In preparation for our first real trip, I found a nearby mechanic with experience and willingness to work on VW vans (Road & Race, found from a positive review over at the Full Moon Bus Club) and asked him to give the Moose a once over.

I mean, I want to do a lot of the work on it myself, but I’m an auto mechanic newbie so I’ve got to be realistic. I figured it would be good to at least know what I’m up against, right?

They found quite a few things in need of repair, the biggest being a leak in the coolant reservoir under pressure at normal operating temperature. Oh, and two busted shocks (I suspected that). A broken pin/bushing on the shifter (well, I kind of knew that; second gear likes to play hide & seek). And a cracked alternator bracket and a loose belt. And dry rotted tires with a completely inappropriately sized spare. And a few leaky vacuum lines. And a disconnected OXY sensor. And a rattling catalytic converter. And, of course, the leaky gas tank.

Good news was that the engine and transmission are mechanically sound. No oil leaks or other serious issues.

So the Moose is staying a few nights at the doctor’s shop. Funny; I miss it already.

One day I’m just going to have to flip that switch and see what it does.

Another modification by the previous owner was the removal of the seat belts from the rear bench. Unfortunately, that’s a serious safety issue for traveling with children.

This was a good chance to upgrade to three-point seat belts using an upgrade kit from GoWesty (I’m getting the feeling these folks are going to be getting a lot of my money).

Installing the three point belt is pretty easy, but you do have to cut a hole in the lining. The instructions say you can find the factory mount point by feel -- well, that’s technically true if you know what you’re feeling for. I actually had to stick my hand behind the lining by pulling off the weather stripping in the back and carefully peeling back the lining. You’re looking for a rather large circular indentation in the insulation about the size of a 50 cent piece. If you push in you’ll feel a round, plastic slug in the mount point. I took a few snapshots with measuring tape to show where it is.



From that point, it’s just a matter of unscrewing the slug and screwing in the new belt mechanism, like so:



Just in case you were uncertain about whether the universe has a sense of humor or not, even this simple installation turned out to be a challenge. The first hangup was a missing bolt. When the original seat belts were removed the bolt for the lower mount point was discarded. Of course, none of the spare bolts from the kit fit, either.



The second hang up was the mount point for the replacement receiver. It was seized up enough that it broke my 1/2” ratchet wrench. Well, it was a cheap piece of junk, anyway. Plus, my metric set didn’t quite go high enough; it stops at 13mm and this bolt is 17mm. The imperial 11/16” was close, but not close enough for a seized bolt. A couple hours soak with WD40 and a trip to the auto parts store for a breaker bar and 17mm socket and they popped right out.



While I was at it, I replaced the bolts with eyelets so I can mount car seats with a pair of carabiners hooked into the latch straps. I don’t know why I kept the old belt hangers; they’re really just in the way. I’ll probably pull them back off.



The last upgrade was the permanent muffler bracket. A perfect fit, almost. The bracket should mount with two bolts but the exhaust pipe is in the way. I had to rotate the bracket and just use one bolt. It’s a pretty solid construction; hopefully it will hold well enough.

Oh man, what a difference a muffler can make. The muffler and the gasket kit arrived last weekend and even though I didn’t have the new bracket, I had to see if I could install it and try it out. It went on pretty easily, though I had to really contort myself to get the bolts and nuts set and rigged up a coat hanger to hold it where the bracket should be.



After starting it up and driving it around town the difference outstanding. She went from so loud and obnoxious even the Harley guys were giving me dirty looks to smooth and quiet!

The other improvement I was eager to install was my homemade awning leg. After lots of research, it seemed I was not likely to find and exact replacement for my missing awning leg. Country Homes Campers, the people who did the original conversion when it was new, were nice enough to point me to the company that took over for the original manufacturer, Dometic, but they needed specific part numbers which were nowhere to be found.

I was nearly resigned to replacing the awning outright or having a custom leg made at a local aluminum supplier and metal works when I ran across a $10 1” aluminum strut at Lowe’s. A few measurements and a half hour with my hacksaw later I had nearly perfect replacement fabricated.



The final two upgrades were a new turn signal socket (thank you, eBay!) and a cool hitch for my bike carrier from GoWesty that took all of 15 minutes to install. She’s nearly ready for her maiden trip.



This weekend the three-point seat belt conversion and the permanent muffler bracket go on along with some shopping for gaming gear. I might try to fabricate a fold up table to replace the missing one, but I’m not sure.

Ever since I was a kid I wanted a Volkswagen Camper. My first car was an orange, 72 Beetle. I loved that car and I’ve had a soft spot for VWs ever since. There’s something about the sound of the engine and that very specific Volkswagen smell that makes me smile. I know, it’s weird.

I remember lusting after a Type 2 Westfalia back in the early eighties that looked just like this one. As I recall, the engine ran (just), the rust wasn’t too bad, the interior was functional if not pristine and when I took it for a test drive I wanted it badly. But the seller was asking something like $2,500 which might as well have been $1,000,000 to me at the time.

Fast forward 20 years or so and I needed to find an affordable beater to replace a lease that was about to be turned in. I got the bright idea that if I could find a functional camper that wasn’t in imminent need of major engine or transmission repair it would be good experimental replacement for the lease. I had six months left on the lease, more than enough time to get the camper on the road and try it out for a bit. I figured in the worst case, if it didn’t work out I could sell it for about what I paid for it. No harm, no foul.

Enter “The Moose”, a faded brown 1984 VW Country Homes Camper Vanagon in great working condition. I had a local VW guy check it out and when he gave it the green light I was sold. There were some paperwork delays that essentially had it parked for two months (lesson: make sure you know what you’re doing when buying an out of state used car), but that’s all cleared up and she’s my beast free and clear.



Lucky for me, basically everything works. Sink, water tank and pump are fine, propane tank and stove in good shape and working, DC/AC fridge gets ice cold, pop top intact with no rips, upholstery is fine and even all the curtains but one (on the sliding door) are present and accounted for.

That’s not to say it doesn’t need any work. I’ve already fixed a few small things like the gas assist lifters on the rear hatch and windshield wipers. The most significant repairs are one I knew about and one I discovered recently. The muffler was missing when I bought it though the rest of the exhaust system is intact. The first time I filled it up with gas I found it has a common malady of nearly all Vanagons, a leaky vent pipe on the gas tank.

Turns out both are relatively easy and comparatively inexpensive repairs. So, the parts are on order and one of these weekends soon I’ll be installing it.

She’ll basically be road worthy at that point and I want to schedule our first family weekend camping trip in late February or March. There are plenty more upgrades and minor fixes I want to do over the next year, too.

By the way, a huge, awesome “Thank You” to the community of camper enthusiasts out there. I almost freaked when I realized I’m missing the muffler hanger bracket and you can’t get those from parts shops any more. I found a site that makes stainless steel replacements. Awesome!