The "RedVan" Rebuild Project 2009

Much of the work that went into this project are now detailed in the         kubvan manual section of this website, click here to go there.

This series of pictures taken from November 2008 to December 2009 reflects changes over the last 10 years of owning these vans as well as the current "Red Van" project which included an engine upgrade new running gear, suspension and a paint job. 

For those interested some pictures are clickable for enlargements.

			Before : These pictures taken some time between 1998 and 2008 This shows the white paint treatment that all these vans suffered when they left the postal service. The cheapest paint applied in the worst way to cover the Postal colours.
			After: HPLV spray pain works and looks good. To be honest I did not spend a lot of time prepping, filling and sanding. I sanded the whole unit, cleaned all the loose stuff off. Applied one coat of zinc chromate to the bare aluminium areas, then primed the entire van with a epoxy barrier sealer, followed by a primer coat and finally a top coat of finish paint red and black.
			The engine bay ready to receive engine. when you add a Turbo diesel you have to change the injector mounting plate with the original  from the NA engine to accommodate the left engine mount, shown in the middle picture.
New rebuilt engine from "GORDON'S EUROPEAN USED PARTS" in Langley call them at 1-604-533-3506 if you need engines or VW parts.
			Engine Bay: Lots of work here, repainted the compartment, rebuilt the steering rack including CV joints and new shift linkages. As you can see from the installed engine picture, we relocated the fuel filter and changed the air filter configuration. Note the engine bay light in the middle picture. Yep I still need to clean up the wiring.

I used a Marine paint system (Interlux, Brightside) for the entire process as I had lots of left over paint from doing our Aluminium boat the year before. I found the paint to be very user friendly. It applied easily, as long as the temperature was above 50 degrees it cured fine. I ran out of time in terms of weather and outside temperature and so was unable to get to a second coat of Red and Black on I did not apply a clear coat nor have I waxed. I am waiting to see how the paint wears through the winter and am planning to clean it up and  do second coats and clear coat next summer. The black paint is tremclad, also seems to work great.

I used threaded rivets all over the place for things like new mirror mounts, license plates, door stops etc, the best thing since sliced bread.

This van also has the interior ceiling painted white, actually done by the previous owner, it really helps to brighten up the interior.

 All the best December 20th 2009