The Velvet Thread - my '66 21-window bus project

Our California cars will spoil us with not to much rust. Looks great Dawn and Ray

I can't wait to see how it sits now.

Yep, I'm looking forward to the pics!!

I AM AS WELL. HURRY UP!!!! LOL JUST PLAYIN. YOU NEED TO SEND RAY HOME EARLY SO HE CAN CATCH UP ON HIS SLEEP.

He never gets to sleep

It looks good...

Do you ever let Ray sleep

Slavedrivers!!!

She has a vision

He is free to sleep from 5pm to 8:30am Mon-Fri (ever since Busfest), but weekends I *am* the slavedriver. I *am* catwoman with the whip you know....

Dr. Chase...

dsimas wrote:

He is free to sleep from 5pm to 8:30am Mon-Fri (ever since Busfest), but weekends I *am* the slavedriver. I *am* catwoman with the whip you know....

That's hot.

Poor Ray

You just got Cliff excited

Dawn you have a clone, Elaine is such a motor head we did a 4in lift on a new Jeep and tonight we put on the new tires who was second to drive it Elaine. It is a 6speed and she was great not bad for only having a permit. She wanted to go drag racing so bad with us.

Dr. Chase during the week, Catwoman on the weekends... so, back at it yesterday, Saturday:

Poor Velvet's front end is dismantled, wheels hanging sadly. But notice the rear wheels now? They are not swung down at that extreme cambered position now. I am so excited to see the new stance when we finally put her back on the ground.



So this is the goal for today, the linkpins were a sloppy mess. We noticed it after lowering the front and couldn't put it back together until we got new ones last week.



The trailing arm is back in (after removing the leafs to lower the front). Note that the cut brake line is heavily sprayed with WD 40, we're hoping to be able to get that line off the metal line in order to replace it with no damage, they are locked pretty solid. Not so much due to rust, but to a previous mechanic cranking down on it so hard that he probably flared the end of the metal line within the nut. Ray's seen this from experience and is hesitant to force this or we'll damage it and have to replace the metal tubing too.

Also note the rubber bumper, spun around 180 degrees in the picture so as to fit, it is in the way now that the leafs (or should that be "leaves"?) are removed. So, we took the bumpers off both sides.



Right side. Bumper removed. Trailing arm back in. Brake line oiled.



Backing plate, spindles and kingpin assemblies removed from the tie rods. There is no way to pound out the old linkpin bushings with them on the vehicle. They must be pressed out in the machine shop. Maybe with a bug, but buses are much heavier duty. Look at the wear of the pin bearings inside the bushing (ribbing inside).



Look at the bushing in this one, it is so offset, should be flush so that the shims seat better. They were a mess.



After cleaning them up in the parts washer, they go into the 40,000# press (Ray's small press, ask to see his bigger press that he built himself).





After putting in one that had been offset, we realized that the hole had been flared/defaced enough that the new bushing stuck out a bit (about 20/1000ths), too much for the shims to seat well. So, we had to press that back out and grind down the new bushings before pressing them in.



You gotta love these digital calipers.



Now, carefully putting the new one in. If you get even a tiny bit off angle at first, you will damage the interior shaft by wedging it with the press. Ask me how I know this...



We didn't even do the kingpins, just not enough time and the entire front end needs a good rebuild, blast, paint, kingpins, tie rods. That we'll go back to another time... But the linkpins made a big difference. Even though they were brazilian and still had a bit of play in the brand new ones (disappointing), still will be much better.

Now, the brake lines. The dang damaged nut will not break free. So, poor Ray had to removed the brake cylinder/shoes from the backing plate and spin the entire new line in order to screw the other end into the metal line. Ugh. But at least he knew enough to not force the issue and have to lose another day replacing the metal brake line.



My 3 legged dog, Miles, says it's late and he wants to go home and have dinner.



We still have the rear brake lines and then she can go back on the ground for a view of the new stance and a test drive!

Miles is pretty cool you would never know her is a tri pod

Watch the stinger my head has a permanent mark from Kens I almost bled out. Last Monday

Yeah, Miles has a blog at:
http://miles.tripawds.com

My rottie before him was one also:
http://raven.tripawds.com

That dang stinger. Not my choice. Hugo's mufflers wouldn't allow the rear bumper to go on and we were under the gun for Busfest, so used the ratrod's stinger. As soon as I can find another exhaust affordably, it goes back to Ray. My head has generally been safe while on the rack, but my bad leg had taken a few hard knocks and that is NOT what I need right now.

It does have a nice sound to it though.

Elaine could be the next Lynda Vallero you know... Bring her to the races on the 30th...

Oh, and BTW: Blujaybug Sandy, a huge THANK YOU for buying all the wonderful paper towels for the shop. Especially the bathroom.

I really like that you post not only pictures, but videos as well! It's cool.

You need to take care of your leg

Okay, two things on the agenda today, rebuild the *new* master cylinder and get the bus back on the ground so we can check the new lowered stance.

On the way to Bugorama, Ray was driving Velvet and I drove my RV. I noticed the brake lights were on most of the way, but he said the pedal wasn't triggering it. Well, the new master was not wanting to release very easily. Ray finds that its more and more common to get cruddy new parts, unfortunately. So, instead of exchanging it as a bad part, it is more reliable for him to just rebuild it himself and KNOW that it's right.

Sure enough, the inside wasn't completely finished, you could see the faint rings, even though you couldn't feel them with your finger (it felt smooth). But Ray says that is enough for the piston inside to drag. Luckily, he has a honing machine. We bought a rebuild kit, but didn't even use it.





Put it back together and it operates VERY smoothly and the spring actually pushes the rod back out now, it barely would try before. Next the brake lines needed to be bled and we ran out of time as no matter how much she bled, there was air in the lines. So we just lowered the bus and called it a day. We then spent the evening working on Hugo's motor instead. Heh, heh (new thread on that when I get the time).

Once it was on the ground and rolled out to settle a bit (can't test drive with no brakes), the front end is a bit higher than the rear. The bus in general is a great height for me now though. I can get in and out much easier without needing a step. And I can actually see through the skylights from standing alongside the bus, when before they were up over my head. The rear wheels are a bit counter cambered though, so I wish we could have done something in between one full notch, but that would involve changing the outer ones and the right side was seized up, so that isn't an option. We could take some lower leafs out of the front to get it a bit lower, but that would probably cause rubbing without narrowing the beam or getting smaller wheels and tires. So, the solution is going to be to get airshocks on the back and lift it up a bit to match the front. It will still be much lower than stock, but not too low in the back as it is now, and the front wheels and tires can stay as they are without rubbing.

Note the Deluxe Trim pieces that are now on the back bumper to match the front.

Looks really good!! You guy's are doing a great job!!

Nice!

Nice stance Dawn

Looks great Dawn. Nice work!!

Hugo's been getting so much attention, Velvet has felt neglected a bit.

She got a nice new car cover from a guy on the samba that sold his bus and let it go for a fraction of the price. Note the stinger is on the ground. She's too low in the back.



Normally, we could tweak the drop in the back by turning the outer splines a notch, but the right side was rusted solid, so we had to go one notch on the inner splines, which was a bit too much. The front is where I want it by removing some upper leafs. I can't go any lower in front without narrowing the beam or putting different wheels/tires, and that's too big of an expense. The bus handles AWESOME now (the main reason for lowering a bit), and will only be even better when we get around to doing the kingpins and realignment. So, to fix the stance, I got air shocks for the back.



But they need some fabricating to work, they are not offset and need to be. In addition to the ID of the mounts not being compatible. So, that'll happen next. After Hugo's motor is done and I have my car back, the next thing for Velvet is to do the major rust repair on the front windows. That has to be done before I can do the new rubber kit and headliner install. And after the rubber and headliner, the ragtop can be installed. I have a roof clip, but don't want to cut the whole OG paint section on the top of the front of the bus, it's in perfect shape. Except for the section around the fresh air vent and windshields. So, Ray is going to try something very difficult when he finds the time, just removing the inside and minimal areas without burning the exterior paint. Hoping he can do it.

I saw this 1950's truck hauling a load on Hwy 49, how cool is this? Older man driving it. Turns out a coworker knows the man. He said he inherited it from his brother and has no idea that it's worth much of anything... I love that. Just using the truck, like it was designed for.



My favorite view, looking out the windows from behind. Put a Skinner Classics sticker in the window where the Temporary DMV permit was.



And speaking of the DMV, we finally got the title sorted out and it's a 1966 now, like it should be. And got my personalized plates in: RSAMBA. It looks too new, I need to scuff it up.

Here she is tucked into my breezeway where the Kubota normally is, since the rain is coming and there's a gigantic hole in her roof. From a barn in Seattle, to mine here in Auburn.

Love the personalized plate!! Also, what a great score on the bus cover! I have been looking into one of those and they are not cheap.