Thingamajigger thread

[chojinchef]

I was thinking the same thing actually.

I was against the SA grille for a long time until I broke mine, and did not like the used options I found for reconditioning. Wanted added lights for night driving, so I acquiesced.

Need to reconsider some choices. Wheel bling will go away once I wear through the Michelins. Not buying another set of 18in tires.
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Its a mistress; an expensive, whiney, needy bitch of a mistress. She is a chunky, dirty girl with bad skin, little motivation and yet she always makes me smile. She sure has been around before shacking up with me. She has a direct line to my wallet, plays with my emotions, is consistantly jovial yet with a sarcastic and sardonic side, is consistant in her inconsistancy, and every once in a while gives me a great ride and a fantastic memory.

[chojinchef]

8 days in Bavaria and then 1 in Paris and not one T3 sighting.

Plenty of T4's and T5's.

Few VW bits came back in luggage.

LP
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Its a mistress; an expensive, whiney, needy bitch of a mistress. She is a chunky, dirty girl with bad skin, little motivation and yet she always makes me smile. She sure has been around before shacking up with me. She has a direct line to my wallet, plays with my emotions, is consistantly jovial yet with a sarcastic and sardonic side, is consistant in her inconsistancy, and every once in a while gives me a great ride and a fantastic memory.

[chojinchef]

The little pieces that came back:
Gauge pod from Brickwerks.

Shift boot from the UK: this item will fit in better as cockpit goes all black.

Also new oem brass tees for brakes, and some stainless brackets for fog lamps.

When I got home I was pleasantly surprised that my flux capacitor had finally arrived. Been waiting for this item for a number of months.

Usb charger - two ports. Lights work like Doc Browns unit.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/1dbd/
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Its a mistress; an expensive, whiney, needy bitch of a mistress. She is a chunky, dirty girl with bad skin, little motivation and yet she always makes me smile. She sure has been around before shacking up with me. She has a direct line to my wallet, plays with my emotions, is consistantly jovial yet with a sarcastic and sardonic side, is consistant in her inconsistancy, and every once in a while gives me a great ride and a fantastic memory.

[chojinchef]

4 degrees Fahrenheit in garage this morning. Turned on compressor and fired up heater so I can play a little today.

Filter on air line popped due to cold (was not due to any liquid). So there is another project for today.

Also need to remove snow on garage roof. 90 inches of snow since January 1
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Its a mistress; an expensive, whiney, needy bitch of a mistress. She is a chunky, dirty girl with bad skin, little motivation and yet she always makes me smile. She sure has been around before shacking up with me. She has a direct line to my wallet, plays with my emotions, is consistantly jovial yet with a sarcastic and sardonic side, is consistant in her inconsistancy, and every once in a while gives me a great ride and a fantastic memory.

[insyncro]

An amazing amount of Snow Chef.
We have a bit less here, but the wind drifts in spots are over 10 feet.

Perhaps it is Syncro time

Stay warm.

[chojinchef]

Got a new fuel tank for the Thingamajigger. The original one has served the van well, but was both offering up particulates to the filter, and also dented in the middle(got it that way).

Decided to deal with it once and for all. Bought a new one from VC and a sealing kit from KBS. Used them before on one of my Harley's.

This kit contains KBS Klean: water-based, heavy-duty, cleaner/degreaser. KBS RustBlast: rust remover/metal etch to prepare the interior metal for the sealer, and the sealer itself.

These prep products are formulated to reduce any flash rust by leaving a zinc phosphate film.

Got through first two stages yesterday. Covering all the holes in the tank with rubber plugs and duct tape, I introduced the cleaner into tank. Instructions state to swish fluid around inside the tank every 5 minutes for an hour. So that's what I did, with both solutions, an hour each and then rinsed out the tank with water.
Edit for picture-

New tank after cleaning and etching. Hard to get a picture of the effects of solution, but it works.

Hung up the tank, introduced air to get as much water out as I could and allowed to dry overnight. Will investigate interior to ensure all water is evaporated before introducing sealer today.

Edit for picture:

Sealer mixture in tank. Slowly twisting tank around to get into crevices.

Sealer is an oxygen activated product, it has no curing agent. It will start to cure once can is opened and takes 96 hours (suggested) to cure entirely.

Edit for picture :

Sealed up with rubber plugs and gorilla tape while twisting around solution in tank every 5 minutes for one hour.

After which, I needed to ensure all 'extra' sealer was purged from tank, and then made sure tank lines were clear, and filter at bottom of tank was clear. Used compressed air to do this.

Then I removed all tape, all plugs and started the curing process. During which time, for the first few hours, I rotated the tank each hour to make sure there was no over build up in any one area that could cause curing bubbles due to trapped air, which would weaken the sealer in that spot.

After an hour, I thought that there was enough sealer to do the bottom of the tank as well, so I cleaned it off with prep solvent, and painted it on. And kept going, covering the top as well. There was enough to completely cover the inside, and outside of tank.

Been curing for four days suspended from garage ceiling.

Ready to install now.

Pictures later. (It's later)
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Its a mistress; an expensive, whiney, needy bitch of a mistress. She is a chunky, dirty girl with bad skin, little motivation and yet she always makes me smile. She sure has been around before shacking up with me. She has a direct line to my wallet, plays with my emotions, is consistantly jovial yet with a sarcastic and sardonic side, is consistant in her inconsistancy, and every once in a while gives me a great ride and a fantastic memory.

[insyncro]

I have used the KBS system.
It works well.
Looking forward to seeing it on the tank.
Thanks.

[chojinchef]

Considerably different doing it on an auto tank, versus bike tanks -my shoulders are sore!

Pair that up with sore legs from last nights full moon hike up mountain, and I am a wreck today.
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Its a mistress; an expensive, whiney, needy bitch of a mistress. She is a chunky, dirty girl with bad skin, little motivation and yet she always makes me smile. She sure has been around before shacking up with me. She has a direct line to my wallet, plays with my emotions, is consistantly jovial yet with a sarcastic and sardonic side, is consistant in her inconsistancy, and every once in a while gives me a great ride and a fantastic memory.

[outcaststudios]

this thread is awesome, thingamajigger rules!
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'88Doka JX td
'69 westy
(rip)couple bugs
(rip)three type III"s
(rip) '81 vanagon
a bunch of french stuff,and 9 motorcycles.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2573791

[insyncro]

No pain, no gain Chef

[chojinchef]

Had some time today to do some work on the Thingamajigger.

Pop top shocks

Nothing eventful during install, directions are clear and all GoWesty suggestions are valid.

Also got this back from my seamstress (Mom)

It's the GoWesty windshield cover with screens - http://www.gowesty.com/ec_view_details.php?id=4239&category_id=&category_parent_id=

When camping, my family uses the front door to get in and out late at night, rather than the loud ker-chunk of the slider. So given that the sunshade slides over the top corner of the front doors, it became apparent that this shade was not going to work in my application but I really liked the use of this over the stock curtain in the front.

Enter Mom and her sewing machine!😎

I had her unsew the seam at the passenger edge of the sunshade, and sew them up with magnets inside.

So now it's actually two separate pieces.

And the door opens no problem.

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Its a mistress; an expensive, whiney, needy bitch of a mistress. She is a chunky, dirty girl with bad skin, little motivation and yet she always makes me smile. She sure has been around before shacking up with me. She has a direct line to my wallet, plays with my emotions, is consistantly jovial yet with a sarcastic and sardonic side, is consistant in her inconsistancy, and every once in a while gives me a great ride and a fantastic memory.

[chojinchef]

Installed internal release latch on Thingamajigger today.

Van Cafe sells this unit now, got mine in Germany last February.
http://www.van-cafe.com/home/van/page_2086

Performed oil change, air filter, plugs etc.

Also thought I should show the table stowing hardware kit I got from Campervan culture.

And new owner Bill J came by to get a bit of assistance.

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Its a mistress; an expensive, whiney, needy bitch of a mistress. She is a chunky, dirty girl with bad skin, little motivation and yet she always makes me smile. She sure has been around before shacking up with me. She has a direct line to my wallet, plays with my emotions, is consistantly jovial yet with a sarcastic and sardonic side, is consistant in her inconsistancy, and every once in a while gives me a great ride and a fantastic memory.

[Bills85Westy]

For some reason, this is the first time i've seen / read this thread & of course had to read the whole thing in one sitting.

Great read! You've done a lot of great work!

It's interesting to me that if you were to look at 100 well cared for Westfalias how every single one would be slightly different at the whim of their owners.

I especially like the mod to the windshield cover!

Bill
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89 Tristar Syncro Doka - White
85 Westfalia Syncro (conversion)
SAH 1.8T Conversion - 2005 AWP
Engine Conversion Thread: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=612144&highlight=
85 Doka L345 Grey - 1.9L

[chojinchef]

[chojinchef]

Moooooove over

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Its a mistress; an expensive, whiney, needy bitch of a mistress. She is a chunky, dirty girl with bad skin, little motivation and yet she always makes me smile. She sure has been around before shacking up with me. She has a direct line to my wallet, plays with my emotions, is consistantly jovial yet with a sarcastic and sardonic side, is consistant in her inconsistancy, and every once in a while gives me a great ride and a fantastic memory.

[chojinchef]

Hello all

Finally got Propex finished last week. Just in time for a camp trip Saturday night. In a word - Wow!

Was 32 degrees when I called it a night. Took a couple tries to get it fired (due to air in line from just turning propane on) and it had the van toasty in a short time.

Thank you to Karl - my unit was shipped with a length of 7 wire cable. Was confused about the extra wire 😦. He responded quickly.

Wanting to go out again this weekend.

Pictures forthcoming on install.
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Its a mistress; an expensive, whiney, needy bitch of a mistress. She is a chunky, dirty girl with bad skin, little motivation and yet she always makes me smile. She sure has been around before shacking up with me. She has a direct line to my wallet, plays with my emotions, is consistantly jovial yet with a sarcastic and sardonic side, is consistant in her inconsistancy, and every once in a while gives me a great ride and a fantastic memory.

[chojinchef]

Hello all.

Been remiss on updates to my German mistress. Couldn’t be helped.

Been away a bit focusing on life. Long story short: less one wife and an infrequently used Harley bagger (amongst other trivial and replaceable stuff), will be selling my house and buying another, but maintained ownership of the Thingamajigger and legal / physical custody of my 10year old. The latter being the most important to me.

Thingamajigger took us many places this year - lots of overnights and a couple weeks touring 2200 miles of the Canadian Maritimes. Have a bunch of catching up to do with posting photos and such. Met some great Canadian VW owners in St John, and a few more roving around the provinces. Look forward to repeating that sometime soon.

Thingamajigger is about to go away for winter to receive some needed maintenance and a few upgrades as I have purposely done little this year in case I was ordered to sell her.

Hope you are all well. Happy Thanksgiving
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Its a mistress; an expensive, whiney, needy bitch of a mistress. She is a chunky, dirty girl with bad skin, little motivation and yet she always makes me smile. She sure has been around before shacking up with me. She has a direct line to my wallet, plays with my emotions, is consistantly jovial yet with a sarcastic and sardonic side, is consistant in her inconsistancy, and every once in a while gives me a great ride and a fantastic memory.

[dobryan]

Glad all is well with you now.
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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