New Canvas

Well, I have been lax this year in updating the blog.  My apologies, if anyone is still reading of course.  A couple of things to get you up to speed.  I can’t remember if I mentioned this previously but the canvas in the pop top ripped earlier this year.  Not a huge deal but it was big enough that I had to slap some gorilla tape on it to keep it from ripping further. 

 

I ordered a new hemp blend canvas from gowest.com  It was a little pricey but I figured I wanted something that was durable, going to last and that was going to fit.  The canvas arrived a couple of weeks ago.  I called up my friend Matt and asked to see if he was up for some Westy work.  Thankfully he was up for it do I threw some beers in the cooler, grabbed my tools and headed out to Cochrane, AB to replace the canvas. 

Once I got there we got down to business.  We cracked a couple of beers and took a look at how to tackle this job. It seemed easy enough.  There was a gasket at the bottom of the canvas that was easily removed by taking out the Phillips head screws.  Then it was on to the tough part.  Taking off the top.  Let me say this for anyone thinking about replacing a canvas on the Westy pop-top… it can be done with 2 people but really taking that top off and putting it back on it a 4 person job.  Seeing as it was just Matt and me, we kept calm and soldiered on. 

We undid the bolts that held it at the top then went to work on the brackets that held it on at the bottom.  It was a little tricky with the bracket of the bottom due the strange angles and confined space but we managed. 

Once the top was off we took the old canvas off and went to work with our handy dandy staple gun attaching the new one.  Once we got the new canvas attached to the top we went about putting it back on the bus.  That was the hard part where having 4 people would have made a world of difference.  We got the top back on and all the brackets secured and went to work securing the bottom of the canvas to the bus. 

Overall it went fairly well.  Friday, I headed out to Dinosaur Trail Provincial park for a weekend of camping with a shiny new canvas. 

Busy weekend kinda…

 

Well on Saturday I was supposed to meet up with a friend and help him work on his bus but Mother Nature conspired against us and dropped snow in the Calgary / Cochrane area.  From what I understand Cochrane wasn’t too bad, but I had over 6 inches in my back yard.  Needless to say we put it off for a bit.  He’s in the process of putting in a new engine that will leave me in the dust.  I’ll be struggling to go up a hill without losing speed and he’ll be gearing down and actually ACCELERATING up the hill.  It’s the journey not the destination right?  RIGHT?!? 

He’s  also in the process of selling his other bus.  It’s a 1967 and it’s sweet.  Check it out.  If you’re interested drop him a line. 

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1292790

On Sunday I participated in Calgary’s 45^th annual pathway and River cleanup.  There was a group of divers that went in the river and braved the current pulling up trash from the river.  We had everything from cans and bottles to knives and a little model of a Hindu temple… seriously.   All in all we pulled about 500KG out of the river.  It’s amazing that in this day and age people still think it’s okay to litter.  Smokers are the worst… there were hundreds if not thousands of butts.

The blurb on the diving starts at about 5:16 on the video.  Check it out. 

http://www.globaltvcalgary.com/video/news+hour+may+6/video.html?v=2231586390

I of course had the Green Monster out for this.  Besides being fun to drive it was a great vehicle for getting geared up in scuba gear.  All in all a great day out on the river, even though it felt like being in a washing machine sometimes and my buddy twisted his ankle.  Hopefully Donnie takes it easy this week and gets some frozen peas on it and he’ll be ready to go when Lake Minnewanka opens up and we can camp and dive.  Good times!!!

Invasion of busses planned May 5th

Wow, what a dump of snow yesterday.  It kinda sets the invasion of the busses and bugs on the streets of Calgary back a little bit.  Probably only a few days though.  Speaking of an invasion, if you are reading this and in the Calgary / Southern Alberta area mark May 5^th @ 2:00pm on your calendar.  Thinking of an informal get together / flash mob of busses at Mckay’s ice cream in Cochrane, AB.   I’m just putting the word out now and I don’t know who or how many will show up but I think it’s be kind of cool to have an army of busses show up at a Southern Alberta landmark for an afternoon.  I’ll keep you posted as to level of interest and how it all works out.   Posted it on the local VeeDub club forum. 

http://www.clubveedub.ca/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=45721

Other than that, not much is going on this week.  I’m heading to Vancouver for a couple of days for work and in a really geeky kind of way I’m hoping to see some busses while I’m there.  I’ll take my camera and post pictures if I happen to see any.