David,
Try Blake's Small Car Salvage in Erie, Colorado, that's where I got 
mine.  Ran about $250 for all the goodies with the exception of the belly 
pan which I managed to snag from another van.  

I went the same route you did, found a couple of used ones and made one 
working unit out of them.  My van (81 Westy) also did not come with a 
heater stock.  There are quite a few gotchas to keep an eye out for.  I'm 
working on a doc now that will spell out the procedures I used as well 
as things to keep an eye out for such as burnt combustion fan motors, 
incorrectly adjusted flame switches, etc.  I'll post it here when I get 
it finished.

Please feel free to post to me with any questions you may have.  At this 
point I feel like I'm an expert on the things.  Any questions I don't 
have an answer for I do have a real expert (ex VW factory trained 
mechanic) to rely on.  One thing you don't want to do is to use JB 
Heater's out of Castle Rock, CO.  The guy's a flake, I had a very bad 
experience with him and can't recommend him lowly enough.  Ark Mirvis in 
NJ seems ok in my limited experience with him, but you'll pay through the 
nose if you're planning on buying the whole unit from him.

Jack

On Sat, 22 Jul 1995, David Carment wrote:

> We are in the market for an auxiliary gas heater for a 1982 Westfalia Vanagon.
> The van is from California and did not have the gas heater feature, so we
> would be interested in the whole set up (heater, switches, and
> underplate). We would also prefer to buy a used one in good shape. We do
> not want to pay more for the heater than we paid for the van and so the
> new ones are out of the question.
> 
> Thanks for any leads or offers.
> 
> David C.
> 
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> David Carment
> School of International Affairs
> Carleton University
> Ottawa, Ontario
> K1S 5B6
> voice - (613) 788-2600-6662
> fax - (613) 788-2889
> Email address: dcarment@ccs.carleton.ca
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>