I've been building my van out for almost two years now. The last major part of my build is paint. Paint has been something that's been in the back of my mind throughout the whole build. Should I paint the van? Should I change the color? Should I get a cheap re-spray at Maaco, or spend a ton more and do a proper windows-out paint job? What about Monstaliner, or Plasti-Dip? With so many options, it was something I wanted to give myself a while to think over. Earlier in the summer of 2016, Teri and I made the huge decision to sell our house, and most of our possessions, and travel for at least a year in the van from California to Patagonia. That decision radically changed my approach to the van, and the choices that I would make in my build going forward. The van was no longer going to be a toy for the weekends, or short road trips, this would be our home. It was at this point that I realized that everything I did to the van from now on would have to be very thought out, and of the best possible quality. The last thing I wanted was to embark on this adventure of ours ill prepared. No doubt, things will still break, but I would do my damnedest to build this machine to be the best version of itself before we departed. Having made this change, it was no longer an option for me to go the cheap route, a Maaco paint job wouldn't suffice. I thought long and hard about Monstaliner, which is inexpensive, DIY, and gives you an interesting and very tough finish. I could paint it over top of my existing paint, and the cost would come in at around $500. This option, however, would still leave the van with lots of the small dings and dents that simply painting over wouldn't fix. In addition, my now 35 year old window rubber was starting to fray in places, and the idea of them failing in a tropical climate gave me the shivers. I wanted the best, and the best option was to strip the van down to bare metal, pop out the dents, fix any rust found, remove the windows and then apply several coats of good quality paint, and a layer of clear-coat. Then after painting, reinstalling the windows with new window rubber. This option, at a reputable body and paint shop in California, would run me anywhere from $6,000 - $10,000 USD. At this point, suffice it to say that I have quite a bit invested in my Westfalia. I'm well beyond the point of no return from an investment standpoint, however this van is going to be my home, it's going to take my family and I around the world, and I have no intention of ever selling it. I would constantly remind myself that from here out, only the best would do. That being said, the prospect of yet another huge expense, following shortly after my Subaru install, transmission rebuild and upgrade, interior rebuild with in-dash A/C, and high top install (all within the last six months), and all at a total cost of around $30,000, wasn’t something that appealed to me. I still wanted the best, but knew there had to be another way. I’ve been traveling to Baja, Mexico for the past decade since I moved to California from New York. Despite all of the crazy things that I've always been told about it, personally I've never experienced anything but nice people, chill vibes, and mind blowing tacos in Mexico. “Better be careful down there,” old timers would say to me, “my buddies, friends, neighbor was shot/stabbed/robbed/beheaded down there, you couldn't pay me to go to that place”. My usual retort was that I wasn't all that interested in going to Mexico to score drugs or prostitutes, activities which were more likely to expose you to the seedier side of the country. And all of my adventures south of the border have thus far confirmed my suspicions that if you mind your own business, are polite, friendly, and keep your activities legal, then you have little to worry about. Sounds kinda like a blueprint for staying out of trouble here at home too, doesn't it? On a recent trip to Mexico, I passed a paint and body shop and wondered what the price and the quality might be at a shop in Tijuana. I began researching and found that there were many people online who had brought their cars to Tijuana for paint. I began pouring through car forums and quickly realized that taking your vehicle south of the border for paint and bodywork was sort of a quiet secret in some circles. In fact, many Porsche and VW guys had taken their Split window buses, bugs, and 911’s to Mexico for years. The price savings were immediately apparent, the numbers posted by others were 1/3 to 1/4 the price that I had expected to pay for similar work in California. But what about the quality? Strict environmental regulations in the U.S., and California in particular means that the quality and durability of the paint used here in the states is not what it used to be. Mexico is not bound by these regulations, if this is something that bothers you, it's worth considering. My goal is to get the best possible paint at the best possible price, so this was not a concern of mine. Workmanship? Many of these guys have been doing bodywork and paint the old fashioned way for decades. Labor is cheap, and it still makes sense there to bang out body panels, and do body work the right way. Many shops in the US will simply use Bondo to fix body panels because the cost to hammer out dents is just too high. What about safety? One thing that kept coming up in the comments on all these forum posts regarding Mexican paint shops were the warnings from others that their cars would get stolen without recourse. “If you take your car down there, you’ll never see it again”. Similar to the exaggerated stories of imminent death or dismemberment upon stepping foot into Mexico, it seems like many of these fears are unfounded. So far I have been unable to find a single confirmed case of a car brought to Tijuana for paint and then disappearing. In fact, many of the body shops in Tijuana have been around for decades. Reputation is important, yes even in Mexico, and I'm sure long ago savvy business owners realized that if their customer's cars were to disappear, then new customers would stop coming. It's just simple economics and business practice, especially for these little shops who are family owned and their auto shop is their main bread and butter income for their families. Let's summarize the reasons why you should get your cars bodywork and paint done in Tijuana: It's way cheaper, the paint quality is higher, they still perform bodywork the the right way, and it's safe according to the research. So then why wouldn't you want to get your car painted in Mexico? Despite everything I've said, there will still be many people who couldn't be paid to drive to Mexico and then leave their car for painting. Whether it be due to fears or politics, or whatever, these people cannot be convinced that this is a viable option. Also, despite my belief that this is a completely safe endeavor, the fact is that it is more risky than taking your car down to your local body and paint shop. You do in fact have very little recourse if something goes wrong, and there is some inherent risk anytime your doing any transaction in a different country and culture, whether it be for car paint, for dental work, or for business. This is part 1 of a multipart part series on my paint experience in Mexico. When we receive the van back, and drive it home to the US, I'll reveal the outcome of the work and make a final determination on if painting your vehicle in Mexico is worth the time and hassle for the low cost. Stay tuned!
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Orange County California, St. George Utah, Aspen Colorado, Evergreen Colorado, Yellowstone National Park, Grand Tetons, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver B.C. and back again. The first of several long road trips I had planned for the summer got off to a hot start. The first days’ drive from home to St. George Utah turned into a 7 hour drive though hellish temperatures. As soon as I hit Victorville, California the temperature skyrocketed to over 100 degrees, hitting 109 in Baker and 112 in Vegas. Without A/C, I had no choice but to drive as fast as I could in hopes that the increased airflow at 80mph would offer me some relief from the inferno outside. 80+ MPH and 7 hours through 100+ heat. My Subaru 2.5 motor, now with 3,500 miles on it and with my coolant related issues behind me, ran flawlessly. Coming from the 2.0L Air Cooled motor, I was curious how the new motor would handle extreme heat as watching the Oil Temp Gauge climb steadily was something I was used to with the old motor. I was pleased that the coolant temperature stayed consistent the entire drive! Success! I stopped for the night in a motel (too hot to sleep in the van) and woke up early the next morning for the rest of the drive to Evergreen, CO. Everything was going smooth, and about 6 hours into the drive, I pulled off in Grand Junction, Colorado for some gas. I noticed that there was a slightly odd sound and feel coming from the shifter/transmission when I pulled off. After filling up, I pulled back onto the highway and a mile or so later felt a slip in the transmission. Worried that maybe it was a engine problem, I checked the gauges, all systems normal. Every few seconds the transmission would slip again. Fortunately I was coming up to a exit on the highway and was able to pull off. As I searched for a VW shop in Grand Junction on my phone, I thought to myself how fortunate I was that the Van waited until I was in a decently sized town to act up, the previous 6 hours had been spent driving in triple digit heat through hundreds of miles of no man’s land devoid of cell phone service. I quickly located a shop nearby and made the decision to try to limp the van the 2 miles. Slowly, with my emergency blinkers on and without shifting out of 2nd gear, I made my way to The Foreign Aid. I was met there by the owner who grabbed the keys from me and drove the van down the block and back. “Yep, your main shaft is F’d, you’re going to need a new transmission,” he told me. Steve (why are all these guys named Steve!?) was a little rough around the edges. A tough old Harley guy, I could feel him sizing me up, trying to gauge how much he could get away with. My response was to begin spewing as much Vanagon and Transaxle knowledge I could muster, complete with part numbers in a attempt to say to Steve “I know enough to know when I'm being hustled, so don't try it.” A number of phone calls and several hours later, and we had established that there was not a single Air Cooled Vanagon Transmission anywhere within the Western U.S. that was rebuilt and sitting on a shelf for us to order and have delivered to the shop. The only option would be to drop my transmission, and send it off to a rebuilder, then ship the transmission back and replace it. This could take several weeks at best he implied. Phone calls were put in to many of the best known names in the Vanagon parts business. Finally Rocky Mountain Westy referred us to a gentleman in Colorado Springs named Mr. Gas. This Mr. Gas fellow (Real name: Greg Sayers) claimed that he could get my transmission rebuilt in about a week and began to explain to me in detail all of the different things he would be doing to the transmission and a laundry list of upgrades that I should consider. Thrust plates, Limited Slip Differentials, Steel Cage Bearings, Main Shaft Bearings, Gear Ratios, on and on. My head was already spinning, probably from lack of hydration from the desert heat and 1000 mile drive, and I did my best to write down all of the terminology that Greg was sharing with me for later research. I immediately liked Greg, he struck me as knowledgeable, and confident, without being a know-it-all or pushy. He sounded fair and honest, and gave me the impression (over the phone nonetheless) that he could get the job done on time and on budget, not something that happens very often with Vanagons. Shortly thereafter, the decision was made to do the rebuild with Mr. Gas, to drop my transmission out of my Van, throw it in the back of a car rental and drive it to him to begin the rebuild in Colorado Springs the next day. When I arrived at Mr. Gas the following day, Greg was waiting for me. I was in luck he told me, that day was his breakdown day, the one day a week when he disassembles transaxles that come in. I grabbed mine from out of the car and to my surprise Greg threw it up on his workbench and began tearing it down right in front of me. The mysteries of all types of electrical and mechanical things and how they are assembled has always fascinated me, and the opportunity to see my transmission taken apart piece by piece in front of me was like my very own episode of “How It’s Made”. Greg patiently answered all of my questions about what each little part was and its function in the working of the transmission. A rebuild and a free education in transaxles!? I was in my element. Greg informed me that these transmission were not built for the high speeds that the van was now capable of with the Subaru Motor, which combined with the extreme desert heat I drove through, fried my bearings and led to the failure of the main shaft bearing. Once the bearing failed, the main shaft became loose and started moving around inside the transmission and began chewing up my gears. Fortunately since I had recognized the issue quickly enough the damage was limited to my 4th gear. Had I kept driving on the highway, even for a couple of more miles, likely the entire transmission would have grenaded and I would have not been able to do a rebuild. I wanted this transmission to be built for reliability even while being pushed by my new, much more powerful than stock, Subaru motor. On the advice of Greg, we settled on the following upgrades for my transaxle:
In about a week, I picked up the completed transmission from Greg, drove it back the several hundred miles to Grand Junction and had it reinstalled in a morning. Total cost with rebuild and installation was about $3500. Back on the road with my fresh rebuild, I immediately set out to break it in. I took it up and over the Rockies on I-70 and arrived at my parent’s house in Evergreen, Colorado with no issues. It was recommended to break it in by running it at different RPMs and shifting through the gears as much as possible over the first several hundred miles, which I did. To try out the new Limited Slip Differential, I drove the van up a steep hill behind my parent’s house and had Teri film the wheels in slow motion so I could see the Limited Slip in action. Both of the rear tires grabbed and helped the van claw its way up the incline. Over the course of the next month and 3,500 miles, I drove from Colorado up to Yellowstone, over to Oregon, Washington and British Columbia and then back down the coast to Southern California. After approximately a 1,000 mile break-in period, I switched out the transmission oil and replaced it with a very expensive and high quality synthetic oil called BG Syncro Shift 2. It’s a SAE 75W-80 GL-4 oil and ran me about $17 a quart. Pricey stuff, but worth it. The transmission shifts so much smoother with the synthetic oil. Rebuilding your transaxle is something that every Vanagon owner will have to do at some point. If you’re doing an engine conversion, it’s definitely something you will have to do, sooner rather than later. I chose to wait until my transmission failed after doing my conversion (this was a risky choice). If you have the money, do it at the same time as your engine conversion or you risk breaking things inside the transmission that will increase the cost of the rebuild when it fails. The Peloquin LSD while not necessary, should provide you with a good deal more off-road traction and allow you to get into some spots that you may not have been able to previously. It can also give you just enough confidence for you to get yourself into trouble, such as I did while on this forest service road in Olympic National Park. Regarding transmission rebuilders, there are several names that come to mind, Rancho Transaxles in Southern California being one of the big ones. AA Transaxle is another. Smaller independent rebuilders such as Mr. Gas can also be a great option, especially with the more personalized service that they may be able to offer you. Pricing depends heavily on options. A bare bones rebuild can run you as little as $800-$900, which may be fine if you are using a stock engine. With an engine conversion, the extra speed and horsepower that it allows will require some extra upgrades that will push up the price quite a bit. The Peloquin alone costs $1200. Just like anything else Vanagon related, the skies (and your purse) are the limit. All in all, my rebuilt transaxle cost me about $2500, not including installation. If theres anything that I didn't cover here, please feel free to ask me in the comments below. |
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March 2018
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