1989 Doka Tristar

[specialev]

[specialev]

Had a pretty tough time getting out to the shop this week due to kids and commitment to work on other projects.

I made my decision on the transmission. Since I've already accumulated all the goods for the Subaru transmission swap and the maintained desire to do something new (to me), I'm going with that. It would cost me just about as much to get the VW trans up and running with an LSD anyways.

I managed to get out to the shop for a few hours and started dismantling the Subaru gearbox.

Starting with the aft tail housing I pulled the rear cover to expose the center VC.

Here's the aft tail housing completely removed.

I'll have to mark this up, hack it into bits, and weld up the holes. Looks like I need to pick up a tank full of argon!

Here's the case split. I've got to say these VW transmission are easy to work on. Being able to split the case makes all the difference.

I was just after the pinion shaft so I pulled the primary shaft out and just set it off to the side.

De-peened this nut and zapped the nut off the shaft with an impact gun.

Too easy.

I skipped a bunch of steps here. I don't have a press but I managed to get the bearing surface that goes between the worm gear and the bearing at the end of the shaft pushed on with a long piece of SS pipe. You can see the so called 'subaspool' in lieu of the indpendent cog at the end of the shaft intended to send power to the VC. I haven't torqued the nut officially. I just knocked it back up with the impact gun. Going to wait till I have a diff reinstalled so I can lock the box up to apply the torque.

I managed to pick up an OBX diff from a guy at my work who bought it for his subie then shied away from installing it. He'd also bought the belleville washers for it. Score! I managed to pull it apart and get the belleville washers in it changed. The quality on these Chinese LSDs is pretty low. I need to get a spoon file and clean up every tooth on the axle shaft drives so I can put the flanges on without needing a hammer.

Time to get serious about finding this decal!

[MsTaboo]

[CHARLIE-DONT-SURF]

http://www.brickwerks.co.uk/index.php/tristar-syncro.html
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[MsTaboo]

[Tristar Eric]

I have a few left, modern materials, even better than the original!

Get em while they're hot!
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Vanagon/Transporter flares here: www.terrawagen.com
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[CHARLIE-DONT-SURF]

[SyncroGhia]

Nice to see another Tristar having some time and money spent on it.

Make a measurement sheet of where that sticker goes. I spent a while looking for the information before fitting mine back on as it was missing.

My Tristar was a 2WD in black and I've converted it to Syncro.

My Tristar is a lot rustier than yours though.

MG
_________________
T3 Syncro 16 S6 Westfalia Limey SOLD
T3 Syncro 6x6 SOLD
T3 RS6 Bluestar
T3 Tristar Syncro 16 SOLD
T3 Tristar Syncro RHD SOLD

[specialev]

That thing is a piece of work! The work you've done on it is awesome. Wish we had more of them on this side of the pond.

[PaulGinAZ]

Gorgeous work on your truck so far! A lot of what you are going through to get the underside cleaned up and the gates and working surfaces straight makes me think back a few years to when I worked on mine to get that stuff all situated. It will all be worth it when you are proudly motoring down the road.
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-1989 Syncro Tristar TDi on Air Ride
-1980 Scirocco "S" with 16v Oettenger
-1996 VW Cabrio VR6 turbo
-2014 Silverado 1500 High Country
-2010 BMW X5 3.0 Sport (wifes)

[specialev]

Thanks Paul!

[specialev]

Wife and kids went on vacation for a week and I was able to get some work done on the Doka project. I got a fair bit of work done.

Got the body all taped off and ready for final sanding which also included bead blasting my seams.

Here's some pics with measurements of where the Tristar decal is supposed to go. Maybe this can help someone without a vehicle to reference get the sticker in the right spot. You can see my sand blasted seams on the nose there.

Some last things to wrap up before final primer like filling holes. I plugged the antenna holes in the A pillar and also these holes in the door bottom for the little bumper corner extensions.

After about 8 hours of sanding I finally got it in primer!

While that cures for about 6 hours I did some other stuff. Came back and it was still too wet so I started digging into the transmission conversion again. I finished clearancing the RH trans case and set up the pinion depth, checked the crown wheel and bolted the halves back together.

Here's the subarugears pinion depth tool in action with no shims. It's telling me I need 5mm worth of shim stock. Luckily this is exactly what the old pinion shaft had.

Here's the same shot with shims installed.

Also managed to cut the back out of the VC housing per the instructions on the Subarugears site. I used my cordless circular saw and a big dead blow. Worked great! Did the final shaping with some roloc greencorps discs and a carbide burr.

Primer finally dry enough to reapply some seam sealant. This is something I suck at and may go back and fix. It always turns out about 50/50. Some I'll get just right and some will get goofed up when I pull the tape.

Skip forward many hours, sanding paint drips, fixing bugs that landed in the primer, dust nibs, etc, and I've got a painted body!

I did about three coats of single stage catalyzed urethane. I've got some mistakes to fix and some color sanding to do but I think it turned out ok. Only time will tell. Of all the things that I think I am going to be critical of its the seam sealant that looks bad that bugs me. I hate that stuff. [/img]

[specialev]

My mobile phone broke so I haven't been taken a ton of pics. Not much to see while one is incessantly sanding any how. I did bring down the family digital camera and take some before, in process, and after shots of the body work and prep.

First thing first. Get a fire blazing and the shop hot. Got the doors all primed and sealed.

I made a nice mistake in the selection of primer. Should have chosen a lighter color as it would have saved me some money on paint. I've had to put a lot of coats on to get full hiding of the primer. It gives me a really nice indication of paint thinning though, which is nice since the clear will make the base coat wrinkle if the latter is not thick enough.

With the doors primed I turned to the body again. Sanded everything out to 800/1000grit. Then I put on on more coat of color and sanded again. here she sits ready for clear.

I misplanned and ran out of clear coat. I've got about two coats on everything. I'd like to get four on before I color sand and polish. I'll sand out what I have on there with 1000 grit and come back and clear coat later. In the mean time I'm getting ready for bedliner. Once that's done I can get some parts off my stands and back on the truck. Not for some purists, as some of you have chipped in, but this stuff wears excellently and I like the way it looks.

Post clearing I started laying out the cut tape for the bedliner on the rockers and the bed. Cut tape is something that is new to me that a buddy that paints pointed me to. The tape has a thin SS wire buried in it and you use that to make your line for the bedliner. Then you run masking along the other edge of the tape. This is the trick that lets the bedliner guys pile the stuff on thick. NEAT! I wasn't all the way done with this when I had to let up for the day but I'm pretty close. Still need to do the doors and tail gates...not to mention scuff everything down again.

I'm sure happy with how the clear is looking up to this point. Hopefully the last two coats go on as well and I won't have to sand so much.

I did make a couple mistakes and one of them is going to be an "I told you so" from my painter friend. I was lazy and didn't re-tape after color. As you build up material you can bury your tape and I thought I had plenty of room all around after putting on the base. Clear is a little thicker though and by the time I had two coats down I'd buried the tape in a few places, front doors and windscreen.

The most damage is around the windscreen. I'd normally remove the windscreen for paint but again I was lazy and didn't want to have to store any more glass while painting. Removing the tape damaged the paint at the edges.

I'll go ahead and cut away the edge of the seal and re-tape the glass, sand out the small damage in the color/clear, and respray these small areas right before final clearing. All of which I should have done from the start, now It's going to cost me a new gasket too. Derp.

The two front doors I'll just re-tape and sand down the raised edge a little bit then cover edge of the material with my last two coats of clear.

[specialev]

Able to get down and make some headway last night.

With everything masked I did the final prep for the bed liner. Scrubbed the flat surfaces with red scotch bright. I used a scrub brush on the crennelated bed and gates. I ran through 4 batteries in the Ryobi drill and one battery in the Dewalt drill. I used a home brewed barley wine as a lubricant for this process.

And the fun part of actually spraying this stuff on went pretty fast.

I've still got the side gates and the gas tank to put the liner on. More to come.

[insyncro]

What seam sealer are you using?
I have accounts with most suppliers and have pneumatic guns to deliver the products with.
Next time, let me know in advance and I will have the best stuff drop shipped and will rent the tool for a little bit extra.
It makes a huge difference in the finished seams.

[specialev]

Thanks!

I think I used 3M 8305 (not sure about the #)....fast and firm beige.

I ran out of that and needed some more to rework the hinge mounts and picked up a different kind. Can't recall the brand name now. It went on much better than the 3M but they only had grey and that was a PITA to hide with white paint.

What do you recommend? I'd like to repaint my syncro and need to do the seams in the process.

[SyncroGhia]

Thanks for the Tristar decal measurements

Great work. I was almost tempted to say... 'Paint it Black'!!

MG
_________________
T3 Syncro 16 S6 Westfalia Limey SOLD
T3 Syncro 6x6 SOLD
T3 RS6 Bluestar
T3 Tristar Syncro 16 SOLD
T3 Tristar Syncro RHD SOLD

[specialev]

Demasked and with doors installed.

Getting ready to do the black paint around the tail lights and engine door.

[CdnVWJunkie]

[quote="specialev"]Demasked and with doors installed.

quote]

Nice progress.

I'm curious, are you going to use the stock Tristar flares?

[driverfound]

This this is awesome!! Keep up the good work!! Excited to see the progress.