Welding the rear shock mounts

Teen trip

First of what I assume will be many youth group trips with the bus. We took 20 teens ( around 8 in Ginger) to Carousel Park and Andy's Custard (which opened Wednesday). They loved it! Greg our preacher showed up and he took her for a spin, as did my son Sam and his buddy Jon. Good times!

Go see rat well!

Richard Atwell, at www.ratwell.com is a great resource for vw owners. If you haven't gone there yet, get there soon. Image taken from his website.

Blown shocks

I've had her almost a month and improved a lot so far. But she had a persistent nagging banging noise when I went over bumps. Had my broher in law bounce in the back seat while I looked around. The rear shocks are completely ripped from the mounts. In fact, some time in the past a reckless driver tore a chunk of the body out with the shocks and never repaired it! I have a good friend, neighbor, elder of the church, co-counselor at bible camp, most interesting man in the world. I called him up. He can weld it if I find an arc welder. Another church buddy says we can use his at his sign shop! Brothers taking care of brothers. Guess I'll learn about welding tomorrow!

Ratty rear

The rear cargo hold is nasty. Scratched. Oily. Dirty. Moldy. Water stained. With a little ingenuity this is fixed. Aparrently, the back of the rear seat and the hatch area had been covered by a grey felt- like material. I sprayed the sides and seat back with black spray paint. Cut some grey-blue indoor/outdoor carpet to cover the hatch. Looks a lot better. Carpet can be removed easily, rolled back to access the top engine hatch.eanwhile, I roll in style!

Ginger has her first breakdown

Barring an act of God, which I believe could happen, I want to go to Eureka Springs with Ginger and Amber, and whoever else in the family wants to go.  It is the 20th anniversary, and I have never had a vehicle cool enough to be in a car show, but Ginger is the one.

Shine chrome

Used water and squares of foil! The foil is not as hard as steel, so it turns into a fine abrasion, no scratches! Shined the 1st one in about 5 minutes! Do not use much pressure.   I was amazed... Found the instructions here.  They were for a bike, but this is amazing.  I will never clean chrome any other way ever again.  ever.  Thats how good it is.  Pictures do not do it justice.

Logo mounted.

Gorgeous!  It was in the glove box!  Why would you keep it in the glove box?  Yes, the previous owner was a girl in college, but seriously?  I heard these get stolen all the time, so I used jbweld and called it done.
This is the first time I got her out of the house for a sunday drive to church.
Bruce the decon of mechanics looked at the engine and said it looked pretty good.  It made me feel sooo good to hear him say that!  Just add a triple dose of fuel injection cleaner next time I fill up. I did.  IT WORKED GREAT!  At the time of this picture, she had been sitting unused for a year, and I owned her for a week.  She could not idle.  Now she is purring like a kitten!

Fixing the front door handle and greasing the lock

It is always a little scary when you start pulling out what seems like perfectly good parts.  But when I bought her, this door did not work.  I had to open her up and figure what was going on. I removed the interior door lever and window winder, then I used a screwdriver wrapped in electrical tape to wedge under the pins, then put the panel aside.  Unscrew (unallenwrenched) the handle, and lo and behold, the lever to open the door on the outside was split in half.  JB weld.  no. Broke again.  JB weld.  No, broke again.  Cut down scrap metal and JB weld with patch on the outside.  Let cure for 48 hours.  YES!!  I have a functional door!  Reverse everything, get her looking pretty again.

Cleaning.

She looks good. She will look phenomenal clean!  I think I got her for a good price because she was so dirty and unkempt.  I used some elbow grease and cleaner, and she looked  100 percent better. Mildew gone.  Haze removed.  Buildup unbuilt.  Maybe I should get some car shine stuff? 

Ollie in the bus!

Every time I need to go somewhere with my 5 year old, she demands we use the bus.  It is the middle of July, and the temps are at  101-105 this week, but she loves it, and so do I!  So here we go!

Mystery machine!

This is at Six Flags at St. Louis!  I was kinda freaked out because It is almost identical to mine!  It has the cargo rack, missing the mirrors, and has the wheel in the front.  Oh yeah, the rear windows and paint job to. But they are like twins!  My name is Fred.  Who drove the Mystery Machine? Thats right, Fred.  Who was the love interest of Fred?  Daphne. Or Wilma.  Or Ginger.  My Mystery Machine is named Ginger.  Here is the Six Flags version.

Finding my bus, or she finds me.

Quick story of how we got her. 

All the kids were gone.  I don't know how we managed that.  It was July 5, we had just cooked up frog legs at my brother-in-laws yesterday.  The mrs. and I left a thrift store unsatisfied.  So we decided to go to a flea across town.  On the way we pass a used car lot and there she sat.  Amber says, "You would look cute in that. Wanna go take a look?"  For real?  180 degrees!  Looked her over, liked her, left, fetched Ollie, and found she was at a great price.  Talked it over at night, went over right at the beginning of the day to get one more test drive while the bank processed the loan.  By 5 pm she was ours.  Anyway, the boys returned the next day and were shocked!!  Brody already plans to drive her to school when he can. I think it would be great to loan it to him for a couple years, as long as she comes back to me...