Slept in late as usual on a Sunday morning and got a call from Madalynn’s dad, who was going to leave early that morning for LA to go to the Getty Museam. I’d borrowed his Cannon, 70-200mm, 2.8f USM IS L lens for use photographing my friends Anna & Baimba’s wedding and needed to return it. I also had made plans to go to Bruce’s shop and meet him in person and Bruce told me on the phone that he’d be able to do 10am.
I got the bus ready for it’s first delivery and went to fire up the engine. It would turn over, but wouldn’t start the engine. My Dad drove his Tarus over and we tried to jump start it, but it still wouldn’t fire up. After a few minutes we decided it was best to leave it and go with the Tarus. I got to Randy’s a few minutes later and ended up talking for about an hour.
Afterwards I headed back home and tried to fire up the bus to go over to Bruces’, but it still wouldn’t cooperate. My Dad and I headed over and met the crew that hangs out at Bruce’s shop on Effie. He’s a nice guy and has a great setup for hot rodding vws.
When we got back to the house we decided it was best to test the new starter. So we pulled it and the battery and went over to Sebring West, which tested both and the hybrid starter worked like a champ, but the battery was at the end of it’s life. Rod at Sebring said if it hadn’t been charged before that we should try charging it. I picked up some engine tin seals, which my bus is missing and some odds and ends like a fuel filter and headed back home.
By this time it was 3:30pm or so and we stuck the starter back in and tried jumping it again. This time my Dad connected both terminals on both cars (a practice that we always thought wasn’t correct) and this time the jump started the bus. We fit the rear apron on and bumper and cleaned up a bit for dinner. Basically a minimal day of work on the bus, but we knew that the Hybrid starter that Wayne built was strong and the root of our problems was a bad battery.
After dinner we headed off to the train, only to find that the 5:50pm train was really 5:45pm, so we got to watch it pass us as we waited behind a crossing guard. Amtrak put me on a later train and I worked out a situation with my friend Josh to stay at his place in Jack London Square since I got to the train station at 12:10am.
With the extra 2 hours to wait we headed back home and using razor blades with a mixture
of laundry detergent, windex, and water we were able to scrape off the 3 layers of paint on the back window. We found the sekurit logo in the upper right hand corner, so it was original just like all the other glass. Hopped onto the train just after that and made it to
my friend’s place for a short nights sleep.