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Building the (im)perfect beast: The Saline Build
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tschroeder0
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PostPosted: Fri May 26, 2023 1:53 pm    Post subject: Re: Building the (im)perfect beast: The Saline Build Reply with quote

Hey All, just another van travel update- It was a long winter here in Colorado and its been good to get some trips happening in the last many weeks.

I made "short" 1600 mile round trip to Tulsa to see a good friend who moved there...absolutely insane headwinds the Entire way there, it will put a dent in your gas mileage! Tulsa was a cool place, especially if you're a musician and get out and see some local bands!


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This is what it looks like driving to Oklahoma...the whole way, lol


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Downtown Tulsa...absolutely top notch players and great local crowds!

The trip back was uneventful and easy...of course this was followed by some van maintenance. I had a torn CV boot, so...
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My shocks were looking a little unhappy, so a little polishing and wax for protection, not too bad!

Next up was Syncro Solstice! weirdly, I have never been. It was great to hang with friends and meet up with my stepson Ethan, who was headed back up north to Glacier for a his river raft guiding gig...a great laid back time!


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Up the mountain and through the canyon to Moab!


Syncro Solstice- Lots of friends to hang with!


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Some Great rides were had in Moab and Fruita and the Bloom was happening!


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Then it was back home after several days to the not so great wildfire smoke from Canada...All in all a great trip!

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Smoke.

On a side note, despite the fantastic times with this van and all the hard work making it what it is- I have made the (hard) decision, related to an ongoing health reason, to list it for sale sometime soon...several things I want to do before passing it along to someone, but if anyone has some interest feel free to mail me.

Cheers! and Safe travels!
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tschroeder0
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 09, 2023 3:04 pm    Post subject: Re: Building the (im)perfect beast: The Saline Build Reply with quote

I've been doing a number of things on my van thst needed to get done before I possibly sell- unfortunately they are things I've already done less than 3 years ago and had to redo because of issues with the parts.

Thought I'd make a quick post to maybe help others.

First off, I bought one on the more flexible fuel filler hoses when I was replacing everything- big mistake- this is less than 3 yrs of use:
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Cracked everywhere.
Stick with the heavy duty oem type.

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Next, I had replaced my fuel sending unit also when I had my tank out- the quality is questionable of the ones available- the clip for the connector is ridiculously feeble- mine popped out at one point and I had to JB weld it in while in the middle of nowhere.

So- when you do the job JB it first so that it can't come out in the future.
My old one:
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Notice how small the little insert is into the body of the sender...just waiting to pop out.

New one with JB on it around the clip

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The other thing to note was it took several rounds of tightening up the gasket/metal ring to get the sender to completely seal, frustrating...fill the tank up above the sender, let the rubber gasket swell up a bit and be patient.

Thanks- good luck!
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ALIKA T3
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 09, 2023 4:07 pm    Post subject: Re: Building the (im)perfect beast: The Saline Build Reply with quote

Thank you for the heads up on the fuel sending unit.

What gaskets are you using? I like the braided one better, mostly found in Europe.
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Steve Arndt
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 12, 2023 2:42 pm    Post subject: Re: Building the (im)perfect beast: The Saline Build Reply with quote

I just replaced my transaxle. Didn't want to do the tank since nothing was wrong with it.

Now my sending unit is leaking badly. Ugh. I'm going to attempt to re-seal it with the tank installed. Just new gaskets. My gauge works perfectly fine.
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tschroeder0
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 19, 2023 10:04 pm    Post subject: Re: Building the (im)perfect beast: The Saline Build Reply with quote

Super Wonderful Amazing Trip Rundown!

Hey all, I just finished up a long many week trip west from Colorado to Nevada, California, Arizona, Utah and back home. Truly one of the best trips I have ever had. The van clocked in a rock solid 4000 miles! Mountains, off road, long lazy hwy stretches and everything in between.

Check out the recap-** for reasons explained later in the post, the Imperfect Beast is getting painted and will be up for sale in the near future. I've decided to buy a piece of desert property and will need the funds. If anyone has any interest, please feel free to PM me...a sale add will be placed sometime soon...

The trip:

This trip was a special one, my first journey out on the road where I also had the van setup to work from, and had the ok from work...very freeing and a little nerve wracking...After some van prep and some new items-

I headed to the area I love for mountain biking just outside of Vegas and was lucky enough to get the OK from the wonderful Cactus Joe (check out his place when nearby) to park overnight and work my shifts...it was a great experience and could nit have gone better...Thanks to some Lithium, Red Arc, and We Boost;)


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A good once over before hitting the road.

The new 230ah battery setup/RedArc!
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We Boost!
With the "stronger" inside antenna.
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The antenna works great on the Rocky Mountain swing out.

Adding some suction cups to the EZ awning(which I still reslly like, light, simple...)

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And- a nice new little drawer organizer

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Lastly a redo of my nice little defroster for the lower part of the window where the wipers sit...the last one didn't look nice and was kind of a test. This one turned out really well!
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I woke from the night shift after my weekend and put the last supplies in the van for what would be a ~4week almost 4000 mile journey...and headed up into the mountains aiming for Fuita where I got in a nice ride and then headed down the road towards Vegas on a beautiful moonlit night. In Fruita I met a couple of Canadians on a long trip...He bought his Syncro brand new almost 300k on it!

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Fruita never disappoints

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They were on a 10000 mile trip!

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Driving through the night to Vegas.

Lovel Canyon, late night trailhead and Cactus Joes would be my spots for the next week of riding and work

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Looking down on the strip while I worked overnight in the van.
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An amazing little hidden spring I found on a really hot mountain bike ride

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This trip was also about finding a possible piece of desert land...between Purumph and Vegas a cool young couple has created a little amazing oasis!

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Next stop was to meet OutWesty Dave to check out FishLake Hotwell in Nevada and explore the Bristlcone area off hwy 395...beautiful, peaceful and nothing better than hanging with good friends.

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Fishlake Hotwell

Heading way up high into Bristlcone and some off road exploring and camping.

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Dave had to head back towards Tahoe and I decided I needed to go see the progress happening at Cerro Gordo and to at least get a look into Saline Valley(closed due to washout from Hillary)


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Looking over the Sierras from Cerro Gordo

From here it was North up 395 and up the monster pass into Yosemite...um, and gas

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!
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Steep!!
Yosemite was insanely busy, so I decided to have a leisurely roll through and make my way down after camping into San Francisco...after being out for almost 2 weeks I was ready for a good meal in Chinatown:)

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I rolled into insanity, lol. Columbus day, Blue Angels over the bay and 3 hours!! Of literally just sitting in traffic about half a mile from the hostel...but the vibe was cool and the entertaient was top notch.

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Finally the hostel and a shower...and the roar of the Blue Angels

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#vanlife in the city haha

After a couple of days relaxing in SF, it was down the coast towards Santa Cruz, one of my favorite drives...have some beers with buddy Ben and get nice and close to the ocean...

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I made the journey down the coast towards Ventura and the Channel Islands and had an amazing time seeing Killer whales, camping along the Rincon Pkwy and just watching the ocean and the sunset...it take a while to settle in, but when you do, it's magic.

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The van had been absolutely perfect, all the hard work has paid off and I was relaxed and simply happy...

Bombay Beach, Slab City were next...maybe you get it, maybe you don't but for me this area is wonderful full of interesting characters art, and conversation...
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If you want to see some cool stuff- check out this guy and his drone vids on fb- Andrew Stranack. Amazing foort of the area

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From about as far down as you can go, the only way from here was North up through Prescot and Sedona. I had not been through much of here in the past but it was fantastic country and the mountain biking was !!

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Mingus Mountain Hang guide jump off- Crazy!

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If you know- you know.

And just like that I was back in Fruita and had my first breakdown...on my mountain bike haha...


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After some more rides in Moab and Fruita it was back through the mountains over the passes and down.

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A check of the trans magnet- couldn't get much better

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And now the prep to hand it off...getting ready for paint..teardown, sanding, and drop it off to the shop...

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If Cheers y'all have a good Thanksgiving.
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MsTaboo
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 19, 2023 10:29 pm    Post subject: Re: Building the (im)perfect beast: The Saline Build Reply with quote

Cool
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DirtDog
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 20, 2023 8:03 am    Post subject: Re: Building the (im)perfect beast: The Saline Build Reply with quote

good dog.
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 20, 2023 8:16 am    Post subject: Re: Building the (im)perfect beast: The Saline Build Reply with quote

Awesome trip! Very Happy
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https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

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PostPosted: Mon Nov 20, 2023 9:22 am    Post subject: Re: Building the (im)perfect beast: The Saline Build Reply with quote

tschroeder0- Thanks for sharing all this. I have a few questions. Can you provide some info or links for your front defroster and 2) what shop is doing your body work? Thanks
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tschroeder0
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 20, 2023 11:42 pm    Post subject: Re: Building the (im)perfect beast: The Saline Build Reply with quote

Thanks guys!

The defrost setup is from a place in Golden Co called Frost fighter. They make littlerally hundreds of kits of different sizes. I could honestly see doing the entire windshield if you lived and drove in a really Nasty winter environment. The issue is getting the defrost lines to sit correctly on the curved windshield. Trust me it's not easy and doing it twice isn't cheap, lol.
To give credit where it's due- somewhere here there is an old post by ten tencent on the same setup.

The van is being painted by a guy I know of on the eastern plains of CO. My first time working with him. The van will be going up for sale shortly after the paint is done and I do a thorough once over, so there will be a lot of pics of how the paint turns out. Luckily the seams are almost all in great shape and most of the rust is very superficial.
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 21, 2023 5:17 am    Post subject: Re: Building the (im)perfect beast: The Saline Build Reply with quote

tschroeder0 wrote:
Hey all, I just finished up a long many week trip west from Colorado to Nevada, California, Arizona, Utah and back home. Truly one of the best trips I have ever had. The van clocked in a rock solid 4000 miles! Mountains, off road, long lazy hwy stretches and everything in between.

Wow, incredible trip, thanks for taking us along. Hopefully whatever you get next will have you back out there.
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dobryan
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 21, 2023 6:45 am    Post subject: Re: Building the (im)perfect beast: The Saline Build Reply with quote

Getting enough desert acreage to have a meet up at your new place....? Cool
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'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
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tschroeder0
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 24, 2023 5:29 am    Post subject: Re: Building the (im)perfect beast: The Saline Build Reply with quote

Haha Dave O- I hope so, at the very least it will be on the way to Baja:)
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ranchero
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 27, 2023 10:52 pm    Post subject: Re: Building the (im)perfect beast: The Saline Build Reply with quote

Hey Todd - What size tires did you end up going with?
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