Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2007 08:20:14 -0500
Reply-To: Benny boy <huotb@VIDEOTRON.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Benny boy <huotb@VIDEOTRON.CA>
Subject: Re: That recent post bashing Tiico..one on Yahoo subaru too.
Good question, well, Vanagon chassis are way stronger than the old bus's, as
of today, even if i saw very rusty early Vanagon, the underneath is always
very solid. The vanagon, i think, is a very solid van rsut wise, yes, some
skins may need replacing (my van!) but overall, those van could be on the
road for a long long time. This perticular van had a very nice paint job,
well done and solid, the guys bought that van only one year ago, so, he had
dreams!! many road trip in is head. So basically, what he did is cancel is
next European big trip, inversted in the van and change the European trip
for a US road trip. Here a funny one, at fisrt, he told me he had no money
for such a conversion... he came back and told me all the opposite...
-He had plan 12K$-14K$ for his European trip
-He invested that money in the van, including a new trany, Subi, Axles and
brake.
That was his choice.
Last week, i put 4 engine in the garbage! All working one, but vey sick and
rusty one. I never thought i would do so one day, but hey, i have more than
15 good one on the shelfs so i have no room for the sick one anymore, every
Subi that we do we get a Boxer, and we do a lot of Subi.
So this past 6 month, my world/shop/work as change, i'm going toward another
path, the one i was dreaming when i started my shop, full "Restoration" job
with very reliable engine.
There is one thing that you guys don't understand, everytime i do an engine
rebuilt/reseal/semi-rebuilt.... every single time i turn the ignition key
after the job is finish... i almost want to throw up because i'm so nervous,
because i took so many small calculated risk inside the engine, will it work
for a long time, did i forgot something, will the rods hold, will the head
hold... Everytime i do a boxer i'm walking on ice! It's nerve breaking!
I care so much about my work and my customer's that i don't sleep sometime
until i perfectly know that everything is fine... for now! It's my job, i
have to cover my butt. People don't understand that it's precision work on a
20yo vehicle, they don't care, they payed and they want there van to work
for life....
When i put a 2004, 25,000 miles Subi, i sleep very well. The sad thing for
me, is i don't hear from them Anymore.
Ben
On Thu, 8 Nov 2007 13:34:46 -0800, David Kao <dtkao0205@YAHOO.COM> wrote:
>Benny, you are right. I am in the south (actually west) and I almost never saw
>any engine so rusty. What I was wondering is if the engine was so rusty how
>the chassis would look like? Was it a Syncro? Was the overall condition
justify
>a rebuild of the engine? Apparently you had determined that the engine was
beyond
>repair. It had a high mileage already anyway. But if you are in California
you can
>pick up at least one deserted wxber 1.9 engine per week from my local junkyard
>that has just about no rust whatsoever on them. Most of them are probably
rebuildable
>in my opinion. I could not resist and once yanked a pair of AMC heads off
one in
>junkyard for $70 (something like that) for the pair. There was no crack, no
burnt
>valve, no warping and no damage I could see. Valve guides are slightly worn but
>within Bentely permission still. I guess I am not used to toss any Vanagon
engine yet
>because I am in the sunny state of California.
>
>Cheers,
>
>David
>
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