66 Camper Bus "Bocephus"

Did you say the front rubbed when turning?

Man those corners are in really good shape.

Thanks Phillip! Engine will be going in as soon as I get the battery trays welded in. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks (I'm a pretty slow worker sometimes). Not sure about the front rubbing yet, but I don't think it will. Bob turned the wheel lock to lock while sitting in it as I checked for clearance and everything cleared with a little bit of room to spare. That could always change under driving conditions or braking though. I think it'll clear.

Yeah, the corners are pretty good. They have a few dings, but only a few pinholes I should be able to zap closed with the welder.

need to go down about 6-8 more inches looks good

Haha, I'd love to go 6-8 inches more, but that costs more money and time than I currently have. Maybe in the future, but for now I think I'll just let the air out of the tires when I get to the shows and then pump them up again when it's time to leave. I've got an old bicycle tire pump, so it shouldn't take to long.

Your Calf will be huge with that thing.

fluxcap wrote:Haha, I'd love to go 6-8 inches more, but that costs more money and time than I currently have. Maybe in the future, but for now I think I'll just let the air out of the tires when I get to the shows and then pump them up again when it's time to leave. I've got an old bicycle tire pump, so it shouldn't take to long.

thats half an air-ride setup Eric!! get some bags and you can hammer that thing!

Been a few weeks since I posted any progress. Been getting a little bit done when time allows.

Sanded around the antenna area cause I could see a few small bondo cracks. Ended up finding a few more antenna holes. The antenna that came with the bus was the 5-hole antenna, but apparently it also at one time had a 2-hole antenna, and a 1-hole antenna that mounted on the lip right in front of the window.


Cut a small piece of metal to fill the hole and started welding it up.


All done, picture is taken from afar so you can't see my horrible welding skills . It'll need a thin skim coat, but no where near as thick at the patch I took off.


Next onto the weird hole on the lip in front of the window. Metal cut to fit and somewhat shaped to match the contour. I bumped the metal around the hole in just a tad so that I can get a pretty thick bead on it and finish matching up the contour when I grind the weld down.


It worked ok, still gonna take a lil bit of filler, but not much at all to get it looking right.


A few more progress pics shortly...

That was a weird hole, lol
The things you do to your Bus while your Hopped up on that Wacky Weed!!

Looks like they changed from one type Antenna to the next till they found one that worked for them.

Well you fixed that hole in a hurry. Looking good.

I installed a hidden antenna on my 67 bus. Works as good as any other without having any holes in the body or issues with the safaris. Antenna cost about $29 on ebay. Also filled in my fried egg turn signals.

Looking good Eric. It's the small things that keep you going to the next item. At least they did not rivet one on as well.

Yeah, it was definitely an odd hole. I don't plan on having a radio, so I just filled them all up for now. If I ever decide to get tunes, I'll just do up an amp to run an ipod through.

After the nose was done, I move on to the passenger side. Removed the 8 screws that use to hold mounts for tent poles and also removed the 7 snap buttons that were riveted above the cargo doors (I did atleast have some rivets Phillip!).




Flattened a piece of copper pipe to hold behind the holes and went to town. Still got to get the rear ones once I remove the wardrobe closet.


Also welded up the two holes on the door from the giant truckers mirror that used to be on there.

Finally, I moved on to the battery trays. The passenger side one was one of the orange ones (don't know who sold it), and it fit horribly. But I got it in tacked in there. It was a pain in the but welding in the spot welds on the bottom side along the curve!

After a little paint.


And some seam sealer on the top and bottom to keep the water out. Need to go back and put a little paint on the seam sealer so it doesn't stick out so much.


Got the drivers side welded in just a few hours ago. Got a little phosphoric acid on it to kill any rust that may still be there and keep it clean until I get it cleaned up and get some paint on it. It was a black one and it fit 1000 times better than the orange one. They were both with the bus when I bought it, so I have no idea who sold the black one either.



Me and my dad pulled the z-bed out and figured out why it wouldn't lay all the way down. This catch piece was cracked at the red line and it had been bent into and L-shape instead of being straight. It's spring loaded so when the seat is pulled up it was falling back (due to being bent) and was blocking the seat from laying all the way flat.



The catch piece on the other side was completely broken off, so it was doing the same thing. Didn't get a chance to fix it, but nothing a couple of quick zaps of the welder won't fix!

Nice work!!

Looking forward to seeing it in person once its back on the road!

So close now....

No new pictures yet, but still slowly making progress. Between last weekend and this weekend I got a ton of screw holes in the floor welded up. Zapped closed the two two holes in the drivers door from the giant trucker mirror. Installed the master cylinder and finished running all the steel brake lines except for the right front one (i accidentally ordered the one from a later bus which is way too short). Also got about half way done with the mounting brackets for my z-bed. I'm using 1/8" steel plate squares that I'm drilling a hole in and then welding a nut to. I'm then tack welding this plate to the underside of the bus. That way it stays in place if I ever need to remove the bolts and take the seat out.

Finally, I spent the last few nights taking my headlights completely apart and getting the rust out of the buckets. Primed and painted the buckets and installed all new seals and rubber bits and added some Bosch H4 units I got from busdepot. I put these in my bug a while back and it was probably the best thing I ever did to that car. Amazing difference between standard headlights.

FYI, you can get brake line @ the local auto parts store in different sizes for reasonable $.

Well, I needed a few more tidbits, so I just threw it my WW basket the other day. Tried MYCO when I was up that way at PullaPart, but they didn't have it.

Good to know though, I never tried there cause I figured they wouldn't have the correct sized ends. I'll check there first next time!

Think they call them "euro" tipped lines or something like that. The main line in the square is one I got from NAPA and a few of the lines I had on the buggy came from Advance. Just gotta bring the one that doesn't fit up to the store so the guy @ the counter can match up the tips.

Hope you can find a local place to match the tips or just get them ordered.
Looking good Eric man you definately got bitten by the Bus Bug - Well you know....

Java green is a nice choice - of course 2 tone is not bad either.

If the brake lines flares are the same as a beetle, they are called a bubble flare. I went to Amazon and found a bubble flaring tool that makes the same flare, and wasn't real expensive. I was told they use this same flare on some Ford products. Should be an easy tool to find.

Thanks Randy! Still hoping to have it ready and road tested in time for Reynolds.

Yeah Jeff, they are the same. Does look like they have some fairly cheap ones (around $20) on amazon. May get one of those for future use. Thanks

I'm lazy. I just measure and get the length I need.

bumblebuggy wrote:I'm lazy. I just measure and get the length I need.

Plus, if you don't get the flare right, what a pain!!

Been working at my regular slow pace, a few hours here and there. Finally got the last of the brake lines installed. Still need to get some fluid in there and get them bled and adjusted. Also got my mounts for the z-bed tacked in place, so I can actually bolt it down and keep it in one place.

Started working on the front windshield area. Had a thin layer of old crusty paint and light rust at the bottom of the window area, so I went to town on it with one of those hard spongy disc thingys that fit in a drill.

Got it down to nice clean metal.


Had two really small pinholes on the passenger side lip, so I closed them up, and then treated the area with phosphoric acid to take care of any rust I may have missed. Cleaned that off, then filled in the pitting with some 3m spot putty. Then backed it over to the garage door, taped it up, and hit it with some primer and krylon.


My 3-point seatbelts arrived today, so tomorrow I'm planning on cutting small access holes in the lower b-pillars, fishing some nut plates to the upper B-pillar and getting my upper mounts in place, then weld up the access holes. Found a great how-to on the samba for this, so hopefully it won't take long. If that goes well, I'll probably start bleeding the brakes. Wish me luck!!!


I can work on the rest of the paint a little at a time, but been wanting to finish this are so I can get some windows in and actually drive it.
Windows in, all by myself, and didn't even break one!!!!


Now that I got the rear mounts for the bed in place, I went ahead and put the gas tank in. Had to wait a few more days as I found my old sender unit was completely gummed up and had no movement. Got the new sender in a few days ago, and got the tank in. The german engineers were good, but they really could have made just a little more room to get the tanks in. That was a 30 minute wrestling match, but I finally got the dang thing in place.

Looks good. Getting close now....what all is left?