Date: Mon, 4 Oct 1999 13:31:05 -0400
Reply-To: David Beierl <dbeierl@IBM.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: David Beierl <dbeierl@IBM.NET>
Subject: Re: TBD sliding door screen
In-Reply-To: <007101bf0e82$475d56e0$33488dd1@the-bus-depot>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
At 12:05 10/4/99 , The Bus Depot wrote:
>The screen I sell is an identical copy of the original Westfalia part, other
>than the zipper being a slightly different color. Rather than try to
>"improve" on the Westfalia design, I opted to simply repro it, "warts and
>all." The original screen was designed for mid 80's on Westfalias, so some
>differences may/will occur when using it on other years/models.
>
>A couple of list members, as well as myself, have already posted our
>experiences installing this screen to the Vanagon list (and in fact one of
>the posts was quite detailed as I recall), so rather than to waste the
>bandwidth repeating everything here, I'll refer you to the archives.
Ok. I have looked at every previous post on these screens, and all the
people with '87s say they love them and all the people with '84s say
"Huh? It's too big." There was one '82 installer who was satisfied, but
he said "...thick, it was equally thick. I finally gave up and have bunched
that part
of the screen together and stuffed it behind itself. I may try a velcro
solution for this area or I may just live with it. The installation will be..."
Somehow that doesn't sound like a clean installation to me....
Various posts refer to a "heater conduit" without describing it
precisely -- my '84 and '85 both use the door pillar to conduct cold air
(controlled by the bottom slider on the panel) to two ducts over the
door. Is that what's meant? Your (Ron's) quite detailed description of
where the snaps are on an '87 show the foremost snap to be on the forward
side of the "heater conduit." As nearly as I can tell, the foremost snap
on mine would be on the passenger's window glass. One of the forward-edge
snaps would be into the seat-belt retractor mechanism, and both in that
position and the "heater conduit" position there would be gaps of two or
three square inches or more. I don't doubt that I could come up with some
weird arrangement that would work if I stuffed rags in the gaps, but
frankly I paid for a screen that was customized to fit the opening and
unless I'm really missing something crucial then this ain't it. I've put
several hours of headscratching and study into this by now and I'm no
forrarder than before.
I think you ought to come up with a precise *well-fitting* installation
procedure for the earlier vanagons up to whenever it was that whatever it
was changed, or else take back the ones you've sold to people like me and
Mark, and make it clear on the order page that there is a problem with fit
on the earlier ones.
Thoughts?
thanks
david
David Beierl - Providence, RI
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"
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