TheSamba.com :: View topic

Mon Nov 02, 2009 5:37 pm

Hey guys. I'm posting for sweet pea since he is in Cali with some friends and not really able to get the internet reliably. His 77 westy is stuck in Las Cruces, NM where he left it with a mechanic. He had to get to Cali and so rented a car to drive the rest of the way to make it for a planned get together that he couldn't miss.

So, the bus is at the mechanic's place. Now that sweet pea is in Cali, the mechanic calls him and says that the bus has "got to go" and has left sweet pea with two choices: 1) turn over the title to settle any debt or 2) pay $300 and then $10 storage fee.

Anyway, so I am just trying to see if anyone else has any idea of what he could do here. That sucks to give this bus away for a $300 debt and really (I don't know if that mechanic frequents this board but it speaks poorly of someone who would do that to someone else.) He should have made it VERY clear that he was going to expect everything to be settled up within a few days BEFORE sweet pea took off for Cali.

Anyway, the bus is overall in very good condition except some pretty bad rust at the bottom of the window sills all the way around. He had just put a new canopy tent in the top and all kinds of other new stuff and mechanical refurbishments. I drove it and it tracked well and shifted very nicely.

I really would like to see someone from the VW scene who could really help this guy out chime in here, because turning over that bus for $300 would virtually be theft in my opinion. All the bus needs is a running engine bolted up into it to make it right. With a running engine, this bus would sell for $3500 any day. If no one who knows VWs and is willing to help out can step in here and help him get the bus rolling lends a hand here then he'll have to just chalk this one up to bad luck and shady business practices.

I sure hope someone does help him out. I only met him just before he went off on his trip (leaving from Louisiana) and he's a pretty good guy--I don't like to see good people ripped off.

Mon Nov 02, 2009 6:02 pm

I'm in San Diego and would help if I could. I do sympathize sorta with the shop though. I guess it's been there for a couple weeks now and he wants to know what the owners plans are because at this point all work has stopped (I'm guessing). I suggest that he pay the bill and have it towed somewhere cheap to park it while he either sells it on Craigslist for say $1000 like it is or figures out where to get a good motor and fix it. Another option would be to have it trucked back home for around $800. There are vehicle movers that advertise here on Thesamba. Maybe one is making a move between the west coast and east coast and could swing through and grab it for him. Just another option.

Mon Nov 02, 2009 6:26 pm

Pay the fees, and get it out of there. There is a vehicle transport company in Los Lunas, NM named Heartland Transport. Have him ask for Sherry at 505 865 0862, and have them pick it up and Transport either to SD or back home. It will probably cost him about $650 to SD.

I have used them multiple times and they are honest and trustworthy.

Or turn the title over. I would never have left and not settled my car situation, but that is me. Fairly irresponsible if you ask me.

Mon Nov 02, 2009 6:48 pm

I am not sure that any Transport company will move a vehicle that is disabled. :(

Mon Nov 02, 2009 6:55 pm

He's in California, right? If you can get it to me here in San Diego I could help him and it would be a lot less than a shop.

There are some independent movers that would do it as long as it rolls. Check services in thesamba classifieds.

Mon Nov 02, 2009 7:52 pm

If he can't pay the mechanic the $300 he owes how can he pay a transporter? Or how could he have paid for an engine if he had found one?

Mon Nov 02, 2009 8:30 pm

Desertbusman wrote: If he can't pay the mechanic the $300 he owes how can he pay a transporter? Or how could he have paid for an engine if he had found one?

I may be reading between the lines here but I think he took off for Cali and didn't think about the mechanic (he should have) but I believe he has the money and it's just a matter of communication that's broken down a bit. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, he thought enough to start this thread.

Mon Nov 02, 2009 8:47 pm

You're probably correct. So all he has to decide is if his bus is worth $300 to him.

Tue Nov 03, 2009 12:23 am

Thanks guys for replying. I'll relay all of this to him. He had the $300, he is just 800 miles away in LA and is trying to work out the logistics of how to most effectively move or sell the bus and not get taken to the cleaners. Aeromech, thanks for offering to lend a hand with the repairs if he can get it to your area. I believe that when he left, he was with the understanding that he would be gone for a given amount of time and that the mechanic knew that. Maybe they misunderstood each other--it's hard to be sure at this point. Anyway, that whole thing is an unfortunate shame. The bus had to break down literally halfway from home and his destination--could not be a worse place.

We'll see what happens. If he can't update the thread, I'll try to let people know how things go.

Tue Nov 03, 2009 8:13 am

This is what I'm talking about:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/search.php?...ton=Search

You can also place a wanted ad for transport

Tue Nov 03, 2009 7:33 pm

rent a u-haul and a trailer. problem solved

Tue Nov 03, 2009 8:25 pm

purplegodzilla wrote: I am not sure that any Transport company will move a vehicle that is disabled. :(

Sure they will, they just tack on a few extra $. Heartland has brought me many a VW that did not run.

Wed Nov 04, 2009 1:44 pm

skills@eurocarsplus wrote: rent a u-haul and a trailer. problem solved

That's easy to say when it isn'tyou that just forked out $600 in rental fees to make it the rest of the way to L.A. once the bus broke down in Las Cruces and it won't be you--if renting a U-Haul and trailer--that will be out hundreds of additional dollars to get to Las Cruces from L.A. and then hundreds more to get it to LA, and THEN probably into the thousands yet to actually get it running.

Get my point? At a certain point the offer to just cut one's losses and lose the whole thing actually starts sounding like the only real feasible option. That is why I was hoping to be able to help him find someone that could either help get a running used engine in it right there in Las Cruces or maybe someone who was going to be making a run the direction of L.A. with a hauler trailer that was not quite full or something. You never know and it doesn't hurt to ask.

But back on topic, obviously, if he had thousands of dollars to just throw around then this thread would have never been started. The idea was to find someone who could actually help--you know, lend a hand, to reduce the overall cost. "Rent a U-Haul and trailer" does not qualify as help.

To everyone who contributed actual ideas and information open and via PM, thank you sincerely. He is working things out now.

Wed Nov 04, 2009 9:42 pm

No understando...was it a funeral he was going to miss in Cali? Birth? Wedding?

Priorities.

Anyway...

Pay the $300 bucks

Have the bus towed to "The Farm" (friends of his????)

Offer Onion shipping and a case of GOOD BEER for his 2.0 liter to be greyhounded.

Fix it.

Done.

Thu Nov 05, 2009 12:12 am

I've done the truck & uhaul trailer from Hood River to Seattle when my camshaft did the same thing three years ago. It required a 454 Chevy Silverado to pull it. Westy's are heeaaavy 8).
But it's really all about cost:
Of mechanic, storage, transport, "real replacement" vs sentimental value, and engine rebuild. It all adds up both for and against leaving it. It's your decision, I'd be hard pressed to abandon mine.

Thu Nov 05, 2009 9:27 am

Did you or "sweet pea" ever look into AIRS? You could get real lucky...

Dale Harris
N5QO@yahoo.com
CROSSROADS: I-25 and Hi-70
Las Cruces, 88011
PHONE: (505) 382-8629

Janet & Bill Colville
Email: colville@zianet.com
CROSSROADS: I 25 and I 10
Las Cruces
PHONE: 505 527 5605.

Thom
EMAIL: thom4xx@hotmail.com
CROSSROADS: Interstate 10 & 25
CITY: Las Cruces, 88001
PHONE: 817-980-9337

And many more close by...

http://www.type2.com/rescue/us/nm.html#New%20Mexico

I like AIRS...even if many of the members have moved and not updated their info.