Few would have as thorough a rebuild done as I just got through with just
because of the expense, and I have no idea what what would be. I know it
wouldn't be 25 hours, really, but you know how shops are. They charge what
the book says to charge. I am guessing I spent 25 hours on it, maybe more,
and that doesn't include running around town to find a 10 x 1 tap and die
when I crossthreaded a brake fitting at the end of an exhausting day, or
trying to get someone to press the bushings for me, or a number of other
time-consuming tasks that were not part of the job itself. I have been
buying parts for this for six months. The parts took up nearly half of a
set of garage shelves. The wheel bearings did not need replacement, but I
wasn't going to do any of this again later if I could help it. Someone
taking a job like this to s shop would want to limit the work to a
reasonable amount of money, and I didn't care about that as I was doing the
work myself. I guess I spent about $700 on parts, but I bought some
high-end poly bushings and OEM stuff is just fine, I think, except as I
mentioned last night the OEM donuts on the radius rods are shabby compared
to what T3 Techniques sells.

Another reason for doing all this at once is, as a couple of posters have
mentioned, my age. I am 63 and do not want to do this again as long as I
live. Er, let me restate that. I do not want to do this again EVER. It was
not all that horrible and I have a high tolerance for being abused by cars,
but I have been sore for a solid week.

As for a lever as someone mentioned, the only one I needed was to press
down on the anti-roll bar so I could compress the upper fitting down in its
recess in order the get the lower one and the fastener on. But it was a big
one.... I took the hitch bar off the back and used it!

Most people I think would have the most problem with the simplest part of
all, the anti-roll bar. If you are not careful about details and you do not
have a very large C clamp (mine was just enough at 16 inches) you cannot
compress the rubber bushings where the hold-downs mount to the body in
order to get the bolts in them. The steering rack bushings took a long
time, too. When I say careful about details, consider that I did one thing
right: do only one of the drop links at a time so you will know you have
them facing the right way when you reassemble things. If you don't, you can
look forward to doing it all over again, and I would say pressing in those
bushings and the getting the drop links over the flared ends of the spring
bar was a challenge. I won't waste everyone's time with the details, but I
came up with a good solution as I doubt there is a press in existence that
could take the whole length of the bar. Just write me and I will tell you
what you need.

And I would advise anyone with a rusty undercarriage to either trade cars
first or save up and get it done by a shop. There is no way I could have
dealt with that. But, on my lifelong Alabama vanagon, The things I feared
most--getting the long bolts out of the inner control arm bushings�turned
out to be trivial. They tapped right out.

I bled the brakes on my lunch hour and put the wheels back on. I just drove
it around a little (I have to wait for an alignment to drive it much). The
only thing I can compare it to is the day I drove my 1990 Carat off the lot
as a new car. It's fantastic.

Jim

On Fri, Sep 20, 2013 at 11:56 AM, JRodgers <jrodgers113@gmail.com> wrote:

> Wonder what a rebuild like this would cost if done in a commercial shop?
> Any ideas - ball park?\\
>
> John
>
>
> On 9/19/2013 6:54 PM, Jim Felder wrote:
>
>> Just finished up a nearly week-long marathon of front end work. Replaced
>> the brakes, a caliper and line,  bearings, and all bushings right down to
>> the steering rack with polyurethane and on the inner ones, Flennor OEM
>> style rubber. Also complete all-around spring replacement with two GoWesty
>> front springs. New metal sleeves on the anti-roll bar drop links (NLA,
>> almost didn't find any, mine came from Canada) and the whole enchilada.
>>
>> There is nothing on a vanagon I have not had out in my hands now except
>> for
>> the five-speed transmission. This front end work is the most extensive,
>> painful and and exhausting things I think you can do by yourself (I did
>> call upon the wife  twice to put force on a along prybar) on a Vanagon. It
>> makes a new engine R and R look downright trivial, cost is not all that
>> much different either. Even painting the car did not take so long.
>>
>> Whew. Tomorrow I will bleed the brakes and see if it was worth the effort.
>> I could not have put it off anyway, I was beginning to hear metal on metal
>> at 3479000.
>>
>> I tried some poly bushings on an MGA restoration some years back and
>> didn't
>> care for them all that much. But the stuff that is sold by T3 Techniques
>> for the Vanagon was irresistable. If you replace nothing else with poly,
>> shuck those rubber radius arm bushings and go with the T3 Techniques
>> setup.
>> Genius.
>>
>> http://t3technique.com/
>>
>> They have about everything you ever dreamed of for suspension, etc. Bus
>> Depot had the best buys on brakes, shoes, etc. GoWesty had the springs I
>> sprang for.
>>
>> BTW I pulled all of this over last weekend and took the parts around
>> several local shops to have the old rubber bushings pressed out and new
>> ones in. Got quotes like $250. Went to harbor freight and bought their
>> cheapest 4wd joint press for $75.00 and did it all with that in about an
>> hour and a half. A total of eight bushings.
>>
>> Jim
>>
>>