Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:24:28 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: second newby question
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well that's a real joke to me.
I'm bring one back to full health now ..
it's just an 85 ..
it has some minor scratches and dents ..
so it's not any 10K westy ..
but when I sell it with it's fullly freshened up engine and the whole van
serviced throughout in the low 7 range ...it'll be good for quite a while.
Does not have a rebuilt trans ..
but driven nicely ...it'll go for a long long time.
could use fancier wheels and tires ..
there's an upgrade that people spend a grand on all the time ..
but in general..
a 10K Westy sure should not need 8K more not counting engine and trans !
unless you want to buy say ..
expensive new 15 or 16 inch wheels, fancy new properly rated tires for them,
then do bigger front disc brakes etc..
sure ..if you count those mods, then you can through some dollars into one
..but for 'stock and working properly, and not counting the engine or trans
' ..
they don't need no 8K more invested into them.
I'd be realy careful though ..
most vans I see need about 200 things on them servivced or repaired or
restored or brought back to full health ..
and as noted previously ..rust is The One Thing you want to be most careful
about.
I'm seeing desperately rusted vanagons here and there ..
so preventable too.
but be careful about that. just crawl underneath and starting looking at
stuff.
and you probably know about the infamous 'seam rust' by now.
trying to stop.
it's a minefield out there in my opinion.
I say an add for a local 86 westy ....for 9 grand.
I went and looked at it.
it *looked* fine ..
had a decent repaint on it ..
and I will warn right now ...very often if a used car LOOKS good..
they can be mechanical very tired or trashed.
I have seen that over and over again.
I have seen people reject a very mechanically good car from 50 feet away
becuase it had one ding in it ..
so they figured it must be a piece of junk. And people are not too smart
sometimes and don't have anything to go on except 'how it looks.
and ..if you see new cheap tires on a car for sale..
that always means they drove it into the ground, the put on new cheap tires
to make it look good.
just be careful is all I am saying.
heck, ..even the owners themseleves do not know how bad their own vans are
sometimes.
that 9,000 westy ..
it was seriously way behind on repairs and service..
all systems in it were thrashed..
the trans was noisy, the brakes were weak the engine ran poorly ..
the tires were totally the wrong type and illegal ..on and on.
the alternator was *falling off* the engine ( all waterboxers need to have
their alternator mounting bolts checked....especially 2.1's ..they have a
habit of loosenign and if left long enough, can break off mounting studs in
the engine block ...a very expensive repair ..
these people had had this van checked out by a local mainly air-cooled VW
shop ..and they said it was fine ..
to me the almost falling off alternator, a known classic issue, was as
obvious as 4 flat tires.
that van was seiously, over 5,000 dollars 'down' in repairs needed, and
plain worn out or wrong things on it. I couldn't even see making it viable
and sellable if I got it for $ 3K.
so be careful.
and don't go by looks.
I have seen vans so cherry you could eat of them ..
but they had never had the trans oil changed..
or the CV joints serviced, or the brake fluid changed etc..
also watch out for this ..
I looked at a westy one time with a fairly new engien ..
but the evvery other system in the van had been just driven into the ground.
so the people drove it until something broke..
thent they fixed that one thing ..
meanwhile 10 other systesm are all getting trashed from pure neglect..
like say, shift linkge never lubed...
the shift linagkes last indefenitley with some lubrication ..
some vans have never had a shot of lube on their shift linagke since they
built the van in germany ..
'fixing it when it brakes is just a horrible way to take care of a vanagon'
...
once in a GREAT while I'll see a really good used car.
sometimes it is ..yep, had that serviced, yep, shocks are only years old,
yep, trans oil has been changed with good synthetic gear oil, yep, she's
been aligned. yep, had the brakes seriviced and new brake fluid ..
etc. etc. etc..
that is about one out of a hundred used cars ..
most of them are not really that properly taken care of .
I'm seeing 84's now that are so 'tired throughout' from just pure age and
neglect that it's hard to get them back, ever, to tight smooth running
machines again.
have fun !
scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peters, David Gerard" <dgp6@PITT.EDU>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2010 7:54 AM
Subject: second newby question
Hi All
Thanks for the many warm "welcomes". Still very much enjoying the list and
learning stuff too!
My Vanagon search is still ongoing. I am focused (after taking advice from
many folks on this list) on a later model.
Question: There is an ongoing ebay auction for restored Westy. It is out
of my price range (almost 20k buy it now) but a statement in the auction
description caught my eye and I would be interested to hear feedback from
you guys.
Specifically the seller sates..."If you buy an $8000 to $13,000 Westy, you
will need to add up to $8000 in parts to make it reliable, and thats BEFORE
you touch the engine or tranny! "
Do you agree? Obviously it is possible but I'd be interested to hear
thoughts based on real world experience.
Thanks again
Dave
