I was sorting through the papers in the glovebox of my 1983 Vanagon and in
with what I thought were the papers for the Behr AC unit were a few
documents.  One was a receipt for the initial service on the Vanagon at the
selling VW dealer and the other a cost worksheet from a dealership in
Tennessee where the original owner traded in the Vanagon in 1988.  It had
70-ish k miles on it at the time after 5 years of ownership, they traded it
in on a 1988 Pontiac Grand Am with woodgrain interior trim and other sassy
doodads, a note was on the worksheet that the customer wanted to take the
GrandAm NOW!  It appeared to be a deal where the dealer gave them $7k+ for
the Vanagon against a tradein value of $3,800 so the total for the 1988
GrandAm ended up being almost $20k (!)

Apparently, they couldn't wait to get rid of the ol' Vanagon and took a bath
to do so, poor thing got kicked right to the curb.

It also verifies the PO's story that the Vanagon came from Tennessee which
is why it's not overly rusty like everything else here in Ohio and the
elderly owners drove it very little, it has 84k on it now.

Interesting what you can learn from searching a car, sometimes.  I found 1"
of white beach sand in one rear compartment of my son's Volvo 945 wagon, a
gas receipt under the seat later informed me that someone drove it to spring
break last year with totally shot front sway bar links.

Speaking of searching a car, do the Vanagons have build sheets stashed
somewhere?  On a lot of Mk1 and Mk2 watercooleds, the factory build sheets
are tucked in the bottom of the rear seat between the springs and the foam.
Since Vanagons don't always have rear seats, does anyone know if/where build
sheets are stored?

TIA

Joe