Check out this bus found in the Gertrude Street Recycling Center a few years
ago:

http://picasaweb.google.com/pnoceanwesty/85BlueBusRescuedFromJunkyard?authkey=Gv1sRgCKzlrYTB2fHJFA#

We saved that one and it lives today as Jeff Lincoln's "Gertie"

Was back there a year later and saw this one, but couldn't save it - not
funds or time:

http://picasaweb.google.com/pnoceanwesty/BlueBusSpottedAtRecyclingCenter?authkey=Gv1sRgCOzSjp2Z4PHI6wE#

It amazing how buses get treated when the owners don't appreciate them.

Pete
'79 Westy "Aardvark"
'87 Westy "JoesVan"
WWW.Busesbythebeach.com

On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 09:40, J Stewart <fonman4277@comcast.net> wrote:

> Oh, trust me, there is many a clueless owner out there! OK, maybe fewer
> today than there used to be, but they are out there. Not to offend anyone,
> but say an older individual who "doesn't do the Internet thing" ( I
> personally know two people who absolutely refuse to own a computer), may be
> an original owner, trans fails or heads leak, told by a shop to repair would
> be thousands and just decide to junk it. A few years ago I met an original
> owner of a 1978 Bay Westy, and I was totally shocked at how little he knew
> about his van. The guy I sold my last Westy to was unaware of this list or
> any other other Internet resource. I tried to tell him about it but he
> really seemed not to care. They ARE out there!! Jeff
>
>
>
> Jeff Stewart
>
>
> ----- "Mark L. Hineline" <hineline@OCOTILLOFIELD.NET> wrote:
>
>
> I've seem many of these -- dozens -- over the years, though almost
> none in the past two years. The obvious recent explanation is the
> "cash for clunkers" program.
>
> But I don't think there's ever a "clueless owner" involved. Who could
> own a Westy and remain clueless? Instead, I'm pretty sure that behind
> every junked Westy there is a really tragic story: an owner who died,
> a nasty divorce, a foreclosure. A Westy in a junkyard is a sign that
> something went terribly, terribly wrong in someone's life.
>
> To me, they are almost like Anasazi ruins in the Southwest. The Navajo
> wouldn't visit those sites (otherwise they would surely have been
> picked over before archaeologists arrived in the late 1800s).
>
> But that doesn't mean I won't "loot" a Westy when I find one in a
> junkyard. I just do it sort of reverently.
>
> Mark
>
>
>
> On Jan 20, 2011, at 5:25 AM, J Stewart wrote:
>
> > Sadder still, in the past couple of years I have come across two
> > mid-80's Westys in junkyards that were complete. No body damage, no
> > obvious reason for them to be there (like a rod sticking up through
> > the case, etc). Maybe the transmission failed, maybe the heads
> > leaked, I don't know. Obviously belonged to clueless owners to send
> > them to a junkyard. From one of them I got a complete set of
> > curtains, rear screen, and some other small bits. Its a shame,
> > because whatever their issues were, both should have been saved. Jeff
> >
> >
>