Need to take care if a heat leak...

The bus is running weekly and it passed another MOT with no comments. The inspector said this was a joy to inspect.
But I've found that I need to take care of leak of the worst kind - the defroster package is leaking when the heater is turned to hot. Which means I have to disassemble the entire dashboard, steering column and the heater core... sigh.
Time to clean up the garage and make it happen. No treat no surrender.

Not much lately

My plan to fix the filler cap rust and repaint the van rhis summer didn't go according to plan. The time went to some other projects. On the other hand the outcome of those projects will hopefully give a positive result for the entire Vanagon community.
Like they say on radio; Stay tuned. :)

We had a great time in Denmark at the west side. The kids were more in the water than on land. The big brother is getting good at the surf board now and he is not five yet.

Roof rack result

This is it!

Roof rack making

Made it yesterday. It is made out of 44 mm exhaust pipe. All feet stand on a rubber pad and it is tightened to the roof with rivet nuts and stainless allen key bolts. I can stand on the middle without flex.
Actually, now when it is on the van it looks a bit tiny. Should have gone with 50 (2") or 62 (2.5") pipe and larger feet to get better proportions. I will add thicker rubber plates at least to get thicker bases. Any how, pretty good resultat for a few bucks.

Roof rack inspiration

I think the Navara style of roof rack will look good on a Vanagon. Leta make one.

Filter box tested

Works like a charm and way more quiet than before. The ridiculously bad ass bottom torque is less aggressive now, so there is more resistance now. I don't care, the van still runs great and makes black smoke.
There is some resonance in a specific RPM range but I skip that for now. I changed the rubber hose to one which is larger. The first version was a fraction too small and strangled the engine a bit - without the resonance though - and this one is a kind of a compromise. Freeway cruising became a breeze.
All in all, very satisfied.

Filter box build

Two more pictures.

Filter box build

The noise from the open cone air filter is really annoying. I made a new filter setup with a SAAB filter. It is made out of PVC pipes, ABS and polycarbon. Mostly glued together with melt glue. I added a drain pipe as extender going up in the left rear column.

Always. Do not trust a solenoid

Been fighting with a very annoying problem when the engine is hot. It randomly doesn't start. If I waited a few seconds it always started instantly. I even added this very fine lift pump bit it just helped a bit.
Now comes the interesting part, the solenoid was not fully working when it went hot! I switched to another one from an old vp37 pump and it kicks Every time!

I left the the lift pump. It doesn't hurt in any way. It actually do good.

Thanks to all who involved at thesamba.com!

Brand new rear lights

My uncle brought me these. He was a service workshop manager and they stopped using Transporters long time ago. He found these in the spare parts department and they sure look nice. Brand new Hella's. Never used.