Camping weekend

I was corresponding with a pal of mine who has been having trouble with his bus lately.  He had purchased a new engine for it, installed it but for some reason couldn’t get it running properly.  As it turns out there were a couple of screws that had fallen into the engine and toasted a couple of his pistons.  Kind of a pain in the ass.  He managed to borrow an engine from a pal of his and got it installed and it runs, in his words, “like a top”.  Good news since he’s heading camping with the family this weekend.

He said something interesting to me in one of our emails in reference to my post about the Westy I ALMOST bought.. that I am going to re-post here (with his permission of course).  I am going to edit out names but otherwise these are his words:

 It’s funny how these old things usually have ties to family memories whether it be directly or indirectly.  I think that’s what gives them their vibe and draws people to them.  I remember taking my son on his first camping trip in the Westy when he was 4 months old.  That was before I knew a thing about busses and I packed up the family and just drove.  It was a great fly by the seat of your pants trip and we had an amazing time.  I also remember driving it home in the middle of the night after holding my Grandma’s hand as she died.  I look at the memories I’ve had with the old machine and think of everyone else’s contributions over the last 45 years (51 in Mango’s case) and it’s pretty cool.  At the end of the day, they’re just hunks of metal but I’m convinced they do hold onto the vibe of their previous owners.  We’re just the stewards of them for a couple a brief period of time.  Each repair you do, each camping trip you take, it all adds to the coolness.

I thought this was very profound… Think about all t he stuff that you have done to your bus and all that has been done before you. Each bus keeps a little of the character of the previous owners and we are just the caretakers for the small time that we have them before we pass it on to someone else.  Very cool.  Thanks for that!

Well I am all packed up and ready to go for my camping weekend out in Drumheller.  It should be fun as there are going to be 9 of us all total and hopefully no drama..  I’ll take some pictures and post them on Monday or Tuesday when I get back. 

Have a safe weekend.

The Westy I ALMOST Bought

Back when I was contemplating making the jump into the world of Westys I had a couple criteria.  One, the Westy had to mechanically sound.  As I have mentioned previously I am not THAT mechanically inclined but I am reading “How to keep your VW alive” among others to learn.  I didn’t want to get something that I had to dump a lot of money into right away (hahaha…if you only saw the bills so far). The other criteria is that the body and interior had to be good to…again see reasons above. 

Indulge me as I take a walk down memory lane a little bit here…  I remember as a kid my Dad went to a car auction and came home with a 65 Corvair convertible.  Understand my Dad was always fascinated by older cars and was a bit of a gear head even though he never seemed to have the time or the money to spend working on a classic car. The first few years we took it out in the summers for the day but overtime it didn’t get used that much and spent more time under a tarp than on the road.  Just after Easter he passed away suddenly and I went back to Winnipeg.  I can’t remember which website this one was on but it was located in St.Andrews, Manitoba which is just outside of Winnipeg.  So while I was in Winnipeg dealing with family stuff I took a day (because I needed it!) and went to look at this Westy.

Overall it was in decent shape and had about 65000 original miles on it.  There was some road wear on it but not too bad.  I wasn’t keen on the configuration inside but everything was original.  One thing that scared the bejeezus outta me was that it had basically been sitting in a garage for the past several years and nothing had been done to the engine.  So not only would I have to get an out of province inspection done on it but I would have to figure a way to get my car as well as someone to drive the Westy 1400+ kilometers back to Calgary (that’s about 870 miles for you Yanks btw).  My sister offered to drive it out West but I couldn’t do that to her. 

Here are the pictures of what would, I’m sure be the Orange Monster…  I'm sure my Dad would have loved my Green Monster. :)

Camping weekend coming up!

As the long weekend approaches my preparations for a camping weekend begin in earnest.  The background is that my girlfriend shares the kids with her Ex in the summer and this year she has them for July and he gets them for August. Now they just returned from Norway last week and I promised them we’d go camping this summer.  Since there is only one weekend left in July it’s going to be this weekend in Drumheller. 

Camping on my own I can handle. 

Camping with my girl friend I can handle

Camping with the girlfriend, her three kids (yes three), her  friend and her 2 kids and potentially her husband, I am not so sure about.

Let me be clear we are not all cramming into the Westy.  I think three kids will sleep in the Westy and I’ll sleep in a tent with my girlfriend.  My girlfriend's friend and her husband and her kids will have to fend for themselves (and they don't have a Westy.. Mwaaahahahaha) 

I’m sure it will be fun but also a little chaotic. I guess the good thing is that in Drumheller there is a lot to do. Hiking, swimming in the river, the muesem, etc.    I’m just a little apprehensive because not only am I new to this camping thing (again), but also haven’t had that much experience with that many kids for so long.

 It scares the shit out of me!

So far I have had 3 different leaks in the Westy (fuel twice) and hopefully this weekend goes without a hitch as it’s the furthest so far I have ventured from Calgary in the old van.  It’s only about an hour and a half, but it’s further right?

Fuel leak… again

Well I got the leak at the front end fixed up and yes it cost me.  About $800 all in.  I’ll have to look at the invoice but it was essentially the steering control box and it couldn’t be re-built. 

Friday night I had planned to go camping out to Two Jack Lake as I was going to assist with a scuba class on the weekend.  I figured rather than drive back and forth from Calgary I’d camp and save myself some time and aggravation.  I left work @ 3:30ish on Friday afternoon and was ready to hit the road.  I drove home and started packing up the bus.  Now let me take you back to Wednesday… I was driving past the local A&W and there was a group of older cars there.  I stopped to have a look and they were as interested in the Westy as I was in the old Vette that was there.  One of the guys commented that he smelled gas… not I had just filled up the bus and a little bit of fuel splashed down the side so I thought nothing of it…   Flash forward to Friday again…

As I was packing up the back of the bus guess what I smelled…

So I looked under the bus and didn’t really see anything at first but the foam gasket that surrounds the engine compartment had a discoluoration.  I poked it with my finger and gas started flowing out.  I unpacked the van and started looking around the engine compartment with my flashlight to track down the leak.    Problem found!   It was fairly accessible and it looked like a simple repair.  So armed with a screwdriver and a piece of replacement hose I started the repair.  It took me a couple of tries to secure the hose without it leaking on me but I did it.   My first driveway repair on the Westy!!!  I’ll post pictures later on tonight or tomorrow for those of you that want to take a look and critique my repair job.

So feeling supremely confident and reeking of gas I had a quick shower, packed up the van and headed to the mountains.  I had a great weekend camping and no other problems with the Westy.  Did 4 dives over the Saturday and Sunday and helped certify 3 divers in their Drysuit specialty and 2 divers became Advanced Open water divers.   All in all good times. 

Leaking… not oil Damn it!!

I haven’t driven the Westy in a couple of days just had some things to do that required the other car.  I noticed that my driveway was getting all spotty with the leaks and such from the Westy.  I wasn’t too concerned because I KNEW I had a fuel leak, which has been fixed and I KNEW that the Westy sweats out some oil… no big deal right.

Now I noticed a spot under the front of the vehicle.  Its kinda right in the middle just in front of the tires.  I crawled under the front to have a look quickly yesterday.  I couldn’t find the source but it looks like a clear – yellowish liquid that’s coming from somewhere.  It’s also thick.  I have no idea what the hell it is. 

*****Added some pictures to give you an idea of where it's leaking from (you can see the spot on the driveway) and the approximate colour of it... yellowish. It seems to be collecting  anddripping from the towing loop on the underside****   Have an appointment to take it in to Concept1 here in Calgary on Tuesday.  Grrrrrr

I am starting to wonder if I made a huge mistake buying this thing.  Not only because I haven’t got a clue how to fix anything but also because I don’t have a garage, nor the tools to get in there and attempt anything myself.  I can’t really afford to keep taking it in to the local VW shop here and getting things fixed.  On the other hand, I have to get things fixed if I want to keep using  it… I'll try and get some pictures of it later and post them see if any of you have any suggestions.. (well my ONE faithful reader anyway)  :)

Problems in paradise

 

Good news last night I was at Lake Chaparrel here in Calgary finishing off my Assistant Instructor course for scuba diving.  So that’s done now.  It was a tough course but finally done.  Strangely it felt like a bit of a whirlwind and now all I have to do is get out there and start applying what I have been trained to do.  I managed to nail the skills… 5 out of 5 on one and 4.8 out of 5 on the other.

When I went to leave the lake I loaded all my gear in the Westy and started it up.  It started no problem but it seemed that it was idling very low and it stalled out on me.  It started again no problem but again idled low so I tried tapping the gas pedal to give it a little “Umph” but it stalled again…  grrrrr.  Third time however it started up and idled no problem and no stalls.  Hmmmm.  Not sure what would have caused this.  I’ll probably throw something up on the Samba website or the local VeeDub club and see if there are any suggestions out there. 

I feel like a bit of an idiot having to ask “what’s this for…” or “why is my Westy doing this…” but there is such a wealth of knowledge out there I may as well tap into it right?  Besides we weren’t all born experts.    I’ll update as soon as I have anything. 

WTF is this!?!

I was poking around in the engine compartment last night as I knew one a clamp had wiggled loose and needed to be tied down.  While I was in there I noticed THIS….

I had a local shop here do an inspection and nothing was mentioned but I can’t help but think that components in the engine compartment shouldn’t be held together with duct tape.  I suspect that this is part of the fuel system to handle vapour (notice the Canadian spelling) when the gas expands.  The bus runs just fine with it bodged up so I am not going to touch it for now.   Here are some more pictures as I followed the lines back a little bit.  Any thoughts / comments would be appreciated. 

Now that the door handles are replaced the next project will be the vent windows (I ordered the latch kits for the yesterday).  Should be a bit of an adventure but should be able to handle it.  Baby steps right?  I mean how hard could it possibly be?

Camping August long weekend... YAY(maybe)

I committed to this… or perhaps I should be committed for this but I am going camping to Drumheller, AB on August long weekend.  That wouldn’t be so bad in itself but it looks like there are going to be 5 kids as well.  They are already calling dibs on the top bunk in the Westy for the weekend.  As far as I know only 3 kids are staying with me in my campsite so it’s not THAT bad but the logistics are getting complicated.

Here’s why.

The kids want to sleep in the Westy.  3 kids  leaves no room for me or my girlfriend in there so we are in the tent.  Do you trust kids in there by themselves?

We could disappoint the kids and stick them in the tent but then their mother would be up all not with irrational ears of them being eaten by bears or whatever else lurks in the night.

Maybe I’ll sleep in the tent and leave the Westy for the kids and their mom…

Any thoughts?  Recommendations?  Come on faithful readers I need something here.

Green Monster vs. Green Lantern

I have no question in my mind who would win.  The Green Monster.  I went to go see the Green Lantern last night and to sum it up in a word... lame.  Now I'm no movie critic but the movie really dragged in parts and really felt like it was about an hour too long.  I am not going to spoil it for you by telling you the ending but how he defeats the main villain is really lame and anti-climactic.  That’s my two cents worth anyway.

I have to get under the hood of my bus this week.  There’s an air hose that’s rattled it’s way loose that needs to be clamped down and there’s some general tweaking that I want to do.  There’s also some strange unknown thing that’s just kinda hanging out in the engine compartment that’s held together with duct tape (I’m not kidding, apparently it was a quality repair job that was done previously).  This isn’t a picture of my engine but if you look at the top of the picture there’s that yellow hose… I think that’s it.  I’ll take a good look at it on Wednesday night and get some pictures of it. 

Other than one or two nights coming up this week there might not be too much going on here.  The Calgary Stampede starts on Friday and Wills and Kate will be here (yawn).  Oh, and I have a poker tournament on Saturday at a friend’s place.  Last year I finished a disappointing 4^th (the top 3 got paid).  This year I WILL finish in the money. 

More to come later….

Oh and before I forget, I saw pictures of the new concept camper / Westfalia.  Not bad.  Let's see if someone actually puts it into production.