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Fri Mar 30, 2012 11:34 pm

Well... I shall begin by saying that I am very tired. But a great deal of work has been done on Winston, my faithful 1984 Westfalia, and I thought that perhaps you might enjoy the account, and some of you find it profitable.

Having saved my pennies, after Christmas I started accumulating things for the next round of repairs and upgrades to the van. The most expensive of the lot is yet to be installed--a 3-Window Sunbrella Tent from AtelierPK. I have it, I've collected 12 pages of posts on how to install it, but that's a two-plus man job and I have to schedule my work crew--er, friends. And buy them dinner. To get ready for it, I decided to do some other things first.

When I installed Winston's front passenger's side light, for which see HERE:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=159921

I made a note that I wanted to remove the cracked and partly-peeled 'shelf paper' that is about the only thing still making Winston's interior look ugly. I didn't have the time for it then, but since in preparation for the tent I meant to replace the luggage rack and pop-top seal, as per the Bentley, the headliner had to come out anyway. In retrospect, it probably DIDN'T, but...

So last Saturday, I pulled it, and the fiberglass above it, pausing to mark down in my Bentley the wiring for the light. I said, 'light,' I did the passenger's side, which went back together easily, I should have also done the driver's side which took several tries to get right later. I had a horrid time getting the wires off the terminals, I put just a bit of conductive grease on those when I put it all back together Wednesday. Since I wired the van's interior lights into my secondary fusebox, that entire circuit, and just that circuit, went dead with a pulled fuse, which was nice since Winston's front doors stayed open literally for hours while all this was going on.

The headliner off and the fiberglass out, and nothing interesting above or below it, I pulled the luggage rack off. The cliches about horrible filthy gunk piled up for decades under it were all absolutely true, folks. At least there weren't disgusting little skeletons or dead insects or, worse, live ones. It was all pretty messy and horrid, though...

:shock:

Speaking of horrid, I knew that replacing the seal on the luggage rack and poptop would be unpleasant because some previous owner--I suspect his first, in Arizona, had thoughtfully run a large messy bead of silicone sealant all along both seals. You can see it in this picture:

Maybe you had to glue it on in those days, I just knew it looked horrid, wouldn't add anything once I'd put on a new seal, and was going to be a nightmare to get off.

It was.

I ordered the new seals from Bus Depot, taking Ron up on the Active Samba poster's discount. While I waited for the package to arrive, I started stripping what remained of the shelf paper in the way I've found works--heat gun and a metal scraper. This was the largest piece yet. All I can say is to get the glue good and soft and scrape as much each time as you can with the scraper--and have a trash can handy.

It took four hours on Sunday to get the stuff all off, then I sanded the remaining glue lightly and put on the first coat of Krylon Almond Spray enamel. I wish I'd done this time what I did last time on the rear panel and put on a coat of Kilz primer first. The paint stuck, but the Kilz made it easier to cover the entire panel and made for a smoother finish with less paint. Well, live, learn, and transmit the data. Somehow the headliner got some gouges while I had it up and drying, THAT was aggravating. They're not all that obvious.

I put a total of four coats on the headliner, and discovered that I have the ability to make the wind blow just by shaking up a can of spray paint.

:shock:

That phenomenon KEPT reoccurring--I could see through the gel-coat on the luggage rack, and found a partial can of white Hammerite spray paint left over from my early, fairly successful efforts at depriving Winston's interior rust of oxygen. That did a nice job of patching the luggage rack, once I'd washed it inside and out. I found a number of styrofoam squares under it that I could see had been attached to the inside of the rack for some reason, I washed them in the sink and glued them back on with spray adhesive later. I used a VERY good product called Seal-All:

http://www.eclecticproducts.com/sealall.htm

To glue five hose strainers, cones UP, through the drain holes in the luggage rack--a layer on the strainers, a layer on the rack, and they were stuck fast. Seal All is also good if the vent hose on the filler neck for your fuel tank keeps popping off--it's gasoline proof. Very good stuff indeed, I've also used it to seal electrical connections.

The old seals, utterly rotten, peeled off the luggage rack and pop-top easily both times, leaving a black ugly line of silicone and dirt where the seals had been. I had an inspiration for cleaning off the gunk, that being... spray bathroom cleaner, which is designed to clean fiberglass safely and did a pretty good job--except on the silicone. After a few false starts, I found that a windshield razor blade scraper did the best job of slicing off all but the lowest part of the silicone, leaving me with quite a bit more to remove.

I had this:

http://www.amazon.com/Motsenbocker-411-45-Silicone-Sealant-Remover/dp/B000BQRY9I

And it... Sort of worked. With repeated applications and a lot of scrubbing with a 3M Scouring Pad and Bon Ami. I resolved to find something better for the luggage rack. From what I had read here on the Samba, I had great expectations for the Eraser Wheel I bought at Painter’s Supply near Hampden and Santa Fe. I was a bit… grim… when I found out that the eraser wheel didn’t work at all.

A dear friend who'd moved and come back for a visit called just as I made that discovery, we got caught up and he went with me to West Marine, where I thought they might have an idea how to remove sealant from fiberglass, it being a boating supply store and all. They sold me a bottle of chemical for $16

http://tinyurl.com/dx3aet5

and a tube of Gel Cote sealant to patch the hairline cracks on the fiberglass for another $15, and I foolishly left my credit card on the counter for a moment while I looked at a product that wasn’t what I wanted. Sure enough, as I worked on the job Wednesday, I got the call that someone was using my card for purchases on I-Tunes, so that had to be canceled and I will have to update my payment information in a number of places. I was cheery about that, for a fact, but too busy to get really angry.

The new chemical sort of worked, the old chemical sort of worked, so after my friend left I just spent hour after hour scrubbing the stuff off the fiberglass, alternating. I had to repair the passenger’s side rear corner of the camper top, the fiberglass there had simply crumbled away at some point in Winston’s 28 years of existence. Fortunately the repair kit I bought some years ago for other damage to the top was still good, and late that night I used it to mend the corner and the upper top where there were other cracks in the fiberglass. I had to use aluminum tape to make a rigid backing for the fiberglass patch, but that worked quite well.

Wednesday I had a horrid time getting the new front seal on the camper top, that is, until I remembered the trick mentioned here of spraying silicone lubricant on the fiberglass, at which time the job became easy. I joined the front seal to the side seals with a bead of that 3M Super Weatherstripping adhesive. I'm not sure if I was more miffed or happy at how that turned out. Yay, that I figured it out, nertz, that it took so long for me to remember the trick! Bus Depot's seals, I should note, are superb and MUCH better than what was on Winston, and Bus Depot shipped, contrary to some reports, VERY quickly, the seals arriving before orders I'd placed earlier. Thanks, Ron!

I used my Dremel tool to trim and grind the two fiberglass patches down, and some old brush-on paint to make the repairs less obvious. While the paint was drying, I put on the new Go Westy 'outer lip' seal on the passenger’s side door that the later Vanagons had, supposedly quite helpful in reducing noise in the cab. After a horrid time getting it on, I was not surprised to see it popping right off again every time I opened and closed the door. Fortunately, I had that tube of very strong ‘3M Super Weatherstripping Adhesive’ I'd used to bond the middle strut of the rear hatch when I did the latch modification:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=464749

and won THAT battle in the 2nd round. I didn't cut the seal, and I did spray some of that silicone lubricant on the new seal after the glue dried to make the doors close more easily, which worked. No idea yet if they DO reduce highway noise, I haven't had a chance to take Winston out on the highway, yet. I taped together a layer of bubble-foil insulation for Winston's headliner and used spray adhesive to hold that on, in the hope that that, too, would reduce noise, and perhaps keep the cab a little warmer.

I was agreeably disappointed to find that the rest of the new seal on the luggage rack and pop top went on quite easily, and that’s all done—the horrid silicone is gone, the new seals look VERY good and are on firmly. Then I had a reasonably horrid time getting the luggage rack back on, with parts dropping off or being overlooked, which mean that I had to start over several times. It's a function of being tired. Rather than put new sealant on the bolts going through the roof to the luggage rack, I put rubber washers on the inner sides, between the bolt heads and the cab's sheet metal, and tightened them down.

THAT done, I next had another horrid time getting the old fiberglass insulation back into the cab before I re-installed the headliner. Handling fiberglass a lot has its own problems, but the itching finally faded. I had to use Spray Adhesive to get the stuff to quit falling down before I could get the newly painted and insulated headliner back into place. I had yet another horrid time getting THAT to happen, and found to my misery that the painted top had had a piece knocked off of it as I tried to shove the headliner back into place. I managed to glue it back into place just before dinner and you can only see the repair if you know where it is. And I'LL NEVER TELL!

I finished reinstalling the headliner Wednesday night—getting the various moldings and screws into place, dropping them, looking for them, then reinstalling the cab lights, and getting them all working again. After an itchy night's sleep, I started Winston for the first time this season--he and his Seafoam'ed gas worked perfectly--and drove him to the car wash, which he desperately needed after being covered with gunk from under the luggage rack. I left him in the driveway so that I could install the driver’s side wind seal and the three new outlet boxes from Go Westy on Winston’s side.

My opinion of those is stellar--they are much heavier plastic than the old ones they replaced, I LOVE the new 'camming' mechanism on the lids in the place of those ~!%%# spring flaps the originals had, and GoWesty's instructions were quite adequate. My work was slowed when I kept misplacing things, and found I'd accidentally thrown one set of screws away, fortunately the trash hadn't gone out yet.

It took PB Blaster to remove the City Water fitting from the old box, then I cleaned that with plumber's tape and re-sealed it with Teflon tape. I was agreeably surprised to find out that the hoses all looked to be in GOOD condition--but I will watch the connections carefully, the first time I use them. I didn't over-tighten anything and sprayed some rust treatment and corrosion inhibitor on the three openings for the outlets before I installed the new ones.

About the only major thing left is the new tent, and I’ll need my friends' help for that. It should be an all-day job for two of us, maybe I can get a third. I raised Winston's top in the driveway and found that, yes, on the driver's side the lifting bar is worn, the parts are out of alignment. Does anybody know what the inner diameter of that bar is so that I can get those bushing at Ace Hardware that fit inside the lifting bar's ends? Maybe if it's not too worn, I can J.B. Weld the bushings inside the bar and reverse it, which might solve the problem, or else I'll just have to take the lifting mechanism out after the tent's installed, have the bar welded up and ground, and maybe get a flange welded in for a permanent fix.

After the tent and ancillaries are done, it’s just that wire Van Cafe sells that runs from the alternator to the starter, a new pre-filter on the fuel line, and this Spring’s quota of renovations will be done. I might pull, strip and paint more of the interior panels, that Krylon Almond is a good match for an '84--it's just a horrid job each time. I polished up the ends of the bolts holding the luggage rack on, Winston looks quite new—from the windows up. I look forward to showing off his latest improvements at VW's on the Green in May.

Did I mention that I was very tired?

:shock:

Best!

Sat Mar 31, 2012 12:02 am

Quote: I put a total of four coats on the headliner, and discovered that I have the ability to make the wind blow just by shaking up a can of spray paint.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Boy, that struck a chord. We're both minor wind gods, apparently.

Sat Mar 31, 2012 6:39 am

I thought it was "picking up a leaf rake" that made the wind blow. :lol:

Sat Apr 21, 2012 8:10 pm

Well, I kept on going.

One of Winston's least pleasant afflictions were the spots where his interior panels had lost that @~#(*&(* shelf paper, the resulting bare glue visible where it had flecked off looking utterly ghastly--and right in my face when I wake up in him. Ecce:

You can see a piece of the flecked-off shelf paper in that picture! That's right after I got him, the upholstery's been replaced, and, now, the panels have been pulled, heat-gunned, stripped, and painted. It took on the average of 1.5 hours each to strip the rear panel, middle panel and the front panel, the one next to the sliding door. If I used my fingers, I got bigger pieces and burns. If I used the scraper, I got smaller pieces and flat areas where the textured glue had been...

:shock:

Fun city. As I pulled the three panels, I also solved a problem that had been annoying me since I bought him. If you look above the mattress and up along the metal next to the sliding door, you can see where they GLUED speaker wire and then stapled it onto the panel below that. After looking carefully, I fished the wires down the pillar, where the old speaker wires were still running. It was horrid, I need proper fishing tape, and I badly scuffed my hands. But I did get the wires behind the interior sheet metal from the hole cover all the way down into the bench and over. Naptha did nothing to remove the glue they used on that speaker wire, I need to find something that will get the glue but spare the interior paint.

When I did the peel-and-paint to Winston's headliner, I omitted what I had done with the rear hatch panel, which was a coat of Kilz latex primer over the exposed wood and glue. It took five coats of Krylon Almond Spray Enamel to get a good result. With the Kilz on those three panels I didn't need more than two, but put on a third on general principles. Lesson learned. I still have my ability to make the wind blow by shaking a can of spray paint, but I got used to waiting for the gaps between the gusts and getting three coats on each panel. That Krylon Almond Indoor/Outdoor enamel is a good match for the '84's interior.

Once I'd pulled the panels, I also bought a section of one-inch PVC pipe, cut it in two, and used the sections to prop up the pop-top while I disassembled the lifting mechanism. Ben of AtelierPK tents had warned me that if one could see the inner mechanism out of alignment, the bar had had holes worn in it by the knife edge and was uneven.

Boy, was it. Worn through on both sides. I had a horrid time dismounting the mechanism, despite what I gleaned off the Samba. Prying the thrust washers off the pins holding the upper and lower arms in place in the van and the fiberglass top took, in the end, an oversized nut, a pry bar, and TWO Chinese c-clamps. The first one broke under the torque required.

:shock:

The joy of Harbor Freight. I found long screw-pins of the same length and diameter at the world's best hardware store (A&A Trading Post) and bought some nylon lock washers for the re-install. That'll happen after we install the new tent, which two buddies and I will be doing in the first week of May. In the same trip I took the parts down to Len Marks, my welder--here is a picture of his... back while he was welding that Toyota Truck Bumper onto Winston...

for Ahwahnee's fix of welding up the slits, and welding pipe sections onto the knife edge for a greater bearing surface. Len got it done by this Wednesday and charged me $30, he thoughtfully trued up the interior bore and suggested I lubricate it with synthetic grease. I have that red moly stuff we're supposed to use on the gear shifting mechanism, so I'm all set for that. Another friend has suggested anti-seize instead, your thoughts are welcome and will be solicited also on the 'Fix that Poptop Bar' thread.

Meanwhile, I was heating, scraping, and painting, hurting--and then came the issue of the ashtray, about which I queried on another thread. When I pulled the rear ashtray out to inspect it, it two two chunks out of the panel and the backing plate fell to the bottom of the van.

:shock:

Once I'd pulled and stripped that panel, I puttied up that and other holes and in each of the three, also patching the one crack in the front panel with mahogany wooden trim tape, which worked well on the hatch panel. As I said, I did NOT want to put the ashtray back. It's not even good for holding rubber bands and twist-em's, and I'd have to, you know, shoot, anyone trying to smoke in the van. So...

I bought this (only in white) Tay-Mac 16:1 all-weather outlet cover--which I could rig to open vertically or horizontally and which latches. I painted that dark brown with Krylon Fusion paint. I used tin snips and my Dremel to fabricate a new and larger backing plate which I riveted behind the panel, into which I riveted this:

once I had the panel back in, both of them horizontally. That 'Old Work 17 cu Shallow Box' had much more room than the old ash tray, and fit quite neatly into the gap in interior beams. Then I bolted the Tay-Mac outlet cover onto that, I had to cut some slots into the screw-mounts so that I could raise the top so that the latch mechanism wouldn't get blocked by the rear bench's armrest. The result is not a HUGE amount bigger than the old ashtray--there's just not that much room--but it neatly and securely holds the remote for Winston's radio, which was always getting lost and now... Won't be. I am pleased.

Here's the finished product in place:

I don't think it looks bad at all, and the paint's holding pretty well. You do have to know where the unlatching tab is to open it, fortunately, I do... You have to hold it open, hence, my hand in the picture. Here's the box and cover, open and empty:

and here it is with the remote in it:

and, when it was all said and done, here's what you see when you look to the rear of the open slider door:

I will sort of spare you the wailing over dark spots, things obscured, things dropped into crevices... Vanagons are... so full of crevices... tools rolling under things, screws stripped, cuts and burns suffered... We've all been there. While I was, with difficulty, drifting the rivets out before putting the rearmost side panel back I looked over and realized that most of Winston's old air conditioning harness was still in place running up from the bottom of the van and taking up space in the side cabinet--which doesn't have that much of it. I realized that only one wire on it was still connected--that being a brown 'earth' wire going up to a grounding point for the defroster assembly.

I started Winston, turned the old air conditioning switch, his engine revved and the fan kicked on, which is why I've left that switch in place. Might come in handy some day. Then I pulled that ground wire, started Winston and turned that switch. His engine revved, and the fan kicked on. So I cut the harness, pulled out all I could reach, sealed the ends of the cut wires with Seal-All in case there's something, somewhere hot, covered it all with electrician's tape and bundled it up in the engine compartment. I put a hole plug behind the rear panel where the harness came through the passenger's side, I put another hole plug (it took me three trips to two hardware stores to find ones that fit) where the harness had come back up to the cab from the engine compartment, and now there are two fewer holes into Winston's interior space. And now we know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall...

:shock:

Er, wait a minute...

So, still left to do... Re-assemble the lifting mechanism (the circular parts match the housing's circular parts), but not to reinstall it until we've got the new tent in. Install that heavier wire from the alternator to the starter that Van Cafe sells. Look into that hand bendable metal fuel line to replace as much of Winston's as I can, I did inspect the lines during this whole matter every time I tried to trace that air conditioner harness and saw nothing ominous... VW's on the Green coming, I want him to look his best and be ready for my summer work...

And I am very tired.

Best!

Sat Apr 28, 2012 9:01 pm

Soooo... And still no pictures! THAT'S WHY YOU'RE LEAVING ME TO STEW IN MY OWN JUICE, ISN'T IT? After all I've done for you!

:shock:

I may be overdoing a bit. But, bless me, I'm running out of long-delayed projects. I brought my gearhead friend from across the street over and discussed my further plans for work on Winston, and while I had him over I had him sit in Winston's cab while I nudged Winston forward to the point where I could open the rear hatch--mostly to rivet the last panel in place. It was fun watching his eyes bug out as he got closer to the closed garage door. I knew it could be done without Winston's bumper hitting it--but he didn't. Vanagons and their flat noses take some getting used to.

Stupid Vanagon Moment: I had a horrid time knocking out the remnants of the old rivets I'd drilled out when removing Winston's rearmost panel. I wish I'd noticed that they were in that flange sticking out from the rear metal, so that I didn't need to waste the time I did punching them out, and, in one case, drilling it all the way out. At least I didn't muss anything.

Got the panel back in, used more steel pop rivets and it looked good, lined everything up and basked in the glow of accomplishment. Then on to the next struggle, while the rear hatch was open and I could get to the engine compartment. I read both here and on the old Vanagon Mailing list (via search) that the wire from the alternator to the starter is too small to transmit all the current the alternator is pumping into the Van's electrical system. Van Cafe has long sold a heavier wire, ecce:

http://www.van-cafe.com/home/van/page_780_235/alternator_cable_upgrade.html

The chatter on the mailing list, but not here that I could find, said you needed an 8 gauge braided wire. I was about ready to support Van Cafe and order it from them--despite the fact that price just went up $5--when I remembered that... Winston does NOT have a standard starter. He has a REDUCTION GEAR starter that Go Westy was selling back in 2006, which has <knock wood> always worked well. The cable length on the mailing list was supposed to be 18 inches. I tied a piece of rope to a line right behind the alternator stud and threaded it back to the post on the reduction gear starter. Would you believe 32"? I would have to make my own cable.

YouTube can be horrid, or wonderful. I had always wondered how one solders those big heavy lug ends onto braided wire, I quickly found videos showing me EXACTLY how to do that (in brief, flux the end of the braided wire before putting on the lug, then wick the silver bearing solder into the end with flame). My little butane torch was perfect for the job, 34" of 6 gauge braided welding cable (I splurged) and two tinned copper ring lug ends later--I had made my own cable! I also passed a basic intelligence test by putting on the two sections of insulating shrink wrap on the cable before soldering on the second lug end!

The Haynes (I was in a hurry) didn't mention that there were two nuts on the alternator stud and that you only wanted to remove the outer one. I also found out that the existing cable was 'hot' despite my efforts to check that with a multi-tester.

:shock:

I know both those things, now. I wrenched the existing cable and parted a few strands of copper, so I dripped more silver bearing solder into the connection with a clamp as a heat sink and a big thick board to keep anything flaming or dripping off the engine. Fusing tape over that, the new cable snaked alongside the old cable, some 'Michelangelo' time on my back and I got the second cable connected onto the starter. I covered the connection with dielectric grease before putting the boot back on. I also discovered that the other wire to the starter had frayed a bit, on went more fusing tape-which is good to 100 Celsius, I was glad to find out.

And so, what I had hoped to avoid--reconnecting the main battery and re-setting the digital clock and radio presets. I was clever! I cleaned the terminals, got new felt battery washers to put under the connections, did a dry run in neoprene gloves to reconnect the battery, and waited 'til exactly 12 to make the final re-connection!

The clock came back on, reading '0:07' Greeeeeat. There's a capacitor enough to keep the clock going for at least 7 minutes. I was expecting trouble setting the retrofitted digital clock because that little flimsy 'button' thing had cracked and fallen out the last time I'd messed with it... I gingerly applied the drift punch I use to set that clock and... It worked easily and quickly. That would be an 'agreeable disappointment.' The other was that the wiring I'd done to make the radio run off the auxiliary battery had saved my radio's presets. Yaaaaaay.

Started Winston--he ran, I couldn't see anything different about how fast his 'battery' light went off, but I only ran him for about a minute since he was in a garage with only the back door open and I hadn't been able to figure out what to use for an exhaust hose...

:shock:

Don't worry, I won't make a habit of it. Of course, I couldn't, because I'd be dead...

:shock:

I made very certain that Winston was NOT in gear, with only about eight inches of distance left between his bumper and the front garage door. Winston's 'starting' battery is, I think, 8 years old, there will be a reckoning there, I'm sure, although the very advanced battery charger/de-sulfiter I plugged directly into it said that the battery was in good condition and it holds voltage. I should consider replacing it, though, before I get got.

With all that done, I finally got around to re-assembling Winston's top-lifter mechanism. I knew I'd be using SYNTHETIC grease, since I did manage to prod some of you into a consensus there on the 'Fix That Pop-Top Bar' thread. I decided first to clean up the steel with my old, successful combination of steel wool and baby oil, which does an AMAZING job of putting a shine on the steel inside a Vanagon. Then I finished up the job with Mother's Aluminum Polish and two coats of Turtle Wax. Part of that's showing off for VW's on the Green, part of it is to clean the metal while it can be cleaned, and part is to make it visible in dim light.

Got it all together again, decided to put the welded-up parts right back whence they'd come, since the metal there was thicker than in the unwelded portions (Len didn't weld up the ends entirely, as I'd asked), put a thin film of grease on the rod and bearing surfaces, got it all together. Still not sure if those 'plunger' ends of the springs on the lower ends of the apparatus go below the pins that hold those to the van...

And then... an effort to rectify yet another glowing moment of Vanagon Stupidity--mine, not Winston's, of course. Some of you may recall my 'Hatch Latch, Natch' mod, the yachting lockable hatch latch that can open Winston's rear hatch from the inside.

:evil:

Due to twice stupidly operating that latch WITHOUT the key in place (Once with the entire staff of Blazer Automotive looking on)

:shock:

I had loosened the latch from the 'U-Bolt' and, although it still worked, I felt uncomfortable about that. So, while I had the hatch open, I pulled the rear panel again, tightened the securing ring down on the hatch latch, first with hands, then with rubber-gloved hands, and finally with channel locks. It became quite firm, once again.

I didn't leave it there. First I wrapped yet more fusion tape right behind the locking ring, with the idea of gumming up the threads if the latch ever tried to work loose again, and then I used a fair amount of an old tube of 3M Vehicle Emblem Adhesive, designed to hold plastic to metal, between the latch mechanism and the 'U-Bolt.' It's... quite firm now. Just to forestall future stupidity, I also printed out a label that reads:

HATCH MAY ONLY BE
UNLOCKED WITH KEY IN PLACE

and pasted it into the cover with long-term storage tape over that.

I feel much better about THAT, now.

You know, it's a bit strange to feel myself running short on mods, repairs, and projects! The Atelier tent goes on Thursday, I have 12 pages of hints and suggestions on the installation that I need to print out for our use when we do it... Today I bought a small muffin fan to wire into Winston's refrigerator, I think I'll put a switched computer connector on the inside of the fridge so that I can plug in new fans as the old ones wear out, may attach the fan to the fins by long screws like I did with the fans on the BACK fins... Would like to do that little 'knife drawer' mod on the cabinet over the microwave...

Then all that's left is the exterior! Which, I couldn't hope to do that much of. Work proceeds apace...

And I am very tired.

Best!

Fri May 04, 2012 12:30 am

So, Wednesday, taking advantage of the time to work on him, and wanting to get as much possible before the tent went on, I seized my opportunity and installed this:

That's a 40mm ball-bearing computer cooling fan, blowing up and over the upper fins on Winston's Dometic refrigerator. Fun city. Here's a closer look:

That fin, I should note, was bent BEFORE I did the mod.

I began by watching that really great video on YouTube about removing and servicing the fridge--things I'd done before, but it was nice to get a video refresher course. Then, early Wednesday morning, I pulled the fridge fairly easily and inverted it in the hope that that might help with the cooling--and because I was taking apart the burner box. The neoprene gasket I'd made the first time I'd taken all that apart had not fared well. It was cracked, and slightly blackened, perhaps, I hope, the reason I can't keep Winston's fridge going on Propane when I drive him.

When I opened the burner box, I was pleased to discover only a little carbon--no dead anythings, no severe dust or anything like that, which was a good argument that my efforts to keep the vents covered when the fridge wasn't going and the drain tube covered at the same time had paid off. I cleaned the jet with acetone and used steel wool to clean the carbonized ends of the thermocouple and the electric starter. As the video suggested, I used compressed air and blasted through every tube. I didn't make another gasket, instead I laid down a thick bead of Copper High-Temperature (700 degrees F) sealant on the edges of the box and the other gasketed surfaces, and tried to follow directions about tightening things down.

I soaped up the sides of the burner box and the metal vent hoses, applied air pressure, and no bubbles formed. I hope that means that the fridge will stay lit, now. It did take a long time to get it burning on just the propane when I tested it late last night. I think that was because of no pre-cooling and probably not much propane in the tank. I did get it to light and stay lit, though.

With the fridge's maintenance done, I started the upgrade. I used two 5" 10-24 machine screws through the outer two holes of the fan--they cut their own threads into the plastic--and washers behind the heads of those to hold the fan against the fridge's interior fins. I ran bolts through the outer two holes, then bolted corner braces to those, coated those with epoxy, and held them in place against the fridge's back with two short sheet metal screws that barely penetrated. I should be able to replace the fan by popping out those two bolts and just unscrewing the others, if I can get some 5.5" screws, I'll replace the shorter ones and add a bolt to the bottom of those.

The wiring was fun... With the goal of making a new fan installation a plug-in proposition, I cut the large four wire fitting off the adapter that came with the computer fan and with huge difficulty ran its wires through the hole where the condenser wire runs in from the back of the fridge. i didn't feel confident about drilling a new hole. I then soldered on two thicker wires and tied an 'installer's knot' in the smaller ones before sealing the hole in the back of the fridge with Seal All. I have read with interest the thread about butane soldering irons, I think I'll get one. I used an electric soldering gun with an extension cord. As I'd done with the previous two external fans I'd wired, I put the switch in the ground circuit and tapped into the exterior fans fused hot wire. I couldn't test things until I'd put the fridge back together.

At ACE--and when you buy hardware, folks, at the least make sure that it's all identical, I've forgotten that lesson to my cost--I'd bought a little rectangular toggle switch, I belatedly realized that a circular one, such as the SPST's sold at Radio Shake would be easier to install since they just needed a circular hole. Ecce:

Memo to self: Look carefully behind a surface before beginning to drill. I belatedly realized that there was a plastic 'stanchion' in the Dometic name plate where that hole was going to end up--I was able to shift it sideways by doing what the Radio Shack clerk had suggested and switching to a Dremel carving bit and just making the circle gradually bigger--away from the stanchion--until it would hold the switch tightly.

With horrid difficulty--it's a tough one-man job, but do-able--I got the fridge to where I could plug it in, and tried the new fan. It didn't work. I turned on the rear fans. They worked. I had wired the ground on the new fan to the switched ground on the older fans. At least the fix was easy, I cut the wire, clamped on a female spade connector, and grounded to an unused ground behind the gas valve. That... fixed it. The new fan is VERY quiet, but it does seem to move a lot of interior air. The finished set-up could look worse...

But I got everything done and squared away before the even bigger project I am too tired to tell you about that two very dear friends and I carried out today... here's a hint:

I was pretty close to 12 hours on the project. And I am not tired at all! That is because I am delirious with fatigue.

:shock:

Best!

Fri May 04, 2012 8:47 am

=D> :D

Fri May 04, 2012 11:54 pm

Thanks, Dave, one of the most supportive, clever, and generous folks ever to grace our community.

--

Well, I had gotten onto Atelier PK's waiting list last Fall, and the tent arrived less than a week after ordering it in January. I have long dreaded the labor of replacing Winston's tent--quite rightly, as it turned out--and so I wanted the best-fitting and the one likely to be the longest lasting. That was the Atelier 3-window Sunbrella--probably should have sprung for the 'removable' side screens, but it was expensive enough as it stood! Also, my two friends, J and B, who assisted me want me to give them advance warning if we ever have to do this again--so they can be sick, that week.

:shock:

I tried to do everything right--I got Nick's instruction off the Atelier site, realized that he was right and that the bar had worn through on the lifting mechanism, got that fixed, lubed, and polished and the whole mechanism ready to be put back in with bolt-pins and crown nuts to replace the original pins and thrust washers. I had the lifting mechanism out and cut pieces of heavy PVC pipe to wedge the top open while we worked on it. I collected and printed out twelve pages of instructions from the Samba and other sources on the replacement process. I charged up my Makita, made sure I had some No. 1 Philips bits, parts trays of varying sizes, and friend B offered the use of a high work table and his truck to carry it to for the pop-top once we removed it.

I had a huge cardboard box to make a soft cushion for the fiberglass, we had ladders and step stools, and the printed instructions ready in a binder for consultation during the job. I also set up my rite of Seppuku if by chance Nick had sent the wrong top, which I hadn't opened and inspected since its arrival. It was the right tent. Whew. We were all very lucky in that Winston's tent, for all he's an '84, was the aluminum strip variety, not the billions of staples variety.

Both B and J are competent men, with the delightful ability to reason and the sense to halt when something is unclear. We rather quickly got the tent unhooked from the main body and the top off, leaving Winston looking like THIS:

One of the useful things we did every time we performed an act that required all three of us was to make sure we were all clear on what we were about to do. With three people, we COULD budge the top in ways that did not damage it, nor did we ever lose control of it while removing and re-installing it. The top, with the tent removed on the table, looked like this:

One problem we kept having is that there wasn't really room for all three of us inside Winston, so, for example, I didn't realize that they didn't know how far the skylight could be lowered before we put it on the table.

:shock:

Fortunately, being, as I've said, competent men, they had propped smaller boxes at either end of the table to prevent crushing the skylight.

:D

B nearly induced cardiac arrest, however, by casually informing me that he had stripped the black seal off the bottom of the top. Since I had spent two days getting that ON before the job, I was a bit shaken.

I did take advantage, I should note, of the top being off to REALLY seat the new seal, down to taking two pieces of wood and large channel locks to press the front lip the more firmly onto the front end of the top. We set to in earnest. One thing we paused to do before beginning the installation of the new tent was to put a reinforced cutting wheel on my Dremel and slive off the overlong bolts holding the Yakima brackets on--we were worried they'd rip the tent. We used a wet towel to catch the hot bolt ends and the showers of sparks.

:shock:

I would read aloud from Nick's and the other instructions, and they would do things like remove the screws and aluminum bars, while I scurried into the house to scrub them clean with Bon Ami and a 3M scouring pad and then mark them for position and orientation with a Sharpie. In all the instructions there was talk about this or that vital tool--I had a ratchet right-angle screwdriver that proved to be too thick for most of the tight spots, a non-ratchet that worked slowly, and, God be praised, a heavy-duty Craftsman cable drive for our Makitas (One Ryobi) that proved to be the single most useful tool of all. It got the screws in even in the tightest places.

We saved the old tent--it had been ripped, but well-patched, my snap-on screen was still holding, I figure that someone re-habbing an old Westy on the cheap might give me something for it, it's certainly fit to be installed again. We wrapped it up in the packaging and box the new tent came in. The Sunbrella fabric is VERY impressive--strong, and I followed Nick's advice of getting the lightest color that would look good, for maximum light inside the van with the tent up.

We had all the usual troubles despite my preparations in getting the new tent in. It was a good, tight fit--which led to one of us pulling down on the fabric from the inside, one us pulling down and pushing it under the bar within the tent on the other side, and the third begging God to just... let... the dratted... screw slip in. We put plumber's putty where the Germans had put putty, where the aluminum rods went over curves on what was left of Winston's original top... We put the wooden blocks back in, lost one, somehow, but it didn't seem to make a difference.

We used chained zip-ties to keep the rear hinges from falling down and scratching up Winston's top--more. We used a wooden board to keep the top from tearing itself up on the lower latch assembly. One revelation when we had the top off--someone clearly had stored A TIRE in Winston's upper berth.

:shock:

Why?

I had aircraft shears and a pair of nippers/mini-Dikes to cut the hinges free, and the nippers were what we used when we made the required notches in Winston's tent's molding as we secured--with horrible difficulty--the tent to the front corners. You can see here some of the blizzard of equipment we threw at the job:

Once we were through that ordeal, it got easier--we figured out how to move the new tent into position, to spot the holes, thrust material under the bars (I used the scaler on my Swiss Army Knife with good results) and get the bars screwed down. We re-installed the lifting mechanism pretty early, the pins and crown bolts made that tremendously faster than taking off the thrust washers and pins had been.

All told, it took the three of us about six hours for the job. Let's see--final observations.

1)I am very lucky in my wonderful friends. It is nice to have skilled people you can trust to help you, and I've known these other two musketeers since 1976. Take a deep bow, guys, I couldn't have dreamed of doing it without you.

2)There is no comparison at all between the amount of light and air a 3-Window tent lets in versus the original design. It's just incredible. We were sweltering taking out the original tent--and never afterwards.

3)We took digital pictures of all the areas we were worried about reassembling, that helped, also having the old tent intact when we were figuring out the corners helped also.

4)I am giving a heavy cable drive to both of them for Christmas. That thing made the whole job possible and orders of magnitude easier.

5)I'm not sure if I should spray waterproofer on the Sunbrella. Suggestions welcome.

6)I have no standard of comparison, but the Atelier tent was a beautifully-made product, Nick sent along his own set of excellent and clear instructions and had marked the upper and lower middles of the tent, and it seems to fit fairly well.

I am aware that some are upset by Nick's time in fulfilling orders--I think the answer is that you pay in time and money for the best, and that I didn't want to experience any of the disasters I've ready about studying this subject here on the Samba and elsewhere. We lowered and raised the tent and latched it all down several times, everything worked flawlessly.

There is one tiny bit of light showing under the tent where a seam made the aluminum bar lift a bit--I filled the gap with Plumber's Putty, perhaps I will replace that with silicone caulk if the tent doesn't stretch out a bit to let the rod come down. Sometime during the summer I'll see if I can tighten the screws a bit.

And I am very lucky in my friends--and I am very tired.

Best!

Sun May 06, 2012 9:42 pm

I live to putter... As I completed this latest barrage of mods and repairs, I kept thinking... 'I'm going to run out! I'm going to get them all done!'

HA!

I just start remembering the stuff I've been coping with since I bought Winston in 2006. I mentioned how I realized there was a still a large section of ugly shelf paper on the bottom of the upper berth, I'm hoping some time next week to move Winston out of the garage, strip, and paint that. I haven't found anything about removing the bed's folding panel in the Bentley, I'll browse here.

Sunbrella recommends a product called 303 High Tech Fabric Guard to renew the water resistance of their fabric--it's expensive, but you can get it at boating supply stores. You can apply it with a roller from a tray instead of spraying it on, which supposedly works better.

Putting the combing around the hole in the cabinets for Winston's rear table support screwed up the geometry of the two catches I have on the panel to hold the table against it. After a lot of mistakes, I pretty much got that fixed with some washers as spacers. Then I noticed how annoying that paint mismatch was on the Plastic Wood patch I'd made on that same panel:

After a trial with a piece of cardboard, I decided I could cover that with three coats of Krylon Almond Enamel without worrying too much about masking off everything, and just went ahead. It ran just a bit, but what little overspray there was cleaned off easily enough. Here's the result.

In something less glaring or merciless than the camera flash, that looks better than it does in the picture.

The underside of the upper berth and then, I think, the passenger's side window regulator that sticks and fights when you raise and lower the window. I believe there are threads dealing with that here, and I'll start a-searching.

Best!