Hello, Lovine.com

Ms. Kat with our ’79 Bus in Palo Alto, CA. :)

Got back a few hours ago from the depths of the Sequoia and Sierra National Forest. Left Friday after work, and met up with Ismael, Alessandra, and Katrina at a developed campground around Lake Hume. I got detoured for an hour thanks to my impeccable pidgeon-like navigational skills, compounded by the lack of a GPS nav unit (aside from me being cheap, the ’79 VW bus does not have a cigarette light accessory charger. I know.)

Saturday was spent “exploring” the back roads, which consists of lots of dirt, the occasional washout and a few deep ruts. At some point, I was even second guessing how the hell Basso convinced me to take a 30 year old VW into the forest trails. Yet Vanessa performed admirably, the engine kept its cool and she meandered gracefully across deep ruts and danced on the gravel. Almost as if she’s more comfortable in the outdoors than she is on pavement! The main goal was to take a specific trail down to the Kings Canyon River, but we were faced with a giant muddy puddle that scared me and we settled on Plan B instead, which is on a small meadow with a great view. :P

Among the highlights of the weekend was going up to “Delilah’s Lookout”, which is this fire lookout point which we chanced upon at a dead-end after getting lost on the trails. We scaled the 70 foot metal structure (and slightly soiled my pants since I’m deathly afraid of heights), met the two volunteers manning the station, and soaked in some pretty awesome 360 degree views of the entire forest. They showed us a few tools they used to track and report wildfires, and I got a kick out of this small 2′x2′ wooden platform raised by glass bottles that they need to stand on during the duration of a storm to insulate themselves from lightning. Plus, Kat scored a vintage copy of “The True Story of Smokey Bear” comic book that they gave us while he was going through the stuff for a fire permit. Very cool stuff.

The other highlights I need to point out are Korean BBQ short rib tacos, chicken skewers glazed with dijon honey mustard, blue cheese hamburgers, and lots of ice cold Tecate. Mmmm. Pictures tomorrow!

Well, that “comfort behind the wheel” turned out to be 7 hours on my butt each way, fighting strong head winds and praying that the bus could make it up the next big hill, cursing myself for taking the 5 northbound where I was bound to hit two enormous cow factories that instantaneously filled the cabin with methane and other toxic ass fumes. FUN TIMES!

And, an old problem resurfaced. The dreaded ‘hot start’ problem manifests after long journeys, characterized by idiot lights firing up on the dash but the starter not engaging when the trigger is pulled. Fortunately, previous experience with this demon left me adequately prepared with the correct tools (a remote starter, flashlight, and a nice rug to lay on) and a calm collected consciousness. I will admit though, that I miss the days when I would have Ms. Kat crawl underneath the bus and have passer-bys gawk in horror as they find out I made my girl crawl under the car, not me. This time, people just gawk at the dog as he paws on the windows in a valiant attempt to get some fresh air and prevent himself from pissing all over the driver seat. Which, as it turns out, is another story that only a few close friends shall ever know the real deal about. Hooray.

Taking the bus for a long trip to San Francisco this weekend, possibly through the 101. Looking forward to that certain magic behind the wheel, a comforting lull that brings me closer to the salt of the earth. Always a guaranteed break from the routine, which I find myself needing more often as I age. Instead of accepting everything as you’ve decided them to be – ask yourself more questions, and the world will give you even better answers.

Just don’t die on us, or catch on fire – and we will love you forever. Guaranteed.

Rudy came by yesterday and we bolted up the entire exhaust into place. I spent a good part of two days trying to fit everything correctly, and couldn’t have done it without help. Worming myself under the bus for the past few days trying to line up heavy iron pieces of exhaust that are meant to be placed in order, quickly reduced me into a tired, mumbling idiot. And to think, I thought it would take only a few hours to get everything together. More like, a few days. Anyway we finally got her off the jackstands and fired her up for a little maiden voyage around the village. And turned on the non-smelly heater (hooray).

Since I had the bus exhaust out for a few months, I haven’t driven her in awhile. As soon as we started her up and tried to back out of the garage, my heart skipped a beat when I popped it into reverse, but the bus didn’t budge. It didn’t feel like the transmission bit into gear,and when I slowly release the clutch, it would inch forward. It took me a few seconds to realize I was shifting into 4th, which is the typical spot for reverse on 5-speed transmissions, instead of pushing the stick down and back towards me, as it should be… Yay.

You can view the rest of the project here: http://lovine.com/photo/2010/vw/heating-system/

Hey Vanessa, we need a lot of catching up to do. :)

There is exactly a week before Coachella starts.

Happy days in 2008!

I’ve been worried about the weather. It’s weird. I usually don’t like the summer season, since unnecessary sweating bothers me. But I find myself re-checking the weather forecast every few days and finding that this year’s Coachella looks AT LEAST 30 degrees cooler than all the previous years I’ve been. What is happening!? What will it be like without the death-defying heatwave that makes you spend all your money on lemonade and seek shelter getting fire hosed by the Do Lab freaks?? Will it ever be the same?! And never in my wildest dreams would I think of finding myself wanting to be scorched bone dry in the desert. It just won’t be the same without pain!

I need a beer. I spent too many hours again underneath the bus. I finally hooked up the heater control boxes and tried valiantly to set the control cable. Am learning some obvious lessons on how to pay attention to detail and becoming more thorough in your work and analysis, which of course manifests itself at the 11th hour when you realize that a few things have already gone wrong. After awhile, I eventually managed to stick one heat exchanger up into the exhaust heads, but quickly realized that there is an unwanted dent in one of fresh air channels from the engine fan that is preventing a flap from opening completely. I’ll have to hammer it out tomorrow. Not like I have any more time to dilly dally – I need to get this shit together and still pass by the shop to get my EGR filter welded back on in time for her maiden summer voyage of 2010.

As my dad asked for the umpteenth time tonight, “What are you doing??”

“You should spend more time with your girlfriend, instead of that bus.”

It’s not really that deep, but I thought it looked pretty cool. Was lining up some parts on the Veedub this afternoon, but my hand slipped. Dabbed on some expired (2008) liquid bandage, taped it up, and crawled underneath the bus to pry out the exhaust gaskets on the heads.

My dad walked in the garage and asked what I was doing and why I was underneath it. He said something like, ayan bulok kasi kotse mo (that’s what you get for getting a shitty car). I chuckle to myself, and he says “Mag-ingat ka diyan, baka mag-earthquake” (Take care underneath, there might be an earthquake). Lima-Oscar-Lima.

The weather was incredible today, so Kat and I celebrated by taking the Vespa out on errands and caught 10,000 miles on the odometer en route to Topanga. We headed out to Lowes to pickup various stainless metric nuts and bolts for the exhaust re-install. I am still missing a few pieces, but hopefully it will come together nicely. Hopefully.

While crawling underneath the bus this afternoon, I realized that there’s something wrong with the thermostat. The cable that connects it to the air control flaps is cut, and the thermostat is expanded, which I would have never known had I not spent a bazillion hours on the vee-dub forums and 16 tabs open simultaneously on Google Chrome at any given moment. Also, I have a very uneasy feeling that the air control flaps are missing. I might have to take more apart to verify it, but I think I need to take things one step at a time before I get ahead of myself. Tomorrow I am going to dremel out a frozen bolt on the muffler strap. All of this is making me nervous.

I finally got around to disassembling the exhaust system of the bus, with the intention of boiling out and refurbishing the heat exchangers. It took me two beers and a few hours of squirming underneath the bus to get the (really) tight bolts out of the way and I got the muffler and exhaust system out eventually, sans three bolts. I dropped off the pipes at this place called L&M Stripping, which will strip out the rust, gunk, and the burnt oil residue that coats the inner walls of the heater boxes that my lucky passengers are inhaling if I choose to operate the heater. Hopefully it goes well. The next stop is getting them hi-temp ceramic coated. I’m scurred of putting everything back together, especially from what I read about exhaust leaks. I don’t really know my way around cars – with the Bentley guide as my bible, I just hacked at it with my socket wrench and put my faith in bahala na si Batman. Hopefully it goes well!

Vanessa is sitting in the garage on jack stands, ass in the air, without her rear wheels.

Rudy came over and hooked me up with a floor jack, and jack stands, even though I picked up a used set on Craigslist a few days ago. Since the clearance of the bus is so high, the 2-ton jack and stands I got would not even raise the bus an inch!

I got as far as removing two pieces of engine tin, and was working on loosening up some more bolts with the ratchet when the socket adapter blew out on me and essentially made me dead in the water. Not a big deal, since we already knew that I needed a 12/13mm wrench to take out the heat exchanger boxes completely anyway. Them nuts look rusted pretty tight.

I’m a complete mechanical n00b. The most exciting thing I’ve done is change a flat tire, second to replacing a valve cover gasket (which failed miserably and continued to drip oil on the exchangers). Somehow, I hope this would change slowly. As long as it doesn’t kill me, I’m good with that. Which is also a good reason (staying alive) I’m looking over the heating system – remember kids, carbon monoxide is a silent and odorless killer!

The cashier was finishing up with a customer as I opened the door of the gas station mini-mart. “Can you turn on the air for me?”, as he gave the lady her change. “I can’t. I don’t have a remote to turn it on.”. What a liar, I thought to myself, and hung around till the lady left so I can pump some air into the soft tires of the ’79 bus. “What about some tokens for the machine?”, but “None” was the reply. Lie. So I look him straight in the eye and tell him “It’s California law that your gas station needs to provide free air to paying customers.”

Anyway, he confirms that I had indeed just pumped some gas on station 4, and hands me two tokens. That’s right, beeyatch! So I smugly walk over to the air/water station, plunk in the change, and the machine whirs happily.

Vanessa’s Ass.

I plug the hose into the stem valve… and nothing happens. It’s broken.

Ugh.

Paul and Kat’s new living room accessory. He he he.

Pretty darn productive this weekend. Laid down the foundations and revamped Paul and Kat.com. Installed WordPress, that stuff is pretty powerful and slick! I might convert to a WP setup in the future and junk all this Blogger madness. I still need to debug against older browsers (i.e. I hate you IE 6.0), and start broadcasting our offerings of custom buttons and our upcoming ‘Make Your Own Fan Club’ shenanigan.

I also replaced Vanessa’s valve cover gasket, to remedy the small leak on the passenger side valve cover. It was pretty exciting since it’s the first time I’ve really opened anything of importance in the bus, even though it’s just a simple gasket replacement.

The mechanic used some yellow adhesive to afix the old gasket, which was an official PITA to remove. Took me some good elbow grease to get the mating surface clean and slathered on a thin coat of number 2 permatex gasket sealant to fix that puppy. While crawling under the bus my left shoulder started complaining, and I felt its weakness from last year’s dislocation accident due to unwarranted hand-stand-walking in a parking lot. Ahh, the bragging rights you earn when you get old!

Spent many hours on VW forums the past few nights, to read up about Vanessa’s intermittent smoke problem. My mechanic said it was being caused by all the crud on the heat exchangers, which was being burned off since hot air was now going through c/o of the alternator fan. He said it would eventually burn out, but I wanted to take matters into my own hands. I doused the right heat exchanger with Simple Green before dinner, but it seemed useless, so I came back with a toothbrush and some 409 degreaser – that stuff works wonders! Just a little dab and a scrub from the brush took out years of accumulated oil and grime, and I was kinda surprised it went down to the bare metal surface in some areas. I might add that twilight surgery is not very efficient, so I might do another session on a sunny day. Had I left that junk as is, there would have be no way for all that crap to burn out by itself. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, since the burning smoke made its way into the cabin through the heat vents and almost killed Peter Pan. Sayang.

Paul and Vanessa, April 2008. Photo by Kat :)