In 2008, I sold my Volkswagen Thing and bought a vehicle that I thought would be much more practical–a 1985 VW Vanagon Westafalia camper.Over the years, I learned all about the vehicle’s quirks and slowly modernized it to the point where it became my only vehicle. In particular, in 2009 I installed 2003 Zetec engine from a Ford Focus with the help of the Bostig conversion kit and documented the whole process in a series of posts and videos. Then in 2011, I increased the performance further with Bostig’s turbocharger kit. And in parallel, I installed my own custom solar panels along with a computer-controlled battery monitor.
However, in addition to working on my van, I also got out and used it–a lot. It became my weekend house away from home every spring, summer, and fall, and I also did a few big trips in it as well.
Finally in 2014, I decided to part ways with the old van and posted it in this For Sale Ad. Within a week, it sold to wonderful new owners who are busy continuing the project with upgraded AC and a new paint job.
It was a great project and travelling companion for 6 years, and I look forward to reminiscing about it down the road with the stories on this site…
I can’t believe how incredible the Zetec is in my Vanagon! Joe came down and provided a tremendous amount of help to me this weekend, and we got the van running beautifully today, 8 days after I tore out the old VW waterboxer engine! I will let video speak for itself (PG13 for language)! Bostig […]
It was another long day and a great conclusion to the weekend to be able to see the Zetec mounted in the van! There was a lot of incidental work like figuring out how to take apart (put back together) CV axles, mounting brackets in the engine bay, transferring equipment to the new transmission, and […]
It was a long day, but when all was said and done, my VW camper van was without an engine and I was happy about that! I had to remove the old WBX engine in order make room for the new Zetec (not at all unlike John Locke having to die to save the “Island” […]
I am moving forward quickly with preparations on my Zetec engine prior to the transplant into the Vanagon. I have completed the SK-A (adapter) and SK-C (cooling) steps of the conversion process which means that I am a few steps away from being ready to pull the old engine out and put the new one […]
After a long, cold winter and over two months working on my newly acquired 1985 VW Vanagon Westfalia camper van, I finally got out camping in it over the past 3 weekends with Richele and the dogs. First, we attempted a trip to Moab over the weekend of 5/16-18, but we wound up just hanging […]
