Hay everybody! Breanna here ( yes I'm Matts daughter and yes the one working on the 56). Alrighty so today I went with my dad and sisters to Avila Beach to chill with other vw people. We had a pretty good turn out there was about 30 cars all lined up along the baech with people coming from all over the central coast. And with the weather being nice...little windy though... it made for a great day! But i mean hay where could you go wrong with vws, food and the beach? Haha so if you dont belive me heres proof .....
I wish! This little beauty is from a friend of my wife's, and he wants me to check it over. He just acquired the car, and there are just some minor things that he'd like worked out. (its a 6V car, but for example, the choke is a 12V) And a little tune up is all that it needs. Should be a pretty easy overall checkup, and soon you should be seeing this little gem cruising the streets of SM!
Worked on the beam today. Actually, we've (I) have been working on it for about three weeks now. You know, it's one of those things that you get to do a little this week, then you need a part, or a tool, or things just don't seem to be working right? Yeah, it's one of those things. We wanted to lower the front of the car, but remember that we're doing this on the cheap, so we're not doing the dropped spindle method, and I'm not going to buy a new beam with adjusters in it already, so what's the next best thing? Buy some adjusters, and install them yourself!
Most adjusters that you see out there, are of the sway-a-way style, but I don't really like that style because you actually have to cut the entire beam in half, and cut 2 inches out, then figure out how to keep everything straight and tue when you try to weld it back together.
I like using the avis style adjusters which are just welded to the outside of the beam, and locate the center leaf clamp in position. Here's a pic,
So on these, what you need to do is get the center section loose. The center is held in place with two dimples on either side. You can either cut out the dimple, or, what I did was to heat the dimples with a Oxy torch then push the center section over to push out the dimple. Kinda crude, but effective. Once you have the center free, scribe the cut out onto the beam, and cut out. Weld the bottom of the adjuster onto the beam, locate the center, insert the leaves, install the grub screw, and the two lock nuts, and you can call it good!
Some clean up, some paint, and were good to go. Pictures of the compleated beam to follow...
Well I finally did it. I got half of the bus on the ground I took advantage of the Memorial Day holiday to work on the front end. 2 years ago I started in on the suspension for the bus with the intent on bringing it down out of the clouds, and putting some BRM's on it. Well, I got the beam (5 inches narrower), and some dropped spindles, but I just didn't have the motivation to get it all done. Today, I got most of the job done! I needed to move the bus from the old garage, over to the new house, and a bus with no wheels is a hard thing to move. I really didn't get the whole job done, but enough to make the poor thing mobile again. And I have the pics to prove it -
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but I don't really like that style because you actually have to cut the entire beam in half, and cut 2 inches out, then figure out how to keep everything straight and tue when you try to weld it back together..JPG)
I took advantage of the Memorial Day holiday to work on the front end. 2 years ago I started in on the suspension for the bus with the intent on bringing it down out of the clouds, and putting some BRM's on it. Well, I got the beam (5 inches narrower), and some dropped spindles, but I just didn't have the motivation to get it all done. Today, I got most of the job done! I needed to move the bus from the old garage, over to the new house, and a bus with no wheels is a hard thing to move. I really didn't get the whole job done, but enough to make the poor thing mobile again. And I have the pics to prove it - 
