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Date:         Fri, 2 Jun 2000 06:53:44 -0400
Reply-To:     McComas_Glenn <mccomas@SHORE.INTERCOM.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         McComas_Glenn <mccomas@SHORE.INTERCOM.NET>
Subject:      Found an 89 Westy
Comments: To: pwalker@NEXTDIMENGINEERING.COM

Phil --

You are spot-on about the rust...... always worse than it looks [sorry about the bad pun also]. If this vehicle has spent significant time in an area where they use salt on the roads in winter, you will need some oxy+acet skills to remove rusted bolts without breaking them. In my experience, bodywork cancer is a given.

Have you looked for evidence of a repaint? Usually painting over rust gives rise to bubbles within a year or two. Check around the window gaskets and the door seals for evidence of masking and/or overspray.

As you may know from reading the list, the 2.1L engine has a tendency to pound its big ends egg-shaped by around 150,000 miles. Pulling the extra weight may be a factor making this worse for Westies.

I'd say IFF [shorthand for if and only if] this is a low mileage, zero salt, original paint, meticulously maintained vehicle with a complete service record from original owner...... then maybe the price is reasonable. Otherwise, walk away from it. An engine is $2K, trans $1K, body restoration $1 to 3K...... plus your own sweat equity.

On another topic, please do your fellow List members a favor by transmitting in plain text only. The following note from Gina should help....

------------------- go to TOOLS, choose OPTIONS, and click on the SEND tab...halfway down on the left of that screen is a button for HTML SETTINGS...choose that and then drop the list to NONE (where it ways encode text using:) click okay, then on the same page choose PLAIN TEXT SETTINGS...and switch that over to UUENCODE instead of mime...click okay and then hit apply before you hit the final okay button...you may need to close out outlook at that point and restart it, I'm not sure on that one...but it should end your mime woes :) good luck and take care gina 85 vanagon gl -----------------------------------------

Best of luck Glenn Queenstown, MD

===================REF==================== This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

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I found a 89 Westy in my same town. I took it for a test drive last = night. The van is in really good condition. Everything works, it runs = well, I let it idle for a while in the driveway, no change in engine = temperature. The heads were done by a local shop not too long ago....it = has 130K. It is a manual. Clean body, clean inside.

Now for the kicker. The asking price is about 13K. I get the feeling = that the price of these vans is very arbitrary, (just my feeling). Kelly = blue book puts the value at about 14K, NADA and Edmuson at about 8K. = What is up? Part of me tells me to buy the best van I can afford because = they are no longer around, duh, and chances are I'll be keeping it a = while. I just didn't want to spend so much on my first van especially = when, with the mileage, things can still go wrong (clutch, suspension, = etc.)

Also, there is a small bubbling of paint behind and below the gas cap on = the right hand side in the seam. I'm sure others have seen this = bubbling. The question is how much metal needs to be removed (if any) to = stop the rusting. My experience with older cars and rust is that the = rust usually is worse than it looks. Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks in advance for the help, and thanks to all of the people who = responded to my last post.=20

Phil Walker


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