You're my Boy Blue; saving a 90 Multivan beach cruiser

[Marshj]

This will be my build thread for the 1990 Orly Blue Multivan I picked up last July from Zerin. It had sat for 15 years in a field and was ravaged for parts before he saved it. I am inspired by MulitvanMan and Buggeeeeeee and their storytelling so will try to do the same.

Blue on her arrival home:

Apparently my wife didn't want another van in our lives?... hmmm

I am writing this as a documentation of the work and to help my friend Joe as he restores a 91 MV we saved from a 6 year slumber a few months ago. Hopefully it's entertaining, helpful and as Bugeeee and MV did for me - Inspiring.

A bit about our Journey:

When in high school my brother and I had a small lawn care service. We cut the grass for 15 neighbors and my brother was famous for his grass. One neighbor, Tony, was a painter and an artist. Tony had a VW Vanagon ( tin top ) he loved.. for years he searched for it until he found a rust free beauty in the dry desert of Oregon. He bought it and the van toured him 3 times across the US. As life grew his hippy van became his paint shed. It slumbered with a bad water pump like rip van winkle as I mowed grass around it for 10 years. Alas the story of White, that will be told in my next build thread...

Here is White as she was found:

Iris, Tony's late wife didn't want to let this van go for 15 years after his passing. Finally she decided, Jess and I were the ones. She told stories of notes on notes on notes, she even had a folder of them she kept.

And here is White's first adventure away from home; it was a nice night for her, all alone in the Catskills for a night.

The adventures of White will come another time, in another story, in a wardrobe... this is about my BOY Blue.. poor guy was found worse off… unlike his sister who was safely tucked away behind the weeds I didn’t mow and under the care of Iris, Blue was left for parts, RUST FREE, abandoned in a junkyard somewhere between Maryland and Pennsylvania

Blue had a new family, Zerin picked him up. But poor Zerin ran out of love for Vanagons... after 27 he had had enough. Blue needed to be adopted, and who doesn't need two vans? So unannounced to my wife, WE DID! We'll save Blue.The goal is to make Blue even more reliable than his little sister.. we'll see who wins the fight for the top bunk

[Marshj]

How our adventure life began...

While carrying all our stuff on our backs in South America and acting like modern day millennials, we quit our jobs, put nothing in retirement, sold our things and retired in our 20's... for about 3 months. While being young, dumb, and curious on life Jess and I fell in love with Vanagons...not just any Vans. These Vans. The idea of adventure by Van was luring. We were pinching pennies and grocery shopping for Mango's and toilet paper when we walked outside and saw a beautiful baby blue bus, it was SychroGreg and his adventurous wife. Inspired by their story of converting a Sychro and leaving TenneSee and their sick van that night we started searching how we could get our hands on one. We stumbled on Our Open Road [ in a 2wd westy ] at the same hostel as us [ mind you both of these couples are at the SOUTHERN tip of South America, I'm sure they had run into wide eye'd fresh travelers before so thank you both for your kindness ] - on Greg's recommendation we discovered Wicked Campers in Santiago, Chile. Van's painted by lunatics. Our first advanture began:

So it turns out...if you rent a van with two youngsters from Whales, by the end of two weeks you'll feel like family...in only the best way i swear..who would have guessed?

[E1]

You've been holding out, Marshj.

Awesome. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
_________________
‘84 Westy, 2.1L with Digijet, 5.43 R+P, GT Gears
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
— Colin Chapman

[Marshj]

After nearly dying in that Mitsubishi we were hooked, no really. We got passed by a local Chilean descending a volcano...his speed? 95 or so. Seconds after passing he hit a soft spot in the road and rolled and rolled and rolled. Thankfully he was ok. Such an experience can prepare you for the “friendly’ waves you’ll get here in New Jersey on the turnpike in a Vanagon

So to get to Blue, we found white and then I decided we needed a pop-top…

Searching craigslist daily, you get good at spotting deals. I knew I wanted a Multivan or Weekender, no kitchen for us as we have hiking stoves, and coolers and are only weekenders. I wanted a deal, something I could sink my hands into now that White was done. A bit more of a challenge.. Oh, you say the electrical needs to be redone? You don’t know if the transmission is good? The pop top is cracked? Wait, you put a new motor in but didn’t finish the install? Oh there’s no AFM… yea, sure I can handle that...and then it hits you. THE hardest part to find for a vanagon… the automatic shift linkage. Yes. The 8’ long AUTO SHIFT LINKAGE. It could be the bain of you. Thanks to sambanista ‘SleepyJoe’ who seems to have everything and a 6’ box, we have gears people!

What attaches here could threaten to end your project...

Step one.. Open VanCafe account, step Two, Open BusDepot account. Step three. Check bank account. Step four Buy parts. Step 5 Check Bank account. Step 6 Hide bank statements from Wife. Step 7 Hide in the driveway .. step 8 realize you live in the city and park on the street. Lose this round, sleep in van on street.

Let's see whats missing..

Ohhh that can't be right

hmmm gap here

now where did i leave those plug wires?

Might be the one build that didn't need new fuels lines? it just needed any fuel lines...

[Marshj]

[khughes]

[Marshj]

[khughes]

[E1]

Confused how a whale could stay blue in all that brown mud........

Great thread, Fella. 👍🏼

(And Hey, Thanks, but any photographer should love others' images or risk being a Yutz)
_________________
‘84 Westy, 2.1L with Digijet, 5.43 R+P, GT Gears
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
— Colin Chapman

[ALIKA T3]

Nice Tales !!
_________________
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

[Abscate]

Some sort of fluke flood!
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.ssS!

[sleeperspirit1]

Hey jeff, i wish you well on the blue bus! Im glad i got to rescue that one its my favorite combo for a vanagon, It had to be saved! Im glad you are getting to enjoy it!

[joetiger]

_________________
Joe T.

'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32

"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron

"Still, it's good to be afield."--VWagabond

Available Now! Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present

www.josephtrussell.com