1981 Vanagon Westfalia. 90k original miles on body. Fully converted to ultra simple mechanical TDI powerplant and built to be fully self sustaining off grid with on board solar and ultra lightweight lithium battery bank. Asking $37,500 obo.
Everything has been gone through, and it'd be much easier to list the things that haven't been replaced or upgraded. Like the sunvisors. Those are totally original. Way more invested than asking price, with the receipts to back it up.
Lots and lots of reciepts. Just had the transmission custom rebuilt for freeway cruising and diesel torque. She gets 27mpg cruising at 70mph all day long. Very special rig that we built for the sole purpose of driving to South America.
We never made it to South America, but she's been to Guatemala and back, and the headliner is a collage of all the maps we used to do it.
Edit: Finally took a moment to write down all the recent stuff.
It's been a west coast vehicle its entire life. Sold in San Diego, spent some time in Washington state, then I bought it after it'd made it's way back to San Diego. I got it 3 years ago with 47k original miles on it, in absolutely pristine condition. My girlfriend and I drove it to Guatemala and back while it was still aircooled. We converted it when we got back with the intention of taking our travels even further.
The paint is original and still in beautiful, shining, condition, but it's old nonetheless.
The TDI motor is a 1z from a 96 or 97 Passat. It was professionally rebuilt 22k miles ago right before it was installed for the conversion.
It has a Cummins Diesel 4bt pump running it, built by Westy Ventures. The entire engine runs on a single wire, no computers needed. It has an intercooler with fan in the D-pillar, and a diesel airbox with air snorkel in the opposite d-pillar.
The entire cooling system is brand new, since the van never had one to begin with. Has all proper stainless coolant lines, new heater core in the dash and all the under-hood hoses are silicone, so they should outlast the van.
The transmission was done 4k miles ago by German Transaxle in Bend, Oregon. It has hardened racing 3rd and 4th gear sets, with a taller 4th gear for freeway cruising. It has a 4 spider super diff for dealing with the increased torque. With the oversized tires and tall ring and pinion, the gear spreads are nice and even. But even with tall gearing it'll still crawl up a forest road at 5 mph with the diesel's bottom end power. We regulary get 27mpg with it. I've gotten as low as 22mpg, and had one amazing trip with a tank at 29mpg.
The van is lifted on Syncro and Moog springs, with rancho 9000 adjustable shocks in the rear and bilstein HD's in the front. The 215/75/15 General Grabber All Terrain tires and Vanagon South African wheels have less that 7000 miles on them. They're proper Vanagon 15'' wheels, so there's no spacers or mods holding them on.
I had a water leak from the Westy water tank last month, so the entire interior was gutted, all the floor pans were cleaned, prepped and coated in POR15. Dynamat was put down, insulation installed in all the walls, and the headliner and side panels were pulled down and redone at the same time. The doors still need dynamat and insulation. But otherwise the interior has been restored, quieted and insulated.
The auxiliary battery system is lithium. NOT lithium ion polymer (the stuff that blows up). They are lithium iron phosphate. Which is the safest form of lithium and the only type that get installed in RV's.
It's got 100 watts of solar on the roof, Victron MPPT controller with bluetooth output (you can monitor the whole thing from you phone), feeding into the 100 lithium amp hour battery pack. 100 lithium amp hours is about the same as 200 amp hours of traditional batteries, since you can only use 50% of a traditional battery, but all of a lithium one.
Basically the summery on the electrical system is that it's 1/4 the weight of traditional batteries, 1/2 the size, charges exponentially faster, and the battery has a 10 year expected lifespan. The whole system reads out on a 3.5'' LCD screen for full on board monitoring of battery levels, current going in and out, etc.
It's got an inverter for running house style electrical components, and aux, usb plugs for anything else. There's a 12V Dometic Fridge Freezer included with the van. It's a pretty old fridge, but it's always kept the beer cold and doesn't require leveling like the stock westy fridges.
.
The steering and suspension are tight and straight. The ball joints and most of the suspension bushings have been replaced with urethane. All the brakes, front and rear, have just been recently done. The axles are all rebuilt with genuine German CV's and the high dollar rockford boots.
Interior bed was reupholstered and refoamed. Has a hidden kill switch to prevent theft. Has a safe that can fit an 11'' macbook air, passports, phones etc.
There's plenty more we've done to it, and I could probably spend way to much time writing it out.
Anyway, it's a Volkswagon, so it'll always need something. But this one is definitely a good looking, turn key adventure rig with a lot of love put in it. She looks fairly stock, but it doesn't take long to know she's been tastefully modified everywhere that's beneficial.
Also comes with screens for rear and side door, ARB awning, front and rear tables, Gary Lee ladder with jerry can holder and dual bike racks. I have stilts for the solar panel if you want to mount surfboards under it. Also has quad lift assist for heavy loads on the roof.
Everything has been gone through, and it'd be much easier to list the things that haven't been replaced or upgraded. Like the sunvisors. Those are totally original. Way more invested than asking price, with the receipts to back it up.
Lots and lots of reciepts. Just had the transmission custom rebuilt for freeway cruising and diesel torque. She gets 27mpg cruising at 70mph all day long. Very special rig that we built for the sole purpose of driving to South America.
We never made it to South America, but she's been to Guatemala and back, and the headliner is a collage of all the maps we used to do it.
Edit: Finally took a moment to write down all the recent stuff.
It's been a west coast vehicle its entire life. Sold in San Diego, spent some time in Washington state, then I bought it after it'd made it's way back to San Diego. I got it 3 years ago with 47k original miles on it, in absolutely pristine condition. My girlfriend and I drove it to Guatemala and back while it was still aircooled. We converted it when we got back with the intention of taking our travels even further.
The paint is original and still in beautiful, shining, condition, but it's old nonetheless.
The TDI motor is a 1z from a 96 or 97 Passat. It was professionally rebuilt 22k miles ago right before it was installed for the conversion.
It has a Cummins Diesel 4bt pump running it, built by Westy Ventures. The entire engine runs on a single wire, no computers needed. It has an intercooler with fan in the D-pillar, and a diesel airbox with air snorkel in the opposite d-pillar.
The entire cooling system is brand new, since the van never had one to begin with. Has all proper stainless coolant lines, new heater core in the dash and all the under-hood hoses are silicone, so they should outlast the van.
The transmission was done 4k miles ago by German Transaxle in Bend, Oregon. It has hardened racing 3rd and 4th gear sets, with a taller 4th gear for freeway cruising. It has a 4 spider super diff for dealing with the increased torque. With the oversized tires and tall ring and pinion, the gear spreads are nice and even. But even with tall gearing it'll still crawl up a forest road at 5 mph with the diesel's bottom end power. We regulary get 27mpg with it. I've gotten as low as 22mpg, and had one amazing trip with a tank at 29mpg.
The van is lifted on Syncro and Moog springs, with rancho 9000 adjustable shocks in the rear and bilstein HD's in the front. The 215/75/15 General Grabber All Terrain tires and Vanagon South African wheels have less that 7000 miles on them. They're proper Vanagon 15'' wheels, so there's no spacers or mods holding them on.
I had a water leak from the Westy water tank last month, so the entire interior was gutted, all the floor pans were cleaned, prepped and coated in POR15. Dynamat was put down, insulation installed in all the walls, and the headliner and side panels were pulled down and redone at the same time. The doors still need dynamat and insulation. But otherwise the interior has been restored, quieted and insulated.
The auxiliary battery system is lithium. NOT lithium ion polymer (the stuff that blows up). They are lithium iron phosphate. Which is the safest form of lithium and the only type that get installed in RV's.
It's got 100 watts of solar on the roof, Victron MPPT controller with bluetooth output (you can monitor the whole thing from you phone), feeding into the 100 lithium amp hour battery pack. 100 lithium amp hours is about the same as 200 amp hours of traditional batteries, since you can only use 50% of a traditional battery, but all of a lithium one.
Basically the summery on the electrical system is that it's 1/4 the weight of traditional batteries, 1/2 the size, charges exponentially faster, and the battery has a 10 year expected lifespan. The whole system reads out on a 3.5'' LCD screen for full on board monitoring of battery levels, current going in and out, etc.
It's got an inverter for running house style electrical components, and aux, usb plugs for anything else. There's a 12V Dometic Fridge Freezer included with the van. It's a pretty old fridge, but it's always kept the beer cold and doesn't require leveling like the stock westy fridges.
.
The steering and suspension are tight and straight. The ball joints and most of the suspension bushings have been replaced with urethane. All the brakes, front and rear, have just been recently done. The axles are all rebuilt with genuine German CV's and the high dollar rockford boots.
Interior bed was reupholstered and refoamed. Has a hidden kill switch to prevent theft. Has a safe that can fit an 11'' macbook air, passports, phones etc.
There's plenty more we've done to it, and I could probably spend way to much time writing it out.
Anyway, it's a Volkswagon, so it'll always need something. But this one is definitely a good looking, turn key adventure rig with a lot of love put in it. She looks fairly stock, but it doesn't take long to know she's been tastefully modified everywhere that's beneficial.
Also comes with screens for rear and side door, ARB awning, front and rear tables, Gary Lee ladder with jerry can holder and dual bike racks. I have stilts for the solar panel if you want to mount surfboards under it. Also has quad lift assist for heavy loads on the roof.
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