Date:         Mon, 13 Mar 2000 23:41:06 PST
Reply-To:     Shane Carter <busguy123@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Shane Carter <busguy123@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject:      my good deed for today....................
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed

Just a few words here to mention a few Westies I saw recently when I
accidently ran into an old acquaintance of mine here in Orange County,
California. His name is Vic Ahmed and he used to be very highly regarded on
the Vanagon List as a pioneer in VW van restorations here on the West coast
for many, many, many years now. As a matter of fact, I first met him in 1982
and was very impressed by his professionalism, sincerity and honesty, and
his extensive and seemingly endless knowledge of VWs, especially the
water-cooled variety. I wound up buying a '80 Rabbit diesel pickup truck
from him then, and over the years since, I, along with numerous family
members and friends and co-workers, have bought over two dozen various VWs
from Vic at his used VW/Audi dealership, and had them serviced at his shop.

Even as early as  the mid-Eighties, Vic was doing some very unique and
extremely functional engine swaps in the Vanagons, and regularly stuck VW
inline-4 gas, diesel and turbo-diesel engines in them, with very clean and
factory-looking installations, as also some Porsche 911 engine conversions
for some of his well-heeled customers (I actually met a few of those very
satisfied owners!) This is all long before Eurospec and all these other
companies jumped onto the band-wagon. He had this engine swap thing down to
a science. He also always had an extremely well-stocked used and new parts
warehouse packed floor to rafters with all kinds of rare goodies.

The last vehicle he sold me, in 1998, was a '93 model Eurovan Westfalia
full-camper, a rare canadian model, which I still have and love dearly. Then
I guess I kinda lost contact with him, cuz when I went looking for him to
get some parts for one of my other cars, a '97 Passat TDI which he also sold
me, his shop was all closed up and nobody knew where he was. Needless to
say, I was sad as I'd grown pretty fond of his courtesy and his friendly
demeanor, and felt like I'd lost a dear friend. Later on, I found out that a
terrible tragedy had befallen him, and that he'd lost everything, and been
forced to close down his business. I met some of his other loyal customers
who. like me, were saddened and shocked by the news.

Then, last week, while I was in a wrecking yard looking for some parts for
one of my VWs, and who do I run into, but Vic, buried under a Vanagon,
pulling a '091 4-speed in the middle of a thunder-storm! He instantly
greeted me warmly, like a long-lost friend, his usual friendly and courteous
smile still intact inspite of his personal tragedies and enormous losses and
I helped him carry out the tranny to his Turbo-diesel Transporter Panel van,
(this is a guy that once  had a killer business and drove an S-Class
Mercedes and had a bunch of guys working for him). Anyway, excuse me for
rambling on folks, to cut a long story short, he took me down to a storage
lot where he showed me what was left of his inventory, and I was apalled,
cuz he usually had over 30 Vanagons in stock all the time, and over 25 parts
vans in a huge lot, and now he had like only a few, in various states of
repair and restoration. He explained to me, and this I can understand, that
he could only fix up one or two at a time due to severe financial
constraints, and then he has to wait till he sells them so's he can start
fixing the other ones. But while i was there, I saw atleast three '85
Westies, a '84, and a '83.5 that looked pretty nice. If any of you folks are
looking for a Westy, Vic's your man! I can personally vouch for his cars -
he does a great job on them. God knows, I've bought a bunch of 'em from him,
and they were all great. And if there ever was a problem of any sort, he
always took care of it. And besides, the man needs help - for many many
years, he has been a valuable resource, with invaluable contributions to the
VW community, and this is the least that anybody could do in a humanitarian
context. He also has a little bit of his once huge stock-pile of parts that
he apparently managed to salvage from his ex - and the lawyers, so I urge
all of you to give the man atleast a little of your business and do your
share as decent human beings to try and help him get back on his feet. The
reason I say this, is that life is funny, with many twists and turns, and
the same kind of misfortunes could easily befall any of us at any moment!

If any of you are interested, give Vic a holler at 714-596-4732.

Shane


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