Yesterday I removed the driver and passenger window roller, latch, and door pull to access the outside door handles to install key matched handles. Yes, I can finally lock and unlock my doors with a key now. Sort of. Not my driver side. Let me digress and say I had to order a spring for the key latch because it's 40 years worn, I can't turn the key on the outside and unlock it. I went ahead and ordered three new springs because...three is better than one? Because I don't want to eff it up and have to order another one and wait another week! And I figure I might as well freshen up the passenger door spring while I'm at it. Perfectionist.
Anyway...
Behind the panel lived an old school speaker so long ago forgotten which made me literally crack up out loud. Hello 1971! One tattered, torn (and paper pulp no less) 4" speaker pumped out Janis Joplin in 1971 and god knows what was the last song it played in his little lifespan. Don't worry Nigel; in one week you'll be fitted with quite the stereo setup and Janis, your music will not be heard without all the intention you sing with. I thought since I had the panels off, I might as well take some naptha and wipe around the edges of all the sticky dirt which accumulated over the years on the metal, so I did that. Pretty pleased. Then I took the panels inside and used an exacto knife to cut and shape the pieces of the fresh air arm rest which had been snapped in the same two corners on both panels so it looked like it never had snapped anywhere :) I'm crafty. Then I just took a brush and soap to them and cleaned the hell out of them. Then some vinyl treatment to give them a nice, new shiny look and smell. Beth resides in the side mirror by chance.
Today I drove to a wrecking yard. No. I drove to two wrecking yards and not one volkswagen was to be found. Not a bus, not a bug, not a ghia, not a thing, not a hatch, not a one. I found one 1300 bug engine lid by chance resting on a frontloader. I didn't have my phone with me or I would have taken a picture. It looked pretty cool sitting there. I also saw a really old and very unique jeep truck with a once gorgeous paint job in it's day. So, no random doohickey part. It is fun though, wandering around a salvage yard and looking at cars stripped of almost all things useable. So I returned home, disappointed I didn't have a box of random shit to add to my bus; disappointed I didn't even find a bus for that matter, and wondered what I was going to work on next. So I sat in the back seat and just looked around. And the back seat belts....OEM. So OEM their age had rusted them from being able to adjust to a wearer's waist size. So I thought I would take them out and soak them. Which, turned out to mean, I would have to remove the back seat. And to remove the back seat, I also had to remove the middle seat. Leaving me with this.....
Which was all fine and wasn't too difficult. I thought to scrub the seats with hot water mixed with fabric softener (soap? what is that?) and a giant brush so I could hose them off in the grass. After I finished that, I took the seat belts inside and scrubbed them from brown to black. More rust and dirt and crap came out of those things I ever could have imagined, but now they slide and adjust more like they should. They look great, and I just adore they have a 1971 made in germany tag on all three. Done and done.
I also christened my bumper guard bottle opener. At noon. With a Guinness. I beamed and scoffed. Howboutthat
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