Date:         Tue, 06 Feb 1996 11:45:00 -0800 (PST)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Maher, Steve (SD-MS)" <SMAHER@PO2.GI.COM>
Subject:      Favorite Rust Stories (was: wild goose chase)


On Feb. 6, 1996, Tim Parker wrote:
>My favorite rusty bus was way back in about 1971 at Orange Coast College.
>Don't know who owned it, but it was a 50's vintage (I didn't know from
>barndoors in those days) non-sunroof.  It didn't need one, on the other
>hand.  Rain gutter was rusted out about 8 inches up the top all the way
>around.  Only the top bows held the top on!

In 1976 at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis (you Easterners
haven't SEEN rust until you've driven on MN roads in winter), I saw a
'60s vintage bug, whose fenders had rusted completely off the car.
The owner had tacked them back on, using strips of metal and a pop-rivet
gun.

THOSE strips of metal were now completely rusted through, and the owner
had simply done it again-- tacking on more strips right over the rusted-
through ones! Wonder if he bothered drilling out the previous rivets...
And yes, the new strips showed signs of severe rust, too.

I bought my first car ever there (ah, memories...)-- a 1970 Squareback.
Drove it for two years, repairing numerous fuel-injection leaks and
a brake line that rusted through (there's that word again) right beneath
the accelerator pedal. Sound familiar, northerners?

Finally junked it when the driver's seat literally fell through the floor,
due to massive-- you guessed it-- rust.

Minnesota has been rich in natural resources for centuries, including
iron ore-- the northern half of the state is known to locals as the Iron
Range. What isn't so well known, is that Minnesotans lead the world in
efforts to return all that iron to the soil, in the form of rust flaking
off their cars. Arise, environmentalists, we salute you!

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Maher   smaher@gi.com   '80 V6anagon w/Chevy 2800
                              '71 VW Transporter, for sale
                              '66 Mustang Coupevertible, for sale

Please DON'T use REPLY key-- my return address is messed up.
Send replies to smaher@gi.com, and you'll live happily ever after.

Check out the cars at http://www.lookup.com/homepages/76242/home.html
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------