Fixing up the ol' '82 Diesel Vanagon

[dachary]

[82jxtd]

a quick note, even though i noticed these posts were from october, grease works in corvallis oregon make a great drivers side mount that leaves lots of room for the turbo. i have had mine in for 3 years now and it solved a lot of troubles for me.

[dachary]

WHOA! I've been poking around here and there for electrical stuff (I realize now that I have all the right components but no idea how to actually hook up our new house electrical stuff) and solar panel mounting options...

...and I found a place that makes a direct sunroof replacement for Adventurewagen tops! It's a marine window/door/hatch place in QC: http://bomon.com/ . The replacement is pricey because it's custom - it's $635 (plus shipping) but it's a direct replacement that fits and retains full functionality of the opening, and doesn't require us to get on top of the van, do a bodge that requires putting a bunch of fasteners through the fiberglass, etc. I'm super psyched about this discovery!

The gent I've been in contact with there says they've done several, and they have three different templates on file with different measurements, so I've sent our measurements and am just waiting for a recommendation on which hatch to order. We might have to expand our sunroof cutout a bit - I've discovered that the cut is pretty sloppy and there's roughly a 1/4" variance along each side - but that's minimal work and I'm happy to do it for the sake of fitting a direct replacement. The only downside is that it will take 5-7 weeks to make, as it is custom, but that should still get it done before May (fingers crossed!) so it should be in time for our trip.

We've also ordered a new set of Vanagon curtains from Sewfine Interior Products - they apparently do a lot of Vanagon interior stuff. Eventually I'd like to re-upholster our cushions, too, but the curtains are higher priority because the current curtains have an odor and they're practically paper-thin. The new ones are in a nice custom fabric that's easy to clean, much more light-tight, and also a lot more cheerful to look at. Huzzah!

We toyed with the idea of making curtains, as we're both handy with a sewing machine and not afraid to tackle such a simple project, but given the time constraints before heading to Overland Expo, we decided to just buy curtains and focus our free time on doing the rest of the work we want to get done. Our to-do list for the next month or so looks something like this:

- Build a rack for the solar panel (still deciding which rack we'll use)
- Mount the solar panel
- Install the house electrical stuff
- Remove the Dometic fridge
- Install the Propex heater
- Install the TF-49 fridge
- Install the new sunroof
- Replace the existing window screens (most of them have holes)
- Install our new window regulator
- Install our new mirrors
- Inspect the water tank (the PO mentioned something about it being moldy)
- If necessary, remove and replace the water tank
- Replace faucet with SHURflo
- Use our GoWesty hardware replacement kit for the sliding window on the sliding door to hopefully fix it (currently slides open gradually as we drive)
- Acquire and install a grey water tank
- Acquire and install an awning
- Replace the 12v cigarette adaptor in the dash
- Install the new custom console from GoWesty

If we have time before the trip, we'd also like to rip out the carpet and install a wood floor, and also do some more soundproofing (under the bench seat, on top of the engine compartment, behind the cabinets).

And finally, we want to get it back into the mechanic for a once-over before we go. We're having problems getting it into first gear, and I don't know if it's just because it's been so cold - it seems better if it's above 20-30 deg F - or if it's an impending clutch/transmission problem. And I'm sure there's still a laundry list of mechanical stuff that should be checked in such an old vehicle.

We've also got a giant list of stuff to do after we get back from the trip that isn't as urgent. (Replace all the window seals, replace the door gaskets, re-cover all the cabinets - stuff that needs to be done/we want to do but isn't strictly required before a cross-country trip.)

We got less done than I wanted to over the winter because it's been so darn cold, and now I feel like time is accelerating and we don't have time for all the work we need to do! Yikes!
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'82 Diesel Westy w/Adventurewagen High Top

[dachary]

Woot! I've verified the measurements on our sunroof for the custom replacement guys so our order is now all set with them. They do a very thorough process to make/measure a template in order to be sure they get the window size/corner radius, etc. correct, but they've already got 3 different AW templates on file, so all I had to do was check our measurements. The templates are all the same, but there's a slight variance in measurements - apparently we're not the only one whose cutout isn't uniform in size. There's only a difference of about 18mm between the smallest and the largest, but they're that precise that they have three different templates on file. Now, with mine, they've got four on file - one of my measurements matched the smallest template, while the other matched the largest. Hah!

They use marine grade aluminum with a clear anodized finish, and they use tempered glass instead of lexan for the window part. I'll definitely post up pics once we get it, but I'm cautiously optimistic. 5-7 weeks on that, theoretically.

Ordered the curtains yesterday, and 3-4 weeks on that. The fabric is supposed to be a lot more light-tight than the stock fabric (which is paper thin) and also supposedly really easy to clean. I'll just be happy if it helps remove some of the vaguely mildew-ey smell from the van - right now it's impossible for us to sleep with our heads all the way in the back, which we've determined is the optimal sleeping position, because the musty odor back there is just too strong. But that ultimately may not go away until we refinish/replace the existing cushions - probably won't be until after the trip.

Also, for the sake of expediency, we've opted to go with a Thule rack to mount the solar panel. They sell an adapter in the UK that extends the height of the Thule racks, as well as feet that attach to the rain gutter, so we ordered those yesterday and will hopefully get them in the next week or two.

In the meantime, we've got miraculously good weather for Saturday! High 47 and sunny, and Sunday the high is around 40. We're hoping to do the window regulator on Sat, and maybe the new mirrors if the hardware shows up. On Sun, we'll probably pull the Dometic and try installing the Propex. If we don't get the mirror hardware, we'll try the Propex on Sat, too, and work on our water system on Sunday. I need to figure out if everything is still hooked up and functional, and the PO mentioned something about mold in the water tank, which makes me a bit paranoid.
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'82 Diesel Westy w/Adventurewagen High Top

[dachary]

We had a very productive weekend working on the van, and hubby took yesterday off work so we could do some more since days where the temp passes 50+ deg F are so rare here in the Northeast right now.

Saturday started with the window regulator. The plan was to install it, but I decided that after last time when we installed the new window regulator only to find out it didn't work - we should probably try to roll the thing up and down before we wrestle it into the door. Good thing. Turns out, the top of the track where the window regulator bends was... pinched? It needs to be wide open so the plastic piece can fully travel up the track. Here's a pic of our old one to give you an idea of what the track is supposed to look like, and what our brand new replacement looked like...

window_regulator by CorporateRunaways, on Flickr

We had to pry the track apart so the piece could move up and down freely and the window could roll up all the way. The only way we could figure out to do that with the tools we have was to just use a flat edge to pry the metal, but that left us with a bunch of little dents in the track. So the hubby took our Dremel to the finished product to smooth things out.

Kay_dremel-ing by CorporateRunaways, on Flickr

In the end, a simple window regulator install took hours. Once again, we really should have opened the box immediately upon arrival to check it out, and we could have done the preliminary work weeks ago when it was cold out and we wouldn't have wasted so many hours of warm weather. BUT! Now we can roll the window up and down! (Theoretically... we rolled it up after installing but then left it that way so as not to jinx ourselves.)

While we futzed with the window regulator, I also took the time to (hopefully) fix our right front turn signal. Every time it rains, it blows the turn signal bulb. It also happens a lot when it snows/melts. We've gone through close to a dozen bulbs over the winter. It's been too cold for me to get electrical tape to stick, but Sat was nice and warm so I electrical taped the crap out of the entire assembly, the wires going into it, etc. It'll be a pain the next time I have to change the bulb, but if it means the bulb will last longer than "until the next rain" (today) it'll be worth it!

We also pulled the old Dometic fridge on Saturday. That was very easy thanks to some good maintenance instructions here on TheSamba - much more descriptive than the high contrast photos you can't make out very well/vague instructions in the Bentley. Took us less than an hour to pull the fridge, remove the fiberglass insulation (no rust on the body panel under the water hookups - yay!) and clean the whole area up a bit. Apparently it's never been removed before as it sure looked like 32 years of grime under the fridge. Yuck.

Speaking of grime - while the hubby was disconnecting stuff to pull the Dometic, I removed the air vents from the channel above the sliding door to see if I could diagnose why one of them wouldn't open and one of them wouldn't close. (Had to put duct tape over the one that wouldn't close to try to stem the flow of icy air during the winter!) Turns out - a thorough cleaning with some Simple Green removed about 32 years of grime and now they move freely and function like brand new again. Lesson: if something doesn't seem to be working properly on the van, try cleaning it first. (Pic before cleaning, stuck closed.)

air_vent by CorporateRunaways, on Flickr

On Sunday, we got a late start due to Daylight Savings Time (and also the temp had dropped overnight so we weren't too keen to go work in the cold again) so we started out the day with a trip to Home Depot for supplies. The goal for the day was to install the Propex. While we were at Home Depot, we picked a type of Pergo floor to install, only to discover we'd have to order it as they didn't carry it in the store. We're going with Cross Sawn Chestnut in Pergo XP - after reading up on the Pergo threads here on The Samba people seem to agree that the XP holds up the best to the high traffic of van life. We've bought some underlayment to put under the floor just to add another layer of thermal/noise barrier, and we're also going to use our soundproofing stuff on the floor under that. Should be a major improvement, and be much easier to maintain with the dogs - that pattern shouldn't show scratches too much and it's a heck of a lot easier to just swipe out the dirt with a mini broom than have to vacuum.

Got a bunch of other stuff, made it home and started disassembling cabinets to install the Propex. Our plan was to put it in the small cabinet on the floor next to the bench seat. We removed the wall separating that space from the shore power outlets, and removed the shore power (we were thinking of installing a GFCI outlet anyway so it seemed like a good idea). After we got everything torn out and cleaned up the cabinets (more grime) we discovered that the Propex was a really tight fit there. I thought I had seen it installed there, but did a bunch of searching The Samba again and had a hard time finding the install. (Did eventually find pics of it.) I did find a lot of comments/concern about mounting the vent right up on the output, though, so we decided to relocate the Propex to the more standard position under the bench seat. Kind of frustrating after tearing out the cabinets there, but I think we'll try putting our new house power components in there instead to free up space under the bench seat - space under the seat seems more usable to us than that tiny cabinet.

So not much to show for Sunday except a torn up/cleaned up set of cabinets. HOWEVER. While we were in there (in removing the Dometic and further tearing up the cabinets), we found that the PO had disconnected the fresh water tank and city water connections from under the sink. I thought I remembered her saying that she didn't use the fresh water tank because it was moldy. The hoses were pretty gross, but we've since inspected the tank itself and it seems fine. We bought some CLR and also a kit for sanitizing marine fresh water systems, and the plan is to just try to scrub away the hard water deposits, sanitize the tank, and replace the hoses with fresh from GoWesty. However, I think we'll leave the city water disconnected, as we don't anticipate using it. I've been pondering the mod to delete the city water and install a fan to vent the fridge compartment, but haven't fully committed yet.

We did pour water down the sink to check for leaks in the sink drain, and it was draining very slowly, so hubby got under and checked out the trap. The trap was NASTY. Lots of decomposing gross stuff in there, and we're wondering if that isn't why the PO stopped using the water system. We did a quick clean - we'll do something more thorough the next time we have some free time to work on the van - but hubby thinks it can be reclaimed without replacing it, so we didn't bother to order the replacement parts from GoWesty. I did, however, order a Sureflo faucet and an in-line pump, because I don't know if the OEM submersible pump works and we wanted to switch to the Sureflo anyway, so we'll make those changes the next time we work on the water system.

Yesterday the hubby took the day off work so we could do more van stuff since it was so warm outside. We removed everything from under the bench seat, cleaned the heck out of it (more grime) and soundproofed the firewall. In the process, we discovered that the black box thing that protrudes from the firewall (in the bottom of this pic - the current house battery is attached to it) is missing a side.

battery by CorporateRunaways, on Flickr

In the pic, the left side has a metal piece closing it off from the engine compartment, but the right side, where there's a heavy duty wire coming through - I presume from the alternator - is just open to the engine compartment. Should I assume that shouldn't be open to the engine compartment? That would explain why sometimes I get strong diesel fumes when we start the van - I'd like to seal up that hole but I'd also like to know if there's a reason it should be open before we do.

Anyway, we applied soundproofing material to the firewall and the top of the engine compartment, and we're sort of shocked by how much of an improvement it has made in cutting down noise in the van. We use a heavy duty horse blanket on top of the engine compartment, and the cushion on top of that, which does quiet things down quite a bit. But the soundproofing did make a significant improvement. We also applied it behind the sink/fridge cabinet, while we've got things out of there - that soundproofing stuff is some of the best money we've spent on the van so far.

Got most of the stuff cut to install the new fridge. We don't have good cutting tools, so one of the hubby's co-workers brought in some of his tools to work, and we cut the angle bracket for the fridge, the plywood for the fridge cabinet and the support pieces for the fridge - all while hanging out the back of the van:

cutting by CorporateRunaways, on Flickr

Before we cut into the trim piece that used to go around the fridge door, we're using it as a template for the cut on the closet. We're adding the old Dometic fridge door trim panel as side access to the closet, because we intend to use shelves in there - looks like a great mod. We drew the cut onto the closet yesterday, but we did it fast and dirty and it didn't seem level, so we need to revisit it and clean things up before we actually make the cut and install the door.

We're making progress. Lots of cleaning things up to make it ready for installing the new stuff. We've ordered a TON of stuff for the van in the past week. We've now officially blown through our entire $10,000 budget (well, we will have after we get the new speakers/radio installed tomorrow) for updating the van... we've bought most of the camping upgrades we wanted to make, but I'm thinking we'll probably still be spending another $5,000 to $10,000 before we're "done" with our update/restoration. I still want to replace all of the window seals, update some things for the sake of mechanical soundness, and paint her - we're developing some minor rust along a few of the seams (New England is so hard on vehicles!) so that's definitely going to happen this year. We'd also *like* to upgrade the suspension - driving around with all of our potholes and poor road patches is good practice for third-world-road conditions, and the suspension is not up for the task.

On the agenda for this weekend: Install the Propex (we'll have everything we need by Thursday, and we had a professional inspect the van and give us a plan for running the propane line, so we're confident in doing that ourselves), install the new floors and install the new mirrors. Hardware came yesterday - aside from the soundproofing, the mirrors are the practical thing I'm most excited about. May not get it all done this weekend, but I'm being ambitious.
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'82 Diesel Westy w/Adventurewagen High Top

[dachary]

Less productive van weekend than I would have liked. Saturday dawned bright and warm, so the plan was to mount the LT Truck Mirrors and deal with some of the stuff that requires a warm day. We started out drilling the holes for the rivnuts, per a Samba thread recommendation:

holes by CorporateRunaways, on Flickr

De-burred them (hubby couldn't find our safety glasses so he improvised some eye protection):

mc_safety_glasses by CorporateRunaways, on Flickr

And we went to use the hack little "rivnut installation tool" - a bolt with a nut, washer and serrated washer to hold the rivnut in place so we can crush it. The hack tool failed utterly. We couldn't get the rivnut to crush - it just kept spinning in place. So we tried to find a place where we could buy a rivnut tool, since we already had the great big gaping holes in the door... off we went, only to discover that the only local place that had it is only open M-F. Bah!

We've put some tape over the holes now and have just ordered the tool online. It should be here by mid-week - maybe we can find some time to work on it after work. Installation was going quite smoothly up until that point, though - gotta love TheSamba for the great writeup somebody else had already posted.

Attempted to move on to running the copper pipe for the Propex... only to discover that we'd gotten NPT fittings and the Propex requires BSPT fittings. Bah again. Alas, we can't find anyplace local that has BSPT fittings. Would appreciate if someone can steer us to an online source so we can get what we need to get the install done!

Next on our list was to install the schmancy new GoWesty Storage Console we'd gotten... we were quite happy with the woodwork, although it didn't include the "integrated mounting bracket" referred to in the writeup. Took the knob off the shift lever, attempted to position it... and discovered that our shifter has WAY too much travel to work with this console. We had talked with Libby about this back in the day, and he speculated that the shifter was a mismatch with the transmission. I did some digging and discovered that some of the transmissions have an angled mount and a particular shifter (mostly straight) that works with it, and the others have a flat mount and a shifter that has a slight bend in it. We've got the angled mount *and* the shifter with the bend in it, which means second gear is pretty much in our knee, and reverse is actually in front of our knee. We attempted to bend the shifter with a bar bending tool, but discovered that the one we got was too small... so we were thwarted yet again. (Anyone know where I can find an alternative shifter with way less travel?)

On the bright side, while we were at Home Depot for the third weekend in a row buying stuff for the van, we did find a funky trim piece near the window screen that happened to be the PERFECT size to replace the broken trim above our sliding door. It's the wide trim piece that goes from just above the front of the sliding door, all the way back along the side of the van and into the cabinet above the bench seat. Ours had a long crack down the middle of the trim piece, and we were using a bulldog clip to hold it in place. We found a long plastic strip that I think was meant to be used in window screen installations somehow that fit perfectly in that spot.

Hubby cut some holes for the vents while I cleaned up some rust hiding behind the old trim and started removing the frame for the window screen on the side windows in the hightop. The passenger side window in the high top had a couple of long holes in the screen, so it was cheap and easy to replace it with a new piece of screen. While we had things apart, we also cleaned the track that the window opening mechanism slides along to make it easier for the windows to open and close smoothly.

Today was flipping cold - we did some of the window screen work today but mostly we did stuff indoors to prep for future work. We drilled holes in angle bracket to mount the fridge, we marked the old fridge trim piece where we need to cut for the new fridge install, we removed the feet from the cutting board we're going to install on sliders above the fridge and did some de-burring/sanding stuff.

It's a little frustrating that we didn't get more done this weekend. Gotta wait for more parts to get here now and try to do more next weekend, I hope. Hopefully the weather will be a little warmer for us - we need at least 40+ deg F for our adhesives to set up properly. In the meantime, I hope we can find a source for the fittings we need for the Propex, and figure out how we need to wire our new house electrical setup so we can start prepping for that.
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'82 Diesel Westy w/Adventurewagen High Top

[dachary]

Finally have something to show for our efforts! We spent 12+ hours on Saturday working on the van, but we got a bunch of stuff prepped and we got the Pergo floor installed!

This is what the (almost) finished product looked like:

pergo_floor by CorporateRunaways, on Flickr

We weren't sure what to expect once we tore up the old carpet and investigated underneath, but we found a plywood subfloor covered with this:

subfloor by CorporateRunaways, on Flickr

Our original plan had been to rip out whatever was in there, apply soundproofing to the floor, apply a layer (or two) of underlayment, and then lay down the Pergo. Once we got in there and found the plywood, though, we opted not to pull it out. It provided a nice firm base for the floor, and it does provide some sound protection qualities, so we put a layer of underlayment on top of it and then laid the Pergo on the underlayment. (It's the Pergo XP that has a thin layer of built-in underlayment, but we added a layer that's supposed to provide thermal/moisture protection. It was a lot thicker than the backing on the Pergo XP.)

We had both wanted a lighter color for the floor, but this pattern (Cross Sawn Chestnut) had a lot of scratch type stuff on it, so we figured it would hide the wear and tear from dog claws better. Turns out it also hides dust and dirt that you track in when you walk in there, and it actually looks great with the interior/trim. We had originally talked about doing laminate or something on the interior because we weren't too keen on the brown, but now that we're fixing things up a bit the brown doesn't bother us as much. We might keep it after all!

We also got the fridge install prepped - just gotta slap up some insulation and slide in the fridge. We're installing a cutting board on drawer slides above the fridge - saw it in one of the threads here and it seemed like a brilliant way to add a surface. Before we put in the fridge, though, I wanna re-do the shore power wiring and run the copper pipe for the Propex install. We should *finally* have the fittings for that sometime this week, so maybe we can wrap that install up next weekend.

I'm also thrilled that we *finally* managed to source the parts we need for a roof rack to install the solar panel. We didn't want to mount directly to the fiberglass because we were concerned about it being strong enough to support the weight/deal with the stress. We found some Thule roof rack parts in the UK that would let us install a rack on the rain gutter, with extenders to make it tall enough to clear the high top. We placed an order with the one supplier that claimed to ship to the US, and waited. And waited. A week later, the hubby called them up and they didn't have the extender in stock. Oh, did they forget to email us about that? Oops.

That began a quest to find the tall extender so the rack could clear the high top. We spent like a week looking and calling places up to verify whether or not they actually had it in stock. Finally, we found out that Thule New Zealand had three of the sets of the extenders in stock, but they couldn't ship to the US. We posted on a travel forum in NZ for help, and a few folks there gave us some options, including one kind gent who called around for us. In the end, we've ordered the extenders from NZ and had them shipped to what is essentially a FedEx Kinkos in NZ, where they're re-shipping it to us in the US. We ordered the rain gutter feet from someone in the UK, where they were $200 cheaper plus about $150 cheaper in shipping.

The roof rack has now become insanely expensive (far more than the solar panel) with feet from the UK, extenders from NZ and we'll order the load bars here in the US because they're universal.

That's the one thing I was not expecting when we took on this project. I expected to spend a lot of money on the components we wanted to upgrade (the TF, the Propex, the new solar and house electrical setup) but what I didn't expect was all the money we'd spend on related stuff... the rack for the solar panel, all the tools we've been buying to do stuff on the van, all the metric screws and fasteners we'd have to source special because no-one local carries them, and all of the special, one-time-use stuff we'd need for installing these things.

Unfortunately, we're developing some mechanical stuff that needs attention, and we've got limited time in which to do everything. We've got a hard start that's getting harder - we've thought it was weather because it was so cold this winter and its our first diesel, but we've had a few warm days where it's just as hard to start. My current theory is something fuel-related, but we haven't yet hunted down the problem. (Hubby thinks it's timing related, because sometimes when we're trying to start it, it turns over but can't... quite... catch. Maybe I'm giving the shop too much credit for setting the timing properly when they installed our new timing belt a few months ago.)

The other thing that's going on is we're sometimes having trouble getting into first gear. I also thought that was cold-related, initially, as it started becoming an issue on the really cold days and didn't seem to be such a big problem when the temps were warmer. But since I've been trying to figure out how to safely bend the shifter lever so we can use our new console, I've been doing a lot of research into the shifter assembly, and I'm wondering if we haven't got some worn parts down there. May end up biting the bullet and disassembling the shifter to see what's going on down there.

The big issue is time. I don't know when we'll find the time to deal with these mechanical issues as well as the rest of the system upgrades we're doing. We may end up taking her to the mechanic for the mechanical stuff - I'd rather troubleshoot myself so I know I've taken the time to do it right, but time is the problem.

We're making progress, though! And as a nice bonus - the Pergo floors have made the van even quieter. It's so quiet now that we're noticing wind noise a lot more, so after we get back from our trip in May, we'll start dealing with door/window gaskets and seals. Who knew we could make such a difference with a roll of soundproofing and a new floor?
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'82 Diesel Westy w/Adventurewagen High Top

[dachary]

Another weekend, two more days working on Sally.

Happily for us, hubby has a co-worker who has a ton of awesome tools so we've been spending one weekend day every weekend at his place working through the cuts we need to make. The weekend before last, we were there for about 6 hours installing the floors and doing a couple of things. On Sat, we were back for another 6 hours for a lot of cutting.

We had to buy a new edge piece for the van floor, because the Pergo on top of the subfloor raised the lip too high to fit with the old kick plate/edge piece. We bought a stair edge that fit well, but had it shipped and it got bent en route. Spent a while fixing the bend, but now you can't even tell.

We also made the cuts for the trim piece that will go around the TF-49. We took the old fridge frame and cut it down to fit around the TF.

We also decided to get fancy and install a cutting board above the fridge, because we really liked the mod, so we spent some time cutting down the cutting board to size and sanding it nicely...

Since the cutting board has lowered the fridge height, and we need some space at the bottom for air to circulate to the back of the fridge, we're ostensibly turning the space under the fridge into "dead space." We'll use the closet cutout to fabricate a frame for an air vent to go under the fridge. In reality, though, we'll mount it on strong magnets so we can remove the vent and store our laptops and small valuables under there when we travel and leave the van. We always like building in a few hidey spots.

On Sunday, we attempted to run the hose for the new plumbing (replacing the in-tank pump with an inline pump, and replacing the stock faucet with a Shurflo). However, the pump calls for 1/2" hose, and the stock hose is 3/8, so the tank fittings don't work with it, and neither does the faucet, so we've gotta get some adaptors for that and we had to enlarge the holes a little bit where the hose runs through the cabinets. Mucking around with the plumbing pretty much tied up our Sunday, so we didn't get to run the copper pipe for the Propex. We'll do that this weekend, and hopefully do the wiring, too, so we can install the insulation and put the fridge in place. I'm getting tired of having a big gaping hole in the cabinet!

Got more of the parts for our electrical system, and realized now I need to order more parts (terminals of the appropriate sizes, fuses, etc.) The never-ending cycle. We've gotta be getting close, though!

Tomorrow Sally goes to the shop for a sloppy shifter, some pre-trip maintenance and hard start issues. We'd prefer to do the mechanical work ourselves but we just don't have time with all the camping systems we're working through. Hopefully the shop has her back by this weekend because we have so much work still to do, and we're down to 3 weekends left to do it (because of work obligations - I already canceled an event or we'd be down to 2 weekends).
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'82 Diesel Westy w/Adventurewagen High Top

[dachary]

The shop apparently didn't start looking over Sally until today. Looks like she's definitely missing a bushing in the shift linkage at the transmission. If it's the one I think it is, I found a replacement for it here on TheSamba. Hopefully hubby will pass on the info to the shop, as the shop guy said he expects it will be hard to source. (I think it's the NLA one that Ken has imported for Van Again - if I'm right it should save some time!)

They hadn't yet fully gone over the shift linkage so I'm expecting we're missing (or have worn significantly) other parts to make our shift lever cant so far to the left, have so much throw and have trouble getting into first. I'm expecting to need more done there.

Regarding our hard start issue, they've found a leak near the fuel injector so they're thinking that might be the issue. They'll let us know once they fix it, try it and chase down any other gremlins.

Unfortunately, they say they're not going to have it done by the weekend. This is a bit of a deal-breaker for us as we have only 2 or 3 weekends left to work on it before we head out for a 3 week trip, and we still have so much to do! They're closed on the weekend, so at this point, I'm thinking about renting a car for the weekend, driving out to the shop with our tools and the various things we want to install and work on, and basically camp in their parking lot while we get some more work done. We'll have to see what happens.
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'82 Diesel Westy w/Adventurewagen High Top

[dachary]

Woohoo! Shop finished up most of the work on Sally so we're going to pick her up after work. They did a "complete safety check" - we told them we were heading out for a trip so we wanted to check everything that should be checked before we go. We also had them do an oil change - we know we could do it ourselves, but we've just got this whole limited time issue.

We mentioned the problem with our heat again - last time we had it in the shop, they replaced the valve on the end of the tubes that come up from the passenger side floor. This time, they did an "R&R coolant level sensor and thermo fan switch." Don't know if this will help with the issue, but maybe.

For the hard start issue, they identified a leak near the fuel injector, but they weren't sure exactly what was the issue, so they went ahead and rehabbed the entire area. Replaced the glow plugs, replaced the fuel filter, replaced the injector plug and it says they replaced the fuel line. I'll have hubby crawl under and find out if they replaced the entire fuel line, or just a section of it. Replacing the fuel line was on my list of things to get to eventually anyway, but it wasn't quite as urgent for us since we run diesel and not gas. It would be nice if they've done the entire line, but I'm not holding my breath.

There's also a line item for "starting fluid." I don't actually know what that is. Hmm...

Regarding the shifter, they've got the bushing on order and it should be here around the middle of next week. We'll schedule a time to take it back next week, and once they get that bushing, they'll re-jigger the shifter and see if that fixes the issue. If not, we'll order more shifter bits until we get it right.

We're now up to around... $5,000, I think, at the mechanic. Since October, we've replaced/rehabbed:

- All brake components, including new master cylinder
- New tires
- A few ball joints
- Various bits related to the heating system
- Timing belt
- One of the outer rod tie ends
- New starter battery
- Various bits of the heater system
- Various bits of the wiring (connections that were badly corroded, light fixtures that were too far gone)
- New windscreen and gasket
- New driver's side window regulator
- And now bits of the fuel system

I think at this point we've dealt with most of the major wear items that should be renewed in a vehicle this old - at least the mechanical ones. We still need to replace door/window gaskets, which will happen over the summer. Otherwise I think we're in pretty decent shape now, but please do correct me if I'm missing something major!

For the weekend, I'm hoping to finish installing our new water system components (pump, faucet, fittings), and hopefully run the copper pipe for the Propex. Maybe even install the Propex! We're also getting down to the nitty gritty of the rewiring the house electrical system, so I want to start trying out various components in various spaces and deciding where we want to install everything.

I'd *like* to deal with all of the electrical next weekend, and then we can install the fridge and be just about done! The only thing left after that will be to mount the solar panel (we finally have everything we need to do that, but the mounts may need some tweaking) and install the new custom sunroof/air vent thinger whenever it arrives.

In short, if we can stay on track with what I'd like to get done during the next two weekends, I'll actually feel like we're in pretty good shape for our trip in May! Maybe then we could get to some more of the creature comfort stuff that's at the bottom of my list.
_________________
'82 Diesel Westy w/Adventurewagen High Top

[srmpf]

[dachary]

Another weekend, another few days with every spare moment spent on van stuff, another $500 spent and a bunch of projects still not finished.

We did get most of the plumbing run for the new water system. We've replaced all of the hoses - filler hose, vent hose, hose from the tank to the pump, and hose from the pump to the faucet. We installed the new Shurflo faucet, and we've installed a Shurflo inline pump, which unfortunately called for 1/2" hose - stock is 3/8". So we got the right size line, but the plumbing into the water tank was a problem. We left the vent hose 3/8", and we bought a bulkhead to go into the tank with the appropriate size fittings for the 1/2" water hose. But the hole saw we bought to cut the new hole into the bulkhead wasn't the right size, and the plastic is too hard for me to thread the fitting through... so everything is plumbed except the connection into the water tank.

Which, as it turns out, is fine because somehow we've lost the water tank drain cap. So even if we got the plumbing done, we couldn't hold any water in the tank to test it. We took it off last weekend or sometime shortly before when we scrubbed the tank with CLR to remove deposits and buildup, and apparently hubby didn't thread the cap on tightly enough after we were done. It jumped ship somewhere between home and the shop.

So now we've got a new water tank drain cap on order from Bus Depot, along with a new trap and under-sink drain kit - we noticed a crack in the trap and figure we may as well replace everything ourselves to ensure that we know the system is refreshed and won't leak. While we're at it, I also ordered the gray water holding tank from Bus Depot, since we intend to camp a fair amount and some campgrounds require it, etc. Also ordered a hole saw of the appropriate size so we can *hopefully* plumb in the new bulkhead for the tank next weekend, or maybe one night this week after work.

Another weekend down, another project unfinished, another lots of parts on order. This is becoming a theme!

We also tackled the Propex install, finally, as we've gathered up all the fittings we need for the copper propane line. Apparently the cheap flare tool that the hubby bought was not a great solution, because it gave him conniptions trying to flare 3 pipe ends. We also found that our tube bender doesn't work well in enclosed spaces (under the sink where the original line comes in) so what I thought would be a quick job ended up taking hours. As usual.

At one point, hubby joked that he didn't know how he ended up becoming the plumber while I became the electrician, but he didn't care for his job and he never wanted to take up plumbing as a career. Apparently working in the cramped space under the sink cabinet was not to his taste!

Prepping the propane lines didn't wrap up until after dark. Hubby crawled under the van at that point to ponder how we were planning to route the exhaust pipes. In the end, we have a plan but he decided he didn't want to actually cut the holes and run the exhaust pipes until we had more ambient light, and also some leveling blocks so we could raise up the back end a bit and give him a little more room to work under there. So we ordered leveling blocks, and I bought a few more P-clips to route the pipes, as it looks like we're going to have to run them up into the wheel wells. We may try to wrap up the Propex install after work one day this week, or next weekend if we can't get to it sooner.

We also spent a while actually laying out our electrical components and trying to decide how we're going to mount everything and run the wire. Apparently my upgraded house electrical system is going to take up a lot of space! In the end, I'm satisfied with what we came up with, although I'm a little annoyed that I can't contain everything in the small cabinet on the floor between the water tank and the fridge. But it looks like we'll end up putting the fuse block and the battery monitor input box on the back of the little cabinet up above (the one with the false bottom.) I'll probably build a false wall into that cabinet so we never see them unless we need to service them.

We're also losing a little over half of our under-bench storage to the Propex and the house battery - I wish I could put them elsewhere but we discarded the other options for a variety of reasons. Fortunately we've got the high-top with all the extra storage options up above!

And finally, we sat down and drew up a real wiring diagram last night for the new electrical system. It incorporates everything - house battery, solar, battery combiner/separator, shore power and charger. Hubby has a co-worker who has a friend who is an electrical engineer at MIT, so we've asked him to do a sanity check on the wiring diagram before we start making the physical connections. There are two components I have questions about (using the shunts properly for the battery monitor) but I'm actually really proud of it. I've spent a LOT of time reading up on TheSamba and bought a couple of 12v books to spin up on the electrical work, and I'm really pleased with the result. As soon as the electrical engineer gets back to us and we make any changes based on the feedback, I'll post up the wiring diagram.

So. We have now got 11 projects in various states of being started, but nothing is finished:

- Floors - wood floor is installed but we haven't installed the molding yet - it's just taped into place for now while we make a couple of decisions
- Curtains - new curtains are installed, but the snaps that connect the curtains to each other for privacy are all screwed up and the curtains don't snap together. Sewfine is sending us a kit to fix the snaps so we don't have to send the curtains back, but I fear that's going to require un-installing to fix the snaps
- Plumbing - need to plumb the bulkhead into the tank, find a plug to fit where the wiring entered the tank from the old in-tank pump, and replace the under-sink/drain stuff - and install the new gray water tank
- Propex - need to cut the holes for the exhaust, route the exhaust, mount the Propex and do a leak test on the fittings we installed on the propane line
- Shore power - I've ripped out the existing shore power - need to install the new wire, plugs and charger
- House electrical - install all the components, route the new stuff, drill some holes for routing, make all the physical connections
- TF-49: once we leak-test the propane and the water connections, we'll put some new insulation in the wall behind the cabinet and install the fridge - it's just a lot easier to work on those components of the system without the fridge installed
- Solar panel - we have all of the components for the rack - now we just need to figure out mounts to the Thule load bars and mount the darn thing
- Air vent/sunroof - new one is on order and should be here in the next few weeks, and will need to be installed
- Shift lever/GoWesty Console - new bushing is on order for the shift linkage - need to get the van back to the shop, probably next week, to install the bushing and check out any other problems with the shift linkage so we can install the console
- Closet door hack - the old Dometic fridge door is going to be installed on the closet for side opening - we've got the lines drawn and just need to make the cut, install the trim and mount the door

Oh - one small thing I almost forgot - we removed the cushion cover from the rear cushion because it had gotten pretty grimy and we wanted to wash it. We discovered that the zipper had fused itself into the fabric, so we had to cut the zipper off to get the cover off the cushion. I ordered a new zipper in the appropriate length, and after a few false starts and broken sewing machine needles, we installed the new zipper. Apparently the fabric feeder teeth don't like the tweed of the cushion cover at all - wouldn't feed through. Had to sew zipper side down so the teeth didn't get caught in the fabric.

But now I've sourced some new foam, which we'll replace after our trip in May - don't think we have time to do it before. We've also found some fabric we kind of like at a place in Albuquerque, so we're going to stop by the fabric shop on our way out to Overland Expo and probably pick up enough fabric to make a new cover for the cushion, and re-cover the bench seat. Also when we get home, I want to refresh the foam in the passenger chairs, and probably re-cover those, too.

It never ends!

(Oh! But the work that the shop did on Sally's fuel system has definitely fixed our hard start problem. We didn't even need to use the faux choke and she started right up in ~30 deg F and ~50 deg F temps. Hooray for a good fix!)
_________________
'82 Diesel Westy w/Adventurewagen High Top

[dachary]

We finally started to drill the holes to mount the Propex on Saturday, and before doing any drilling, hubby crawled under the van again to make sure our exhaust/intake pipe routing was good. We'd done this before but we wanted to double check. Good thing we did, because it turned out that our original plan would have involved routing one or both of the pipes directly into what looks like a radiator. That probably wouldn't have been good!

So we dug around under the bench seat. We'd been wondering what this black box is next to our old house battery:

battery by CorporateRunaways, on Flickr

And hubby traced a pipe under the van into it. We decided to take it off to see what's actually under there, and it turns out it was this:

Under the bench seat by CorporateRunaways, on Flickr

Best we can figure, it was a vent for the old house battery. The red wire comes off the starter battery, runs around in the engine compartment for a while, goes through what looks like a relay of some sort (maybe some kind of home-brew battery combiner?) and then into the bench seat and attaches to the house battery.

Well! As the new house battery doesn't require venting, and there was already a big hole cut through the sheet metal, hubby ran one of the vent tubes from the Propex through this vent hole (the plastic one that doesn't get as hot) and drilled a hole per Propex specs for the hot exhaust pipe, which we routed up into the wheel well. We sealed the hot exhaust pipe with high temp silicone and we caulked the other vent up entirely with regular waterproof silicone so now there are no more random holes into the van (that we're aware of). That would explain why I was getting quite a draft from under the bench seat during the winter!

Unfortunately, moving the Propex to the other side of the bench seat necessitated running new copper tubing for the propane, as we had already run, connected and flared the tubing in prep for the Propex install. So yes, another trip to Home Depot. Running, flaring and connecting the second copper tube was a lot faster than the first time, though, as we'd figured out good technique!

So now the Propex is mostly installed - it's mounted, the exhaust/intake pipes are routed and the copper line for the propane is routed. We just need to run the wiring.

As part of moving the Propex install, we also decided to relocate our new house battery to the Propex side of the bench seat (the passenger side, instead of more toward the middle). It JUST fits in front of the Propex. Pics after we clean everything up and get the wires run properly. So now we still have about half of our bench seat for storage, which I can live with.

On Sunday, we went up to visit a friend who has a shop and do more cutting/tool driven stuff. Since we pulled the Dometic and intended to replace it with a TF-49, we decided to use the old Dometic door panel to put a side access door in the closet. So hubby swapped the hinges around so we could open from the front of the van:

Kay swaps the hinges by CorporateRunaways, on Flickr

And after triple-checking where we wanted to place the door, we started cutting!

Cutting the closet door by CorporateRunaways, on Flickr

Whoo! Now our closet has a big gaping hole!

Success! Side-access closet! by CorporateRunaways, on Flickr

We've gotta decide if we're going to route the edge to install the old trim piece, and if so, we need to buy the appropriate bit for it. We also need to decide how we're going to latch the door. We have the latch that came out of the old door frame around the fridge, but hubby doesn't like it because it's "a PITA to install." We have a jar of latches that a friend gave us, but I may just sneak in there and put the old latch in one day while the hubby is at work. I figure it doesn't matter if it's "a PITA to install" if he's not the one doing the work!

While he was doing all this cutting, I was working with the friend to fabricate some custom mounts for our solar panel. I couldn't find mounts that were the appropriate size, so we're fabbing some from some angle bracket stock and some flat stock. So far all we've gotten done is a lot of cutting and grinding. While I was cutting, deburring and sanding the rust off the angle stock, hubby ground down the flat stock pieces to size for the cross-pieces:

Back to the grind... by CorporateRunaways, on Flickr

Our friend tried a MIG weld and wasn't satisfied with the end result, so he's going to try to get his TIG welder up and running so we can finish fabbing up the brackets. We'll probably have to do it after work one day as we're running very low on weekends and hubby's gone for the week next week for a work conference.

We're making progress, though!

Our new water system is fully plumbed now, finally. We finished installing the new hose and the bulkhead. I need to do the wiring for the faucet and pump still. The new gray water tank and the other water system parts came today from Bus Depot, so we've gotta install that and then we can sanitize the system and will hopefully have a good fresh water system that's ready to go!

We've made the final decisions on the house electrical setup and now we just have to install everything and run the wiring. We've already installed the new house battery, so I'll probably work on the electrical some this week or next week while the hubby is gone and try to get that wrapped up.

Need to get the solar panel mounts done, get the new sunroof from the custom hatch/window place in Canada, and leak-test the propane for the Propex so we can wrap those things up.

I'd also like to deal with the propane tank - the PO said that some propane places wouldn't fill it - I assume because it's got an old regulator or fill valve that's not compliant with the law that got passed in 2003 - but so far we haven't found someplace that can replace the regulator. I need to spend some time researching that and get it done before we leave - would far rather do that than buy a new propane tank.

We're getting closer, though! Although I still can't cross a single project off our to-do list because still nothing is "done."
_________________
'82 Diesel Westy w/Adventurewagen High Top

[tilstad]

[dachary]

[tilstad]

I would be careful using that silicone. Sure it seals leaks fine, but it's a royal PITA to get off later, and might make the install of the new sunroof harder.

I had a glass sunroof break on me once, and while waiting for a larger replacement, I just taped the hole shut with a few layers of black trash bags folded nicely to fit over the opening, then taped it down. Then it was a matter of cleaning up the tape glue, but that came off easy with rubbing alcohol. Silicone is much harder to get rid of.

If you go this route though, don't drive too fast as the bags will form a bubble form the air pressure when driving and rip open somewhere above 55.

I believe all roof gutters for all model years should be the same.

Fixing up a Westy is really like fixing up a car and a small cabin, or trailer if you prefer. That's why the expenses become so high compared to restoring just a vehicle.

It's the car side of things, then the house.

Do you have your propane, water and house electrics setup working good? In my opinion, the water and propane is essential, to make food etc, while electrics can for a while be band aided with some LED hanging lights etc.

[dachary]

[srmpf]

[dachary]

[tilstad]

The Westy propane tank do NOT need to be recertified. It's considered a permanent install, unlike BBQ type thinwall tanks. That's according to experience posted by others here on the forum, not my own first hand experience.

I believe most that get problems filling it often have a rusty bad looking tank. A little new enamel paint would do wonders for that.

There's supposed to be some kind of metal label welded to the outside of the tank with the manufacturers origin and seal, or similar. If that's missing, then that can be a reason for not getting it filled. Then one need a new tank.