Sir Sam

Ok so I figured I would make a thread just for this, otherwise I feel like it would get buried in my westy thread. So I am using a product called quiet car. Its pricey, but for the amount it covers it is cheaper than dynamat. It's supposed to be quicker to apply than dynamat, and can be used like undercoating too. Here is the website for anyone curious: http://www.quietcoat.com/ It cost $500 for 10 gallons. The way I am using it that should be enough to coat every non visible surface on a vanagon. I have about 75-80% left of my first 5 gallon container. So here we go: This is two coats of quiet car with the sprayer: This is one coat, you can see where there are areas of white showing through, it looked pretty uniformly covered when wet, but when it dries it turns a darker color that shows where I missed coverage. Another coat applied: First coat on the floor: Third coat applied on rear: Fourth coat on side panel, 3rd on floor:

decent price there, its also very fixable, for a minimal monetary investment and plenty of your labor you could have that thing looking perfect again. I would make an excellent DD. I say go for it.

Have you posted on, www.thesamba.com ?

The check engine light is on when the engine is running?

Ok I got the fiberglass pop top and luggage rack painted today, I started painting the roof only to have the new paint pull away like there was a wax or grease on the roof. The roof had been scuffed and washed, but there still remained something that caused problems. Stopped painting the white on the roof and got more primer on. Tomorrow morning when it is cool out I will spray the white roof. By getting the roof painted and then doing the rest of the van later will allowing me to move forward with getting the tent canvas on the pop top, and getting the pop top installed. This way I can continue onto getting the sound proofing installed, and then after that the interior done. Two weeks from now I want to take the van down to Ouray for labor day weekend. Gives me two weeks from today to get the camper done on the inside. Otherwise, I sure love white, pure white is the way to go, contrasted with dark tint windows and flat black lower trim it will look good. This is the sound proofing material I will be using, I have 10 gallons of this stuff so hopefully I can get lots of coverage in the van. Its a water based product that is supposed to be low oder and no VOC(since its water based). From the product information and reading around online about it its supposed to do a better job that dynamat and is easier to apply for less money. I guess time will tell how well it really does. If anyone is interested here is the product website: http://www.quietcoat.com/ And the reprimed roof waiting for paint tomorrow:

Got the roof prepped for the new roof, got the new roof all cleaned up and straitened out. Sprayed weld through primer on the areas to be welded. Got the hinge brackets welded on. Need to get some more trimmed at the front where I am making my lap weld. Then I've got tons of welding to do. Hopefully I can wrap up the welding tomorrow and then start on bodywork. You can see the copper colored weld through primer here:

No one is making enemies. We are having a discussion that had gotten very far off topic.

There are legal ways to import vehicles. Motorex used to import skylines, they had to petition to get them as an acceptible import, showing crash data and emissions data. They also had to modify lights and such to meet US DOT regs. Motorex then had all sorts of data supporting that they could then import a vehicle, and they were the only Registered importer that could do that. Additionally the supporting documents they had were considered proprietary, so anyone wanting to do what they were doing would not be able to use their research, and would have to prove everything all over again. It's not as simple as "all cars come with cats." To import on a federal level you need to show compliance with all bits of federal emissions regs(which are never tested fully at the state emissions testing level - ie diesel only get opacity tests, not NOX, CO2 particulate etc emissions). There are legal ways to import, and thats why you VERY SELDOM see some things for sale. You'll also note they bring huge bucks because they are already imported in the country. Lots of cars are built in other countries and then shipped here(just look at the first letter of the vin for country of origin), the difference is that it is built the USDM specs for sale here. There are US spec vehicles abroad, and they can be shipped into the US without issue. Some european manufacturers used to offer programs where you could buy your car, pick it up and tour the factory it was built at, and then drive it around in europe for your vacation. Then when you were done you would drop it off at the factory, fly back, and it would be shipped to you like it normally would.

Got the donor roof off, ended up deciding to do it a little differently than most people. Going to leave the roof above the drivers head, and make the seam just behind where the cargo rack bolts. I will overlap the front roof with the donor roof and put in a series of spot welds. Pictures: Only used 3.5 spot weld cutters, this old steel if soft! I used about 10(for much fewer welds) replacing the roof panel on my 2005 Jeep Liberty. Time to cleanup the garage and start deconstruction on the '91.

not really, I don't know all the details but it is possible, i was going to buy a mini cooper pickup truck down there and was plannin on bringing it up, i know its alot of paper work and you have to be able to pass emissions up here, at least that was what my mom did when she moved up here 28 years ago, and my uncle jus brought up my great uncles ford galaxie from mexico city all the way up to ohio and I'm pretty sure he has it registered and everything up here, but who knows it mightve changed since then Your two examples have no relivance to importing a new vehicle. Any vehicle 25 years old needs no considerations when importing them. But any new vehicle, there is a plethora of things that you are going to run into when trying to import one. The easiest way to get around that is to import the body and the drivetrain separately. The benefit of mexico being someplace you can drive is that you could possibly buy a vehicle there, and drive it back over the border without a bunch of problems. However you will have problems when you goto title that vehicle in the US. This is where it gets tricky, you can go through the same process as you would if you imported a vehicle separate from the drive train, or just use an existing US title like you would have for the ford ranger you already own. There's a reason you don't see diesel XJ's, and diesel JK's, diesel smart cars, diesel town and country's, gasoline twin turbo 300zx's etc etc. The process ain't easy and its a lot to risk. To top it off the whole thing is a logistical nightmare waiting to happen.

They make 4 door rangers? Mexican 4 door ranger: http://www.ford.com.mx/vehicles/gallery ... ection=EXT There are tons of stuff made in mexico not seen in the us. Like the Dodge Ramcharger... They continued making them in MX. : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAyAI8DlxVM http://www.angelfire.com/pa2/MattInTheH ... arger.html Rob L. yup ive seen them both, when i started driving i wanted a standard, 4x4, 4 door ranger with the diesel engine they come with, at the time my buddy had a durango, and he wanted the newer version of the ram charger(2 door durango) Thats all fine and dandy, but there are los of logistical problems in getting a vehicle in from mexico.

They make 4 door rangers?

Got my parts on last night, had to rush between when the Jeep was in the shade, and when the misquitos came out, overall about 2 hours to remove the old parts, get the new fender on, adjusted, and then transfer everything from the old header to the new one. Looks pretty good, but like an idiot when I was adjusting everything I never closed the hood to check my gaps. I really need to bring the passenger side fender in, and the drivers side fender out, for the gaps to be perfect. Oh well, I sure as hell don't want to pull the header back off to do that(at least not now).

Some fridge modding: So today after running the fridge all night with both inside and outside fan on I have Data: Overnight low temps(with both fans on): 66/32 Thats 66 degrees F outside, and 32 degrees inside the fridge. By comparison the night before(with inside fan on only): 66/35 So at night the inside temperature was further improved by the rear fan running. Additionally after observing the temperature during the daytime(where outside temps are 80-90F) with and without the fan running, it looks like the inside temperature was different by about 5 degrees. So in addition to the inside fan, and replacing the outside fan. I think I might place two 120mm fans(as pictured on the floor behind the fridge) side by side blow the lowest cooling fins. Then using a piece of scrap aluminum sheet place it over the back off all the fins. The idea being that I want to increase the airflow over the cooling fins, rather than just blowing air past in the general direction. I'm going to do everything I can to milk cool outta this old dometic! In general I have noted everything from a 32 degree difference on the low end, to a 48 degree difference on the high end. Some pics:

Personally I wouldn't mess with a generator other than for backup. I would setup a system with solar power, and possibly solar hot water heater. This website has very cheap solar panels, many people I know of are getting the 130W panel for their VW vans: http://www.affordable-solar.com/kyocera ... panels.htm (thats probably some of the best pricing you'll find) Toss in a couple of cheap deep cycle batteries from costco, run your interior lighting on 12V (12V flourescents, 12V LED's) There are even a good number of 12V fridges that work better than the old ammonia-obsorbtion fridges run by propane that only pull 1.5-2.5 amps) Harbor freight also has some various solar powered floodlights/shed lights that could be nice to have outside your front door type of thing(or maybe by your generator) like this: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=94747 Sounds like fun, I always wanted to setup a cabin like that!

I dunno, but I am thinking about emailing a jeep picture to see what she looks like.

http://denver.craigslist.org/cto/1318411547.html I am looking for a decent car,truck,or SUV that is reliable,runs great,looks good(not beater),95' & newer. I am willing to pay some cash and can also trade my erotic services.I will exchange a pic of the car for a pic of me. SERIOUS INQUIRES ONLY! NO TEXT PLEASE! I'm in my mid 40's.I have blonde hair,green eyes,busty,and attractive..I am about 5'6 and 130 pounds. Hot,sexy,fun,and intelligent. If you think u have what i want & need and if i have what you want and need then feel free to give me a call anytime. (720)365-3830

Ya it looks like dupount makes the Nason stuff. Limco which I usually use is made by PPG IIRC.

Single stage, Nason.

My old roomates chairs, he said it was ok to paint on them.

waterborne?

Clipped a bambi on my way down to ouray for the 4th of July. Made out alright on the damage, got a $2200 check from insurance. So I've been running around taking care of other things, and even though I've had my parts for a month now I finally got around to painting them. I used some low VOC paint I got in california(which is where I painted the fender the first time), this is weird stuff, has a odd smell, but not much of a smell compared to a urethane or acrylic. What I like about this paint(and also what I don't like) is that it doesn't set up very quickly. Which makes it a little longer to spray something, but when you do finish your final coverage coat and have good color on everything, you let it sit, and 20 mins later it glosses over nicely. Then an hour later its still too tacky to handle. After about 1.5 hours I moved the parts out into the sun to let them cure. I will let the parts cure overnight and then again in the sun tomorrow before installing them thursday morning. With fresh paint when you apply pressure(like when trying to get a fender to go into place) you can leave imprints if it hasn't cured 100%.