What did YOU do to your van today?

[bobbyblack]

[vanis13]

[4Gears4Tires]

[jimf909]

[quote="vanis13"]3d printed this to keep my table from swinging... No matter how tight I tightened the know it would lose up on bumpy road, we'll see how this works out..... The raised table had been awesome, for storing stuff on top of those cabinets and being able to lift the cabinet doors to get in there w.o having to move the table

*** Bonus, do you see the front table storage ?

That looks brilliant! I'd been noodling the same problem for years. My solution that has worked well for a year or more was a heavy duty magnet screwed to the C-pillar (all kinds of lightweight magnets failed). If this didn't work I was going to install some kind of positive stop similar to yours.

And yes, up by the window.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013L36SXA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1

_________________
- Jim

[leecat]

Got two of my tires mounted on my new alloys and brought them inside to store them for spring - and sandblasted and painted my propane tank. Super excited to have gotten the full Westy kitchen and cabinet setup with my new parts van. I thought I paid WAY too much for that van, but it's been a real treasure trove of good parts. Yay!

[bobbyblack]

Was a beautiful day yesterday, mid 70's, sunny! Finally got the TPS cover from VC to complete the rebuilt TB and Hall TPS kit, so I dug in. The Hall kit's paperwork needs a bit of an update, must have evolved a few times since Shoebox started offering them. Anyway, nothing I couldn't leap the gap of information/different parts included. The kit is key-on-powered, so when I got to that part, I tapped into the line indicated. Even tested the line they show as what they use, and it was in fact correctly showing 12ish volts key-on. So I used the janky connector to shakebite on the tap and looked in to see if the LED was showing operation. Nope.

Just then, my dad came by with something to put in the trash cans, and offered to help, to which I replied "I wish you could, I'm confused" since there was now no key-on power. I traced that back, and found that I had blown my fuse added in the black box. THIS was of great concern!! Started poking around only to find that one of my power steering wires had broken!!!

Anyway, after much more farting around than I had anticipated, I managed to wrap up the work. As it turned out, not mentioned in the directions, it is HARD to see the LED indicator for the Hall switch in full daylight, so having the sun set made the last step, setting the position, much easier. I think the LED should probably protrude into the little clear stub that comes with the kit. I didn't want to chance bending the leads as I figured I would snap them off.
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'87 Westy 'Flossie','86 Westy 'R1','86 tintop GL - Subi2.2 'J2','83.5 stock tintop L 'ZoomBus','74 Karmann Ghia, '63 Notch

[jimf909]

[leecat]

Yeah I would sure love one - or access to the .stl file to print my own. Looks super cool.

[shadetreemech]

Changed out the thermoswitch for the radiator. Took the part down to the FAPS to make sure I got the correct size deep socket. 29mm fit but no deep socket available. 1 1/8" SAE worked fine.

Dan
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'84 GL 1.9
'01 Volvo V70 T5
'88 Westy - "MZDRTHY"

[dhaavers]

Plugged some cheap Chinese LED bulbs into the cheap 9004 rectangles.

Cheap, but brighter! Took some adjusting to fine tune, then drove in traffic
with no embarrassing blindness (or at least no flashes from fellow motorists).

Specs + pics to be posted in "Fall 2020 LED beam pattern photos" thread...
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=743944

- Dave
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86 White Wolfsburg Westy Weekender
"The WonderVan"
<EDITED TO PROTECT INNOCENT PIXELS>

[mcarlson_sb]

Yesterday we removed some old bubbling purple tint and replaced it with new ceramic 35% - it dropped the temp in direct sunlight by 18° F

We also replaced the door to the closet with a pantry rack
And have cut the whole for sliding side door mod

[mcarlson_sb]

[quote="jimf909"]

[vanis13]

[quote="mcarlson_sb"]

[4Gears4Tires]

[mcarlson_sb]

[vanis13]

[jlrftype7]

I installed, finally, the GoWesty dash illumination LED bulbs for the Heater Controls, and Rear Heater Switch. I went with the Orange version.
I’d bought them months ago and just kept forgetting to put them in.

Also went through all my parts and supplies , transferring them out of all the cardboard boxes they had been in, and into new plastic storage boxes that have carrying handles and stack pretty well on top of each other.
This way, I can grab a box and take it to the shop and actually know what’s in the box again. My previous storage was just haphazard and lazy....

I’ve got another set of LED headlights on the way, should be here today.
They have the Angel Ring and Amber Turn Signal ring feature on them, wanted to try that out since I feel more turn signals on the nose of the Vanagon is better than stock, to catch other drivers eyes who don’t always seem to focus on the low mounted stock ones when they’re flashing . Stop signs are the worst, they seem to assume I’m not turning since they don’t see the turn signals for a bit.
With high and low turn signals flashing, maybe I’ll stand out a bit more at an intersection for the turn.
I used to see the same effect on the rear with the low mounted tail lights, especially if the vehicle behind me was tall, but adding the 3rd brake light changed all that for the better.
_________________
'68 Westy- my first VW and vehicle/Bus- long gone.- sold it to a traveling Swiss couple....
'67 Type 3 Fastback, my 2nd car- gone
'69 Semi-Auto Stick Shift Beetle-gone
2017 MINI Coopers, our current DDs
‘84 Tin Top - Hilga....Auto

[jlrftype7]

Installed the LED headlights that have the DRL / Angel Ring feature and the Yellow turn signal ring.
A drive at night will be the real test, but a side by side view with my Truck Lite LED headlights shows a dimmer Low Beam out of these new headlights in broad daylight,.......

Oh well, they were cheap as a set.... And I can always reinstall the TruckLite set...

_________________
'68 Westy- my first VW and vehicle/Bus- long gone.- sold it to a traveling Swiss couple....
'67 Type 3 Fastback, my 2nd car- gone
'69 Semi-Auto Stick Shift Beetle-gone
2017 MINI Coopers, our current DDs
‘84 Tin Top - Hilga....Auto

[jlrftype7]

I test drove the headlights tonight . Low beam pattern is dimmer in output than my TruckLites, but the beam shape and color of lighting are okay.
High Beams are very good, far, crisp pattern.
So, they’re keepers for now.
_________________
'68 Westy- my first VW and vehicle/Bus- long gone.- sold it to a traveling Swiss couple....
'67 Type 3 Fastback, my 2nd car- gone
'69 Semi-Auto Stick Shift Beetle-gone
2017 MINI Coopers, our current DDs
‘84 Tin Top - Hilga....Auto

[mcarlson_sb]

The fuel gague hasn't worked the four years we've owned the van.
We've also had problems with the fuel filter getting clogged up with what looks like rust. So, we finally dropped the tank and did repairs today.

It turns out the inside of the old tank wasn't in as bad of shape as expected.
I don't know if it's worth keeping, giving away or what. But the new one is on so we'll see if it helps.

The fuel gague was just PO stupidity.
At some point the cluster gague must have stopped working. Brilliant surfer dude drilled out a 2 inch hole and put in a cheap replacement. Then proceeded to wire it incorrectly.
Ground went to ground
S went to +12
+12 went to the send unit
Then the other wire of the send unit went straight back to POS on the battery


No wonder it always read empty

This is not the worst wiring atrocity PO surfer dude has committed.
We have slowly been cleaning them up as we find them.
At this point we have nearly rewired the whole van.

Oh well.. We have a new Bosch fuel gague wired correctly.
And can finally see when the tank is getting close to empty without having to look at the trip and do math

Cheers,
Matthew