Page 6 of 11
Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 9:18 pm
by williamblanda
mannys66 wrote:dude I pmed you,
Thank you, Sir. I responded.
Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 1:43 pm
by williamblanda
Happy teacher appreciation day and Star Wars day! May the 4th be with you (Buba-da-bump, crash)
Today is a momentous day in the life of Young William from Hale Eddy. Dropped the Mazda off to change out the snow tires and picked up the fully inspected for 2011 bus. Yahoo!
Excuse the ridiculously dirty windshield. I live on a dirt road, some things are unavoidable.
...And came home to this.
Nothin' like a Hobart 140 on the front step, and, just for Raj, the kitchen table.

Again, excuse the mess, and Robert Downey Jr.
I just finished converting it to Gas and just need to get a .023 tip and a bottle 75% Argon/ 25% CO2 gas to top it off. Now that I think about it, my neighbor has an unused bottle of gas for the welder he bought 5 years ago. He's never used the welder, so I might be in luck. He also just came back from the doctors and might have cancer. Poor Freddie, I'll let him rest and go to Airgas instead.
I am so excited right now, it's like Christmas in May
Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 1:52 pm
by Brown
williamblanda wrote:Happy teacher appreciation day and Star Wars day! May the 4th be with you (Buba-da-bump, crash)
Today is a momentous day in the life of Young William from Hale Eddy. Dropped the Mazda off to change out the snow tires and picked up the fully inspected for 2011 bus. Yahoo!
Excuse the ridiculously dirty windshield. I live on a dirt road, some things are unavoidable.
...And came home to this.
I just finished converting it to Gas and just need to get a .023 tip and a bottle 75% Argon/ 25% CO2 gas to top it off. Now that I think about it, my neighbor has an unused bottle of gas for the welder he bought 5 years ago. He's never used the welder, so I might be in luck. He also just came back from the doctors and might have cancer. Poor Freddie, I'll let him rest and go to Airgas instead.
I am so excited right now, it's like Christmas in May
Given poor Frieddies condition I would have borrowed the welder and hoped that well ....before i returned it and bingo you ahve a new welder.
Your method is probablay a little more christian!!
Did you get an autodarkening welding helmut??
Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 2:16 pm
by williamblanda
Brown wrote:
Did you get an autodarkening welding helmut??
No, I still need to buy a helmet, gloves, and some tips.
I have used one before and they're quite nice, I've heard nothing but great things about them.
Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 12:29 pm
by Raj
williamblanda wrote:
Nothin' like a Hobart 140 on the front step, and, just for Raj, the kitchen table.
NICE!
Thanks.... the only thing on my kitchen table lately is bills, spakle knives, and baby books. I soon plan to return to my old ways!
Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 12:49 pm
by 67SAMBA
Yea Right, the old ways are long gone!
Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 9:46 pm
by AoT
williamblanda wrote:
...And came home to this.
You are going yo have one of hell of a summer there Mr. Will, go over the top!!
Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 2:06 am
by Glenn A
That little machine will pay for itself over and over. Will make sure you read about duty cycle and what it means. If you start getting into welding things other than sheet metal it comes into play.
Good luck with it.
Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 8:48 pm
by gotboost79
nice welder - my friends handler has been running great for YEARS.
remember to wear the proper clothing....
Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 9:10 pm
by Brown
gotboost79 wrote:nice welder - my friends handler has been running great for YEARS.
remember to wear the proper clothing....
proper clothing is for sissies. I was welding over the weekend in shorts and sneakers and I only burned my ankles a few times.
Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 9:14 pm
by dubstar
I heard GA wears flip flops

Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 3:57 pm
by williamblanda
Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 4:44 pm
by Raj
blown wheel cylinder or collapsed rubber hose
Will... glad to see you smiling the whole way home. We can only wish to be optimistic when $hit hits the fan.
Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 6:54 pm
by williamblanda
Raj wrote:blown wheel cylinder or collapsed rubber hose
Will... glad to see you smiling the whole way home. We can only wish to be optimistic when $hit hits the fan.
False! But you'll still get a free ice cream cone at the Penguin at the first maybe annual Upstate Downstate DVG camp out and river jamboree.
The hard line connecting the front wheel cylinders worked itself lose.
Damn you, John Muir! When you said to put them in "nice and snug, but not too hard" you never told me this would happen!
Anyways, here's the story:
I took the bus to town to fill it up with fuel. Ironically, on the drive up I thought to myself, I hope nothing goes wrong, I don't have any tools with me. At this point everything was good, little did I know what was about to happen...
Leaving town I began to feel my pedal go down, luckily I didn't lose all the pressure and was able to limp to an old pull off right before the entry to route 17. I just sat there for a minute thinking of all the crappy "break" work I was going to do and thanking jeebus this didn't happen when I was on the highway. I decided to get out of the bus and see what went wrong. I get out, crawl underneath and find that my left front brakes were kaputz. Darn! What a Buzz Killington. So I put a smile on my face and hop out from underneath the bus and what do I find parked behind me? Uncle Lenny. Awesome, a buddy to help me through hard lines, I mean times! This brake work is really getting to me.
So I talk to Lenny, the nice police officer who pulled up, and finally my mom. I ever so smartly used her AAA card and called up S&S, the local shop. Now take this into mind, this was the conversation verbatim.
"Hi, S&S, I need a tow"
"Where are you?"
"At the pull off in deposit right before the on ramp toward Hale Eddy"
"Okay, where to"
"Hale Eddy"
"By the bridge?"
"Yes"
"By the railroad tracks?"
"Yes"
"What kind of car?"
"1963 Volkswagen bus"
"Okay, we'll be there in a couple of minutes"
Yeah! The tow trucks coming!
Wrong.
Minutes later we see the truck come into view. I start waving to him and guess what he does? He gets on the ramp and guns it toward Hale Eddy. WTF? Lenny takes off after him and gets him to come back to his poor stranded nephew. As he pulls up the second time he yells out the window, "Is this the Volkswagen?" Uhmm, yes it is. "You said go to Hale Eddy" My mom and I looked at each other and my only reply was "Classic Mix up!" That truck driver asked the question totally wrong. And you know why he went to Hale Eddy and drove right by us? First of all, Hale Eddy has a bridge and rail road tracks. Second of all, the pull off in Deposit has a bridge and rail roads tracks. How was I supposed to know he changed the topic! That truck driver must have graduated from Deposit Central School or something...
Well, after the tow home I gathered my tools, got to work and fixed my brakes. I'll bleed them tomorrow, and keep on truckin'.
Boy, what a day! My luck keeps on helping me out through my third brake failure while driving. Woohoo, go me!
Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 7:01 pm
by dubstar
interesting...I assume this is original single-circuit? how would dual-circuit have handled a similar situation?
Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 7:06 pm
by williamblanda
dubstar wrote:interesting...I assume this is original single-circuit? how would dual-circuit have handled a similar situation?
Single circuit is correct.
A dual circuit brake system would have only only lost braking abilities in the front, but kept the ability in the back. This goes either way depending on where the leak is. Leak in front, still brakes in the back. Leak in back, still brakes in the front. After this little incident I'm thinking about converting to dual circuit with a bay master cylinder and a spacer. It would give me a little piece of mind.
Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 7:40 pm
by williamblanda
Ahh, time to relax. Photo's from the fix.
The offending line. You shoulda' seen it squirt!
My artificial pedal pumper.
Meet Henry.
This is how we fix things Upstate, enlist the barnyard animals!
Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 8:36 am
by Raj
will.. great story and pics. i needed that.
Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 2:22 pm
by Big_kid
Glad the fix was cheap and easy!
Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 2:57 pm
by Glenn A
Will did you replace the shoes? They must have been soaked with fluid.
Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 4:27 pm
by williamblanda
Nope, I just cleaned the crap out of everything with a rag and drove down my road stopping at random locations until it quit pulling to the left. Most of the fluid drained out when the bus was parked waiting for the tow truck to arrive, so the fluid mainly filled up the drum, which was also cleaned off. I'm just glad this happened in an area where I could safely pull off.
Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 4:30 pm
by williamblanda
Big_kid wrote:Glad the fix was cheap and easy!
Easy breezy cover girl.
Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 9:28 pm
by AoT
williamblanda wrote:
My artificial pedal pumper.
I see how you use all those smarts you have! Superfly!!
Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 9:59 pm
by williamblanda
AoT wrote:williamblanda wrote:
My artificial pedal pumper.
I see how you use all those smarts you have! Superfly!!
Groovy, no? It even resembles a leg!
Re: 1963 Panel/Camper
Posted: Sun May 16, 2010 9:01 am
by Glenn A
williamblanda wrote:It even resembles a leg!
See Will it's comments like that that Will ruin Your thread. If the other guy catches on about the whole wooden leg thing guess what picture is going to show up in You thread. You need to be very carefull about what you type.
It's kind of like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnTbO26u9bQ