Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 21:29:03 -0400
Reply-To: craig cowan <phishman068@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: craig cowan <phishman068@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: TRIP REPORT!!!!!!!!! Polishing a Turd.
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Well i guess Jim at least would like a report on how i aquired the westy i
did, so here goes. I got a call on Wed from a local guy who heard i was
searching for an automatic transmission. He said he had a parts van with an
auto tranny, as well as an aircooled westy with an auto tranny, both for
sale. Before asking his price, i offered him $300 for the interior, and he
insisted i take the whole thing for $400. He was a terrible person to deal
with however....
He changed his plans over and over again, even after we had settled upon a
date and time and put a deposit on a trailer, he canceled completely
claiming to have a family member on their death bed that i must say, i
believe 'got better', as we were able to work things out to get together the
next day (yesterday), though getting a uhaul car hauler locally with 5 hours
notice on a friday, the first weekend of the month, was impossible. I ended
up calling around untill i found one about 30 miles away, but it all worked
out. With the Uhaul trailer in tow behind our suburban (being towed by
myself and my father, who had to delay his vacation a day thanks to this
guy's inability to corroperate), we made it to the location (about an hour
and a half drive each way). We had to move a dead passat out of the way, and
we find the guy showed up with a plan to pull it out with his van, but had
only a 6 or 8 ft piece of webbing. I was blown away by this.....
Luckily we had 30 feet of chains, air, and a sledge hammer (to fix the
brakes). Once the passat was out of the way, we got the vanagon moving, and
hauled onto the trailer. I hastily handed the guy his money, had him sign
some paperwork, hand me the title, and got out of there.
Some of the specifics on the van: It's a 1980 westy built in March of '80
(so it's a very early one). The interior is in good shape, but the rest of
it is USELESS. There is simply an astounding amount of rust (i'll get
pictures, you've never seen anything like this!), and the engine and
transmission is untested since he purchased it, in 1994. He had purchased
this michigan van, in florida in '94 and towed it home from florida, wanting
the interior out of it. He stored it in a barn for all these years, and now
it's mine. It has a gas furnace, an automatic transmission, and bunches of
good parts (ALL FOR SALE!). To my suprise and my delight, this morning i lit
the stove! There was still propane in there, most likely about as old as i
am, and it worked great. I even lit the stove with great ease, and it got to
43* on an '80+ * day!
Now the interior swap begins.... I put 13 hours into it today. Tommorow
we'll be pulling the engine/tranny, and hopefully trimming/installing the
rear cabinet and curtains. I plan to install the fridge and flu-vent, but
not the other accessory plugs at this time. I'll be cutting the roof off at
the pillars, so it fits in my garage (well, and someone's bought the
roof....).
So ya, now i have a westy....
-Craig
'85GL (soon to be westy)
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