I came across this blog post which I thought might be of interest to some in our Vanagon community:

http://goo.gl/v6KUA

It doesn't deal with Vanagons or VWs per se, but it does deal with creative (and beautiful) attempts to keep useful (but broken) things useful (and unbroken). It seems to me this repair-minded philosophy is the core around which communities like the Vanagon list are built.

Some folks do this by doing what they can to "Keep It Stock." Nothing wrong with that, but it gets difficult when stock becomes no longer available. What interests me more nowadays are the repairs that folks do that go beyond Bentley. How do you keep the functionality of a thing true when it can no longer be what it was? We have to go beyond what VW's engineers designed without sacrificing their intent. I'm not talking about mods or additions here, although I admit the line is blurry and those are awesome, too. It's the things we do, large and small, to keep our vans on the road when parts can't be bought or found. That's a real challenge.

By the way, for those of you who have posted your repairs (as well as mods, and hacks), I've appreciated reading your stories and seeing pictures of your rigs. They inspire me to do similar daring things to my own van. Thank you.

Jarrett K
Olly, 89 Westy powered by Bostig