In reply to Toyman01 :
In reply to akamcfly :
I'd love to have one. They aren't cheap.
I grew up with an ammonia fridge in our deer camp. I loved lighting the burner to keep things cold. One of the things that kept me curious.
Toyman01 said:In reply to akamcfly :
I'd love to have one. They aren't cheap.
There are diy construction videos on youtube... Also wondering if they're rentable.
Then again, you may have no trouble. I would also like one, but I'm not doing enough stuff like this right now and for a while. House stuff mostly, and I'm ok with that. :)
In reply to akamcfly :
I've seen the DIY stuff.
And it's definitely going to be a problem. I worked on it for a hour Sunday afternoon and nothing broke loose. I've soaked everything PB and I'll be working on it over the next few days to see if I can get them out without breaking the bolts. The new manifold won't be in until Wednesday.
Toyman01 said:In reply to akamcfly :
I've soaked everything PB...
My conspiracy assertion (not a fully formed theory) is that all penetrating oils are a a means for "big oil" to have us dispose of their refuse. They don't do anything beyond making seized parts into oily seized parts.
akamcfly said:Toyman01 said:In reply to akamcfly :
I've soaked everything PB...
My conspiracy assertion (not a fully formed theory) is that all penetrating oils are a a means for "big oil" to have us dispose of their refuse. They don't do anything beyond making seized parts into oily seized parts.
The only one I have ever had success with is Kroil. That stuff usually works.
Toyman01 said:In reply to akamcfly :
I'd love to have one. They aren't cheap.
Hmm, amazon prime has them at $375
Soak them and run the engine to heat cycle it. I once had to remove the original exhaust manifolds from a '66 Mustang 289. This was around 2001, so they'd been on for 35 years and looked very angry. One side had completely cracked in half. I soaked all the bolts in PB Blaster for a week, and would occasionally start it to heat cycle it. I went slow and didn't break a single bolt. You can also turn them clockwise a little bit to help them break tension if they're really stuck.
Heat cycled today after soaking most of yesterday and today. One bolt loose, one snapped. These are some of the softest bolts I've seen.
I'm stopping and this will wait until after this weekends trip to the track. Everything is tightened up and the broken bolt replaced with a c-clamp. I don't want to be trying to drill bolts out Thursday night so I can hit the road Friday. Better a cracked manifold rather than no manifold.
I just did the 50-50 ATF and Acetone thing yesterday and it worked a charm. Why that stuff is not sold pre-mixed I cant figure out.
Pete
Trip number 2 is done. It wasn't quite as trouble free as the first, but at least all the issues happened in the yard before we left.
This was another trip to the track for a SCCA TT event. My wife and 18 yo son were driving in it and we were going to camp at the track again.
The new fridge worked perfectly. The plan was to run it off of an inverter while under way. That plan ended in a rather stinky cloud of smoke as my inverter promptly went up in smoke Friday afternoon. Not the end of the world since I had a hitch carrier and could just run one of the generators that was sitting on it.
I had started SanFord to warm it up. While I was factoring on the refrigerator/inverter/generator situation, the main engine coughed a couple of times. Just as I was walking up to the front to check the gauges, it shut down. We went from ready to pull out of the yard on a 2.5 hour drive, to crank no start. 
I had just gone through the ignition and put a electronic ignition kit in it, so my first guess was carb or fuel. I pulled the breather and had my youngest son pump the throttle. It was getting plenty of fuel. So I pulled a plug wire and had him spin the engine over to check for spark, and it started on 7 cylinders. It was running, but poorly. While I was checking things, it shut down again. No spark. Something was getting hot and failing. At this point I'm thinking coil or the electronic ignition module, so I sent my daughter to the FLAPS for a coil, points, condenser and resister and started pulling the coil. Low and behold, I found a broken connector on the positive lead between the coil and the resistor. I swapped in the new coil, threw the rest of the parts in a cabinet and we hit the road much later than I had planned.
There have been comments made about the quality of the headlights on SanFord before. It turns out the voltage regulator was dumping 16 volts to them. I've since replaced it and the headlights aren't bad but they aren't as bright as they were. The set of Hellas certainly do help. No complaints in that department.
Another small issue was the wipers. I replace the arm and blade on the wiper and while not great it was adequate on the way up for the shower we encountered. This morning we woke up to the remnants of a tropical depression moving across the Southeast. Lots of rain. As we were pulling out from the track, I turned the wipers on and it didn't move. Turns out the brand new arm had failed spectacularly. No way to fix it, no luck tracking down another. It doesn't matter how much RainX you have when the windshield is vertical. Driving home without wipers sucked hard. Wipers are going to the top of the list.
The rain also found a new leaks. Notably the window at the foot of the bed. At about 3am this morning I woke up to wet feet. I'll have to figure that out pretty quickly. It was probably caused by the canopy that was set up next to the bus. It was directing water onto that window and was more than the gasket could stand.
All in, another great trip. Looking forward to the next one.
Bus looks real good. Glad your using and enjoying it and working out the bugs along the way.
Wow its been a year, what ever happened to this great Bus restoration?
In reply to Ford52PU :
Back burner with the fairly recent acquisition of a newer and way closer ready to use RV last I saw.
A question about SanFord popped up in another thread and I realized a lot of you were probably wondering what happened to him in the last year or so.
SanFord was and realistically still is an enormous amount of work. I was spending more time trying to get him ready for the next trip than actually making those trips. Hence the purchase of the Blunder Bus. I didn't want to end up a old man wishing I had taken some of those trips rather than spending every free moment working on a project so I could take them.
When I bought him I figured it was a 10-15 year project with long periods of time I wouldn't work on him. This is one of those times. I'm 4 years into the resurrection and have reached a point where the next few steps in the process are huge. The drivability problems need to be addressed. Yes, a modern engine and transmission would help that some but he would still not be a pleasant vehicle to drive. There are virtually no parts available for the front axle so adding power steering or better brakes is out they don't even make a kingpin kit for it anymore. The rear axle has the wrong gearing for modern roads and it's pretty obsolete as well. So that would mean a engine swap and then swapping out the axles, springs, steering, the entire braking system (again) and trying to marry all of those parts into a chassis that is 64 years old.
I'm leaning more and more toward swapping the entire chassis, engine and all. A mid 90s Ford F53 chassis like what is under the Blunder Bus is almost a perfect fit and they drive very well. That gives me disk brakes on all four corners, power steering, automatic transmission, and something I can get parts for just about anywhere. I'm currently keeping an eye out for an inexpensive donor. I'm also considering gutting the interior and starting from scratch. That would let me fix the dents in the roof, spray in foam insulation and make the interior more usable.
There is also a problem of where this major undertaking will happen. I'm about 1.5 years away from selling this house and moving to the family farm. I probably won't start this transformation until that happens. There is a 60x80 shop on the farm, that I could use to do the work rather than spreading it all over my too small back yard. I just don't have the space to lift the body, remove the old chassis and roll under the new one. Not to mention the city I live in, while fairly lenient, might have a problem with it. My house happens to back up to property they own and I already push my luck as it is.
So, don't count him out just yet, but also don't expect a whole lot of progress in the near future.
SanFord got some love this afternoon. He's been sitting behind the shop mostly ignored for the last year.
The good news is the paint is holding up very well and with all the leaks stopped, the interior is still in good shape.
A jump and a cup of gas down the carb and he fired right up. Raring and ready to roll. Over the next couple of weeks, he will get a check up and be driven down to the family farm. Might have to stop by a campgound or two on the way.
The return of one of GRM's most truly epic threads. Ironic, really on an autocross forum.
All Hail Sanford!
It is with some sadness and self-disappointment that I'm going to be putting SanFord on the market for sale. I'm tired of always working on projects and never playing with them. It's been years since I've worked on it and it is time for someone else to push this rock up the hill. I'm not going to be the one to take it to the next level and it is languishing behind the shop. While deterioration hasn't quite set in, it won't be long before it turns into a basket case. This weekend I'll be dragging it out from behind the shop and getting it running for the next person with the ability to see the possibilities.
It will be going on Marketplace for about $15k next week. If any of the GRM crew is interested, let me know. I'll discount it a lot to keep it in the family and throw in the 2006 Ford diesel shuttle bus as an engine doner to boot.
Stampie needs this to live in at his new property.
In reply to wvumtnbkr :
1000%. I couldn't think of a better home for SanFord.
Scotty Con Queso said:In reply to wvumtnbkr :
1000%. I couldn't think of a better home for SanFord.
or for Stampie!
Dang it.
One day I hope to have a bus like that. I'll convert it to a kick-ass mobile tiny house.
...but I can't do a project with a $15K starting point.
Sad to see the end of a dream, but respect the decision to move on. Good luck with the sale!
In reply to SV reX :
The GRM price will be much lower than $15k. Like $9k or so.
In reply to Toyman! :
You said motor donor...
Is the motor bad?
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