Date:         Sun, 6 Jun 1999 20:21:19 -0700
Reply-To:     Stephen Arbaugh <sneakers@OZ.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Stephen Arbaugh <sneakers@OZ.NET>
Subject:      Sunday drive wonderings
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

<Muse mode on>

Ah, Sunday evenings...

a good beer close by, time to sit and peruse mail, some good classical
music, and wonder how to prolong the life of my westy. For a couple years
now, I've been able to take my '85 off of primary vehicle duty and drive it
on weekends and certain journeys. Therefore, it sits more than it drives.
We had to pick up my sister-in-law and kids from the airport and drive them
to the folks place in Olympia. Started up the bus to take it out of it's
spot off the driveway, and noticed some drips underneath. hmmmm... put it
in the driveway, went to the spot, found out it was gas. Great, all the
notes here about replacing fuel lines came immediately to mind. Crawled
under to find out where it was coming from, tightened up the dripping
clamp, all was well. Kept an eagle eye on the rear during the drive,
checked it in Oly, all was well and dry. cool.

On the way back, with just my wife and the dogs, I started wondering about
all the other things on the car that should be checked out. I have no
doubts about it's general integrity, but a lot of the minor stuff crossed
my mind: the front heater core is still original; the alignment is way off;
needs new front tires (actually, needs 4 new tires); fridge never has run
on propane, but don't have time to mess with that now; need to replace the
side-band cb that was appropriated from my posession last year; general
stereo upgrade; that 5-cylinder upgrade thats waiting for some extra
$$$.... some things need to be done and will be done, but the other things
I'd like to do as well. At this point in time, I intend to keep the bus as
long as possible, and with enough money, any car can last forever. I guess
my challenge here is to do the same thing on a budget, with a somewhat
non-standard car. Then the thought, what projects actually prolong the life
of the car as opposed to something I just want to do? Either the
wasserboxer or the 5-cyl engine will propel the car fine, but I really want
to do the 5-cyl. The conversion would be harder to find someone to work on
it (potentially), as opposed to a bone-stock bus. While I fully intend to
do some maintenance myself, I'd like to think someday I'll be able to
afford a mechanic to do some stuff.

I'm rambling (beer #2), so enough for now. A potential trip to California
is brewing later this year. I'll have to stop by and buy Detlev a beer and
talk Vanagons, then see what I can talk myself into...

<muse mode off>

steve
kent, wa
'85 westy (no longer dripping gas)