Cleaning, to be ready

Did a myriad of stuff today/tonight.

New panels that I made from birch plywood for the slider and rear hatch.  Paid $26 for the 4x8 sheet, made templates out of some cardboard from bottom of a pallet and they came out great.  I had the paint matched to the cabinetry. Yes, I know the picture is bad.

Put a first coat on them, drilled and mounted them up with some stainless screws and removed them for their final coat of paint tomorrow. 

Finally did that sway bar link.  Used liquid soap to lube the rubber bushing for easier installation. At some point, I have on the wish list to go with polyurethane bushings, so I am not going too crazy right now.

As you can see, I still need to install my springs and shocks for the front.  I admit, I have put that on the backburner.  The ride height has been acceptable with the rears done and the older front coilsprings, so I have been doing other things.

C'est la vie.

Just did the front springs on my S420, THAT WAS A BITCH, and I will hold off on attempting another spring install for a week or so.  Maybe.

And now for the fun stuff - cleaning.  I will first like to state that I do take this to a non-normal level.  I am a Chef by profession, and although there are messy Chefs out there, I am not one of them.  When I clean, I want to be able eat off that surface.  With that being said, it took me three hours to do what I could reach from the front two seats.  The picture on the right is the headliner above the front seats.  The first wipe with Clorox Clean up left me nauseous.  20 years of neglect, uncleanliness and Hippie wanna be smoke left a film on the van that I had really thought was oxidation on all of the surfaces.

Once I started wiping, I was through two spray bottles of the Clean up before I was done the front area.  I can honestly state that you CAN eat off that dashboard, or even the door jambs.

I also stripped the rear shelf above the stove/sink unit so that I could remove the curtains for cleaning.  Once I did, they were actually able to stand on their own.

The shelf comes off with removal of two 10mm nuts and a couple screws on the end panel behind the drivers seat.  Will allow me to clean out the shelf before reinstallation.

The painted surfaces are at least 4 times brighter after being wiped down.  The black/brown coating over the paint amazes me, but has been somewhat easy to clean off and make shine.  I think before putting things together again, I will rub on a coat of wax to protect and make clean up easier in the future.  After all, I do have a 4 year old.

This picture pleases me.  Its the entire curtain set after three consecutive washes, I am starting a final wash for a total of four.  I will line dry in the morning (its raining now) so they don't shrink.  I have no ill conceived notions that they have some sun damage and fading, but I do have high expectations for a clean smell, a curtain that is not able to stand up on its own, and actually usable.

I do however have Mom the seamstress standing by to make another set if this does not work.  Hope for the best, plan for the worst?

I also realized I have not yet posted a complete picture of the Thingamajigger yet.  So here is a little Vanagon porn from today.

My sons vehicles litter the yard, with his tool box a tow.  He has been a great helper and he is really looking forward to going camping.  Check out that sweet rear bumper!   
The jeep toy has been rewired with a small car battery and is quite fast!  Highly recommend it for your active child.

A month late, but . . .

Its nice to be in the mode of planning the next adventure rather than planning the next repair.  Sure, there are things I still need to do to the Vanagon and of course there is the wish list (paint, a light tinting for the glass, new pop up canvas, etc), but I am actually planning a trip today.

White Mountains, here we come.

So today, I pulled out the curtains as they desperately needed cleaning.  I picked up my new bed topper from my mother.  She is a magnificent seamstress and crafted a very nice item for the camper.  A piece of 2 inch memory foam, covered in a two piece (yet attached in center, for folding ease) cotton print cover.  The colors are perfectly coordinated, and the inner foam piece has its own covers so that removal for cleaning can easily be done.  A well executed plan Mom!

Picked up some more cleaning supplies for the inside at Wally World.

Also went to Lowes and had some paint mixed up for the two new interior panels I made up.  The inner panel for the slider door and the rear hatch were missing when I got the Vanagon, so I have been contemplating replacements ever since.  Looked for a stock replacement, but it seems brown is a popularly needed color.  They make ABS versions, but they need to be covered to look good, otherwise the black is too dark. 

So I went native and carved out a nice replacement out of birch plywood (I do have Mi'kmaq blood in me from generations ago).  The panels came out really well, better than I had imagined and I hesitated painting them for I thought it a crime to cover the nice grain, but then I thought "I have a four year old, I need utilitarian: easy to clean, easy to repair" so I had a quart of paint mixed in the same color as the cabinetry.  I chose this to lighten up the rear passenger compartment, versus the dark brown.  Some stainless steel screws to attach them and we are set.

Tomorrow - some cleaning, modify the clamshell for a suitable spare (cant see adding the 75 pounds for the rear mounted carrier yet with speed I am not achieving), and I have a little stumble in the lower rpms I need to tweak. 

Friday is coming soon, have a full three day weekend planned for the family and I do not want to let them down.

200 miles and no issues

First real roadtrip today.  Been building up to it slowly, but today was initiating run.  Brought it down to Battleship Cove in Fall River Massachusetts.  Being 4th of July, I felt we had to do something patriotic or to honor our history, so Navy ships it was.

Ran great except for the hills.  After driving a Mercedes v8, the van is both a welcome forced and relaxed driving style, and also a stressful pain in the ass when its time to climb a hill.  It is also more quiet than I imagine.  The road noise is virtually gone, engine noise negated by sound deadener (makes me want a tach though) left only with wind through the windows and screens.

The wife was pleased (definitely a good thing), the spawn was also happy about the van, especially when it came to nap time on the way home.

Still have some things to do, and paint and bodywork is on the horizon, but not until we enjoy it for a while.

The dreaded grounding issues

Took care of the ground points under the dash yesterday.  I was having intermittent functionality of my directionals and wanted it cleared up.  I suspected the grounds as it is a common issue.  Here is how I did it.

First you need to gain access to the ground points.  You do this by dropping the fuse box.  Up behind the fuse box you will find two 'crown' looking pieces screwed to the chassis with a number of brown wires attached.

 I recommend disconnecting the wires and removing the crowns for working on out of the car.  I have never been a fan of working bent backwards under a dashboard, and this is no exception.  The screws in my Vanagon were in great shape and easily taken out.

My tool of choice for cleaning up the contacts was a brass wire wheel installed in my Dremel tool. The brass will not damage the part, is hard enough to clean but soft enough to allow for problem free handling of the parts (or so I thought).

IMPORTANT: when working with a wire brush, wear safety glasses.  I had a piece of the wire brush come out and stick into the skin on the end of my nose, so you can imagine the disaster possible if it got into and eye.

The Dremel brushes are not the best constructed and they are small, so grab a couple to finish the job, also the cone shaped ones will deteriorate quick, so stick to the standard configuration like the picture.

 The photo on the right is my ground crown.  Nasty little thing, no wonder I was having issues.  This was the worst of the two and the second one in, which means the other one was closer to see and access as well as in much nicer condition.  I have no windshield water leaks, so this really amazes me.  The condition of the crown is really bad.

I first set to clean up the van's mount point behind the dash.  Reach up and remove the paint and any rust at the mount point.

Holding the crown in the jaws of a pair of needle nose pliers, I set out to clean them up.  Things were going great as I had finished one, and was working on the other.

Background - this weekend is the Summer Nationals here in Worcester.  There are hot rods of all sorts blasting through the town.  Usually I will attempt to 'get out of Dodge' for most of it as the city does become unbearable.  Every stop light is an opportunity to light up tires or test your speed reflexes.  This year is worse as one of the main roads in the city is being resurfaced, so there is more traffic than usual going through the neighborhoods, including mine.

So as I am doing this cleaning of the crown, a particularly loud one goes by and it distracted me just enough to look up.  Big mistake.  The wire wheel caught onto the inside of the crown, tore it from the jaws of the pliers and sent it into my lower jaw.  Looks like I got bit.  Good thing I am on vacation for a few days as I would not be able to shave on Tuesday.

Bent the wire brush too.

I chose to remove the existing spade connectors and replace with new ones rather than clean those up.  Connect as needed, and enjoy the full functionality of your Vanagon again.

NOTE:  It has been a week of problem free electrics.  Highly recommend this maintenance for your Vanagon.

Sliding door glass

Swapped out the sliding door glass yesterday.  The one in the Vanagon was for a non-camper version, and was tinted a funny purple-ish color.

The difference is in the latch mechanism.  The non Westfalia Vanagons have the latch mechanism more towards the end of the sliding glass which makes it not possible to have the Westfalia screens in the opening. You can see from the picture on the right, the location of the latch and the color.

A Westfalia sliding window has the latch in the center of the sliding glass portion of the window, thereby allowing the use of internal 'stock' style screens.  

 The glass is held in by a rubber moulding, but in the 1984 it also has a chrome insert strip.  The strip pulled right out, but be careful as it will break from being brittle.

Then the window can be pulled at a corner to allow for a wooden shim to be wedged in, then slowly working another in to the gap to that you can manage to pull the window frame out.  Resist the urge to use a screwdriver, it will damage your paint.

To install, coat the rubber and the window opening (after you cleaned it well) with some dish soap used as a lubricant. Slide one side in, and either work the shims around pulling the lip of the rubber moulding into the van, or look up the string method.

I was able to do it with the shims in about 30 minutes, and then installed the screen (new from Go Westy). Et voila!

Clean up the mess from the soap which is easier than using some other lubricants and enjoy your new air flow.

New toys

Posts have been more sporatic due to an overabundence of work and a new toy in the driveway.

Since the Suburban Car-B-Cue, I needed to replace my daily driver.  Although the vanagon is a great car, its not condusive to my daily needs, and it will not fit in all parking garages.

So I bought a W140 body Mercedes S420.  Fun car, but it has needed some attention.  Now on to the Vanagon.