1969 Deluxe "Grizwald"

Well, after the YUB show this year, I really started craving a new project and figured with the triplets in mind, I needed something bigger.  I sent Heidi off to a goo home who would take care of her and found a pretty solid early bay project.  Pretty bare bones and ugly a hell, but all in all pretty solid.  This is my first bus but I'm pretty excited about it and just going to take my time and do what I can, when I can.  My plan is to do the best garage restoration I can do on my own with the help of the awesome people from Georgia Dubs.
Just got it home this week and then had to go out on the road for a work trip so I have not had a chance to clean it up.  Here are some of the early pictures to start out.  Plan on trying to start cleanup this weekend as time permits.

How I found it at Airkooled Kustoms








My first ride










Best part, the triplets faces when I brought it home!!!


The worst part.... Notice the aluminum "welded" in!!!!


This is only the beginning.  Going to be a long process, but it will be a fun learning experience.  Will be leaning on a lot of you along the way.

I don't know if the aluminum is the worst part... Those seats are pretty hideous! 😜

It has potential. Looking forward to updates.

Looks good I know it will be a blast to work on it. Enjoy.

It looks like a good solid start.

After a short work trip, I got back late this afternoon and was itching to at least do something.  Went out and finished stripping everything out of the cargo area and getting all that I could out of the front floor to see just how bad it really is.  Even had a helper.  We were able to shopvac most of all the interior and get all the lose dirt out.  Will be pressure washing everything this weekend.



Cargo area is surprisingly solid.  I have a couple of places that I will need to address, but nothing a little sheet metal and a little welding won't fix.







And now onto the fun part.  Front floor...  Notice the aluminum "patches"!!!  Passenger side was actually "welded" in!




As much of a pain in the ass I know it will be, I think I am leaning towards Replacing the entire front floor instead of trying to patch it.  KLASSIC FAB, here I come!!  Will know more after I get it completely cleaned and pressure washed this weekend.

Looks like a fun project.
I would start a bus if I had any time to work on it.

Ladies and gentlemen... Grizwald is unofficially renamed Satan for a bit... this is gonna be a long strange trip Brian!

Just a quick update...  Got more cleanup done this weekend as time permitted.  Got the aftermarket seats out and the rest of the interior out before I took the pressure washer to the outside.  Some of the aftermarket paint came of with the pressure washer, but it still just added to the mystery of how many times this thing has been repainted.

Had to cut the aftermarket seats out...




Joel getting in on the action...


After I got the outside clean of the mildew and growing moss, I picked up some graffiti remover to see if I could get down to the OG paint.  After a couple of test spots, I am still scratching my head.



As you can see, it was pretty easy to get to some "blue" paint underneath the black and green, but here is what we ran into on the cargo door. As you can see, under the red is an awful green and under that is what appears to be a lighter blue respray.  What do y'all think?






As you can see in the last picture, when we hit the inside of the window with the graffiti remover, we accidentally got to bare metal.  Thoughts?

Man if you clean just right you could have one big tiedied bus rolling down the street.  

67vdub wrote:Man if you clean just right you could have one big tiedied bus rolling down the street.  

Yea, I really think there are about 5 to 7 different colors on this thing. You should see the flowers and musical notes painted on the drivers side. Can't wait to uncover those.

Brian I cant wait to see this bus on the road. Wish I had the patience to do a build or fix-up thread. keep up the good work.

Looks like you have been busy man. Let me know when the next work day is.

The lighter blue looks a whole lot better than the black and red! Did you get any of the trim?

Attorney Isaiah Loophole wrote:The lighter blue looks a whole lot better than the black and red!  Did you get any of the trim?

I got most of it, but a good bit of it is bent up (looks like they just pulled it off by hand), and a lot of it is painted. I'll get a picture of it later. Still have to see how much I'm missing.

Well let me know what you are missing.....I have some pieces that I have picked up when I can find them....the rear corner pieces are usually the hardest to get and the most expensive

Also Gary has the plastic clips available

A little paint stripping progress. This might be the slowest and most boring process.



The green layer is a real pain in the ass!!!

Took a break from paint stripping and started doing some digging around in the engine bay.  YIKES!!!!  Fun times ahead!

When you can't weld and need to fix your battery tray, just go to the hardware store and fab one up with some plywood and 2" x 4"!!!  



Thinking about putting this up on the classifieds.


These are the memories that will last forever with this project!  She gave up her nite nite show to help me take the old seatbelts out.  I broke them lose and she finished all of them.  Front and rear!

Just a quick little update...
Been traveling quite a bit for work so bus time has been a little limited.  In between all this time, Joel brought Velvet Jones over here for storage so I now have two busses at my house to look at.



We recently had a meet up of the Aircooled Airheads and got a little work done.  Best of all, I was able to get a lot of very good advice from quite a few bus owners on how to proceed.  Right now since its so damn hot, I am just working on stripping the paint still and then will start welding when the weather cools down a little.







I have one side almost complete and can see some light at the end of this tedious process.



After a long week on the road and the triplets birthday, I was able to get an hour or so free to get a little done.  I cut out the front windshield expecting to see some rot and holes, but was very pleasantly surprised to find only surface rust!!!  Was really dreading that fix and very happy I don't have to do it.  When I get back from my work trip this week, I'll get the wire wheel to it, ospho, rusty metal primer and continue stripping the other side.

Battery Tray....! I'm guilty in my old 78 bay...! It worked for me a long time.      

Keep up the Great Work. Looks real good. My bay has come to a crawl.

ping349n wrote:Took a break from paint stripping and started doing some digging around in the engine bay.  YIKES!!!!  Fun times ahead!

When you can't weld and need to fix your battery tray, just go to the hardware store and fab one up with some plywood and 2" x 4"!!!  



Thinking about putting this up on the classifieds.


These are the memories that will last forever with this project!  She gave up her nite nite show to help me take the old seatbelts out.  I broke them lose and she finished all of them.  Front and rear!

Just a little update from the last couple weeks. Went ahead and took the entire dash out. That was a little scary disconnecting all the wiring but guess I will just have to brush up on the diagram when I out this POS back together. Lol. Pulled the front bumper and after determining that I really can't save all the the og paint, I've taken a DA sander to it and getting it down as close to the og paint as I can. Getting my order ready for some new metal from gerson. Holding out for some donor doglegs for now and will probably just order the front floor for now.





Love my little helpers!




And a little work juice!!

Looking good. Pulling the harness is scary. What kind do you plan on getting to replace it? You must have had better weather over your way.

Dake wrote:Looking good.  Pulling the harness is scary. What kind do you plan on getting to replace it?  You must have had better weather over your way.

I'm sticking with the og harness. Everything seems to be there and not too hacked up. I'm not going to pull it at all, but it was unnerving unhooking all the relays and wiring under the dash so I could get it out. Kinda like stepping off into the unknown.

Just a quick update to keep this thread going and to document my progress...
Now that the weather is getting nice and its not a million degrees outside, I am starting to make some decent progress.  I have almost all of the black, green and red overspray off.




Damn this is so much easier with a DA sander.  All I have left is the rear quarter, lower front end and the roof (which I am not looking forward to).  Once I get it all off, I will feel much better.  I have decided to actually put a decent paint job on it that I will do myself, instead of doing a rattle can job.  I plan on matching the brilliant blue.  I will do white (haven't decided which white) from the trim line up and interior.  The brilliant blue will only be on the outside from the trim line down.

As many of you have seen from previous posts, the front floor is pretty much toast!  I had to take a break from sanding so I decided to start tearing out the front floor.  This is not for the feint at heart.  This is nasty and dirty grunt work and I fully respect the true pros that do this for a living!!


I am getting a lot of inspiration from Professor Dred's posting on the samba: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=391794&highlight=front+floor+replacement+rust
This has more info on this topic than I have ever seen!!!  I know it is hard work, but I am a firm believer in doing it yourself and learning as you go!  May not be perfect, but it will be built and not bought!!



I got most of the pass side out except for close to the nose and seat pedestal.  Will be taking the spot weld cutter to those places this weekend as the weather and Halloween festivities permit.  I have also been on the phone all afternoon to secure some donor doglegs from California.  Also will be placing an order with the main man Gerson for a new complete front floor.  He said he was out of stock and it would be at least two weeks, but I am sure it will be a little longer than that.  I can be patient though.

And of course no post would be complete with a little craft beer work juice.  This selection is from Southbound Brewing in Savannah GA.


Until next time!  Cheers to all of you that are watching this train wreck!  Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated!

The hard work is always worth it in the long run. Enjoy the updates - keep 'em coming.😃