Date:         Wed, 27 Oct 1999 20:41:52 -0400
Reply-To:     "John P. Flaherty" <jflaherty@PIVOT.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "John P. Flaherty" <jflaherty@PIVOT.NET>
Subject:      What can this vanagon tell me?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi Volks:

I've got a line on another Vanagon. I looked at it about 6 weeks ago. It was
a Sunday, and the VW shop it was at was closed. It had a "for parts" sign on
it. I noticed that the body appeared to be in very good condition. (I didn't
crawl under it). As I recall it had square headlights, so it would have been
86 or newer.

I recently learned the story behind it. Shop bought a lot of 3 Vanagons.
This one allegedly ran well when bought. However, there was a Westy that
wasn't running. Parts ("starter and some hoses", I don't know which ones)
were removed from this one to fix the Westy, which has been sold.

I'll be going for a closer look this weekend. What should I look for?
Without a starter, I can't do a compression test. What can I do? Is there a
way to get a feel for the transmission without it running? What should I
look for on the body? Where do they like to rust? These question may sound
silly from a current Vanagon owner, but my '84 is (for reasons I don't
understand, it's spent it's whole life in Maine) totally rust free so I
don't know what to look for.

They're asking $600. It's been there for a while, I plan to offer half that,
with the expectation of needing a few hundred (at least) to get it running.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

John Flaherty
'84 GL
'84 Rabbit