Recently I went camping and paddling, and, not being near a trash
receptacle, didn't get a waterlogged bag of overnight group garbage
out of my westy until the end of the day. Following this were two
straight weeks of rain and three nights of camping during that time.
The vanagon didn't have a chance to dry out. My supernice rubber rear
mat held most of that, but in a matter of days it became obvious that
water had gone everywhere--the smell of mildew got pretty strong. I
put in a heater and a fan for three days and then the sun came out and
things got better. As a test, I had my wife come out and give it the
test as my nose is unpredictable. She said she couldn't smell anything
but a "vanagon smell."

"What?"

We've had three vanagons, one new since 90 (gone as of last summer)
and a 91 (both gas) and the 83 westy (diesel)

"Do you mean a cooking smell, in the westy?"

"No, they all have a certain smell."

My daughter got in on the conversation and said that all VWs have that
smell, going back to the first VWs she remembers, my wife's 65 bug and
my 69 bus we drove through the 70s. She thought it might be that
rear-engined VW were substantially different from front-engined ones,
but I assured her that that was probably not the case.

I asked her if my Jetta, which is fairly new to me (and a diesel),
smelled that way. Leading to the possibility that it is me, not the
cars, with the volkswagen/vanagon smell. But it was agreed that I have
had other cars that did not have "that smell."

What to make of this?

The malevolent odor of the wet westy is almost gone. Anything to do to
ensure the smell doesn't come back in wet weather?

Jim