I am about to get an 85 westy which will be my first VW of any sort. My
questions are endless in that I probably haven't even thought of most of
them yet. I've lurked a bit and read a biy but nothing like hearing from
owners.
Not in order of importance: Is there a good book for maintenance? I don't
know if I need a shop manual as I wouldn't do any serious mechanical work
myself but I would want to know when it needs to be done. Is the Bently
manual overkill? I want the westy to live a long time.
Next, is there a good roof rack that will hold two kayaks? I have a Yakima
rack on my Taurus that works well but I do not know how difficult it would
be to load kayaks on a westy and how the rack would work when putting the
top up. If the rack fastens directly to the westy body then the cross
pieces would have to come off to put the top up. The weight of the kayaks
would be about 100-125 lbs.
 Is there a good way to cover the westy when not in use? There is this
rather miserable, always shedding tree I would have to park it under for
long periods of time. I can cover it with a plastic tarp but that can
create problems with trapping moisture  because it doesn't vent and the
material would wear down the paint eventually from the wind moving it
around.
This westy has the third seat and a note posted to always have it facing
forward when moving. Is that some kind of legal overkill or is there a
sound engineering reason for the marking? Seems like a seat back would be
even better support in a crash than a seat belt. And the Carat model has
rear facing seats and no warning label.
 It looks like there are only two belted positions in the rear seat. Is
there a way to add a third seat belt to the rear seat?
I am singularly unimpressed with the air conditioning. I live in southern
California and it does get 110+ here. Does anyone in inland California,
Arizona or the like have anything good to say about the AC? Maybe the unit
is defective on the westy I am looking at. I assume fixing AC is an
expensive proposition.
I intend to go to a synthetic or semi synthetic oil. Is 10w30 OK?
I am open to other advice & suggestions, just wondering what kind of crazy
thing I am getting into.