Peter, welcome to the ward.

I'm from your neck of the woods (St. Catharines) and solved the location
problem by moving to the left coast. Bicycles make great companions for
Vanagons. I kinda think of it as a lifeboat.

At the risk of pissing off 37% of the people here, I'll say that I prefer
'86 - '91 vehicles, but would consider a nice '85.

Angus

Angus Gordon
Bainbridge Island WA

birdworks@gmail.com

On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 4:15 PM, Peter K <bybike@gmail.com> wrote:

> I am looking at getting my first westy, and have spent the past couple of
> weeks looking through gowesty and thesamba to see what knowledge i can
> glean... along with reading all the the info here for the past week or so.
>
> i'm not a mechanic, although i'm good with simple machines (i love
> bicycles,
> and am looking for a westy to keep my bikes company : ) I work with
> computers, and don't love them... 'nuf said. So after a couple of weeks of
> reading, I think I'm on that page "are you a eurovan guy or is a vanagon in
> your future"... and as much as I appreciate the creature comforts of the
> eurovan, I think it's a vanagon. So... now what?
> I'm up in Canada (Toronto), and importing one from the States seems like a
> lot of added effort. Most of the ones I see up here are out on the west
> coast, which means I need to ask and assess remotely or spend a lot on
> airfare to visit. I do get the "avoid round headlights" level of info I
> have
> (so '86 or later), I don't know enough to be able to assess what leaks or
> malfunctioning parts are the ones that will have big $$$ signs attached.
> And
> rust... well, where is it really bad and if I see it I should stop dreaming
> vs just an indicator of some body work and paint?
>
> I'm sure everyone here has gone through the newbie thoughts when they first
> got the westy bug... help?
>
> --
> /Peter K
> > You can find me at http://studiofstop.com
>