Some interesting experiences involving the cardboard like air deflectors to the right, left and bottom of the Vanagon's radiator. Mine have been in pretty ratty condition for some time and when I prepped the van for a complete paint job a few months ago I removed what was left of these air deflectors and went about looking for replacements. Dealer only items at a very high cost (for cardboard like material), tried the local scrap yards with no luck and thought about making new ones from aluminum, fiberboard, plastic etc. FINALLY decided on fiberboard/masonite. The bottom piece is easy as it's flat but the side pieces are tricky. Luckily my original ones still were in good enough shape to get a pattern off of. I traced around the outline of the old ones scribing directly on the finished side of the masonite. Then cut it out using a jig saw. To get the fold I scribbed the line with a knife making a cut just about a 1/16" deep and folded the masonite over the edge of my steel workbench. Wow, it worked ! I reused the small tabs from the originals to keep the folds folded then painted the pieces with Tremclad rust paint then with black rocker guard. Seemed to work just fine. AND the cooling is now much better ! While these pieces were off I had noticed the temperature guage going a bit higher than usual but thought it was just because of the heat wave we'd been having. BUT, after the new air deflectors were installed I have noticed a significant drop on the temperature guage ! So these air deflestors are important to the overall function of the Vanagon's cooling system. Better check yours right now ! One more project to add to the list ! Cheers Frank
-- * Frank Condelli * Almonte, Ontario, Canada * * ad793@Freenet.carleton.ca * '87 VW Westy, '69 MGB & Lionel Trains http://members.aol.com/RAlanen/index.html |
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