For some reson I’ve seen a lot of vans from certain years and many fewer from other years. 

One van I’ve seen a lot of are 1980 the original year of the vanagon.  At West river last year I saw 4 of them.  I’ve never met a 1981 yet.  And rarely a 1982 or 1983, but I’ve at least seen a few. 

In water cooled I’ve met very few 1988 vans but tons of 1987 .  I have not seen many 1989 either.

My friend had a 1980 that he used all year until it rusted away a few years ago.  He had added a front radiator and a 1.8 VW motor.  He ran it for many many years like that.  So adding in the water is a doable option. For the mechanically inclined. 

Still, the simplicity of the air cooled vanagon is nice.  And hopefully we will be able to drop in a clean electric motor soon and then that  air cooled van will be a perfect option for that. Transplant!
Eric Caron 
85 GL Auto 

> On Jul 9, 2019, at 10:49 AM, Steven Johnson <sjohnso2000@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Well, the only way I'd even consider on of these AC vans would be to
> convert it to a more powerful
> power plant.  But the lack of a radiator makes this a bit difficult.   I'm
> sure it's been done many times
> over.  But is it worth the cost?   To each their own....
> 
> Steven
> 91 Westy
> 
> 
> On Tue, Jul 9, 2019 at 5:53 AM JR-Comcast <kayakjr@comcast.net> wrote:
> 
>> My take is that most owners wanted a Vanagon and didn’t realize how slow
>> they truly are.
>> I had an AC 81 Westy and rebuilt the engine, had the final adjustments
>> done by a local VW shop with an emphasis on AC engines and they pronounced
>> it as “having plenty of power”.
>> I excitedly jumped in and drove home figuring it would be markedly faster
>> than my trip there. It wasn’t.
>> On flat roads, it was fine. When there was a truck lane it was fine.
>> On an uphill, limited visibility on-ramp, it was downright deadly.  A semi
>> is not going to slow down, then here’s another one a few hundred feet
>> later, you don’t have enough room to get in and get up to some sort of
>> speed.
>> I found in back roads, since every car has lots of power today, they have
>> no idea why you are “choosing” to drive so slow.
>> At one time you could buy a perfect AC Vanagon Westy for $6,500. And I
>> mean really perfect-i knew of one that had over twice that money dumped
>> into it, perhaps 3x, that was a candidate ripe for conversion.
>> Still, I enjoyed rebuilding my engine, and they are simple and I know
>> people who have them and love them.
>> John
>>