I had an 84 vanagon GL (now have an 80 ASI Riviera vanagon camper) with
the brown/tan color scheme and after going over it with rubbing
compound and wax the color and condition of the paint was amazing. I
think that these colors (browns and oranges in particular) have a lot
of manganese in them which helps preserve the color. I was told this by
a fellow Triumph owner whose 80 TR7 is the original orange and looks
great for it's age. Don't know if this is true but it makes sense. So
it might make sense to keep this color just for the sake of aging.
--Bruce

On Apr 24, 2007, at 7:30 PM, Don Hanson wrote:

> "Turd-brown" someone called it..That is a distinctive 80s VW color,
> isn't it?  My 84 is that color and I am growing to really like it.
>  One day this spring when I had my Vanagon down in the desert (doing
> some medical tourisim to Mexico) I rode my bicycle up the Montezuma
> Grade west of Borrego Springs..From the mid-grade overlook, you can
> see for miles and miles. I could see every motorhome out on the
> desert, but not my 'stealth tur* brown' vanagon.  Why do they make all
> those motorhomes really white with all those dorky "swoops" of color
> all over em?  I mean, the VW vanagon might look like a shoebox, but
> those big motorhomes, they look like giant Nike running shoes with all
> those swoopies all over em...
>   The only change I might consider now in the color of my van might be
> to re-do a very light roof color (no poptop on mine) to help deflect
> the sun's heat from the interior.
>  Or, maybe I, too,  should do some Swoops and Ribbons and Arrows and
> crap, perhaps airbrush some animals on the back...Maybe a pride(?) of
> Shrews or Voles  would fit on my smaller tailgait..or a Lemming..I
> know, a really nice rendering of a cockroach...!  Cool!..
>   Ever overnight at an RV park with your van?  You kinda get looked at
> like a cochroach sometimes, don'tcha?
>   Don Hanson
>