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Shiny things you no longer want / FS: 2002 EuroVan GLS

« on: September 25, 2020, 04:51:36 pm »

We need to let this van go as we acquired a used Sprinter (the 118" passenger van AKA an oversized Eurovan).

~200,500 miles.  Green with tan interior. The van has a VW bed installed and CaveVan flooring. We do have maintenance/repair records for our ownership and the previous owner. The van runs fine but needs a new front heater core. It is a salvage title so it is definitely AS-IS condition. Asking 3,000 OBO.

We are in the Corvallis OR area - either pm me (Sherry) or text 408-310-2672 (Terry).

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Interior! / Battery Drain

« on: August 21, 2016, 03:10:25 am »

Not sure where to post this but here goes:

The FrankenVan has been draining the battery - and we can't figure out why. Electrical we have had done: both door wiring harnesses have been replaced. The driver door harness in June 2015 and the passenger door in September 2015. In April, I installed a new radio. Everything was fine. This summer we were in the NW -- no problem with the van on the way up. Stayed with a friend, parked the van on Sunday night, tried to leave on Tuesday morning -- dead battery. Made it back to California with the friend's battery charger just in case. (side note: battery is 2 years old, according to previous owner's paperwork).

A few more instances of charge the battery and have it drain over night -- after some electrical sleuthing, DH thinks it's the new radio and/or the door locks causing a parasitic drain. Disconnect the battery while parked and reconnect to drive works.  Of course, I'm not so thrilled with this "solution".

After a couple of weeks, we do replace the battery. Drain still occurs. Next solution is to pull the radio out and pull the fuse for the locks (which means each door must be manually opened by the key). I went to start the van today and of course, the battery is drained. Any clues where to look for the culprit?

Honestly, we were thinking of selling the van later this year but my car, a NB TDI probably will be totaled this week (DH was side-gouged and the rear axle damage will cost more than it's worth) and I need a reliable vehicle until we can replace the Beetle.

(If anyone wants a perfectly maintained 1.9L TDi engine with 101k miles, check the Sacramento salvage yards later this week).

3

Westfalia / Flooring & Bed Install

« on: August 21, 2016, 02:22:10 am »

Last August I bought the CaveVan Official Flooring and tore out a bed/bench from a 1993 for install into our 2002 salvage EuroVan. My husband and I have some definite ideas of what to do with the van, of course it's been a lot of back and forth.   A few things got in the way (thank you Valley Fire 2015), but now I have time for some pictures and notes.

Bed/bench Notes:  Sanding rust and painting every metal piece of the bench frame & storage boxes was fine. I like painting. On the other hand, cleaning the seat itself was a chore I don't want to repeat! It took two days with a carpet/vac cleaner from the hardware store. I intend(ed) to reupholster the bench and seats in a retro green plaid as the van is a tan interior and the grey seat simply doesn't match.

Flooring Notes: Seeing a few posts on the Interwebs about the carpet being glued to the floor, I expected a mess in removing it. Big surprise, the only glued section was around the floor vent (and not very much). We decided to keep the option for installing the seat behind the driver. This meant cutting holes in the plywood and vinyl. The holes edges are beveled to allow the flooring to be gently pulled into the well created by the bolts/posts (no sharp edge to cut the flooring). You can see one of the seat posts in the floor in the third picture.

Disagreement ensued with the method of attaching the flooring to the plywood. I am a chemist. He is an engineer. I wanted adhesive. He went with fasteners along the edges (basically screw/washers painted the same color as the flooring. Several months later I could point out why this was not a good idea... My intent was to pull the bench out and glue this over this summer but fixing the fire damage took priority (FYI, we won the fire lottery and still have a home). So, the floor is still fastened mechanically.

Once the flooring was installed, the bench and storage boxes went in easily. The van is now usable for light camping and hauling people and/or things.

4

Westfalia / And so it begins... GLS to MV to Weekender

« on: September 01, 2015, 10:33:41 pm »

Winter is coming so I have been gathering the parts necessary to convert the Eurovan GLS to an MV (and someday, I hope, a Weekender).  We pulled out the rear seat/bed, frame including every bolt plus the rails and supporting cargo boxes from a 1993 MV. I also pulled the side trim panel for the table and the trim around the window as well.

The rails & frame have been sanded, primed and painted. The plastic back of the trim panel was a bit cracked so that required some repair also. Parts are now sitting in the cabin and I await the wonderful CaveVan flooring (just ordered it tonight!).

He has a question – he was reading somewhere on the interwebs that when the bed is in the down position there is hardware to lock the bed in place. Is this true and if so, what is it? Does any one have a picture? We pulled everything we could (including the longer rear catches).

My question is how much of the '93 interior can I use in the '02 – specifically, can the rear left interior panel (around the wheel well) be swapped in? (the non AC side).  I can see that the rear AC unit would interfere on the right side. Can the rear door/hatch panel be swapped in? Would the front passenger door panel work?  I confess it is a bit OCD to want the interior to be uniform (I know it will function no matter what color). Parts vans are hard enough to find much less vans with tan interiors (and I like the grey better).

I did mention this van was a salvage title?