The Buss-E '71

[snow_pikey]

Very tasteful custom bus 8)

I dig the tent too :lol:

 

[Buss69]

Very tasteful custom bus 8)

I dig the tent too :lol:

Cheers, my neighbours don't seem to dig my green tent, been complaining like a bunch of bored morons, hey ho.

 

[mozzie]

Sounds like your neighbours need to get a life complaining about something thats not even in there yard :roll:

 

[andewilson]

dont listen to your neighbours mate. tents all good. i could do with one for when i evict my bus out of the workshop then build my new one. as the time in between is probably going to be a good while.

what did it cost and where did you get it from mate?

 

[Buss69]

Sounds like your neighbours need to get a life complaining about something thats not even in there yard :roll:

Yeah, I agree. Hasn't stopped them behaving badly though. I'm sure after the dust has settled it will be fine, fingers crossed.

 

[Buss69]

dont listen to your neighbours mate. tents all good. i could do with one for when i evict my bus out of the workshop then build my new one. as the time in between is probably going to be a good while.

what did it cost and where did you get it from mate?

Cheers dude. It's brilliant and has already proved it's worth, I bought direct from Protech shelters and I think it was about £700. It measures about 3.8 x 6 metres, the bus fits in really well with room all round. Took two of us a day to put up in the rain! Occasionally protect do offers on these so well worth checking their website.

 

[Buss69]

Damn I gotta vent, progress of late has been slow, to say the least. The loom man came round and fitted the loom he had made with a whole bunch of extras I requested, first day went well, second day late start as loom man got stuck in traffic on way to my place. Started to snag the install of the loom and got nearly all the lights working, then moved on to ignition. Got it all connected turned the key and things looked hopeful but the bus would not fire (did turn over well though). Blank looks all round, quick fiddle to check connections and then another try... Nothing. Loom man says that he reckons it's my electronic ignition, although I'm not so sure as it's virtually new and only done about 1000 miles. He then suggests that i call out the AA, hang on aren't you an auto electrician says I? He says yeh, but that's a mechanical problem, and I'm off home now, see ya. Now the last time I checked when I had a problem like this it was the ignition, so I go through all the checks to work out if it's the ignition, it's isn't!
Cant do much with regard to loom man as he is on holiday for two weeks and I'm well busy at work.
Two weeks later decide to check out install of loom in detail assuming it's all good. Horror of horrors the loom has been routed badly, strangely not following the original route and goes through the middle of the front beam (between the two torsion bar tubes) and sort of wraps over the the brake master cylinder then at the back wraps around the rear brake pipe. I then decide to check over why some of the dash switches are not working and also check the rear light clusters as they also have problems. Without a new wiring diagram or colour code for the new wiring (which has been harmonised to match modern wiring) I have now spent 3 days redoing the "experts" work and discovered that at the last count he has made a total of 16 connecton errors (so far), one being the ignition switch being connected wrong, completely left out wiring for my oil cooler fans and dash fed (and fused) electric fuel pump and the list goes on.
I contacted loom man to say that I had discovered some errors and not being best pleased could he sort out the issues? His response was curt to say the least, and he'd get back to me, that was two weeks ago.
Now a few of you are probably thinking why not do the job yourself, well normally i would but this once thought, blow it I'll treat myself. What an ***** I should have done it myself I've wasted far too much time rectifying mistakes that should not have been made and to make matters worse I paid for the loom and install in advance, basically it looks like I'm F**ked!
So if any one out there is thinking of getting a loom made and installed, have a really good think about whether you actually need to do it, dont pay in advance and install it yourself!
You have been warned.

 

[moler]

Sorry to hear you've been done by what sounds like another 'in it for a quick buck' merchant :shock:

An while I wouldn't necessarily encourage you to name and shame, how about telling us who you wouldn't recommend? :msn4:

 

[Buss69]

Sorry to hear you've been done by what sounds like another 'in it for a quick buck' merchant :shock:

An while I wouldn't necessarily encourage you to name and shame, how about telling us who you wouldn't recommend? :msn4:

Hmmm, before I do suggest who I wouldn't recommend I should give said loom man a chance to redeem himself, if he has not so by the end of the week then perhaps I may be dropping a few hints. Let's see if my most recent email has got through and appealed to his better nature.

 

[gninnam]

Fingers crossed for you and hope you get the right result with the loom man

 

[mozzie]

That's unlucky mate hope you get it sorted out soon. Guys like that give me the *****

 

[Buss69]

OK I think another week going by and my bus still not on the road is enough justification for naming and shaming. The only problem is I'm feeling guilty about writing this so rather than publicly naming the person/ company that has performed the "loom replacement" on my bus, anyone who wants to know who it is Please PM me and I will gladly tell you who to avoid.

The weird thing with all of this is, some of the work is really tidy, nicely labelled and some of it is just plain wrong. I guess I just got unlucky, oh well, another quick buck merchant walks free.

Now I'm going to do it all again, myself!

 

[Haveacamper]

hey mate,

have you managed to get the wiring sorted for new dash?

 

[Buss69]

hey mate,

have you managed to get the wiring sorted for new dash?

Not yet, I've got some time off in Jan and gonna try then.

 

[Haveacamper]

cool. this is one of the threads i like to keep an eye on so dont keep me waiting too long

 

[Buss69]

Righto, after what can only be described as an infuriating summer and still no bus on the road, I've taken matter in to my own hands (like I should have in the first place!).
This is what the utter t**t that did my wiring left me with,

Nothing was routed right, and I lost count of the incorrect connections.

Although I'm (still) pissed off, some of the loom makers install did work. It's because of this I had a bit of a dilema. Do I trust this new loom to do the job properly? Do I simply add to it and include all the missing cables that should have been included? Or do I rebuild the entire thing? As far as I'm concerned the only thing I could do was start again.
First thing was to run through the loom mans entire loom to work out what was wrong and wasn't. After some fiddling I got quite a bit of it to work, I then pulled the whole lot out including the dash. One of the many problems with this loom was that it had been made just a little too short and I was having difficulty mounting it in the original position.
I ran a new cable from the position of the new fuse box (which incidentally I have now decide to put somewhere more accessible) down the original cable path and using a Dymo label printer (£40 on ebay) I marked off where each breakout in the loom occurred.

I then screwed this to the floor of my bus shelter. At each breakout I fixed a small eyelet to the floor, marked it, loosely stuck a tie wrap through it and then proceeded with the task of adding new wires to build a new loom.

It took a while! Before I added a new wire I checked it against the Loom makers loom, checked to see if that wire had done it's job, noted the colour (as the new loom colours are now modern and not VW original), checked it off against all 3(!) of the VW wiring diagrams I have for my bus (Weird '71) and only then did I stick a new cable in. As I went, I labelled each end of the new cable.

After one very long day I had layed all my cable :lol:

I have now spent another day sheathing the lot. So far I've managed to do everything towards the back from the starter motor right the way to the reverse light which is almost the longest cable run. I've got the main body to sheath yet but that will be pretty straight forward compared to the rest.

At the moment the front end of all the cables have no connection. Originally I was going to run each cable direct to the fuse box or dash, but I've decided against this. If I have got anything wrong it will be easier to change in a connection block than at the back of the fuse box. Seeing as VW used an intermediate connector I figured I would do the same. Hopefully a bit more this week and then I can get on and redo the dash and fuse box. , phew at last I'm back on it.

 

[andewilson]

proper job mate. if you want a job doing, do it yourself and all that.

at least you stand a chance of it seeing the road this year.

 

[gninnam]

Top marks to you for trying to sort out the crap.....
I reckon it will be pucker when finished.

 

[creationblue]

Top work mate, that would fry most peoples brains :lol: I strangley enjoy it :msn4: gutted about your loom woes :?

Just

 

[Buss69]

Cheers boys, the words of encouragement and interest are what has spurred me on. Finished the rest of the rear loom on Wednesday before work, I'll post some pics tonight when I get back from work. P