So, I changed all seals and most of the gaskets in the gearbox. Put it back together, degreased it and gave it a quick coat of paint. Filled with oil and back up into the van. Turned my attention back to the dynamo to alternator conversion. I sanded town all tinware and painted that up. Fitted a different pedastol and internal fan. I never realised the fan itself was different sizes between doghouse and non doghouse shrouds. This busted my balls a bit and i even broke my vise attempting to get the fan off an old dynamo! Finally fitted it all and chucked that in. Then i got a call from my buddy to say my beam was ready. Two T25's arrived yesterday to help their older relative get some street cred. Old beam removal began. New one sitting in waiting. (I'll replace bumpstops shortly) Time for tea
That fibreglass panelling is a bit of work... I'd love to see some more pics of how it fits around the roof/door aperture etc....(i'm a bit of a geek when it comes to stuff like this)
It's pretty cool but needs to be tidied up a bit. Alot of the trim is missing and previous owners have drilled through various bits over the years. Old window rubber sealer needs to be removed too. I only have a further 2 pics at the moment.
Thanks for posting those up @Rez .....I've never seen one like it before Love to do one in similar style....maybe with a small grain finish like headlining...would be super insulated.... Just think, you could have double glazing, timber window surrounds and roller blinds built in reminds me of an aircraft cabin....
It's nice and cosy in there alright. There's insulation behind the fibreglass. That camera hatch in the roof also comes in handy for some fresh air the morning after a heavy night!
That's true - fit some Multivan roller blinds, maybe - I think that they're hidden away in the headlining on the T5, so could copy that for this...
I spent hours trying to figure out a way to do this nicely.....I know @zed came up with a neat solution, but that was very much to do with the layout... I even got in touch with Seitz to see how much custom opening D/G window units would be....eye watering!
The big push above had been for a show on Saturday. The van performed perfectly both there and back. The lowered beam felt well and there was less body roll in the corners. I was one of the first to arrive at it and one of the lads at Carbs & Chrome (www.carbsandchrome.com) took a great snap showing the van as it now sits.
As you can see I busted a gut to have the van ready for that show. I cut it so close that I hadn't even a chance to test it properly. The drive to and from it showed me that I needed to track it as soon as I got back. Handling wasn't great and it was pulling slightly to the left. Track rod was rusted but after a but of persuasion I managed to free it and got it to my local tyre place. Felt a WHOLE lot better on the drive home! I had been considering building a unit for a sink but instead I recently got this. Its an Eberspacher water unit which heats on 12 volts. I've just made up a removable bracket for this and will fit it later this week. That just about brings me up to tonight..... I'm just in from the garage. I'm delighted with the lowering done to the front but there was too much rake. I mentioned I didn't have time before Jumpstart so tonight I lowered the rear by one spline. The van now sits exactly how I wanted with just a hint of rake.
The video below (not my vid) is of the show I was talking about. It was held in a TINY village in southern Ireland. 106 VW's in total arrived which we believe is an Irish record. My van is shown at 1:23 on the left hand side.
One of the best shows is the Limerick show in May (it's also local to me). It is a VAG show so has all years/makes of VW's but also has a regular classic car section. This year it's on 25th May. The best bet is to fly into Shannon airport which is only about half an hour from the show. I'm sure I could help out with transport to and from if needed. Some pics of last year can be found below along with a preview of a groundbreaking bug which you will get to see ALOT more of!!! http://www.carbsandchrome.com/shows/limerick-classic-car-show-2013/ I'm the opposite. I'd LOVE to get over to a UK show some day
