Chris,
You're right about the 1980- 1981? vans not having the removable plastic air
vents.  I forgot about that.

I just went out a checked and found that it is not possible to install even
the middle bolts (top hinge) from the rear tail light access.  You don't
actually need tall he bolts above the top hinge, that part could be cut off
if needed.

The only other way I can think of at the moment is to weld it on at the top.
Just a 3 - 4 small dots, not a big seam or anything like that.  If done
properly (TIG welded)  it would be clean and not affect the paint.  If you
wanted to remove the carrier, you would just drill out the round weld spots.

Gary
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/gary2a/rack/vanagonrack.htm

----- Original Message -----
From: "80 Westy Pokey" <pokey@vanagon.org>
To: "Gary Lee" <gary2a@TELUSPLANET.NET>
Cc: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, August 19, 2002 2:00 PM
Subject: Re: swing away tire carrier

> Gary this is truly a thing of beauty! I was just wondering
> about the air vent side of the instalation. Are the air vents
> on later vans removeable? On early Vanagons the side air vent
> is not removeable so the backing plates would all have to be
> done through the rear tail light. I guess you could get high
> ones with a LONG screwdriver...
>
> Thanks,
> Chris