Date: Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:16:50 -0600
Reply-To: Tom Buese <tombuese@COMCAST.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tom Buese <tombuese@COMCAST.NET>
Subject: Re: Goopy stuff on dish drainer
In-Reply-To: <4d1b79350909220841m143a1499xe700931afe1bcf35@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
I just looked & lo & behold, I have all three of the nicely formed
rubber like white blobs on the bottom of my countertop to keep the SS
drainer from rattling-mine need to be adjusted as the drainer rattles
unless I stick a sponge or towel in there while driving. I'll have to
follow Jim's directions to adjust.
YMMV,
Mr. BZ-never noticed the little suckers before
On Sep 22, 2009, at 9:41 AM, Jim Felder wrote:
> Oh, man, you really got me with the "oldest trick" thing, exposing my
> sloppiness to the world on the same day the world became aware of my,
> let's use the term "keen interest" in vanagons!
>
> At first, when I first heard about the rubbery blobs, I believed that
> they might fall into a class of nefarious netherworldish features
> sometimes referred to as "dealer installs, like mud flaps on a Jetta
> or early Vanagon AC, which when inquired about in a non-dealership
> scenario (a knowledgeable local VW, shop, say) always earns a nasal,
> condescending response, a quick turnabout on the heel and a
> conversation with another customer while you're standing there
> slackjawed, sorry that you brought it up. At least that's how it
> usually works out for me.
>
> But then I did something very unusual for me, at least on a work day.
> I got up out of my chair, walked the 20 feet to my camper, and looked.
> THERE THEY WERE. When I bought my camper, every single thing in it was
> piled in the floor. Everything. I have had every piece of the interior
> of this car in my hands as I assembled it, and THEY WERE NOT THERE
> BEFORE. Someone has recently sneaked in and installed them! Only they
> are not blobs, they are nicely-formed white cones, and mine is an 83
> that has spent its life in the Alabama sun. So they are RECENT, I'm
> saying.
>
> I used to keep the sponge up there to keep the steel contraption from
> rattling, but I figured out that the bullet "detent" fasteners were
> adjustable.
>
> Here's what do: Go lift your lid (nnnnnnoooooo, on the westy stove!)
> and lower the sink drain. Look along the front edge of the drain for
> two slots. These slots are the catchpoints for two bullet catches
> located on the underside of the lid, in the inside of the drop on the
> front (or top, when it is in the raised position). You may not be able
> to see this until your ankle heals. You will have to remove the lid to
> adjust the catches, anyway.
>
> After the lid is off, turn it over and look carefully at the two
> catches and you will see that they each have two notches in the
> circumference. You can get small pliers or whatnot in those notches
> and screw the catches in or out to make them fit more or less snugly.
> If your sink drain is rattling, these are probably the culprits.
>
> Jim
>
> On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 10:09 AM, Rocket J Squirrel
> <camping.elliott@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Jim,
>>
>> Wait -- are you saying that:
>>
>> a. You don't have those three Hershey's Kisses-sized white rubbery
>> blobs on
>> the underside of your counter, above the sink drainer?
>>
>> b. That Mellow Yellow's PO applied these, but in a stunning example
>> of
>> Jungian synchronocity, Maggie Dew's PO did the same thing, Leonard
>> Anthony
>> found the same three blobs on his 84, and, in a p-mail, another
>> Westy owner
>> described finding the same three white shiny blobs on his counter
>> underside?
>>
>> and,
>>
>> c. What are these "bullet catches" you are describing in the cover
>> of what
>> now?
>>
>> d. The "oldest trick in the book" surely must be pretending to pull
>> your
>> kid's nose off by showing him your pinched thumb protruding between
>> two
>> fingers.
>>
>> --
>> Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
>> 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
>> 74 Westrailia: (Ladybug Trailer company, San Juan Capistrano, Calif.)
>> Bend, OR
>> KG6RCR
>>
>>
>>
>> On 9/22/2009 4:41 AM Jim Felder wrote:
>>
>>> Yes, to keep the thing from rattling... some PO was trying to keep
>>> the
>>> thing from rattling. He/she didn't know that you could take the
>>> right
>>> kind of objects to stick in the two tiny holes in the bullet catches
>>> in the cover and adjust the rattle out by turning them, so they
>>> resorted to the oldest trick in the book, some cheap goop that
>>> didn't
>>> even stand up to summer interior temperatures.
>>>
>>> Jim
>>>
>>> On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 11:37 PM, Rocket J Squirrel
>>> <camping.elliott@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Thanks, Maggie. You have vindicated me. I'm not the only one with
>>>> melted
>>>> white formerly Frostee-cone shaped blobs of rubbery material
>>>> gummed to
>>>> the
>>>> upper surface of the dish drainer.
>>>>
>>>> This proves that I'm not insane.
>>>>
>>>> Well, actually it doesn't say anything about my sanity one way or
>>>> the
>>>> other.
>>>>
>>>> The rest of you guys: are you telling me that if you lift the
>>>> stove/sink
>>>> counter, drop the dish drainer, and look at the underside of the
>>>> counter,
>>>> you don't see three white blobs of rubbery stuff looking like
>>>> they were
>>>> carefully placed there to keep the drainer from rattling around?
>>>>
>>>> (Canadians will have to stay at their desks and read while the
>>>> rest of
>>>> the
>>>> class finishes the test.)
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
>>>> 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
>>>> 74 Westrailia: (Ladybug Trailer company, San Juan Capistrano,
>>>> Calif.)
>>>> Bend, OR
>>>> KG6RCR
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 9/21/2009 5:51 PM Maggie Dew wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I had that same goop, and in the same location, on the '85 Westy
>>>>> when
>>>>> I bought it. It was extremely tenacious, almost like melted raw
>>>>> rubber or something - I got most of it off but was never able to
>>>>> get
>>>>> it all. I kind of thought it might be old nail polish that had
>>>>> gotten
>>>>> pliable and sticky. I tried lots of different cleaning agents,
>>>>> even
>>>>> tried unsuccessfully to scrape it off - it would stretch a
>>>>> little bit,
>>>>> then snap back into place. Weird. Must've been part of the same
>>>>> alien invasion Mr. Squirrel experienced.
>>>>>
>>>>> Maggie
>>>>>
>>>
>>
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