Date:         Fri, 14 May 2004 15:28:44 -0400
Reply-To:     "Warner, Jeff (DSIO)" <Jeff.Warner@DLA.MIL>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "Warner, Jeff (DSIO)" <Jeff.Warner@DLA.MIL>
Subject:      Re: State of the List... State your ages!!!!!!!
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Okay, things are slow at work today, I'll bite but this will take a while.

State of the List - Awesome, this week.  Generally, the best list bar none.  Some weeks are better than others.

Ages - Just hit 45 last week.  Wife will be 44 soon.  Kids 16 & 12.

VW inclined but not my only passion as you'll see.  

Vehicular and personal history (more or less in order and complete).

'65 Midget - 1st car purchased for $425 1 year before I could legally drive sometime around '74 I guess.  Spent a year racing it around our farm fields before I hit the road.  Eventually flipped it and survived!  Sold it 4 or 5 years ago on eBay as a "MG Midget in Boxes".  Got $425 for it.
'71 Nomad - Great wagon that my brother and I shared until he cooked it driving half way around the outer belt with no coolant or oil.  Not mechanically inclined then or now.  
'67 Baja Bug - 1st VW love affair.  Idiot buddy wrecked it but I eventually repaired it and got some more use out of it.  Want another one real bad.  
'68 Charger - Another buddy's dad bought it for him for $300.  Within a week I bought it right out from under him for $600.  Had to have it!  We remained friends.  He was afraid of it anyway.  Oil pump eventually went out and engine seized right up.  Dropped a bad 440 in it.  Jeeze!  But I loved it while I had it.
'71 Nova - Great car!  Sold it for $400 because I couldn't justify keeping it after I bought the Charger.  Girl who bought it promptly went out and wrapped it around a tree.  ARRGHH!
'65 Corvair Monza Convertible - Good looking rust bucket.  Great cruiser.  
'73 240Z - Long history of restoration and modification, racing and showing.  Still have it and still love it.  65,000 miles.
'71 Midget - Sweet little Butterscotch flavored car.  Lots of fun afternoons with the top down.  Wish I still had it.  Will get another one some day.
'74 Chevy C20 Utility Bed 4X4 - Bought from Toledo Edison.  Had a lot of fun and made some decent money with it.  By the time I sold it, it had a stake bed, 4" lift, 33" tires, 7' Fischer plow, big lights, stacks w/ rain caps, etc. Used the bed for floats in the 4th of July parades.  Once had a huge space shuttle creation propped up on the back.  Lots of fun 4 wheeling!  Wouldn't want to have to buy gas for it today.
'82 Rabbit (the Weber carb version) - Wife to be and I bought this together as her first car and our first new car purchase.  Drove it to Hilton Head for our Honeymoon.  Red w/ tan leatherette interior.  Great car!  Nearly got killed in it dodging a bed frame on the freeway.
1983 - Sold Beetle, Charger, Midget & truck to raise money for wedding.  Wasn't really planned that way.  Just kind of happened.  As it was we ended up paying for the wedding ourselves so it was just as well.  Bummer though.
'84 Colt Turbo - Traded in the somewhat twisted Rabbit for this twin-stick pocket rocket.  What a blast!  At this point in our lives we hadn't yet caught on to the evil spiral of new car purchases, depreciation and subsequent accumulated debt.
'86 Jetta GLI - Traded in the Colt (Can't figure out why).  Great Jetta!  Had the stealership outfit it with all the factory aftermarket body pieces painted to match.  Should have kept this one for a while but...
'88 Jetta GLI and '88 Fox GL Wagon - Yep, traded in the '86 for these two newbies all at once.  And the real kicker was we did it 1 week before our first child was born.  Man were we stupid!  But at least this was the new car purchase (lease) that finally taught us to stop buying new and to never lease again.  This Jetta was a major lemon.  Sold it three years later to a fellow autocrosser for a substantial loss.  Kept the Fox until last year when I finally, regretfully, sold it.  Only because I'd replaced it with another one and couldn't justify keeping it any longer.  Probably the best overall car I've ever owned and a daily driver the entire time. 
'70 Midget Road Racer - Gave up trying to race the '88 GLI POS and bought this road racer.  Restored it. Raced it. Won 2 Championships. Sold it to pay for parts to finish the 240Z and took it racing instead and one another championship.  Too much fun!
'72 Chevelle Wagon - My grandfather's car from new.  72,000 miles.  Been inactively restoring it now for quite a few years. Got all the parts but none of the time. 
'71 Cutlass - My aunts old beater became my beater.  Good car.  Eventually traded it for some drywall work.  Guy wrecked it.  What's up with that.
'68 BENGAL Charger - 1 of 50 but only about 4 left. Discovered it. Restored it. Wrote a book about it.  Became a reluctant expert. Lots of trophies and magazines.  Kids grew up in it. Sold it on eBay for substantially more than I had in it thank you very much.  Garage princess had to go!  While I'm writing this a reporter from a Cincinnati TV station calls me with questions about it.  When will it end?   
'74 260Z 2+2 (early model) - Oh yeah!  Was looking for a nice example of one of these for quite a while.  Found it!  It was purple so the kids named it Barney. Ugh! More Z fun.  Now a restoration in waiting.
'74 Fun Bug (orange Standard Beetle w/ black trim) - Bought it from a couple who had just put a new engine in it then discovered the floors were in need of repair.  They were afraid to drive it.  Drove it home for 100 bucks! Future resto project number who knows what.
'87 Vanagon GL Weekender - Bought it from my brother or I should say rescued it.  Lots of family adventures and vacations until the Westy came along.  Now it's my sons project and it's overheating.
'86 5000S - Daily driver gives me the Audi bug. Sold it when I got the '87 Fox Wagon on the road.
'86 Wolfsburg Westfalia - What can I say?  I'm in love.  We're all in love. FUN FUN FUN!
'87 Fox GL Wagon - Bought locally for $400.  Used the money from the sale of my '88 Fox Wagon to put a lot of fun into this one last Summer.  It is now known as Son of FrankenFox AKA ShadowFox.  It has an Audi 3A 2.0 and bunches of other goodies.  An absolute ball to drive and my daily driver up until about two weeks ago when I finally got the 200 on the road.  
'91 Hardbody Pickup - Bought this trustworthy rust bucket on eBay.  Took a family vacation to Niagara Falls to pick it up in Buffalo.  Used it to haul stuff while restoring the house.  Have never done a dang blasted thing to it except put in gas.  I call it my little stump jumper.  This truck is FUN!  
'86 Coupe GT - Bought this project from a buddy for $350.  Put about $300 into it.  Looks like I might be selling it next week to another diseased buddy for $500.  Just can't justify keeping it but man is it sweet.
'84 Turbo Colts (2) - Bought 2 of these in the span of 1 year.  One a race car that had never been titled and the other a parts car purchase off eBay.  Son and I are using the parts car to restore the race car and go racing once again.
'65 220SE Automatic - Grew up in the backseat of a '60 220.  Have always had the bug.  Picked this one up at auction for $150 to play with and probably part out because the floors are too far gone.
'97 Mustang - Bought for the wife so she could finally stop driving the Fox.  She wanted something "nicer and more reliable".  What?  Anyway, we're all agreed after two years that we hate this car.  Looks good but drives like a truck and has some really stupid creature discomforts.  FOR SALE: Excellent condition. 100,000 miles, good gas mileage, etc. etc. who cares.  $4800
'89 200 Quattro Avant - My new baby purchased locally on eBay.  Owning a Vanagon is only just a training instrument for owning one of these beasties.  Dead reliable engines but the rest of the car and especially the electronics will drive you insane.  At least they don't rust!  Still I absolutely love it.  Very much a love/hate relationship like the Vanagon.  Currently I refer to this car as The Bitch.  She is now my daily driver and as a result the '87 Fox is reluctantly for sale unless I can come up with a good excuse to keep it.
'00 Concorde LX - Purchased to replace the Mustang as wife's daily driver.  Only 30,000 miles and so far we love it.  

There have also been an assortment of cars that have come and gone from auctions and quick sales or dismantlings such as Dashers, more Foxes, Golfs, Jettas, Audis, Zs, etc.

That's my life in terms of cars.  Thanks for letting me share.  I hope it wasn't as painful for you as it was for me trying to remember all this.  If we can figure out the overheating issue on the Weekender, we're taking both Vanagons camping next weekend for the first time.  Too Cool!

Jeff Warner
Galloway, OH
Current Inventory:
'86 Wolfy Westy "Barry"
'87 GL Weekender "Van Band"
'00 Concorde LX
'97 Mustang - FOR SALE!
'87 Fox GL SportWagon - Sort of For Sale
'89 200 Quattro Wagon "The Bitch"
'91 Hardbody Pickup
'84 Turbo Colt - Race car project
'84 Turbo Colt - Parts Car
'65 220SE Automatic
'86 Coupe GT - SOLD I think
'72 Chevelle Wagon
'73 California Z (240Z)
'74 260Z 2+2 "Barney"
'74 Fun Bug
Ancient IH Cub Cadet Lawn Tractor
And yes, all the ones that matter are stored inside.