Date:         Thu, 6 May 1999 14:30:53 -0700
Reply-To:     Joel Walker <jwalker@URONRAMP.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <jwalker@URONRAMP.NET>
Subject:      stuff, like grab handles and courtesy lights and such ...
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

here's something i wrote up, years ago, and what with all the email
back and forth about grab handles and courtesy lights and such, i
figured i'd dump my tupence worth on you. :)

--------------------------------------------
leather steering wheel cover:       IMPARTS 1-800-325-9043
the best i have found is from Imparts, in St. Louis. it is
the Wheelskin brand, and you can get it in a BX style which is thicker
and for larger thickness wheels. be sure to specify the steering wheel
diameter (as well as the year and model of car). why put one on the
car?
cause (IMHO) it makes the steering wheel much more pleasant to hold on
to, both in summer (it doesn't get as hot as the plastic) and in
winter
(you almost don't need gloves). costs about $35 including shipping,
but
after having gone through several other wal-mart and generic types, it
is worth it.

installed a second courtesy light over the passenger seat. it seems
that
there is already a hole for it.  you have to feel around on the
headliner. what you will feel is a little black plastic cover.  i made
a
cut in the center of that cover ... then i could reach my fingers
through the slit and pry the cover out.  that allowed me to finish the
cut in kind of a  >--< fashion, and i got some headliner glue and
glued the headliner into/onto the edges of that hole.  take the light
fixture out of the one over the drivers seat to see what it should
look like. then, a duplicate fixture can be installed into the hole
over
the passenger side.  the wires are not too terribly hard to feed down
the a-pillar ... they come out behind the 'glove compartment'.
then "all you have to do ..." is run the wires over to the drivers
side and connect them.  i also spliced the ground wire into the
passengers door button.
--------------------------
high-mounted brake lights:  i installed a Hella brake light kit in the
rear window. i don't think they make this particular kit anymore. but
i
ran the wires up from the brake lights by drilling a small hole in the
sheet metal (behind the air conditioner housing ... in an 88 bus),
then
snaked the wire through the headliner and into the little rubber
grommet
that contains the rear window defroster wires.  i then drilled another
small hole several inches to the side of the grommet (for the brake
light
wire) ... in the rear hatch lid, and snaked the brake light wire
through
this.  on each of the holes i drilled, i installeca little rubber
grommet ... to keep the wires from chaffing.

i did all this on both sides of the bus ... so each brake light (old
and
new) combination is independent of each other.  it was a bit of a pain
to snake the wires around, and feed and pull them through the rubber
grommets, but i think it was worth it ... looks good, and you can't
see
the wires except where it comes out of the rear hatch lid.

when i first put the brake lights in the rear window, it really made a
difference with tailgaters.  once i had applied the brakes ... for any
reason ... drivers behind me tended to back off quite a bit. smile :)
i suppose it was because the lights were/are rather bright.

i am thinking about trying to put some sort of high mounted turn
signal
up with the brake lights.  that way, the second car behind me can also
tell that i am wanting to turn.
---------------------------
grab handles: this is a bit more tricky.  i wanted a pull-up handle
(like
is already on the passenger side) for the driver ... on the a-pillar.
well, it turns out you have to be real careful when you drill holes
into
the drivers a-pillar: there is a big bundle of wires running inside.
so what you do is this:  take the grab handle completely off the
passenger side, so there is nothing but holes in the metal visible.
the last little plastic 'packing' comes out if you wiggle it front to
back while pulling on it. don't pry it with anything ... you will
scratch the paint. now get some wide masking tape and smooth it down
on the a-pillar, covering the holes where the handle was. mark where
the holes are (for the grab handle) and also mark where the edge of
the a-pillar is (the corner edge ... the a-pillar cross section is
kind
of a square). also measure down from the edge of the headliner to the
topmost hole ... to help make sure that the two handles are pretty
much
the same distance down from the roof.

now peel of the masking tape, invert it and move it over to the
drivers
side. measure that same arbitrary distance from the headline, mark it
on
the a-pillar, and put the edge of the hole mark here, aligning the
edge
marks with the a-pillar 'corner' again. check it out as to distance
from
the roof, see if the holes look 'right' as to the amount of metal
between
the holes and the windshield seal.  then drill a small hole into the
top
most hole ... DO NOT LET THE DRILL BIT GO DEEP INTO THE HOLE. drill
slowly if you can. using a coat hanger (or some such), poke around in
this hole to push the wire bundle back out of the way. now drill the
other hole. be careful.  when you get all the little holes drilled,
you
should be able to see the bundle of wires ... push it out of the way
while you re-drill the holes with the proper size bigger bit ... 1/2
inch, i think. messy, cause there will be shavings all over the
console
pod and steering column, etc. i used a large magnet to clean up
afterward ... a sheet or some such cover would probably be a better
idea.

when you get all the holes drilled, you might want to put some paint
on
the edges of the new holes ... just for rusts sake. let it dry, then
put
the new 'packing' in (hint: since the other one is disassembled, you
forgot which way the things went. there IS a top one and a bottom one.
the smaller end goes up on the top, and down on the bottom). then just
put on the new handle and screws ... and you can go back and put on
the
old one, too.

i also added another handle to the sliding door: i got one of the
handle
to match the one on the b-pillar (in front of the sliding door) ...
and
put it on the door itself, but i didn't use the little plastic
'packing'
that adapts the handle to the curvature of the b-pillar. i just added
the handle to the front 'pillar' of the sliding door, up high enough
to
miss the body handle (so you don't mash your hand) ... works great for
the middle or rear seat person to close the sliding door. now they
have
something to grab hold of.

i also added two more of these type grab handles in the low overhead
side
above the rear seat ... like the one that is over the left middle
seat.
i figured that the rear seat people needed some Oh-My-God bars also :)
the handles also come in very handy for hanging things on. i stretched
a
clothes hanger bar between then, and secured it with a long bungie
cord
(stretched from one side to the other, and kinda wrapped around the
pole

i also put the camper hanger straps (which, by the way, are exactly
the
same ones as used to be in the beetles!) in place of the little round
coat hanger 'knobs) ... the little black things on the c-pillar
(behind
the sliding door, and in the same place on the opposite side of the
bus)
mostly, i did this cause i wound up using the overhead grab handles to
hold the clothes bar.
-----------------------
Gene Berg Vanagon Short Shifter Kit: non-syncro transmission (don't
know
if it will work on syncro) $20. well worth the money. just be sure
to FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS ... i.e., mark stuff before you take it off.
i
did it right on three buses, then got cocky ... and screwed up. took
me about two weeks of moving the shifter plate around to get it right.
be sure to measure the shifter lever shaft BEFORE you order. the kit
comes in either 12mm or 14mm sizes, and they'll need to know which one
you need. part number is GB6785 (for my 88 bus).
-------------------------------
power radio antenna:  started with an ad in a magazine for Fuba
antennas.
1-800-637-0222 for info. turned out to be a place called Antenna
World.
they sell wholesale only. so i had to get my local parts place to
special order it.  the part you want (might want to phone again to
double check) is SJ-3FB Antenna (black), and D-57 Head Kit 57 degrees
(to accommodate the angle of the Vanagon front).  when it came in, it
was less than the fellow had told me to expect: he said about $80 for
the antenna ... it was $60. only modification i had to make on the car
was to file out a little notch on the side of the hole in the sheet
metal (behind the headlight) to accommodate a little bump on the side
of the antenna. then 'just' wire it up and connect to radio. i put a
on-off switch on the dash (down under the 'lip') so now i can raise or
lower it when i want ... like for car washes or leaving it parked for
a while. note: all this assumes that your antenna is the standard vw
and is mounted on the front of the car. mine was on the drivers side,
but i can't see why this same antenna would not work on the passengers
side. you could also do without the D-57 Head Kit if your vanagon has
a
factory antenna already. i just used the vw parts off the old antenna.
--------------------------------
extra storage boxes:  i needed some extra little
get-things-up-off-the-
floor storage boxes, and finally found a place for them: right in
front
of the seat affixed to that little metal rim ... in front of the
under-seat storage. i used ordinary ice cube bins (from Wal-mart) and
just fixed them on with a couple of stove bolts.  now i have a neat
place
for road maps, ice scraper, etc.  don't look all that great, but i
couldn't find them in black ... had to take pale blue.

also: if your bus does NOT have the fold out glove compartment, you
can install a second map pocket on the passengers door.  i found it
helps a lot to make a cardboard template of the back of the map pocket
... to mark where to drill holes in the door liner.
-------------------------------------
drink holders: the best i have found are from Herringtons ...
1-800-622-5221 order number B832 = white/vertical, B833
=black/vertical.
they have one that fits horizontal surfaces, too, but i couldn't make
much use of it. now the gotcha: they are $9.95 EACH!  yeah, well, i
tried all the wal-mart and k-mart ones, but they just wouldn't hold a
big enough drink cup ... like they hand out at the Mickey D's and
such.
so, after wasting money for several years, i broke down and bought the
good stuff. these holders expand to hold almost anything.  i put them
in
the back for the second and third seat people. in the front, for the
driver and passenger, i used some Rubber Maid K-mart types that have a
drink holder molded in with a ? holder ... sort of a two-compartment
job,
with a rubber flap to fix the thing into the window glass. i
permanently
fixed mine to the plastic heater cover (in front of the gearshift)
with
some more stove bolts (short ones) ... one drink-holder-thing on each
side of the gearshift (leaving room for the gearshift to move around).
not much of a reach down to get/put a drink, and it doesn't interfere
with my right leg when driving.
----------------------------------------
cb radio: mounted to the side of the passengers wheelwell ... in the
little aisle between the front seats. still allows room for your feet
when going to the rear of the bus, and falls easily to hand without
looking away from the road.  i used a glass-mount antenna (like
cellular
phones) on the front windshield (to get away from the engine static)
...
had to move it cause i forgot about the windshield wipers! so it is
off
to the right side, about halfway between the rearview mirror and the
right side of the windshield. only real problem is you have to have a
removable antenna (mine unscrews from an epoxied base), so you can
still
go into garages and such. distance doesn't seem to be affected much by
this position, but i have noticed that i can talk farther to truckers
behind me, than to the ones in front ... makes sense: more metal to
the
rear of the antenna.
the cb radio bracket is bolted through the storage box under the seat,
with another hole (with grommet) for the power cord ... access to the
battery is quite easy and there is even a little spade lug already on
the positive terminal.  you'll have to make one for the
negative/ground
side. i put an inline fuse in the power lead.  the antenna goes under
the carpet, across the floor, and up the a-pillar (doorpost) by the
windshield (behind the dash) ... plenty of room.  i have seen others
run the antenna wire back of the passenger seat and up and out the
passenger door to a roof/gutter mounted antenna ... i didn't like that
idea. i mounted the radio with the microphone toward the rear so that
i can easily reach it with my hand while driving.
problems: don't mount the radio tooo high, or the passenger will keep
bumping the controls when they move around in the seat. don't mount
the
radio tooo far toward the back of the seat or the passenger will keep
bumping the controls when they lock/unlock their seat belts. it takes
a little playing around to get it in a good position. and besides, if
you ever want to sell the car, you can take the radio out and the
carpet
stuff on the side of the seat-box/wheelwell covers the holes nicely.
:)
--------------------------------
trash can: i found a black rubber tub-like tray at K-mart that is just
the right length, width, and height to fit under the middle seat ...
that's my trash can.  and when it's pulled out from under the seat
about
a foot, i can pitch stuff into it from the drivers seat without even
looking. nice heavy duty plastic/rubber, so even liquids don't get on
the carpet <i will never understand what idiot thought of putting
CARPET on the floor of a CAR ... of all the dirty places that need
rubber mats!)
------------------------------------
best lug nut wrench: sold at vw dealers (well, at least at my dealer
in
atlanta): Votex Bolt Spanner 000-093-005B, $15. comes with reversible
socket for 19mm and 17mm (for Mercedes). handle is extendable, and it
really helps loosening/tightening.
--------------------------------------
-----------------------------------
cv-joints:      be sure to re-grease your cv-joints ... put three
times
as much grease as vw says.  i put one-half tube of Valvoline Moly EP
wheel bearing/joint grease into each joint/boot. after doing this, i
haven't had a peep from the joints in 80,000 miles ... previously,
the buses would start knocking about 20,000-25,000 miles. current bus
has 74,000 miles and was re-greased at 500 miles.  i expect it to go
to 100,000 miles before i do anything else to the joints.  you do have
to inspect the rubber boots once in a while ... for cracks and tears.

i also changed all my cv-joint bolts into the 12-point bolts (instead
of the 6-sided hex head that come standard). why? sheer paranoia. i
had
some trouble with an old 73 bus (or was it the 80 vanagon?) ... in
that
the hex-head bolts tended to 'round out'. so the Porsche mechanic that
i
have used several times over the years told me about the 12-point
'star-pattern' bolts that Porsche used/uses. i like them much better
...
cause you get a much more positive 'feel' when tightening. only
trouble is, it really is wasted money ... cause i don't do that much
with the cv-joints (what, like, once every five years?) and i have to
make sure i carry around the little 12-point tool. eh? i still do it
on every bus i get ... some people, huh?
---------------------------------------------
rear window: 3M has a thing called Vangard. it is a fresnel
spelling?  )
lens that allows you (in the driver's seat) to see things right at the
bumper. well, almost. you really can see things close up much better.
they come in three sizes:
part number: 07950  Vangard          8"x10"
             07951  Super Vangard   11"x14"
             07952  Vangard 2        6"x8"
costs about $10 for the middle size ... mine is the 6"x8" one ...
and i find i really can't do without it now. same with the little 3"
round fisheye stickon mirrors that i added to the big outside rearview
mirrors. on these, i found that the ones offered by NAPA are the best
for staying on, and also the best for clarity of image ... some of the
Wal-mart and local parts place generic ones are kinda distorted.
----------------------------------------
odds and ends: i have a habit of re-arranging stuff in the bus to fit
my
preconceived notions of how-a-car-should-be-built ... example: roll
the
window glass all the way up, then remove the crank handles and
re-orient
them such that they are pointing straight up. then screw them back on.
just makes it easy for me to see if the passenger window is completely
closed ... just by looking at the position of the handle.

i also flipped the fresh air outlets in the dash ... just take them
out
(there are four little tabs that have to be gently pried up ... all at
the same time ... while you pull out), and flip left to right. why?
cause then the on-off knob is on the drivers left (not right as it
originally was) ... and i don't have to reach IN behind the steering
wheel to flip it off/on. i found that in the original position, i was
looking at the damn thing trying to find it. in the new position, i
don't
have to look at it. i flipped the passenger side as well, just to make
them the same ... passenger doesn't know the difference.  also fits in
with my philosophy of switches: Oben macht Offen ... Up means Open/On.
i rearranged all the courtesy lights to reflect this also ...
switch in up position turns on light. whatever. some people's kids,
right? flipping the passengers side also helps a little bit when the
driver wants to reach over and open that vent ... he doesn't have to
reach quite as far (well, four inches shorter anyway).