That's certainly the cheapest process, and I've done it on 3 vans now.
Never had a problem bending the arms.  ( Lift the plastic cover out of the
way before you clamp it in the vice.)   The crank arms (in black) are
only $1.95 from Bus Depot, so get a couple of extras if you want to practice.

Dave

90 Westfalia
87 Golf
96 Passat

  At 12:14 AM 12/8/00 -0700, Karl Wolz wrote:
>I put the hub end in a vise and gently bent the handle end about 15 degrees.
>Then I put the middle of the crank in the vise and gently bent the knob back
>so that its axis was parallel to the axis of the hub end.  Bought about a
>quarter inch of clearance that way.
>
>Karl Wolz
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Ken Hunter" <EVEHART33@AOL.COM>
>To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
>Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2000 9:30 AM
>Subject: Window crank extenders
>
>
> > I need to add window crank extenders to clear the new speaker grills on my
>82
> > Vanagon diesel. So far I can only find one supplier (Autotech) that
>supplies
> > them for $20+frt. Yesterday my FLAPS  loaned me #113 837 581EXT steel
> > extenders with setscrews to see if I could make these work. They are for
>the
> > Beetles with the clip on type window cranks and don't have the hole and
> > longer screw needed for Vanagon or Rabbit cranks and cost under $10.
>Should I
> > try to modify these, bite the bullet with the correct Autotech parts, or
>is
> > there another solution?
> >
> > Ken Hunter
> > 82 Westy 1.9D
> > 84 Jetta 1.5D