Date:         Thu, 08 Feb 96 18:08:51 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Dave Backe <backed@cadvision.com>
Subject:      RE: Wannabus seeks advice - part 2

Wow! What a response. Thanks, all.

As far as the FI goes, the owner's sister (the PO and original owner) had replaced the FI with the carb early on in its life. I found the following from a VW Type II bus summary compiled and posted by Dan Eldred (pulled from: http://www.metrics.com/VW/faq/acfaq3.html).

>5.  '75-'77.5 Type II's.  As above, but electronic fuel injection was
>substituted for the twin Solexes.  I don't have any first hand
>knowledge, but I have heard many tales of people spending many
>hundreds of dollars trying to get the fuel injection to work right
>(usually by ultimately replacing every part until the problem
>disappears).

>From Sami:
>For $2,600 -$3,000 I expect a bus to be almost perfect, rustwise.
>I suggest you spend 2 weeks and US$2,500 in California. 

I wish I could spend 2 weeks in Cali! I was in Monterey a couple of months ago, and got a sore neck spotting all of the pristine type II's down there. I don't really have the time or $$ right now to make the trip, though. The selection here in Calgary sucks. I've heard British Columbia is the place to go (in Canada), but prices tend to be higher. The US/CDN exchange rate is also an issue (for CA, not BC :) at 74 US cents to 1 Cdn dollar, $2500US equates to about $3400 Cdn. $2600 CDN (what I'd be willing to pay, conditional on mechanical inspection) works out to about $1925US.

>From the responses I've gotten so far, I'd classify this one as coming down with a bout of rust, not mortally wounded :). Almost all of the busses I've seen around here could be classified as sick to terminal to DOA. Given that, I've decided this one warrants an investment in an inspection. A couple of long-time VW owners I know have pointed me to a German guy who they swear by. I suspect the inspection will bring out a few other items, but I can use that as ammo to lower the selling price.

I'll keep you up to date on the progress, and thanks again for the great response!


Dave.