Tesla wheel refurb

 This heavily curbed set of OE 19” Tesla wheels was gifted to me by the local Firestone last fall. My cost $0. Once time and shop space permitted I set up a simple grind&sand/prime/paint station and gave these a new life as my snow tire wheel set. My cost in supplies maybe $50.  Cost of new Michelin Ice-X snow tires + installation around $1k. 

Rear hatch spare tire carrier

490k miles

 This was the final salvo of the Syncro conversion I completed 7 or 8 yrs ago. What a relief. Finally, my orphaned spare tire has a home and doesn’t have to float around under my bed taking up way too much space. And both my bike racks still fit and function unimpeded. Sweet. Fight the man. Always. don’t give an inch and take your time. Take good notes and be persistent. You got this ;-)

Hood primer and bed liner treatment 492k miles

 New front control arms and new sway bar bushings and links

493k miles

This wasn’t exactly a planned maintenance procedure—nor will you see it on any maintenance schedule. But closing in on 500k miles things do start to wear and though the German iron of these show no defects or stress/fatigue, the OE rubber bushings on either end were showing some age, though remarkably they’ve aged very well.  Still, this wasn’t really on my short term maintenance radar…. until I saw new TRW ones loaded with new bushings pop up on RockAuto close out for the ridiculous price of $39/ea:

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/volkswagen,2000,eurovan,2.8l+v6,1364745,suspension,control+

arm,