I've done my own work on my Vanagons for a long, long time, but I wouldn't
be particularly worried about turning a brake job over to a brake shop - the
brakes on these things a pretty straight-forward, after all - and I
certainly *have* had front end alignments done by tire shops.   The engines
are unusual enough and rare enough in the general population of cars that
many "big" jobs in this area probably are best left to a specialist.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Young                       '81 Vanagon
Lafayette, CA 94549         '82 Westfalia
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Larry Petty" <lpetty@TELTRONICS.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2003 1:16 PM
Subject: Who works on your Vanagon?

I know a lot of us do what repair work we can on our Vanagons.  I am
wondering where you go when you are not able to do the repair.   For
instance, can Midas do a brake job?  Can Sears do a front end alignment?
Is the Vanagon so specialized that a franchise shop will screw it up or
can you rely on them to do miscellaneous tasks like this? My VW guy put
brakes on my Vanagon and screwed them up royally.  I'm not sure I want
him to do anything but engine work in the future.