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Mon Sep 15, 2014 10:58 am

I have spent a lot of time on the Samba over the last few years, but so far I haven't posted much about my van. I purchased my Syncro in March 2012, it looked OK, and I had worn my wife down to the point where she finally said yes.

Here are a couple of pics of what it looked like then.

I got it home, still happy with my purchase. It passed an out of province inspection, and I was ready to go camping with the family. That didn't happen. The first time I filled-up I learned I had bad seals on the roll-over valves on the gas tank. Over the next few months I found a few other problems, didn't really drive the van much, and didn't camp in it at all. That fall I started what would turn out to be a nearly two year project. Still haven't camped in the van, but we recently did our first family trip, a test drive out to Elk Island National Park. Introducing Syncro Braunbaer:

I still have a few things to do (like hook-up all the camping equipment and install an aux power system), but this past weekend I decided to give it a good wash and take a few glamour shots.

I'm really happy with how it has turned out. I want to give a quick shout out to all the people who contribute to the Samba. I didn't have a lot of mechanical experience going into this, and the Samba has been a great resource for me. There have been a lot of really great build threads over the last couple of years, and when I have a question I can usually find the answer here.

I'll post some more details and photos of the build, but some of the highlights include a Vanistan 2.2L with new throttle body, VSM, oil cooler, and tuned exhaust. Transmission rebuilt by AA transaxle with 5.43 ring and pinion, 1.18 3rd/0.82 4th, decoupler, and front and rear lockers. Burley upper control arms with syncro.org springs and OME shocks. Burley tire carrier and hitch, Terrawagen flares and podz, along with European H4 square headlights. The paint and body work, and suspension and brake work, was done by Barry at Werke 1 in Vancouver.

More to come....

Nathan

Mon Sep 15, 2014 11:17 am

=D> =D> =D>

Mon Sep 15, 2014 11:20 am

HOLY POOP! Beautiful from day 1, looks so sweet now.

I am a noob when it comes to the mechanics of the vanagon, what are the extra hoses I spy in the updated engine picture?

Mon Sep 15, 2014 12:25 pm

Shiny!

Mon Sep 15, 2014 12:37 pm

TequilaSunSet wrote:
I am a noob when it comes to the mechanics of the vanagon, what are the extra hoses I spy in the updated engine picture?

Those are the oil cooler hoses, Chris has photos and details on his site:

http://www.vanistan.com/oil_cooler_kits.html

Mon Sep 15, 2014 1:10 pm

Oh my, what a beautiful beating to the bank account..

go forth and Westy fine sir..

Mon Sep 15, 2014 1:20 pm

Looks sweet. Nice van.

Mon Sep 15, 2014 1:34 pm

Nice looking van and cool to see it in Alberta!

Mon Sep 15, 2014 1:58 pm

So, here is some more of the backstory.

After discovering the leaking gas, and compounding that with the fact that the heads were starting to weep and the exhaust was leaking I decided I would drop the engine and transmission for a rebuild, fix the gas tank, and get it back on the road. I decided to go with a Vanistan rebuild (it was only a couple months wait at the time) and my fresh engine arrived in November 2012.

Of course the further I went the more problems I started to discover. Things like corroded and leaking brake lines (and a mouse nest inside the frame).

Some corrosion on the tank mount.

And everything in the engine bay covered in a horrible wax.

A few more months ticked by as I worked away cleaning, removing an uncountable number of stuck and corroded fasteners, ordering parts, and trying to get things prepped and ready for the engine installation. As I was working my way through the undercarriage I found this on the inside of the frame rail above the front subframe.

This was definitely a low point in the project for me. It was already well into another camping season (summer 2013 if your keeping track), and I wasn't feeling very optimistic about the project. I've since learned that this is not uncommon, and not really an indication of imminent failure, but at the time it seemed like a deal breaker.

I decided to put the van on hold for a few weeks, and focus on some other stuff, like my kids and a vacation. I thought seriously about parting it out and moving on, but in the end I decided to stick with it.

I decided I needed some professional help as I was obviously way over my head at this point. I made a few calls, but I didn't have any luck finding anyone interested in doing any body work on an old van. Casting a wider net I got in touch with Barry at Werke 1.

http://www.werke1.com/

We had a few conversations, and he thought it sounded pretty reasonable and it was sort of project he would be willing to take on. He was busy, but he thought he would have a spot for the project in his calender in early 2014.

I got to work pulling the interior. Some camper panel rocker rust, the result of leaking hook-up boxes. But aside from that not much that I didn't already know about.

Mon Sep 15, 2014 2:48 pm

danfromsyr wrote: Oh my, what a beautiful beating to the bank account..

go forth and Westy fine sir..

Yeah, I have it all tallied up, but I try not to think about it....

Mon Sep 15, 2014 2:51 pm

matt_j wrote: Nice looking van and cool to see it in Alberta!

Thanks, I assume you are in Alberta as well--what part?

Mon Sep 15, 2014 2:54 pm

Beautiful rig! Very nice :D

Mon Sep 15, 2014 3:07 pm

Awesome rig, very cool!

Mon Sep 15, 2014 3:28 pm

Having the van stripped down to a rolling shell I was ready to take it out to Barry for rust repair/paint, and also to have him do the brakes and suspension. I rented a U-Haul to trailer it out on the second weekend in January. It's about 1200 km through the Rockies, and was an adventure in itself. I did the trip in a day and a half with blizzards, avalanches, and freezing rain. Not fun but it ended well with the van in Barry's competent hands.

He kept me updated during the process with plenty of pics. Some of the rust repair.

I knew I wouldn't be re-installing the fridge so I had him weld that up.

Fixing the frame rail.

Painting. I stayed with the stock colour, bronze beige metallic (LH8U).

Undercarriage.

Suspension and brakes. All the parts were plated or powder coated. Heavy duty drums, the latest version of GoWesty big brakes. Burley upper control arms, Schwenk springs/OME shocks, with the rest of the parts stock.

And back together as a rolling shell again, but a much nicer one!

At the end of May it was time for another trip to Vancouver to pick it up, this time with nicer weather and a much nicer van!

Mon Sep 15, 2014 3:31 pm

Syncro Jael wrote: Beautiful rig! Very nice :D

Thanks, you might recognize the front CV boot protectors!

Mon Sep 15, 2014 6:04 pm

ng wrote:

I'll post some more details and photos of the build, but some of the highlights include a Vanistan 2.2L with new throttle body, VSM, oil cooler, and tuned exhaust. Transmission rebuilt by AA transaxle with 5.43 ring and pinion, 1.18 3rd/0.82 4th, decoupler, and front and rear lockers. ...

I thought the North American Syncros has a 4.86 ring & pinion?

Mon Sep 15, 2014 7:29 pm

danfromsyr wrote: Oh my, what a beautiful beating to the bank account.

The most poetic thing ever said about Vanagon ownership!

Mon Sep 15, 2014 7:40 pm

Very nice restoration but one question any reason why you went waterboxer?

great job.

Mon Sep 15, 2014 7:50 pm

What a beauty.

It looks like when you bought the van it had fiberglass bumpers and later you changed to old stock metal ones?

Also, for those like me who don't know, what was the issue with the frame rail? I cannot tell much from the pics other than a hole in the metal? What caused this problem and why is this not uncommon?

Thanks

Mon Sep 15, 2014 8:49 pm

Beautiful job. Oh and THANKYOU for keeping the original colour, for keeping the wbx, for not painting your calipers and suspension red and for not putting silly badges or decals on it. Simply the best rebuild on the Samba to date.