Was it Ben Franklin that said, "Neither a borrower nor a lender be"? Sure
you can camp with me in my van at the festival or in my driveway if we are out
of beds and floor space but please don't ask me to borrow my child I mean my
van. My wife does drive it very carefully and appreciates it almost as much as
I  appreciate matrimonial harmony.

David

In a message dated 3/2/2009 6:36:51 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
jack007@COMCAST.NET writes:

Never...  I don't even let my wife drive it, and always self park... never
letting a  valet park it!
My wife of 30 years, wants to make sure we have another 30  years, and
doesn't even ask to drive it... she is very content to read and  take a nap
in back while I drive.

When we purchased our 84 Westy in  1987, my brother-in-law wanted to borrow
it, and I told my wife then that  we will never lend it out to anyone.
Heck, would you lend one of your  children out??? Esp. if they are
temperamental!?!?

-----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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