Any VW Vanagon owners out there?

[funkcicle]

I've always enjoyed reading the automotive threads on TubeNet(especially those concerning quasirecreationalvehicles) so I thought I'd start one of my own. Are there any VW Vanagon enthusiasts on this board? I'm considering taking ownership an early 80s air-cooled 4 speed and thought I'd see if anybody has any experiences they could share.

This won't be my only/main driving vehicle but it will be my first DIY vehicle so I'm interested in hearing about experiences from any current or former Vanagon owners..mechanical problems, interior renovations, road trips, camping excursions, performance issues, custom modifications, resources, pictures, anything any of you fine folk have experienced with this neat-o vehicle.

Thanks!

[MaryAnn]

Used to have the camper version, rear engine, air cooled, (actually not positive it was air cooled, but it was 80's) the pop top. It was a really neat vehicle, but the outstanding thing I remember was that it would not stay fixed when something broke. The air conditioning would quit, we'd get it fixed, and then two months later it would break again. Not little niggling things but big fat expensive mechanical things. My mechanic that I had for my other car, who guaranteed his work, would not work on this vehicle (ever) because of this problem with them. Keeping it going was a real financial drain, and we got rid of it after a while. If you're mechanically inclined and like to work on stuff, you might really enjoy a Vanagon.
We took a couple trips with it all over the West, camping here and there. It was really convenient. The fridge was especially nice to have, and I loved sitting way up high and seeing the expanses through that huge windshield.
MA

[Rick Denney]

I'm considering taking ownership an early 80s air-cooled 4 speed and thought I'd see if anybody has any experiences they could share.

I'll count my experiences as experiences even though the last one I owned myself was a 1970 VW Campmobile bus.

My wife has an uncle (not the tuba-playing uncle) who is INTO Vanagons. He has half a dozen of them. Why does he have so many?

1.) He's a retired aircraft mechanic.

2.) Parts are hard to find.

Two of his fleet are kept by his son out in Oregon. One of those is a people-hauler used daily by that family. The other is a camper version that the uncle keeps out there for his use during visits. My wife and I borrowed the camper version a couple of years ago and toured around Oregon and Washington. The air conditioning did not work, and we didn't worry about it even though we were there during one of the region's hottest summers on record. We washed it, and discovered that the roof vent leaked, but that can happen to any vehicle.

The engine ran and we had no mechanical problems. The son has a hangar in which he keeps his plane, and sure enough I saw a VW engine in pieces on a work bench. I had seen the same thing on one of the work benches back at his father's hangar in Maryland.

So, they work, but it would appear that they are most successfully owned by skilled mechanics who don't mind doing their own major repairs.

While camping at a park in southwest Washington state during that trip, there was a woman camping in the next site who also had a Vanagon. She could not stay away from us, and figured we must be in her club because we were driving a Vanagon. Vehicles that require such tight-knit bonds between their owners usually do because owning them requires an extensive support network.

Rick "whose GMC motorhome falls into the same category" Denney

[MaryAnn]

Yeah, Westfalia, that's what we had! Forgot the name of it.
IIRC, the valves on cylinder #3 are the first to go...hot back in there.
MA, who used to have BMW's too but now I stick to Toyotas. I kind of like being able to go thousands and thousands of miles without doing anything but change the oil and air up the tires.