Date: Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:10:08 -0500
Reply-To: Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Friday: than Vanagon smell?
In-Reply-To: <4AE223EC.8030808@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
I knew this one was going to get dark in a hurry.
Jim
On Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 4:45 PM, Rocket J Squirrel
<camping.elliott@gmail.com> wrote:
> When I was in high school one of my friends was able to borrow the family's
> splittie for our occasional ill-considered ventures. That thing had a dank
> and resentful* smell, which we attributed to my friend's older brother.
>
> ==========
> * The way I like my women.
>
> --
> 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 10/23/2009 1:52 PM Jim Felder wrote:
>
>> Recently I went camping and paddling, and, not being near a trash
>> receptacle, didn't get a waterlogged bag of overnight group garbage
>> out of my westy until the end of the day. Following this were two
>> straight weeks of rain and three nights of camping during that time.
>> The vanagon didn't have a chance to dry out. My supernice rubber rear
>> mat held most of that, but in a matter of days it became obvious that
>> water had gone everywhere--the smell of mildew got pretty strong. I
>> put in a heater and a fan for three days and then the sun came out and
>> things got better. As a test, I had my wife come out and give it the
>> test as my nose is unpredictable. She said she couldn't smell anything
>> but a "vanagon smell."
>>
>> "What?"
>>
>> We've had three vanagons, one new since 90 (gone as of last summer)
>> and a 91 (both gas) and the 83 westy (diesel)
>>
>> "Do you mean a cooking smell, in the westy?"
>>
>> "No, they all have a certain smell."
>>
>> My daughter got in on the conversation and said that all VWs have that
>> smell, going back to the first VWs she remembers, my wife's 65 bug and
>> my 69 bus we drove through the 70s. She thought it might be that
>> rear-engined VW were substantially different from front-engined ones,
>> but I assured her that that was probably not the case.
>>
>> I asked her if my Jetta, which is fairly new to me (and a diesel),
>> smelled that way. Leading to the possibility that it is me, not the
>> cars, with the volkswagen/vanagon smell. But it was agreed that I have
>> had other cars that did not have "that smell."
>>
>> What to make of this?
>>
>> The malevolent odor of the wet westy is almost gone. Anything to do to
>> ensure the smell doesn't come back in wet weather?
>>
>> Jim
>>
>
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