Mikes Dual Cab

[John Jones]

#25900

Well here you are Mike…  Gonna get this rig apart and on a bus dolly today…  Front and center at KCW….  Thursday club status.. 😎

i see big nuts in the back, but early brakes up front, and that weird trw I think steering box…

What is your vision for this truck??

[Willy]

#25911

[mdubg]

#25920

So stoked that it’s my turn!!!!🤘🤘🤘
The previous owners have made some “upgrades” to the rig.  My vision from a mechanicals POV is to retain the big nuts, but I’d like to get both RGB’s rebuilt. I think the passenger side has some play that caused some tire balding when I bought the truck. After I got back to Dallas a Wagenswest front disc kit arrived.  With 2 little passengers, I want to add this non-stock upgrade.   I’ll need to send that your direction. That steering box swerves like a sailor on shore leave, so it needs to be rebuilt/replaced. I can’t have a steering that only takes suggestions from the driver. I’ve got the motor, currently a later model 1600 DP, here in Dallas. It’s going to be rebuilt locally here. Stance will be stock height.

From an exterior/bodywork perspective, I want it to look new, straight, and mostly stock above and below.  I’d like it to be monochrome, except for stock white accents (badge, bumpers, wheel, etc). Color will probably be a VW stock color, but not the L345 that is currently on it. I like a darker grey (mouse or pearl). As the gates weren’t OG and need some work, those will need to be sourced from Gerson. There is an ongoing thread on TheSamba about when seamed gates were retired by VW. We know that early Feb 1960 had seamed gates and March 1960 didn’t. This bus is a Feb 24, 1960 build, so I want seamed gates. Obviously, I want any cancer removed and replaced. I like a straight clean looking bed and engine compartment. The rear corners have some old patches and might have the tail lights mounted to high, I’d like those to look stock.

I just puked a bunch of thoughts and I’m sure I have a bunch more that will come up. Let me know if you have any other immediate questions.

I really can’t wait to see you guys make this ride new again!!! Bring on the updates!!!
​

[Scott Sain]

#25921

John he basically said lowered on detailed Fuchs with a 2276 and Dove Blue. No need to read through his long post.

 

[ColeB]

#25923

Scott Sain wrote:

John he basically said lowered on detailed Fuchs with a 2276 and Dove Blue. No need to read through his long post.

 

Dove Blue is always the answer

[mdubg]

#25924

Scott Sain wrote:

John he basically said lowered on detailed Fuchs with a 2276 and Dove Blue. No need to read through his long post.

I asked for that, for sure.  I’ll try to keep it brief going forward. The excitement got the best of me.

[Wren]

#25925

Beautiful Bus to start with. L31 for sure!

[John Jones]

#25932

Bus is pretty nice…. hard to tell if some work has been done before…..  we need to find you an original box to get rebuilt…

Sounds like you have a solid plan… Disc’s up front, big nuts in the rear… Like Nancy’s 57 kombi we did a few years back.. But I don’t know about that 1600… I hope it’s real flat where you live…. 😎  You don’t care for L345??  I haven’t seen many seamed gate l345 trucks…8-)  I bet most commercials were all L31 in the early days… 😎

[volksaddict]

#25935

Nice Truck!

I’m a fan of L345, mid March non-seamed gates.

[mdubg]

#25940

Nice pic!

If we can only find another late Feb build with OG gates.  Either way, I’m good.  My current logic is Feb ‘60 = seamed, March = non-seamed.  I just don’t know when the factory ran out of seamed gates.

[Franz]

#25941

How much assembly are we doing?

Should I send the transaxle center section for rebuild? It smelled cooked when we drained the oil yesterday. 3.88 ring and pinion?

 

[Pat K]

#25960

I’ve been stripping bed liner on this peach. Figured out a great technique of brute force and hurry the fuck up!!

Getting there.

 

Front floor will require the same. 😢😢

We will build it if it comes.

[Franz]

#25971

Some pictures from tear down yesterday.

[JWDII]

#25978

Man I love double cabs. Looking forward to this one.

[mdubg]

#25981

Amazing progress!  That bedliner is a pain in the ass.  I pulled and scrapped a bunch of it before I sent it your way.

If the trans is cooked, let’s rebuild.

It’s pretty flat here in North Texas.  Do you recommend a 3.88 R&P?  If so, what engine displacement pairs well and don’t say…

 

 

[jp]

#25983

|wesome| Double Cab!  I love the subtle grey paint L345!!  Can’t wait for KCW to do it up!!

also…/jelly

[Pat K]

#25990

Back to it.  Going to finish stripping bed liner this morning, then on to panels. Should have her mostly naked and ready for blasting by this afternoon.

We will build it if it comes.

[Franz]

#25996

Yeah I’d go 3.88 for a reduction box bus with .82 4th. Gives you a nice 65-70 mph cruising speed.

Engine wise. your 1600cc will be OK…but a 1914cc with dual weber 40 idf would be better. Like we build for most bus projects. Heater boxes and everything. Check out Bob’s bus, or some of the stuff in the gallery. Nice clean and functional.

[Pat K]

#26011

Hi Mike…

Finished stripping the bed mid morning. Started peeling the layers of love off  the shell since. This rig has had a lot of love over the years.

Looks like everything below the roof line has been stripped to bare metal previously. There were 7 or so layers down there. 

Roofs has had some love but never been stripped down to bare metal, so it has 11 or so layers on it. 

I’ll keep peeling the onion for a while more today.

We will build it if it comes.

[mdubg]

#26018

You guys are awesome!  Progress looks great.  I feel bad, first the bedliner, then the bedliner on the cab floor and now 11 layers of paint.  I bet you guys are glad it’s Friday.

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