Catching Up…

Part One ~ Ready, Set, Go…

I had intended to keep the site updated on a regular basis, but you know how the best laid plans can go awry… It’s not like I’ve been slacking off or sitting on my ass. Well maybe just a little, but it did involve a lot of driving then looking at aircraft flying about.

This cycle of activity started with the last drive for the Rusty Westy on Wed. July 29th. The day began with me pulling the left rear wheel assembly off of the ’70 bus. The ’70 has drum brakes on all four wheels with the old style rims and the one piece brake drum that requires the axle nut to be removed to service the shoes. A massive pain in the ass in other words… That, and their stopping power sucks. So, after a final drive to Trail to visit the dump, up on blocks goes the ’71.

Next morning, both rear hub assemblies are removed and it’s officially never going to drive anywhere again. Parts of the frame are so rotten I actually bent it a bit jacking the thing up onto the blocks.

Thursday afternoon rolls up and it’s time to pack up and head off to work at Baldface once again for another action packed shift. The days up there just fly by as I have so much interesting work to do, which is part of the reason I enjoy being up there so much.

 

For example, I was given the task a few weeks back of branding 100′ of snowfence with the Baldface logo  so it could be used to demark the beer garden at the Shambahla Music Fest. After testing various spray paints for adhesion on the two kinds of snowfence we have up here, I built a table rig to streamline the process. It worked quite well and I burnt through four rattlecans of white, marking a logo every 5 feet or so.

That evening, I rolled the fence out in the upstairs hallway and ran my big fan to dry the paint completely. Next thing I know, it’s Monday (my Friday) again and I scramble to tie up as many loose ends as I can because… I’m off for the next 9 days! Tuesday I’m home, puttering about the house, clearing the decks and getting my shit together for the coming whirlwind.

Carrying on with the mission of upgrading the ’70 Bus with ’71 parts. First I throw the ’71 hub on its rear crank arm, install the new brake pads I had lying around (why not?) and button up the drum.

Now I have the newer style axle and wheel lugs, for which I have two complete spare sets of rims on my shelf. Next up the axle shaft CVs get buttoned up and the rear end is half back together. I fired up the old ugly truck to pull the Bus out of the shop so I can get to the other rear axle (motor’s out, remember).

Thursday morning, crack the axle nut, pull the old hub with the broken shock mount and install the second newer hub and brake assembly on that side. CVs on and it’s ready for the engine to go back in. But first, I have an Airshow to attend…

The Abbotsford Airshow beckons. McBain arrives around 5:00 and our excited chatter turns from prepping to leave first thing in the morning to leaving ASAP. Like two kids on Christmas morning we just can’t contain our enthusiasm, knowing we won’t sleep until our presents are opened. 9:00pm and we are ON THE ROAD! Well, not quite, we got three blocks before Rob remembered he’d left his sunglasses in his truck and I hadn’t printed out our tickets for runway seating, so now it’s 9:30 and we’re ON THE ROAD. this time for real.

Traffic was good at this time of day/night and we made great headway until about 2am. Just east of the Manning Park Lodge, we had to vent some excess coolant so I pulled off into one of the camping areas to do the deed. I realized I was getting a little toasted from driving and had been fighting the nods for a while so we made the executive decision to take a short nap before continuing westward.

Not willing to screw with our packing job in the back of the Bimmer to dig out a sleeping bag or blanket, I threw a fleece jacket over my legs and one two-hour power nap later we were both shivering in our seats. Start the car, crank the heat, next stop Abbotsford.