Another 86 Syncro restoration

[bluefirefly]

[bluefirefly]

Kinda bad news, I was looking to have our bumpers sand blasted and painted (powder coated) since we modified them but the lowest price I got is $200 per bumper so, we'll see that next year, I'll put some paint on welds and holes and it will be good for this year.
I don't know how RWM or Go Westy are doing to sell bumpers at $400, might not be made in Canada....

We should get our paint tomorrow, still have plan to paint the van minus doors this weekend, I hope I'll do better that the roof.
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86 Syncro Tintop G60
work in progress ...as always!

[bluefirefly]

I am not a good painter, now I know.
Not sure what happened, wasn't that much paint to do on the van since the lower part was "rubber undercoat painted", only the upper part needed to be nice and it endup looking like orange peel....everywhere!
So, now when I am looking at the roof, it wasn't that bad after all.

I don't think it was the temperature, I did start in the morning but finished in early afternoon, low humidity in Alberta as usual.
Might be the paint that was too thick or my gun's adjustment and I put too much paint in once..... not sure.
The van was totaly clean, not dust, prep was better than for the roof, it is clear I need to keep my job, I won't do body for a living, pretty sure about that!

In the other hand, since everywhere it is the same it still look strange and crap but I think it will stay like that.

I don't think we have time to sand it again, and for what, I am not good at it after all

I was not in the mood to work anymore yesterday and this afternoon after looking at the van, it didn't change, we'll see tomorrow if I feel better about it.
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86 Syncro Tintop G60
work in progress ...as always!

[GrindGarage]

Maybe you put down enough paint to cut it down with a buffer. I can see that orange peel from here and I am 1,000s of miles away. Maybe you could find a local painter to help you out before putting it all back together.

On the + side she's coated good and ready for years of rust free service.
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-cliff

91 Vanagon AUTO
97 Single Port EJ22 all smallcar.com

[bluefirefly]

[Landsailer]

I saw a 2wd van in Talkeetna a couple months ago that was dark grey and had the exact same texture yours does. At first, I thought wtf? Then I began looking at the van and noticed all the upgrades and work that went into it. It was a tdi and had all kinds of custom work on the interior and ext. I became so enamored with the mechanically difficult work that went into the van, the paint job kind of took a back seat. And if I remember right, the van had out of state plates, so that means they were on a real adventure. And that's what it comes down to right, real adventure. So you know your van is rust free and you'll be back on the road in no time putting scratches all over that thing.

[carterzest]

[bluefirefly]

Thanks all of you for your support.
The more I look at the van, the better I feel, so it is going to stay like that, we'll see next year what we could do to it even if it will be harder because everything will be back together.
After all as you said, the no rust bad paint is way better than rust and good paint.

Have a nice day.
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86 Syncro Tintop G60
work in progress ...as always!

[purplepeopleeater]

I have some orange peel on mine too, I lost the touch in the paint department, but 4 coats of u-tech hs280 and some 600 grit and work up to 1000 grit wet sanding then hit it with a buffer and some cutting compound and she looks better then factory.


You shouldn't worry, with painting it the way you have even if you decided to repaint down the road...the important areas are covered good.

[bosruten]

Wow..Looks a whole better from where you started! Hope you can get it rolling and enjoy.
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'87 Syncro Weekender

[bluefirefly]

Thanks a lot guys.

Some work has been done on the lateral door, not rust anymore, 3 inchs at the botton have been cut and replaced with new metal, photos will follow later.
Hope we can paint the rest (all doors) this weekend, that will give us some time to work on everything else like bumpers (painting) and especially the motor.

Have a nice day.
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86 Syncro Tintop G60
work in progress ...as always!

[carterzest]

[bluefirefly]

[bluefirefly]

More pictures today, more work done on our van.

Cutting has been done, I didn't want to cut too much since I already did some work on it and it was only the bottom of the sliding door that was damaged, about 1/2" from the bottom.

Not sure if I'll be able to put some primer inside, but I need to find some wax or grease for doors bottom and frame, hope I could find the same quality as VW, seems to be good stuff.

All done, the lip at the bottom is a little bigger than factory, I am not able to do better, but it shouldn't be a problem.

The plan is to paint this weekend, we'll need to work a lot to make it happen.
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86 Syncro Tintop G60
work in progress ...as always!

[bluefirefly]

Almost done for the paint,

but we forgot the panel going over the sliding door rail and the license plate support.....
I thought I was done with the paint, I guess not.

I think I know what is my problem for the orange peel, I think I am putting way too much material at once, I was doing a little better job inside the van, but outside, no choice, I need to have the same texture otherwise it will look strange (I mean worst).

So, thiose door are going to stay in the garage until Wednesday we should be able to handle them and move them somewhere else.
The plan is to let them dry for about 2 weeks before putting everything in place, it might give me enough time to rebuild the motor and work on everything else.
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86 Syncro Tintop G60
work in progress ...as always!

[bluefirefly]

Found something I might use to "rust-proof" the van right here:

http://www.mgexperience.net/archive/homemade_waxoyl_update/22473

Did anyone try it?
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86 Syncro Tintop G60
work in progress ...as always!

[bluefirefly]

While everything painted is drying,

it is time to start on the motor, should be fun, a lot of new parts, better parts of course.

Here is a view of some:

I didn't really checked when I received all those parts, we were sanding and painting in the garage, not really a good place to store parts or look at them.
What a surprise to find the crank without bearing especially when you buy a kit motor! Apparently, I didn't check before, it seems complicated to get those bearing matched, looks like the block can be machined differently depending of the bearing, I need to do my homework.

Anyway, no motor anymore, need to find some bearings before anything.

More cleaning, sandblasting and painting:

and here is a view of those bumper, hand painted until next year. Eventually, tomorrow it should be light on both of them.

We drained the gearbox and big surprise, that oil was dirty, I never saw something like that, same color as a dirty motor oil but not too much metal on the plug.
No way I am wasting my Swepco 210 in that gearbox, I'll buy some cheap stuff to rince it first.

We took apart all old coolant hose and pipe, happy I did it, 1 was in bad shape and we have SS coolant pipe waiting.

Enough for today, more coming this week.

Jerome
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86 Syncro Tintop G60
work in progress ...as always!

[bluefirefly]

Not much has been done yesterday, spent time in the city to find main cranck bearing set, didn't get them.
Fortunately, Bus Depot got some, it seems it is hard to find std crank/0.50 case main bearing set, not avalable in Canada.
So, the motor rebuilt is definitely on the back burner.

We still did paint some parts:

and work a little on bumpers, put back some wiring on the front of the van.

My real satisfaction was the replacement of the output seal of the transmission (at the shaft), took me less than 30min, the hardest was to find the filling plug in that mess.
Shaft has been marked and is back at the same place.

Not sure what we are going to do today, weather is suppose to be bad, not that fun to work in a closed garage.
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86 Syncro Tintop G60
work in progress ...as always!

[Welchmaster]

hey i really enjoy this thread... you are doing an amazing job!
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90 2wd Orly Blue Multivan weekender. "Van-Duzer"

"Further up, further in!"

[bluefirefly]