New (to me) 2001 Weekender MV

[VanGeek]

Progress!!! Driver rear lower quarter and Front passenger inner wing is now primed, painted, and clearcoated for protection against future rust. I also wirebrushed, treated the rust, and painted the transmission pan and muffler heat shield. Metal bumpers are also cleaned-up, rust removed, and sealed/painted. These are all areas you can't normally see without removing exterior body panels, bumper covers, or belly pans -- glad a found and fixed them.

Rear quarter. Etched/primed, coated w/seam seal, painted with paintscratch.com color matched paint, clear coated with spray2k. Color match is very good but not perfect. Surface looks wonky with seam seal underneath but that's how mine was from the factory (although my brush marks are more pronounced, the factory ones were also very visible)

Inner wing finished the same way. I didn't work very hard to hide the rivets since this is an inner panel you can't see. All the rusted areas were cut-out and replaced with metal slightly thicker than OEM. Color looks WAY off because the inner body panels are especially brown/dark vs the exterior shell and shading among the panels varies greatly with factory paint, cosmoline (in some areas), staining, etc.

These are the transmission pans and heatshields. I used a 2K aerosol that's rated for high temps. This is necessary for the heatshield. May have been overkill for the trans pan but I noticed most std paints are rated for 200 degrees. I used 2K for better chemical and fluid resistance. I was surprised (and pleased) by how thick the transmission pan steel is. The rust I treated looked bad but barely impacted the overall depth of the steel. You can see the prior rusted areas under the paint. I didn't bother to use filler on them -- just wanted them removed and sealed. The high-temp paint doesn't seem as hard and durable as std 2K aerosols I've used. Will keep an eye on it and can always sandblast and recoat on the next ATF change if necessary -- but hope it holds up well.

[VanGeek]

Well -- FINALLY back on the road today. Got everything buttoned-up after my 6 months of repairs. Was going through my original purchase photos and was disappointed that all the work I performed (nder-carriage, metal bumpers, inner wing, rear quarter, oil pan, AT pan+fluid swap, brakes/fluid, muffler heatshield, LED conversions, etc) aren't actually visible.

Oh well... I'm just glad that that the initial shakedown run was uneventful and everything seems to be working well! Made a run to the xfer station and barely put a dent into the MV's cavernous interior with the boxes and garbage I brought:

Here's how the muffler heatshield worked out after adhering reflective fiber-backed surface to the sealed/painted shield:

Bumpers were all cleaned-up, treated, and sealed before installing the bumper cover.

[VanGeek]

I've completed ~100 miles since putting everything back together. One of the trips to my local VW shop for a proper 4 wheel alignment. I thought the van drove/tracked well, but after the alignment definitely seems improved.

Already appreciating the Eurovan's cargo space for runs to the transfer station and a purchase of treated lumber for raised beds -- no way the 8-12ft boards could have been transported by my other vehicles!

New oil pan seal seems to be working well. No evidence of oil leaks although I'll need more miles to verify. I still think there may be a cam sensor or valve-cover seep up higher, but I can't yet find a trace of it after cleaning the engine. Looks much better now after scrubbing it, fixing the leak, and removing, refinishing, or treating rusted areas. The starter is badly corroded but works great -- I sourced a fresh remanufactured one and may swap-out this summer as a preventative measure.

Will reinstall the belly pan this week, and then head to the White Mountains for a weekend camping trip next weekend...

[VanGeek]

Rainy humid weather has curbed our number of outings but I am doing small interior mods to accommodate how we use Vanna. I pulled the jumpseats and made some floor plugs to keep the mounting areas tidy. Acquired some new a pillar trims from the UK to replace my cracked ones and will install soon.

Been working on some dash mods to reclaim wasted space. Designed a cellphone cradle mount for the small shallow cubby, a scangauge ii mount for the larger shallow cubby, and a inside/outside thermometer plus 65 watt USB power adapter bezel to replace the prior ashtray.

The ashtray bezel is powered by its own direct battery feed thru a relay that is energized by the ignition.

Floor plugs...

[VanGeek]

Didn't like the crusty appearance of my starter and wondered if it might become a problem although it functioned just fine. Found a good deal on a Bosch-remanufactured replacement. So did a little preventative swap-out and glad that I did. The starter itself was in better condition than I thought. Still a little crusty but the exterior metal was intact. However upon removing it the activator wire broke away from the terminal connector. When I stripped back the wire to put a new terminal on it, the wire was corroded a good inch from where it had attached to the original terminal. I cut the wire back a few inches and then extended it along with a new terminal. Used marine-grade heat-shrink tubing on all the repairs and replaced the original plastic conduit. Replacement starter looks all shiny and new. Anyhow -- glad I found and repaired this before the activator wire broke/fell-off during a trip. Here are pics of where the activator fell off the terminal and of the original starter.

Removing the starter isn't awful, but not trivial either. After dropping the belly pan... Two 16mm bolts connect it to the transmission. The front bolt is easy to access. The rear bolt can be accessed from above or the driver-side. I went thru the drivers side with a 16mm deep socket and it wasn't too bad. After removing the starter, there's a copper bushing inside the trans that accommodates the starter shaft. It's a wear item and its recommended to replace but also considered a PITA to remove the old and reinstall the new. Mine didn't look too bad but I replaced it anyhow. Found a good video here that recommends screwing a tap into the bushing to extract it. https://youtu.be/WqWc7TwiGmE

No photos of my experience since the youtube video is excellent. I found a long bolt in my "hardware bucket" along with two nuts and used it to tap the new bushing in place. My bolt was slightly smaller than the bushing so I wrapped it with masking tape until the bushing fit semi-snug and wouldn't fall off. Gently tapped it into place -- perfect! Here's the bolt set-up I used.

While in there, I looked for oil and fluid leaks. I've only put ~1,200 miles on Vanna since Winter repairs and the belly pan and engine were still clean -- looked good. The oil pan seal I repaired looked great. But I could see some oil running down the front of the block on the driver/trans side. Just a wet track but not enough to drip yet. Looked around the upper portion of block (cam sensors, seals, etc) and it wasn't obvious to me. Will check again this Fall...

[bigfoot_ev]

VanGeek you're stressing me out. First I was worried about what I would find lurking in my front fenders. But I was saved there. Then you got me poking around under the van looking for things out of place and now I have to replace my engine and tranny mounts. NOW I have to check my starter!

But seriously, great thread. You really have motivated me to get under and behind looking for those ticking time bombs.

[VanGeek]

New starter is working great! Might be my imagination, but it sounds like it spins faster than the old one. Could be due to the starter itself, cleaned-up wiring/connections, or placebo effect... Anyhow, it's working real good.

My Wet Okole seat covers arrived yesterday! Saw a lot of good reviews on them and wanted to protect the cloth seats from dirt and sweat of hiking, mtn biking, etc and camping with Vanna.

Got a little crazy with the patterns but this is what Wifey wanted -- and I do like them as well. Will add artificial turf protective mats and a hula girl on the dash to complete the effect

For those considering Wet Okole, I am super impressed with the quality of their product and their support. These aren't cheap -- but super well-made and everything fit perfectly. They have a little add'l padding that makes the seats feel a little more "cushy" as well.

Here are the fronts and the rear bench installed. I also have the jump seat covers since we use them when my adult kids visit and we take road trips together.

Arm rests come off for the install, and I took the opportunity to swap inner and outer rests on the front seats. The inner ones take more abuse as a step to get into the upper bunk. I THOUGHT mine were completely intact and unbroken since they previously tightened well and aren't wobbly. However, I found the rivet that holds the outer steel hook onto the aluminum cam was broken. They still work ok but I JB-welded the metal hook back onto the cam before reassembling

[white_one]

[VanGeek]

Completed some additional work over the past few weeks:

Replaced the right-side engine mount and lower transmission mount. Had to bail on the left-side engine/trans mount as I could not un-stuck a lower bolt and the mounts were barely sagging anyhow -- will leave that to the professionals for a future set of services. https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=10121744#10121744

replaced the rubber bumper for the exhaust. The exhaust was pressing on the old one which was fatigued. With the new right hand mount the exhaust is now barely touching the new bumper which is more up to the task.

Installed a new set of replacement euro-spec headlamp housings. Will dial-in the headlight alignment this evening. Will try them with some high-output LEDs but will go back to halogen bulbs if the cutoff isn't clean. Fingers crossed...

Replaced the gaskets surrounding the door-check strap -- the original OEM seals were very crumbly and degraded.

Had a big ~two week trip planned thru the great smoky mountains, but may have to scuttle due to some pets who need medical attention. Would still like to get in a few overnighters locally before winter hits...

[VanGeek]

Here are some pics of the new headlights. Please excuse the bug-splats on the front-end -- need to do some clean-up there!

These are the DEPO aftermarket euro-spec near-clones of the valeo originals. I found the best prices from one of the Latvia ebay vendors. My US-spec originals had glass in good condition but the chrome internals were degraded.

With the same halogen bulbs used in my old housings, these seemed to project better. With the LED bulbs, they really light up the road well. The cutoff projected onto my garage door was not as crisp with LEDs as the halogens, but very very close. I did a manual glare test by standing in front at various angles and I could not discern any more glare from the LEDs vs halogens. I tried taking pics of the various projections with new, old, halogen, LED but the pics make it difficult to view what the human eye can easily see. New housings with LEDs are by-far the best. These are the LED's I used: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09JZ6QZ6T?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

The busdepot headlight wiring harness is plug-and-play, well designed, and works great! However, it wasn't obvious to me how to retain the relays in a way that they weren't flopping around the engine bay. I suppose you could use some of the supplied zip ties. I fabricated a small box to hold them and mounted the box to some existing holes that were unused. The box fits under the battery box top cover. Files hosted here if you want to print your own: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6250860

Lastly, here is a photo of the new door strap gasket acquired from Heritage...

[VanGeek]

I wanted a better feel for the stock steering wheel but didn't want to replace the entire wheel itself. Instead, I opted for a wheelskins leather wrap which is available in multiple colors and options directly from wheelskins or 3rd party vendors. I purchased mine from eurocampers for $65.95 (including shipping).

Overall, I'm satisfied with the look, feel, and quality of the wheelskins product. It's not padded nor as thick as many of the OEM or aftermarket leather steering wheels. But I think it looks good, provides some add'l thickness, feels great, and is reasonably economical. The installation took me almost two hours although I could probably do it in just over half that time now that I have more experience. It was challenging to keep the waxed thread untangled and tight during installation but I muddled my way through it. Here are photos from during the install and the finished product.

[VanGeek]

I wanted a better feel for the stock steering wheel but didn't want to replace the entire wheel itself. Instead, I opted for a wheelskins leather wrap which is available in multiple colors and options directly from wheelskins or 3rd party vendors. I purchased mine from eurocampers for $65.95 (including shipping).

Overall, I'm satisfied with the look, feel, and quality of the wheelskins product. It's not padded nor as thick as many of the OEM or aftermarket leather steering wheels. But I think it looks good, provides some add'l thickness, feels great, and is reasonably economical. The installation took me almost two hours although I could probably do it in just over half that time now that I have more experience. It was challenging to keep the waxed thread untangled and tight during installation but I muddled my way through it. Here are photos from during the install and the finished product. The stitching irregularities seem more visible in these photos vs the naked eye and the leather will hopefully settle out over time.

[KillerGriller]

wow, you've done a tonne of work, well done!

[VanGeek]

After a long winter of wrenching, finished several improvements and updates for Vanna:

Rebuilt the blender box
Replaced the heater core
Replaced blower motor and resistor pack (preventative)
Replaced all the decomposing sticky foam in various places under the dash
Replaced the dash speakers with hamony ha35 speakers
Replaced broken plastic trims on a-pillars and the hatch surround
Installed a smart mirror with front and rear cameras
Relocated the hands-free microphone from the dash to headliner
Replaced the passenger knee bolster with a euro cubby.
Wired an outlet from the coach battery to said euro cubby
"installed" a very cool wireless charging cradle for the phone
Added an aux fuse panel for several new accessories.
Installed a new aftermarket antenna and cable with standard moto antenna plug.
And probably a few things that I don't recall!

Presently working on the door and rear speaker upgrades with more harmony speakers, and have a few misc projects planned.

After I completed a few shakedown runs, Wifey and a friend took her up to the White Mountains yesterday and today to catch the eclipse. Hope they captured a few good pics of the eclipse (and Vanna!). Hoping to have a lot of camping and adventures this season -- last summer was wet and horrible so the preference is for sunny and dry in the Northeast.

Here are some before and after pics of the dash area. Couldn't have done most of this without the help of many of you fellow Samba forum members and Eurovan owners.

Earlier this year: The dash out after a Fall of stick bits of foam blowing from the vents.

And now!

[soissisc]

It looks great! Nice job, can you share more details on the cubby and added accessories?
_________________
Mark

68 Westy
92 Jetta (oh it is retired)
99 Eurovan
05 NBC
06 Audi A3
72 Westy (I am going to fix it up)

[VanGeek]

[soissisc]

Thanks!
_________________
Mark

68 Westy
92 Jetta (oh it is retired)
99 Eurovan
05 NBC
06 Audi A3
72 Westy (I am going to fix it up)