Converting 2wd Vanagon to Syncro

[Waldemar Sikorski]

Finally I'm pushing the work that I've started last year but didn't anticipate lousy fall - cold and wet - no accessible garage. I guess the toughest part for me is the welding since I'm a perfectionist (to a point) but lack the experience in mig welding plus a crappy mig welder. I've already welded in the power steering rack mounting plate, welded in the plates on the subframe for the front differential frame and need to finish welding in the gasoline filler neck. The body is a west coast body so minor rust but I have these three places that I need advice on - both front door steps and passenger side wheel well. Any ideas on an approach that will not be an overkill?

I'll continue posting photos of work in progress.

[Waldemar Sikorski]

With so much advice... well I went the hard but secure way.

Crafted a patch from the body panel that I cut out for the filler neck and welded it in, same for the hole in the fender. will go with Wurth brushable seam sealer afterwards.

Here I decided to go this route, with 1 mm thick plate. Unerneath will be sealed with same Wurth sealer.

This is the piece I've been teaching myself to spot weld on, biggest mistake was to go with .6 mm wire. It's a butt weld but so much off proper that I'll go with leading instead of bondo (another thing I'll have to learn first).

Tack welded in and sealed with Wurth.

I've prepped most of the the underside last year, wire brushing, solvent cleaning but this year I've sand blasted some areas of thick crud that I didn't do before, primarily where there was some protection done with wax. I've sprayed two coats of rust inhibiting epoxy primer with one exception which will be visible later.

When I was chopping up my Syncro I was under an erroneous assumption that there was no difference in bodies except the front suspension, well I was wrong so I've trimmed this part and welded in a strip of flat.

This was the only piece that I've sandblasted to bare metal. Welded in.

That visible area is the only area that I've decided to only clean since it was sprayed with wax and I thought that I'll do more damage that good by trying to remove the wax completely. Like everything it will be covered with wax.

One coat of acrylic paint with hardener and drying accelerator. Hate the sheen but will go over everything (or almost) with Wurth wax anyhow.

[Waldemar Sikorski]

One thing I did forget to mention - I chose a different approach when providing the syncro transmission mount. I did cut it out but I simply ground it flat on the top portion, drilled out holes for the bolt heads and tig welded the bracket to the body. I assume that I'll have to provide shims to account for the slight change in geometry.

[rmcd]

Looks super clean. Very nice.
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VW LT40 build. Like a Vanagon but 30% larger in every direction and 40% slower even in metric.
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=749359&highlight=

[Steve M.]

Looking Great-keep at it!
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[Waldemar Sikorski]

[Waldemar Sikorski]

[Waldemar Sikorski]

Got around to spraying wax, everything but the engine bay and wheel wells.