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djkeev Samba Moderator
Joined: September 30, 2007 Posts: 32433 Location: Reading Pennsylvania
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kamzcab86 Samba Moderator
Joined: July 26, 2008 Posts: 7893 Location: Arizona
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 2:27 pm Post subject: |
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I think my van needs some new ones:
Thanks to all the photos posted, I now know how to mount the new ones whenever I get around to buying a new set. _________________ ~Kamz
1986 Cabriolet: www.Cabby-Info.com
1990 Vanagon Westfalia: Old Blue's Blog
2016 Golf GTI S
"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance." - 孔子 |
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msinabottle Samba Member
Joined: September 20, 2005 Posts: 3492 Location: Denver Area, Colorado
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Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2017 3:12 pm Post subject: Score Two for Winston and Rob |
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I am a big fan of GoWesty, although I adore cookies very much, and the people who send me those quickly and well. I also have had only good experiences with Bus Depot.
I say that, because, as this thread shows, at times... GoWesty does not... quite... get the end game right. I ordered their kit to lock down the instrument cluster...
http://www.gowesty.com/product-details.php?v=&id=23954
and found that the holes in the metal tabs were too small for the supplied, correctly-sized screws!
Drilling and profanity were involved.
So, this year, I bought the Plastic Radiator Baffle set...
http://www.gowesty.com/product-details.php?v=&id=23975
They now have a useful schematic off that link, FYI
and did my homework. There was NO QUESTION that the tabs for the locking plastic rivet were 180 degrees off from where they should have been bent.
The brilliant gnarlodious had broken one bending it back. Fortwithtx drilled his own holes... I... got out the heat gun.
SUCCESS!
I kept the setting on 'low,' wore leather yard gloves, and put the heat gun on its flat end, with the muzzle pointing up. I got the plastic of each baffle to where it would bend, and used linesman's pliers to bend the tabs to where they needed to be at the same crease GoWesty's fabricator had gotten 180 degrees off.
They cooled down where I had bent them, and the side baffles slid right into place and screwed and locked down. Winston is now ready for his annual trip up to Fort Collins for the Rocky Mountain Westy camp-out. Some additional observations:
Winston's original cardboard baffles were in pieces, but the plastic rivets, and metal clips were still in place, and salvageable.
The lower clips were gone on the lower plate, but I found metal ones at the local Ace that worked with half inch sheet metal screws through the clips, plastic, and into the same holes that had held the old cardboard baffle.
I used stainless steel half-inch sheet metal screws to replace those on the lower baffle, the originals were rusting.
Week before I installed Winston's new collapsible antenna which, had it been an identical Hirschmann collapsible antenna to the one I was replacing, I'd have just had to replace the mast, but, as it was, it was different enough that I had to replace everything, and, speaking of GoWesty, there are some good YouTube videos on that procedure that can save you a lot of aggravation.
I think we're good to go, now...
Best! _________________ 'Winston,' '84 1.9 WBX Westy
Vanagon Poet Laureate: "I have suffered in
many ways, but never, never, never in silence." |
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kourt Samba Member
Joined: August 13, 2013 Posts: 1922 Location: Austin, TX
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Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2017 3:59 pm Post subject: Re: Score Two for Winston and Rob |
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Read the page for the GoWesty Instrument Cluster Mounting Tab Kit carefully. It says:
"These tabs are specifically designed to capture the screws—once screwed into the tab—so the screw will remain in the tab even when uninstalled."
The screws were a tight fit intentionally--that is part of the design of the product. The first screw into the tabs will be difficult because of this design feature. Unfortunately, they don't ship any instructions with the kit--I had to learn this by referring back to the item webpage on the GW site.
kourt |
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djkeev Samba Moderator
Joined: September 30, 2007 Posts: 32433 Location: Reading Pennsylvania
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Vanagon Nut Samba Member
Joined: February 08, 2008 Posts: 10347 Location: Sunshine Coast B.C.
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Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2017 4:12 pm Post subject: Re: Score Two for Winston and Rob |
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msinabottle wrote: |
So, this year, I bought the Plastic Radiator Baffle set...
http://www.gowesty.com/product-details.php?v=&id=23975
They now have a useful schematic off that link, FYI
and did my homework. There was NO QUESTION that the tabs for the locking plastic rivet were 180 degrees off from where they should have been bent.
The brilliant gnarlodious had broken one bending it back. Fortwithtx drilled his own holes... I... got out the heat gun.
SUCCESS!
I kept the setting on 'low,' wore leather yard gloves, and put the heat gun on its flat end, with the muzzle pointing up. I got the plastic of each baffle to where it would bend, and used linesman's pliers to bend the tabs to where they needed to be at the same crease GoWesty's fabricator had gotten 180 degrees off.
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I finally got around to installing these baffles on my air to water cooled engine swap '81; I'd had the parts lying around for several years now.
Good idea with the heat gun. I likely got lucky with bending those tabs; they didn't (haven't yet) break.
The kit may have come with fasteners but they are MIA so I ended up enlarging the hole in each tab then used a giant coarse threaded screw at each tab. I'd suggest this is not the best thing to do; it obviously weakens the hole at tab. I can now see that detail in the schematic. Looks like a big plastic plug type fastener?
Since my bus was air cooled, I had to drill a hole in sheet metal (behind grill) for each baffle. The bottom piece just screwed onto the two brackets on the radiator.
This is very premature to say, but it seems that the temp gauge sits a little lower now while at speed.
Neil. _________________ 1981 Westy DIY 15º ABA
1988 West DIY 50º ABA
VE7TBN |
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msinabottle Samba Member
Joined: September 20, 2005 Posts: 3492 Location: Denver Area, Colorado
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Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2017 5:19 pm Post subject: Re: Anyone else use GoWesty radiator baffles? |
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Quote: |
Read the page for the GoWesty Instrument Cluster Mounting Tab Kit carefully. It says:
"These tabs are specifically designed to capture the screws—once screwed into the tab—so the screw will remain in the tab even when uninstalled."
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There was no way those screws would fit through those holes. I had thought they might be self-tapping, but the supplied screws were NOT threading, even with pliers holding the tabs. It's possible I just got a bad set, but they weren't going to install at all the way I got them.
I HOPE everybody else's mileage varied!
Quote: |
The kit may have come with fasteners but they are MIA so I ended up enlarging the hole in each tab then used a giant coarse threaded screw at each tab. I'd suggest this is not the best thing to do; it obviously weakens the hole at tab. I can now see that detail in the schematic. Looks like a big plastic plug type fastener? |
No, the kit came with NO fasteners, you necessarily had to use the ones that came with your old set-up, and you didn't have one. I bought 'extruded u nuts' from Ace Hardware, the ones I found would work with half inch 10-24 sheet metal screws. I imagine your radiator brackets would have been tapped with the right holes for the bottom baffle, the ones on the sides go through the Van's front clip. The VW part for the plastic 'clip' that holds the tab to the hole in the front grill is
801 867 299
and for the VW 'speed nut' it's
015 448 1
if that's helpful to you or anybody.
Best! _________________ 'Winston,' '84 1.9 WBX Westy
Vanagon Poet Laureate: "I have suffered in
many ways, but never, never, never in silence." |
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jimf909 Samba Member
Joined: April 03, 2014 Posts: 7402 Location: WA/ID
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Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:12 pm Post subject: Re: Anyone else use GoWesty radiator baffles? |
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djkeev wrote: |
"Make Vanagons Great Again!"
Dave |
Oh my, that may be much more interesting and funny than it appears. _________________ - Jim
Abscate wrote: |
Do not get killed, do not kill others.
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Current: 1990 Westy Camper - Bostig RG4, 2wd, manual trans w/Peloquin, NAHT high-top, 280 ah LFP battery, 160 watts solar, Flash Silver, seam rust, bondo, etc., etc.
Past: 1985 Westy Camper - 1.9 wbx, 2wd, manual trans, Merian Brown, (sold after 17 years to Northwesty who converted it to a Syncro). |
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dhaavers Samba Member
Joined: March 19, 2010 Posts: 7733 Location: NE MN (tinyurl.com/dhaaverslocation)
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Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:49 pm Post subject: Re: Anyone else use GoWesty radiator baffles? |
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djkeev wrote: |
I've read where people have used the plastic corrugated yard /political signs to make new baffles.
"Make Vanagons Great Again!" Air baffles...... |
I did mine with 2 corrugated plastic signs, but mine were in support of a local school bond referendum..."Just yay YES!"
I kinda like the idea of driving that much positivity all around the country...get your karma where you can!
- Dave _________________ 86 White Wolfsburg Westy Weekender
"The WonderVan"
<EDITED TO PROTECT INNOCENT PIXELS> |
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Team WorldTour Samba Member
Joined: September 02, 2010 Posts: 2426 Location: Der Vaterland
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Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 6:33 am Post subject: Re: Anyone else use GoWesty radiator baffles? |
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GoWesty wrote: |
Fit notes: Does not fit Diesel Vanagons. |
Yeah, I call Bullshit. Mine fit just fine.... _________________ 1990 Feldjäger Syncro AAZ
Click to view image
H6 Subaru Engine Swap Thread
WV2ZZZ25ZFH094138(x)/ WV2YB0257LH057308(x)/ WV2ZZZ25ZLG113270/
"Where am I going? And what am I doing in this handbasket?" -Nicodemus Jordan
When All Else Fails: Lather, Rinse, Repeat! |
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Mellow Yellow 74 Samba Member
Joined: October 14, 2014 Posts: 1615 Location: Sydney, Australia
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2018 7:56 pm Post subject: Re: Anyone else use GoWesty radiator baffles? |
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I installed these today and like others am disappointed with the fit. The bottom baffle is screwed into little mounts on the radiator at the rear and just sits against the sheet metal at the front. The verticals seems like they are designed so the long edge is meant to slot into the gap between the metal and the plastic tank on the radiator but it is too thick so just sits against the slot rather than in it.
There are two holes in the vertical pieces, one for a tab which is fastened to the sheet metal at the bottom of the upper grille and one hole which is meant to line up with the hole on the side of the lower grille. As others have noted the tabs are bent the wrong way for the existing holes so you can either attempt to bend it the other way or drill another hole.
The kit doesn't come with any fasteners so I drilled a hole and used a self tapping screw for the tabs the way they were without trying to bend them. For the other holes I used two of the captive screws from the Van Cafe lower grille mounting kit and filed the holes in the baffles to a rectangle shape so they would fit. I had to trim the top of the vertical pieces to make them fit under the radiator mount to give them some kind of restraint rather than just flapping around.
You would think that for $40 for three pieces of recycled plastic that Gowesty would have come up with something better than this. _________________ 1962 Karmann Ghia
1974 Deluxe Microbus
1985 Caravelle (Vanagon) |
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Team WorldTour Samba Member
Joined: September 02, 2010 Posts: 2426 Location: Der Vaterland
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Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2018 12:12 am Post subject: Re: Anyone else use GoWesty radiator baffles? |
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Nope.
My understanding is that they searched high and low for a FULL set of the waxed-paper originals. Then they copied them and sold the resulting product.
Crap fit from and original crap designed part.
But trust me, they work just fine. And after you mount the grille back on, you will never see anything wrong with them. _________________ 1990 Feldjäger Syncro AAZ
Click to view image
H6 Subaru Engine Swap Thread
WV2ZZZ25ZFH094138(x)/ WV2YB0257LH057308(x)/ WV2ZZZ25ZLG113270/
"Where am I going? And what am I doing in this handbasket?" -Nicodemus Jordan
When All Else Fails: Lather, Rinse, Repeat! |
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