Date:         Thu, 4 Jan 2001 03:32:45 +0000
Reply-To:     Radish <radish150@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Radish <radish150@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject:      noobie (long)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854";
              x-mac-creator="4D4F5353"

Hey all, just though I'd say hello and offer an opinion. First of all though, a brief story of how I
just got my second westy, for your entertainment. A few years ago I made the huge mistake of buying
a 73 passenger bus, then a crashed 74 westy that I proceeded to cut the top out of, and weld into a
newly cut hole in the 73. Then I put all the appliances into the 73, then built a 3500$ 2.0 with
dellortos, oh what fun. But man what a (sorry) mickey mouse design those things are. Heat? High
speed stability? Engine longevity? I bought a 4 runner and called it good. But, then... I helped a
friend find an 87 westy a couple summers ago, and wow! what a different sort of animal that thing
is. Very stable at speed, decent power, and what build quality! It seemed to me to be more like a
big mercedes than a vw van. So, I've been wanting one. The other day, I'm talking with this "Bryan"
fellow at Bry's auto wrecking telling him Im interested in a later westy and he say's, "tell you
what, I know a guy that's selling one for not too much, here's the number". I almost declined the
number saying I was not quite ready to buy, but I took the number and called up. Well, turns out he
had a 85 weekender poptop unit that had "been run dry on oil" and It was free for the taking if I
could please remove it from where it died. I calmly (barely) accepted. Well, turns out, the person
who had pronounced it "had no oil in it" had done so in the dark with no flashlight, which would
explain why I mysteriously found the crankcase full of (somewhat dirty) oil. Seems the poor fellow
had gotten some bad info and gave away a (probably) perfectly good little (wolfburg) vanagon. I just
need to ascertain what sort of little thing happened to it to make it die on the freeway that
fateful day, and I'll bet it's nothing to big. I already have a line on a kitchen kit to put in it,
wow seems the farfenwhatever gods were smiling on me that day. We'll see, I'll letcha all know when
I find out what went wrong.

But here is the opinion part. I'm a pretty good mechanic, I've built countless engines, trannies
even, put big motors where little ones once were, I even managed to keep a 928 Porsche running
(don't attempt that one), so i'm not easily intimidated by mechanical things. But, for the life of
me, I can't imagine why some people spend so much time guessing about why your van is doing
something weird. I have found that by far the most efficient thing to do when confronted by such a
diagnostic riddle, is to have a "full blown, dyed in the wool, unmitigated, fully informed, high
tech gadget owning genius, do your dirty diagnostic work for you! If you get someone who REALLY
knows your car, and I mean specializes in it, they can tell you what's wrong with your temperamental
little beast in about hours time. You pay him 50 clams or so, and you go then about the relatively
simple task of wrenching the ailing auto back into shape, saving lots of time and money in the
process You get the benefits of having a specialist tell you what's wrong (saving time), and you do
the work (saving money). No muss, no fuss, no headache. I used to play the "lets track down this
fiddly problem" game, but man, life is short! I wanna drive not ponder some crazy germans idea of an
electrical system. I know allot of people treat some autos as a hobby, and get some satisfaction of
intellectually wresting the offending part into the light of day, and well, more power to them.
Myself? I'd much rather go skiing.

Now, you kind fellows would not hold this opinion against me next time I wanna know how my
thermoswitchingelectromagnatronic wunder box works will you? Naw, VW people don't hold grudges, I
know for a fact.

BTW I was there when they discovered those poor guy's who asphyxiated in that van at the VW wrecking
yard. Please don't breathe fumes, even if it does not kill you you won't be any healthier for it.

Oh, one more thing, if anyone knows of someone who has a wrecked westy or a late westy kit for sale,
I'm ready to buy one. I'm in Seattle.

peace,
mark...