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WestyBob Samba Member
Joined: June 11, 2004 Posts: 2346 Location: Portland, Oregon
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Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2018 2:29 pm Post subject: Re: Another syncro Doka arrives!... or "WTF did I just do!?!" |
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OP -- I restored a Vindic canopy many years ago similar to yours. Used fiberglass compound also to fill in holes and cracks -- worked well. Painted the hinges pewter/gray.
Anyway, if I understood your earlier question correctly, where the two rear Vindic legs meet the truck bed there should be a couple of dimples in the metal -- that's the drill spot because underneath there are two captive nuts. You can open the top or back engine hatches (or remove the rear lights) and reach up there feeling around to confirm. The main thing when drilling those holes is to not drill out the nut threads To the best of my knowledge all dokas and sinkas had those captive nuts |
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Alaskaberrys Samba Member
Joined: June 19, 2016 Posts: 1001 Location: SE Alaska
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Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2018 10:47 pm Post subject: Re: Another syncro Doka arrives!... or "WTF did I just do!?!" |
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WestyBob wrote: |
OP -- I restored a Vindic canopy many years ago similar to yours. Used fiberglass compound also to fill in holes and cracks -- worked well. Painted the hinges pewter/gray.
Anyway, if I understood your earlier question correctly, where the two rear Vindic legs meet the truck bed there should be a couple of dimples in the metal -- that's the drill spot because underneath there are two captive nuts. You can open the top or back engine hatches (or remove the rear lights) and reach up there feeling around to confirm. The main thing when drilling those holes is to not drill out the nut threads To the best of my knowledge all dokas and sinkas had those captive nuts |
Thanks WestyBob, I’ll open the tailight area and look closer for those, didn’t see any first looksee. It seems when I line the Vindic legs triangular plate to the edge of the deck that the holes in the leg would actually be on the lip of the deck flange - exposed if you drop the gates and not to the “interior” underside accessed through the tailight. There are some dimples in the paint, but they don’t line up at all and as the PO did a 2007 paint/resto job I don’t trust them to be original.
The front headache rack holes are there, just not the rears. Simple enough to add them and bolt in place, but I want to make sure I’ve got them in the right spots. Thanks for the input! _________________ '91 Westfalia, Bordeaux Red Pearl 2.1L 2wd Auto
'91 T3 Syncro Doka, Escorial Green 1.9L TD AAZ “Gremian” (to provoke, irritate, exasperate, vex...) |
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WestyBob Samba Member
Joined: June 11, 2004 Posts: 2346 Location: Portland, Oregon
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Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2018 11:04 pm Post subject: Re: Another syncro Doka arrives!... or "WTF did I just do!?!" |
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The captive nuts will be under and attached to the bed inside, not outside. They should line up with the two lateral plate points of the leg triangle.
Try locating by hand the c-nuts, then see it there's a dimple above for drilling. If so and any holes in the leg base don't line up, maybe time to drill new leg base holes.
Yes, all dokas/sinkas I've seen already had the pre-installed bolts on the two fronts. The ones in back will have a similar pattern. |
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tarandusVDub Samba Member
Joined: August 27, 2010 Posts: 1649 Location: Between Here and There
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2021 1:24 pm Post subject: Re: Another syncro Doka arrives!... or "WTF did I just do!?!" |
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What a great doka! Updates? How's everything working? _________________ 1990 Syncro 16" DoppleKabine 2.1 DJ 112i
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Sold: 1972 Bay Campmobile; 1984 Westy, base model, 2WD. |
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Alaskaberrys Samba Member
Joined: June 19, 2016 Posts: 1001 Location: SE Alaska
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2021 3:06 pm Post subject: Re: Another syncro Doka arrives!... or "WTF did I just do!?!" |
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Ha! Was just thinking I should update this thread ...only a few years behind...got a gizzilion photos to sort.
Admittedly I was pretty depressed with all the rust I was having to cut out - but did finally get most all of it and started driving it summer of 2019. Still have to deal the front trans mount frame area rust - pretty daunting that one.
Recent work. Replacing wheel bearing that ground out after our road flooded - playing in the mud with a leaky CV boot
Redline CV-2 turned brown - not much sand in there fortunately.
Will update with the saga....thanks for the prompt! _________________ '91 Westfalia, Bordeaux Red Pearl 2.1L 2wd Auto
'91 T3 Syncro Doka, Escorial Green 1.9L TD AAZ “Gremian” (to provoke, irritate, exasperate, vex...) |
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tarandusVDub Samba Member
Joined: August 27, 2010 Posts: 1649 Location: Between Here and There
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2021 3:39 pm Post subject: Re: Another syncro Doka arrives!... or "WTF did I just do!?!" |
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Thanks for the update! Looking forward to seeing what all you've been dealing with. So you found a lot of rust that wasn't evident from the outside it sounds like. Was body work done that you didn't see, or just the usual weird rust places on a doka? Do you feel like the pre-buy inspection should have picked that up? Still is a beautiful truck! _________________ 1990 Syncro 16" DoppleKabine 2.1 DJ 112i
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Sold: 1972 Bay Campmobile; 1984 Westy, base model, 2WD. |
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Alaskaberrys Samba Member
Joined: June 19, 2016 Posts: 1001 Location: SE Alaska
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Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2021 12:07 pm Post subject: Re: Another syncro Doka arrives!... or "WTF did I just do!?!" |
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tarandusVDub wrote: |
Thanks for the update! Looking forward to seeing what all you've been dealing with. So you found a lot of rust that wasn't evident from the outside it sounds like. Was body work done that you didn't see, or just the usual weird rust places on a doka? Do you feel like the pre-buy inspection should have picked that up? Still is a beautiful truck! |
There was body work done around 10 years ago (my best guess) and the rust that was not properly dealt with has come back. It may have been repainted since then to cover the rust that was showing up.
Yes, the pre-buy inspection could have/should have looked closer for rust. Was in typical locations and seemed pretty localized to those spots. Poked quite a few holes with a screw driver once I started looking for it...
Got a bunch of pictures uploaded, will try to get posted soon. _________________ '91 Westfalia, Bordeaux Red Pearl 2.1L 2wd Auto
'91 T3 Syncro Doka, Escorial Green 1.9L TD AAZ “Gremian” (to provoke, irritate, exasperate, vex...) |
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0to60in6min Samba Member
Joined: November 27, 2006 Posts: 3416 Location: OR & CA (Oregon/California)
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Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2021 3:29 pm Post subject: Re: Another syncro Doka arrives!... or "WTF did I just do!?!" |
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@ Alaskaberrys...
hey hey hey... the green bro of my red Doka...
we came of the same boat didn't we?...
I will put up some pics of mine once it's out of the shop...
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Steve M. Samba Member
Joined: July 30, 2013 Posts: 6832 Location: Fort Lauderdale, Fl.
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Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2021 5:36 pm Post subject: Re: Another syncro Doka arrives!... or "WTF did I just do!?!" |
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Is that red Doka stalking you? _________________ This free advice is worth exactly what you paid for it.
There are seven days in a week. Someday is not one of them. |
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0to60in6min Samba Member
Joined: November 27, 2006 Posts: 3416 Location: OR & CA (Oregon/California)
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Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2021 8:05 pm Post subject: Re: Another syncro Doka arrives!... or "WTF did I just do!?!" |
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Quote: |
Is that red Doka stalking you? |
nah... old guys need new heart...
old gals need cosmetic surgery...
and then he's strong and she's beautiful.... |
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Alaskaberrys Samba Member
Joined: June 19, 2016 Posts: 1001 Location: SE Alaska
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Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2021 5:42 pm Post subject: Re: Another syncro Doka arrives!... or "WTF did I just do!?!" |
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****Continuation from Jan 2018...(about 10 years ago in 2020 time)****
Since then, I mounted the refurbished Vindic Canopy, ran wires to the OEM third brake light and mounted the flood lights that came with the doka on the Vindic crossbars facing rearwards. And a slew of other additions. I will post some photo’s of those installs in the next post as I’m digressing from the 16 months of pain…rust abatement and repaint…one panel at a time.
Admittedly after first exploring the rust bleb on the drivers door and deciding to take a good hard look at the other 'signs' I'd been willfully ignoring, I rapidly sunk into a bit of a depression…there were little rust holes everywhere. All jack points, in wheel wells hidden under a 1/4” thick layer of body protection (looked factory - super thick VERY tough and hard to remove), lower seams, basically everything from the banding down. Found no rust on the top of the cab (just dents).
I managed to clean out all the frame rails with wire brushes, hosed with water, compressed air, and sprayed the whole underside down with Ospho inside and out - left it sitting in my shop to dry thoroughly (and in my way!) then sprayed about 10 cans of Waxoil into everything and walked away for a good six months. There was just a shit ton of rust areas that HAD to be dealt with SOON or this thing was gong to melt away for good and it really took the steam outta my doka sails (wife and I enjoyed a really nice trip down and later up the West coast in our NICE rust free Westy in the spring and fall of 2019 - that did help…)
So, Mark learns to weld.
I started with the bulging and cracked paint at the drivers belly seam. The rust remediation the PO had done some years prior was either not 100% effective at removing all the rust or he regularly ran it through the surf. The bedliner undercoating that was sprayed on first popped off with a putty knife everywhere rust was showing up. Plus there were layers of bondo to explore under - applied like a drywaller would throw on drywall mud.
(trigger warning; the following pictures are not for the faint of heart ) (especially experienced welders!)
Exploring;
Quicky turned to stripping;
Lotsa bondo on this doka;
The PO had cut out the vertical seem on the rear of the cab drivers side and welded a plate in its place. Some little blebs were in this area so took it down to metal - that turned out not to be rust but just less than smooth finishing fortunately.
At this point I decided the best course is to keep the work to one side at a time so I wasn’t overwhelmed by the task - start at the front, find rust, cut out, weld in new metal, sand and grind, mover to the next spot, after making it to the back prime and paint that side. Move to the back. Repeat. Move to passenger side. Repeat (fortunately not much rust on the front….just removing the liner underpaint that was poorly bonded).
Got into the jack mount areas - each had lots to cut out. Pass rear;
Pretty new to this, so not great patch job;
Covered in urethane after priming;
As I progressed I got a bit better at welding, but still a long ways from proficient at it. By the time I finished the find, cut, weld program I found myself wanting to go re-do the first few patches as I relied on fiberglass filler to smooth things out early on. Except by that time they were under primer, paint and clear coat…. Next time. I have a feeling owning a rusty synchro is a bit like painting the Golden Gate bridge. Job security.
Chest floor area exploring;
And cut, cut, cut;
Patch, patch, patch;
As each side was separate start to finish and I got better and faster as I went - mostly some confidence allowed me to cut more aggressively and not waste a bunch of time trying to auger out just what a HAD to cut out. Just cut plenty;
The local paint shop in Juneau could mix rattle cans of auto paint for me and the match was excellent. Followed that with can of clear coat and Raptor liner along the banding. I didn't take many photo's of the repaint;
Before I put the wheels back on I did remove both trailing arms and remediate. Chance to replace the old bushing with new T3 bushings;
I still have one area that needs to be dealt with - front syncro frame mount area. A common area for rust and a bit of a daunting task as will be some major welding/fabbing….perhaps next winter.
I had a further set back or two - preformed a really stupid move trying to “walk” my new 60 gal top mount compressor into position and it fell right onto the nose of the doka (stupidstupidstupidstuipd!!!!). Story here - https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=708608&highlight=
Once I finally finished up prodding every inch on a rust seek and destroy I started to get my head back into the project. It started to be fun again, I'll get into that next. _________________ '91 Westfalia, Bordeaux Red Pearl 2.1L 2wd Auto
'91 T3 Syncro Doka, Escorial Green 1.9L TD AAZ “Gremian” (to provoke, irritate, exasperate, vex...) |
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dobryan Samba Member
Joined: March 24, 2006 Posts: 16503 Location: Brookeville, MD
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4Gears4Tires Samba Member
Joined: October 08, 2018 Posts: 3042 Location: MD
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Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2021 6:08 am Post subject: Re: Another syncro Doka arrives!... or "WTF did I just do!?!" |
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^ Hah! Hopefully he has no engine problems along with his rust repairs.
Great work man. Very familiar stuff, even the shitty welding at the beginning. The end result really looks great. _________________ '87 Syncro
Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition |
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Alaskaberrys Samba Member
Joined: June 19, 2016 Posts: 1001 Location: SE Alaska
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Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2021 11:08 am Post subject: Re: Another syncro Doka arrives!... or "WTF did I just do!?!" |
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4Gears4Tires wrote: |
^ Hah! Hopefully he has no engine problems along with his rust repairs.
Great work man. Very familiar stuff, even the shitty welding at the beginning. The end result really looks great. |
Thanks.
Agreed on the above! The one thing this doka has done reliably (other than breakdown) is keep running. The engine runs great, zero oil drips -not one drop in all that time in my shop - and hopefully it stays that way for awhile as the whole engine is a rusty glob. Plus I know nothing about diesels. Early in I tried to remove the injector lines from the fuel pump so I could pull the injectors - nuts would not budge - not one - flare wrenches and all. Decided I’d better wait till I can do a trip south and be near some experience. _________________ '91 Westfalia, Bordeaux Red Pearl 2.1L 2wd Auto
'91 T3 Syncro Doka, Escorial Green 1.9L TD AAZ “Gremian” (to provoke, irritate, exasperate, vex...) |
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4Gears4Tires Samba Member
Joined: October 08, 2018 Posts: 3042 Location: MD
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Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2021 4:17 pm Post subject: Re: Another syncro Doka arrives!... or "WTF did I just do!?!" |
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Might as well start cleaning and PB blasting all connections now though. Just regularly hit everything (brake lines included) with PB blaster. Your future self will thank you. _________________ '87 Syncro
Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition |
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Alaskaberrys Samba Member
Joined: June 19, 2016 Posts: 1001 Location: SE Alaska
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Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2021 10:42 pm Post subject: Re: Another syncro Doka arrives!... or "WTF did I just do!?!" |
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4Gears4Tires wrote: |
Might as well start cleaning and PB blasting all connections now though. Just regularly hit everything (brake lines included) with PB blaster. Your future self will thank you. |
Last trip to Juneau on the ferry I bought about 8 cans of it after I bought up the last our hardware store had over the winter. I dream of dipping the whole doka - pull the seats and roll it in. _________________ '91 Westfalia, Bordeaux Red Pearl 2.1L 2wd Auto
'91 T3 Syncro Doka, Escorial Green 1.9L TD AAZ “Gremian” (to provoke, irritate, exasperate, vex...) |
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4Gears4Tires Samba Member
Joined: October 08, 2018 Posts: 3042 Location: MD
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Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2021 6:43 am Post subject: Re: Another syncro Doka arrives!... or "WTF did I just do!?!" |
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Haha exactly! _________________ '87 Syncro
Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition |
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Alaskaberrys Samba Member
Joined: June 19, 2016 Posts: 1001 Location: SE Alaska
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Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2021 9:11 pm Post subject: Re: Another syncro Doka arrives!... or "WTF did I just do!?!" |
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*The following mods are not in the correct order of hair pulling but for ease of getting this story along I'll just add them willy nilly.... *
I added a rearview mirror with backup camera. With this and the rear lighting (coming soon) there is little backing uncertainly. I really wanted to see how well these gadgets worked - I want to install one in our westy, but don't want it to be lame. Having to glue it to the windshield and covering the OE mount is less than appealing to me. Can't quite get used to a strap on type either...
So practice on the dorka!
I bought a cheap previously mishandled mirror from the classifieds as I wasn't going to ruin a perfectly good mirror if this mod went south. Chopped the stem off and belt sanded it smooth, painted black and mounted the base back into the OE hole. Not a horrible look - just needs a purpose. Perhaps mount the big red "eject" button there -
AUTO-VOX T2 -
Spare tire partially obscures the view, but a pretty good picture (when not covered with mud)-
This was the basic model of the AUTO-VOX lineup and it has some poor qualities - while the backup camera has bright lights and floods the area well, the screen is super bright at night and I have to wait a bit for my eyes to adjust if I've been driving in the dark, says its has "auto adjusting brightness" but after 20 min of dark driving it took me 10 seconds to be able to see anything but a bright square. You can disable it temporarily by pressing the power button (not much help at night), so if we do install a setup in our westy I'll spend the money for one with more configurable settings - night mode, rear view on demand (this one is only powered in reverse) and perhaps the forward camera for insurance purposes.
Being somewhat old fashioned I wasn't going the wireless route so routing wires took awhile - tapped into drivers reverse light power, fished under rear bed, over chest area, into rear bench, up "c" pillar and popping out near the headliner to be fished to dome light and then on across headliner to center of windshield. Had to pull the connection to the mirror back into the headliner after connecting it up - slight lump is hidden by the visor -
I used superglue to stick the unit up as kit did not come with glue. Fell off dangling by its wire twice before I ordered in some glue made for mounting mirrors. Has held fast through year and a half of bumpy roads so far. Takes the rain and mud fine - just have to remember to clean it off on the way to the cab.
Amazon link
Next up - bumpers... _________________ '91 Westfalia, Bordeaux Red Pearl 2.1L 2wd Auto
'91 T3 Syncro Doka, Escorial Green 1.9L TD AAZ “Gremian” (to provoke, irritate, exasperate, vex...) |
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erste Samba Member
Joined: March 29, 2013 Posts: 1110 Location: San Francisco
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Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2021 10:16 pm Post subject: Re: Another syncro Doka arrives!... or "WTF did I just do!?!" |
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Alaskaberrys wrote: |
I bought a cheap previously mishandled mirror from the classifieds as I wasn't going to ruin a perfectly good mirror if this mod went south. Chopped the stem off and belt sanded it smooth, painted black and mounted the base back into the OE hole. Not a horrible look - just needs a purpose. |
I installed an Autovox mirror a few months ago and like it a lot. it replaced the stock mirror and I’ve been thinking about how to cover the hole and that’s a great solution.
Mine has the front camera, and it’s dimmable, but it doesn’t have LEDs on the rear camera. The rear camera view also takes up the whole mirror screen and you can pan it up and down. I mounted the camera on top of the hatch.
One thing I noticed while comparing models is that the front camera slides out on some mirrors, which might interfere with the sun visor.
I can keep the rear curtains closed and still see out the back now, which I hadn’t thought about and was a nice surprise. It’s definitely the kind of tech I avoid, but I’ve been pretty happy having a rearview camera with such a wide field of view. There’s hardly a blind spot now. Definitely consider one of the other autovox models for the westy. The quality is pretty good, and I think worth the cost. |
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Alaskaberrys Samba Member
Joined: June 19, 2016 Posts: 1001 Location: SE Alaska
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Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 10:07 am Post subject: Re: Another syncro Doka arrives!... or "WTF did I just do!?!" |
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erste wrote: |
Mine has the front camera, and it’s dimmable, but it doesn’t have LEDs on the rear camera. The rear camera view also takes up the whole mirror screen and you can pan it up and down. I mounted the camera on top of the hatch.
One thing I noticed while comparing models is that the front camera slides out on some mirrors, which might interfere with the sun visor.
I can keep the rear curtains closed and still see out the back now, which I hadn’t thought about and was a nice surprise. It’s definitely the kind of tech I avoid, but I’ve been pretty happy having a rearview camera with such a wide field of view. There’s hardly a blind spot now. Definitely consider one of the other autovox models for the westy. The quality is pretty good, and I think worth the cost. |
Which model did you get then? I like the idea of adjustable viewing angle - especially when mounted high.
Yes, I think this will be even more useful in the westy - so many opportunities to bump things using the door mirrors with the rear view so limited - even with curtains open. For a long time I thought about going with a stereo with a backup screen, up this seems more conducive to getting used. _________________ '91 Westfalia, Bordeaux Red Pearl 2.1L 2wd Auto
'91 T3 Syncro Doka, Escorial Green 1.9L TD AAZ “Gremian” (to provoke, irritate, exasperate, vex...) |
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