Door vents on 87's and earlier had a blue plastic piece that slide back and
forth to open or close the vented air flow.  On 88's and up the venting was
moved to the back of the rear most side windows.  I've even pulled the tape
and put the blue sliding plastic on my 88 door vents, but didn't get any
additional air flow.  I suspect the rubber seal on the front of the door
panels on 88's and up stop any additional air flow from moving through the
door.  I guess this because there does not appear to be any ducts or
passageways connected to the chamber in which these door vents are located.
I'd also guess that VW didn't want to recast the door molds because it
would be too costly when they could just keep using the same doors plus
some additional tape.  The tape would cost extra, but would be offset by
the replacement of the blue plastic slidding piece.  All this just to quiet
the wind noise on the fronts of the doors!?

Karl Vochatzer
88 GL (full door vents that don't vent)
86 Westfalia GL (door vents that fully vent)

RubatoGuy@AOL.COM on 08/29/97 04:17:52 PM

Please respond to RubatoGuy@AOL.COM

=========================================================================
Date:         
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         
Subject:      Door vents

My '88 has black plastic air grills at the rear bottom of the front doors.
I took the door panel off to install a map tray in the right door and
noticed that the hole in the door behind the grill is taped up with black
tape.

Does anyone know what these grills are for and why they are taped up?

Thanks
Todd
'88 Westfalia