First post, first bus, newb, etc

[Joel]

Hello, I am Joel.  I bought my first bus yesterday.  It is purple, needs a little bit of this and that, and it has me very excited.  I am off to go diagnose my headlight issue. I am not much of an electrician, yet.  However, I think its either the ignition being a bit wonky, a fuse, or a gremlin yet to be discovered. Either way, excitement!

[Big Blue's Driver]

Nice! Welcome to the family!

[Kim Riggs]

Congrats on the new to you bus! Welcome aboard! :D

[Joel]

Thanks! I can't wait to get it out to the coast for a weekend of kites and fire.  First though I should remedy the mildewed/molded headliner issue. Any tips on cleaning the backside of a headliner? I think I may have to just take it out and replace it in a cheap, but  aesthetically pleasing  manner.

[Dave Reynolds]

Hi Joel, welcome! Good posting, gotta look out for those gremlins. Looking forward to some snapshots.

[Joel]

Thanks! I have stripped the interior  out for the most part; there was so much mold and rat byproducts from years of whatever it should have been deemed a Superfund site.  I  installed a bed platform made of 2x4's and some osb and put a 12" futon on it. We took it up to Money Creek this last weekend. It was awesome.

[Michael J.]

I suggest you get a copy of the VW repair book written by John Muir, who is not a mechanic but a naturalist who fixed his own bus and decided if he could do it, anyone could, so he wrote a book.   I forgot the title, but it ends with "for the complete idiot".  

[Dave Reynolds]

I don't doubt that naturalist John Muir would have enjoyed a good bus ride across the Central Valley on his way to hike Yosemite, but he died in 1914. The professional engineer John Muir wrote the VW repair book for the mechanically challenged, for folks like myself.

[Joel]

The bus fortunately came with a copy of  "How to Keep..."; it has been quite handy and a good read so far. I have been using a bit web-fu for the rest. I need to find a cheap grinder so I can rust bust. I think a goodwill trip is due.