Dear Donna,

Might I suggest your son learn to drive on one Vanagon at a time, maybe less
chance of de-damming one of them. Also, if 25-30mph is pretty much full
speed, then maybe seek advice from a mechanic as to the cause of this - your
son's unfortunate accident  may have been simply the result of boredom,
frustration or a combination of both.
A finer point but maybe worth consideration is that sitting in, rather than
on the vehicle, usually enables a mite more control when it comes to
steering, braking etc.

Trusting your son remained unharmed in this unfortunate incident,
I am,

Clive (who's been out in the midday sun once too often!)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Donna Stewart" <DStewart@CHRM.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2002 9:35 PM
Subject: Re: what is an air dam

My son is learning to drive on my two Vanagons.  He further damaged the "air
dam" on my Wolfsburg recently by driving into a driveway with a deep gutter
at pretty much full speed (i.e. 25-30mph).

>>> Ben T <BenTbtstr8@AOL.COM> 10/10/02 01:05PM >>>
In a message dated 10/10/02 12:58:49 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
hradek@YAHOO.COM writes:

<< what is an air dam?   gary the air head >>

Dear Gary the air head:

<boy, that felt good>

The item(s) being auctioned appear to be components of the urethane pieces
normally installed under the plastic bumpers on late model Vanagons. You may
know them by their other nickname "chin spoilers".

They are supposed to clean up the airflow under a vehicle. That is suspect
in
a vehicle as high as the Vanagon. There is just too much airspace between
the
van and the ground for these to be truly effective. In some cases, they do
help direct airflow upwards to he radiator to assist in cooling chores. I'm
not sure about Vanagons as I have not had occasion to evaluate for this
feature.

BenT