1

Exterior / Re: Grill stripes, GTI styling with a twist

« on: November 01, 2015, 10:08:24 am »

Good touch! You use that color as an accent anywhere else?

yeah.. I changed it from a Eurovan to a Kombi.. on 3 occasions now people from Brazil have gone out of their way to tell me they like it... lol



I also picked up one of these just have to decide if I'm painting the wheels or going with the stock silver before I stripe them http://store.tapeworks.com/6030.aspx

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Exterior / Grill stripes, GTI styling with a twist

« on: October 10, 2015, 12:06:05 pm »

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General Discussion / Re: T6 Multivan pics from Wolfsburg / Autostadt Germany

« on: September 25, 2015, 11:56:04 pm »

lol @" Almost like they are making up for the years of the T4 when it had no glovebox...."

Wonder if there's a pop top version?

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Exterior / Re: T4/Eurovans with custom paint!

« on: August 24, 2015, 01:21:44 pm »

it's a wrap

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Show off your projects here! / Re: Building "Dylan", Bob's 2003 Eurovan Weekender.

« on: July 09, 2015, 05:07:11 pm »

I've got to redo the sliding door rail on mine too.. that old anodizing or whatever it is has worn away over the years

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Show off your projects here! / Re: Project Lucille -- EVW VR6 Manual Conversion

« on: June 18, 2015, 11:07:26 pm »

Don't read too much into sludge. It's not always a lack of maintenance that cause an engine to sludge up and a clean engine doesn't always mean it was well taken care of (matter of fact a higher mileage engine with a lack of sludge usually means somebody poured some miracle in a can cleaner in it). Higher operating temperatures stop and go driving, lots of short trips add to sludge build up every bit as fast as not changing the oil regularly.

Sludge is created by any number of factors, todays engines tend to be worse because of the higher compression ratios we're seeing and the higher oil temps both of which lead to faster break down of the oil.

if you're staying on top of oil changes, keeping it topped off, making sure the car is always running properly there's really not a lot more you can do to avoid sludge. It happens

Edit: I want to add another cause too many short trips where the engine never really gets up to operating temp. This allows moisture build up in the oil, creates foaming which in turn creates sludge

7

Exterior / Exterior Detailing Stuff

« on: June 10, 2015, 09:20:58 pm »

Maybe a thread to show little tricks we've learned over the years on keeping the outside nice...

What got me to make this thread is my 03 Black Pearl had pinstripes that sine I got the van have needed to be dealt with since basically the color of the stripe had long left to the great hot rod shop in the sky while leaving behind the base vinyl and adhesive... I tried wax, polish, goo gone, goo off and many other tricks like a heat gun and plastic razor blade which worked but it would take me a week easy and the results were less than satisfactory but now my mind is made up so darn it those things are coming off this week!

So I'm at the car wash and I ask them and the guy says we'll get it off for $250, call a detail shop and he says $300 (eek, a week worth of heat gun and box of plastic razor blades doesn't sound that bad)

Today I'm at a buddies shop helping with his BMW and the detail shop next door is working on a old Porsche (another detail shop) and I'm watching and realize he's taking off some pin striping, what a coincidence! I watch as he goes back and forth with a cordless drill with some type of mini pad on it, when he takes a break I go over and ask what that is...
 
"pinstripe eraser" he tells me. He shows me it's a giant round eraser just like you use for erasing paper...(pardon my french but wtf how cool is that?)
I've been around cars and shops my whole life, even painted a few myself and I can't tell you how many times I've detailed a car but I'd never heard of one of these things

Off I got to the auto paint store, 35 dollars lighter and I head home... I just did the whole left side in about 40 minutes and that's with me getting the hang of the speed and angle to go at.. Got too dark to work so I'll finish up tomorrow..

Here's a link, should any of you have a set of crusty old pin stripes that need to be removed
http://3mauto.com/3m-adhesive-eraser-wheel-03612.html

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Interior! / Re: Show us your stereo!

« on: June 09, 2015, 10:27:23 pm »

I love that Apple Play... Saw them at Best Buy, just not sure I want to jump through the hoops it would require to do it right

9

Interior! / Lighting options

« on: June 09, 2015, 10:21:32 pm »

Saw these lanterns when CNN was doing a story on the founders, cool product, great story and a better cause

http://luminaid.com/

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Interior! / Re: Show us your stereo!

« on: June 09, 2015, 07:47:35 pm »

It's not cheap and you could modify your own but a Reinforcement bar for a double din stereo install is available

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Show off your projects here! / Re: Cole, a quick question on the "Pop Top" conversion (Conversion thread?)

« on: June 09, 2015, 07:36:38 pm »

awesome.. thanks Cole

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Show off your projects here! / Cole, a quick question on the "Pop Top" conversion (Conversion thread?)

« on: June 09, 2015, 09:39:22 am »

How much height does the pop top conversion add?

Just trying to figure out if I need to lower my van a bit... I have underground parking at the condo right now, I have about 6'' of clearance.... or so lol

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Show off your projects here! / Re: Auxiliary Battery

« on: June 01, 2015, 10:27:41 pm »

They are big, there's no denying that... just a bit too tall to slide under the back platform...

I'll just leave the kids at home...lol

BTW still on track to do the poptop conversion Cole, just moving the timing until later in the summer to even discus it, but i'm still all in. I ended up with a big project in my lap (which is good) but it's a time killer so when i see that i'm about clear of that (late Augustish)  we can figure out when to get the van to you.. i want to do it at your convenience within your time table and want to know i can commit to you an be where i'm supposed to be at the right time

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Show off your projects here! / Re: Auxiliary Battery

« on: June 01, 2015, 09:41:22 pm »

I like the idea of having a second battery in the van so if i do need a jump I'm covered, with 3 daughters the chance of a dead battery run fairly high...lol

It should be an isolated system like in the link to the system you posted...  What i need is to power some things without ever having to tap into the vans system

That being said the Yeti is looking very cool but if I were to go that route I might go with the ArkPak http://www.arkportablepower.com since it's power source is a standard car battery and can easily be replaced in the middle of nowhere...


I spend a good deal of time at the racetrack using a laptop and having a way to recharge it on the fly would be a bonus, as would the second battery... right now i just have a extra  laptop battery i tote along with me

I've  also wanted to add a shore power line, like this guy did http://www.instructables.com/id/Adding-Shore-Power-to-a-VW-Camper-Van  nothing crazy basically just a cleaner way of running power inside instead of an extension cord through the window i usually use...

just a socket on the outside and a plug on the inside that would be totally stand alone but now you got me thinking with a yeti type system I could also tie in the charger to the shore power so should i get to plug in i can charge that up too while working since both the yeti and arcpak are a bit slow to charge

15

Westfalia / Re: Seat covers for driver and front passenger seats for 2003 EV WE

« on: June 01, 2015, 04:08:27 pm »

The Wet Okole seat covers are the best. If you take your time and install them properly they fit fantastic and they look great. The color combinations/styles available are crazy...

Honestly I don't think you can get a better seat cover... pricey but still the quality is there