Ok, so I've been busy the last few months hunting down a Westy.  Now I've
ended up with two!   We purchased them to do an east coast trip with good
friends of ours.

The first one is an 83 Westy originally from California.   We bought that
one through Scott (thank you very much for a smooth transaction!)  Its a
nice clean van that just needed a good buffing and waxing.  Everything on
board appears to work, including the Behr in-dash a/c!  (Huge bonus!)   The
original plan was to share this one with good family friends.   Ben drove it
from Oregon back to Ontario back in May.  He stopped over at his in-laws in
Vancouver and replaced the heads...would have been straight forward except
one stud snapped while being torqued.   (yes with a torque wrench)  Engine
back apart out of the van, many hours later the broken stud removed!   No
more issues, van cruised nicely the rest of the way home.   I am very
impressed how clean the van is for being all original.  I might name it
"White Elephant" since a rust free white Vanagon normally doesn't exist here
in Southern Ontario!   This one will receive a TDI swap when it is taken out
of service for the winter.

The second is an 82 Westy Aircooled.  I am not a fan of the aircooled vans,
but this one was priced right and fit the bill... I had never cancelled my
Kijiji alert for "Westfalia" and this one came to my inbox.  It was about 4
hrs from my house, but I just happened to be visiting up at the cottage 15
minutes away from it.   The family selling it was leaving for a 3 year
posting in Germany and had 2 weeks to sell it.  We started thinking how nice
it would be to travel with a 2nd van with both families.   Drove it home
yesterday!   It felt a bit underpowered but realized when I got home the
throttle was out of adjustment.   Fixed that.  It just needs a heater box
and the push tube seals replaced on one side before our trip.  I've never
owned or worked on an aircooled Westy - can you pull the head with the motor
still in the van?   I've done it many times on the waterboxers.   it's not
as nice as the 83 we got from Scott, but its decent.   A good buff and wax
will have it looking ok.  Anyone have a good used driver side heat
exchanger?

Here's a picture of the 2 vans:

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6126/5924097239_5cf2e474f8_z.jpg

I've always had passenger vans, but these are my first Westies!   We hope to
get some good use and put some miles on them this summer.    If anyone on
the east coast (Nova Scotia) wants to meet up we'll be that way the first 2
weeks of August.  Now we just have to argue over who gets to travel with
a/c!   Happy travels,

Jason Ewing
82 & 83 Westies