My 87 syncro build

[chillzombies]

I picked up this 1987 Vanagon GL Syncro a little over a month ago. I normally start a build thread right away and document everything I do to new vehicles I purchase but I’ve been slacking. So now I’ll do some backtracking and document what I’ve done the best I can. I really should start filming stuff but that’s more things to do and I’ve got a long list to get done.
First things first I’ve owned many vintage VW’s, modern and built some pretty cool vehicles if I do say so myself. My previous fun car was a 1981 VW Rabbit pickup which I swapped a ALH TDI into and enjoyed a lot. Nonetheless this vehicle will also be getting an ALH swapped into it at some point hopefully sooner than later.

Just picked the van up outside of Pittsburgh, stopped at a Walmart to get wiper blades, rain x glass cleaner and a lot of air freshener’s. It stunk like mouse piss in there pretty bad.

The journey home was thankfully uneventful, minus the insane rain and wind from hurricane Hellene’s left overs. Drove home what should’ve been 6 hours but took nearly 12 with pit stops and NYC traffic.
The next day I started to gut the interior right away.

The interior was a home baked set up. Nothing wrong with it per se but it wasn’t up to my standards and certainly not suitable for my wife and puppy to sleep/camp in. So I ripped out the plywood cabinet, ripped out the subfloor, removed the glue, removed the front carpet, removed the headliner, and basically anything that was shitty.

[sanchius]

Looks like a fun project. Cool that they left you a pine air freshener.
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The Syncro years (2005-16) - The 2WD years (2017-23) - In Hoosierland (2023-now)
Westy & WBX rebuild spreadsheet - Sanchius & Tuna: The Video
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[dougnlina]

Looks like the PO left you a Plethora of extra wires to sort through to get back to some semblance of stock. My van started out looking a lot like yours, same year, color and roof rack! -enjoy the journey
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"Grover" a '87 Syncro Poptop 1.8T
"Olive" a '60 Ragtop Beetle (retired)

[dobryan]

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Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2010 Subaru EJ25 (Vanaru) 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

[danfromsyr]

nice van and good start for a project

but one of the dumbest places to mount a diesel fuel tank ever..
that PO should be slapped..
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[4Gears4Tires]

That's a lot to untangle. Definitely the easiest/fastest approach is to go back to square one and start fresh. Nice buy.
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'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[chillzombies]

Yeah unfortunately there’s a lot to untangle, reveal and clean here but I’m up for the challenge, it’s gonna take some time and elbow grease but I’ve made tons of progress just yet to post about it so here we go.

Sorted through the majority of the accessory wiring and basically got rid of most of it, as it was stuff I won’t use or I didn’t like how it was wired up.

Found 3 rust holes in the floor which I’ll be addressing soon. Unfortunate but expected. Glad it’s not worse than this to be honest.

Removed the headliner found a few mouse house’s which I promptly removed.
I then proceeded to scrape alll of the old fuzzy dusty insulation off the roof.

[MayorMcCheese]

What did you end up paying for that? It was listed for a while and crusty syncro's have been sitting on the market forever these days.

[4Gears4Tires]

You've got your work ahead of you!

I started somewhere similar with my Syncro. The best thing I did before I started on the rust repair was buy a good welder, an ESAB Rebel EMP 215ic. https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0
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'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[chillzombies]

[chillzombies]

First things first, the stock mirrors are TERRIBLE. They shake like a leaf the whole time driving and they’re just too small. So truck mirrors were the first thing I really replaced.

I then ordered a big shot shifter from Van cafe, a new power steering rack, bushings etc. but once I realized my carpet was gross and needed to be replaced that got put on hold until I can install the carpet and then the shifter over it, I don’t wanna do anything twice if I don’t have to.

At this point I covered the whole floor in sound deadener and the interior got a lot quieter, but the roof is what really gives the tin can sound so that’s next.

[4Gears4Tires]

I did something similar with my Syncro. Just absolutely covered it with sound deadener and it made a real difference. The front cab is completely covered. However, now that I am fixing up my second van I am starting to have doubts about it trapping water and creating rust pockets.
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'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[chillzombies]

My wife helped remove the insulation on the ceiling a bit before I covered it in sound deadening.

We took the van on a camping trip we had planned for months but we had only purchased the van 2 weeks prior so it was a lot of crunch time last minute stuff to get it at least decent enough to sleep in. We drove it to the campground and I worked on getting the roof covered so the dust wouldn’t rain on us while we slept.

[4Gears4Tires]

If you haven't done so, I recommend stuffing the walls with Rockwool before you put the panels back on. It helps a lot with the sound as well.
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'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[chillzombies]

Camping trip was a success, the van wasn’t ready mechanically or camper wise but we said screw it and did it anyway. Our new puppy Wally had a blast, and he actually loves hanging in the van on the bed.

After we left the campground one of our neighbors an older gentlemen in his early 70’s suggested we take a quick ride over to a scenic view and the climb was quite steep, knocking this little guy out of his hiding spot, mummified mouse.

Quite gross but happy he’s out of the van. I gotta remove the dash this spring and clean back there too. There must be some more nests hidden in the air box or something.

[chillzombies]

[MsTaboo]

[chillzombies]

Finally got around to installing the Rocky Mountain westy twin peaks bumpers.
They look awesome and are rock solid.

I then installed the RMW rock sliders and a few days later I installed the RMW ladder. I have the RMW front skid plate too but wanted to install the big shot shifter first.

Also popped in the replacement tail lights, look the same but nicer and newer.
Noticed the driver side taillight looks melted, I wonder if this van had a fire at some point. I haven’t seen any other signs of fire but who knows.

And my carpet arrived from newton finally, so now I can install that and throw in the big shot shifter.

[MsTaboo]

[chillzombies]

Installed some new horns, PIAA super bass horn kit from Japan and a go westy horn relay kit. Now when I honk people will actually know I’m honking and hopefully get out of the way lol

Also wired up a new radio but I guess it NEEDS to the red accessory power wire hooked up. Not sure where I should tap into for that so I gotta do a little research. I also need to get my house battery reinstalled and get an isolation kit so I can run the radio and accessories off that battery. This radio is pretty cool it’s a single din car play radio, reviews are all good.