Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 12:32:26 -0500
Reply-To: Karl Mullendore <thewestyman@MINDSPRING.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Karl Mullendore <thewestyman@MINDSPRING.COM>
Subject: Re: Westyman update
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Hey Tom!
Are you coming to the campout in TN this weekend? Pam and I are planning to
go. The bananas I used were not the hard 'chips' that are found in most
stores, but whole, peeled, dehydrated ones that are quite flexible and
sticky, kind of like stiff caulking. Yesterday the radiator developed a HUGE
firehose leak, shooting straight out for about 20 feet. After thinking aloud
'shucks, I'm done now!', I figured what the heck, try more bananas, and then
carefully wedged a rock against the banana patch to keep it in place. Made
it home, with no sign of leakage, at least from the radiator!
Karl Mullendore
Westy Ventures
1987 Syncro Westfalia 1.9TD, Otto
1985 Transporter singlecab (nameless, how about 'Ol' Leaky'?)
----- Original Message -----
From: Tom and Dana Cates <dcates1@home.com>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>; Karl Mullendore
<thewestyman@mindspring.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2000 6:04 PM
Subject: Re: Westyman update
Pam Writes: (on Karl's behalf)
!!! He did manage
to get the hole in the radiator repaired at a shop in Minot (after
temporarily patching it with a piece of dried banana!)
I too have used many ingenious repairs keep a machine going in many
different ways and at many different times.
I cannot right now thing of a better time or situation for a person to
summon all of one's ingenuity than to be stranded in SD with winter
breathing down your neck.
I am happy that Karl is now on his way safely home. But I have to
wonder.....
Was it bannana peel? The stem maybe or a part of the skin? Or was it dried
banana chips? What is his secret with bananas? Do bananas have properties
the I never really took the time to consider?
I have tried to ponder the different ways he might have effected a cooling
system repair with bananas:
A skin could be wrapped around the hose as a sealer/insulation and then
secured with duck tape.
A 1cm spouting hole in the radiator tank could possibly be somewhat
staunched with a banana stem wedged in and bent over and secured with fine
bailing wire through the fins and around the tank.
Maybe a crevice could be packed with dried chips in the hope that they would
swell with the absorption of coolant and make a plug?
I can barely wait to hear Mr. Mullendore's detailed explanation. I want him
on MY team for the next Junkyard Challenge.
I think now I will have to consider carrying more bananas. (We only took
pumpkins camping this weekend, boy do I feel dumb.)
Tom and Dana Cates
Asheville, NC
83 Air-cooled Westfalia, 'Hammurabi'
http://www.fullmoonbusclub.com/
A.I.R.S.