Last Friday, Noah and I met up with Eric and we went out to his parents place to borrow a truck and trailer so we could move my single cab into my garage. Eric and his Mom were kind enough to help clean off all of the stuff (the weekend before) that had accumulated on the truck since the last time I had worked on it. We went and borrowed Adam's enclosed trailer and checked out his various projects. He's currently working on a double door panel that's in pretty decent condition. He's stripping the many layers of paint off so he can get back to the original dove blue that is hidden beneath. He had a couple sections finished and it looked pretty good. We also checked out his freshly painted Double Cab that is just gorgeous (sorry no pics of it). It was good to see that Eric's DD Panel hadn't rusted away outside the barn.
We loaded things up and we were on our way, until we noticed out trailer lights weren't working. Back to the house and we found that the wiring was jacked up near the trailer door opening so Eric quickly fixed that and then we were on our way. It was pretty late by that time so Noah curled up in the back with Cricket and slept the whole way to Milwaukee. We got in late and went straight to sleep.
The next morning we got up early, unloaded the SC and pushed it into the garage. Maya played with Cricket and finally warmed up to him. Eric and I went to the studio and picked up my "new" transaxle so I would have it at home for a future tranny swap. Eric had to get back to Chicago, so he didn't stay long. I got to work on taking out the old transaxle and swapping in the new. I was able to do this by myself in about two hours (surprisingly enough). I bolted up the new wheels/tires and then got to work on taking out the front beam. This took a bit longer due to all of the linkages and wires running through everything, but I was able to get the new beam that I built bolted in by the end of the day. The kids came out and played inside the cab once I put my new seats in that I had finished a year or two ago. I decided to clean some old paint off of the dash and got it looking really good. A coat of wax should seal it and keep it looking really good. I threw the front tires in the wheel wells so I could get a feeling for what it would look like once I had the trailing arms, spindles and disc brakes on. Those will be coming soon. I'm hoping to get the engine in as well so I can had the single cab moveable under it's own power as I strip the body back to bare metal. This should help me keep on the project if it's functional. Eric and I have talked a lot about how having something in a working state makes the project not seem so daunting. The sheetmetal is actually in good condition; it looks worses than it is. I have most everything patched up and repaired minus a few seams that need ground. The gates are in really bad shape, but I haven't touched them since getting the truck. I should be able to fix them though.
Many VW bus owners roll their busses rusty but have solid drivetrains and solid brakes; hopefully I can do the same for a while.
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