Saving the '84

[Zeitgeist 13]

Sad.

[skills@eurocarsplus]

[skills@eurocarsplus]

seeing the forum is falling all over itself begging for updates, I have a few.

sourcing parts has been a REAL ass ache. some call it fun, but between non responsive classified sellers and just a general lack of parts this has dragged on for longer than it should.

anyway...

after an eternity trying to find a canvas, I finally found one I can live with. I've given up on bus depot. I remember why I didn't use them much even though they are in PA and i'm in CT. their website plain sucks to navigate and they never have anything in stock.

in the end, I sent my money to Canada to dr bjorns auto. friendly fellow who actually (gasp) had everything I needed in stock. shipping was a bit slow but given the circumstances, I can live with it.

Short block is on order from Subaru, and I got what I could done on the engine in the meantime, like rebuild the intake. I do a ton of swaps and the intakes are just a huge time suck no matter which way you slice it.

before:

after blasting

doing the aluminum finishing

and all built

all the injector seals were replaced and all the metal bits got blasted, epoxied, painted and cleared.

I want to get the pop top done before the snow flies, so I pulled that off. the skylight leaked for a l-o-n-g time and the flocking was just nasty and peeling

add to the flaky flocking, it was moldy too

fukkit….

other than some crumbs, it's all cleaned. I think I may paint the inside a beige color just because. honestly I think it may be a bit too bright in there, which may not be a bad thing.

the hinges were stiff as hell on the pop top, so those got cleaned and oiled up. now they open/close under their own weight.

I will say, that skylight is a real shitbag design. why they didn't make a flange to stand proud of the pop top and give it a 1/4-3/8 to keep water out is beyond me.

the old seal was SHOT. I hope the new one works out. we'll see I guess. more to come...
_________________

[danfromsyr]

for skylights we've ended up removing and glassing over 2 of them on family campers over the years. don't miss them here in the northeast.
if I want light and ventilation I'll install a glass sunroof.

[erste]

[skills@eurocarsplus]

[MarkWard]

[danfromsyr]

well it's my brother's pet projects, so just sanded and painted at the moment.
intent is to put headliner fabric inlieu of the flocking.


the oem skylights are ok, till they're not.. but they're ok for many thousands of vans out there. till they're not. and then you redo the gasket and whatever you broke or bent when you caught the garage door opening.

[MarkWard]

[EverettB]

Moderator note:
Trolling was removed, let's stay on topic without insulting others
Thanks to the people who reported post(s)
_________________
How to Post Photos
Everett Barnes - [email protected] | My wanted ads
"Water is the only drink for a wise man" | "Communication prevents complaints"
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[skills@eurocarsplus]

evidently the vanagon forum is not as thick skinned as other forums here

Everett, if you're going to clean up then please dump all of zietgiest "additions" to this thread and I will go back and edit out any replies. and ask him, or whatever pronoun is preferred not to post in any of my threads. pretty simple...he stays in his lane, i'll stay in mine.

if I can't defend my decisions to do what I do, then why let his comments stay....

I can shit with a shitter...but if this is how this (vanagon) forum is run i'm ok with that...and will keep it strictly build related.

I thought a build thread would be a nice change to the normal 7 questions in the forum.

ultimately you're the boss...whatever you want to do.
_________________

[skills@eurocarsplus]

got the top prepped for paint. I was on the fence about what to do with the pop top in terms of a headliner. after reading up what it takes to flock something I can only imagine the mess being a EPA disaster doing something that big.

kind of like the time I painted my wife's golf cart to look like a bass boat with a super heavy flake...I STILL have House of Kolor blue flakes showing up 10 years and 2 houses later, so dealing with the aftermath of a flock job didn't really appeal to me much.

my 71 westy has a painted pop top so I figured that was a good easy way to go about things.

I chose a color close to the original flocking. you can see it better here

once the paint kicked it was on to the outside. I did the interlux roller job as I wanted to keep the pebble grain that the top had.

initially I started with white. that was a BIG fuck no...way too white. it was like staring into the snow on a day when the sun was out. so, I ended up picking a different shade, I think it was matterhorn white.

anyway, you can see the difference between the original color, matterhorn and white

best I can describe it is it's a "dirty" white. mixing it there was a lot of blue/grey that separated from the paint. it's actually pretty good looking (I think) and not so in your face.

prepping the top kind of sucked. some jackwagon used a river of silicone trying to revive the beef jerky skylight seal

sweet baby Jesus did that suck to remove. gave the top a 100mph sand

and off to the races

after testing the paint I was a bit concerned about the gloss level....it's a bit too shiny for this application (unless you have a top color matched to the van) but the roller I used mellowed it out enough I think I can live with it.

so while all that was drying I went about cleaning the mess under the luggage rack up

me and the kid buffed the whole roof together. she was actually pretty helpful and didn't bitch near as much as I was expecting.

I got the tie downs cleaned up

those got epoxied, painted and cleared sliver. I used all stainless to install them and as soon as I find a stainless footmans loop I like, i'll swap them out.

I also found the right screws in stainless for the rack too. I wasn't about to pay 1.25 each from Go Brokey and tossed them in on a Wurth order...for .13 each.

I thought I had some pix of the rack all done, i'll grab a few. i'm hoping I found someone with the correct rear bed cushion material. the p/o took it off to wash it (wonder what spilled on it....barf) and somehow lost it. I really hope we can make a deal. if not, i'll just order the material and get one made

more to come
_________________

[Abscate]

Great refresh thread. The Vanagon camper layout sure rocks.

[skills@eurocarsplus]

[skills@eurocarsplus]

special thanks to a member here for hooking me up with a rear mattress cover. story goes the p/o took it off to wash it, and it got lost....

sucks because other than that the interior is 99% there.

well, time to get going...

BOOM

it's a little baggy on both bottoms on the sides in the middle, but all in all better than a ripped to hell original.

I was kind of desperate to find a tent so I got the one that was available. not sure how I feel about the Velcro screen in the front, but let me tell you...

if you ever want to have a mild stroke lifting the roof...get the Velcro... as I was lifting the roof to full tilt I heard a riiiiiiiiipppppp. I about shit my pants. turns out it was the Velcro moving around as the top was stretched.

other than being a hair different than the bay window tents I have done, it wasn't *too* bad, but the corner screws 1000% sucked.

and this showed up the other day

I have to get cracking on some other work, as all of my engine stands are full of customer work so it will be a bit before I start the build of the engine. inching closer....
_________________

[Abscate]

Nice, you got two quarts of Valvoline.



That’s a nice looking Bus , skills, not my favorite color either, but it fell into good hands. Kids will remember it forever.

Being a kid

Getting my license

_________________
.ssS!

[skills@eurocarsplus]

[4Gears4Tires]

[Xevin]

I think the tent looks great. In my opinion it’s better to have some sag to reduce pressure points when the top is popped. Think of it like a pair of jeans. They tend to blow out in the knee because of the constant rubbing and stress. Those stupid baggy cargo jeans we rocked in the 90s never blew out in the knees. They just frayed at the bottom because they rubbed on the heel of our Timberland boots
Hope that makes you sleep better at night




Link

_________________
Keep on Busin'

[skills@eurocarsplus]