What does the collected wisdom of the list think?  Can't answer that, but my personal answer is, good grief!  Your wife's a smart woman.  DMc

---- Grungy <grungy@GRUNGY.COM> wrote:
> Have to do something with our '90 GL - my bride is getting impatient.
> We bought an '89 Carat last Thanksgiving and the '90 has been superceded.
> She would push it off a cliff, if there were any around here.
> I'm reluctant to surrender.
> They're getting so rare and it's fixable.
>
> Two major problems...
>
> 1) The clutch doesn't work.
> It's likely that the arm that moves the throwout bearing has died
> inside the bell housing.
> It's a new clutch and pressure plate (relatively) and the arm moves
> on the outside.
> Yes, I could fix this (as I've replaced the clutch twice before; and
> the flywheel seal, and the mainshaft seal on the tranny).
> But I'm tired, and not going to invest that much energy in something
> that I can't keep.
>
> 2) There's a big dent.
> A pine tree that fell during Hurricane Ike landed on an 8' concrete
> wall next to the van, but slapped the roof over the front passenger
> seat, leaving a long dent and knocking the longitudinal AC ducts
> loose.  The dent is 4" to 6" deep at the deepest point.
>
> 214K indicated (at least two broken speedo cables that I can recall,
> so it's really more)
> Original engine with replaced heads (a long time ago).
> Slow coolant drip from left head.
> Original exhaust system, except for final tail-pipe.
> Original transmission.
> Original allow wheels with one Woosung (correct rating) and three
> incorrect tires (all new).
> There are lots of other little things that aren't right, but they're,
> well, little things IMHO.
>
> It turns out that the Carat has a main seal leak, so I'm going to
> have to get that fixed, and I've never pulled an automatic
> transmission before, which makes me procrastinate.  The Carat also
> has windows tinted dark enough that I can't see behind me at night.
> The tint has to go.
>
> The '90 has so much invested in parts and time that just giving it
> away is unappealing.
>
> I could part it out, saving the good stuff for the Carat - like the
> non-tinted windows.
> I like the allow wheels, but it's so hard to find tires for them (205).
> The Carat has the steel rims with light truck tires (102-rating).
>
> There is no rust where it isn't dented - the seams look good
> Aside from the roof, there are a variety of little dings.
>
> If anyone is looking for a Project, this might be the one.
> What does the collected wisdom of the list think?
> --
>
> bcnu - Grungy (John Gladu)     (Baytown, TX)    Opinions are just that
> INTERNET: g r u n g y AT g r u n g y DOT c o m
> '60 dddPanel walk-thru  (The Bozobus)-------in storage (engineless)-----
> '69 Bug--(Bertha)-------------------------in storage (engineless)-----
> '89 Vanagon Carat-------------------------the working van-----------
> '90 Vanagon GL----------------------clutch no work, Ike-dented roof---
> '07 Camry Hybrid-------------------------40mpg-on-regular---------
> '04 Jetta TDI-----------------------------daughter's ride------------
> '05 Jetta Wagon TDI GL--------------------my first "new" car--------