Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 12:48:03 -0700
Reply-To: Jon B <jbaker@APBOARD.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Jon B <jbaker@APBOARD.COM>
Subject: Re: passed up an '86
Content-Type: text/plain
A friend of mine bought and 86 automatic a few years back that was
marked as a Wolfsburg. It had the same configuration.
Tall cabinets sitting right behind the passenger seat and behind the
drivers seat. The sink, stove and fridge cabinets went from the floor
to the ceiling and were finished in a natural clear coat. It had extra
gauges that I did not have in my '84 Westy
such as LP gas gauge. The rear bench seat went all the way across the
back sitting 3 people instead of two.
His was brown also. Could it be the same van?
Jon
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Gajewski [SMTP:mgajewski@MANVILLERUBBER.COM]
> Sent: Monday, November 09, 1998 8:50 AM
> To: vanagon@VANAGON.COM
> Subject: passed up an '86
>
> I went to look at an '86 Westy on Sunday. Actually I think it was a
> weekender with pop top (and bed up there) but frige/sink/stove looked
> like aftermarket add ons, not westy originals. Stove and fridge were
> behind passenger seat (so seat couldn't rotate, although is has the
> rotating feature) Sink was behind driver's seat and blocked the rear
> sliding window. Has anyone ever seen/heard of this?
> Anyway, it was in quite nice shape, but left cylinder bank has white
> "scale" all along the bottom edge of the water jacket right along the
> edge of the valve cover. Also, inside engine compartment there was a
> coating of the white "scale" all over the front left side of the
> compartment, almost looked like it got sprayed there. Anyway, owner
> told me he was losing coolant for a while but couldn't tell from where
> and just kept topping up the level (every few thousand miles he said).
> Then he put stop leak in and no more losing coolant. He got it
> pressure
> tested by a mechanic who told him he had a very small leak probably in
> a
> hose somewhere.
>
> Anyway, he was asking $8000 and I told him I was passing unless he
> could
> go way down figuring I would be in for an immediate Head job. He
> refused my offer and told me he paid $9000 10k ago and that he
> believed
> the van is in great shape (136K, good shape I'd say). He said Blue
> book
> is $9000 which sounds high to me.
>
> My question: did I do the right thing? Does this sound like bad head
> gaskets/pitted heads or at least the early onset of? What do you
> think
> a weekender outfitted to an aftermarket camper set up should fetch
> (136K, body decent w/some dents one bondo patch over rear wheel)?
> What's a reasonable deduction for heads on a motor with this mileage
> (I
> figured $2K)? I'm hoping a nicer specimen comes along in my area (NE)
>
> Mark
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