My 1987 Westfalia Build Experience

[Bradgt74]

Hey! So, I've owned vehicles powered by type 1 engines for 30 years. That was all I knew, and everything I liked. When my wife mentioned the idea of purchasing a Vanagon earlier this year I first just shrugged my shoulders. This was really because I was a bit in shock of her proposition, plus I typically research things for years before making a purchase. Well with Covid going on and a green light from the wife, I went into overdrive looking into these mysterious watercooled creatures! After about a month of searching, I decided to purchase a 1987 Westfalia from the west coast.

We purchased it in March, and I was considering driving it back to Minnesota (what an adventure that would be!) But, shipping it was really the best financial decision, plus at this point I knew NOTHING about the WBX. I've documented other builds on Samba, and I've really enjoyed the ability to reminisce years later. Is it morbid to think these posts might be comforting for me if I wind up with dementia later in life?!

So, my plan with this van. My wife and I have two young boys, 4 & 6. Our 1970 Westfalia is a little tight for camping in. The van is not only bigger, more options, but it's also relatively faster. The van is in pretty good shape mechanically. We will use it this year as-is, and the 21-22 winter will be the time for me to go through the mechanicals with a fine tooth comb. Now that it is December, I have started the Winter projects, but I'll first add a few posts on what we did with the van this Summer....more to come!!!
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1970 Westfalia http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=379526&highlight=1970+westy
1968 Beetle http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=579992&highlight=
1987 Westfalia https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=762500

[dabaron]

welcome to another branch of the VW mania. looks like a solid Westy, look forward to learning more about it. also, you married the right person, on two levels; not only does she not mind the mania, she apparently has it enough to suggest a Vanagon. bravo!

do i see salt residue on the garage floor *cringe*
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1991 Vanagon GL Camper
i had no idea i wanted to be a mechanic
"burnin oil and cookin coils" -- Destructo

BiWerks Design, LLC

[danfromsyr]

welcome to the vanagon westfalia the apex of VW in design, form & function.

well aside from some engineering shortcuts

everything VW made let up to this chassis.
and it's been downhill ever since.
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[campism]

Change those fuel lines!

The best year, but I'm a bit partial.
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'87 Westy in Wolfram Grey Metallic

[pnwkayaker]

Beautiful van, congratulations!

I second this, if you haven't put new fuel lines, do it ASAP (too many buses lost due to rotten fuel lines).

[sanchius]

Welcome aboard...

Because Minneapolis, consider renewing your oil cooler seal, a known WBX fail point in very cold weather.

The search tool is one of the things that makes this list so powerful: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/search.php?searc..._chars=200

Here's my experience with that seal...

[dobryan]

Welcome to the dark side.

As you now know you will love the Vanagon Westy with your family.

I had a ‘71 Bay for 22 years and now Vanagons for the last 22 years. Never regretted the change.

Did my first Subie conversion 15 years ago. Never regretted that either.
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Dave O
'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

[SyncroHead]

I also want to reiterate the importance of having new, high quality fuel lines. Here's a thread on that topic:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=742189&highlight=fuel

Wish you and your family well in this new adventure!

Jim Davis
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"A Vanagon? It's not a car or a van. It's a hobby!"

Check out:
www.VANAVATION.com
www.SyncroSafari.org and
www.Vanagons.org

[Bradgt74]

Thanks for the welcome. I've been catching up on typical go-do maintenance items, but I missed the oil cooler seal discussion, thanks!

A little back story, the van was delivered to my house in March 2021, the coldest week of the year. I didn't even want to run my garage heater due to the cold. I drove the van about a blocks distance into my garage and the brakes felt like they were dragging, the window wipers were stuck on intermittent, and the headlights didn't come on. Wow, I got duped! If I found these problems in a few minutes, what else will I uncover!

I closed the garage door and took a closer look at things. I found that the headlight switch was only getting to the parking lights position, the switch just needed to be snapped back into place. With the wipers, I learned that the lowest position is intermittent, and the second position is off. Later I determined the brake drag was coming from ice buildup after a long snowy journey to the midwest.

I purchased a Bentley manual, and was taken back by the price....it's double what the air cooled manuals cost. Well, when it arrived it was pretty obvious why it costs more, its a thick book! I started my evening reading every night and I started to get overwhelmed. There was so much more to this van versus my bay. Now that I've been working around it all Summer, it's beginning to click.

At this point, it's March/April timeframe. VW season for Minnesota was coming quick. The plan was to look for any obvious mechanical failings, otherwise push mechanical overhauling to the 2021/22 Winter. I don't know how you southern folks do it. I like having the 4+ months of Winter to tackle big projects. If it was warm all the time, I don't know if I'd have the discipline to tear into a vehicle.

So I thought, lets blow the budget on VanCafe bling! Fuel lines? pshh

I wanted a receiver hitch, so I opted for the RMW integrated bumper / hitch. My justification for the front bumper was how nice it was to stand on the bumper to reach the luggage rack.

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1970 Westfalia http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=379526&highlight=1970+westy
1968 Beetle http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=579992&highlight=
1987 Westfalia https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=762500

[Bradgt74]

We took out the old fridge to replace with a truck fridge, which has been so nice to have. I use it all the time. I'll throw groceries in there and run around town all afternoon

The rectangle headlights were taking on water and they were super dim, like my Bay Window headlights put these to shame. I did like the SA grills, but didn't feel like shelling out the 2-3k I saw how others retro'd their own, so I decided to give it a go. I used the Uniwerks headlight bezels for the inner highbeams. If you haven't looked through the products Uniwerks offers, you should check them out. Very cool 3-D printed stuff, high quality and reasonable prices.

I went with the LED bulbs which I really like, and yes I added the relay. I know some folks complain about the LED bulbs, but they seemed to work well for me.

My wife decided to come out and enjoy a nice sunny day in the driveway. Anything to improve the look of the weathered window trim.

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1970 Westfalia http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=379526&highlight=1970+westy
1968 Beetle http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=579992&highlight=
1987 Westfalia https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=762500

[Wasted youth]

Nice purchase! We also have a 1987 Westy. You will really enjoy the improvements over the 1970 Westy!

You're going to really enjoy replacing all the aged engine coolant lines. Yes... you will not ever forget that project, even in the dementia years.

I see you decided the refrigerator needs to get tossed in favor of something like a truckfridge, but I urge you to re-assess this idea. I have found both refrigerators (we also have a 1981 Westy which later caused us to buy the '87) work great on all three modes. But - you should do two upgrades: the Bentley has a small note about re-drilling the air priming pump hole. Do that.

Second: replace the cooling fan with a 4 inch, 12 VDC computer cooling fan. Doing this will greatly improve the refrigerator's ability to shed heat from the condenser coil.

Also: You will see a small vent tube under the fridge at floor level. It should have a small brass plug on a chain. Remove the plug and take compressed air (like 50 psig or more) and blow into that tube for a few seconds. You are blowing out the propane firebox for the fridge. Rust flakes, soot and dust will exit out the chimney and by keeping the firebox clean, it will help make the fridge more dependable on propane mode. Leave the plug off. It helps draft needed air into the firebox.

More on the subject:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9411551#9411551

[Steve M.]

Congratulations on the new member of your family.

What hasn't been mentioned yet is the rear heater core leaking. Yours hasn't yet or you would have been lamenting it!
The main problem you woukd have to deal with is overheating the engine. The other problem is the smelly sticky antifreeze leaking into the flooring and being soaked into the wood. You'd wind up removing the interior to get the smell out!

You might want to remove it and get it pressure checked and new hoses installed to stay ahead of it.
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This free advice is worth exactly what you paid for it.

There are seven days in a week. Someday is not one of them.

[?Waldo?]

Regarding the blacked window trim, IMO it is much easier and looks better to pull the window seal trim pieces and push in appropriately sized window screen spline to keep the same pressure in channel of the gasket. You can add a bead of black silicone and wipe it flush to complete the clean visual effect.

[SyncroHead]

[Bradgt74]

I like the window trim idea, might add that to the list.

Rear heater core, yes I will be replacing it and adding an upgraded valve.

One of the first repairs I made was for the power steering. It was leaking really bad out of a hose by the pump. The back hatch would collect ATF mist like crazy. I replaced the reservoir, both hoses, rack, and bushings. I made sure to flush the system with ATF so the new rack would only have clean fluid going to it.

I booked an appointment with a local shop to have it aligned, and man did that turn out to be a mistake! The tech told be he couldn't get the caster in tolerance on the passenger side and the wheel wasn't straight anymore. I brought it in straight! They "cut me a deal" and charged me half price. I left the shop, as it was a Friday and I had a camping trip planned for Saturday. I made a left hand turn and I heard my right front wheel rub on the fender. WTF? I got home and noticed my wheel was way far forward and my radius rod nut had been tightened ~10 rotations from where it had been. If the tech would have just left the nut where it was, caster would have been fine. He was actually going the wrong way, adding caster by tightening the nut. I decided to adjust the radius rod back to where it originally was, then I proceeded to use a string to re-align the toe. I'm actually really happy with how the alignment turned out. It took a lot of time, but my wheel is straight, the car tracks straight, and I know I have a very slight toe in.
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1970 Westfalia http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=379526&highlight=1970+westy
1968 Beetle http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=579992&highlight=
1987 Westfalia https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=762500

[Bradgt74]

As you can see I added a swing away tire carrier. I really like it, but man it was a tricky install. RMW offer a quality kit, I just happened to find some bondo in that back corner, which made install challenging.

Speaking of the body, I knew it was a re-spray without window removal. I thought, well a dry van maybe just had fading paint, etc. I haven't ran a magnet on the body yet, but I know there's bondo there. But, at this point I bought the van to have fun with the family. My kids will nick and scratch the paint, that happens. The van is always garaged, so it won't get too wet, and it won't be driven on salty roads. Once the kids grow up, I can consider fixing the body and applying a proper paint job.

Here are a few pics from camping this summer

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1970 Westfalia http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=379526&highlight=1970+westy
1968 Beetle http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=579992&highlight=
1987 Westfalia https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=762500

[?Waldo?]

Here's a really good thread on DIY alignment that is worth reading all the way through: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=375963

It takes a bit more time to do than taking it to a shop, but I know I will get a better alignment doing it myself.

[Bradgt74]

That's a nice link for alignments! I found another one on Samba that gave me some good tips.

The first Sunday of June is the Bug-in car show in MN. It's the biggest VW show in the state, and try making it every year. What do I take to the show, Bus or Van? BOTH My wife doesn't drive stick, so I decided to load the moped into the van and drop the van off the night before. It's an 87 Honda Elite, same year as the van.

Here is my 70 Westfalia next to the van.

Second place for the Vanagon category!

My starter was acting anemic, and finally died as I was leaving the show. Good thing the parking lot was sloped, so I could easily get it started. That night, I ordered a GW high torque starter.
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1970 Westfalia http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=379526&highlight=1970+westy
1968 Beetle http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=579992&highlight=
1987 Westfalia https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=762500

[sanchius]

[Bradgt74]

We were off to see family around 100 miles away. It was a pretty windy day and there were some long gradual grades on the highway. I had to keep the throttle down to keep a safe speed, but I didn't want to push it too much. After about 45 minutes I experienced an instant cutout, then back to normal. It would do this several times at different frequencies. I pulled off the road, thinking I might get stranded at a less convenient spot. Looking over the engine for anything obvious, the only thing I found was a loose connection on the small gauge wire connected to the alternator.

The van ran pretty good the rest of the trip. At the time I didn't know about Vanagon Syndrome, but I have since researched and confirmed that was the cause. I think the AFM was sending wild signals during the heavy loads. I purchased the AFM cable that calms down the signal to the ECU.

I also started sourcing spare components I'd like to have in the van, especially when going on long trips.

I also was fortunate enough to be one of the first 10 to purchase the WBX Emulator from DigiMatrix. This thing is so cool, and will be so helpful when troubleshooting! It pretty much makes this old ECU have OBD II features by being able to live stream ECU data.

_________________
1970 Westfalia http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=379526&highlight=1970+westy
1968 Beetle http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=579992&highlight=
1987 Westfalia https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=762500