Hi, folks (especially the wannabus tribe).
 
Since Thanksgiving I've been commuting past Dad's 76 station
in Highland Park, Illinois (northern suburb of Chicago). All
this while there's a vanagon sitting there.  It moved from the
front to the rear, and then the plates were taken off.
 
So today I stopped in to talk to Ray, the boss mechanic.
I figured maybe it had a bad engine, and that I could do a
Frankenstein on it.  Ray says that it runs well, and has a
recently rebuilt transmission.  He had bought it to go fishing,
but business is too good that he's never actually been able
to travel in it.
 
He said that he doesn't really want to sell it, but he knows
that he's never going to use it, so he is willing to sell it.
I told him that if he decided to sell it, he could give me a
call and I'd post a message here. Ray said I could go ahead.
 
It's an '82 air-cooled vanagon, seven-passenger setup. This
is not a camper, just a brown and tan vanagon. It looks good,
but this is based on a brief once-over.  No big dents or rust,
but I didn't crawl under it, nor did I have him start it up.
(I was on my way to work.)
 
Ray said that he paid $1400 for it, and that if he could get
"fourteen, fifteen hundred" that would be good enough.
I think I'll stick with my 77 bus for now, and try to find
something with a blown engine for cheap, hopefully a poptop.
(If anybody knows of one let me know.)
 
If you want to contact Ray directly, call (847) 831-3436.
 
If you want me to take a further look-see, let me know.
I can kick the tires, wiggle the tie-rods and driveshafts,
and since Ray is a mechanic, maybe even do a compression test.
 
Now you know as much as I do about this.
 
 
joel danke
jdanke@macc.wisc.edu
jdanke@nielsen.com