Date: Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:19:28 -0700
Reply-To: Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Goopy stuff on dish drainer
In-Reply-To: <4d1b79350909220841m143a1499xe700931afe1bcf35@mail.gmail.com>
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I think we all need to take a deep breath now, and step slowly away from
our Westies. When the question of whether there exist shiny white Hershey's
Kisses shaped silicone RTV-like cones gummed to the underside of the stove
countertop causes folk to actually get up from their seats and take a
look, well then, things are outta control.
But I appreciate that you took a look. Think this might qualify for Most
Obscure Dinguses on a Westy?
> ... 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.
It's not supposed to go like that?
Thanx for the tip about the ball-detent bullet catches and how they work.
I'll check them out. I don't have much of a rattle problem back there,
though, since I usually lay a folded dishtowel atop the grill let a
portion get mashed under the closed countertop. It sticks out, like a
tongue, albeit a cheerful plaid tongue sporting a picture of a pullet.
... kinda what you were talking about.
--
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 8:41 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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