VW Syncro Westfalia - Build Log with Pics

[madeouttaglass]

Nicest. Syncro. Westy. Ever.
There may be more radical ones, but this will be the best sorted. Damn.

[Hodakaguy]

Originally Posted by Mr. Fisherman

Wow Tom, that is looking good

What are you preping the axles for?

Going to powder coat the front axles the same color red that the back axles were done in

Hodakaguy

[Hodakaguy]

Originally Posted by ducnut

I did the 4-light high beam conversion on my Silverado. My relay power runs straight off the battery, as it's right behind the left headlight. Where did you tap into? The main power to the panel?
Very "euro". I like it.

The fuse box had a couple open slots on it's power distribution block so I was able to tap in at the fuse box :-)

Hodakaguy

[Hodakaguy]

Since I needed to take the lights out one more time to clean up the wiring I decided to add local grounds at the same time, this should guarantee no grounding issues with the lights.

Soldering and heat shrinking the new ground wire to the harness.




Wiring cleaned up and ground installed.






Hodakaguy

[Mrmerlin]

really like the headlight upgrade,
I would put a piece of 3M paint protectant film on all of the glass,
check out the possibility of using some HID lights for the low beams,
they are reasonable priced and put out lots of light suggest to use 4300kv version for the best light not the 5600 its too blue

[Mr. Vintage]

Lookin' good, Hodaka. What kind of 7" lights are those? I'm just curious what you went with; I have H4 copies on my van and I took a rock to one, so I'm looking for replacements. I think I'll get some of that clear headlight film too - it seems that with their carefully streamlined shape vanagons might be more susceptible to road debris.

[Hodakaguy]

Originally Posted by Mr. Vintage

Lookin' good, Hodaka. What kind of 7" lights are those? I'm just curious what you went with; I have H4 copies on my van and I took a rock to one, so I'm looking for replacements. I think I'll get some of that clear headlight film too - it seems that with their carefully streamlined shape vanagons might be more susceptible to road debris.

I'm using the bosch 1 305 603 038 assemblies. I've used the 3m headlight guard before, good stuff!
Yeah the Vanagon is pretty streamlined lol.
Hodakaguy

[ducnut]

Originally Posted by Mrmerlin

check out the possibility of using some HID lights for the low beams,

If the housing is not a projector beam, a HID bulb will just scatter the light, which blinds every oncoming driver. A projector beam is a lot like pencil beam reflector in that it concentrates the beam onto a desired area. A standard housing isn't much more than a reflector or mirror behind a bulb. If you compare a standard type bulb to a HID bulb, you'll see they are totally different in the way they direct light.

[Hodakaguy]

Originally Posted by ducnut

If the housing is not a projector beam, a HID bulb will just scatter the light, which blinds every oncoming driver. A projector beam is a lot like pencil beam reflector in that it concentrates the beam onto a desired area. A standard housing isn't much more than a reflector or mirror behind a bulb. If you compare a standard type bulb to a HID bulb, you'll see they are totally different in the way they direct light.

This is the same experience I've had with HID bulbs in Non-HID housings. I think the H4's in the grill and a couple HID's on the push bar should work pretty good.

Hodakaguy

[a1fa]

HID is not good on the Vanagon. It will blind oncoming traffic. I'm thinking about replacing my halogen fog lights with LED lights.

[slackmeyer]

The retrofit source has some nice HID projectors for a reasonable cost, to retrofit existing headlights, or mount them up as driving lights. I put one in my motorbike, really nice light and clean cutoff.

[Hodakaguy]

A little powder coating today in preparation for getting the front end back together.

Pre-heating the axles a bit in the oven before heading outside to powder coat.




Hanging to cool down after coming out of the oven.




Preparing the hubs to receive powder.




Finished product.




Hodakaguy

[Mr. Fisherman]

Purdy

[Hodakaguy]

Progress continuing.

Time to get the hubs put back together.

Pressing the new bearing into the housing.





Good thing I saved the old bearing. The old bearing outer race worked great to finish seating the new bearing.




Installing the new Circlip




The old bearing race is also a perfect fit to drive in the new seals.




Pressing the hub into the new bearing. The bearing inner race is being supported from the bottom.






Lookin good.




Finished applying a coat of POR 15 to all the newly drilled screw holes for the center lights, sealed all the connections with Dielectric grease and re-assembled/tested the lights.




Hodakaguy

[Hodakaguy]

Installed the new Rocky Mountain Westy plate bumper today.

Original bumper removed.




And the new RMW Plate bumper installed :-). Oh yeah, that looks a LOT better.










Hodakaguy