The work continues!

1

3 days straight cleaning/painting/rust proofing!!

Giving the van a tidy up underneath, mostly suspension and wheel arches. Also going around the outside patching up the little paint chips. Not a professional job by any means, but all the spots are rubbed back, treated and painted in a OK match to the original colour. Mostly around door edges etc. Thank fully no rust found so far!

Coming week end I will get under the window seals as best I can to clean and get some rust preventer in there. I will be replacing all the windows soon, but want to get this done for now.


The big job however was the rear CV's. The left outer has had a faint ticking on left hand turns for a few thousand KM now, so thought I'd replace all the rears. Bum of a job as the protection bars under the engine need to come off also, but the biggest issue was I could not remove the CV's from the axles. In all my years with VW's have never had that issue. In the end needed to setup on a press to remove the old and install the new!!

At least that is done now, took it for a quick spin last night and all is good. Still have to re-install the bars under the engine (what a pain!) and re-install the front/rear bumpers removed to get access behind them for cleaning up.


Interesting though the wear on the CV's is quite minimal in the "bad" CV, had similar wear in the right inner also. The other two (left inner, right outer) hardly any wear at all. Could have easily turned them all around and continue using them (drive them in the opposite direction). Was a bit of conflicting information on direction to install them, so I went with the most logical which was the chamfer on the inner race onto the spline first leaving the flat face to sit against the retaining clip.


Richard

2

Been a little quiet, hope that means everyone is on their way to Valla!


My Syncro is still not back together yet. After all the external work, have since gutted the interior and doing a lot of little fixes/upgrades/mods. Can't even remember all the little things I've done, but it's the usual start doing one job, end up doing 5 more that you notice while in there.


The good news is no real rust internally on my bus. Very glad this one live in Alice Springs for the first 1/2 of it's life!! Did clean up the battery tray area through and where I could get in put some body wax type spray inside.

Few random shots and a brief list of some of the work:

3052 - Added a flap to the front panel where the heater exits to your feet so you can direct heat to your feet or not as required (good if your passenger want heat but you don't)

3058 - Pockets I've decided on for the front doors. One is an original style, the one behind it is similar and fits under the captains chair arm rest, the mesh one is quite thin. I have lined with material, but will do a better job on this if it proves useful. Have done the same for the passenger door. All painted to match original interior.

3059 - The foam in the glove box was falling apart, so tied up in there, and figured I'd paint inside while at it. The light colour makes it easier to see inside also!

3061 - Battery area all cleaned up, including a matt to help prevent corrosion in there. Old foam from under the seat ripped out and new rubber matt in there. Also the newly installed "ERPS" (rust protection)

3065 - some repairs to the door liner (mainly where some one cut it away for the speaker)



3

And some more

3070 - walk through area, heater channels removed and all clean out. Just 28 years of dirt in there, but did find three holes in the floor, two where the hand brake would mount to in LHD, and one between the hand brake and driver seat. Not good in a Syncro so plugged now. Added a bottle holder (drivers and passengers), nice neat stainless ones that fold out the way, mounted the fire extinguishers and added a cigarette lighter/USB charger (direct to battery)

3072 - Dash trays yet to be modified and installed (not sure which one I will use yet)

3075 - Added a passenger door light - have also put one over the rear door, both work perminant on, or with the door switches. With LED bulbs and 5 lights, it's nice an bright at night time, 30W in total. The rear one also lights up the engine bay.

3076 - rear cab stripped out, mainly to run the ERPS cables, but ran speaker cables for future development, and a cable to (hopefully) remotely turn the rear heater on/off.

3092 - Have run cables to go to the dash tray, direct battery power, ignition on power, dash light power and earth. More on this if/when installed.


Currently working in the back of the van tidying up around the AC.


Richard

4
Looks like good progress Richard.

Hurry up McValla has already started and the big weekend is looming.

My dash tray is like your lower one.

I didnt know that was still available.

See you up there.

Cheers,

Scott


On 30/07/2018 4:25 PM, cathrich1@yahoo.com.au [Syncro_T3_Australia] wrote:

And some more

3070 - walk through area, heater channels removed and all clean out. Just 28 years of dirt in there, but did find three holes in the floor, two where the hand brake would mount to in LHD, and one between the hand brake and driver seat. Not good in a Syncro so plugged now. Added a bottle holder (drivers and passengers), nice neat stainless ones that fold out the way, mounted the fire extinguishers and added a cigarette lighter/USB charger (direct to battery)

3072 - Dash trays yet to be modified and installed (not sure which one I will use yet)

3075 - Added a passenger door light - have also put one over the rear door, both work perminant on, or with the door switches. With LED bulbs and 5 lights, it's nice an bright at night time, 30W in total. The rear one also lights up the engine bay.

3076 - rear cab stripped out, mainly to run the ERPS cables, but ran speaker cables for future development, and a cable to (hopeful ly) remotely turn the rear heater on/off.

3092 - Have run cables to go to the dash tray, direct battery power, ignition on power, dash light power and earth. More on this if/when installed.


Currently working in the back of the van tidying up around the AC.


Richard


--
Best regards, Scott Pitcher SPB Consulting
5

Yes, lots of hurrying up required, just a pain work gets in the way.... Still planning to get there!!

Few places have that "factory style", but they are two piece (has an extra panel underneath/inside). Still not entirely sure which is best to use and mount yet. Hopefully I can mount without drilling the dash also which will be nice.



---In Syncro_T3_Australia@yahoogroups.com, <spbconsulting@...> wrote :

Looks like good progress Richard.

Hurry up McValla has already started and the big weekend is looming.

My dash tray is like your lower one.

I didnt know that was still available.

See you up there.

Cheers,

Scott


On 30/07/2018 4:25 PM, cathrich1@... [Syncro_T3_Australia] wrote:
 

And some more

3070 - walk through area, heater channels removed and all clean out. Just 28 years of dirt in there, but did find three holes in the floor, two where the hand brake would mount to in LHD, and one between the hand brake and driver seat. Not good in a Syncro so plugged now. Added a bottle holder (drivers and passengers), nice neat stainless ones that fold out the way, mounted the fire extinguishers and added a cigarette lighter/USB charger (direct to battery)

3072 - Dash trays yet to be modified and installed (not sure which one I will use yet)

3075 - Added a passenger door light - have also put one over the rear door, both work perminant on, or with the door switches. With LED bulbs and 5 lights, it's nice an bright at night time, 30W in total. The rear one also lights up the engine bay.

3076 - rear cab stripped out, mainly to run the ERPS cables, but ran speaker cables for future development, and a cable to (hopeful ly) remotely turn the rear heater on/off.

3092 - Have run cables to go to the dash tray, direct battery power, ignition on power, dash light power and earth. More on this if/when installed.


Currently working in the back of the van tidying up around the AC.


Richard


--
Best regards, Scott Pitcher SPB Consulting
6

Fabulous Richard. Any tips about installing the passenger door light. Been on my to do list for a while. Hope to see you at Macksville.

Peter from Port

7

Other than scary to cut the roof lining, not that hard. Measure accurately from the drivers side for the cut, start small! Make the cut like a cross pattern. Again look at how the drivers side was cut at the factory, material is not removed.

There is a plastic cover over the hole the light clips into, it just pops out and the cable is laying inside the channel.

From there it's just cutting the cover back and exposing the wires to tap into.


Make sure the battery is disconnected as the power (red) is live. On the switch side, match the connections to the drivers side. Brown to the bottom (to turn light on permanent), brown and white to the top (on/off with doors).

I soldered the new cables onto the existing which was a challenge up in the opening, but maybe was over kill.


Only real issue was the roof lining is quite tight and the light does not pull it back as neatly as the drivers side. Maybe the roof lining was a little more pliable 28 years ago!


Certainly worth the effort.



Never added this picture earlier, rear vent covers. Comes up quite neat!


Richard

8

Dash tray finally in. Did not go as planned, decided in the end to use the "factory style", measured a dozen times before cutting to sit neatly on Caravelle dash with padding.

Disaster, never noticed the ash tray location in the tray did not match my dash!! The hole in my dash with ~30mm further back.

The other dash tray I didn't use has the ash tray in the same location as my dash.


Anyway, persevered with this one as I'd already started cutting .Only real issue is the ash tray does not sit in the hole properly.

Also mounted extra dash lights and cigarette lighters in there.


Not the best picture, but an idea how it looks with all the new lights up front!!


Hopefully putting the bus back together tomorrow for a trip down to Macksville!


Richard