1

Westfalia / Re: Weekender Bench seat cargo door mods....

« on: February 27, 2017, 07:39:23 pm »

Yes - those door/panels. This thread on The Samba has details on what I came up with:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=662099

Currently working the kinks out of the initial very small test production run. (If anyone would like to receive a notification when they are available, feel free to PM your email address.)

2

Want to buy something? / Wanted: replacement door steps / sills, for 2002 EV Weekender

« on: August 30, 2016, 08:07:21 pm »

The sliding door step on our 2002 Weekender is discolored with the white spots they get, and also has had some ugly yellow glue spilled on it which apparently isn't coming off anytime soon.

I'd like to replace that sill with something black, and recall having read that some of the earlier Eurovans (maybe 1997-2000?) have black sills there plus also on the front doors, all of which can fit on the newer Weekenders. Is that accurate? Would like to get my hands either just a replacement sliding door sill, or all three. Prefer black, but could live with grey.

3

Interior! / Re: Coating for the plastic entry wells?

« on: August 10, 2016, 11:16:28 am »

Thanks Bill -- very helpful!

4

Westfalia / Re: Westfalia Weekender aux battery, upgrades, solar, etc thread.

« on: August 08, 2016, 06:00:09 pm »

Cole, thanks for posting this -- helpful info.

I recently bought a Renogy solar panel suitcase (http://www.renogy.com/renogy-100-watt-12-volt-monocrystalline-foldable-solar-suitcase/) to supplement and charge our aux system when I'm in hardcore "parked, mobile office" mode. Took it on its maiden voyage this past weekend and like it so far -- simple, easy, and flexible in use.

Unrelated (and prior to) that, it's looking like our aux battery is needing replacement (it not been lasting long at all with the cooler on). My question for any and all: any recommendations re: battery type? i.e. should I be looking for a deep cycle battery / gel / etc.?

5

Interior! / Re: Coating for the plastic entry wells?

« on: August 08, 2016, 05:32:39 pm »

I'm dealing with this too, on our sliding door sill (though, oddly, not the front door sills). It's on my list to figure out how best to approach (i.e. paint, buy replacement part, create a new alternative part, etc.).

Our sill also has some adhesive or similar spilled on it, which fills in some of the pattern in the step area, so it will likely look funny if I paint it. I'm probably going to try anyway, just to learn some things about the toughness of a few of the plastic paints that I have.

That said, that sill is on my "long list" to remake in some hard, rubber-like material. We'll see.

Meanwhile: does anybody know if any of these sills (side door, front-left door or front-right door) are still available as new parts?

6

Westfalia / Re: Interior paint/dye

« on: July 19, 2016, 04:04:53 pm »

Thanks for the reply! Your strategy is essentially what I have resorted to, except I am using SEM's color chart that I happen to have. Getting ready to order four close contenders, to add to my collection. Here's hoping! 

7

Westfalia / Re: Mercedes "Marco Polo"

« on: July 19, 2016, 04:00:29 pm »

I have no affiliation with either of them, but researching similar trains of thought when we bought our Weekender, I came across these two companies which seem to be doing interesting things in the North American "pop-top" space:

http://reimoamericas.com/van-concept.html
If I recall correctly this one seemed to be some entrepreneurial importer who has arranged a partnership with Reimo to represent them in the States. They are actively exploring Mercedes Metris conversions, and seem to be making some good progress: http://reimoamericas.com/updates-posts.html

http://reconcampers.com/
I like the ambition of this guy's byline (given how neglected the small pop-top camper market is in North America): "The Future of Pop Top Camper Vans in the USA"
He looks like a one-man or few-person shop, with the Metris only on "future horizons," but it looks like he's done some pretty nice work on a Nissan NV200 conversion that is now complete.

8

Westfalia / Re: Free Rear Bench Seat Doors!

« on: June 24, 2016, 07:25:49 pm »

I looked last nice. No perfect faced doors. Sorry.

"A" for effort. Thanks for checking! 

9

Westfalia / Re: Testing/Troubleshooting Weekender Cooler

« on: June 23, 2016, 03:31:23 pm »

We didn't know if ours worked either when we bought it. We ended up testing it out while bringing it home, with restaurant leftovers overnight in a fairly warm part of California. At that time, I wasn't even 100% certain the van had two batteries/electrical systems, so it felt a little risky. 

I was surprised by how quiet it was, and though it doesn't get "super cold," I'd heard it was "just a cooler" so didn't think it would get very cool at all. It was plenty cold for the task at hand, and ran all night without problem.   It's not "instantly cold" though.

Have you tested it by, say, putting a bottle of ambient-temperature water in it and leaving it on for a while? Maybe a second bottle in the open part of the van, and compare the temperatures of each after a few hours?

10

Westfalia / Interior paint/dye

« on: June 23, 2016, 02:29:45 am »

Any recommendations for interior "rattle can" paint/dye(s), that near-perfectly match the various grey plastic parts in 2000-2003 MV Weekenders? Needing some for my prototyping experiments, and having difficulty finding a dead-on color match. (I've got quite a collection of these spray cans now...  )

11

Westfalia / Re: Free Rear Bench Seat Doors!

« on: June 23, 2016, 02:26:06 am »

Let me look when I get home. I think I have something that would work.....

Any luck? 

12

Interior! / Re: What rattles and how to fix it

« on: June 23, 2016, 02:19:50 am »

The Westfalia poptop is adjustable. The pin that locks down into the roof has a lock nut on it. Free it and you can adjust the pin tighter to hold your top down tighter.

Did NOT know this. Very useful to know -- thanks! Pretty sure much of our "creaking" sounds come from this and the bunk boards (which you also mention).

Thanks again!

13

Westfalia / Re: Free Rear Bench Seat Doors!

« on: June 13, 2016, 07:07:37 pm »

Thanks for the reply. I'm located in the Central Valley of California. (Can PM an address to mail to if you'd like.)

14

Westfalia / Free Rear Bench Seat Doors!

« on: June 10, 2016, 08:45:27 pm »

I'm working on designing a modified replacement bench seat access door (I do a lot of product development work in my day job, so this is my idea of fun ). The intent is produce somewhere between a few dozen and a few hundred units as an initial short production run. We'll see where it goes from there. It seems many people are missing these, and there is currently no place to get them.

These are the doors I'm referring to:


The easiest way to get this project rolling would be if I could get one that has a like-new face to start from. My plan is to revise the back (I think the OEM back is ugly, and, much worse, the tabs always break) but keep the face fairly close to OEM. Both of the access doors in our Weekender are too scuffed up to be usable for this approach, so I'm trying to find one that's in good cosmetic shape (on its face side).

Do you have ONE with a clean, like-new face? Maybe you have one good one, but need second one?

Or, maybe you have one that looks fine on the face, but has broken tabs, and is thus unusable? (That would work fine for what I need.)

Here's my proposition: send me your access door that has a like-new face (I'll even BUY if off you if you want), and I'll send you TWO of the finished replacement units for free, once I'm done.

Had an offer from someone who said they'd send me one, but they've gone dark for some reason. I'm eager to get started, so am putting this out there in hopes of finding a donor panel to work from.

Please PM if this is something you'd like to help with.

Thanks!

15

Interior! / Re: Removing side screens

« on: June 09, 2016, 10:51:13 am »

Answered my own question w/impatience and a little brute force. 

For others' reference later:

I found this post on Vanagon window screens:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=412537

It appears they are very similar to the Eurovan ones.

I pried the lower-back corner loose, and slid the screen back and forth a bit to loosen it up. Then, pulled hard on the top, and it popped out. From there, pushing down a bit gets the tabs on the bottom clear of the metal frame they are grabbing.

I had to be quite forceful on the top, but be careful on the bottom -- that's where the tabs are that you don't want to break.

Hopefully helpful info to someone looking here at some point in the future.