Holy Syncro. Found an 87 Syncro Westfalia

[AKWesty]

Amazing! Love the name. Glad to hear you lived through it.

I have a similar vehicle story with a K5 blazer and a shop full of flammables. Decisions get made quick and hindsight is always 20/20. Scary stuff. Fire extinguishers saved the shop then.

Great recovery on the syncro. Wow!
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84' Westy 2wd
EJ22 - 4spd - Peloquin TBD
GW +1.5 Springs
215/70-16's

www.CatchTheKraken.com

"Never go to Alaska as a young man because you'll never be satisfied with any other place as long as you live." -John Muir

[Needforspace]

Glad you are OK, garage fires are scary.
A fire ruined both my garage and my syncro a year ago.

Garage is rebuilt and a new syncro is being prepared in it, lost a year tho.

[casey79westfalia]

Purchased a very nice section of body wiring harness from samba member supersamba. I believe it was from a 2wd.He was very easy to deal with and knew exactly what I wanted and needed. I know this was not a easy task to remove especially with the weather in the single digit temperatures. He managed to remove the harness with no damage to the plugs at the rear of the van or any of the sheathing. I do have to transfer the back heater blower wire connector over to the harness as they had to cut that off for removal.All my other engine compartment wiring was thrown in the trash and will not needed be needed for the 1.8t conversion. My taillight harness was not effected by the fire but I am stil going to rebuild with new sheathing and plugs.

Ordered new chemical and fire rated sheathing and shrink wrap from Mcmaster Carr to rewrap the harness. Going to remove old sheathing and double check all wires throughout loom for rips or brakes. Current harness is very flexible and I dont honestly see any cracking but I want to make sure before putting back in the van. I believe a 2wd body harness and a syncro body harness are identical except the syncro has an extra wire for the gas tank sender at the rear. Can anyone confirm this? I counted 20 wires total in the new harness from the 2wd. I will count my wires in the syncro harness when I get to the shop this afternoon. Guessing I'll count 21 wires on the syncro, the extra being the gas tank. Ill compare colors as well.Plan on patching in the renewed harness up towards the front near the front wheels.
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66 Westfalia
87 Westfalia Syncro "Phoenix"
88 Double Cab
76 Porsche 914
2014 Audi Q7
2010 Tdi Sportwagen

Currently looking for 62 Double Cab, 66 Westfalia Parts!
(Rear seat and pedestal, bumpers, mirrors)

http://www.baycountrymotors.com

My 87 Syncro Westfalia 1.8t Restoration

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=418933

"Do it the right way, or you'll pay for it"

[casey79westfalia]

Well the 2wd harness has 21 wires my syncro has 23. I'll have to go wire by wire and see what the additional wires go to.

Really happy with my bodywork overall, I doubted myself 😊. Did some blocking on my primed over bodywork areas today and things were pretty great. Had a couple spots I topcoated to insure I don't have to lay on the primer. Been talking with my paint rep and I am going to stay away from the heavy build "Slick sand" or "polysurfacer" primers this time around. The sprayable heavy build primers really do give a good layer of primer to block however, I have noticed on my last two restorations where I used Slick sand that it shrunk a bit over time and I could see sanding scratches and bodywork that had blocked flat but may have been less then perfect. This time I'm doing very light coats of Ppg envirobase surfacer and baking it between applications to make sure I don't have any shrinking later. Couple weeks Phoenix should be in fresh paint.

_________________
66 Westfalia
87 Westfalia Syncro "Phoenix"
88 Double Cab
76 Porsche 914
2014 Audi Q7
2010 Tdi Sportwagen

Currently looking for 62 Double Cab, 66 Westfalia Parts!
(Rear seat and pedestal, bumpers, mirrors)

http://www.baycountrymotors.com

My 87 Syncro Westfalia 1.8t Restoration

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=418933

"Do it the right way, or you'll pay for it"

[Herr Motorspiele]

I've been following your thread and I'm rooting for you! Nice work! Good to see another east coast Syncro. I'd love to see a completed 1.8t in person someday. I was thinking the wire would be for the gas level sender too. Just a thought, could one of those extra wires also be for the diff lock? Keep at it!

[Needforspace]

Diff lock is one difference to the 2wd and there are also originally wires for a decoupler.

[casey79westfalia]

Long cold week and the snow is dumping down right now. Woodstove cranking. Started the week doing multiple spray outs of the LB3V Titan Red.Guys there are a lot of variations between the colors depending on paint brand and paint line. I spray ppg. I was not happy with any of the five mixes I did that were mixed from the factory code. They were all a bit off. Everything I was spraying was either too light or two dark or more pink or too heavy of metallics. I called the ppg hotline and got a cross reference color. Basically they had another car color in the database that is almost the same paint mix as the original titan red. Color comes from the 9 series Saab's, color is called Cayenne Red. The metallic has a very smooth fine gold metallic instead of the coarser silver like the originlal. Same base color but much richer tone with the gold. The gold feels very deep, almost like a 3d hologram when the light hits it at different angles.Unfortunately it doesn't show well in photos.

All these were the same paint code but so different in variation depending on paint line. I never trust the paint code. Always be sure to get samples. Usually the higher end lines have a closer color match to the original. Truthfully they have better more rich toners. The lower end lines still have just as reliable of product but the tones can be less vibrant. Pick the base according to the spray swatch you like.

Closest to factory I thought, but just missing something. Feels flatter.

Saab Cayenne red. Much more elegant in person.

Grinded seams at bottom of tailgate and sliding door where light rust was starting. Nice metal blast (phosphoric acid) bath was in order. I hung the doors on my tree stand to allow the liquid to run into the seam. Blew dry wiped with cleaner and applied epoxy sealer. Followed up with two part 3m seam sealer. Prepped jambs, removed all latches and hardware.

Sanded interior and engine compartment to remove burned paint and then epoxy primed entire floor to give solid foundation for the liner to bite too. Gave engine compartment a fresh coat of base coat/clear. Figure the engine compartment will get dirty over time so I dont want to have to wipe off bedliner, bedliner is tough to clean when it gets dirty and Ill go crazy trying to get everything out of the texture when its greasy and grimey. I used a tintable bedliner/sound deadener on the floors and lower backsides of kitchen wall. Bed liner was wet in pics and appears much lighter then it is, my camera flash was not helping either. Metallic doesnt show in the bed liner very much but the result and color is close enough. I had to add alot more black to the cayenne red paint to get me liner close when spraying the liner. Shame all of this pretty stuff will be covered up with cabinets,carpet/flooring.

_________________
66 Westfalia
87 Westfalia Syncro "Phoenix"
88 Double Cab
76 Porsche 914
2014 Audi Q7
2010 Tdi Sportwagen

Currently looking for 62 Double Cab, 66 Westfalia Parts!
(Rear seat and pedestal, bumpers, mirrors)

http://www.baycountrymotors.com

My 87 Syncro Westfalia 1.8t Restoration

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=418933

"Do it the right way, or you'll pay for it"

[ALIKA T3]

Looks good!!
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Silicone Steering Boots and 930 Cv boots for sale in the classifieds.
Syncro transmission upgrade parts in the Classifieds.
Subaru EJ22+UN1 5 speed transmission
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=416343
Syncro http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4...num+gadget

[Merian]

too late but you could have welded it up like the Syncro 16's

Barn Red is nice...

[casey79westfalia]

Really like the texture and durability of the bedliner/sounddeadner. Have it on my 88 doka as well and have had no issues thus far. I have however decided that I do not like the color where you can see it over the engine. I'm going to scuff and retape the area above the engine back up and spray an adhesion promoter and spray the Cayenne red followed with a clear coat over the liner. The color up in the front area we'll be under flooring and cabinets so no worries there. Hope to have all the jams cut in this week.
_________________
66 Westfalia
87 Westfalia Syncro "Phoenix"
88 Double Cab
76 Porsche 914
2014 Audi Q7
2010 Tdi Sportwagen

Currently looking for 62 Double Cab, 66 Westfalia Parts!
(Rear seat and pedestal, bumpers, mirrors)

http://www.baycountrymotors.com

My 87 Syncro Westfalia 1.8t Restoration

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=418933

"Do it the right way, or you'll pay for it"

[casey79westfalia]

Sanding, Taping, Primer, Sanding, Taping, Primer, Sanding, Taping, Primer. Lots of labor in the jambs.I got everything de-trimed, rust grinded off, sprayed metal blast and seam sealer applied to a footwell seams. Not sure why vw left so many seams unseam sealed. Water just sits in the footwell seams. Some simple seam sealer would have saved alot of these footwells from rot. I have been seam sealing any seams from both sides along the way to keep water from entering.

Took me the better part of a day to prep, tape and paint jambs.

Sealer.

Base Clear Cayenne Red sprayed. Due to the color being a pretty high metallic/pearl I have decided to paint jambs first then reinstall doors and paint van with doors on. I will foam tape the painted jams to eliminate any paint edge overlap from exterior to interior. When painting metallic's I prefer to have the doors on to prevent any blotchiness/unevenness that can happen when panels are sprayed separately and metallic's dont lay the same and two panels are next to each other. Having the doors on I can assure the metallic's across the sides are even and uniform.

Prepped sill plate and rear deck where soundproof/bedliner was applied and top-coated with basecoat/clear to get proper color match to engine compartment. Also sanded the engine compartment back down and shot paint again to fix some minor imperfections I had first round.I am very happy now.

Door hardware painted.

Got some goodies from gowesty today.New vdo sender, stainless tank straps, fuel tank rebuild kit, tank heat shielding, loctite aviation gasket sealant, fuel filter kit.

Decided to abandon my original syncro tank as the bottom fuel supply spicket showed a little warpage from heat. Sure the tank is still good but I just cant risk it after the fire. Stephan had a tank that he is sending me with my kit. One less thing to worry about.
_________________
66 Westfalia
87 Westfalia Syncro "Phoenix"
88 Double Cab
76 Porsche 914
2014 Audi Q7
2010 Tdi Sportwagen

Currently looking for 62 Double Cab, 66 Westfalia Parts!
(Rear seat and pedestal, bumpers, mirrors)

http://www.baycountrymotors.com

My 87 Syncro Westfalia 1.8t Restoration

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=418933

"Do it the right way, or you'll pay for it"

[casey79westfalia]

One week to go, paint going on next saturday. Did lots of blocking, topcoating, blocking, priming over the past week but in the end I think phoenix is flatter then the factory panels were to start, who needs a gym when you can grab a set of blocks and go to town, my knees and arms are sore.

Received my clear today. I have decided to use the PPG 530 clear. In Maryland we are required to spray Low Voc products and waterborne paint. Color match is beautiful with waterborne and I like the way they spray and the way the metallic's lay out effortlessly.The clears however are very temperamental compared to the solvent days imho. The lower voc/compliant clears tend to dry quicker causing issues like solvent pop and dye back if flash times and finger checking clear for tackiness are not followed just right. Having the ability to control the temperature and air in a paint booth are huge and I am fortunate to have that ability at the shop. Vanagons are not exactly a small car to paint and you will need a clear that is slow enough so that when you get around the vehicle from your first coat and start the second the first coat is still wet enough that your second coat will melt in and the same for your final coat. You want the wet on wet coats. Ppg is my paint brand of choice and out of all their clears my favorite is the Ec530 performance clear. Its ppg's glamour clear and it really is nice stuff. Sprays easy and is just right for overall and larger spot work. Its very heavy bodied and self levels very well. One downfall is it can be tough to buff when it cures all the way. Really better to cut and buff it when its the first few days or it becomes concrete. Really shows its durability once cured though.Rock hard glass.Lets see how it does. Excited.

I have been getting a few pm's about what products I recommend for the restoration and paint process so Ill make a quick list of what I used on his project for those interested.One thing I'll say in regards to products/materials. Unless you are restoring cars at a production rate I would spend the money on the better stuff. The job will be easier with better sand paper and better sanding fillers. In the end if you price shop the stuff you can get most of it really cheap on amazon or online.

Materials:

Evercoat Rage Extreme (body filler)

http://www.amazon.com/Evercoat-120-Performance-Pre...ge+extreme

Evercoat Metal Glaze Ultra (topcoat)

http://www.amazon.com/Evercoat-425-Metal-Glaze-Pum...laze+ultra

3m Panel Bond and Gun (Panel Replacement)

http://www.amazon.com/3M-Adhesive-Manual-Applicato...panel+bond

3m Bare Metal Seam Sealer (Seam Sealer for exterior seams)

http://www.amazon.com/3M-08310-Beige-Bare-Metal-Se...s=3m+08310

3m brushable seam sealer (under vehicle repair areas to match factory brushed seam sealer)

http://www.amazon.com/3M-08656-Brushable-Seam-Seal...eam+sealer

I use mostly 3m sand papers (40, 80, 180, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1500, 3000, 5000) combination of longboard and da papers. Make sure you have 3m interface pad for your da sander for final sanding.

Paint:

Upol raptor urethane bedliner for interior floors. Product is tintable and topcoat-able with a compatible urethane paint system. Read the tech sheet. Sem makes a nice urethane bedliner/chip guard product as well thats topcoatable. Both have worked really well for me over the years.

http://www.u-pol.co.uk/documents/datasheets/tds/RLT-TDS-US.pdf
Envirobase Line of Epoxy/surfacers/sealers/basecoats/clears
_________________
66 Westfalia
87 Westfalia Syncro "Phoenix"
88 Double Cab
76 Porsche 914
2014 Audi Q7
2010 Tdi Sportwagen

Currently looking for 62 Double Cab, 66 Westfalia Parts!
(Rear seat and pedestal, bumpers, mirrors)

http://www.baycountrymotors.com

My 87 Syncro Westfalia 1.8t Restoration

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=418933

"Do it the right way, or you'll pay for it"

[87vanwes]

Very nice work. I love the paint color.

You set a very high bar when it comes to body and paint..

Thanks for sharing.
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Kevin


1987 westy syncro tdi conversion and restoration.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6...highlight=

[casey79westfalia]

[casey79westfalia]

Long week. Long day. Popped out of bed at 6:30 am this morning grabbed breakfast and headed to the shop on a mission to paint the syncro.

Spent majority of the morning checking for sanding scratches around vehicle and carefully sanding with a dual action sander loaded with 800 grit on an interface pad and using guide coat to remove any surface texture/scrtaches leftover from final blocking. Mettalic's tend to lay funny on a vehicle if the final sanding scratches are too large (below 600, I prefer 800), basically the metals will settle into the scratches like little valleys and cause striping and blotchyness and I didn't want any of that. Taping went really smooth. Since this paint color has a lot of metallic I didn't want to risk having color issues that can happen when painting the doors off the car. Since my jambs were already done previously and finished I used 3m Plus blue foam tape in the jambs to eliminate any paint edges in the jambs. Sometimes with the foam you can get a slight frosted edge in the jamb, not a hard line. I do prefer the blue foam as its much better then the white when it comes to the transition. I used 3m 3000 grit wetsand paper on a foam pad to prep the outermost part of the inner jamb where this overlapping of the clear in the jamb occurs. I will come back with a mini buffer and buff that zone to eliminate any transition the foam may have left, if any.

Im a happy man. I couldn't be happier with the final color. The pictures don't do the color justice especially with my crappy cell phone pics I took these with. The saab cayenne red is so beautiful. Much richer then the original titan red, the gold in certain light really looks awesome. The new color in low light almost matches the old color, but when it gets bright light on it really gets much more depth with the gold and feels very vibrant.

The clear is my new favorite. It wasn't cheap. I think total for the clear, reducer and hardener was around $350 and thats my cost. Worth every penny. This is PPG's newer glamour clear and "PPG" says it does not need to be buffed because of how it lays itself out. What that actually means is that you can spray it on a vehicle and it will match the texture and body of the original clear. No clear on a factory car is smooth like glass, they actually have a good amount of texture. Newer bmws and jeeps seem to have a lot of texture in the clear. Of course if you want it flat as glass you will need to buff any paint job. I really didn't see any dirt but a speck or two Im sure exists so I can denib them if needed. First coat looked ok, I was actually a bit worried and regretting trying a new clear on my personal car. Second coat however looked much better and I could see it slowly leveling itself and melting into the first coat right in front of my eyes as I waited for it to flash for my third and final coat. Third coat was the charm. Just enough to level itself and I really don't have anything bad to say about the clear in the end. It sprays well, is actually really crystal clear even in the mixing cup (most clears have a bit yellower tint in the cup it seems). We had 60-70 degree weather today so I barely had to use any heat in the paint booth. I did a short bake after painting to help cure the clear to keep any flying particles from landing and sticking in. Overall I'm thrilled, will spray the roof separately next week and move on to the mechanicals. With this color I have my heart set on a set of wheels painted gunmetal gray. Not sure what wheels yet.... Probably 16's to accommodate the bigger brake kits.Excited that I'm finally going back in the other direction now after all the hurdles thus far.

_________________
66 Westfalia
87 Westfalia Syncro "Phoenix"
88 Double Cab
76 Porsche 914
2014 Audi Q7
2010 Tdi Sportwagen

Currently looking for 62 Double Cab, 66 Westfalia Parts!
(Rear seat and pedestal, bumpers, mirrors)

http://www.baycountrymotors.com

My 87 Syncro Westfalia 1.8t Restoration

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=418933

"Do it the right way, or you'll pay for it"

[zuhandenheit]

Goddamn that looks amazing.

[casey79westfalia]

[Yellow Rabbit]

Wow, just wow. That's beautiful.

[candyman]

[quote="casey79westfalia"]

Is it just me, or does anyone else want to take a bite out of that?

[dobryan]

As soon as the salt is off the roads I'll have to take a drive and visit and chat. I'm only about a hour south of you, maybe closer. Nice color BTW....
_________________
Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794