Hi, All:

I'm new here and to Westys.

My new friend Zoltan referred me and I'll get more active as time  
passes.

We bought an '84 Westy on March 1, but it sat mostly idle at a  
mechanic's until 20 days ago. Now a former friend, he spent a ton of  
our budget sans any quotes despite several demands, and only did a  
few things he felt like doing despite an exhaustive list to quote  
before doing anything. All of it was supposed to be done on April 15,  
we finally agreed on a price before taking the bus back but in the  
end but he refused to install our five gauges despite agreeing to  
that and instead demanded the same fee regardless... and threatened  
to keep our bus. We actually had to get a police escort to retrieve  
our bus before he demanded whatever fee pleased him (Colorado law is  
not on the side of the customer). I've been around cars and racing  
and shops my whole life, so love mechanics and have never had any  
such incident in 35 years prior. We're living in a motel and chasing  
things to finish in the Denver area. I am all ears in finding a  
trustworthy bus mechanic to finish a few details (installing five  
gauges, a house battery, and a rear brake job).

We're freshly homeless from my wife's malpracticed stroke of 2005 and  
losing most everything since, and are about to live in the bus. I'm a  
well-published nature photographer and writer so this was our best  
choice for getting our lives and business back again.

Sorry for the details but that's what's up.

A new issue developed Wednesday. I had a Thule rack and cargo box  
installed, and when I first pulled the pop top down an outward bulge  
emerged above the rear edge of the sliding door. I also noticed for  
the first time that the round "cam hinge" on the bus' left side is  
pulling out towards the front — not sure if that's the issue,  
though. My theory is that the pop top struts may be binding on the  
right side when closing the roof, and/or wonder if the installer  
damaged the struts since while tightening the strut on the top he  
hammered on the strut about 30 times with his ratchet (cringe-worthy,  
to say the least...). But overall, upon more thought, I do think the  
left-side cam may have stayed higher than the right when closing and  
bulged the glass on the pop top.

I realize we will be working on the bus as we go and am not afraid of  
that. But until I learn it better it seemed prudent to have  
professionals getting things done right before we go. Such has not  
worked out like we'd anticipated... there's still a chance we're  
taking it to Zoltan to do things right, but that's 1,500 miles from  
here.

Anyone near Denver interested in some work? We're fun to be with and  
totally dedicated to our new Westy Life, but are beyond anxious to  
leave for the road.

FYI, I may contact the mods and have these messages sent to a  
separate mailbox so as to not clutter my normal inbox — meaning, my  
email address here might soon change. After a two-week backpack it  
may be hard to process all these emails otherwise, especially as  
they're also going to my cell now.

Thanks to all for your dedication to the coolest bus ever made.

For us so far, Zoltan's the Greatest and I'm trying to convince him  
we should do a Vanagon version of John Muir's book. [ this is not a  
suck up ;-) ]

:-)

  EW
  Eric Wunrow Pictures
  85 S Union Blvd, #Q123
  Lakewood, CO 80228

  303. 988. 8717
  EricWunrow.com (soon!)