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BarryL 
Samba Member
Joined: November 01, 2004
Posts: 14271
Location: Casa de Oro, California
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 Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2015 10:36 am Post subject: |
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| I'd say treat it like a Faberge Egg; gently using a knife or thin tool, place a load bearing support for the knife against the plastic, pry the staples loose as hitest describes. Getting the new seal lined up and the staples back through the new seal would be the hardest part. Go back into the same holes on the door but I'd try to get some epoxy such that it gets into the wood holes to help grip the staples' legs. |
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DadaCheese
Samba Member
Joined: April 15, 2008
Posts: 837
Location: Richmond, CA
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| Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2015 3:09 pm Post subject: Re: SO-42 Ice Box gasket |
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| BarryL wrote: |
| I'd say treat it like a Faberge Egg... |
Thanks BarryL, I heeded your advice, but also went in a different direction.
Everyone, please bear with me as I now present a picture heavy post on this thread of what I did do, in hopes that it might be useful to someone.
Lately I keep getting told there's updates to Pinetops' thread, who I admire because he's been doing SO MUCH with his '67 Westfalia, and much more quickly than my lazy self. Here's his thread:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=603523
Point is, his work is inspiring and I finally got around to the following which I have been putting off.
Here's the problems I wanted to address:
The Ice Box (due to its seal) has NOT been staying cold as it used to.
There are/were some edge veneer sections on the ice box cabinet that are chipped off.
Some of the wood was splitting apart at the top of the unit.
I've been meaning to repair or replace the T-molding on the top part of the cabinet as well.
Let's dive in, shall we?
First off, let's talk insulation.
As you can see below, from the factory a "box" of Styrofoam surrounds the ice box tub. That's it.
Since we love camping, and use the ice box quite a bit, I wanted to improve on this. I decided to spend a pretty penny on using EZ-Cool insulation for this project.
EZ Cool Website: http://www.lobucrod.com/
By using the original Styrofoam as templates, I created replacement pieces which are three layers of EZ-Cool layers that I glued together for each panel. Three layers was the same thickness as the Styrofoam.
...but before I get to how that looked in the end, let's talk again about the door part of the unit, and the staples that hold it on.
My original thought was to follow BarryL's advice and see if it would be possible to re-use the staples when putting in the new gasket. Although it might be possible, I thought of another way to approach it, so I ended up removing the staples. I wasn't about to use a staple gun on the door part of the ice box, it's likely too fragile to deal with it (as BarryL and I had both mentioned). Also, to do that you'd want/need a very powerful factory-quality staple gun to get through the plastic, the new seal and then into the door's wood.
The seal is an excellent replacement, by the way. Here's the link to the product on-line:
http://westfaliasparesuk.com/product/6567-fridge-door-seal/
When putting the door part back on, I used a 1/16th-inch drill bit, while pressing the gasket against and inward (under the lip of the plastic part), I drilled into the existing hole(s) left by the staples. Then I screwed in some very small Phillips-head screws that I found at the hardware store that were about the same length as the staples. Being slightly thicker than the staples, even if I happen to have been going directly into the same hole (in the wood) that the staple had once gone, the screw would still bite well into the wood.
This process was painstakingly slow, since I would drill a pilot, then switch to a Phillips bit and screw in the screw... I started by securing near the four corners first (the cabinet's handle-latch helps line everything up by putting those screws back in first) and then went all the way around the door with the same process, at least one screw to where each staple was (using the hole from the staple that is/was closest to the edge, typically).
I don't mind that it took a while since it is the type of thing you only want to do once. ...and to that end, back to more insulation talk.
Behind the door's plastic unit is a single piece of Styrofoam. It is 2/3rds the thickness of the pieces of Styrofoam from the cabinet portion.
Knowing that I don't want to take this back off again anytime soon, I added additional bits and pieces of EZ-Cool into the back of the door unit too, and naturally a large flat piece (replacing the Styrofoam) which is constructed of two layers instead of three:
OK, so I wasn't going to put the ice box's tub back in until I fixed the following:
I went over to TAP Plastics and spoke to some folks there about how they'd go about repairing it. I told the guy that the poor man's fix is some duct-tape behind it. He thought that was OK, and then reinforced with some of the plastic glue/epoxy seen below:
NOW, I'm ready to put the tub back in, right? No; wrong. I also wanted to see about just doing some additional clean-up and protection to the cabinet.
As far as I can tell the inside of the cabinet, from the factory, was never given any stain or protection. Over the years with water leaks from the water tank and/or the ice box (melted ice), my ice box unit has obviously had mold and decay over the years. Some of that can also come from the hole in the floor of the bus where the tank's drain and drip-tray drain exit the car.
I decided to just rub a single coat of polyurethane throughout the inside (and allowed for proper drying). I figure it can't hurt.
Also, due to years of taking the unit in and out of the bus, I had some separation of wood happening in the top front (front of bus) left corner of the cabinet. So, I glued and clamped that, and also added a simple L-bracket to that area on the inside area where the water tank goes.
NOW I was ready to get the tub of the ice box back in... but here's the other repair I wanted to do, the veneer on the door edges.
Thanks to Samba Member: Sterkman (in Italy), I bought from his classified some VERY CLOSE, nearly perfect veneer tape.
Here's his classified. If you are reading this years later, it might not be a good link, but now (Nov. 2015) it is up and working:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1816846
Areas in question:
I wouldn't say I did a perfect job, and I might address this again in the future.
Here's a close-up:
Better than before, at any rate.
As to the T-molding at the top, I can/would do the method of soaking my original piece in scolding hot water and gluing it back in (As described in other threads), but I wanted to try the new stuff that I bought, so I took off the old piece:
BACK to the insullation. Here's the final look before putting the tub back in. Five three-layered pieces of EZ-cool, the same size and configuration of the original Styrofoam, but I also used some foil tape that came with the EZ-Cool to join the pieces together in the seams.
I'm looking forward to seeing how well the ice box keeps things cool and for how long.
One last picture; the current state. I'm using clamps to hold the new T-molding in place for a couple days so that the glue will dry. We got a lot of rain last night here in the Bay Area of California (which is great because we have been having a drought), so I just want to make sure it sets well before putting the unit back into "The Toaster".
Hope some or all of this helped someone. Thanks for letting me go on and on.
_________________
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Dada as in dadaism.
Cheese as in the stuff I love to eat. |
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Sterkman
Samba Member
Joined: April 01, 2013
Posts: 19
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| Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 3:38 am Post subject: Re: SO-42 Ice Box gasket |
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After seeing DadaCheese his comments I thought I would share some of my pictures going through the same process. Even though on the other side of the world, about the same time we did more or less exactly the same.
My icebox needed a general cleanup, the veneer was in good condition but the edges of the door and drawer were chipping off and the inside needed a good clean up and the seal needed replacement. I also bought the door seal from WestfaliasparesUK and it is a top product.
This is what my icebox looked like:
The only way really to change the seal on the door is to get all those nails out. In my case, especially in the lower part the nails were very rusty and thus had 'grown' in diameter and were not so easy to pull out (they would simply disintegrate...). In some cases I had to cut the nail in two and trim it down so I could pull the plastic off. You have to get all the nails out first before you start pulling the plastic as it can be quite brittle, mine already had some cracks in the corner.
After about one hour of monkeying finally the plastic was off and time for some cleaning and repairing the cracks from the inside with some glue and tape:
This is what the inside of the door looked like (here the cut-in-two nails still sticking out). I sanded and coated the inside of the door (Westfalia indeed never coated the inside of the icebox...)
Then it was time to put the new seal on which I did in a similar matter as DadaCheese described, with little screws. I also used the existing holes as much as possible unless there was a crack in the plastic. I predrilled small holes in the plastic not to stress it any further when putting the screws. The seal is flexible enough to 'absorb' the screw head. I think the solution with the screws is better also if in the future one would like to change the seal again, it would be much much faster:
Regarding the insulation, here I did I slightly different choice as DadaCheese described, I left the original styrofoam insulation and added some of the more modern insulating material (just one layer, up till the edges of the seal):
Original Styrofoam:
Additional insulation:
After this, it was good to be assembled again to the door:
Then it was time for the actual icebox. The original insulation was in a much worse condition than the one DadaCheese showed, when I opened it it looked like this:
After some cleaning and treating the inside wood, I also added some L-profile corners on the inside as the glue keeping everything together was rather old. Then I also applied three layers of insulation material with the reflective aluminium, which has the same thickness as the original Styrofoam. The material I used is two sided, the shiny side goes out as it keeps the heat out. This is what it looked like now:
As a final touch I replaced the edges of the door and drawer which some veneer band that can be glued using a hot iron. This really finished the job (actually I put the tape before putting the seal as it was easier to work like this.
This is what it looks like:
Now...finally looking forward to some nice cold beer:
I hope this encourages people to upgrade their icebox. After 50 years the don't cool as good anymore as they used to. With the more modern insulation material and a nice new seal they will be better than ever. Count in a full days work if you would like to do it properly. |
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Pinetops
Samba Member
Joined: March 24, 2007
Posts: 2987
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| Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 4:20 am Post subject: Re: SO-42 Ice Box gasket |
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Nice work, it looks very good.
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"A rolling bus gathers no rust." |
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srfndoc
Samba Member
Joined: August 21, 2010
Posts: 3275
Location: SoCal
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| Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 8:44 am Post subject: Re: SO-42 Ice Box gasket |
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Excellent work guys.
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RPM=(MPH*336* (R&P*4th*1.26))/Tire Diameter in inches |
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biggestdaddyo
Samba Member
Joined: August 25, 2004
Posts: 131
Location: San Antonio, Texas
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| Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 1:50 pm Post subject: Re: SO-42 Ice Box gasket |
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WOW! Thanks to Dadacheese and Sterkman for the very informative updates. I'm now re-inspired to finish this old icebox of mine.
_________________
| Tahlequah wrote: |
| If I had religion it would be bigdish2 |
| hitest wrote: |
| The whole procedure took 2 mins. 44 seconds (including one overdue crotch scratch). |
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Craig
Samba Member
Joined: August 09, 2004
Posts: 766
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
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| Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 4:16 pm Post subject: Re: SO-42 Ice Box gasket |
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| Yeah, thanks a lot. |
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Major Woody
Samba Enigma
Joined: December 04, 2002
Posts: 9010
Location: Portland, OR
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| Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 9:56 am Post subject: Re: SO-42 Ice Box gasket |
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| Somehow I missed the tutorial regarding the seal replacement. I was going to order a spare seal and spare water tank filler but the seal is out of stock now. Darn it! |
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srfndoc
Samba Member
Joined: August 21, 2010
Posts: 3275
Location: SoCal
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| Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 10:53 am Post subject: Re: SO-42 Ice Box gasket |
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Its too bad someone doesn't make new plastic inserts for these. Mine are like most people's and yellowed pretty badly with some stains. They all end up looking like this:
Pretty much everything else you can get a replacement for:
Pump
Water Tank
Veneer/Trim
I know ReproWesty makes complete kits, I wonder where they sourced their liners from and if they would sell them separately?
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RPM=(MPH*336* (R&P*4th*1.26))/Tire Diameter in inches |
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biggestdaddyo
Samba Member
Joined: August 25, 2004
Posts: 131
Location: San Antonio, Texas
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| Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 1:25 pm Post subject: Re: SO-42 Ice Box gasket |
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I should also confess that I have a love/hate relationship with these ice boxes. On the love side: they have vintage coolness and they are awesome for storage even if not used for cold stuff. I love the little silverware drawer that seldom holds silverware. 
On the hate side: They eat up valuable floor real estate, block your easy exit for night time rest room visits and even on their best day, they are very poor at maintaining cool temperatures. 
_________________
| Tahlequah wrote: |
| If I had religion it would be bigdish2 |
| hitest wrote: |
| The whole procedure took 2 mins. 44 seconds (including one overdue crotch scratch). |
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srfndoc
Samba Member
Joined: August 21, 2010
Posts: 3275
Location: SoCal
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| Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 1:37 pm Post subject: Re: SO-42 Ice Box gasket |
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| biggestdaddyo wrote: |
I should also confess that I have a love/hate relationship with these ice boxes. On the love side: they have vintage coolness and they are awesome for storage even if not used for cold stuff. I love the little silverware drawer that seldom holds silverware.
On the hate side: They eat up valuable floor real estate, block your easy exit for night time rest room visits and even on their best day, they are very poor at maintaining cool temperatures. |
I'm the same way. I often remove mine to have room for a real cooler or a place for my dog to lay down. Having a walkthru and removing the cooler makes for a really nice area to move around.
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RPM=(MPH*336* (R&P*4th*1.26))/Tire Diameter in inches |
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nlorntson
Crazy VW Lady
Joined: March 13, 2004
Posts: 3783
Location: Twin Cities, MN
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| Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2017 9:48 pm Post subject: Re: SO-42 Ice Box gasket |
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| srfndoc wrote: |
Its too bad someone doesn't make new plastic inserts for these. Mine are like most people's and yellowed pretty badly with some stains. They all end up looking like this:
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The ice box in our SO44 was pretty bad so we fixed the cracks and sprayed the inside with three coats of white plasti-dip http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=31789176&KPID=5947469&pla=pla_5947469
It's bright white now and has an easy to clean coating. So far it's working well! |
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epayne611
Samba Member
Joined: February 09, 2011
Posts: 316
Location: Orange County, CA
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| Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2017 8:39 am Post subject: Re: SO-42 Ice Box gasket |
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Wondering how your ice boxes are performing now that you've had a chance to test them out with the new insulation?
I use my ice box regularly on short camping trips and would like to improve the insulation. Have been reading on some marine forums, and many recommend Aerogel "space loft" (r value 10.3 per inch) or polyurethane foam (r value 4 per inch) or just bombing it with spray foam (r value ?).
I'm going to install a new seal and so will be doing new insulation as well.
Also I like the idea of plasti-dip for the insert, do you have any close up pics of how it turned out, and how it's holding up?
Thanks! |
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iamdonquixote
Samba Member
Joined: January 28, 2003
Posts: 2041
Location: M*ssholia
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| Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2019 5:35 pm Post subject: Re: SO-42 Ice Box gasket |
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any ideas for the seal? I don't see one available anymore.
couldn't find it on nlavw , saw one at home depot that I may try. |
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joe comfort
Samba Member
Joined: March 18, 2005
Posts: 408
Location: Lake Havasu, AZ.
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| Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2019 5:45 pm Post subject: Re: SO-42 Ice Box gasket |
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| Westfalia Spares UK was selling them but their web site is down. I've contacted them through Facebook but last I heard they were waiting to get more seals from the manufacturer |
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VWinTucson
Samba Member
Joined: February 09, 2006
Posts: 3
Location: Marana, AZ
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| Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2019 6:08 am Post subject: Re: SO-42 Ice Box gasket |
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| Westfalia spares' website is gone and they never returned my email. I did find another company to get a seal for my 71 Westy icebox. It's alittle pricey but if you need a seal....Contact Phil at [email protected]. We figured out the closest new seal to match and he will now have all the info to make more. I'll post when I get it for final reaction. |
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Major Woody
Samba Enigma
Joined: December 04, 2002
Posts: 9010
Location: Portland, OR
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| Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2019 12:33 pm Post subject: Re: SO-42 Ice Box gasket |
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| It's too bad Westfalia Spares can't supply them right now. Their repro was absolutely perfect. |
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VWinTucson
Samba Member
Joined: February 09, 2006
Posts: 3
Location: Marana, AZ
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| Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2019 4:04 pm Post subject: Re: SO-42 Ice Box gasket |
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| Yeah I'm pretty bummed I couldn't reach them. I tried email with no reply then I tried going to their website and it just redirects to a site selling UGG boots. Other companies I reached out to either ignored my email or suggested replacing the unit or modding it thus missing the point of trying to save it. I don't have the heart to rip it out and going with a new 700.00 frig. I like having a icebox and I worked too hard 15 years ago to get it. I'm hoping Sales+Direct saves the day and for 125.00 bucks it better be perfect! |
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Tbm700
Samba Member
Joined: November 04, 2017
Posts: 7
Location: Rennes / France
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joe comfort
Samba Member
Joined: March 18, 2005
Posts: 408
Location: Lake Havasu, AZ.
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| Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2020 11:23 am Post subject: Re: SO-42 Ice Box gasket |
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| I reached Stuart at Westfalia Spares through Facebook messenger and right now he's in the process of revamping his website. I purchased two ice box seals recently and they are on the way to me. Just FYI in case anyone still wants a new ice box seal. Cheers! |
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