My 87 syncro build

[chillzombies]

[khughes]

[Daehtihs]

I converted to his engine cradle system. I have a 2.0 Tico inline 4 cyl. The hydraulic mounts are great. I've put 4,000 miles on the van since it was installed. Works great, no complaints.

[chillzombies]

Curious if anyone’s used FAS’s engine mount system? The hydraulic mounts look like a nice upgrade to a solid bar mounted to the body.

[chillzombies]

Going to try and work on the van after work, I might have 45 mins before it gets dark but really just trying to prep for tomorrow. I have the day off for a holiday so I’m gonna try and get as much done as I can.

As I’ve been thinking about and contemplating my front end refresh and axle replacement due to it clicking, I’m curious if my diff mounts being so shot are affecting the angle of the axle cups causing more stress. I’m gonna place an order for them soon but for now it is what it is.

[Abscate]

I’ve got some space around Port Jefferson area. Pm me for contact.
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🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🍊 🍊 🍊

[chillzombies]

These are technically still on back order as they’re having an issue with the tooling for the mold, but I was given the “pre production” set used for photos for the press release. Hoping to get home installed ASAP. I now finally think I have everything I need to do the front end refresh.

[chillzombies]

I’m going to have a bunch of old parts up for sale/grabs, upper and lower control arms, I also have the OG bumper with hitch built in, no cover it was rotted. If anyones in the tristate area and wants some parts hit me up, I’d rather not scrap them but I sadly don’t have storage where I can just shelf them til another day.

[chillzombies]

[4Gears4Tires]

That's some good progress, man! The GW lower control arms look really nice and beefy. Won't have to worry about them for 4 decades at least.
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'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[chillzombies]

Received my powerflex bump stop bushings and strut top bushings. Also got a new upper strut washer and dust covers. Now I’m still waiting on the new spring bushing.

Looks nice and solid and is made to accept after market springs. Supposedly just came out in april so I’m curious if anyone else has installed them yet.
Also got some powerflex control arm bushings as I did not like the go westy ones, the fit was off. The plastic sleeve mushroomed everytime I installed. After emailing them they said oh it’ll be fine once installed. Sorry I don’t like that answer so I ordered the powerflex as most of the van already has powerflex bushings anyway.

[chillzombies]

So Friday I spent some time organizing tools; then I started to pre assemble some parts and realized I don’t have new bump stop bushings or strut bushings, ordered those and dust covers for the front struts. I also realized I should replace the spring seat bushings as well. So ordered all of that. Going to try and again do it all at once instead of multiple times.

Went and visited a buddy and used this press to press in the new ball joints in the ball joint brackets. Now that’s done I’m a step closer to being able to install the new control arms. I also installed the upper and lower control arms.

Progress is slow but I keep realizing I need more parts every time I work on it a little bit.

[chillzombies]

Wow I can see the floor again.

After months of just throwing boxes of parts in here I got sick of the mess and honestly couldn’t find the burley upper arms lol so I wanted to get started on the front suspension today but it’s raining pretty decent, so I decided to just organize everything I could so I at least knew where stuff was, which now feels much better. I can see in the van again. My plan is to try and bang the whole front end out on Friday/saturday. New front axles, lower and upper control arms, new bilstein b6 struts and new schwenk springs. I also bought bearings bearings to do but pending time that might get shelved til a later date, obviously pending condition of the current bearings. Hoping for good weather that’s not too hot/beaming sun so I can get everything done.

[chillzombies]

New GW lower control arms came in, they’re pretty nice. I wish burley still made lower arms I would’ve like to have burley upper and lower but these will certainly do the trick. I got new lower ball joint inserts just to be safe as everything on this van is pretty rusty or beat, but that’s life.

Hopefully be able to get some stuff done next weekend, as the is weekend I was busy.

After inspecting the rear trailing arms, they’re not great either so I may just replace them too so the suspension will be “done” and hopefully not need to be revisited for a while.

[chillzombies]

[ALIKA T3]

I was just looking for some inspiration of colors for doing a set of CLK wheels, and thought to myself, how would it be copper color? No later than this morning driving to the shop.

How perfect, thanks for sharing your build!
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Silicone Steering Boots and 930 Cv boots for sale in the classifieds.
Syncro transmission upgrade parts in the Classifieds.
Subaru EJ22+UN1 5 speed transmission
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=416343
Syncro http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4...num+gadget

[4Gears4Tires]

Oof, those do look pretty crusty. But that metal is seriously thick. If you can grind/blast them down to good metal, they'd probably clean up just fine. Are you going with GW repros?

Painted calipers look good!
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'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[chillzombies]

So funny enough basically right after posting this morning I received an email from my apartment complex stating that my van in jackstands was a safety hazard and had to be off stands immediately. I informed them I was waiting for parts and would take it off asap.
So I got home and figured I’d just put the new brakes on the front and put the wheels back on for the time being so they leave me alone.

And here’s some pictures of the crusty control arms that I’ll be replacing soon.

I didn’t put the calipers on fully just mocked it up for a pic. I need to bring home a 22mm wrench to tighten the carrier bolts a bit more to be happy. I wish I had all the parts so I could just do this all at once as planned but such is life.

[dougnlina]

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"Grover" a '87 Syncro Poptop 1.8T

"Olive" a '60 Ragtop Beetle (retired)
"Kermit" '79 Westfalia (retired)
"Patches" '72 Beetle (retired)
"Wilbur" '69 Camper (retired)
"Bernice" 67 Beetle, My first love, (Also Retired)

[chillzombies]

Well before I install the new big brake kit from small car I wanted to paint the calipers so they don’t rust within a week. Found this nice dark green paint kit on Amazon and gave it a shot. Needless to say the colors not even close but at least the calipers won’t be rusty.

New front axles came in a few days ago, the new stainless dust shields came in yesterday. I didn’t love how rusty my lower control arms were so I ordered a new set from Gowesty. So now I’m just waiting for the new front lower control arms and then I’m going to try and install everything at once.