We inherited JoesVan from Nancy's  parents for $1.00 on the condition
it would never be loaned out.  Others  have stayed overnight in it on
our 5 acres, but we have never loaned it out.

On 3/2/09, pdooley <psdooley@verizon.net> wrote:
> You pretty much nailed it.
> I would only loan my vehicle to someone with mechanical aptitude.
> That person would know how to drive the vehicle and know when something
> doesn't sound or feel right.
>
> Then OTOH, I have a friend who has great mechanical aptitude and is a
> mechanical engineer.  I have never seen anybody beat on cars as hard as he
> does.  I guess he likes to perform his own personal failure analysis on
> every car he drives.
> You just never know.
>
> That's why I don't like to loan mine out.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Poppie Jagersand
> Sent: Monday, March 02, 2009 1:04 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Lend the bus; who to say yes or no to?
>
> Hi,
>
> A bit related to the spring break story, but a more general question
> is who would you lend your VW bus, Vanagon or Westy to?
>
> After having both some good and less god experiences
> (luckily not catastrophic), I have developed the following
> philosophy:
>
> * I'll lend the bus only to someone who both will value it as
> much as I do, and who is sufficiently technically capable.
>
> * The best way to become comfortable that a person fulfils the
> above two criteria is to work alongside that person on my or
> another similar bus.
>
> Some example case stories that lead me to develop this principle:
>
> When I was a student and postdoc, I made many of the parts needed
> for repair (e.g. fix and resurface Diesel vacuum pump instead of
> buying new) and for my 1.9TD engine swap. I used the student machine
> shop, and often there would be other students helping me.
>
> After working with someone for a while it is very easy to tell both
> how much they value my bus (at times buses), and if they were
> technically adept or not. When asking to borrow the bus, some got
> the bus, others go my $250 Passat B2 TD (Quantum). (The Passat
> was originally intended to be a TD donor to my bus, but ran well
> enough after some fixup in used car lot that it was the daily driver
> for both me and several other students.)
>
> Before college, at my parents, it was by no way a given that I
> or my sisters got to borrow my parents' car. My dad had me do
> minor chores on the car whenever I wanted to use it.
>
> In college a friend's family had a nice wooden sailboat that
> we youngsters occasionally got to take for a sailing trip.
> However, we'd always take part in the maintenance chores.
> At first I though it a bit unusual (as a teenager) to be invited
> over to their cottage for sanding and varnishing, but now I
> appreciate that I learned how to prepare and varnish mahogany as
> well as my friend's grandfather.
>
> So in summary, the personal value of my bus (and other belongings)
> go up the more I learn about, work on it and longer I keep it.
> Best way to find out if someone else is able to share this is
> to have them work along with you.
>
> Some people will already be like you, some will eventually get it, but
> many will never get past the initial impression that it is a 25 year
> old bus, and though they may compliment it in words, it is with the
> reference frame of other vehicles in the junkyard (where they may
> silently think it belongs).  Those are the types of people who need
> a new car with a warranty; not my bus.
>
> Martin (and '82 Westy 1.9TD)
>
>
>
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--
Sent from my mobile device

Pete
'79 Westy "Aardvark"
'87 Westy "Joe's Van"
WWW.Busesbythebeach.com