Date:         Mon, 2 Mar 2009 18:25:53 -0500
Reply-To:     "Jack R." <jack007@COMCAST.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "Jack R." <jack007@COMCAST.NET>
Subject:      Re: Lend the bus; who to say yes or no to?
In-Reply-To:  <821217.58713.qm@web45307.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Never... I don't even let my wife drive it, and always self park... never
letting a valet park it!
My wife of 30 years, wants to make sure we have another 30 years, and
doesn't even ask to drive it... she is very content to read and take a nap
in back while I drive.

When we purchased our 84 Westy in 1987, my brother-in-law wanted to borrow
it, and I told my wife then that we will never lend it out to anyone.
Heck, would you lend one of your children out??? Esp. if they are
temperamental!?!?

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Poppie Jagersand
Sent: Monday, March 02, 2009 1:04 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Lend the bus; who to say yes or no to?

Hi,

A bit related to the spring break story, but a more general question
is who would you lend your VW bus, Vanagon or Westy to?

After having both some good and less god experiences
(luckily not catastrophic), I have developed the following
philosophy:

* I'll lend the bus only to someone who both will value it as
much as I do, and who is sufficiently technically capable.

* The best way to become comfortable that a person fulfils the
above two criteria is to work alongside that person on my or
another similar bus.

Some example case stories that lead me to develop this principle:

When I was a student and postdoc, I made many of the parts needed
for repair (e.g. fix and resurface Diesel vacuum pump instead of
buying new) and for my 1.9TD engine swap. I used the student machine
shop, and often there would be other students helping me.

After working with someone for a while it is very easy to tell both
how much they value my bus (at times buses), and if they were
technically adept or not. When asking to borrow the bus, some got
the bus, others go my $250 Passat B2 TD (Quantum). (The Passat
was originally intended to be a TD donor to my bus, but ran well
enough after some fixup in used car lot that it was the daily driver
for both me and several other students.)

Before college, at my parents, it was by no way a given that I
or my sisters got to borrow my parents' car. My dad had me do
minor chores on the car whenever I wanted to use it.

In college a friend's family had a nice wooden sailboat that
we youngsters occasionally got to take for a sailing trip.
However, we'd always take part in the maintenance chores.
At first I though it a bit unusual (as a teenager) to be invited
over to their cottage for sanding and varnishing, but now I
appreciate that I learned how to prepare and varnish mahogany as
well as my friend's grandfather.

So in summary, the personal value of my bus (and other belongings)
go up the more I learn about, work on it and longer I keep it.
Best way to find out if someone else is able to share this is
to have them work along with you.

Some people will already be like you, some will eventually get it, but
many will never get past the initial impression that it is a 25 year
old bus, and though they may compliment it in words, it is with the
reference frame of other vehicles in the junkyard (where they may
silently think it belongs).  Those are the types of people who need
a new car with a warranty; not my bus.

Martin (and '82 Westy 1.9TD)



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