Date: Sat, 17 Jul 1999 19:57:58 EDT
Reply-To: DAVIDTHEKM@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: David Hunt <DAVIDTHEKM@AOL.COM>
Subject: Adventure Wagen
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
I have a '68 crewcab, and I'm just finishing restoring a Thing. I've been
thinking about a camper and decided to expand my horizons by reading the
Vanagon list also, so I started last month.
I found an '82 A/C Vanagon Adventure Wagen this weekend and bought it because
it seemed like too good a deal to pass up. It was too much like one of those
"found a perfect one in a barn" stories. Now I'd like some advice on what I
got myself into.
The Vanagon was at an old garage in central Texas. The story the man at the
garage told me was that the V. had belonged to a rental company in Florida
that mainly rented to European tourists who would fly into Florida and drive
to California then fly home. Then someone else would rent it in California
and drive to Florida, and so on back and forth. The engine developed
unspecified difficulties when some Germans were in the middle of Texas. They
left it and fly on. The rental company essentially totaled it by selling it
to a local wrecking yard because they didn't want to come after it. The man
at the garage bought it from the wrecking yard. He said that it was running
but making a "bad noise". Apparently he thought it was the heads, and he
puttered on it for a while. Then he decided to let some friend of his whose
credentials were that he had a Bug in the '60's mess with it. He was able to
drive it to the friend's house, but he had to tow it back a year later. The
friend never did much to engine, but he did mess with the engine enough it
wasn't driveable.
Once he got it back it has sat for at least 2 years. The man never tried to
do anything more with it. He's essentially retired, and his garage is a dump
with lots of cars and parts around it in various stages of death and
dismantlement. The Vanagon does have Florida plates (expired), and he said
he will mail the title to me Monday. It's in the bank, and he can't get it
this weekend. I'll try to run a history search based on the VIN if someone
can give me the address. Based on that, the story sounds logical. It
appears he lost interest in it, and since he was a mechanic when he was
working, he probably didn't want to pay someone who knew what they were doing
to fix it up.
Now the details - It is a Vanagon L with an Adventure Wagen conversion. It
has a fridge, stove, heater with thermostat, stove, cabinets, etc. with a
pull out bed and pop-up table. All glass is perfect. The body is esentially
dent-free with original paint and only a very few surface rust spots the size
of a pencil eraser. All is original so the rubber around the windows it
complete but dried out. The sliding door took considerable effort to open
and close, but he said that was just needing grease. He said he used the
heater when it was running, and that it worked perfectly. He did not use the
fridge. If the story of the rental unit is true, I am assuming all
appliances worked until it died. It has a manual transmission and air
conditioning. It appears to be complete down to the owner's manual. Nothing
seems to be missing.
My questions -
1. Assuming the engine is totally fried, how much it it worth as it sits
now. I bought it for considerably less than he said he paid the wrecking
yard, but it was drivable then.
2. How do I procede? Does it seem worth checking out the engine before I
toss it? It also appears to be complete, except a couple of pieces of engine
tin, probably from the goobers that tried to work on it.
3. If I toss the engine, what are the list's recommendations for a
replacement? Another VW engine or a conversion? If a conversion, what kind?
4. I settled down my wife by telling her the interior alone was worth more
than I paid for it, but I don't really want to part it out. I've always
wanted a camper.
I'm 50 east of Dallas, if someone wants to look at it and give me some
pointers.
Thanks, David Hunt
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