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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.
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

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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