Kitchen Rust Spreading?

Ok so the title is a little misleading but I do have another potential rust issue. The good news is that this rust isn't on my Vanagon. The bad news is that it might impact my 1996 Toyota Tacoma 4x4. The other day I get a letter in the mail from Toyota telling me that from 1995 until 2000 there was a flaw with their corrosion protectant used on the frames of every Tacoma. This has lead to the frames breaking down much faster than the factory intended. They said that I could take my Taco to the dealer (no matter if I am the first, second, or whatever owner) and they will inspect it. Once inspected they will either repair the problem or buy the truck from me. This sounds like a huge loss to me until I dug a little deeper to learn about the details. Evidently if they deem your truck to have a problem they will purchase it from you for 150% of the RETAIL Kelly Blue Book value for an excellent condition vehicle. For my Tacoma that would work out to around $9000. That ain't half bad for an old dirty truck with almost 200k miles on it. I'm setting something up with the local dealer this week to see what they want to do with my Tacoma. Either way it seems like I win so I'm not really all that concerned with the outcome but I am completely impressed that Toyota is taking steps like these to keep customers happy.

Ack Where Are My Posts?

Somehow my posts have been lost in the ether. I posted from my phone a few times last week and none of those posts seem to have made it into the blog. Curse you Interwebs!

Its ok really because there wasn't all that much to report. The biggest event was that I went to a downtown AutoZone in a not so great part of town to see if I could find some parts I need to install my solar panel. While I didn't find what I was looking for, I did find all sorts of "bling" that I could install in the Vanagon. I was able to resist most temptation but I could not avoid the siren song of the eight ball shifter. I bought it and got it installed last Friday.

The install was actually a bit of a challenge because the previous owner had already installed an after market shifting knob. That alone wouldn't be much of a challenge but he decided he wanted to use some sort of demon spawn adhesive to permanently affix his icon of blandness to my shifter. Let's just say that removal involved the delicate use of a hammer and a 5 in 1 tool. I must say that I had my doubts about there actually being five uses for a five in one tool but I think I've discovered about 12 new ones in the past few weeks.

I Didn't Lie!

The speedometer works now!. It turns out that what happened is that my anti-roll bar wiggled its way off of the rest of the front suspension and somehow managed to catch the speedometer cable and crush it. The cable wasn't broken but it was quite smashed. I got the new cable in but now I am trying to figure out what the deal is with my anti-roll bar and what needs to be done to fix it. I was able to just use my hand to get it back in place but I have no idea why it would stay that way. This is a bit of a good thing though because there have been times while I've owned the van that I've been parallel parking it and heard a distinct metallic thud from the front suspension. The anti-roll bar has got to be what I was hearing.

Tomorrow the Speedometer Will Work

After doing some research I've learned that my speedometer cable is most likely faulty. The entire time I've had the van the speedometer has bounced but in the past few months it has gotten to the point where it doesn't work at all. That's actually kind of annoying because while I don't really care how fast I am going, I do care how far I have gone. No speedometer means no odometer which means calculating fuel efficiency and what not is impossible. Well, today I am bringing all of that to an end. I've found a replacement cable and will do my best to install it today after work. So cross your fingers or something.

I'm Not Afraid of Fire

So this weekend I decided to replace all of the fuel lines in the van. I really wasn't expecting it to take all that long but I ended up spending almost 8 hours working on the thing in total. Since I didn't really know what I was doing I was being extra cautious and triple checking that I had dotted all the i's and whatnot. The good news is that it works great and I ran the engine for almost 20 minutes with cardboard underneath it and I didn't see a single drop of gas. I also visually inspected every connection after I had been running for a while and there wasn't any sign of seepage so aparently I have mastered the incredibly difficult art of clamping hoses. It really wasn't a difficult job but any time I'm working with lines that until quite recently were filled with a fuel that is used because of how explosive it it I get nervous.

I'm actually quite glad that I finally got around to changing those fuel lines. The Vanagon folk of the Internets are constantly encouraging people to get out there and replace their hoses and I am now a firm believer in their preaching. Most of the hoses in my engine had clearly been changed but I'm not sure that the clamps were rated for fuel injection. Also some of the critical hoses, like the ones connecting the injectors to the fuel rail which is situated directly above the super hot exhaust was clearly the hose from the factory. After 24 years it was brittle and cracking. I'll post a pic soon showing how bad it was. The hose in the worst condition however was the hose just on the other side of the engine firewall. It is really hard to get to if you want to switch it out and I ended up having to bear hug my transmission in order to get my hands into a postition where I could mess with it. That hose was actually cracked pretty badly and I was able to pull it off the firewall connection piece without removing the clamp. Nothing like the feeling of narrowly avoid death in a fire.

Here is what the left side of my engine looks like now:



Here from another site labels all of the fuel lines:



Anyone interested in doing this job should certainly check out http://www.benplace.com/fuel_line.htm to learn how. Here are a few reasons why you should do this job. Here is a picture of my injector line which sits directly above the exhaust:



This is what it looked like after I replaced the hose:




In other Vanagon projects, I hit some of my stainless steel with the old grinder today and I was less than thrilled with the results. Its not going to be nearly as easy as I thought it was going to be to get back that original luster. Granted I haven't used any of the polish stuff that I used on the poptop handle but I expect the grinder to do a lot more than it did. Oh well, maybe if I just hit it with some steel wool and Bar Keep's Friend then it will clean right up. If it doesn't then its painting time. Sweet!

Solar!

I'm getting into the world of solar power. Allison and I have talked off an on about making our house a little more energy independent. Ideally we'd love to be able to live off the grid entirely but we aren't willing to pay somebody to do it for us. The problem is that we don't really know what we are doing. So I decided to get a single solar panel and aim to take a low use circuit in our house off of the grid. I'm also going to be collecting data on how much power we can reasonably expect to collect from our roof along with measuring how much power we actually need to run our house. After a year of data collection I hope to have enough experience and information to design a system that we can build to supply our own power. What does this have to do with the Vanagon you ask?

The nice thing about the panel I got is that it is the perfect size/weight/wattage to provide all of the energy that I would need to run a fridge/aux power in the van while on the road. My plan is to just snag the panel off of our roof whenever we've got a camping trip and take it with us. When I get home then I pop it back on the roof. That way I'm not spending $400 to sit a panel on the roof of the van that I will only use a handful of times annually but I'll still have it available when we are ready to roll. I'm not sure how exactly I want to mount the panel on the van but I'll either go with some sort of luggage rack mounting system like they have on the Vanagon For All Seasons site or I will just store it in the upper bunk while we are driving.

This is going to be really fun!

Oh and here is the panel I got

Curtain Ties

A few weeks ago I got some curtain ties from one of the Vanagon parts shops but I was really disapointed that I had no way to attach them to the van. Originally there were screw snaps attached to the body near each window but all of mine were long gone. Well, after searching all over town for some replacements I finally found some and got my curtain ties installed. This may not sound like a big deal but it is actually quite an improvement. I've spent most of the past year driving around with my curtains drawn just because I never feel like climbing back there and pushing them back. Even when I do bother to do that I'm still covering like half of every window without the ties installed. Now that I've got ties I can actually see out of all of my windows and it really brightens things up. Plus, driving is a lot easier when you can see out of the overwhelming majority of the rear window. Light is good.

This weekend I think I'm going to replace the fuel lines in the van. I really don't want to catch on fire so I think replacement is long overdue. It doesn't sound like the job will be especially difficult but I do need to figure out what to do while I have my injectors out. I'd like to get them tested to see if they are still good but I don't really know where to get something like that done. I also don't know if they are easier to test completely out of the van or if that is something that can be done normally. In general I'd like to find a good go to shop that I can call when I need data. I'd really like to know what my engine compression is too.

I haven't been posting much lately and that is partly because I've been distacted by life but it is also because I 've had my head down researching. I'm increasingly bothered by the fact that I'm driving a vehicle that runs on gasoline. With gas prices continuing to rise and all the environmental/political issues associated with gasoline powered combustion engines I think I'm just about ready to hop out of the pool. So I've been researching my alternatives.

I'm already using my bike for most of my short-hop transportation and daily commuting but I really like the idea of being able to travel long distances without buying gasoline - bonus points for not dumping crap into the environment. Sadly there aren't any obvious cheap options but the options are better than I thought they were. First off the WVO route is a whole lot more plausable than I originally thought it was. I mean I would have to do a diesel conversion and install a grease car kit but once that is done I can basically get around for free. We've already got a giant tank installed in our house for the old heating oil setup so with just a little bit of filtration and a good source of WVO I could feasably pull all this off.

What Next?

Now that I've got the front cab nearing completion I've got to think about what to do next to the Vanagon. I've got a few thoughts but I'm going to have to stick to cheap/free projects for a bit after spending a decent chunk of change on my new interior. The only really urgent thing that I've got planned is to replace the fuel supply lines like I mentioned in a post a few days ago. My fuel lines don't look like they are in such great condition and I really don't want my van to burn down. I think I'll also try to figure out why I've got a bit of a surge in my idle. I'm at least going to do some of the more straight forward maintanence things just to make sure the surge isn't something simple. I've got a list that I was going to work through that I found on my new favorite site www.van-cafe.com. They got all sorts of handy kits that you can use to do common maintenance work. That is actually where I am getting my fuel line replacement supplies. They have a handy kit that includes all the stuff you need to do the job right.

As far as the interior, I recently discovered that many of the horrible looking metal parts in the van are actually stainless steel and can be cleaned up quite nicely. So far I've only done the poptop latch but there are several hinges, table parts, and other miscelaneous bits that are going to get the grind and polish treatment. I'm also going to see what I can do to make the stove/sink cabinet look better. I found a guy online who is talking about getting a bunch of vinyl letters made to replace the original decals on the cabinet. That will let me go to town with the grinder to remove all the surface rust and repaint. I may also consider replacing some of the trim pieces. The replacement stuff is fairly easy to get, cheap, and the original stuff has shrunk to the point where it doesn't fit very well.

I'm also thinking of plumbing. I'm going to soak my water reservoir with a bleech/water solution for a few days and then see about what it would take to get the plumbing working again. I'm also going to look into adding a second faucet in a place that is more easily accessible. Also, while I was removing the camping equipment before I completely ripped out all of the camping electric so I guess I'll rethink it and then get it back installed.

Of course there is the rust that I'm going to have to deal with eventually. I put a bunch of rust inhibitor on it before I put back in the camping equipment so hopefully I've at least slowed it down. At some point though I might as well do the work so I can be done with it. I'm also really looking forward to getting the van insulated and sound deadened all the way. One of my goals for this summer is to get the ride quiet. I've still got a long way to go at this point but I think it will make the van a lot easier to drive for long distances.

Finally there is my panel/headliner replacement project. After talking my original plans over with Allison we came up with an even better idea. The new plan is to cover all of the panels and headliner with a giant interstate atlas that would be positioned so that it is actually usable. I was thinking of those giant wall maps and how cool it would be to have the entire US interstate system right there on the roof. Just buying one of those wall maps would be several hundred bucks so I'm looking at other options. I may get access to a large format printer that I can use at cost in the not so distant future so I may just come up with my own using Google Maps.

Trip Report!

My wife (who has made it known that she does in fact have a name and shall hence forth be referred to by that name) Allison and I headed out to the beach on Friday night with a nice new oil change and a super clean van. The ride was great but I almost had to physically restrain myself to avoid letting on how concerned I was about having our two German Shorthairs around the newly recovered vinyl seats but I don't think Allison noticed. I'll also admit that I was a little nervous about how reliable the Vanagon actually is at this point. I replaced the fuel pump and filter back in late March but this is the first time that I've driven the van for any sort of considerable distance and I'm not at all convinced that my fuel pump is all there is to the story of that power loss that I had at the beginning of the year. Regardless, the van drove like a champ and I didn't hear so much as a hiccup from the engine during the entire trip.

Here are a few not so great pictures:




We thought we were getting a drive in campsite but it turns out that our site was walk in. Not exactly ideal but we just parked a few hundred yards from the ocean, hung out with our tent camping friends in the dunes, and then returned to the van to sleep. Not perfect but not terrible either. That is my dog "Bird" there to the side of the van.



I taught our foster dog "Luna" to drive the van this weekend. She actually did a pretty good job.



A nice closeup of the SewFine seats. I just love those things.



I was trying to show how you could see the dunes out our front window but the picture didn't really come out like I was hoping. Instead you can just see how bad the stove panel looks on the sink/stove cabinet. That will be a not so distant project so stay tuned.

Things I learned/remembered from this trip:

1. Vinyl is actually the way to go if you are actually going to use your Westy to camp. I have had serious doubts about my vinyl selection since I recovered the seats. They are hotter and they are less comfortable to sit on than a cloth would be over a long distance but all doubts will melt away the first time you see your muddy dog hop up into the seat. They hop down leaving a trail of mud, water, and fur all over the place and with a single swipe of a towel and you've got a nice clean place to sit once again. I may have doubted myself there for a bit but the clean factor seals the deal in favor of vinyl in my book.

2. Replacing the foam in the seats on both the top and the bottom may not be needed. Personally, I felt like it was a HUGE difference and worth every cent; however, Allison still felt like the seats weren't all that comfortable. She said that they were plenty padded but that the shape was just problematic for her. I didn't have the problems that she had and I was really happy with the upgrade. My point is that your milage may vary.

3. SewFine seats are awesome. The seat covers are really well made and aren't all that hard to install. I love that there is a company out there like SewFine.

4. The SewFine carpet kit is a little less thrilling. Yes the carpet is well made and the install was easy but I just don't feel like I've got factory carpet installed in the van anymore. The seams kind of bother me and I'd prefer a cut like they used in the factory. Still, it looks nice enough and the clean factor cannot be beaten.

5. They jury is still out on sound deadening. The galley and the rear of the van haven't been touched so the ride is still really loud in the van. I "believe" that it feels like the noise is all comming from behind me but I am not yet convinced that my sound deadening in the cab is actually doing all that much at this point. I do hope to be wrong about that though. Time will tell.

6. The rubber mats that I got from GoWesty are in fact awesome. The indentations in the mats may put you off at first because you are thinking that all they will do is trap dirt but then you should realize that they will also trap liquid. Maybe it is just me but I just spill all sorts of liquid in the van while camping and the mat keeps that problem localized. I am a fan and would buy them again.

7. Removing the fridge was brilliant! The space where the fridge used to be is HUGE and having it available for storage completely changed my van usage flow. I will not be putting the fridge back in. I would be tempted to put in a more modern fridge if I had the ability to keep it running 24/7 via solar but there is no way I would go back to the original fridge. It really doesn't work much better than a five day cooler for my usage and the cooler can be wheeled out to the campfire.

8. A coleman camp stove is as good or better than the Westy stove. I bought a double burner Coleman camping stove a few months ago instead of replacing the propane tank on my Westy and I am really really happy with the decision. I would rather cook out side of the van and I can do that with the camp stove - but if I am really in a pinch then I can just use the stove in the van with the windows open and top popped. Basically I'm not going to fix the stove at this point because the Coleman is plenty for my needs. I'm even tempted to remove the old stove entirely and replace it with a place to sit my coleman stove. Look for that as a future mod.

9. Maybe this is just me but I can't explain how so much dirt/mud/liquid gets into my van while I am camping in it. There is basically no possible way to fight it so you might as well prepare for it. Getting the mats plus the vinyl interior goes a really long way towards being able to keep clean but I'm thinking I need to take things a bit farther. The main thing needed is so way to make the entire galley area water-tight and not allow any moisture to get under the bench seat or kitchen cabinet. I'm thinking I want some sort of poored rubber floor now that will let me get a lip around the perimeter to seal liquids out completely. Rust makes me sad and dumping water behind the stove all the time really doesn't help me out.

10. I really want to get the water tank restored. I'm currently using big 5 gallon jugs to store drinking water. This works ok but I could really use that internal 13 gallon reservoir. I've got it pulled right now and I just need to get it cleaned up to make it really useful. Once I get it into some sort of reasonably clean state then I'd like to rethink my plumbing. The sink is nice and all but I'd really like a way to have a spicket on the side of the van that would let me easily do thinks like wash off feet, grab a glass of water, or fill a dog bowl. I'm thinking I'll just run a second faucet to the bench seat that will let me grab water from there as well.

11. Vanagons are in fact the greatest vehicle ever made.

Setting out Today!

So I've pretty much gotten the van back in one piece now. Wednesday night I finished the second seat and completed my carpet install. I'm really happy with how both the seats and the carpet turned out. I'll get some pictures this weekend so I can post them next week. They look almost better than stock in my opinion. The ride is already really nice. I just hope the wife likes them as much as I do. She'll be taking her first ride in the new an improved van this evening.

With the front cab back in order I focused on getting the camping equipment cleaned up for a reinstall last night. I'm not putting everything back together completely but I'm at least getting all of the cabinents bolted back into the van and the bed back in place. This morning I got everything back into the van but I've still got a fair amount of smaller items to get back together before we leave. I'm going to take off from work early and get the car washed, waxed, and detailed at a local car wash and then I'll head home to get the odds and ends back in before loading up for the camping trip. I'm also going to do a quick oil change before we hit the road along with any other routine maintenance that needs doing. I'll post a trip report when we return!