Restoration Journal
Last Updated 8/24/1999
07/31/99
I got the Dormobile today! except when Bill, the guy I got it from, was bleeding the brakes, he kind of broke the hinge off the gas pedal. So there it sits. We're going to put a new hinge on the pedal tommorow, being Sunday. So Bill is nice enough to take time out of his Sunday afternoon to fix his mistake.
08/01/99
Bill put the hinge on today and it works great. I drove it around the block and went to the gas station to put gas in it. I pump. I pay. I get in. I turn the key, nothing. So I say the word "crap". I recognized that it was an electrical problem and then looked under the dashboard. There are two loose wires, one of which looks pretty fried. I put them together, turn the key and VROOM! She starts. So I go back down the block and put the MN license plate on her. The previous one is from Michigan and has August '88 tabs. While I'm doing so, a guy looks around from the side of the bus and says, "How's it going? Is this your bus?" And I says, "Yup." We get to talking and I look over and see that he had a black GTi just like mine, except his was a VR6. He was looking at a green bus on the corner. It's funny how fellow VW members can just share openly about complete stranger they know nothing about except that they have a cool car. I don't know how often complete strangers come up and talk to you, but in Minneapolis, it's quite rare.
I drive the Dormobile home to show the parents and they give about the same response they gave me when I got my '73. "So... why did you get this again?" Then they noticed the huge puddle of oil about 5 minutes after I did (luckily) and made a few remarks about that aswell.
08/07/99
I was taking the Dormobile for a spin today and I was going down the highway. I decided to stop by my friend, Jason's house and pick up some stuff I left there. I took the wrong exit and did a Uturn . I stopped at a stop sign, started to take off, and POP! THe tranny forced the shifter into neutral. So I say the word "crap" once more. I figure out that it's stuck in forth and attept to drive it home in rush hour, stuck in fourth. I made it home successfully, praise the Lord. I call Bill up and explained to him what happened. Bill has been doing this thing for 30 years or so and he says he's run across this before. he says that the "hockey stick" (the gear selector) slipped out of forth while in forth. Therefore it is stuck in forth. and that's why neutral is also forth and that's why I can't go into any other gear. He says all I gotta do is take the front plate off of the tranny and popit back into place. He also mentioned that you gotta take out the motor and the tranny to get to it. Keep in mind that I'm supposed to be taking this thing to Wisconsin in less than a week. So I start a thinkin' and I call my friend Ben up. He has an El Camino. He's letting me borrow the El Camino to tow the bus 5 hours to Neenah, Wisconsin. There it will receive welding and painting. Thank you Ben for all your help.
08/11/99
I towed the bus here, to Neenah Tuesday night. I got here at about 3:00 in the morning. What was supposed to be a 5 hour trip took about 8 hours. Thanks to the Wisonsin State Patrol, who insisted that I not continue on without any tow lights. They issued me a warning. I turned the lights on in the bus and continued on, unscathed. When I got there, there were about four opr five people up at Matt and Fred and man-Kelly's apartment. Mat was of course asleep. man-Kelly was leaving the next day for California for school. Matt Rajala was also there. He lives down the street. He agreed to come with me back to Minneapolis to bring back the El Camino and pick up my '73 bus. We left in the morning at 10:00 am and headed for Minneapolis. We got there at about 3:00 pm. Not bad. We went to my work and filled in the guy who was filling in for me. We then headed back to my house and packed up a bunch of my stuff to take back to Wisconsin. I am planning on staying there for a month. We then headed out to see Damien Jurado play at a local coffe shop. It was awesome. We then decided to take off that night and we ended up leaving at about 11:30 pm. Matt Rajala ended up driving most of the way while I slept in back. He realized that I had drove about 15 hours in the past 36 hours and was nice enough to offer. Thank you Raji. We got there about 4:30 in the morning and I continued to sleep in the bus. Today I went to work with Matt and figured things out with his boss about restoration.
08/15/99
I got a parking ticket last night.
08/20/99
Remember that electrical thing a few weeks ago? well it finally took full force. Nothing electrical works. Luckily, though, my friend Vince is in town and he's going to help me work on it in a few days. Vince is a VW bus guru. I also started to clean out the engine compartment today. It's amazing what 11 years of sitting oil will do to metal. I found countless items that were white that I thought were really black. Huh.
08/24/99
Today Vince and I went to work on the electrical system. we got everything working again. All except for the hazard lights, which Vince says would cost about $150 of his time to fix. So for $25 buck he got everything else working. He also sold me a driver's side step, a radio plate, and a Westfaila curtain rod to go behind the cab. All for $15! Thanks vince for all your help. We still need to tackle the tranny problem, in which we might do sometime this week.
