Date:         Mon, 10 Apr 95 12:49:29 PDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Nick Pace <nickpace@rand.org>
Subject:      VW-'71 BUS and '80? BUS-INTERSPECIES TRANSPLANTS OF EQUIPMENT

The Woman Of My Life, our '71 Bus and '78 Fiat 124, and all of our worldly
possessions are moving this month to a house nearby (with a bigger garage
for all of my VW and Fiat parts junk!  Woopee!).  A sure sign that we
picked the right place is that the field in the back of the house has an
abandoned pancake era Bus just sitting there waiting for some serious
salvaging and parting out by me and at my leisure.  Since this is at the
beach, the rust problem is too serious to do anything to the hulk (and the
engine, etc. condition too unknown) except to pull off possibly useful
parts.

Unlike some purists, I frankly don't care if an item is of pure German
stock from only the correct month and year of the original manufacturer.
Hell, if it gets my Bus running after a mid-Mojave desert breakdown, I'd
be happy to stick in a two-stroke leaf blower engine.  You should have
seen the howls of outrage when I casually mentioned on the Italian-Cars
mailing list that I put in a $7 Pep Boys rearview mirror into my '78
Spider (thus replacing the broken original part that is "discounted" to
only $69.95).  Right now, there is so many Brazilian and Mexican engine
parts on the 1600 Bus engine that if the ignition starts misfiring, it
does so with a distinctly Latin beat.

Now I know that they transplanted a baboon's heart into a little girl's
chest a few years ago.  Ignoring for a moment that that particular
experiment utimately, er, failed, I'd like to hear from those of you out
there in the ether about your experiences putting stuff from
post-upright/pre-Vanagon busses into the 68-71 version; to wit:

1) Putting that nice looking bumper from the junker in place of the
horridly twisted one on my '71.

2) The difficulties involved in cutting the metal and re-doing the wiring
in a replacement of the stock '71 tail and backup lights with the much
safer rectangular version.  I know it will look silly but here in L.A. it
is nice to let the Porche screaming down the freeway at 110mph that you
are going to make a lane change with a big, bright, DOT approved blinking
light.

3) Whether the cables, seals, and other fittings from the center sunroof
will work in the earlier Bus (sometime ago I had to yank all of the
sunroof stuff on my Bus and turn it into a manual sliding roof. It works
but.....).

4) Whether the door and window mechanisms are the same.

5) What is the purpose of the electrical fan/blower that is attached to
the top of the engine compartment with two air hoses going to the sides of
the engine?  Is this some sort of heater fan assist?  Is this the answer to
my prayers for increase air flow to the heater boxes?

6) Whether the steering boxes are the same.  How 'bout brake parts (master
cylinder, booster, etc.)

7) Whether any other engine parts such as the distributor can be used.

8) Any other items I should pull.  The landlord is eventually going to have
it towed away and I don't want to beat myself for failing to get that
critical part when I had a chance to do it for free.

Thanks for any advice.  I'm not sure of the year but it does have an access
panel over the engine.

Nick