Things your van did recently

[newfisher]

Took me through some great country....on and off road
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XAcTQlMsaBc&feature=youtu.be

[sanchius]

My SyncroWesty has been offline since last Fall. A few weeks ago I got tired of not having it during such a nice summer and spent a week of hard afternoons/evenings pulling the dead wbx, combining two bad wbxs into one good one and reinstalling it.

And now it's up again.

I rewarded myself with a long lunch yesterday parked in a quiet spot next to the Boulder airport.

It was so relaxing lounging in the back with the slider open and the z-bed deployed, watching the GA doing their touch-n-gos and the gliders cycling up and down, while eating my sandwich, reading about Byzantium and eventually taking a restorative nap before heading back to the lab for the rest of the afternoon.

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The Syncro years (2005-16) - The 2WD years (2017-23) - Westy & WBX rebuild spreadsheet - Sanchius & Tuna: The Video
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[sanchius]

A quiet Sunday:

While the youthful portion of Team Sanchius who leap into action at the crack of 10am enjoyed brunch at Denver's renovated Union Station, the 5am contingent, having eaten hours earlier, lounged in the back of the Westy in a shaded parking spot a block away; equally enjoying the peace and quiet of a cool Sunday morning, making more progress on "The History of the World", reading about Egyptian dynasties and eating grapes, while all the happy Colorado Rockies fans streamed by on their way to their baseball game.

With the windows open, the stereo going and Tuna our Husky watching all the people going by from the passenger seat,
several friendly Vanagon owners stopped by to talk about their Vanagons and their plans for restos,
so I chatted with them, encouraged them in their endeavors and steered them to the thesamba as an essential resource

Later, the syncrowesty played support vehicle for cheering on the riders for the final stage of the cross-Colorado US Pro Challenge bike race though downtown Denver.

Half the fun was watching the young neighborhood hipsters checking out their first Westy as they strolled by, taking pictures and talking about all the things they would want to do with one.

On the way home, Tunes all tuckered out from her busy, busy day.

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The Syncro years (2005-16) - The 2WD years (2017-23) - Westy & WBX rebuild spreadsheet - Sanchius & Tuna: The Video
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[DennisSyncro]

Tested some new tires today.

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[midmo81]

Stopped for photo op. I'm not a big nascar fan, but I am 3M retired.

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1981 AC Westy

[RainierSyncro]

I attended a vintage Italian motorcycle meet in Denver last week. I had to figure out how to get 3 bikes in the van. I gutted out the interior except for the driver's seat. I came up with a grid of 2x6's to keep the bikes in place and used most of the seat belt mounting points for the tie downs. Some of the bolts were kinda short so I went to a hardware store to get longer bolts and big washers to have something for the tie downs to hook onto. My improvised system work great for the 3,000 mile trip. I even sold one bike in Denver so one less bike on the way back.

Vanagons can haul just about anything.

[BavarianWrench]

I wish I caught you in Denver. Nice job with the vintage Iron. I did not even know about the show, bummer. Glad you had a good trip.

[proofpudding]

How do you get them in the van? Can you just lift them in by yourself? Seem a little heavier than your average bicycle...
_________________
1988 Vanagon GL Wolfsburg

[RainierSyncro]

The first bike up against the driver's side wall had to be backed into the van at an angle. Easy to do when you drive up next to our back deck that's a foot off the ground. No ramp needed. Once the bike was in, I put a scissor jack under the motor to lift the front of the bike to get the front tire off. The center stand and the scissor jack had carpet sliders underneath so I could carefully slide the bike into place. Take a 2x6 and lock it into place up against the wheel. 4 tie-downs and it's not going anywhere. The middle bike just rolled in between the seats, locked in and tied down. The third bike was a problem. The engine firewall wouldn't let me roll the bike back far enough to get the front forks to clear the door post. Because of the angle of the firewall, I had to build a 2x4 platform to lift the bike up enough to back it up enough for a few more inches of clearance. Got the bike in, took the tire off and slid it into position.

I slapped on a bunch of reflective tape on the back and sides of the van because this van is sloooow. The bikes only weigh about 180-200 pounds, so one person can push them around without too much trouble.

BavarianWrench - I was a little surprised on how under the radar this get together was. It was probably the last time this meeting of Moto Parilla owners were going to have in this country and it wasn't advertised much to the local vintage & cafe racer clubs in the area. There were about 50+ Parillas and maybe 70 people attending. Moto Parilla is a very obscure motorcycle company in Italy (1946-1963) that sold bikes in the US for about 10 years. They have absolutely nothing to do with a current manufacturer Aprilla. People get them mixed up all the time. Knowing how much these bikes are worth, I was a little nervous about getting into an accident or even hitting a pothole at speed. More info on these bikes can be found on my website (www.motoparilla.org)

[Paulbeard]

A two day ramble through the Olympic National Park. I couldn't be more pleased with the constant throb of power on demand. My little Audi 2.0 pulls like a train at anything over 2500 rpm and the sound…it brought some fans over to find out more when we pulled into Hobuck Beach.

More pictures here. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pdb206/albums/72157657870205260

With every trip comes a few to do items:
• find out why the skylight leaks (not when it's down, only when the top is popped) so we can sleep through a Pacific Coast storm next time, not be woken by drips
• fix the power port on the dash, maybe add a couple more for the energy-starved
• fix/replace the anemic headlights
• when the galley comes out, put a quieter fan in the fridge

Big pluses:
• that strong beating heart under the cover
• the much-derided Dometic fridge kept it's cool: there was ice on the fins when I powered it off today
• new muffler adds a lot, and what I could hear bouncing back off the guardrails or tunnel walls sounded great
• heater/ventilation box rehab worked to spec, just needs to have some way to control it without taking things apart (I unhooked all the cables since they didn't work worth a ^^#&^#&).
_________________
Currently -> Frida: 87 Tizian Red (mostly) Vanagon GL Westfalia w/ 2.0L ABA conversion
Formerly -> Steward of a 73 Super Beetle (Beater) and 67 Beetle 1300 (Little Max) both names by POs

[sanchius]

Saturday was a bright and sunny day, full of promise for fun and adventure.

First, we picked up some donuts and walked around to see all the beauties at Cars & Coffee in Lafayette, Colorado (1st Sat. of the month, 95th x Araphahoe, 7-10am ). There was a nice syncrowesty there, but I forgot to take pics (this is someone else's pic, more at www.patterndraftimaging.com/p602112079)

Then we drove west on the beautiful highway that runs by DOE's wind generation laboratory (www.nrel.gov/wind/) south of Boulder...

...until we reached Eldorado Canyon state park, where we putted up past all the rock climbers & their belayers on the big walls near the entrance to the canyon (http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/search/solr?all="eldorado+canyon"), going higher until we got lucky and snagged one of the coveted shaded parking spaces at the Rattlesnake Gulch trailhead.

From there, we hiked up and up and up Rattlesnake Gulch.

Tuna the Husky's favorite activity is her daily bikejorning run for several miles through the nearby neighborhoods and open space (https://www.flickr.com/photos/21563006@N04/21207999462), without which she becomes a four-legged hand grenade later in the evening (www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7026703#7026703). She pulls like a freight train and until I added a shock cord into her rig, it felt like my arm was getting pulled out of its socket. Tunes has gotten so strong and can pull so hard that she halves the work of trail climbing, particularly if the other person is given a bit of a head start. We traded her off between us on the climb up, saying "Here, do you want to take The Escalator for awhile?"

We topped out at a landmark that we've been meaning to check off our local big-infrastructure hit list for some time now: Tunnel 10 on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe mainline between Denver and the west coast, high up on the south wall of Eldorado Canyon. We had lunch sitting on boulders in the shade of a nearby aspen grove, waiting for a train to pass while Tunes hunted mice in the tall grass.

But, alas, no trains came by while we were there. So, we hiked back down to our shaded parking spot and soaked in the majesty of Eldorado Canyon's towering walls for a couple hours, reading, listening to music, napping and just hanging out, while Tunes slept in the shade under the bus.

Westys are charismatic vehicles, with a particular draw for young dads wanting to satisfy their yearning for outside adventures without neglecting their new family duties. Parked by the trailhead with the top popped & the doors opened for a couple hours, we had several such gentlemen stop by with their families, asking about the camper functions; their kids excited about something their dad is showing interest in and their wives hanging back, rolling their eyes & hoping against hope that he won't get too obsessed with a new time/attention/money pit. Having once been one of these lads, I am quite sympathetic to their situation and very happy to chat with them. It helps when my 20-something daughter chimes in too. The conversation usually goes something like:

1. Wow, this is cool, can I look inside? Certainly...
2. What year is it? '87
3. Are they fun? Absolutely! We love it and have tons of adventures in it! Kids love them and they're awesome in bad weather! Think of them as the swiss-army knives of camper vans.
4. How does the pop-top|z-bed|upper-bed|swivel-seats work? Here, let me show you... And check out this other cool feature...
5. Is it really 4WD? Yup, but they are in high demand and a bit unicornish, so just double the price. Unless you really really need the 4WD, get a 2WD, they are just fine and they are simpler/lighter/cheaper.
6. Oh, how much do they cost? Recently I've seen them anywhere between $2K and $75K+. The bottom line is that you will end up paying around $10K, whether it's a $3K junker where you'll end up doing $8K in frustrating breakdowns & hard fixup work that make you look bad in front of your wife & kids or you simply buy a nice one for $10-$15K and enjoy it.
7. Don't they have kitchens? Yup, some do, some don't, this one doesn't. I much prefer the larger open lay-down space without the kitchen. I usually cook outside or on the tabletop.
8. Can I sit in it? Sure!
9. Are they reliable? Absolutely... NOT.... unless you find the right one and care for it well. We're lucky here, the long-time Vanagon mechanics in Boulder are excellent.
10. Bye, have fun and check out thesamba.com!

These chats and seeing the the lightbulb go off in their head about what a westy could do for them always leaves me with a great feeling.
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[sanchius]

Moved a queen sized mattress & boxspring

Removing the rear ac headbanger & cabinet pays off once again (http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5159008#5159008)

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[crukab]

It's Wood season, again......
_________________
Tom

My Pops:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=604100&highlight=
I know you will always be with me, rest in peace with no more pain. 8/13/14.....

In the yard right now:
'51 Dodge 5 window truck
'65 Bug
'66 Singlecab
'82 Rabbit Truck Diesel from CALI
'86 Doublecab W/T
'91 Vanagon carat/wolfsbrg.Tiico
'88 Dodge Ram pickup
'11 Jetta Wagon

[Satch]

Finally got out for our first camping trip! A moonlit Westy...

[sanchius]

Passed its Colorado Emissions test on the first try.
(unlike last time: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6816635#6816635 )
I guess that PITA ring replacement job that I did when I did the head gaskets last summer was worth it.

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[joetiger]

[sanchius]

After a week of intense meetings and another yet to come, it was good to be back in town for a day to just throttle back, putt around in the Westy and enjoy a very warm and brilliant-blue Fall afternoon. First it took us to Saturday in the park with Luna, where she played in Boulder Creek and ran around playing Mad Dog during her daft half hour.

Then we went to the Boulder's awesome Community Cycles bike coop to tune up one of my vintage carbon fiber Trek-Y's in prep for its descent down Independence Pass into Aspen tomorrow. I love the design of these old Y bikes and pick them up when I see them to build up custom mountain and road bikes for myself and the kids. This is my next project with one of my spare frames.

We ended the afternoon sitting in the sun on the back patio at Sanitas brewing, debriefing our week over IPAs and watching trains go by.

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[tim_ha]

Completed a 5 day loop into southwestern Colorado with some amazing fall weather. The trees were still going off down there and we really enjoyed going up and over Cinnamon pass from Lake City to Silverton. Wolf Creek Pass was also spectacular.

Sorry for the crappy iPhone pics

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1986 Syncro Sunroof EJ22
www.subagonsouth.com

[acegallagher]

Hahaha. This is like the Colorado show. I love it. tim_ha. I've never seen your Vanagon around Boulder but I would love to see what you've done with it in person. Looks interesting.

[morymob]

A bit over 100mi, nice day as leaves r a turning. Also a work day squeezed in, yard day 4 my mo-in-law the best. Gotta enjoy the fall , winter not far off, due our 1st frost tonight & thru sunday. Enjoy the westy most this time of yr, no hot humid stuff.