Date:         Sun, 29 Oct 2000 18:04:43 -0500
Reply-To:     Tom and Dana Cates <dcates1@HOME.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Tom and Dana Cates <dcates1@HOME.COM>
Subject:      Re: Westyman update
Comments: To: Karl Mullendore <thewestyman@mindspring.com>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;

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.

[text/html]