VANAGON archives -- June 2003, week 2 (#169)

Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 03:21:03 -0400 Reply-To: Joe Denison <Misto619@NETSCAPE.NET> Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com> From: Joe Denison <Misto619@NETSCAPE.NET> Subject: Re: 81 Vanagon in need of restoration... Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Lots of feedback from lots of different places...wow!

First off, replacing it isn't an option. My wife and I are more sentimentally attached to that van than is probably healthy. We were homeless for a while and actually lived in that van. We won't part it out or junk it, it just isn't going to happen. Letting it sit there and rust while we drive around in a newer van isn't an option either. While we both realize that it is an inanimate object incapable of emotions or feelings, we aren't and often we're slaves to our emotions. We don't throw things to the junk yard because they are old. Were it to catch fire and burn, that would be different. Were a tree to fall on it, that would be different. But I've already had more than $1500 worth of work done on it and I just can't let that kind of money go to the junk yard.

I understand that to a lot of people, throwing a lot of money into something like this doesn't make a lot of sense. Therefore, junking it and getting another one sounds like a good idea. To be honest, it probably is a better idea, but it isn't what we want to do. We want to be able to drive the van that brought our daughter home from the hospital. We want to drive the van that provided us shelter when we had no other place to go. I'm rambling on like a fanatic, aren't I? Well, so be it.

To the practical side of it, I have had all the brake hardware other than the master cylinder replaced all the way around. I've replaced the gas tank (though I didn't get all the hoses in their proper places), and I've paid out a lot of money to a garage I won't mention by name to find that the van is still not in the condition I wanted it in (driveability wise). I've replaced the muffler and tail pipe (no big deal to some, but to me it was). I've also spent too many hours staring down into the engine wondering what I was missing to let it beat me now.

Anyway, thanks for the injection of common sense, but as usual, I'll have to take a pass and side with emotionalism over rationality. Give me this much credit as you laugh at me, I at least understand my problem, even if I'm unwilling to do what may well be the 'right thing' about it.

With all sincerity and thanks, Joe Denison

-- Joe Denison misto619@netscape.net

__________________________________________________________________ McAfee VirusScan Online from the Netscape Network. Comprehensive protection for your entire computer. Get your free trial today! http://channels.netscape.com/ns/computing/mcafee/index.jsp?promo=393397

Get AOL Instant Messenger 5.1 free of charge. Download Now! http://aim.aol.com/aimnew/Aim/register.adp?promo=380455

Back to: Top of message | Previous page | Main VANAGON page

Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!

Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com

The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.

Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.