Date:         Tue, 25 Sep 2007 23:03:15 -0700
Reply-To:     Kyle Davis <davis_family_46168@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Kyle Davis <davis_family_46168@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Hello!  We have some questions...
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Hello!

     At last, my long-time dream of re-obtaining a VW
to proudly display in my driveway (and hopefully use
as transportation) has come to fruition.  I'm an
air-cooled type of guy, but this 1984 Westy was crying
out for some love and attention.

    As I've stated, I've only ever owned air-cooled
vws before, but I don't seem to know too much about
the vanagon line.  I could've sworn they were still
making air-cooled in 1984, but I guess I was wrong.

    I didn't know they made diesel, either, but there
you go.

    Anyway, I took my wife to look at this, and she
fell in love with it.  It supposedly has cracked
heads, and the previous owners (one of the many favors
they didn't do for me) was dissasemble the engine
partway.  I haven't had the time for a visual
inspection of the heads, but I am taking them at their
word.

    The first order of business was to clean up the
vanagon.  It was disgusting!  At least they didn't
trash the popup top or any of the mattresses.  The
passenger sunvisor is trashed (this is the one with
the lights), the front passenger bucket seat has some
sort of weird stain or something on it, and the van
has the usual fair amount of rust, but underneath
looked blissfully rust-free.  It's a full camper.  For
what we paid for it, I could make a profit off of it
by parting it out to ebay, but I don't want to do
that.  The plan is to get it running first, then just
continually sink money into it until it is 100% again.

    We haven't named it yet, but I am tempted to name
it Richard or Lieber, after the guy who came over from
Germany to Indiana to start our State Park system back
in the middle 1800s.

     He is a 1.9 water cooled manual transmission full
camper.  Now, I get down to the brass tacks and
questions, in order of importance from greatest to
least.

     1.) If the cylinder heads are indeed cracked,
will the 2.1 heads work on a 1.9 engine?

     2.) If I am correct in understanding this,
cylinder head cracking is fairly common.  Where does
everybody else get theirs, and, if you don't mind me
asking, what have you been paying for them?

     3.) Would it be better to just get a new (to
Richard) engine?  I may be able to lay my hands on a
2.1.  I am not that mechanically inclined, but a buddy
of mine is a professional auto mechanic, and I do know
my way enough around a garage floor to make myself
dangerous.  So, this would leave out most non-VW
solution engines.  Has anybody had any experience in
going from water-cooled to air-cooled?  Or from gas to
diesel?

     4.) Does anybody happen to know where I can get
an exterior sliding door handle for cheap, especially
in Indiana?

     5.) I also wouldn't mind finding out where to get
a replacement passenger side sunvisor (the kind with
lights.)  VW wants about $300 for those, if they can
get them.

     6.) Is anybody aware of where to locate the Westy
Tables?  Ours is missing the sliding one for the back
bench, and I guess there may have been one for the
middle as well?

     7.) How do the middle seats come out?  I would
like to really investigate the fridge closer, but I
couldn't figure this one out.  Also, how do the front
seats swivel?

     8.)  Are there any other Westy owners in Indiana
that I can pester, or maybe hang out with at a state
park once this thing gets campsite ready?

     9.)  Eventually, when we get enough money, we
will want to seriously re-paint the car.  Until then,
can anyone recommend a good solution to bring back a
more shiny version of the dark brown and tan two tone
combination paint job?  Also, I was toying with the
idea of keeping a 2 tone paint job, but have the top
half white and the bottom half red, like on some of
the older splitties.

     10.)  Speaking of paint and rust, we've noticed
that the bolts, eyelets, and other hardware for the
pop top externally are rusted.  Some of the rust has
found it's way to the fiberglass top.  Can anybody
recommend a good cleaner for that?  Some guy on ebay
was selling stainless steel replacement bolts and
claiming you couldn't get them anywhere else, is that
BS, or really true?

     11.)  Last question.  This popup business
intrigues me.  What is the maximum load capacity of
the top bunk for the Westy campers?

     I, along with my family, eagerly await answers to
any of your questions.  We are located in central
Indiana.

Thanks!

Kyle



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