Pete & Teri’s Next Big Adventure

After owning two bays, it’s quite novel to have the good Vanagon heat. The rear heaters are prone to leaks after 20 years, however, which can create a nasty mess. Around my rear heater, the floor padding was moist and icky, and you could see the steam pouring up if you turned it on.

(washer fluid has nothing to do with the heater)

I found a reliably rebuilt rear heater pretty cheaply. When I’ve done the swap, I’ll assess my current one and maybe rebuild it and throw it up on ebay. I’ll also need to add some ductwork to use the heater under my “new” ’68 Westy Z-bed.

The rearmost seat turned out to be worse than I thought; someone had cut the metal frame apart and made their own wooden thing, which was primitive and coming apart. I harvested fabric for future repairs to the front and middle seats and took ‘em out.

The backrest of the rearmost seat hinged on two studs into the wall. I removed the trim panel and tried to get a grip on the nut I expected to find on the other side. I could feel it, but it wouldn’t budge. Felt around again and realised it’s welded onto the frame. Removing the seat was easily accomplished by turning the studs with a pliers (click photo for larger version)

My antenna was snapped off at the base, and at $50 a proper OEM replacement is not at the top of my list. The solution? A fourteen-inch $12 flexi antenna from the local Strauss Auto. The base that came with this went into my “interesting parts for something” box, leaving the antenna with a protruding bolt on the bottom which screwed neatly into the stub of the old mast.

I am trying to avoid bothering with “for now” repairs on this one, but you can’t drive in NYC without traffic reports from 1010 WINS.

AM and FM reception is wonderful now.

Saturday was warm and dry – finally got something done!

The previous owner had lost the door keys, and I suspect that’s why the left sliding window had no lock on it; that’s probably fine in rural Pennsylvania, but not in Brooklyn. The stupid little threaded pin thing that was missing of course cost $15, but it’s worth it to not have an unlocked car overnight.

Parts:

Latch handle (original was intact):

Latch pin ($14.95 at gowesty.com)

Spring:

Dry fit the handle over the little hasp that protrudes from the window and move it into the down position. Window should slide freely. Try sliding it up when it’s over one of the little notches in the frame, and it should lock in. Move it to the front one, for the closed position, and see how well it fits. If you loosen (careful, they’re short) the screws holding the hasp to the window, you have a little play to adjust the positionfor a snug close. If your fit is fine, check those screws for tightness and make sure the gasket’s ok.

To assemble the thing, you put the handle over the little hasp that protrudes from the window, fit a spring into the recess on top of the pin, insert the pin through the hole in the bottom of the handle…and then hold it in place for a minute wondering how you’ll ever turn the screw, which is now up inside the handle. You have about 1″ of space between the opening and a prodtruding bit of car interior, so it’s necessary to run off and fetch one of those screwdrivers with a 90 degree bend near the tip. You’ll want one as close to 1″ as possible, to clear the body yet go far enough up to seat the pin.

Then have fun turning a flathead screw when you’re restricted to 180 degrees of movement, and that only if you press the tool into the fragile side panel or remove it. Brilliant but somewhat sadistic engineers they’ve got in Deutchland.

$69 for a Thule rack and $35 for the oven out of an old RV, gotta love that!

Ended up going with this oven, which I expect will have to be reconditioned at a propane place…owner claims it’s in fine working condition, but can’t take chances with propane. If it can’t be made safe and dependable, I’ll probably just go the Coleman stove route…but the idea of baking brownies and bread miles from “civilization” is so tempting…

It’ll be a while before the van’s ready for them, but I’ve some neat gadgets coming…

“Mr. Heater Portable” pumps out up to 9000 BTUs using propane, in a supposedly indoor-safe manner. Only consideration is that it uses up oxygen, so there should be some ventilation. I’d never sleep with it on, but it’ll come in handy when I can’t wait for the warm weather to go camping.

The 12-volt Koolatron cooler will keep myperishables ~40 degrees below ambient temperature with moderate current draw.

A Solarflat 15 solar panel will keep the battery (2nd deep cycle battery to be added for appliances) topped off. Ordered with charging controller that can keep up to 4 such panels sorted out.

This old Westfalia sink will get a new pump, plus fresh and gray water tanks. Goes into the cabinets I’ll build.

The other big appliance is the oven….wait, OVEN? Yeah, the usual two-burner Westy cooktop just isn’t going to cut it when I want to bake bread in the middle of nowhere, so I’m bidding on a couple of tiny oven/stove combos pulled from dead RVs. 17″x20″x19″ on average, one’ll fit nicely. Still trying to figure out a propane tank solution other than the $300 for a new Westy tank, guess I’ll end up getting a used one and having it reconditioned.

Jet engines would be pretty cool, but are unlikely to happen.