2026 Week 5 | LVBUS65

January 26th - February 1st

- You may call it ADHD, I prefer … polymathic.

There are many ways to handle a tough problem. One could keep on pushing through until complete. One could take a break and come back with a fresh set of eyes. One could bring in another person to help. I, however, do the completely logical and totally well-adjusted behavior of starting about 8 new projects and avoiding the tough one.

It all makes perfect sense when viewed holistically.

I had to take the windshields out to address the rust.
With The windshields were out, I could easily reach the dents in the nose.
While I was working on the dent, it made sense to remove the wiper motor assembly and to get a better angle.
Once that was out, I should take the opportunity to take out the parcel shelf (the shelf under the dash) and clean it up ‘a bit’.
While taking out the parcel shelf, I had to remove the speedometer cable.
The speedo cable came out easy. Too easy. It torn off at the wheel and required removing the wheel hub to get it out.
And of course, might as well do a engine tune-up in the middle of all of this.

Windshields, again and still.

Let’s start at being stuck on a tough problem. “Being stuck” also seems like it will be a re-occuring theme here. Anyway - the windows.

I had the window seals, well-researched, and purchased from one of the ‘better’ VW stores online. I have seen the explanations, read the books, learned everything there is to learn about installing windshields.

And then I tried it.

The seals were hard to get on the glass. The seals were hard to keep on the glass. The seals were really hard to set into the frames on the bus.

There was some minor tearing.

There was some consulting of the resident~~know it alls~~ experts.

There was a bunch of cursing (by me, not the experts).

And then there was a whole lotta “I’ll deal with this later, I need a break from these damn windows”.

Which means that I should move on to removing the wiper motor…obviously, right?

Wiper Motors or Wipers Motor?

The wiper motor sits right in the middle of the bus front, attached to the back of the dash. The one in my bus appears to have been last functional around the Carter Administration. It looked highly suspect, and checking it out on the bench showed it was shorted internally. Maybe I’ll play with it later, for now, I’ll just drive it only when sunny.

Engine Bay Cleaning, Part 1 of ∞, probably

It was about this time that I thought an engine tune-up should happen. Wasn’t sure what all was involved with a “tune-up”, but meh, how hard could it be? Turns out, not that hard, but extremely dirty.

I got the bus up on blocks, and crawled underneath. It was nasty. Years of leaking hot oil, dirt and who-knows-what-else was attached to every part of that engine.

I decided to pull the apron and clean it up as best as I could. It was solid black. It’s supposed to be white and light gray.

You can see the white starting to breakthrough the gunk on the left side, but still plenty of cleaning left.

While cleaning, I decided to take off more parts, this time the valve covers. My initial plan was just to check the valve spacing and then change the oil after running it. Once the valve covers were off, well, they needed to be cleaned.

“After” on the left, “Before” on the right:

The gasket for the valve cover fell apart upon opening, so I needed to get a new gasket.

You put your parcels there.

I guess I’ll put this project on the backburner and move on to something else…. like removing the parcel shelf…:

..that used to go here.. :

… and starting to strip it to bare metal:

Postscript, Windows are complete.

Oh, and sometime during all of this, I figured a better way to install the windshields. Turns out, you gotta whack ’em pretty good go get them to seat.

It would now, finally, be ready for driving again … if only the engine parts were all back on. Oh well, maybe I’ll have it on the street again next week….