To simplify...

A Ceiling Emerges

2013-05-17T00:29:00.000-07:00

And on the fourth day, after much trial, error, cursing, and nagging internal voices of self-mockery, a ceiling emerges...

You'd really think that by now, having done a fair amount of body work, painted, and for crying out loud, replaced a freaking engine, there wouldn't be much that could still feed those nagging internal voices, but the truth is that there were moments over these past few days when I wondered if this ceiling thing was simply beyond me.

It looks like I was wrong though.

The main challenge to this whole affair was rooted in the fact that the width of the ceiling is not constant throughout the length of the van. As a result, the three panels pictured above each had to be tapered to follow this contour just right. If off by too much, they wouldn't bow properly once installed in the side channels, and the pile of rejects now littering the floor in Q's workshop betrays just how much of a royal pain this was.

But it's done now, and as the passage of time wears away the memory of all that soul-sucking frustration, here's hoping the results prove to have been worth it.

Onward.

Stumped by the Ceiling

2013-05-15T00:03:00.000-07:00

I've filled up the van's tank three times since completing the Bostig conversion, and oddly enough, the gas mileage has improved noticeably each time. I'd like to think that the engine is slowly finding its groove after such a long hibernation, but I suppose it's just that I'm settling into a more fuel efficient way of driving now that the novelty of doing 75 on the freeway has worn off. Regardless, my most recent tank clocked in at a mighty nice 21.3 MPG, and if this trend keeps up, I'll be up around 30 after another four or five fill-ups. Hey, a guy can dream.

Sadly, I don't have much news to report on the van work, and have even fewer (i.e. zero) photos to prove it. Triple-digit highs over the past few days slowed things to a crawl, and I've been sidetracked from the cabinets since deciding to figure out a ceiling solution before proceeding with the rest of the interior.

As I type this, I have now devoted the better part of two days to figuring out how to install a wood ceiling, sacrificed a few 4 x 8 sheets of thin plywood in the process, and I'm really not much closer to the answer than when I first took this detour. Tomorrow is another day however, and the improved brain function from being back in the low 80s can only help matters.

Note from an Eight Year Old

2013-05-12T00:22:00.001-07:00

A card from my super-cool Aunt Jackie arrived in today's mail. She's in the midst of paring down (like I said, she's super-cool) for a forthcoming move, and after recently coming across the following childhood photograph of your favorite blogger, opted to send it in the form of a note from my younger and decidedly turtlenecked self:

This of course got me thinking about what exactly third grade Glenn would have to say to present day me, and after some careful reflection, I'm inclined to think that we'd get along pretty darn well. Notwithstanding the resulting catastrophic disruption to the space-time continuum, of course.

How about you? What would your younger self have to say about the life you've carved out for yourself? Just a little something to chew on, you know, for those who find this endless parade of van conversion posts tiresome.

Speaking of which, if nothing else, I think eight year old Glenn would dig seeing the progress I made on the interior today...

As you can see, the basic structure for the driver's side cabinet module is now in place and snugged up nicely to the van's contours. Additional cabinets on either side of the engine cover are forthcoming, and I now see that there will be plenty of storage space in the van to meet my needs. Heck, I'm pretty sure my entire wardrobe will fit in the space above the the fresh water tank alone.

I suppose now might be a good time to start thinking about how all these cabinets are going to be laid out, what will go where, and exactly how they'll be opened and closed. All part of keeping a half step or so ahead of this van conversion learning curve.

As the great sage Q predicted, seeing the van's interior begin to take shape has gone a long way towards reigniting my flagging enthusiasm for this project. For the first time, I now see that the vision I cobbled together in my head many months ago is actually going to work, and while the dapper-looking kid above might caution me against cocky, I think it may even turn out better than I imagined.

Quark

2013-05-11T00:03:00.001-07:00

Progress on the interior continued to inch along today, as I got the beginnings of the passenger side unit correctly fitted to the van's various contours. Also pictured are the base for the driver's side cabinet unit, along with the boxed in area in front of the engine bay.

My goal is a pretty modular design, so that any one section can be removed and tweaked down the road without having to disturb the rest. Nothing has actually been secured to the van body yet, as I first want to get each basic section completed and fitting properly, after which I'll take everything out, stain it, seal it, and finally put it all back together and secure everything.

On another note, I've been looking for a good excuse to showcase the resident pooch for a while now, so when Quark stopped by the van this evening and gave the day's efforts a big (and very hairy) paws up, I knew the opportunity had arrived. So without further ado, meet Quark:

If scientists ever tried to breed every single useful quality out of a dog, Quark would be the result. He's a pretty inadequate watch dog, he'll eat anything that he can fit in his mouth, he can clear an entire room with one fart, and somehow, he always seems to be standing in the very spot where he could not be more in the way of whatever you're doing. But as you can see, he's got great taste in vans, so I'm willing to cut him some serious slack.

Humbled

2013-05-10T01:17:00.002-07:00

Way back when, during the earliest embryonic stages of this semi-ridiculous project, what really intimidated me was the thought of attempting an engine swap, and secondarily, the body work. Having done neither before, this was only natural, and the fact that the interior work didn't scare me very much is likely the result of having lived in and studied the inner workings of two different RVs over the preceding few years.

So imagine my surprise over the past few days when, having successfully completed what I thought would be the hardest parts of the project, I found myself utterly humbled by the suddenly enormous task of outfitting the van's interior. This explains my silence of late, as I've spent countless hours contemplating my next move – including everything from starting actual construction to saying to hell with it all, packing up the Chinook, and hitting the road for a good long while.

Yes, there have been some dark moments lately, but following a welcome infusion of Q's infinite wisdom, I dove in and started cutting wood yesterday, finding the mere sight of progress to be a source of positive vibes. Pictured above are the new wall panel I installed yesterday, and the beginnings of the passenger side cabinet module from today's efforts. That's the fresh water tank you see fitted into the bottom section, and the rest of the unit will eventually consist of storage cabinets.

It should be noted that these are going to be the only cabinets I have ever built in my life. That doesn't inspire a ton of confidence, but I am, however, emboldened by my recent discovery of this wondrous device:

That's my new Kreg pocket hole jig, and it makes child's play out of the task of joining two pieces of wood together. Q wandered by as I was putting the jig into action for the first time today, and after watching silently as I joined a couple of boards at a 90 degree angle with total ease, remarked, "Wow, that's almost like cheating." If so, I don't mind.

Buoyed by this early progress on the van's interior, I'm actually looking forward to getting back into it tomorrow for the first time in days. And with my calendar totally free now for the next month (though in this business of show, that can change at any moment), I hope to be heading into a very productive stretch.

Weight

2013-05-06T21:56:00.001-07:00

A novel idea occurred to me the other day – that before getting crazy with the van's interior, it would probably be wise to find out how much additional weight she can safely handle at this point. Unable to make any real progress on the van today due to rain and work stuff, all was not totally lost, as I managed to find a truck scale right here in Q's neighborhood.

I'm guessing they don't get too many Vanagons over at the truck scale, bed-lined or not, but Marjorie the weighmaster (weighmistress?) didn't bat an eye as I pulled up and handed her my eight bucks. Go Marjorie.

And it was not without some trepidation that I awaited the results. What if the Zetec engine, the new honking steel wheels, and even more honking tires had already pushed the van too close to the edge? Would I suddenly and so unexpectedly find myself at this project's dead end?

Foiled by physical limitations?

Halted by heaviness?!

Cursed by corpulence?!!

Such were the questions racing through my mind as Marjorie handed me the receipt where she had scrawled my fate. And I do mean scrawled – penwomanship not being Marjorie's forte. The enormity of the moment was completely lost on her, and let's face it, I wasn't about to lay that kind of pressure on the poor woman. Marjorie's probably got enough to worry about without having to think about ending some guy's vandwelling odyssey before it even begins. No, it was better to keep this one to myself. Take it like a man, and all that. I took a deep breath and looked down at the receipt...

3,360 pounds.

That sounds like a lot, but it's pretty meaningless without the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR). The GVWR, to the uninitiated, is a number determined by a bunch of German guys with pocket protectors, and refers to the maximum weight at which the van can safely be operated. Very important stuff, especially if your plans are as diabolical as mine.

So it was with some measure of relief that I looked up my GVWR and found it to be a stout 5,160 pounds. Good old subtraction says this leaves me a hefty 1800-pound canvas to work with. That should do.

Back

2013-05-05T23:56:00.005-07:00

My brief escape to Oxnard is over, and while I'd like to tell you all kinds of exciting tales from the trip, the truth is that not much of anything happened. Just a few productive hours of work each day, surrounded by copious lengths of time spent lounging around the backyard...

It was perfect. I didn't talk to a single person for two whole days – no small feat in these parts. Nothing but blissful peace augmented by the soothing sounds of the Pacific off in the distance.

I made it back to Q's compound for the weekend, the extreme heat having checked out, and newly arrived goodies for the van continuing to pile up by the day...

I'd say it's getting to be time to do something with some of it. Maybe install them or something, that sort of thing. Fortunately, the van mojo has made a pretty strong return – I think it was at some point during a very long nap atop one of the dunes pictured above.

I had a breakthrough earlier this evening, when I finally figured out how the rock n' roll bed hinges I ordered a couple of months ago work. These hinges are supposed to allow one to build a Westfalia-type sofa bed in a non-Westfalia van, and after struggling to understand the instructions for some time now, I was ready to give up and figure out another bed solution.

Unfortunately, there really are no other good bed solutions for a Vanagon, so Q and I resolved to make sense of the situation this evening. Long story short, I get it now. This is the most nagging interior design issue that I've been wrestling with, and now that it's out of the way, the rest of my plan is falling into place nicely. And I'm running out of things to buy, so I guess that means I'll have no choice but to dive in and start building this week.

Escape to Oxnard

2013-05-02T21:25:00.000-07:00

Undeterred by last night's discovery of a nail protruding from one of the Chinook's rear tires, I held fast this morning to my goal of escaping the record heat that was poised to descend today. Not before stopping by America's Tire in North Hollywood, however, where the nail situation was promptly repaired, and at zero cost to me. This is particularly amazing, since the tire was not even purchased there. Apparently, the policy of America's Tire (aka Discount Tire throughout much of the country) is to repair all tires that can safely be repaired – for free. Good stuff.

With the Chinook properly shod once again, and the late morning temperature already snuggling up into the 90s, I rolled 50 miles west to the coastal town of Oxnard – home to many of my past escapes from the Valley heat, going all the way back to halcyon days of yore in The Falcon. The place can usually be counted on for a 20-25 degree difference in the right direction, as was the case when I pulled up alongside the beach to be greeted by those mid-70s we all know and love.

The goal of heat avoidance is only part of the story, however, as this two-day jaunt is also intended to provide a much needed dose of rest and relaxation from the all-consuming Vanagon project. I'm not too proud to admit being slightly afraid to head off for any length of time in the luxurious Chinook, the fear being that this rig's many creature comforts will usher forth the gut-wrenching realization that my Vanagon plan is nothing but pure insanity.

So far at least, that hasn't happened, and if anything, the experience has led to a rediscovery of all the reasons why I chose to make this Vanagon move in the first place. Don't get me wrong – the Chinook is still an amazingly well-equipped and decidedly worthy chariot (and I promise I'm not just saying that because she could be for sale in the foreseeable future), but she's no longer the right fit for me. Less than a day into this brief escape, and I feel more sure of this than ever.

Not that I'm having anything even remotely like a bad time. It feels awesome to be back out and about again after so long, regardless of the rig, and even if it is just for a couple of days. More important than this greater sense of resolve towards my plan to downsize, I feel a renewed awareness that this simple and mobile life is the one for me. And with the apparent early onset of wildfire season, I only had to look up to find good reason for living with wheels beneath one's feet at all times...

Mojo

2013-04-30T23:51:00.002-07:00

Van mojo has dropped off considerably over the past couple of days for some reason. Maybe I just need a break, or who knows – maybe I'm finally realizing that this was all a dumb idea, and I'm just going to bag everything, sell both rigs, get an apartment, buy a bunch of new furniture, a flashy new car, run up the debt to a more satisfyingly American level...

There, that's better. Nothing like voicing a nice juicy worst case scenario to get oneself back on track. But seriously, wrapping my head around the daunting task of building out the van's interior has taken a toll on me in recent days, and progress seems to have shifted towards whatever I can come up with that has little to do with the interior. Like priming and painting the components for my forthcoming solar rack (above).

Or the new panel I made and installed on the sliding door yesterday...

Yes, I know, that's technically the interior of the van, but this brought me no closer to being able to live in the thing. It does look way cooler than the stock VW panel, but still, weak progress. There are, after all, cabinets, a sink, a bed, a stove, etc. to be built. You know, important vandwelling stuff, and here I am dwelling on...a door panel.

Then another distraction arrived today – my new skid plate from the good folks at Bostig...

You wouldn't think two lousy pieces of metal could take a few hours to install, but the rear bumper had to come off, then I had to undo my slick LED receiver hitch brake light, and finally, a few seriously honking holes had to be drilled in the rear wall of the engine bay. In the meantime, Q was putting up new ceiling tiles in the kitchen and needed an extra set of hands at regular 10 minute intervals. So it goes here at the compound, where there are rarely less than three or four projects going on at one time. Anyway, behold the ruggedness:

That's 1/4" inch thick, powder-coated steel imperviousness. Bring it on, rocks. Needless to say, the oil pan will sleep well from now on.

So it looks like May will be the Month of the Interior, but not before a brief respite from the proceedings. Near triple-digit heat is set to descend upon the area Thursday and Friday, and being a reasonable man, I'm taking it as my cue to pack up the Chinook and escape to the coast for the duration.

Freedom to Haul

2013-04-28T23:50:00.000-07:00

Following two days of testing out the new Whynter fridge/freezer while plugged into the Chinook's 12 volt system, I feel pretty confident that it's going to be a good fit for my super-cool go-almost-anywhere adventure vehicle. From sundown to sunup, it only used 36 amp hours, and that was even with the larger of the two zones set to be the freezer (i.e. maximum grass-fed goodness storage mode). I expect that number to climb to around 50 in the dead of winter, but even that should be manageable with a properly-sized solar setup. And folks, there is something pretty neat-o about having a refrigerator and freezer that are powered entirely by some giant ball of hydrogen and helium that sits 93 million miles away.

Another happy result of putting the Whynter through its paces was the discovery that its outer skin is metal – meaning refrigerator magnets are now an option. Sadly, you can't do this in the Chinook:

And you thought I'd be roughing it in a Vanagon.

Much of the weekend was spent getting the three rear windows insulated, or more specifically, figuring out how to get the insulation to stay in place. For each of the two side windows, I fashioned a couple of fasteners out of aluminum strips, and attached them to the walls using sheet metal screws:

There's an inch and a half of foam insulation covering both of those windows now, and with an R-value of just under 6, should go a long way towards keeping things comfortable inside. And if you're not keen on the baked potato look, fear not – both walls will be completely covered with the cabinets I'm slowly learning how to build. More on that soon.

Onto the rear hatch window, which unfortunately, is only deep enough to accept a half inch layer of foam insulation (r-value of 1.9). Here's hoping that's enough, and that the extra inch on the two side windows is overkill. Figuring out how to secure the insulation in place on the hatch window proved to be a challenge, but I eventually settled on cutting a panel to fit the shape of the window, and then holding that in place with some more slick homemade fasteners...

The end result may look like a bit of a hack, what with all those aluminum tabs holding the panel in place, but I think paint, stain, or possibly fabric will eventually make it all look great. For now, you'll have to settle for it looking great in my head:

Also pictured above is the lower rear door panel I made and installed this afternoon. This was much easier than the top panel, since I had the van's original panel to use as a template. And because there's plenty of metal immediately behind that panel, I didn't have to make my own fasteners, and instead could use some cool-looking stainless steel sheet metal screws. Sorry I didn't get a close-up, but trust me, they're cool.

And speaking of cool, that reminds me of one of the coolest things about having a Vanagon at your disposal when doing any sort of home improvement project:

Specifically, plenty of room to haul huge 4 x 8 sheets of wood. Of course, I'll probably lose this ability once the interior is finished, but I'm enjoying this freedom to haul while I can.

Whynter Time

2013-04-26T23:27:00.002-07:00

So far, my overall strategy for building out the van's interior has been pretty simple – buy all the main components, and then start figuring out how the hell I'm going to make them all fit. Paper, pencil, and a tape measure certainly have their place, but at some point, you just have to start rounding up the goods before you really know if it's all going to work out.

On that note, here is what I'll be relying on for the all-important task of keeping my grass-fed goodness cold...

That's the new Whynter fridge/freezer that I fired up today for the first time. It has two separate compartments, each with its own fully adjustable temperature setting, and it runs on either AC or DC power. So far, I'm pretty impressed. It seems to be both durable and very well insulated, and I was amazed to find both zones down at their correct temperature only 45 minutes after plugging in the unit. Electrical draw appears to be in the range of 4 to 6 amps, but that's only when the compressor is running, so we'll see what that adds up to in ampHours after the unit has been plugged in all night long. Needless to say, this number will weigh heavily on just how over-the-top I decide to go with my solar setup.

Other recent acquisitions include the guts of my plumbing system (25 gallon fresh water tank and 12 volt water pump), a 20 pound propane canister, and a few other items that I'll delve into as they arrive in the coming days. Oh, and it may seem like a tiny thing, but I'm happy to have finally made the van GPS-capable, thanks to the new 12 volt power outlet I installed in the dashboard today. This enables me to use the cool USB-powered mount (and therefore the battery-sucking GPS feature on my phone) that I've had in the Chinook since last year's jaunt up the coast. The camel abides...

Before I can proceed with installing all of the various interior goodies I've been buying, I first need to square away some less thrilling aspects of the interior, like more insulation.

You may recall that I've decided to permanently cover the two rear side windows as well as the large window on the rear hatch, but I haven't gone into any detail on how I'm doing this. Recent photos may have led you to think that these windows were limo-tinted just like the two forward side windows...

...but in fact, all three rear windows have instead been covered on the inside with several coats of black Plasti-Dip. I figured it didn't make sense to pay to have those windows tinted if I was never going to be able to see through them, but I still wanted to make them look tinted to the casual observer. Hence my Plasti-Dip experiment, which seems to have worked out great. In case you're wondering, its primary advantage over black paint, at least for this application, is that the Plasti-Dip can easily be peeled off at any time, and since I wasn't sure if I was going to like the look, this suited my pathological and typically male fear of commitment.

With the windows appearing to be tinted on the outside, they still needed to be insulated on the inside, so pictured above are the 1/2 inch styrofoam panels I cut to fit this evening. I'll probably add one more layer and then cobble together some sort of fasteners to hold them in place. This should go a long way towards keeping things cool inside, and if you're concerned about the look of the insulation, fear not – both sides are going to be covered entirely by cabinets.

You know, just as soon as I learn how to make those...

Bostig in Review

2013-04-26T00:38:00.001-07:00

I picked up a stretch of 3 inch flexible air hose at the friendly neighborhood auto parts store the other day, and after plastic welding a 3 inch inlet to my Zetec's airbox, I connected said hose, and snaked it up the rear passenger side pillar up to just behind the vent cover...

It remains to be seen what effect this will have, but the idea is to pull in cooler air from above the engine, rather than the warmer air inside the engine bay. All part of the ongoing tweak that is my van. A cool new skid plate is set to arrive from Bostig early next week, and once that protective layer is in place, I'll officially close the door on this chapter of the project. With not much to report otherwise, except for the pile of interior components that I've been busy tracking down and ordering, I figured I'd take this opportunity to share some final thoughts on the Bostig kit for all the engine conversion grasshoppers that may stumble this way in the future.

Cue yet another shot of the 16 valve, dual overhead cam goodness...

I suspect that the one thing most people will wonder about the Bostig kit is the very same thing that I first asked – specifically, "do I really have a snowball's chance in hell of successfully finishing this?" After all, we're talking about removing an engine and replacing it with one that didn't even exist yet when the the van first rolled off the assembly line. When you stop and think about all the myriad considerations that must be taken into account for such an endeavor to work, it's only natural for all but the most seasoned of backyard mechanics to question the wisdom in taking on such a project.

Fortunately, the good folks at Bostig have already worked out that overwhelming myriad – and at a level of detail and accuracy that I bet is completely unheard of in the world of DIY engine conversion kits. At varying times throughout my Bostig adventure, while I was immersed in the half-inch thick manual or any of the incredibly helpful installation videos, Q would walk by, harumph, and mumble something about the measly single mimeographed sheet of instructions that came with the MG transmission swap he did several years ago.

Bottom line, thanks to Bostig's having documented every single step of the process, yes, you probably can do this. That is, assuming you can read, follow instructions, and aren't too proud to call upon Bostig's excellent technical support whenever you get stuck. They'll calmly walk you through even your darkest and most boneheaded moments, trust me.

Sure, you'll need a fair number of tools, space to stretch out and work, time, patience, willingness to learn, and an extra set of hands for a few of the more physical parts of the conversion (pretty much anything that involves moving either the old or the new engine). I was certainly fortunate to have both Q's workshop at my disposal, but he and I have discussed it, and agree that there's no reason I couldn't have completed the conversion entirely on my own, even if it had to be in a rented garage somewhere. That would've raised the total cost a bit, but not prohibitively so.

As to the cost, the entire project, including kit (which even included a few optional upgrades), engine, and all necessary parts totaled right around $7500. Not exactly chump change, but when you consider that my van now has an engine that's practically new (only around 15,000 miles), along with the enormous wealth of knowledge, confidence, and self-sufficiency that I gained from the whole experience, it could actually be seen as a bargain.

Factoring in the net cost of the van itself (minus the various parts I was able to sell), for only around $11,000, I now have a rock solid van of which I have a very solid understanding. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a rig of any make in comparable condition for that price, and even if you did, it wouldn't come with the unparalleled learning experience that the Bostig kit provides.

In case it's not abundantly clear, Bostig gets a huge thumbs-up from me, and I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat. Driving the van is a total blast now, she has the satisfying hum of a modern car, has plenty of pep, and I actually understand what I'm looking at now when I lift up the engine cover. Best of all, down the road, even in the worst case scenario, I can just swap in another low mileage Zetec engine for only around $500. For a guy who relies on his vehicle as much as I do, that's some seriously empowering stuff right there.

I could go on and on, but I'm probably starting to sound like a broken record. The enormous amount of work that must have gone into putting the Bostig conversion kit together in such a clear and accessible format is difficult for me to imagine, but I sure am insanely glad these guys didn't shrink from the challenge. I expect my rolling adventures to be made richer for it, and as I turn down the homestretch and get the van's interior completed, I'm as excited as ever to get back out on the open road soon. Thanks Bostig!

New Shoes

2013-04-24T01:12:00.002-07:00

The good folks at America's Tire installed my new shoes today...

I'm pretty blown away by how this upgrade so completely transforms the van's vibe, and think I can safely say that the last vestige of soccer-mom-ness has been removed at last. The wheels are 15 inch Mefro steelies, the tires are BF Goodrich All-Terrains, and I really couldn't be happier with the results.

This change is more than just cosmetic, as the increased width and diameter has made for a noticeable and very welcome improvement in handling compared to the stock setup. The tires should be particularly well-suited to the kind of back-country exploring I hope to do much more of in this rolling home, while not sacrificing too much ride comfort on pavement. Plus they look super-cool.

I was originally planning to paint the wheels black at some point, but after seeing how good the silver looks, I may bag that idea and leave things as they are. We'll see. Once I get the van weighed down with interior stuff in the coming weeks, I'll complete the super-cool go-almost-anywhere look with upgraded lift springs.

Speaking of the interior, I'm now in the process of finalizing the specifics, and starting to order various components. The water pump arrived today, and tomorrow I'll make the long drive down to the OC to pick up my new fresh water tank, and also to check out some gutter mounts to secure the wicked solar rack I'm planning. We're cooking with gas now, folks...

Taking a Breather

2013-04-21T01:47:00.003-07:00

Having by now spent a few days tooling around the Valley in my newly Bostig-equipped van, I can hereby declare the entire a effort a resounding success. What a total blast – when I'm not driving it, I'm thinking about driving it. I have been fortunate to own a few pretty cool vehicles in my life, but the chariot you see pictured above now sits firmly at the top of the list. And it's only going to get better.

I wonder if there will ever come a time when the mere act of firing up the engine no longer brings a smile to my face. Somehow, I doubt it.

In the aftermath of reaching this not insignificant milestone, I've been taking a bit of a breather while puttering around with a few loose ends over the past couple of days (when I'm not out cruising around, that is). I drained all the water from the cooling system yesterday and refilled it with a mix of anti-freeze and water, and this evening, made good use of Q's super-cool all-terrain metal cutting bandsaw to make a couple of shims to raise the engine height a little bit.

The Bostig kit actually comes with a couple of shims for this very purpose, but even with them installed, my engine still sits a bit on the low side. I found the above bar of aluminum the other day in the remnants bin at a very cool metal supply shop not far from here, so for a only a couple of bucks, I should have all the shimmage necessary to get the engine height up to snuff. Sadly, this means I'll have to roll out the engine hoist one more time, but one does what one must.

Once that's out of the way, between the new engine, body work, paint job, clutch, window tinting and seals, bumpers, and whatever else I'm forgetting, I now have a seriously rock-solid footprint in which to build my next rolling home. Best of all, I have a frighteningly decent understanding of most of it. Wheels and tires will be upgraded soon, and once I get caught up on some work over the next couple of days, attention will otherwise shift entirely to getting the interior ready for habitation.

Onward.

Adventure as a Way of Life

2013-04-18T23:24:00.001-07:00

The Kodger linked to a great piece today by Drew Jacob, aka the Rogue Priest, and I think it's well worth a mention here.

I'm occasionally asked how I manage to stay motivated towards finishing this seemingly endless Vanagon overhaul, and the answer is that I handle the inevitable dark moments by stepping away for a day and revisiting some of the sources of inspiration that first led me to make the switch from a penthouse-on-wheels to more of a backpack-on-wheels.

That usually does the trick, but from now on, I'll also re-read Mr. Jacob's piece on choosing adventure as a way of life. That, after all, is what lies at the core of what I'm doing – both with this massive project, and all that I hope to experience once it's finished. Jacob has managed to articulate just what it means to live a life of adventure as well as anyone I have yet to come across. Very good stuff.

Moving on, the picture above shows the $8 LED light that I recently purchased at Harbor Freight, wired up as an additional brake light inside my new bumper's receiver hitch. With no plans to tow anything, this seemed like good solution for filling the unnecessary hole back there, and it made for a fun little decompression project on the day after wrapping up the big Bostig conversion. I'm rather pleased with how it turned out, and I dare say it almost looks stock.

I also gave the van its first post-Monstaliner pressure-washing today (it was as good an excuse as any to take her out for a spin), and not only did plain old water do a great job of making her shine, but the van's new window seals passed the leak test with flying colors.

Above is the new 12 volt fuse panel that arrived here today – future nerve center of the super cool go-almost-anywhere adventure vehicle – which means planning of the interior has officially commenced. Bumping up my level of commitment a notch higher, I placed an order this afternoon for a 25-gallon fresh water tank. Given my typical gallon-or-so-per-day usage, that should do nicely.

As I get into this next phase, it should probably be noted that I have very little idea as to how one goes about converting the inside of a van into a comfortable living space, but I do know that all the information I need is out there. And besides, it can't be any more challenging than swapping an engine, or worse – ugh, prepping a van for painting. I guess we'll find out soon enough though...

Purrrrrr

2013-04-17T22:34:00.003-07:00

Our last installment wrapped up with my having verified the fuel pressure situation, which led to the conclusion that fuel delivery was, contrary to initial indications, not the source of my engine troubles. It was, however, clear that the engine was not firing on all cylinders yet, so the blame shifted to the almighty spark. Or lack thereof, I should say.

This kicked off a crash course in yet another area of automotive troubleshooting, and over the past couple of days, I've gained a decent understanding of the ignition process. Despite that, however, I remained stumped late this afternoon as to why the engine was still running so rough.

The recommended spark plug gap for my Zetec engine is all of .05" (that's the distance between the center and side electrodes pictured above), and I was able to see significant improvement yesterday by closing this gap to a miniscule .03". Better, but still not right, and my gut told me that this was just a band-aid covering a bigger problem anyway.

The ignition coil is what delivers the necessary (and completely insane) level of voltage to the spark plugs (around 25,000 volts, if you can believe that), but since I had installed a brand new coil with my engine, it seemed unlikely that this was the cause of all the misfiring. I was stumped though, so just for grins, replaced it with the original coil that came with my Zetec.

It seemed like a ridiculous idea at the time, since part of the coil that one of the spark plug wires plugs into had completely broken off. Still, I was able to temporarily get it back together solidly enough for a decent test, and was mildly shocked to find that, while the engine still wasn't running great with this old and battered coil, it was much improved. Hmmm.

At a loss on what else to do, I picked up yet another brand new ignition coil late this afternoon, installed it, and fired up the van. She still wasn't running smooth yet, but the improvement over my other brand new coil was unmistakeable. Encouraged, I then regapped the spark plugs back to the recommended .05" setting, and you know what? The van started up and actually.....purred!

Spellbound by her new and sweet, sweet siren song, Q and I immediately jumped in the van and rolled off into the nearby Verdugo Mountains, awestruck by how suddenly fortunes had changed. The new engine was, for the very first time, purring like my good bud curled up in a warm spot in the sun. A $53 ignition coil and two lousy hundredths of an inch worth of spark plug gap made all the difference in the end. ~~Good~~ Freaking amazing stuff.

And here's one for the "what the hell are the chances of that?" file: Q actually put a new ignition coil in one of his cars earlier in the day, which totally fixed his engine woes. That adds up to two new ignition coils, two fixed engines, and all in the same day. It should come as no surprise to the reader that two celebratory brewskyheimers from the garage's mini-fridge ensued.

So just like that, the van is back in action, and my Bostig conversion has been declared a resounding success. It may take a little while for the enormity of that to sink in, but for now, I'm just having a total blast driving the van with the engine that it should have come with. She accelerates like a dream now, gets up to 75 with considerable ease, and hangs with freeway traffic with the best of them.

Mission accomplished.

First Drive

2013-04-15T23:18:00.001-07:00

Following a few days of troubleshooting a tenacious bug with the data logging device that came with my Bostig kit, I finally was able to collect some good numbers this morning, and just a short while later, got the green light to proceed with my first test drive of the new engine. It would've been nice if that had gone off without a hitch, but alas, by now, I've come to expect new challenges around each corner.

Before I even made it out of Q's driveway, it was clear that the shift linkage still wasn't quite right, so I aborted the mission to get that in order. After crawling around under the van for 15 or 20 minutes, the shifting felt much better, so a second try ensued.

This time, shortly after leaving the driveway, I knew something else was definitely wrong. That is, I'm pretty sure that an upgrade from 90 to 130 horsepower ought to result in a nice boost in pick-me-up, but my acceleration felt noticeably worse than the stock VW engine.

Back at the garage, Q and I checked the compression on each of the four cylinders, and were pleased to find that all are healthily operating in the 175-180 psi range. Good stuff. A note to Bostig, along with the data log from the test drive, yielded the conclusion that the problem sits somewhere in the realm of fuel delivery.

Off to Autozone, where I took advantage of their free tool loaning service to get my hands on a fuel pressure gauge for more testing. After running fuel pressure tests in a couple of spots, both during idle and another test run around the block, I sent the results off to Bostig, and that's where things stand right now. Just one more hurdle to get past...

Before and After

2013-04-13T22:45:00.003-07:00

Taking on a project so complex as an engine swap may, at first glance, appear to violate the core principles of living simply, but I think one brief look at the following shows pretty clearly how the Bostig kit is in fact a welcome step in the right direction...

Before:

After:

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take the new engine out for its maiden voyage today, due to some corrupt data in the log from yesterday's first run. As a result, I had to run another idle test today, collect a new data log, and then send it in to Bostig for review. All seems to be running flawlessly as far as I can tell, but until Bostig gives me the green light, I intend to play it safe and sit still. I don't want to get cocky and risk doing anything to void the warranty or my right to ongoing technical support.

Q and I did, however, finish installing the remaining two windows this afternoon...

With ten windows on this beast, counting the two wings up front, I'm probably more relieved to be done with this job than the entire engine. Seriously, I think if I had to choose between doing either one all over again from scratch, I'd choose the engine every time. Some of those window seals were a real challenge to squeeze into place, and I can't believe I only managed to destroy one in the whole process. It's done now though, and I sincerely hope that I have installed my last Vanagon window for a very long time.

Here's hoping I'll get the green light for a nice leisurely Sunday drive tomorrow, but Bostig deserves a day off as much as anyone, so I won't mind if it doesn't happen until Monday.

First Start

2013-04-13T01:04:00.000-07:00

As was probably made clear by my little outburst in the last post, the engine is now officially running. I gotta tell you – I've been fortunate to make some pretty great music over the past twenty-something years, but hearing the sound of my Zetec cranking into action early this afternoon might just top it all.

It didn't go quite as smoothly as the video suggests, however. After receiving my tuning configuration file from Bostig late last night, I woke up this morning raring to get into it. Just in case the unthinkable should happen, I grabbed the Chinook's fire extinguisher and headed out to the van...

Using the SCT handheld device that I received with the Bostig kit, I uploaded the tune to the engine computer, and then stuck my head in Q's workshop to alert the man that I was ready to give actual ignition a whirl.

With the SCT device now set up to capture all sorts of useful troubleshooting data...

...I got behind the wheel and turned the key. Despite repeated attempts, the engine wouldn't start, so Q and I checked to make sure we were getting a spark from the spark plugs, and then performed a fairly straightforward procedure to verify that the fuel injectors weren't stuck. All of that checked out just fine, but through several more attempts, the engine continued to put up a fight.

Ensuring that fuel was getting to the engine seemed a logical place to start, and I knew I was on the right path when I pulled the hose from the engine side of the fuel pump and found it bone dry still. Bingo. Guessing that I might have mixed up the polarity of the two wires connecting to the pump, I swapped them, and the video in the last post picks up immediately thereafter. The rest, as they say, is history.

I'm not sure which amazes me more – that I was able to do this conversion, or that the only real mistake I made was in mixing up the polarity of the fuel pump wires. Hey, nobody's perfect.

Unfortunately, Q had to head out for a few hours just before I started troubleshooting the fuel pump issue, so not only was I left to man the camera, but yes, I also had to endure the torment of hearing the engine fire up on my own. Not ideal, but still very freaking cool. And unlike a hole-in-one with no witnesses, the engine continued to fire right up after Q returned later on. Needless to say, a celebration ensued, and as I uploaded my first data log for Bostig's review, a couple of very timely, ice cold Shiners materialized from the mini-fridge in Q's new workshop.

That is one seriously tasty Shiner pictured above.

I wasn't in the clear just yet, however, as the rest of the day was spent tweaking the cooling system to keep the temperature from climbing into the danger zone. It turned out that there was still quite a bit of air in the system, which was preventing the coolant from circulating properly. After finally chasing most of it out earlier this evening, the engine now idles just right – with the temperature cycling nicely in the 184–200 range. And as with any of the hurdles that I've had to deal with so far, this one came with the bonus of a deeper understanding of the van's cooling system.

Having forwarded the most recent data log to Bostig, I'll now wait for their clearance to take the engine for its first ride – tomorrow, I expect. Q and I may even throw caution to the wind and leave our cell phones behind. Yes, we're feeling that confident.

In other news, pictured above are the windows that got installed yesterday. The rear one required an epic struggle, including at least a half dozen failed attempts, but eventually – and I'm still not exactly sure how – we persevered. Two more remain on the other side, which we'll address tomorrow just in time for the momentous First Drive.

Vroom

2013-04-12T21:42:00.000-07:00

Waiting for Bostig

2013-04-10T21:24:00.001-07:00

Sadly, it's not some new existential theatre piece, but the situation in which I find myself at this moment.

Simply put, the van is totally ready to be started up. Everything is finished. I tweaked the hose layout today, verified that the cam timing is as it should be, installed new spark plugs, filled the coolant system with water (actual coolant comes later, once everything appears to be working properly), topped off the power steering fluid, and put in about five and half juicy quarts of sweet sweet oil.

The only thing left to do is upload the tuning configuration to the engine computer, which brings us back to the title of today's post. You see, Bostig is supposed to send me this tune file at some point, but until they do, the van will be little more than a primed-and-ready-to-go, thoroughly bed-lined driveway ornament.

And so now we wait.

Once I receive this tuning configuration, if necessary, I'll then wait until Q gets home – no matter how long that takes. Starting up this baby for the first time in total solitude runs the risk of feeling too much like the time I scored my first hole-in-one when no one else was on the golf course. Something I don't intend to repeat.

It was 14 years ago. Jacksonville, Florida. A dead solid perfect pitching wedge from 125 yards. One bounce and in the hole. Not a single soul in sight – every duffer's worst nightmare. Nothing to do but quietly put a "1" on the scorecard, fetch the ball, and move on to the next hole. I still get a lump in my stomach just thinking about it.

So like I said, now we wait. First, for Bostig, and then, for Q.

Almost There

2013-04-10T00:24:00.005-07:00

Yesterday was a washout due to some epic wind having descended upon the area (windout?), but after spending most of today routing and connecting all of the coolant hoses, here's where things stood as I wrapped it up for the evening...

I'm now very very close to being able to start her up. Tomorrow, I just need to re-route a couple of hoses a bit more intelligently, secure a few things with zip ties, put in a fresh supply of oil, fill the coolant system, replace the spark plugs, and finally, check the cam timing and reset it if necessary.

As I type this, I have no idea how one checks the cam timing or resets it if necessary, but I picked up the required tools today, and I'm armed with Bostig's detailed instructions. What could possibly go wrong?

After all that's out of the way, the good folks at Bostig will send me an engine tuning file that I'll upload into the engine's computer, and I'll then be free to proceed with the momentous First Start. I'm feeling pretty good about it all right now, and other than the possibility of having to deal with one or more stuck fuel injectors (due to the engine having sat for so long), I don't have any nagging doubts about the engine starting right up. There are, of course, at least a thousand things that could go horribly wrong though. All part of the fun!

Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion...

Banana Bread

2013-04-07T23:13:00.005-07:00

With the light at the end of this Bostig tunnel growing larger and larger by the day, I wasted no time getting cracking on the van this morning. Sometime shortly after noon, I had wrapped up the job of installing and connecting the power steering pump, and proceeded to christen it with a full dose of Dexron goodness.

It was right at this time when Mrs. Q, domestic goddess that she is, moseyed by and mentioned something about fresh banana bread cooling in the kitchen...

About as un-paleo as you can get, but hey, I'm a reasonable man, I had earned a coffee break, and let's face it folks, nothing goes with a hot cup of joe quite like homemade, fresh-from-the-oven banana bread.

Jumping back into it, I rounded out the day by installing the speed sensor, the new heat shield for the engine cover, and finally, the all important throttle cable. With each passing step in this endeavor, I am developing a deeper and deeper understanding of how the van does what it does, and it's pretty cool to look back at the end of each day and think about all the useful knowledge I've gained in the preceding 12 hours or so.

While I was chipping away at the heat shield this afternoon, Q was busy in another corner of the workshop with a project of his own. The plastic on/off switch to his drill press had broken off a while back, and he was intent on fashioning a new and far more sturdy one.

What's significant about the above result, aside from its cool weathered/industrial look, is that the metal back plate was cut from one of the discarded engine shims off my Zetec engine. It's a good example of the mindset around here – no useable raw materials ever get thrown away, repairs are hardly ever outsourced, whatever you need for a job is probably around here somewhere, and the fix always results in a solid upgrade over the original. Needless to say, it's a pretty inspiring place in which to be off in the corner doing a van conversion.

And then they stick freshly baked banana bread in front of your face.

Learning the Linkage

2013-04-07T00:07:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my trusty Vanagon shop manual and an afternoon spent crawling around underneath the van, I now not only have a pretty decent understanding of how my shift linkage works (that's the apparatus that connects the gearshift up front to the transmission in the rear), but better yet, I once again have 2nd and 4th gears at my disposal. Utterly useless so long as the van is up on ramps and without a running engine, but I'm working on that...

Pictured above is the freshly installed portion of the shift linkage. Sort of spiffs up the place nicely, don't you think? And speaking of spiffing up the place, below is the sliding window that got installed last night:

While the window frame was out, I had painted it black to match the new chrome-less seal, and I'm very happy with how it turned out (you may recall that the original seals had a cheesy strip of plastic chrome going all the way around each window).

Sadly, Q and I are now batting 2 for 3 with our slow crawl back to full window-hood, as one of the rear side seals got torn up pretty good during a failed installation earlier this evening. I also discovered that a new seal that arrived yesterday had been chewed on by a critter at some point, so with two seal replacements to wait for now, I probably won't have all the windows back in place until the middle of next week at the earliest. Plenty to do in the meantime.

On the engine conversion front, I spoke with Bostig on the phone this afternoon, and after getting all of my wiring questions answered, I was able to put the finishing touches on that chapter. I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel now, as I have just a smattering of subsystems left to install and/or connect, many of which I hope to finish tomorrow.

Onward.

Commitment

2013-04-05T23:33:00.002-07:00

I tore open the instrument cluster today so that I could route the wires for the low oil sensor and engine malfunction indicator lights from the rear of the van to the dash.

The tough decision of where to install these two lights had to be made, and after some careful reflection, I opted for the following setup (beneath the window defroster button):

That's the low oil level indicator on the left, and the engine malfunction indicator on the right. The small panel I installed them on was originally just an empty placeholder for a switch, presumably for some option that wasn't included with my van. I figured this would be a safe spot to work with, because if I screwed up, I could easily buy another placeholder and try again. Drilling holes directly into the main dash, on the other hand, seemed like too much of a commitment.

Because, you know, buying a van, gutting it, covering it with bed liner, and then tearing out the engine and transmission – that's not much of a commitment. Hey, every man has his limits, and the act of drilling two permanent holes in a plastic dashboard would appear to be mine.

Aside from a small clarification I'm waiting on from the Bostig team, the wiring portion of this adventure is now complete. I spent most of the rest of the day updating the gear shift linkage. That's not actually part of the conversion kit, but it needed work, I had ordered the necessary parts a while ago, and this seemed like a good time to take care of it. On the upside, I got everything installed, but on the downside, I can't find 2nd or 4th gear now. I figure those could be handy to have at some point, so at least some of tomorrow will be spent making the necessary adjustments before moving onto the next lump of Bostig goodness.

Wires

2013-04-05T00:11:00.001-07:00

Over much of the past week, while I've been busy working on the van, Q has been consumed with rewiring his garage-turned-seriously-happening-workshop for 240 volt power (to accommodate his new welding equipment!), while also making massive improvements to the overall electrical situation. The new motion-sensitive exterior flood lights were flipped on for the first time tonight...

...meaning I'm now free to work around the clock if the mood strikes. As recently as yesterday, I would've told you that this place couldn't possibly be any better suited to building a super-cool go-almost-anywhere adventure rig. Clearly, I would have been wrong about that.

After wrapping up work on the fuel lines this morning, I got down and dirty with the wiring portion of the engine project, and am now mostly finished with it.

I still have to figure out a couple of connections that I'm not totally clear on, and then have to run a couple sets of wires from the ECU up to the dashboard for the new "low oil" and "check engine" lights. Important stuff.

Above was the scene earlier this evening, as I took apart the instrument cluster to modify a couple of resistors so the stock tachometer will work properly with the new engine. Amazing, the study in contrasts this project has become in a matter of days – from fighting to wrangle around 400 pounds of engine and transmission into place, to wearing a magnifier visor so I can solder a tiny wisp of metal onto a circuit board.

Treading Water

2013-04-04T00:34:00.000-07:00

Much of today felt as though I was treading water. It all started when I received clarification from the Bostig team on a somewhat fuzzy segment of the engine mounting section of the conversion. Sadly, this necessitated rolling out the engine hoist one more time so that I could redo the six bolts that mount the engine to the cradle. Two and a half hours later, amounting to an average of 25 minutes per bolt (which should give some idea as to how simple it was NOT to get to those bolts so late in this game), I was ready to get back to making actual forward progress.

With the engine hoist folded up and put away once again, I dove into wrapping up work on the fuel lines, only to decide that I should probably replace the fuel filter while I'm at it. Trip #1 to the local auto parts store ensued, and shortly after installing the new filter an hour later, I discovered that the last segment of the fuel send line requires a short stretch of hose that is slightly wider in diameter than the rest of the 18 foot round trip. Perfect.

Trip #2 to the local auto parts store followed, where the correct hose was ordered for pick-up in the morning. So it is that the fuel line saga won't get finished until tomorrow, but it really should just be a ten minute job. Famous last words, I know.

With that, I connected the brake booster line in mere minutes (a personal record!) and then moved onto the wiring chapter of the conversion. The first picture above shows the brain of this beast – the main wiring harness and engine computer – following its assembly this afternoon. Immediately above is the brain more or less in place inside the van (I still have to figure out how I'm going to mount it permanently), with the harness running through the firewall and into the engine bay.

And finally, below is my assignment for tomorrow...

That is, making sense of that pile of spaghetti and then getting all of it routed and attached to the various parts of the engine. But not before I wrap up the fuel line saga once and for all. One step at a time, and all that.

One upside to these almost daily visits to the local (i.e. non-national chain) auto parts store that lies right down the street is that pretty much everyone there knows me by name now. Prior to these last couple of months, I have never once walked into an auto parts store and immediately heard, "Hey Glenn, what do you need?" Music stores, sure, but never an auto parts store. Somehow, this feels cooler.

Fuel Lines

2013-04-02T23:53:00.001-07:00

In the course of following other people's builds over the past year or so, I've sometimes gotten the impression that the chief attraction to blogging about something like an engine conversion is so you can publicly and very nonchalantly write things like, "today I reconfigured the blah-dee-blah, calibrated the who-zee-what, and then installed the bump-dee-bum." As if to give the clear impression that you can and often do perform such technical wizardry in your sleep.

But not me. Today, for example, after wrapping up the intake portion of the conversion (dig the huge honking hose above), I dove into the task of replacing all of the van's fuel lines, and at regular intervals while crawling around underneath, I found myself thinking something to the effect of, "Holy crap – I'm changing the freaking fuel lines on my van!" With not even the barest wisp of a hint of nonchalantness – trust me. No one is more impressed with how well this is all going than me.

Of course, replacing those fuel lines took a good bit longer than it probably should have, and largely due to my own boneheadedness, but I'm beginning to expect that as an ongoing presence. On the upside, following a couple of tweaks in the morning, the van will be sporting brand new fuel lines all the way from the engine, to the gas tank, and then back again. The idea being to avoid anything remotely like this from ever happening...

Moving along, not wanting to expose my dashboard and front seats to the elements for another night, I shifted gears early this evening and prepped the windshield with its brand new seal...

That blue rope you see sticking out sits inside the groove that the van's frame snugs into, and with Q standing outside holding the windshield in place, I sat in the front seat and slowly pulled on the rope all the way around the perimeter. The happy result of this was the windshield and its seal easily popping right into place and forming a very solid and tight fit all the way around. Good stuff. Neither one of us had ever installed a windshield before, but based on the results, we're either total naturals or we got really lucky.

Or perhaps it's just not all that difficult. I guess we'll find out as the remaining windows get installed over the next day or two.

So Long, Engine Hoist

2013-04-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

Following a restful night's sleep to recover from the exhausting job of wrestling the engine and transmission into the van, I got back to it by mid-morning and spent the early part of the day tweaking the engine installation to get its overall height within spec.

With that finished, I was free to unhook Q's engine hoist for the last time, fold it up, and prepare its return to the dark garage corner from whence it came. She served me well for many weeks, and though I'm grateful for all the heavy lifting she handled for me, I'm also happy to be putting her away for good.

Moving on to all the comparatively little things that make an engine go vroom, I turned my attention to installing the exhaust portion of the Bostig kit. This includes the catalytic converter, muffler, and various brackets and hangers to hold both in place. I know that sounds simple enough, but it ate up most of the remainder of the day. Not without satisfying results though...

Just before darkness began to fall, I completed the necessary throttle body modifications and installed the super-cool Bostig intake extension...

Choosing to end the day on a shiny note, I packed it in at that point. If posts about engine work are not your cup of tea, fear not – I'm guardedly optimistic that the end of this chapter is coming into view. I don't want to make any promises I can't keep, but I'm tentatively hoping to fire up the engine for the first time by the weekend. Maybe even sooner.

Mounted

2013-03-31T22:43:00.000-07:00

In what has by now become typical fashion, what I thought would take about an hour or so ended up swallowing most of the day. But as I write this, the engine and transmission are now officially mounted inside the van.

I'm going to bed now.

Mating Season

2013-03-31T00:15:00.004-07:00

Today was a most productive day here at Q's compound, the highlight being the magical moment when my Zetec engine was finally mated to the stock VW transmission:

Pivotal stuff, and a good opportunity to stand back and take in just how far I've come with this engine conversion adventure. It was, after all, only two months ago yesterday when I purchased the above engine from a salvage yard in Michigan, not having much clue as to what in hell I was getting myself into. Fast forward to today, when not only am I less than an hour's worth of work away from having the above mounted and secured inside the van's engine bay, but I actually understand what I'm doing.

Speaking of the engine bay, I spent some time this afternoon getting it ready to receive the new goods. This involved removing the old wiring harness, various zip ties, and then finally giving the whole area a good cleaning while it's still so accessible.

Removal of the original wiring harness raises a key feature of the Bostig conversion -- its all-new harness which will replace all of my funky 25 year old wiring. This eliminates a huge variable in the equation, and should go a long way towards delivering the level of reliability I expect from my Zetec. Good stuff.

Other work completed on this epic of Saturdays included wrapping up installation of my new GoWesty steel bumpers. The front bumper presented the big challenge, as it required grinding away a fair amount of metal underneath the van for it to fit properly. But I persevered, and am really happy with the crisp look and vastly improved durability of these bumpers.

But wait, there's more! I also managed to get both the driver and passenger side front windows installed (wings too!), along with all of the new corresponding rubber seals.

...and as you can see, Q and I somehow managed to get the van back up on ramps in preparation for mounting the engine tomorrow. No small feat when you consider that the van is little more than a really heavy red wagon right now.

Flywheel Arrival

2013-03-29T23:34:00.001-07:00

Following a 24 hour wait while the Monstaliner cured sufficiently for reassembly to begin, the van is now well on its way to being put back together again. All lights, doors, and the new steel bumpers are in place, though I still have to make a small tweak to the front bumper in the morning. In the meantime, here's a sneak peek...

Next up on the reassembly to-do list is the windows, and between the awesome tint job I had done while they were out and new rubber seals all the way around, the van should really pop nicely once that's finished.

All that aside, the big news for today was the triumphant arrival of one shiny new Bostig flywheel:

Major kudos go out to the Bostig team for sending out a replacement so quickly and not subjecting me to the interminable delay as UPS deals with the lost package claim. Here's the shiny goodness installed and torqued to the prescribed 83 foot-pounds:

...which paved the way for installation of my not quite as shiny, but equally brand new clutch:

The engine is now totally ready to be attached to the VW transmission and then mounted inside the van, so that and the ongoing reassembly should make for a satisfying weekend of real progress. Good stuff.

Painted

2013-03-27T21:17:00.002-07:00

With work on Q's cool new garage having recently been completed, I jumped at his offer to turn it into one heck of a paint booth for a couple of days. What a difference it makes having an enclosed yet roomy space when doing this sort of work.

I finished prepping for the final coat of tinted bed liner late yesterday afternoon, and while the well-lit garage meant that I could have proceeded to do the actual painting last night, I opted to call it a day and tackle the job this afternoon with a fresh brain.

As I type this, it is DONE. Hallelujah. Early indications are that this final coat was completely worth all the waiting and additional effort, and I'm really looking forward to getting everything put back together. But first, I'll let her sit and cure within the cozy embrace of Q's garage until tomorrow afternoon, and then I'll begin the long process of making my Vanagon look like a van again (sorry, I couldn't resist).

In other news, prior to diving into the painting today, I sold the original VW engine, and to one of you fine blog readers no less. Good stuff. Through the magic of Craigslist, I have now recouped more than 25% of the purchase price of the van by selling off various parts that are no longer needed. Pocket change compared what I've spent on the rest of the project so far, but every little bit helps.

Yogi

2013-03-25T23:46:00.001-07:00

In the immortal words of Yogi, it's déjà vu all over again...

That is, the van is almost as disassembled as before, and a light sanding of the body is now in process – all in preparation for one final thick coat of Monstaliner that I'll be putting down in the next day or two. In the final analysis, there were just a few too many spots that I wish I had covered a little better the first time around, so with the continuing flywheel delay and pristine weather providing a window of opportunity, I intend to make things right once and for all.

In my ongoing efforts to make flywheel lemonade, so to speak, I spent much of the weekend puttering around Q's garage and doing whatever could be done in the absence of said wheel. This included installing my new motor mounts and then mounting the engine in the super-slick Bostig cradle...

...along with installing Bostig's super-cool high clearance oil pan...

The oil pan may not seem like much to get excited about, but installing it did somehow eat up the better part of an entire day. Chalk it up to several bolts that were almost impossible to reach, the sticky gooeyness that is called RTV gasket maker, and a couple of boneheaded rookie mistakes on my part. Par for the course.

Good news: I received word from Bostig today that another flywheel is now en route, and should be here on Friday. So if all goes even reasonably according to plan, I should be totally finished with the Monstaliner and have all of the windows, trim, lights, etc. back in place in time to resume the engine conversion this weekend. It's even remotely possible that I'll still meet my goal of finishing both the exterior and engine conversion by the end of the month, but more than likely, I'll have to filch a few days from April.

Radio Flyer

2013-03-22T22:54:00.003-07:00

First thing yesterday morning, Q and I rolled the engine and transmission out from underneath the van...

...ushering forth the obligatory Engine Bay Pose of Triumph mere minutes later...

All of which makes my van little more than a glorified red wagon right now. Not just any red wagon, mind you, but a thoroughly bed-lined one. An important detail.

With any luck at all, she won't remain a glorified red wagon for long, but if the precise location of my Bostig flywheel remains a mystery much longer, I may be sorely tempted to paint "Radio Flyer" on the side of the van. In white bed liner, of course.

I've been puttering around the garage preparing whatever odds and ends I can in the absence of the flywheel, which gave me the opportunity to treat my transmission to a much needed cleaning today. Behold:

Between that, the fairly nasty shift linkage I replaced the other day...

...and the brand spanking new clutch that's ready to be slapped onto the elusive flywheel, here's hoping there won't be any transmission issues interrupting my travels for quite some time.

This weekend's modest goals include installing the Bostig high clearance oil pan upgrade that I purchased as part of my kit, and also performing necessary modifications to the Ford Focus airbox that the kit uses. After that, I'll pretty much be out of engine-related things to do until the flywheel situation is resolved. Fortunately, my final gallon of Monstaliner is set to arrive on Monday, so if things persist as they are, I'll just swoop back into paint mode and then finally reassemble the rest of the van.

Down and Out

2013-03-20T22:29:00.002-07:00

After spending a good chunk of the day carefully disconnecting various hoses, wires, brackets, and a couple of heat shields thrown in for good measure, it was time for the big moment.

I rounded up Q to help me hook up the engine hoist, and we also propped up the transmission with a floor jack.

One last check was made to ensure that both the engine and transmission were entirely disconnected from the rest of the van, I took a deep breath, and as Q manned the floor jack, we ever so slowly lowered everything to the ground in unison.

We quickly noticed a wire or two that was still connected, remedied the situation, and within a matter of minutes, the engine and transmission were resting on the ground and officially out of the van.

That's precisely where I decided to call it a day, so while the engine and transmission are now out of the van, both are still sitting underneath it as I type this. Baby steps.

I'm not sure which I find more shocking – that I did this, or that it only took me a couple of days. And I even had time to step out this afternoon to round up a new alternator, serpentine belt, high pressure fuel hose, and an air filter. That means I'm now totally equipped and poised to begin installing the new engine.

Except for the bloody flywheel, which now sits lost somewhere in UPS Neverland. And as luck would have it, that is precisely the part I need before I can proceed any further. The good folks at Bostig tell me they've initiated a tracer search for the missing box, and that we should know something in a day or so. Since the flywheel is a custom fabricated part, however, my fear is that this could add up to a significant delay if the box is in fact lost. So here's hoping it does turn up.

All part of the adventure, as I like to say, and I suppose there are far worse things than having a vacation forced upon me.

Engine-ectomy

2013-03-19T23:18:00.001-07:00

Now it's getting serious.

I fired up the stock VW engine one last time this morning, backed onto the ramps pictured above, and then with neither pomp nor circumstance, shut her down for good. I then dove into the not insignificant task of removing said engine, which means that the next time I start up my van, it will be powered by an engine that I installed. Heavy stuff.

For now, my sights are set on merely getting the original engine out. I made good progress towards that end today, disconnecting various wires and hoses, removing superfluous parts, and generally getting good and filthy yet again. I'm guardedly optimistic that at some point tomorrow, armed with Q's engine hoist, I'll gently lower the outgoing engine to the ground and slide her to freedom.

That's the plan at least, but you know how those tend to go around here.

9/10ths

2013-03-18T22:58:00.004-07:00

Nine out of the ten boxes that make up the Bostig conversion kit have now arrived, and as luck would have it, my new flywheel, which is precisely the part that I need to install next, lies waiting in that elusive tenth box. As a result, I'm only ankle deep into the engine conversion at this point.

In a reasonably long and fairly uninteresting side story, I killed far too much of today looking for a miniscule tube of red thread locker. Proof positive that you just never know where the next hurdle lies in a project of this scope. Adding further to that mystery is the gnawing question of why blue thread locker comes in a red tube, while red thread locker comes in...wait for it...a blue tube.

Whatever. Armed with the red stuff at last, I was able to secure the engine's new adapter plate, which to the uninitiated, is what will mate the Ford engine to the van's stock VW transmission. I also finished assembling and installing my blingy new thermostat housing:

I placed an order this morning for the additional gallon of Monstaliner that will eventually top off the van's new bulletproof exterior, but since that won't arrive until next Monday at the earliest, I now have at least a week to see how far I can get with this engine conversion chapter.

Early impressions of the Bostig kit are insanely favorable. They seem to have thought of every little detail, and so far, response to all of my questions (even the truly boneheaded ones) has been both fast and thorough. Twice today, unsure of how to proceed, I posted the details of my quandary on their support web site, and in both cases, I had my answer literally within a few minutes.

Tomorrow, I'll launch into the somewhat daunting (to me) task of removing the stock VW engine from the van. Definitely not the sort of thing I ever considered to be in my wheelhouse, but with the Bostig team in my back pocket, I'm beginning to believe that it will all go very smoothly.

Bostig Arrival

2013-03-17T23:42:00.001-07:00

Most of my Bostig engine conversion kit arrived here on Friday:

Lots of cool, custom fabricated, and generally blingy parts were found within:

The few remaining boxes should arrive tomorrow, but in the meantime, I was able to make a little bit of progress on the conversion today. Behold the sexy new adapter plate in position:

Mind you, I still haven't finished putting the van back together yet, but it looks like another week or so will pass before I do. You see, in addition to that boneheaded missed spot I wrote about a few days ago, I've since noticed a few other areas on the body that my second coat could have done a better job of, well, coating.

Anything worth doing is worth doing right, so I've decided to put down one more good solid coat of Monstaliner before calling the exterior done, and since it will take a week or so for the new batch of textured goodness to arrive, I'll be tabling that end of things in the meantime and getting into the engine conversion.

I'm not wild about starting a new project without first finishing the previous one, but I also don't want to sit on my thumbs doing nothing all week while waiting for the Monstaliner shipment to arrive. So it goes.

Have Wings, Will Fly

2013-03-15T11:56:00.001-07:00

In keeping with the never-ending stream of learning that accompanies a project of this scope, yesterday, I made great strides towards earning my post-grad degree in Vanagon front door anatomy. Taking the doors apart prior to painting is what got me my bachelor's, and you'd think that would qualify a guy for reassembly too, but alas, an assumption like that is just lowly undergraduate hubris talking.

The wing windows – those triangular jobbies towards the front – comprise the big hurdle that no doubt thwarts even the most promising of underclassmen. I'd like to say how remarkable it is that something so small and fairly insignificant to this whole enterprise can devour a whole day, but by now I know full well that there is, in fact, precisely nothing remarkable about that. On the contrary, I've started to expect days like this – embrace them even. Ergo:

Glenn's Van Conversion Corollary to Murphy's Law: Inversely proportional to a given step's overall importance to the construction of a super-cool go-almost-anywhere adventure rig is the amount of skull-bashing effort required to properly remove/install/fix it.

As you can see from the above photo, I ultimately persevered, and am now sporting the newly tinted windows up front, along with most of the new seals. Sometime during the late afternoon, armed with a few new credit hours from AWWARD (Academy of Wing Window Anatomy, Reconstruction, and Design), I proceeded to duplicate the above look on the passenger side of the van – in all of about fifteen minutes. Nothing like putting one's education to good use.

On another note, the Bostig kit is scheduled to arrive sometime this afternoon, so I'll be shifting into engine conversion mode pretty soon. I still have to round up a new alternator, serpentine belt, and some high pressure fuel line, but other than that, I should have everything I'll need to complete that chapter of this project. And given the rather critical importance of an engine to any super-cool go-almost-anywhere adventure rig, the above Corollary leaves me thinking I should be done with this in no time at all...

Back from the Dead

2013-03-13T23:53:00.001-07:00

Rising from the ashes like the phoenix of myth, she's starting to look like a van once again...

And just when you thought the super-cool go-almost-anywhere adventure rig in-the-making had been deconstructed beyond all hope of ever being mistaken for a motor vehicle again. I mean, you do remember this freaking mess from less than a week ago, right?

THAT, gentle readers, is one hell of a resurrection, if I may be permitted to blow my own horn for a minute. And the addition of windows, bumpers, and a few other miscellaneous things over the next couple of days should only make the contrast more astounding.

Right in the midst of my self-congratulatory revery this morning, I discovered what I hope to be my only boneheaded move from Paint Day. Hey, there's gotta be at least one, right? In the top photo above, you see that horizontal panel that's missing to the left of the sliding door? Well, when I reinstalled it today and stood back to admire things, my heart sank as I noticed a nice long strip of OEM paint peeking out from underneath that panel:

Yes, I am a bonehead. No other word will do. I apparently masked that area off a bit on the low side, and for some inexplicable reason, never thought to check it with the panel in place. Q suggested that I blame all those chemicals I was inhaling for 13 hours straight, but the sad fact is that I did all the masking a couple days before going all shock-and-awe on my brain cells.

Like I said, bonehead.

I did have some Monstaliner left over from Paint Day, but the stuff has to be used within 6-10 hours once mixed with catalyst, so that option was long gone. Not to worry though, as Monstaliner is supposed to be a snap to repair or touch up even long after it has cured, so I figure this will make a great opportunity to test that promise. And there are a few minor spots here and there that my second coat didn't quite get to perfection, so why not go ahead and make it all good, right?

I placed a call to Magnet Paints to order an additional quart late this morning, and found myself talking directly with Eric, the mastermind behind the whole operation. Super nice cat, and he assures me that I should have no problems at all with getting this forthcoming quart to blend in with what's already there. Good stuff.

In the meantime, reassembly work continues tomorrow...

Some Assembly Required

2013-03-12T22:57:00.000-07:00

It hit me today that I have now made it over that all-important crest – where with each passing step, the van now looks better than it did before. To say that this has made a profound impact on my overall state of mind in the past 24 hours is an understatement. I'd like to tell you that throughout the past two and a half weeks of brutal prep, I never once doubted that the end result would justify all that effort, but slogging away day after day and having nothing but aching muscles and more ugliness to show for it takes its toll on even the most optimistic of men.

There were definitely a few low points in there, so it was with some trepidation that I stepped outside the Chinook this morning to survey my work. Armed with some decent sleep and a hot cup of joe, I made several laps around the van, and the word relief doesn't come close to describing how it felt to see how freaking awesome it looked. Simply put, the Queen Mother Prep Slog From Hell was totally worth it.

The readership seems to want more details on this tinted bed liner awesomeness, so allow me to elaborate. The stuff is called Monstaliner, and I think it's ideal for vehicle exteriors because: it's available in a wide range of colors, the texture is nicely rounded and not at all abrasive like other liners, it's totally UV-resistant, won't crack or peel, rolls on very easily, requires only 2 coats, and is reasonably priced (only a little over $400 in materials to paint the entire van).

Another benefit of Monstaliner over traditional auto paint is that touching up any part of the job down the road is as simple as lightly scuffing up the area and rolling on some more liner. The texture makes it an extremely forgiving material to work with, and the more I think about (and admire) it, I wonder why this is not a popular option outside the hardcore Jeep/4x4 crowd.

I'm pretty ecstatic with how it turned out, particularly for a total rookie at this, and as I began to reassemble the van today, it only got better. Something about the addition of the tail lights, turn signals, and front grill really makes the overall look pop. Q and I also got the front doors back on just before sundown this evening, so it's not too far from being a street legal vehicle once again.

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to installing my new steel bumpers and all the recently tinted windows over the next couple of days, not to mention all new window and door seals from head to toe. And with the Bostig kit set to arrive here on Friday, it looks like I'll be heading straight from the proverbial frying pan and into the fryer. Good stuff.

Paint Day

2013-03-11T23:31:00.005-07:00

Here's the makeshift paint booth I cobbled together yesterday inside Q's new, albeit still half-built, shed:

One does what one can with whatever one has to work with.

I got up bright and early this morning, heaved a sigh, and dove headlong into what promised to be a long day. And was it ever. 12 or 13 hours solid, with just a couple of 10 minute breaks to use the bathroom and shove some food and water down my throat.

That's your first look at the new color above – right smack on my forehead. I had no idea that was there at the time, but in hindsight, I now understand why Q was so anxious to get that shot. Speaking of the new color, it's called Blood Bath, and was specifically chosen because it isn't too terribly different from the van's original paint. A bit brighter (er...bloodier?), but reasonably close enough so that as soon as one opens the door and sees the small amount of original paint on the inside, it doesn't scream "DIFFERENT PAINT!" too loudly. Or at least that's the plan, but we'll see how it works in practice.

Above is a sneak peak of the roof following the first coat, but I'll post more photos of the finished product as I get the van put back together over the next few days. I'm feeling guardedly optimistic about the results right now, but I'm also utterly fried, and look forward to surveying my work with a fresh brain in tomorrow's morning light. Stay tuned.

Almost

2013-03-09T22:10:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago today, I officially kicked off work on the van's exterior in preparation for bringing my super-rugged tinted bed liner vision to fruition. TWO WEEKS! Never in my wildest dreams did I think this leg of the project would take so long. Heck, two weeks isn't a leg, it's half a chorus line. Yet here I am, still sporting a thoroughly deconstructed van, though now with some groovy blue tape...

Yesterday's foul weather threw me back by about a day, so while nothing would make me happier than to tell you that tomorrow is going to be Paint Day, alas, it's just not going to happen. Q reminds me that the Earth is scheduled to go around the Sun at least a few billion more times, so one more 365th of a revolution before Paint Day isn't much of a delay in the grand scheme of things. He has a point.

Really, I'm very close. I swear. So close that not only can I taste it, but I'm even going to go one step further and declare Monday to be Paint Day. For real. All that remains to be done tomorrow is solvent cleaning the van's body and then priming all of the exposed metal areas. There's no way that's going to take more than half the day, which means it will very likely take ALL day, but regardless, barring my seriously injuring myself in the process, Monday morning should be a go for the tinted bed liner magic to unfold. At last. And then with any luck, this blog will become interesting again before too long...

Roughed Up

2013-03-07T21:39:00.000-08:00

Isn't she pretty?

At last, the sanding is done. Amazing how a step so innocent as "roughen all paint with 180 grit sandpaper to remove all gloss" could turn out to be such a slog. So it goes. I'm sort of digging the roughed up and doorless look though, and the missing hubcap only contributes further to the overall vibe. Fear not, however, as I'm not so in love with it that I plan to stop now.

I started the masking process late this afternoon, and should wrap it up tomorrow morning. Then it'll be bath time for all to-be-painted surfaces, after which I'll make another pass with the wire wheel over all bare metal and then treat with metal cleaner. And then...the only thing separating the van from its groovy new tinted bed liner glory will be the coat of epoxy primer that will cover all the bare metal.

I just wiped away a tear after typing that last sentence.

So while Saturday could/should be Paint Day, I'm leaning heavily towards waiting until Sunday when the weather will be a bit warmer here – not because I mind the cold so much, but because the tinted bed liner does. I dare say that I've earned a day off too. Regardless of whether the big day is Saturday or Sunday, I'm just thrilled to finally be nearing that vital turning point where the van will start looking better with each passing step.

Morse Code

2013-03-06T23:35:00.002-08:00

Pretty cool visitor outside the Chinook today...

(direct video link)

I think that's Morse code for "hey pal, back to work. Vans don't prep themselves."

Sneaking Up on Paint Day

2013-03-05T23:56:00.001-08:00

Ho hum, it was another productive day at the grindstone. I got the windows back from the tint shop...

...and received a new pair of rear side markers to replace the old cracked ones...

I also ordered some new motor mounts, nabbed a good deal on a power steering pump from a salvage yard up near Bakersfield, and an even better deal on a mass airflow meter and air box from a yard in South Carolina. Yes, there are plenty of salvage yards around here, but even with shipping charges added on, I'm finding the prices considerably lower elsewhere in the country. And in case you're wondering, most of the parts used in the engine conversion are brand new, but there are a handful that Bostig recommends sourcing from salvage yards.

Work then continued on sanding the OEM paint, and after some careful reflection, I decided that removing the two front doors would make the elusive Paint Day a whole lot easier. Just when you thought this van couldn't get any more torn apart...

Tomorrow, I hope to finish roughing up the existing paint and then mask off the areas that won't be receiving any bed liner love. After that, I'll just need to give the van a thorough solvent cleaning, put epoxy primer on all the exposed bare metal, and...gasp...I'll finally be ready to roll. Unfortunately, the weather looks to be both chilly and wet over the next few days, so Paint Day may not happen until this weekend. But I'm getting there...

LOIP

2013-03-04T21:39:00.003-08:00

The picture doesn't quite do it justice, but a really enormous box showed up on Q's porch this morning...

That's 100 towering pounds of brand new front and rear steel bumpers for the super-cool go-almost-anywhere adventure rig that's ever so slooowly taking shape out back. At least, I'm pretty sure that's what's in there. I didn't even bother to open the box, since bumpers are about the least of my concerns right now.

So another thrilling day of prep work is now in the can, and alas, Wednesday is no longer looking like it will be Paint Day. But we probably all expected as much just as soon as I blurted out that target yesterday, right? If you talk to anyone who has ever painted a vehicle before, you'll know how they all say the same thing – that the painting is the easy part, and the prep is, well, an unmitigated bitch. From Hell even. I totally understand now, having been at this full-time for nine days.

With all of the body and rust repair having been completed, I'm now thigh-deep in roughing up the van's OEM paint, since the tinted bed liner does not adhere well to glossy surfaces. Pictured above is the sliding door's new look, which brings to mind the one about a certain man of Slavic ancestry who takes a car door with him on a trip through the desert, figuring if he gets hot, he can just roll down the window. Sorry folks, but I'm drowning in a sea of never-ending prep right now, so the jokes should be expected to suffer somewhat.

Long and sad story short, I probably need yet another day or two before the tinted bed liner can flow, but since the weather looks to get cooler and maybe even wet starting on Wednesday, I may now have to table Paint Day until the weekend. You see, in addition to rough surfaces, tinted bed liner is partial to warm and dry weather. I swear, the stuff is pickier than a fat kid's underwear in August. Sorry, more weak prep-induced humor. We'll see how the week plays out. It's all day to day here in the Land of Interminable Prep (LOIP).

1K

2013-03-04T00:50:00.001-08:00

It took a little over three and half years to get here, but we've finally made it folks – blog post #1000. I wonder what percentage of blogs survive long enough to make it into this realm of four digits? And how many of you have actually slogged through this entire march to millennial status? So many questions.

I was hoping to have something really blogworthy to offer for the occasion, but alas, it was yet another busy day of prep work. I did, however, spend much of it dealing with paint, though not bed liner. Baby steps.

While pulling out the old wing window seals a week or so ago, I found the underlying bare metal frames to be fairly covered in rust, and after finally figuring out how to remove them yesterday, I was intent on getting them back into shape today.

Sadly, master of the "before" photo, I am not, so above left shows the frames after removing all the rust with a wire wheel, masking, and priming. You'll have to take my word for it that they were both pretty ugly to begin with, no doubt caused by the old wing seals not doing their job anymore (i.e. sealing). At right, you can see one of the frames after applying a few coats of satin black spray paint – a much better look than the stock bare metal, and should also be pretty well protected from the elements in the future. Good stuff.

Pictured above is the area beneath the van's sliding door, which also had a fair amount of surface rust in various spots. My general strategy with rust has been to remove it entirely whenever possible, but there are inevitably going to be spots that one just can't get to with a wire wheel or angle grinder, and this was one of them.

Instead of trying to remove such hard-to-reach rust completely, I simply sand off the loose stuff, clean the area throughly with solvent, and then cover it with two coats of a product called Chassis Saver. It's intended to be painted directly over rust, and permanently seals off the surface from moisture and air, effectively stopping rust dead in its tracks. I know it just looks like black glossy paint in the above picture, but in person, it looks and feels unbelievably impervious. It's so impressively tough, that I'm now wondering if I wouldn't have been better off to leave all rust in place, and simply cover it with Chassis Saver. Highly recommended stuff if you've got rust issues.

All of which bodes well for the forthcoming exterior paint job, as the same guys who make Chassis Saver also make the tinted bed liner I'll be using. Unfortunately, Monday will not be Paint Day as I had projected a couple of days ago, but I am getting close. At this point, I could probably finish prepping in one very full day, but in the absence of any deadlines, will likely stretch out and do it in two comfortable days. As a result, I'm now fairly confident that Wednesday will be Paint Day. Famous last words, I know...

Body Work

2013-03-03T00:27:00.001-08:00

Prepping

2013-03-01T22:05:00.001-08:00

No, not prepping for Doomsday, but Paint Day.

Work continues full-steam towards prepping the van for its groovy new tinted bed liner exterior. Sadly, I have zero new photos to prove any of this, so mere words will have to suffice for now. Yes, that is some weak sauce, as a friend of mine likes to say.

Since our last installment, I've repaired several holes and minor dents with body filler, becoming rather adept with the stuff in the process. So much that I'm now lobbying heavily to get a crack at the ugly dent on the hood of Q's '71 XKE. I may have missed my calling. As a body repair guy, that is, not a lobbyist.

I've also been grinding out various areas of surface rust, alternating between a wire wheel on a power drill and a flap wheel on an angle grinder. Seriously fun stuff, as you can immediately see the results of the work right before your eyes. And any job that calls for two different power tools – both of which produce tons of sparks – is always a winner. Chicks dig the sparks.

Those last two paragraphs may not sound like a lot of work, but somehow, they've filled up the last few days. It's slow work, this prepping stuff, but I know that taking the time to do it right will pay off in the end.

I'll probably spend the weekend wrapping up all of the prep work in equally slow and methodical fashion, and if all goes smoothly, it's entirely possible that I'll be ready to make the bed liner magic happen on Monday.

Packages

2013-02-27T23:51:00.000-08:00

It was a full day of package delivery here at Q's compound. First, a huge shipment of the grass-fed goodness arrived:

That's 50 luscious pounds of the stuff, still frozen solid, and for only $5.33 per pound shipped. Why is anyone still eating grain-fed beef, I wonder? Rhetorical question.

Then the first piece from the Bostig conversion kit showed up, and wow, what a hefty bit of custom fabrication it turned out to be:

That's my new engine cradle, and if it's any indication of the quality I can expect from the rest of the kit, I am extremely impressed. Rounding out today's delivery-palooza, I also received a new clutch kit, shift linkage repair kit, and the last few windows seals to round out the all-new rubber that will be installed when the windows go back in. Good stuff on all counts.

The van is now nearing maximum nakedness, though that point won't truly be reached until after I finish sanding down the exterior just prior to beginning the paint job. Let's call it 95% nudity at the moment...

As you can see, the Stripe From Hell has been fully exorcised, and I'm happy to report that the second eraser wheel finished the job in a couple of hours with relative ease. Take note, future vinyl stripe removers – 3M's eraser wheel blows away the no-name wheel that I started the job with. Accept no substitutes.

Night game here at the compound, where I launched into the body filler work this evening:

Earning Stripes

2013-02-25T23:50:00.003-08:00

If I have learned but one valuable life lesson from this conversion so far, it is that I should never be overly surprised when what initially seemed like a simple task turns out to be the Queen Mother Slog from Hell.

Case in point, today, wherein my modest goals included finishing the removal of everything that won't be painted and isn't easily maskable, taking off the vinyl striping from the body, and then getting started on repairing a few dings. Alas, the stripe removal, what I figured would eat up an hour or two at most, proved to be my Waterloo.

I first laid into that infernal stria shortly after noon, and by the time Mrs. Q returned home from work, quietly informing me that it was getting dark out, and might it not be wise to consider putting down the power tools for the night, I was covered in vinyl and rubber shavings, and sadly, only about halfway finished.

On the upside, the auto paint supply gods have graced mankind with stripe removal eraser wheels, which fit on the end of any power drill and do much of the dirty work, albeit slowly. On the downside, the one pictured above was my second of the day, after having chewed through the first on the rear door alone. Adding to the fun, they sell for $30 a pop, which means I'm now on the hook for $60 just to remove a flipping stripe – a number that could be twice as much by this time tomorrow.

Yesiree folks, vinyl stripe removal and eraser wheels. That's your post for today. Oh, how we've fallen from those golden days or yore, when spectacular vistas, funky towns, and all manner of roadside gems typified this here blog. Hang in there with me – we'll get back to it someday, though I'm no longer so naive to think there won't be several more Queen Mother Slogs from Hell along the way. I guess that's some sort of progress, no?

Deconstruction

2013-02-24T23:59:00.000-08:00

It felt good to finally get back into working on the van full-time today, and in the spirit of breaking a few eggs in order to make this omelette, I'm now neck-deep in tearing the van apart to make way for the forthcoming bed liner paint job.

I continue to underestimate how long it will take to complete certain tasks. I figured a solid day would be plenty of time to strip off all the windows, bumpers, lights, etc, yet I think I spent close to two hours today just dealing with the two front doors. Ah well, if there's one thing I've got plenty of at this point, it's time.

I hope to finish this deconstruction phase tomorrow and then start in on what will likely be a few days of prep work before rolling on the bed liner.

Onward.

19 and Still Nudging

2013-02-23T23:56:00.001-08:00

I hope you'll excuse me for getting a bit sentimental, but as this day draws to a close, it just doesn't seem complete without raising my glass in fond memory of my good bud. That's right folks, The Navigator would've turned 19 today...

In search of the above majestic pose, I spent the better part of an hour sifting through all of the photos I've taken since first hitting the road in The Falcon. Man, there sure are a lot of good times in there, and all that reminiscing has me feeling the itch to get back out on the open road before too long.

Thanks for the nudge, bud.

Back in the Saddle

2013-02-23T20:53:00.001-08:00

As I (and many of you) suspected, a night or two of quality sleep and a little quiet contemplation thrown in for good measure has made all the difference, and with the calendar now totally clear for a while, it's full speed ahead with building my super-cool go-almost-anywhere adventure vehicle. It feels good to be back in this game.

With a few weeks to go before the Bostig kit arrives, I should have plenty of time to complete all necessary work to the van's body, get the windows tinted, and install all of the new window and door seals. I may even get the wheels and tires upgraded by then, which means the van will be sporting an entirely different look before too long.

I got started on some exterior rust repair today, but work is not entirely limited to the van's exterior, as I also began testing my diabolical idea for having refrigeration without electricity. Sort of. Behold:

Since I plan to have a DC-powered freezer (for loading up on copious amounts of the grass-fed goodness), I think I can avoid having a separate DC refrigerator by instead having a cooler and rotating in a new set of ice packs from the freezer every few days. Pictured above is the five-day cooler I recently purchased to test this idea, along with one set of ice packs and Q's handy remote temperature transmitter nestled in between.

And here it is on its way down to temperature...

Believe it or not, that's plenty of refrigerator space for my needs, so it should just be a matter of determining how many ice packs at a time will be necessary to maintain several days of solid 40 degree "weather." I'll be watching things closely over the next several days, so stay tuned for the thrilling results.

Zzzz

2013-02-21T16:36:00.000-08:00

Clawing ashore once again from a vast sea of little black dots, I've found myself staring at the Vanagon over the past couple of days and momentarily wondering to myself just what I was thinking by embarking on this conversion project. It's true. Bona fide second guessing. What can I say? I'm human.

So far, I'm chalking it up to the sobering effects of almost a week away from the project, along with the energy-sucking result of having to churn out so much music in so little time. Not to mention a particularly great gig a few nights ago – just the sort that would make any musician question why he'd ever want to be away from a city where that kind of magic can happen.

Then came an email from Bostig informing me of an unexpected and regrettable two-week delay in shipping my conversion kit. This, I confess, was met with a mix of both frustration and relief. Relief, that is, that I'll have more time to get my head back in this game before things really start to heat up.

Alas. Even us nomads have our dark-ish moments, but it's part of the story, so there you have it. I'm probably just tired. A nice big steak tonight with my Pop as we celebrate the recent Grammy news will probably help. Then sleep. Lots of sleep. The van and all that remains to be done with it should be far more exciting to me after that.

Parts is Parts

2013-02-16T22:48:00.001-08:00

In between bouts with the little black dots, preparation for the big engine swap continues to creep along. A steady stream of various and sundry auto parts has been arriving throughout the week, including a shiny new ignition coil yesterday to replace the cracked one that came with the engine:

The award for obscenely excessive use of packing materials goes to whoever shipped the oil dipstick that showed up here the other day:

There was nothing else in that huge box, and curiously, the dipstick was sitting right on top of the bubble wrap as pictured. To make matters worse, it's not even the right dipstick. Judging from the invoice inside the box, I somehow ended up with a Ford F-250 dipstick that was destined for New Port Richey, Florida. Not even close. How a mistake like that happens in this digital age is a mystery to me, but then, based on the genius-level packing job, I'm probably giving the shipper too much credit.

All that remains on my engine conversion shopping list is as follows:

power steering pump
ECU
mass airflow meter/airbox
motor mounts
alternator
serpentine belt
clutch
high pressure fuel line

I hope to knock all that out in the coming week, along with the pile of work that's keeping me from doing much else, which means I not only should be ready to hit the ground running when the Bostig kit arrives around the first of March, I should have all the body work done by then too.

On Hold

2013-02-15T01:06:00.000-08:00

Aaaaand she's back...

The sliding door, that is. On the upside, I now know how to properly remove it and I also once again have a vehicle to get around in that gets decent mileage (all things being relative). On the downside, as you can plainly see from the lack of tinted bed liner covering the van's exterior, I have gotten precisely none of the planned body work done.

Why put the door back on then, you ask?

Some guy named Oscar is throwing a big to-do in a couple of Sundays here in Tinsel Town, and some other guy is throwing a way-over-the-top party afterwards – complete with 68-piece orchestra. And because all 68 will require a great many sheets of paper covered with little black dots, I'm planning to be pretty busy between now and then. On top of that, my Pop is swooping in for a visit in a few days, so something's gotta give, and it looks like that something will have to be the van. So it goes.

The body work is going to take the van out of commission for several days at least, so I really don't want to start into it until I know I can focus 100% and not drag things out unduly. As a result, in the interest of staying on top of the music work that's rolling in (again, van conversions do not pay for themselves), while also being reasonably free to entertain the old man in a few days, my van efforts will probably be limited over the next week to rounding up the rest of the necessary parts for my upcoming Bostig conversion.

On that note, check out the sexy brand new timing cover that arrived today:

The Power of Ignorance

2013-02-13T01:38:00.002-08:00

A few commenters have asked that I elaborate on my experience with fixing cars – and specifically engine repair. Some may be wondering if I grew up around cars, perhaps helping out Dad in the garage on weekends, dutifully handing him the right wrench on cue, or maybe hanging out after school with the local hot rodders down at the drag strip.

To which I say...HA!

Honestly folks, I doubt if I could possibly have any less experience with engine work. I grew up playing the clarinet, for crying out loud, and didn't even learn to fix my reeds until college. In my family, the one-step approach to fixing anything and everything was simply: "call a professional." Didn't matter if it was the car, the refrigerator, the television, or the toilet. My Pop always said, "I wouldn't ask a plumber to come into my office and do my job, so I'm not going into his office to do his." Some pretty damn sound logic right there, I have to admit.

So no, I most definitely did not grow up around cars, and in fact, longtime readers of this blog know that I continue to insist that I only barely qualify for the label "handy." This raises the obvious question of just where I get off thinking I stand a snowball's chance in hell of successfully completing something as involved as this Vanagon project.

Fortunately, while Mom and Dad never taught me how to swap out an engine, they did see to it that I could read, write, speak clearly, think for myself, and perhaps most importantly, believe that I could accomplish anything I want in life through hard work and determination. Take note, all you parents – do this much and nothing more, forget whatever new age hooey the "experts" are pushing these days, and you too will be Hall of Fame parenting material.

I'd say that those invaluable life skills account for about 98% of all that I've achieved in my 43 years, and the other 2% I attribute to plain old ignorance. That's right – a little ignorance can be incredibly effective when coupled with the capacity for learning, and I dare say it may even be essential.

If I had known up front just how insanely difficult it would be to learn to play a musical instrument at the professional level, I probably wouldn't have bothered to start. But because I did not know (in fact, I was probably naive enough to think, "pfft, how hard can that be?"), I was never bogged down by the enormity of the journey, and instead, I actually enjoyed the process and stayed focused only on whatever the next thing was that I had to learn.

I find that I'm taking the same approach with this Vanagon conversion, and however audacious it may sound, I expect similar results. One step at a time, all in the proper sequence, and giving what's in front of me as much time as it requires before moving onto the next thing. The gearheads out there may be chuckling to themselves and thinking, "it ain't that simple dude," but then, they're discounting the power of ignorance!

I guess that's a pretty long answer to the original question. In short, I have zero experience with this stuff, or I should say, I had zero experience with this stuff until recently. But hey, it's just information, all of which is out there for the taking by anyone armed with enough patience and motivation. And a little ignorance.

The pictures above show the alternator bracket, tensioner pulley, and exhaust manifold heat shield that I scored at a salvage yard this morning. Only a month or so ago, I didn't know what any of these things were, but now I'm shopping around for them at salvage yards, and actually sort of know what I'm doing. Pretty cool stuff.

With the engine situation coming together quite nicely, I officially kicked off work on the van's body this afternoon. The sliding door is now off, and the prep work for my forthcoming tinted bed liner paint job is now afoot.

End Play

2013-02-11T22:40:00.000-08:00

The guys at Bostig advise measuring something called "crankshaft end play" as one of the best barometers of an engine's overall health, and in reading up on the procedure recently while waiting for my engine to arrive, I saw that it required the use of something called a dial indicator. Certain that I had finally come across an obscure tool not represented in Q's vast laboratory, I politely asked if he had one on hand, thinking of the quiet satisfaction I'd feel in stumping the Man at last.

Really, you'd think I'd know better by now – turns out he has three. Of course he does.

In my own layman's terms, this end play test measures the amount of lateral movement along the crankshaft, and too high of a reading means that the engine has probably been around the block a few too many times. Bostig says that anything higher than a miniscule .008" indicates a problem, and with a tolerance that thin, I was more than a little nervous to see the results of this test yesterday.

The photo at left shows the dial indicator zeroed out just prior to my yanking the crankshaft pulley on the other end of the engine, and the photo at right shows the sliver of movement that resulted. Sticklers will point out that it appears to read .0955" or so, but we had the tool set up backwards, so it really only moved .0045" – well within spec. The test was repeated several times to verify, and I was visibly relieved and pumped to get such a happy number each time.

The good folks at Bostig tell me that a brand new crate engine typically scores around a .003" on this test, and that my .0045" means that I have a low-use engine that's been treated very well, and should last a good long while. A most welcome seal of approval!

Buoyed by this crankshaft end play victory, I turned my attention to cleaning various bits of the engine that had suffered from a level of corrosion that I suppose is typical after spending several years on a shelf in Michigan. Q's wire wheel quickly became my fast friend during this process...

I guess you can't see it in the above picture, but trust me, there's very cool wire wheel tool just to the right of the vice. Anyway, this proved to be a job with a dangerous level of appeal to my obsessive-compulsive side, as I happily whiled away the day cleaning off every bolt, bracket, nut, and pretty much any other remotely rusted part I could get my hands on. Great fun!

Grammy

2013-02-10T20:59:00.001-08:00

We now take a break from regular van conversion updates for this bit of happy news:

Long time readers may recall a post from a little over two years ago, wherein I waxed about one of the many benefits of this simple life on wheels – specifically, the short commute. At the time, I was parked for the night just outside an LA recording studio, poised for a session the next morning with the Clare Fischer Big Band.

Fast forward to today, when I'm proud to tell you that the very record we were working on that day, ¡Ritmo!, has won the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album. How about that? I don't know how many other nomads factored into the Grammy equation this year, but at the very least, I know I'm the only one on this record – not insignificant once you see how huge of a production it was.

If you're at all familiar with Clare's work, then you already know the man was an artistic genius of the highest order, so it's great to see this album recognized by NARAS. This is some seriously hip music, folks – and fantastically challenging to play! Grab a copy of your own, and you'll hear your favorite nomad prominently featured a couple of times on the third track, the name of which practically rolls right off the tongue: "Canonic Passacaglia, Blues and Vamp 'til Ready."

Missing Parts

2013-02-09T20:26:00.004-08:00

Our intrepid musician-turned-wannabe-gearhead emerges from several days in the trenches with the little black dots, dusts himself off, and returns to the task that awaits inside Q's garage – a thorough inspection of his new engine to a) determine its overall condition, and b) find out what parts will need to be sourced prior to the conversion kit's arrival in just a few weeks.

He finds the oil dipstick tube bent, the ignition coil cracked, and the plastic timing cover also cracked – small stuff, all of it. Unfortunately, he also finds entirely missing the alternator bracket, the power steering bracket, tensioner pulley, and exhaust manifold heat shield – all parts that the good folks at Bostig indicate are usually included with a salvage yard engine. Not surprisingly, a call to the yard that sold him the engine yields the opposite explanation, and our hero must accept the mistake as his own – not having asked the yard to specifically check for these items prior to purchase, precisely as outlined in one of Bostig's many excellent instructional videos. Take note, future Bostig conversion grasshoppers – ~~read~~ watch the f*****g ~~manual~~ videos!

Alas, just like making music, love, or pretty much anything else in life that's worth making, salvage yard engine purchases rarely come off flawlessly the very first time, so our hero heaves a sigh and calmly does the only thing he can do – begin rounding up the necessary parts to make his engine once again whole. A power steering bracket is quickly nabbed at a salvage yard less than a half mile from Q's compound. It is an encouraging sign, and confidence now runs high that the remaining parts will be tracked down on Monday once the local yards reopen.

In the meantime, our hero gathers a few supplies for the soon-to-begin body repair phase of this project, and then retreats to the Q-lab to resume his engine inspection and tear-down (removing the parts that won't be used by the conversion), all the while taking comfort in the thought that the ultra-low 15,000 miles of action that his engine has allegedly seen means that, once properly re-equipped, it will prove a most worthy source of locomotive power in his super-cool, go-pretty-much-anywhere, most-terrain adventure vehicle.

Hello, Engine

2013-02-06T23:16:00.000-08:00

She has arrived:

A day late, mind you, following some inexplicable boneheadedness on the part of the shipping company, but my new-to-me Ford engine is now off the pallet and safely tucked away in Q's garage.

And yes, Q just so happens to have an engine hoist sitting around doing nothing. What a total badass.

Unfortunately, there was some minor damage incurred during shipping, and a few brackets are missing that should have been included. None of these issues are show-stoppers though, or even terribly expensive to rectify, but nonetheless, I'll be on the phone tomorrow morning to see what sort of compensation I can get from the shipping company and/or salvage yard.

In other news, the tinted bed liner that will soon shield the van's exterior from all evil arrived yesterday. It too is safely tucked away in Q's garage, half of which is fast turning into my personal van conversion laboratory. Fortunately, he's having another two-car garage built in the next few days. As I said – Total. Badass.

I'm pretty swamped with work at the moment, so there probably won't be much happening in the next couple of days other than getting the ball rolling with those minor engine issues. Nonetheless, pieces are falling into place.

Big Box of Rubbers

2013-02-04T23:31:00.004-08:00

That's almost the full complement of replacement window and door seals for a Vanagon – everything but the driver and passenger doors and wing windows (the existing seals for these seem to be in fine enough shape still). Good stuff. Q says the world would be an awfully different place without good ol' rubber, and I have to agree with the man. Rickety, clanky, wet, and of course, far more dangerously overpopulated than it already is...

These new seals do away with the cheesy chrome trim that someone at VW thought was a good idea back in the 80s, so in conjunction with the forthcoming slick limo tinting, this upgrade should bump up the cool factor noticeably. And keep out the rain, of course. If that's not a win-win, then I don't know what is.

The big news of today came in the form of a call from the freight company that's been schlepping my Ford Zetec engine from sunny Michigan all the way to LA over the past week. My 288-pound bundle of joy has apparently arrived in the area, and the spacious three-hour delivery window that I set up for tomorrow sort of takes me back a decade or so, when I last had cable TV. If these freight companies are anything like Time Warner, I expect the truck to pull up in the final minutes of that window. Fine with me though, as I should be getting something way better than 6000 channels with nothing good to watch.

Virtual Progress

2013-02-04T00:41:00.003-08:00

The figurin' continues, and about the only progress I've made on the van over the past week has taken place between my ears and on the several sheets of paper that I've been busily scribbling dimensions and very roughly sketching ideas on. I tell myself that this sort of progress is every bit as important as the kind involving the use of cool power tools, but I'll admit to occasionally fighting off the gnawing sense that things have stalled.

Work has been keeping me a bit distracted too, and looks to continue doing so over the next two or three weeks. In show business, however, that is never a bad thing, and it's not without good reason that musicians have been know to remark, "work is work." Similarly, I increasingly find myself saying, "van conversions don't pay for themselves."

Lately, several times each day, Q happens by the van to find me perched inside lost in contemplation over one corner of the rig or another. It's a lot like figuring out how to put a puzzle together, but without connecting the first two pieces until you can clearly see how all the rest will follow in turn. That's probably not a realistic goal, but I do think I should have a reasonably clear plan in mind before work moves from my imaginary world to the real one. And I'm getting there, slowly but surely.

There has been some "real" progress, mind you. I took apart the dashboard yesterday to fix an intermittent light bulb connection above the tachometer. Hey, it's something. And I've ordered several components for the upcoming phase of exterior body work – most notably the tinted bed liner that will keep me safe during the next zombie outbreak, as well as all-new window and door seals. The new seals won't go in until after the van has been painted and the windows tinted, but they sure look pretty just sitting here.

Then there's the mighty Ford Zetec engine that I recently purchased, whose progress I've been anxiously following as it slowly makes its way from one freight terminal to another. Unfortunately, the tracking web page provides zero location data (and spells "shipment" with two Ps!), so while I have no idea where the engine is right now, I do know that it has passed through four different terminals in as many days. More quasi-progress. And with any luck, each terminal is a bit closer to LA than the last, but that egregious spelling error leaves me thinking that might be overly optimistic...

At any rate, the body work is going to be the next big thing I tackle, as I'm reluctant to do much to the interior until I'm finished slathering various messy substances over the exterior – particularly while the windows are out. As a result, until the tinted bed liner arrives, I'll likely continue to design the interior on paper, research various components of the plan, start placing orders for stuff, and (I hope) continue to make money.

Onward.

Figurin'

2013-01-31T21:04:00.001-08:00

The Three C's

2013-01-30T23:25:00.001-08:00

A good friend emailed me this story yesterday about the Kelloggs – a family of fourteen living in an RV. Full time. By choice. And if the short video I watched is any indication, they seem to be getting along swimmingly. So much for the "well, that would never work if you had kids" argument that I hear all the time.

What's more, it makes the prospect of having an entire Vanagon to oneself look positively bourgeois. Something for me to keep in mind next time I'm in a dark mood and wondering if it's really such a good idea for one person to live in such a small space.

The Kelloggs live in a 36 foot class A, and if we assume it's about 8 feet wide, that comes to 288 square feet – roughly 20 square feet per person. Heck, I've got them beat just with the area covered by my groovy birch subfloor pictured above. That's 25 spacious square feet right there folks, and an almost obscene 45 square feet from the van's rear all the way up to the back of the driver/passenger seats.

Cavernous! Capacious! Commodious!

Climbing the Curves

2013-01-30T01:54:00.001-08:00

Aside from the regrettable loss of a hubcap at some point in the past few days, the van looks pretty much the same as it did a week ago. I'll be upgrading to slightly bigger wheels before long, however, so I'm not too upset about the semi-ghetto look that I'm sporting right now. Nor am I bothered by the apparent lack of forward motion on the conversion, since despite appearances, real progress is indeed afoot.

The tintable bed liner that will soon shield the van's exterior from all but kryptonite is now on order, but that will take a week or so to arrive, so attention has shifted back to planning the interior. This means lots of time spent with the side door wide open, and me standing there visualizing various possibilities, taking measurements, researching the dimensions of various components, sketching different layouts, and most importantly, starting to make some firm decisions.

Then there is the big engine swap that looms, as engine swaps are inclined to do.

This will require my finding an actual engine to use (really!), so I began the search last week, and being new to that sort of thing, the experience was not without some trepidation. After consulting with the guys at Bostig, I was assured that while it may seem wise to splurge on a brand new or remanufactured engine, the huge number of reasonably priced, low mileage Ford Zetec engines out there makes going that route the best option. And given the number of times these guys have been through this process over the past several years, in addition to the well-documented system that has resulted, I decided to follow their advice.

Never having dealt with a single salvage yard in my life, however, a slightly intimidating learning curve had to be climbed, but then, you don't take on a project of this scope without expecting to climb a few curves along the way, right?

As luck would have it, there are at least a dozen salvage yards within a few miles of Q's compound, but after making the rounds over a couple of days late last week, I wasn't too thrilled with what I had found. To the interwebs then, where I have since come to know and love www.car-part.com – a truly massive database linking thousands of auto recyclers throughout the country. This site is a gold mine for finding seemingly any used auto part, and I quickly discovered somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 Zetec engines out there that are compatible with my soon-to-arrive Bostig conversion kit.

Only a week ago, I was completely green on the matter of dealing with salvage yards, but thanks to the very clear instructions that Bostig provides (i.e. written precisely for newbies like me), I became comfortable with the process after just a few tentative tries. It's pretty cool stuff, actually. Call after call to yards far and wide, I was met with such a refreshing level of directness – nothing hurried or salesy at all, and instead, just the facts, the price, and helpful answers to all of my questions.

I'm still not sure why this was a surprise, but I suppose my total unfamiliarity with salvage yards naturally led me to assume there must be some secret code in that world, and that they'd quickly see me as an outsider and treat me as such. Totally not the case though, and I'm happy to report that late yesterday afternoon, I pulled the proverbial trigger on a sweet '03 Zetec with a scant 15,000 miles on it.

In Michigan.

Because you don't just lick a few stamps, sashay down to the corner, and drop 288 pounds of engine into a mailbox, an entirely different learning curve now presented itself. Namely, the subject of freight shipping – just one more part of this whole process with which I had zero experience, but hey, why let a little thing like that deter me at this point?

More interweb research and a few phone calls ensued this afternoon, including a pretty terrifying $1400 quote from UPS Freight (there had to be something lost in translation with the phone rep in India, but I'll be damned if I could figure it out). Fortunately, the good folks at engineshipping.com came through, and for less than a buck a pound, my future engine has now begun its long journey home. I'll refrain from claiming total victory until she arrives safe and sound in a week or so, but it feels good to have gotten this particular ball in motion.

Plenty more learning curves await I'm sure, but a quiet confidence builds as each one fades in my rearview mirror. It bears repeating to those who might still question my sanity in taking on this project – you may prove to be spot on, but as is true of anyone who boldly opts for new challenges over the easy comforts of a well-worn routine, key among reasons for doing so (though not the only one) is the very sense of fulfillment and empowerment that comes from learning to do what you previously could not.

New Rolling Home

2013-01-27T23:43:00.002-08:00

A couple of days ago, I was helping Q put together a new toolbox he had picked up for a song at the venerable Harbor Freight, and it hit me – a guy could live out of this thing!

Slap an 80 watt or so solar panel on the top and you've got a tiltable setup! A modest deep cycle battery on the bottom shelf, and you'd easily have enough power to keep your gadgets juiced. Locking drawers for clothes and other effects, and a convenient handle for pushing...

Maybe put some hipper wheels on it for off-roading...a beach umbrella strapped to the side for protection from the elements. Go ahead and laugh, but it would blow away a shopping cart.

Except for this one.

Trial by Fire

2013-01-27T23:17:00.001-08:00

Quite literally! Here is the cozy scene in the Chinook this evening as I write this...

The device's inventor claims that an oil lamp fueled by liquid parrafin yields the most heat, so I cobbled one together today, figuring that I couldn't very well pass judgement without testing things under optimal conditions. Having gotten all that squared away, I've been putting this clever contraption to the test all afternoon and this evening.

I was pretty underwhelmed until about an hour ago. The directions say that it takes 6-8 hours of initial use to fully dry out the ceramic, which is necessary to maximize its radiant properties. I had been "running" it for a few hours more than that with unimpressive results still, but it seems to be getting much hotter now than earlier, so perhaps my ceramic was particularly soggy to begin with. At any rate, as I type this, the temperature inside the Chinook is holding steady at 66 degrees despite it being about 20 degrees colder outside.

That's not exactly heart-stopping performance, but it's something. The Heeter really does appear to radiate outward in a way that a plain candle does not (there's one burning off frame to the left for comparison purposes), though while I can certainly feel the Heeter's effects sitting right next to it, so far, my gut says that it will prove inadequate for anything more than supplemental heating of one's immediate surrounding area.

I've got enough invested in this little project by now that I'll continue to play with for another day or two, but I suspect that for most people's coldness threshold, the Kandle Heeter isn't a viable primary small-space heating solution. Still, it has its place, it's a neat conversation piece, and I salute the tinkering spirit of its inventor.

Planning

2013-01-27T00:05:00.000-08:00

Rain, work, and perhaps the need for a break have kept me from making much tangible progress on the van over the past few days, but there has been plenty of thinking about the van going on. And that's something, right?

Having wrapped up the preliminary interior stuff (i.e. bed liner, sound deadening, insulation, and subfloor), it's an opportune time for both work and weather to materialize, forcing me to stop, circle the wagons, and figure out the best plan of attack for the next phase.

On that note, I've been busily researching various aspects of the conversion, from the interior components, to my forthcoming engine swap, additional body work, and suspension upgrades. Lots of stuff I knew little about before embarking on this adventure, but thanks to the unprecedented access to information that defines this Internet Age, I am quickly getting up to speed on all sorts of arcane subjects.

For starters, I now have a possible line on what looks like a very solid engine, I have become versed in the terminology surrounding wheel upgrades (things like bolt patterns, offsets, and spacers), I have assembled a clear-ish plan for the van's finished interior, and have begun to locate sources for many of the various puzzle pieces that this endeavor will call for.

A key challenge in taking on a project of this scope is determining the most efficient sequence to follow – one step leads to another, but may first require the completion of some prior step, and failing to realize this in advance can force one into undoing entire days of work. Covering the van's interior with bed liner, for example, would have proven impossible had I installed the insulation first, and while that's a simple enough thing to foresee, figuring out how to navigate the remaining intricate cascade of to-do items before me has been tricky.

Case in point: I received a shipment several days ago containing all new window seals for the van. This will, of course, necessitate removing all of the windows, which I then realized would be the perfect time to have them tinted. I've also been seriously considering painting the van after I address a few surface rust spots and minor dents, and of course, doing that (painting) while the windows are out makes a lot of sense too. See what I mean? It's all interconnected.

As a result, I'm now planning to remove all the windows soon and take several days to fully address the body issues. Meaning a little more surface rust repair, fixing a few dings, and then rekindling my love affair with...bed liner! Tintable bed liner this time, however, as I'll be covering the entire exterior with the bulletproof goodness, but doing so in black just won't cut it for this nomad.

A bed-lined exterior may sound a bit whack-o, but it's actually a popular choice among the Jeep crowd, and for very good reason. Since a primary goal of this go-pretty-much-anywhere, most-terrain adventure vehicle is to, well, go pretty much anywhere and on most terrain, it seems wise to shoot for the same kind of durability that the adventure-prone 4x4 crowd aims for. Plus, the stuff is a snap to apply compared to an ordinary auto paint job, and I think it looks really cool too.

It'll likely take a week or so to get the necessary materials here though, so in the meantime, I'll continue plotting out the van's interior while also rounding up everything for the big engine conversion that's about a month away. Work looks to be a bit crazy in the coming weeks too, and since van conversions don't pay for themselves, progress could be sporadic as a result. We'll see though.

Pictured above, by the way, is the Kandle Heeter that the FedEx guy dropped off today. It's a clever invention that uses the heat from a candle to warm small spaces (allegedly more effectively than just a candle by itself). I'll be experimenting with it over the next few days to determine if one or possibly a few of these might be a good way to heat the Vanagon without having to bother installing a propane-based system. Stay tuned for the results.

Yet Another Coffee Maker

2013-01-24T18:51:00.004-08:00

An influx of orchestrating work and rain have conspired to stall progress on the super-cool, most-terrain, go-just-about-anywhere adventure vehicle over the past day or so, though I did manage to crawl underneath early today and spray rubberized undercoating over the ~~screws~~ bolts that are securing my new subfloor. A miniscule baby step, but rust never sleeps, so an important one.

I figured I'd take advantage of a slow news day to write about the latest gadget to be added to my rolling arsenal. I've been on a mission for quite some time to find the best means of making coffee in a rolling home, and believe I have finally found the Answer. Behold, my new Clever Coffee Dripper:

First, let's look at the quite-reasonable criteria for my search:

Must use zero electricity
Fast clean-up using minimal water
Makes not just good, but great coffee
Chicks dig it

I had been using a basic Melitta single-cup pour-over jobbie for a while now, but have never been wild about the fact that it begins decanting as soon as you start to pour water through it. Putting more grounds in the filter helps avoid coffee that's too weak, but there's a limit as to how far one can go with this. It beats instant coffee though, clean-up is a total snap, and the chicks do seem to dig it (mine was actually given to me by a groovy one).

I've long thought that a French press makes the best coffee, mainly because it allows you to control how long the joe brews before serving, but clean-up is tedious and not practical for those of us with a finite fresh water supply. I tried one briefly last year, but tossed it after a couple of days, so never got a sense of what the ladies thought.

Some of you may also recall the Toddy brewing mechanism that I dabbled with a while back. This worked by making a large supply of coffee concentrate that was then stored in the refrigerator for a week or two. While both the concept and resulting coffee were promising, the need to remain stationary for a day while it did its thing was problematic for a guy who lives on wheels. The honeys were mostly indifferent about it too.

Enter the Clever Coffee Dripper, which I stumbled across on Amazon about a week ago. It functions very similarly to the Melitta, but has a mechanism on the bottom that prevents the coffee from decanting until it has been set atop one's mug. Downright clever, indeed!

As shown above, this allows the caffeine-deprived among us to pour in hot water, cover it to retain the heat, and then let the concoction sit and brew for as long as desired. When ready, simply set the device on top of the mug, and within seconds, a perfectly brewed cup of coffee streams out:

It remains to be seen what the babes think of all this, but confidence is riding high. And yes, I do like a lot of cream in my coffee. Heavy cream, actually, because for us paleo types, coffee is first and foremost an effective fat-delivery mechanism.

Ribs & Nuts

2013-01-22T23:52:00.000-08:00

The adhesive that's holding my sound deadening material and Low-E insulation to the van's ceiling has been holding rock-steady through some warm weather lately, and while I have no firsthand reason to doubt the stuff's stick-tuitiveness, I figured a little bit of insurance couldn't hurt. So I picked up some aluminum strips at the hardware store yesterday and fashioned supporting ribs that tuck and arc into where the van's ceiling meets the wall.

The end result is a comforting level of upward force that should support the layers of insulation and sound deadening material until the proverbial cows come home. Better yet, Q walked by just as I had gotten the first experimental rib in place, and when I explained what I was doing, he paused, and with an unmistakeable hint of wonder in his tone, proclaimed the idea "ingenious." Not a word the former engineer throws around lightly, so I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a little tingly inside.

Moving on, I know the title says "nuts," and below is a picture of a screw...

...but trust me, there's a nut on the other end, and somehow "ribs & screws" just didn't seem to carry the same punch. At any rate, that screw and its corresponding nut are one pair out of five that are now securing my sexy birch subfloor to the van's body. This involved actual drilling through the van's metal floor – never a comfortable thing to do – yet necessary to prevent things from shifting around whenever I'm cruising down some washboarded-out forest road in the middle of nowhere.

There's a sixth screw (and nut!) to install still, after which I'll coat what's protuding under the van with some anti-corrosion goopiness, but alas, the fading daylight prevented me from finishing the job today.

All in all, not the most productive of days, but productive nonetheless. And I did get out for a couple of hours and start the search for a good low-mileage engine too. More on that later, but with over a month to go before the conversion kit arrives, there is plenty of time to shop around for just the right candidate. In the meantime, I intend to bask for a while in the warm glow of that well-earned "ingenious" remark...

Milestone

2013-01-21T23:05:00.002-08:00

Following another fine day of progress, I feel as though a milestone has been reached – having by now repaired all interior rust, bed lined, sound deadened, and insulated the van's walls, floor, and ceiling, I capped off the day by plopping down a 1/2" birch plywood subfloor:

Birch may seem needlessly snazzy for a lowly subfloor, but its key advantage is that it comes in 5' x 5' sheets, unlike the more standard 4' x 8' size of cheaper plywood. And it just so happens that the Vanagon's floor measures slightly larger than 5' x 5'. Therefore, splurging for birch allowed me to install a one-piece subfloor, and somehow, that seemed worth doing.

I still haven't decided if I want to keep going with the insulation and cover the floor of the cockpit area. Based on how effective this Low-E stuff has proven so far, I'm sure it would only reduce road noise even further, but of course, would then necessitate installing carpeting up front to cover it. And I kind of dig the thought of having a rolling home with zero carpeting. Ah well, it's a low priority concern right now, so I'll just continue to chew on the idea.

Back to that milestone, I say it feels like one has been reached because the interior is now officially prepped and ready to be turned into a living space. I have several unorthodox ideas in mind as to how I'm going to do that, but then, I suppose plenty of outside-the-box thinking is essential to living happily in the nook pictured above.

For now, I'm going to slow down for a couple of days to put together a game plan, and in the meantime, I'll start turning my attention to shopping for the engine that will be powering my super-cool, most-terrain, go-anywhere adventure vehicle. My Bostig conversion kit is scheduled to ship out just a little over a month from now, so while the interior conversion remains a priority, it's time to start preparing for the big engine swap too.