--snip--
> I don't want to start a "here's my tool list" thread
> because that's been done a gazillion times, but is there such a list
> published online?
--snip--

Back when Joy had started her trek and was beginning to have troubles with
Matilda I was thinking that for 'folks like her' (the mechanical novice) it
would be useful to have a basic Vanagon tool list. I thought if you used the
maintenance schedule as a starting point, you could list the tools necessary
for each job, and by the end you would then have a list of those tools
necessary to do most of what you would ever need to do on the van. I suspect
that it would wind up being like any fairly comprehensive basic tool kit you
could buy but it would be interesting to see it and have it broken down by
job. You could then take the list, if you were so inclined, and assemble a
'Vanagon tool box', or fill in the blanks on the tools you have.

Of course for the Vanagon there are other things that belong in the
'maintenance list' that aren't going to be in the manual (like replacing the
fuel lines), so they would have to be added in, and depending on who was
assembling the list even something like that might require additional tools
such as the spring-clamp tool. Another thing that came to mind was the tool
for the CV bolts.

I didn't have time to pursue it but it comes to mind now and then- if we
made a list that was a combination of lists, 'what you should do to your van
immediately after purchase', 'the modified routine maintenance list' and the
list of the tools necessary to do each job (and thereby a comprehensive tool
list) it would probably be a great help, particularly to the new owners that
show up and those that have had their vans long enough to realize that
they've purchased the automotive equivalent of a Great Dane.

Cya,
Robert