Joe, my most humble apologies!  I should not have made
assumptions or cast you as a novice/green.  And I sure
did not intend to connote anything negative about being
a new owner of a vehicle about which you know little,
if that had been the case.  But i could not miss seeing
in the brief words of your post the image of a new
owner of a new van, new to the list, posting one of
those first basic questions all new owners face, how do
i fold down the bed.  It is like the first step on a
journey to...well, you know from your history....or
just read the list for a while and you'll see.  So, it
was that image i was responding to.  Sorry if you felt
i cast you in a negative light.  I sure did not mean to
and did not see the question as being dumb.
steve

Joel Sell wrote:
>
> Volks,
>         where do I begin...
>          In '97 I bought my first car, a '71 Westy. I knew NOTHING about auto
> mechanics and even less about VWs. Turned out that bus had cracks in both
> heads. Compression was down in the 40s. With the help of a new friend (who
> had worked at a VW shop for years) we rebuilt that engine and bus in his
> garage. Then I moved to Chile (South America), where I went to Auto
> Mechanic's School and worked at a VW garage there. I only saw aircooled
> stuff, and even stuff we don't have here (see that "Brasilia" in VWT last
> month? I worked on a few. 411s? 412s? Those, too. Mexican beetles and
> buses? yup. Even drove a '98 Mexican Beetle off the showroom floor for a
> test drive and almost got clobbered by a public transportation bus. You
> should have seen how white the salesman's face was!) Came back to the
> states, sold the '71. Bought a '74 Westy and totally restored it. Put 8k
> miles on it, driving all over the East Coast with my wife and little boy.
> Sold it a month ago. During that time I restored a friend's bus, a
> neighbor's bus and my sister-in-law's bug. My wife wanted something more
> "modern" and comfortable,so we stepped up to a Vanagon this past weekend.
>         I am a Teacher in the Philadelphia Public School System. My wife stays
> home with our child, expecting our 2nd one in March. I live in a row home.
> That right there should explain why I don't have more than one VW at a time
> ;-)
>         Now, why do I ask "dumb" questions- Well, I've already made hundreds of
> dollars'  (maybe thousands) worth of "dumb" mistakes that I could have
> avoided if I had just done my research first. Looking it up in the manual,
> asking a friend, or asking the lists. I saw this problem with the bed a
> potential expensive mistake. I couldn't find the owner's manual in the
> Vanagon, so I figured I would ask the list. Thank you to those who
> responded. I now know how to make my bed (and sleep in it).
> To Tim in SJ- what the heck are you talking about? (that damned silver
> thing next to the steering column)
> My ignorance shines again.
> See you guys on the road,
> Joel