Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2006 18:10:32 -0400
Reply-To: Helena Troy <lacewingfairy@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Helena Troy <lacewingfairy@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Ultimate Vanagon Challenge: the story so far
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Ultimate Vanagon Challenge, the journey west of the missippi.Who could believe this story.Ok so the van was a little desert orphan a wolfsburg edition 88. She'd been stolen from her mom and dad and insurance rules being what they are, she ended up at the auction where she was bought by a used car place (Legacy Auto Sales, Henderson NV) I knew she was mine for some reason and I just bought her blind for $1835 and that included the 10 day transport tags for her transfer. She was branded reclaimed salvage on her title, which honestly just hurts her feelings.The folks at legacy knew I was a Vanatic and that I planned to drive her across country back to my home near Allentown, PA. They fixed the air conditioning compressor (? a van with ac? i had no idea they had such things?) and put on new tires!! Love and kisses to Laura at Legacy for doing her best with this strange car...But I missed the plane. So. Eric, my intrepid craigslist rideshare friend decided to drive her anyway. I warned him about vanagons being what they are... he had no idea what he was in for.So. With two other rideshare friends completing an 11 month trip around the world, they began the trip out of vegas, but the oil light was on and something seemed amiss with the shifting. I hit the airs.com list and the www.vanagonauts.com emergency list and came up with a self diagnosis of the old "wrong oil changed by inexperience folks" and figured there was some horrid clutch problem (which reads about $500 to my ears) I suggested they bed down for the night and the internet pointed me to a vw shop called Classic V-Dubs and a classic VW master named Tom. Tom seemed to specialize in air cooled, but I figured for a traveller in need a VW van was a VW van. He just exuded that calming air of a guy who was really a guru. He of course took care to change the oil, put in the old 20/50, a good oil filter, and the warning light went off. Of course the well meaning folks at legacy had torqued that bolt as tight as they could, and there was a bit of welding needed to fix that (who here hasnt been there and done THAT fix) $125 and we are rolling again.As they tried to drive it to figure out what the clutch problem was, they realized they were starting in 3rd gear!!!! OUCH, so no clutch problem, but boy I can imagine those were rough starts.With the gear location problem solved. the boys headed out blushing slightly. All was eerily quiet for several days. I got positive messages from New Mexico, and then silence.Then the call. In Tulsa it happened, there at the quickstop were 3 guys and all the symptoms of a blown head gasket. Damn... she had made it all the way through the desert, and was kind enough to die in the middle of an actual town just 4 miles from a van rescue person and very close to a great shop at Dynabug. Back on the rescue list I found Pete Sottnik. No stranger to vanagons, he has several from the mid 80's and just so happened to have a car carrier. He loaded her up and took the boys in for the night. (including pizza and a gluten free meal for our intrepid Eric) Using what I can only consider massive pull, Pete asked the Dwane the mechanic at Dynabug to come in on a SUNDAY and at 8 am they began the coolest head gasket quick fix I have heard of yet. Pete wished he had a digital camera. Actually I think the van has a serious crush on Pete.They sand blasted the heads, epoxied the diviots, and patched them back on the road in like 6 hours!. Pete acted as second (unpaid) pair of hands. I dont know if everyone gets the damsel in distress discount, but I just want to say the total cost of the van STILL hasnt hit $2600 and it has for all intents and purposes reconditioned heads. Im so blown away by the van carma and all the love that I have experienced along the way from everyone and ESPECIALLY the vanagonaut list. Great info, great helpThey drove out of Tulsa a few hours ago.Since I am not sure much wrong COULD go wrong, I trust their way to chicago will be trouble free and smooth sailing. The travelers will be resting up there before I finally get to lay eyes on my beautiful baby...I just cant believe the luck so far and how well things are going. But it is people who have made it great, people like all of you.Love and vanagons, fellow listies....Katie(you dont get this kind of love from your toyota)
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