a load test. Indy passed.

Here's hoping that she'll decide a camping trip is in order this weekend!

DMV

The title is ours. Indy is registered. The lines weren't bad since I had scheduled an appointment which mean an express queue.

The only thing of interest was the fact we'd crossed out something on the title -- the previous owner had started writing in his name where ours should have been; this meant to person helping me got to announce how careless we were to all her coworkers and I had to sign a form explaining the error. I lived. She laughed when she saw the odometer reading as ~39K miles. She said she had a 197X beetle and doubted the accuracy of the reading. It only has 5+1 digits so we can only guess how many times it has wrapped around.

Go visit the California Division of Motor Vehicle web page.

Sunday, December 26, 2004

Trip Report: Cancelled

We had planned to go on a day trip to Anza-Borrego Desert today. Less than 250 miles mostly on Interstate 8, a couple of stops for short hikes, and a picnic lunch. Unfortunately Indy wouldn't start. The classic sounds of either an almost dead battery or the starter solenoid was all she could give us. Of course, we had everything included the dog inside the bus ready to go.

I didn't know whether to believe the stories about hitting it with a hammer, and the multimeter seemed to imply the battery was on the decline (<11 volts.) And since she was sheduled to return the Rich's Monday, we went East in the Kia instead.

We are hopeful that there will be a trip report here someday. And I refuse to do a trip report if we don't leave the city limits.

Friday, December 24, 2004

Stickers

Sophia and I spent an hour or so removing stickers from previous owners. The interior was covered with them. We left some of the VW ones.

repeat after me -- INSERT PHOTOS HERE.

I didn't get a giant bow to put on the bus as Christmas wrapping. What a great gift to ourselves. Thanks to both our parents who gave us wedding/holiday money that went towards the van.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Rich's Service Part I

Rich's Service (619-222-4684) is a necessary part of Indy's life. Some things are going to be beyond our ability. We took Indy in for an inspection and repairs on Wednesday (Dec 22). We couldn't get it in first thing in the morning because the battery had died and once it got to the mechanic it wouldn't start. So instead of looking at the knocking noise, they started with the electrical charging system.

Since this is a holiday weekend, we opted to pick her up after only half the work was done as the axel issue is necessary but wouldn't lead to additional problems if we drove the bus just a bit until Monday (home 5 blocks and perhaps 5 miles to the Point Loma tide pools on Sunday.)

The details:

* Repaired wiring to charge system
* replaced alternator and regulator
* recharged battery

That was the reason the battery died. I still have to track down the electrical drain though just to make sure.

We also had the mechanic perform a "before trip/sale checkout" inspection:


1 Compression readings
1) 120 2) 125 3) 115 4) 125
Condition of plugs: OK
2 Check for oil leaks
valve covers? (BOB-- not sure)
3 Brakes
Lining: front 70%. rear 30%
Rotor/drums: frontleft min. frontright min. rearleft max. rearright max.
4 Suspension/steering
Ball Joints: Boot cracked
Tie rods: OK
Steering gear: OK
Struts\Shocks: OK
5 Lights
right tail light and high beams inoperable
6 Wipers
low speed only
7 tires/wheels
lf OK. rf OK. lr OK. rr OK. spare/jack/lugnut OK
8 Glass
windshield crack (BOB -- being replaced Wednesday)
9 Body/Paint
dents: some
rust: some
old body work: some
overall: fair
10 Interior
dash: fair (BOB -- something we might eventually replace)
carpet: fair (BOB -- easy to replace)
seats: fair (BOB -- we hope to reupholster)
overall: fair
11 Heater/AC
defroster: OK
12 Smog (BOB -- smog check on Monday/Tuesday)
EGR OK. Air pump OK. PCV OK. Air filter OK
13 Belts OK
14 Hoses OK

Overall impression -- OK to fair

Recommended Service:
* rear axel (BOB -- that's part 2. and explains the knocking)
* left tail light (BOB -- perhaps just a missing bulb?)
* signal switch (BOB -- previous owner rigged something)

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Surf Racks

Goodbye surf racks. I took them off "Independence" today.

We thought we might not be able to remove them because we didn't have the keys to the locks; but, the locks weren't locked and so the racks came off easily. The mounting brackets are still in place and if we want we can put the racks back on with a dummy surfboard.

The main reason we removed them was to reduce the weight of the camper poptop. It is heavy enough to lift without any extra weight. And since we don't surf (apologies to anyone who finds that impossible to believe).

Mechanical issues

OK. Here's the start of our initial repair list...

* smog inspection
* replacing the front window shield and seal
* CV for back left wheel (knocking noise when accelerating)
* find electrical drain (need VOM meter)
* replace door handles and locks.
* replace turn signal lever/switch
* replace a few broken reflectors.
* right side backup light
* And of course transfer the title and registration (DMV).

I have ordered a catalog from GoWesty. I'm sure there will be a bunch of interesting things we can patch up but the ones above are the known issues.

Note: Apparently if you are in California you will want to buy a 1975 Bus not a 1976 Bus as the 30 year smog check waiver will not apply to cars made after 1975.

Note2: the battery was dead this morning. I guess the drain is bigger than expected. ( UPDATE: Rich's thinks the battery may not have been charging due to the way it was hooked up -- sloppily.)

Note3: I figured out how to lock the sliding side door and so we can in fact lock the vehicle now. It just means that you have to enter from the side and not the front doors.

Note4: Inspection prior to purchase is a wise move. We are doing ours afterwards and hope that nothing else major is discovered. Her frame was decent and there is a new motor (~15K miles) and so everything else is cosmetic, or so we hope. :)

Rich's does this for $75. I'll post our results when ready.

I picked up a multimeter for $25. This will help with 100 little electrical issues.

Official Name: Independence

Honoring 1776 with a vehicle made in 1976, we have decided to name our westy "Independence." We can call it "Indy" for short and "Dense" when it is acting up.

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

First commute

A slight falsehood -- I picked S up at work and took her to lunch in the Bus. So I drove her commute route but wasn't technically commuting. She looks cute in the parking lot.

One of S's coworkers has a bus (not sure the year). He complimented our new baby. And another coworker is a big surfer and he checked out the interior with high compliments to all the surf stickers and original surf artwork on the walls.

INSERT PHOTOS (someday...)

Monday, December 20, 2004

First Trip

The first trip in the bus was to my Tai Chi class. I am not used to the high center of gravity and feel like I might tip over going around the freeway clover leafs.

She gets up to speed on the freeway nicely. But I don't think I'll be going 80 in her. The bus has a proper tempo for the way we'd like to live our lives -- slowly.

1976 VW Type2 Camper

Welcome to the OceanBeach California VW Bus report. This is the ongoing trip, maintenance, and customization log. The intent is to track the progress of our new bus.

INSERT PHOTOS HERE

The odometer reads 39155 miles. We are guessing it is at least 239K.