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Sun Nov 13, 2011 6:57 pm

Well its been a busy last few days. I managed to get the engine dropped rather quickly. These trucks have a much more inviting engine compartment then their van counterpart, I have no power steering or ac which cleans things up a bit as well. Im glad I decided to yank the engine as I found a couple stripped flywheel bolts that I could not get to budge. I grinded all the heads flat sacrificing the flywheel in the process. Once I got the flywheel removed the bolts spun right out. I managed to clean the case, crank, rods and a few other select items to be sent tomorrow to Rocky Jennings. Rocky is going to do the machine work for the build and get me all setup with a nice short block. Im excited.

Things inside the case look pretty darn good. The vehicle has 115k on it but the pistons inside the case are brazil pistons. Obviously someone rebuilt this engine very recent as everything is pretty clean and little wear. Not worth it to save it however as I am already back inside the case so Im going to upgrade to the 2.2 from rocky.

I just think the truck is so darn cool that I hate to cut any corners in the engine rebuild so all internal items must be replaced with higher quality components for me to sleep at night. :D

All the tin, plenum, support bar are going to the powdercoater this week. Today in between house chores I managed to clean up the engine bay some more and I can't believe how clean it came out. Still some more to do but things are progressing.

Engine dropped

Stripped Flywheel Bolts

Broken tin recess. Rocky is going to repair.

Case Splitting

Off to Powdercoater

More Case Splitting

More engine compartment cleaning.

Sun Nov 13, 2011 7:33 pm

man that all sounds great. pics arn't showing here tho.
hope it's all as much fun as it sounds :)

Sun Nov 13, 2011 7:55 pm

They should be working now.

Mon Nov 14, 2011 10:42 pm

yep, working now. so is the original color this grey/blue in the engine compartment ? I like the red but honestly I think I like the grey/blue better.

well, you've inspired me to take a step towards my hopefully minor rust.
I bought a quart of paint, rust converter, epoxy primer and undercoating today.
tomorrow I'll get the seam sealer. hopefully this week I can get my rust spots dealt with.

Mon Nov 14, 2011 11:33 pm

Good progress so far, keep it up!

Have you decided on how you are going to do the seams? sealent?

I used a dremel and dental pick, then 3m panel epoxy.

Tue Nov 15, 2011 12:03 am

Great work on the truck so far! I've spoken with Rocky- he's about a 3 hour drive from here. Seemed knowledgeable, straight up and capable.

On the seams, the material I had to take out of mine was much too hard for a dental pick or other delicate instrument. I used my Spyderco knife and tapped it down the seam with a plastic hammer. Then down the other face. Then simply clawed at it with the knife tip until I was scraping metal deep into the seam. Rough on the knife, you'd think but this thing's bomb proof - no marks on the blade after all that. Then I folded sandpaper and went up and down the seams as far in as the back edge of the sealer. Blasted with air, etching primer with some air encouragement to flow it deeper yet, then primer, then sealant from NAPA that was 1/10 the price of the 3M stuff. Easy to work with and my seams are all closed up tight and look pretty smooth for a rookie.

DougM

Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:19 am

Oh I love this thread, beautiful ride.. I think you said it..

I do not like any unknowns in my ride..

I just restored all under chassis systems, engine/tranny and did the ele feet with 1.25's..

:)

Tue Nov 15, 2011 6:42 pm

I can't stop taking this thing apart.

Today I tackled the dash and heater box containing the fan and heater core. Things went pretty smoothly for once. On the downside the entire under dash heating system (tubes, vents, heater box and fan were packed with mice and debris. I found one dead mouse carcass in the fan motor and a million walnuts. The mouse must have thought the heater fan was a running wheel. Thats makes it a total of 5 dead mice found in this bus since the project began. The heater fan was seized completely I could not even spin it with a flat blade screwdriver. Whenever I would try the fan switch it would blow the fuse, hence the reason I was doing this job. I hooked up a new heater fan and temporarily attached the switch to verify the new motor and switch work. The new fan blows really hard. All 3 switch settings work and Im a happy man for the day.

Tomorrow I will grab some new foam for the heater flaps and get the dash and all the wiring cleaned up and reinstalled. My under dash heater tubes have a few holes as well so I am going to try and find some replacement tubes.

Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:16 pm

Im actually confused about the paint. Engine compartment, behind dash and in storage chest area is the bluish gray color. The exterior and interior are red. The outside definitely has been repainted but the interior is red and looks stock.

Tue Nov 15, 2011 9:40 pm

Well I found the m-plate and the correct color looks to be Slate Blue. I mean look at the original paint showing through everywhere. When I first got the truck I was convinced all the utility areas were painted the blu/grey. I am very happy about this. I like the red but its a little too sporty for me. Slate blue was always my favorite and this just seems too good to be true. The van is getting a respray in the factory slate blue for sure. This changes everything.

Wed Nov 16, 2011 8:07 am

Great thread and nice to see that you are doing it right.

Like you, once I got to certain point of disassembly I had to go on or I knew I'd regret it later.

I still have a few regrets though... I didn't take the time to detail the engine compartment when I had my engine out to replace the intermeadiate shaft bearings. My desire to have my truck back on the road over ruled good sense. It won't be as much fun with the engine in there... :cry:

I also wish I'd had the body shop undercoat the body entirely. I was struggling with the unreasonable fear that it would look like a cover up job. I have 100's of photos that clearly show that everything was done well BUT... My wallet was empty and it was the right thing to NOT do at the time but still :lol:

I like the Tornado Red on a Vanagon but to me it just doesn't look right on a Transporter Doka/Sinka... Your Slate Blue is a bit more subtle than my blue... Very nice!

No matter the color, these rigs get a lot of attention. My better half has learned to simply go back in the store or call a friend when we find someone hanging around the truck in a parking lot.

Be sure to save your "please sell me your truck" notes and we'll start a new thread! \:D/

Wed Nov 16, 2011 9:23 am

I seriously want to find a Doka in a field. I have serious Doka-Desire, and the fact that one was found, and I get the feeling this one was at a fairly low price, just drives me slightly insane.

Glad to see you are doing it up right, man. The slate blue will look great! Following the thread with great interest, and, as I said, a substantial amount of envy. :D :D

Wed Nov 16, 2011 9:49 am

Thanks guys. These cars are out there. You just have to really keep your eyes open. Im fortunate that al my friends/family call me when they see one. In the past year I found a 87 syncro camper, 66 Westfalia and this truck. All in great shape. Im restoring selling the others but the doka is mine.

I'm hoping to have it back on the road by spring.

Sun Nov 20, 2011 9:03 pm

Spent a few hours this weekend stripping the doka down for paint. I was hoping to get it to the paint shop this week but I have decided to spend more time with the seams and other small rust issues.

Working on the seams, lots more to do. I am using an 80 grit flap disk to eliminate all the pitting on the body panels along the seams and luckily there is enough good metal without going through. I lost my dremel grinding wire wheel but that has been working very well for cleaning out the seams channels.

Stripping interior

More stink bugs

Side Note:

I am working on removing the gate hinges but I am not clear how they slide out. They may be frozen in there but if I can get a a couple out that would save some time. Anyone have some good pics. I searched the archives and found this:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=449527

But I still don't see how the slide out. I contacted Lars at Tristar Connection about getting new pins as well as all the exterior seals.

Fri Nov 25, 2011 5:50 pm

Almost completely stripped. Time to start welding in patches and wrapping up bodywork for paint.

Front stripped down

Gates Removed. All gate pins were completely frozen so I used a cut off wheel and cut the pins in between the hinge and the gate. I will need to touch up the hinges with some welds since I cut into them a bit with the cutoff wheel.

Headliner

Even more stink bugs fell out of the taillights

Another Rust hole

Rear Strip

Sat Nov 26, 2011 2:42 am

Great work! I really want one of these trucks someday.
A little odd how they went to great lengths to paint the interior sheetmetal but couldn't be bothered to take the bumpers off. :o

Sat Nov 26, 2011 7:26 am

This is an awesome project so far, keep up the good work. I grew up in your neck of the woods (Churchville) and am curious to hear where you found this truck specifically? Has the federalization been done on it yet?

-Paul

Sat Nov 26, 2011 8:17 am

Truck is already registered in Maryland. Import from Canada in early 90's. Original owner definately spent alot of effort prepping car for red paint but missed a few key areas (bumpers, treasure chests and engine compartment. I'm going to put the best paint job I can afford. With that being said I plan on spending 2-3k on paint and materials. Epoxy, 2k,sealer,base,clear,clear,clear.. I am at an advantage as I have a painter and body guy that work for me that do great work. They enjoy what they do and it shows. They are looking forward to this one as much as I am. It's going to be my personal car so I will be watching over it like a good father should.

Sun Nov 27, 2011 4:41 pm

Had a few hours of alone time today so I jumped back on the rust work. I got most of the rust cut out and spent a lot of time spraying and brushing phosphoric acid into every knook and cranny on the vehicle. I brushed all window sills, door bottoms, seams inside and out as well as all the misc parts and even scratches on the car to remove any flashing or light surface rust. I bought a big tub of prep etch phosphoric acid from home depot. This stuff works really well. Im extremely obsessive so I usually apply this stuff to all the suspect areas at least twice to make sure I am as through as possible at removing rust. It really is amazing how well it works. All the light rust just disappears. Wear a mask with this stuff it very caustic.

Cutting rot. Floor is going to need some patching as the pitting is too deep for my liking. Not to mention a hole in the floor near the seat hump.

Removed seat base for painter.

Seam City

Brushing acid behind seams.

Cleaning up exterior seams for etch primer.

Sun Nov 27, 2011 11:17 pm

Im watching this thread with real interest, my 88 Doka 2wd Tristar is about to go into my friends shop for a full resto etc. Its been sitting over here for well past a year and i now have the time, $$$ etc to get it started.

Its factory red, 98k kms from new, quite rusty around the rear bodywork but underneath, floors, treasure chest etc are mint. I will be doing very similar rust/seam work- so thanks for the tips !

When i get started ill try for a seperate build thread.

Keep up the good work !