Transaxle story

So I ordered a rebuilt transaxle from Rancho.  They were three weeks behind they said, but that was fine as I have been busy otherwise.  That was on the 17th of June.

Called on the 14th of July and was told it was going out that week, 'was in build station now'.

Called back yesterday the 29th, and 'it's in the build station now'. Questioned the earlier comment along the same lines? Reply was that they would have it out, at latest the following day.

Charge card alert came through my phone text today - 6 weeks later.  Should be across the country by early next week.  Thinking that it would have been best if I had ordered it as soon as I suspected a problem.

On the plus side - Gave me time to assemble the other parts necessary for the installation: A Powerflex trans mount bushing, a new shift guide bushing, new shifter parts, a couple new cv joint boots, and all the brake lines and such while I am provided with ample access to the body behind the transaxle.

UPDATE:  It arrived!  On 5 August it arrived at my home.  UPS left it on my back porch per Rancho despite requesting it to be shipped to a friends body shop.  Weighs in at 95 pounds boxed, just as much as my wife (unboxed) - she had a hell of a time moving it until I got home late last night.

Mohawk Trail

Enjoyed the van this weekend instead of tinkering.

Went to pick up my kid at Camp Mujigae - Korean Culture camp in Albany.  On way back we camped in Western Massachusetts.

Setting up camp.
 

 

 

Actually, I set up camp - he plays.

And plays

And plays some more. 

 

Then he built us a fire, and we ate dinner.  Made s'mores. Have taught him well, little bugger knows how to perfectly caramelize a marshmallow.

Following morning, after fishing for a bit and then some breakfast, we drove up Mount Greylock. At 3491 feet, it is the tallest peak in Massachusetts. 

So after taking this picture I threw up my hands and ran flailing my arms singing "The hills are alive with the sound of music".  A few of the older folks got a laugh out of it.  My son wouldn't speak to me for a few minutes - I had embarrassed him.  I tell him it's my job, just wait until prom and I am a chaperone!

Drove home along the Mohawk trail.

Have a second job lined up for the winter:

Pop top completion (sort of)

Got the tent done today.

It went smoothly, I guess, for a humid and 90 degree day in a pop top.  Think I will need to wash those cushions from all my sweat. Yuck.

The next step was to try the fitment on the Wasserstopper.  It took some doing, and I cannot foresee how happy I will be if I need to do that in the rain.  Also - the van sits too high for me to reach up to the extension snaps without a step up.  That makes me nervous.

Ok it fits, but I still have some reservations.  We shall see the first time I go to use it.  I do like that the clips on the passenger side attach to the awning case thereby eliminating the drip line from the roof, behind the awning and onto everything I attempt to keep dry in the first place.

Final touch was the new Westfalia sticker.  It looked wrong to me when I was gazing at it.  Could not figure out why.

Then after grabbing a celebratory tasty beverage, I figured it out.

The Westfalia sticker that was on there prior was brown.  I went with black on this round due to the changes taking place in and out of the van, but had forgotten as the parts have been in the garage for months.

Now I only need that flat pop top gasket that has been back ordered.  May need to reuse my 2 year old one so I can camp this weekend.

There will be a rain delay for this game

Despite the ominous sky, I got some things done.

Luggage rack is rebuilt and reinstalled.  New gasket and new stainless hardware. :)

I should make note that I cleaned up the roof under the luggage rack, applied a coat of wax and polished it.  The. Thought again and applied another coat of wax and left it.  After seeing all the stuff under there, I thought it prudent. 

I also installed a set of screens under the holes on the luggage rack.  Took some of my screen material from the basement, cut 5 patches and epoxied them onto the bottom of the hole. No more bugs, pine needles, maple tree 'helicopters' or other debris collecting under there.

Reinstalled the pop top vent.  New seal, stainless hardware and stainless hinges.  Should be no need to remove this again.

Got the roof on as it was starting to sprinkle.  

With the thunderstorm warnings going all afternoon, I thought I had achieved all that I could.  So why not celebrate a good job and have a tasty beverage?

Despite the warnings, I forged on in the sprinkle until I started to see lightning. Got all the new hardware in and the top lined up to close just right.

Started playing with the new tent.

I took a due from the original and tack stapled the new tent in all around with evenly spaced staples.  This allowed me to see if my tent install is correctly placed, centered and ready to move to next step.

At this time the thunder crash and lightning was becoming close.  So rather than deal with overly wet situation, I chose to put her away in the garage for the night.

Now for the next tasty beverage.

Pop top - part 3A

Some added pictures from tonight.

The new stainless footmans cleats.

Rebuilt the skylight with new stainless hardware. 

Got the Wasserstopper snaps installed.

There was an issue with the Wasserstopper that is worth mentioning.  The directions discuss installation on a later model, and a slightly different pop top.  The 84 has a metal brace along the front where the instructions state that the snaps are to reside.  I got around this by first removing the center bolt holding on the brace (as this is where the center snap needs to go).  It is larger than the screw holding the snap, so I put some glue into the hole and hammered in a dowel to fill the hole.  

While that was drying, I drilled 4 holes (2 on each side) aside the center hole and installed some stainless screws to take up any pressure that the center screw was holding.  Then I drilled the dowel for the snap screw.

Positioning the Wasserstopper, I located and marked off the remaining 4 locations for front snaps, drilled through the points with the 1/8 bit and then relieved the metal brace with a 5/32 bit so the threads would not strip out as I was screwing through the metal.

With those positioned, I worked my way along each side of the pop top adding the extension snaps, 2 per side.   Now when the top goes back up, I can adjust the Wasserstopper accordingly and all will be good for the next rainstorm!

Stripping off my top - part three

I have found it necessary to break this project up into multiple parts as it is too picture laden for a single post.

This morning I set out to finish sanding the pop top, and to finalize the luggage rack before 8am. Neighbor aside my garage is off to gym by 7, so I have no one to piss off.

I loaded the pop top upon my old garden cart for mobility last night, and dragged it onto the driveway where I finished sanding the bottom edge and made sure all the crevices got a scuff.  I know there are folks out there on the Internet that will say don't use anything more than a scuff pad - they are mistaken. 

The paint I am using is a Interlux white fiberglass paint intended for the boat industry. I am intentionally not adding any matte agent because I feel that if I am going through the effort, I don't want it to look like the old top I have now.  I am hoping that the stippled finish will also help to break up any high gloss look.

So as for prepping the surface, the paint company states they want a 220 grit finish to adhere to and you cannot get a consistent 220 with a scuff pad.

Clean, sand, clean, paint.  That's the way I am going with this project.  I don't have any cracks to be concerned with, or dings with bodywork, so no filler and no need for primer.

As of 8:30, the parts were cleaned, sanded, and rolled into the garage.  I set out to do two more cleanings with the Interlux cleaner, and another with a finish cleaner I use from DuPont. I was not going to let any sub surface impurities screw up this job.

Set out to painting, doing a 2 foot square section at a time.  At 80 degrees plus I was not worried too much about thinning, or adding retarders - should be a good day to paint.  A 2 foot section gave me the opportunity to apply with a small roller, then do another as the first one set up.  Then go back and 'stipple' the first with a paint brush end to achieve the finish I wanted. Then move on to the second.

The roller was applying the paint like this:

With all these bubbles.  The brush allowed me to create the finish and make sure the bubbles were not permanent. From the following picture, you can see the difference in the painted versus the non painted areas.

The top was finished, and the luggage rack as well in about 4 hours.  That's two coats, stippled each time to produce this:

Now to allow a set up time of about two hours and I will move it into the sun to bake on the enamel and tomorrow morning I can reinstall.

Off to work.