I don't remember the earliest post about telling them to take their time,
but did you eventually tell them that you were now ready for them to get
going on the van? And how did they respond?

As for the grommets, if they were telling you that THEY were getting them
directly from Germany, I think it's a load of bull. No repair shop would
order one part at a time from Germany. Maby their source has the parts on
backorder from Germany, but I tend to doubt that also.

Between GoWesty.com, Van-Cafe.com, or Busdepot.com, somebody has the parts
you need now.

If you want to continue with these people, I would ask them who is shipping
them the parts that you supposedly have to wait two weeks for. Call one or
more of the three aforementioned parts sources and check yourself if they
are readily available. If you really want to stay with the mechanic, you
could order the parts yourself and deliver to them.

Find out exactly what is wrong with the brakes and what they are saying it
will take to fix them.

It takes some skill, experience, intelligence, and luck to replace the gas
tank without ending up with leaks. If the mechanic is lacking in one of
these areas, hope that he is blessed in another. I have put off doing my own
because I've heard of other people's problems. (See the recent post about
leaking at the filler) Often the vent and crossover tubes are bad as well,
and mechanics don't pick up on that or replace them.

If they give you run-around or you just don't have any confidence in their
ability, I would look for another shop and have it towed there if necessary.
Then threaten to go after them in small claims court. Try to get them to pay
another mechanic to do what they don't seem to be able to do. What part of
the country are you in? Larry chase has a good list of recommend repair
shops (roadhaus.com), or you can try contacting people in your area for
recommendations- look on the Vanagon Rescue Squad list
(http://vw.upnorth.net/Vanagon-Rescue-Squad74.htm) or the AIRS list (geared
for aircooled but many owners have Vanagons, too
(http://www.type2.com/rescue/) for shop advice.

There are only a few people whom I trust to work on my Vanagon. Other
qualified mechanics just don't have the knowledge or experience to handle
Vanagon-specific tasks, and some mechanics are just not very good to begin
with.

Good luck.
Ed in CT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mary Holbert" <Reilly828@AOL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2006 11:33 AM
Subject: need advice on repair

> Help guys! As I have written before I put my van in shop about 23 weeks
ago
> - I told them I wasn't in a hurry to get it back (okay My bad). They
cleaned
> tank out twice, I advised them to replace tank. They did, but then had to
> order  grommets from Germany. So  2 weeks later - they have it all put
together.
> I call today and they said brakes aren't working...can't test  drive ?
what
> should I do?????
>