Screwing around with a Eurovan!

[Cole]

Well, it makes me sad to say this but the van has been sold.


I decided that it would be worth the most at its peak with the new engine so put it up for sale......obviously I did not ask enough since the deal was done within about an hour of my listing it for sale.

The van isn't perfect but is probably one of the best you can get at the moment.

As part of the deal I agreed to do a bunch of work to make it the ideal van for its new family.

Since I never swapped the top fabric and it still has the original fabric from the 1993 I included a new top installed of the buyers choice for a full price offer. So I will be putting a new grey 3 window cotton top on it!

I also never settled on the tire/shock issue. Part of me wanted to lift the van, part of me wanted to lower it. Either way, it needed shocks at 173k miles. So the new owner chose to lift it slightly. So I will be turning lifting it up a bit, installing HD bilstiens nd new snow tires on the original 16" wheels.

While I'm in there all new pads and rotors, tie rods and ball joints are going on. The van didn't need it, but for a premium price that are going to get a premium van! Best to start with as much new hardware as possible. This van is going to a family with 3 kids so it should start on the safest platform possible!

I'm going to put a Pioneer bluetooth stereo with satelite radio in.

The cool part is we are going to do what I've always wanted to do and ditch the dull automotive grey wood panels. I've got a friend that does wood woofing and we are going to make alder panels for every board in the van!

The new owner also wants an awning so she is having one shipped to me and I agreed to install it for her.

She is going to pick up the van in early November. I will post pictures of all the remaining work!



.......and on a slightly lunatic note! I Accidently bought another 1993 Poptop donor van last night on ebay! Not sure exactly what I'm going to do with it. My wife liked our black van but has always preferred the blue ones! So maybe I will find a good blue one to build, maybe it will get a diesel this time! Or.....if anyone wants one I'd be happy to build one for you for the right price ;-)

 

[Cole]

Working on cleaning up a few things for the new owner.

Today was this silly broken shift trim. It's broken on nearly every Eurovan I see. My toddler broke it off on mine.

I took the broken piece out and went into a plastic supply place to see if they had anything like it. The guy said "no".

That's when I asked about this big black sheet of plastic that was laying there. It's jsut slightly thinner and not as brittle as the stuff the van came with.

He laughed and said "that's just the box liner for the acrylic!" I replied...."how much?" He laughed again and gave it to me! Score!

Works better than stock!

 

[VanIsle_Greg]

More time and money for the Sprinter!!

Sad to see it go, but on to the next thing. Kool van, hope the new owner appreciates all the hard work.

 

[Cole]

The new owner is super excited to get the van for her and her kids. I'm glad it's going to a new home.


I'm on the lookout for a bright blue van with a bad motor if anyone knows of one.

 

[Cole]

Parts! This is only part of what I need but it's a good start for the new owner! Now I need to get to work!

I also used ths as an excuse to buy a blast cabinet for the garage! The stock wheels had some surface corrosion that I wanted to clean up and refinish to mount these new tires on! You can see a stock wheel sitting there on the ground after blasting the center area of it.

 

[Cole]

Blasted and painted the stock wheels. Still need to do a little finish sanding but they are a more metallic silver than the stock color so should look pretty cool.

This is just a teaser photo of the woodwork we are doing. It's just sitting in there and raw in the pictures. It will be oiled and sealed. We are also doing the rear shelf and a few other tidbits to match.

Soldered up a brand new wiring harness for the new stereo that will have bluetooth and satellite radio.

 

[bknudtsen]

You're a good man, Cole.

 

[Cole]

You're a good man, Cole.

I need to quote that before I do something evil :coffeedrink:l..and thank you!

And......Opps!.....figured it would be parts for a future project. :Wow1:

I need a bright metallic blue MV now with a bad engine. Anyone?

 

[bunks-tj]

im impressed, I mean i have been throughout this entire build, but there are not many people that would do all the upgrade work after a sale, that you are doing. Now i just have to talk you into selling me your next one.

And......Opps!.....figured it would be parts for a future project. :Wow1:

I need a bright metallic blue MV now with a bad engine. Anyone?

cant wait

 

[Cole]

im impressed, I mean i have been throughout this entire build, but there are not many people that would do all the upgrade work after a sale, that you are doing. Now i just have to talk you into selling me your next one.



cant wait

Honestly, there were some things that I felt were not "finished" on the van but required some level of "choice"! Things that needed to be done to command top dollar! So for a full price offer I gave the buyer the "choice" of how to finish those things out. We also discussed a few other options while we were at it. Some of them I tossed in there because it wasn't that much more work. Like the tie rod ends, I didn't expect to find play in them but did so I said I'd cover those since I represented then as good. They new owner paid for some of the other things to be done. So the final price is actually quite a bit above my ask now.

This van was so close to being nearly new on everything it would be a shame to cut it short with just a few things.


Here is today's update!

New larger tires mounted up on the freshly painted wheels!

Almost all of the interior is back out for the stereo install. Safelite antenna had to be run to the back, bluetooth microphone in the A pillar, etc!

The new 3 window top arrived today so the old top came off.

 

[Cole]

Satellite radio receiver installed behind passenger dash panel.

New bluetooth stereo installed. It's actually the stereo that was in my 951 since I'm going to to a hidden stereo bluetooth set up in that car.

New 3 window top!

 

[Cole]

I could post all the nitty gritty detail pictures but I'll save you guys the pain.

Yesterday the van got all new tie rods, all new discs and pads, new HD Bilstiens, one new lower ball joint(other one was new last year), I fabricated some rear spring spacers and lifted the van.

New wheels and tires web on, media blasted and painted shock mounts and lug nuts.

I'm missing one VW center cap! Anyone have one?

 

[VanIsle_Greg]

Wow...looking great. Nice rig!!

 

[Cole]

Upper bunk finished (trim needs bolted down but I'm not done with a few things.

Fiamma 45 Awning 95% installed in stealthy black!

 

[Cole]

One thing about all German cars in the early 2000's is that they used a stupid "soft touch" coating on many of the places in the car you touch.

The problem is that the coating wears off and looks like crap! This is a huge problem on some of the early 2000s Audi's where the stuff was used EVERYWHERE!

Fortunately on some cars like the Audis there were early non-soft touch cars to scavenge parts from.

You would think this would be the same with the Eurovan as the 1993 van doesn't have soft touch. BUT.........the parts in the later VR6 vans are different than those on the early vans. (might be able to get it from a 1997-1999 van but the parts are tricky to find)

Anyway. The Eurovan uses this stuff in only a few spots and it has been driving me nuts.

So I figured I would clean it off. Here is an example on the passenger grab handle.


....and after removing the soft-touch
[url=https://flic.kr/p/pyAk4M]