Making the old 81 Westy roadworthy again

[mightyart]

And so it begins…


The refurbishing of the 81 Aircooled Westfaila, getting it roadworthy after a long sleep.
It’s been quite a long time since I posted and what a strange trip it’s been and continues to be.

A whole book in itself, this is just going to be the Vanagon part of it.
The poor little Westy was once, not to many years ago, in very good shape and was a daily driver, never stranding me once. Things happen and time passes, after a trip across the country and being parked in a few locals, we find her in the state shes in..
Still used daily, but not driven or started in about six months. It’s kinda gotten a bit shabby.

It needs a few parts now tires, battery, and a few more small things. A good cleaning and some TLC. This post will be documenting getting it road ready for a trip from Toledo Ohio to Portland Oregon, and If it’s going well(this post) the Trip itself.

So Here’s what our vehicle looks like now:

It’s still in good shape and very solid, but sitting for any lenth of time can take it’s toll on an old van so I’m going to have to go over it pretty well. Lots of cleaning to do also:

I will be leading the effort to get it roadworthy, my girlfriend Tigermouse(screen name) will be sharing in this adventure, she’s quite pretty and is as handy as they come.

More to follow.

[dobryan]

Welcome back....been three years since last post....glad to see the '81 getting some TLC.
_________________
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

[Mrs. rubbachicken]

looks a pretty nice bus
don't be shy with the pictures
_________________
lucy our westy


lucy's BIG adventure

[a2d2]

[morymob]

Good 2 see u back, i can now quit looking 4 the address to drop off the vase full of those pretty plastic flowers.

[mightyart]

Thanks for the kind words, and you can store the vase of plastic flowers.

I Pretty much kept the van in good shape up until about three years ago when I ran out of money, and it sat in a few places around my area. It's always ran around under its own power, and about 6 months is about the longest it's gone without being started.
It had five good tires about 3 years ago, but they were at the end of their lives, and since then one blew and the rest are dry rotted and cracked. can't be trusted.
the battery was the original battery I got when I bought it in 2006, I had bought a new Die hard, and used this as an aux battery, but the die hard died pretty easy, and I put this one back as the main battery. It was like the magicall wal-mart battery, it remained strong well beyond the time it should have. like everything it eventually gave out.
The exhaust is a cobbled up "extractor" type, was junk to begin with and the muffler broke off at the weld. My friend was following me and told me how it shot off the van as I was getting on the expressway. I just had a cheap glasspack muffler welded on the header. could use a new exhaust system.
Plus bits of this and that like they all do.

I do have alot of help, the tigermouse is a skilled artisan, and she can stand up inside with the pop-top closed.

[jimeg]

Welcome back. Your old posts got me through my AC Westy, thanks. What happened to your avatar? Was the coolest avatar on Samba.
_________________
1986 Root Beer Syncro Tin Top....so many plans.

Here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=578490

[Wildthings]

Six months is nothing, few worries at all. Add some FI cleaner to your tank, mount new tires if need be, check the fluids, and change the oil if you have more than the specified miles on it.

[mightyart]

Thanks guys!
looking for a new Avitar, the old one just seemed a little more mean then I want to be these days.
Yep shouldn't be to hard to get going again, last time it was started was after it had sat the winter of last year, I was helping my mother in Cape Cod and it sat longer then I wanted it to. It started right up but I quickly shut it off because fuel was streaming from the back.

It had also developed a pretty bad oil leak over the last couple years it was driven, and I figured if I was replacing fuel lines I would replace oil cooler seals. So I ordered fuel line and seals then started tearing it down.

I learned something about old oil coolers, even it they look serviceable they could leak real bad. I had a mystery oil leak for a while just kept getting worse I thought it was seals so I changed just about all of them. Nobody ever said the cooler might be bad.

Here's how I found out, I bought a gallon of parts cleaner, so I could clean the stuff I took off up, you just put your small parts in the basket in the can and let them soak. I took the oil cooler and poured parts cleaner in the holes and let it set on the garage floor.
I left it for a few hours and came back to a puddle under the cooler, wiped it up and tried again, same thing.
No visible holes or marks, but it's seepin out from somewhere.
It's stamped VW, so it may be the original one, just put on the rebuilt engine or two this things had.
So if your Aircooled Vanagon has a oil leak you can't find it may be the oil cooler itself.

So I got a new oil cooler, and put it all back together.
Then I went to start it. The battery just wasn't strong enough to crank it anymore, even with a good amount of time on the charger.

It's sittin to far back to get jumper cables on, and I got busy and just let it go since then.

[DAIZEE]

Yeppers, welcome back. I was a newbie back then and still are!
_________________
'09 2.5L Jetta 5 cylinder, 5 spd, super turbo, see thread in H2O Cooled Jetta, etc...
83.5 Vanagon L Riviera Model with 98 1.9L TD AAZ 4 speed Daily Driver 3 out of 4 seasons (sold)
84 Vanagon GL Wolfsburg Westy WBX 4 speed (sold)

[ewalt98]

Glad to see another AC camper getting back on the road.
Just last week, I flew 1100 miles back to my old home where mine was stored in a field (with mice and rats...) for the past 4 years, spent two days on it, and drove back home with nary an issue. I just had to reattach the fuel line, charge the battery, repair a chewed through fuel pump electric line, change the oil, aired up the tires, cleaned it up, and drove!
I kept the scene from "Sleeper" in my head where Woody Allen finds and old bug in a cave, and after 200 years, it starts right up
_________________
Eric
82 Westfalia Camper (Currently getting a little bit fixed up)
85 944
72 GT6
88 F350
03 F150

[snowsyncro]

[mightyart]

New NAPA starting battery, stock size.

Next to the 10 year old Wal-mart battery it's replacing, still holds a charge, but doesn't crank the engine very fast anymore. I saved it and paid the core charge. Napa had one in stock, and I reserved it online, when I went to pick it up the guy at the counter asked what it was going in, he hadn't seen anything that narrow in a long time. The old ones going in the Aux box, it's still better then the one that's in there now, of which, there isn't one. Time for a bit of work.

[kalispell365]

hopefully your van(and you two also) are going to stay in portland,it is a great place and home of many vans and like minded folks...i love to see vans going to the west coast where they last FOREVER!

[mightyart]

Tigermouse has family in Portland and she lived there for quite sometime before coming back here with me.
I hated bringing the Westy here to the rust belt, cars don't really rust in Texas where it lived almost all of it's life.
We'll be staying for awhile, and I'll be going over it with a fine tooth comb(VW part#1234), to stop any rust that might have creeped in since being here.

[jmranger]

Welcome back, mightyart. All the best in your new project/adventure.

[mightyart]

[RCB]

Nice to see you back mightyart. Safe travels 2U

[50 Kafer]

Nice to see you again Mightyart, I have a '82 Westy I've been working on and I've been a fan of your work/pictures.

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_________________
John
1950 Kafer Deluxe (10/50)
1955 Beetle Deluxe (6/55)
1968 Beetle (11/67)
1982 Westy
1986 Cabriolet (6/86)
WTB Air-Camping roof top mount http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1499947

[msinabottle]

Very glad to see you again, and, as always, in the midst of doing superior work to save another fortunate van. As the Romans used to say,

Vita Brevis, Mighty Art, Longa.



Best!
_________________
'Winston,' '84 1.9 WBX Westy
Vanagon Poet Laureate: "I have suffered in
many ways, but never, never, never in silence."