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Date:         Wed, 03 Aug 94 11:53:39 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      relayed msgs.

these got bounced for some reason. i'm working on it! :) -----------------------------------------

========================================================================= Date: Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com> From: SYSTCH@ALBNYVMS.BITNET Subject: Re: gizmos/toys for the trip

I picked up a solar shower 5gals with the squeeze control thingy by the shower head for $7.00 at Walmart in the camping section. Walmart has some very good prices on campgear, which I have used to equip my Westy. Tom Hoey '82 Westy

========================================================================= Date: Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com> From: SYSTCH@ALBNYVMS.BITNET Subject:

This is a story about how I got my recent VW. I had owned many years ago various VW's (1974 Bradley GT, 1966 double cab, 1969 Ghia Convert). I had been reading Rec.auto.vw for a year, and learned a great deal from the list. This is my first contribution to the Vanagon list, so I hope you enjoy!

TRAMP

I bought Tramp (1982 Westy) in August of 93, after I had spent the whole spring and summer searching for a Vanagon/camper. My wife was very sick and I felt that getting out on the road after her treatments would improve her recovery, VW's have that MAGIC quality about them. She was released from the hospital the 2nd week of August, one week later I saw the ad in our local car trade paper. I was well used to the idea of, Here I go again, I had checked out close to 20 vehicle's by now, most bus years '66-'86. I wanted to spend around 4-6 thousand dollars, but I wanted value for my money. Most of the Vehicles were very rusty and needed much work. The ad description and reality description were usually many miles (kilometer's) apart.

Well I answered the ad and set up an appointment to see the '82 Westy, it was located at a house on Saratoga Lake NY. Driving down a long curving gravel driveway running parallel to the lake, I caught my first glimpse of Tramp. Situated in a clearing of scrub pine tree's was a beautiful brown Vanagon/Westy its pop-top opened catching the morning breeze blowing off the lake. I can't believe it, I thought to myself, It looks almost new. The ad had an asking price of $5400, which normally would be considered high for a regular '82 car. I talked the regular small talk to Mike, like why he was selling it...He needed money to fix us his house, which was a lake summer cabin, the money was going to be used for a heating system. I started my examination by crawling under the car and seeing the condition, no rust. Went back to the engine clean, but the exhaust was on its last legs. Started it up, sounds nice...58,600 miles on the speedo, drives great. My wife's job was to check out the inside, she seemed to think it was ok, the sink worked, the stove worked and he promised that the fridge worked. I wanted this Westy, but I wanted the price to be lower, we dickered for 40 minutes finally we agreed to $4,400. We went into his cabin where I was immediately greeted by Jeff an older black Lab, Mike told of his fun trips with Jeff to various states, right then and there warning bells should have been ringing, but I was smitten.

Tramp was to be delivered by Mike the following day, I had to get money and prepare for my new vehicle. Mike dropped off Tramp at 5pm, and I started to go to work. I had taken the week off work, and planned to "hit the road" as soon as Tramp was cleaned up. It was a very hot afternoon and as soon as I got into the Westy the odor hit me, Tramp really stunk. I sniffed around and determined the smell was from the seats and cushions, dog hair was everywhere. This was not going to be easy! I completely tore everything apart, driver and passenger seats, rear seat, sleeping loft, cushions, washed all the cloth and bought new foam ($ 150.00). Three days later after renting a steam cleaner ($35+ 20 cleaning agent), I was almost ready. The back compartment rug had stain that would no go away, new carpet would be needed. I could not find the size rug need to match the rug there, I finally decided to put in a wood parquet oak floor ($30.00 @Colortile). I glued the tiles to the 1/4" plywood that was under the rug and taken out. I reinstalled it with no problems, using the sheetmetal screws right through the parquet. Just in case I needed access to that area again. It was now Thursday, I changed the oil plugged in the fridge, and loaded Tramp up. We decided on tramp because of the heavy tramp smell before we cleaned it up. Friday morning we were off, we traveled to Cape Cod, and camped out for two great nights. To my dismay, I noticed that the odometer was not moving, oh well, I thought another to do.... Our adventures with Tramp had just begun.


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