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Date:         Tue, 28 May 2002 00:22:20 -0500
Reply-To:     "Terry K." <CTONLINE@WEBTV.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "Terry K." <CTONLINE@WEBTV.NET>
Subject:      Re: True Grit---
Comments: To: Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
In-Reply-To:  Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>'s message of Mon, 27 May 2002
              23:55:35 -0500
Content-Type: Text/Plain; Charset=ISO-8859-1

You don't try and make a killing?

The green Weenie is advertised on you web page for $10500.00------

Does this include a lifetime towing, road assistance, and bumper to bumper warrantee?

Gott in Himmel---

Du Bist Verruckt !!!

E-mail message From Stan Wilder

My Westy out front must mean I buy Vanagons. I normally have two Westies in the drive, my personal unit and one I'm restoring so they think I'll but theirs and they try to sell them to me. I've turned down every Waser Boxer that was offered to me and one was an 89 Wolfsburg that was a beauty, I turned it down at $800.00 and the guy that bought it got it for $650.00. I didn't even give it a good look see but externally and the interior was very nice, showing about 88K on the speedo. I know I could have parted it out for a profit but my neighborhood is 250K homes and I'm just not going to crap on my neighbors by parting out a van from my home. The problem is that: #1) I'm way,way upside down in my 83 Air Cooled Westy. #2) The Wolfsburg was just a 7 person hauler, not much demand in Texas. #3) I'm sitting on enough parts to restore about any 80-83 Air Cooled Westy that comes my way. #4) I know that the Waser Boxer engine requires expert rebuilding and I don't have the equipment or experience to do a rebuild. #5) Just generally speaking the Vanagons are just not popular in Texas and have "Zip 0" resale value. Certainly there will be Waser Boxer Vanagon owners in Texas that will disagree but I just speak from what I see. The first thing I get from a Waser Boxer seller is several price reductions immediately. I've never had to discount one of my restored Westies. Course I don't try to make a killing on them either. Stan On Tue, 28 May 2002 00:05:00 -0400 jhlauterbach <jhlauterbach@MSN.COM> writes: Stan, you are most correct. When I bought my '84 in May '97, I paid $500 + 30 sales tax. I have spent over $5K over the past 5 years getting it in shape, and I still have a paint job to do. Of course, I have driven it to/from work most of the time that I have had the van. John Lauterbach Macon, GA '84 7-passenger ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stan Wilder" <wilden1@JUNO.COM> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> Sent: Monday, May 27, 2002 11:31 PM Subject: Re: True Grit--- It was not my intention to strike fear in the hearts of every Vanagon and Westy owner with my statement about spending your purchase price again within a year of buying your vehicle. I've never purchased an Air Cooled Vanagon and Westy from a list member and most of the people that sell the vans are just members of the general public and are not list members. I've found that the sellers have just reached their maximum level of endurance for keeping their vehicle running. In many cases of Westies I've purchased to resurrect or Vanagons I purchased for an economical parts source the vehicles have had extensive and expensive repairs and maintenance done on them by local and even authorized VW dealers. I find one new head or often a VW Factory rebuilt engine and all kinds of signs of recent new fuel pumps, ignition systems, brakes and every other potential repair. The glove box often has a good supply of repair tickets and parts receipts. Along with the stack of receipts I find many potential reasons for the engine failure, this list is lengthy but I'll list a few; Engine Seal Missing, Muffler Heat Shield Missing, Dropped Valve Seats, Hammered out Valve seats, leaking cylinders, over tightened lifters, jumpers on the full throttle switch, massive vacuum leaks everywhere, wrong spark wires and wrong spark plugs, running Automatic Transmission Oil with the engine oil to quieten lifters, running 10/30 motor oil.. Since I don't pay retail on these dead units it is very easy to double my investment very quickly if I have to buy new parts to bring them back to a safe dependable vehicle. I quickly doubled my investment on my 83 Westy after I bought it in 1995. I'm guilty of driving it like a normal car, pushing the speed, overworking the engine and just in general making those miles without really knowing anything about the proper care and maintenance. After I blew #3 cylinder and bought a new set of heads in 1996 I started getting a little smarter and started taking care of the little things before they *stopped me in my tracks*, I managed to get 140K out of the existing, recently rebuilt engine after the above repairs over a periods of four years. I nearly wore out the roads to the lakes and 500 miles a weekend was never a problem. I managed to log a lot of miles going to Vicksburg MS and lots of trips to Houston from Dallas. I require myself to say this ......... If I had known how a really good rebuilt engine would improve the vehicle, I'd have installed one the day after I bought the Westy. I suffered through about five years with just marginal performance and a fair amount of tinkering trying to peak out a marginal engine. Stan Wilder 83 Air Cooled Westfalia ______________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/. ______________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.


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