Here's one that gets pretty ugly -
when the front suspension strut rod rubber bushings are badly worn out for a
long time, and eventually the strut rod starts eating away at the bushing
hole in the body, and then the rod gets all trashed too, where the threaded
portion is.   Body, strut rod, and bushings are all just trashed.
  Then on top of that, you find that ( on early vans with stamped lower
control arms ) that the strut rod is permanently bonded to the lower control
arm via severe rust.
 That's a pretty ugly failure. Quite preventable too.

Possibly no one mentioned plastic main coolant pipes where the metal insert
starts sliding out of place, and you get a nice leak there, and the 'real
repair' is a new plastic main coolant pipe.  That's kinda ugly and
bothersome  to have to deal with, unless you can make a good repair in
place.

I also find that the way the small green o-rings at the top of the piston
barrels......
how easily they get hard, dark-colored and deteriorated - that's a bit ugly
to me too.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce Todd" <beeceetee@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 2009 9:27 PM
Subject: Re: Nominations are now open: Top 10 Ugliest Parts to Fail

> On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 12:37 PM, Rocket J Squirrel <
> camping.elliott@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Well, that Friday thread generated only 9 posts, most of which were a
>> debate about the availability of the plastic coolant tower thing, and two
>> nominations by Jim Arnott for the the 1.9 "H" pipe and the 1.9 upper
>> thermostat housing. That post garnered no comments.
>>
>> So . . . would it be fair to say that the 1.9 "H" pipe and upper thermo
>> housing are the only parts on the Vanagon which are effectively
>> unobtanium
>> and without them the van would be effectively immobilized?
>>
>> Well maybe this might spawn some discussion:  What about the 2.9 metre
>> long
>> / 9' brakeline which runs from front to rear - getting one of those made
>> up
>> and bent into shape is not a typical saturday walk in the park - heaven
>> forbid finding a good used one and or installing it!  Without brakes you
>> can't really operate a vehicle - unless your on a farm.
>>
>
> BT