So I've been really using my vanagon lately.  We 'escaped' the northwest and are 'snowbirding' in
the California desert until probably around March.  My SO brings her horses along with her truck and
trailer and we have a travel trailer as our main residence.  I come down here later with my bikes
and this year, my carpentry tools to help pay for all the fuel, etc.. I arise early to get to work
while my SO comes home late from her job..So I have been commuting and cooking breakfast in the
Vanagon as well as using it for a tool truck and taking weekend road trips to various bicycle routes.
  Recently, my defrost slider got weird, not seeming to move the needed flaps around right so I
could get the steam from my coffee cooking off the windows to drive to work..So today I 'dove in'
and fixed the thing..
  I love the way the vanagon goes together..Clips, screws, clamps and cables.  Stuff you can
actually fix.  The defrost cable had kinked due to a ham-fisted install on my stereo and it finally
broke completely right near the lever at the heater control.  So I popped off the heater cover,
pulled the radio, unscrewed the glove box hinge and there it all was.  I decided I could simply cut
off some of the control cable housing and put a new Z-bend in the cable then re clamp the ends..It
worked..Unlike most newer vehicles where I would have been to the dealer for new controllers,
resistors, body panel clips etc.  While I was in there, I fixed the 'hanger' on my glove box by
replacing it with an old bicycle brake cable..
  Don't try that stuff on a Gran Vitarra or a Ford Excrutiation...
  Don Hanson