TheSamba.com :: View topic - What's the weirdest/ grossest/ coolest thing you've found...

Sat May 03, 2008 9:42 pm

Found a CD in the CD player.

I think the composer was inspired by, uh, sheep. ;)

All the others sound the same!!

Nothing gross, but I found it funny. :)

http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/SheepSong1.mov

Sun May 04, 2008 2:26 am

A Thundercat and an original sale and service pamphlet. And for a while old cheese smell.

Sun May 04, 2008 9:16 pm

I found a wolverine in mine...

Did I shoot it?

Yes, like 50 times! They kept trying to attack my cousins, what the heck would you do in a situation like that?

What kind of gun did I use?

A freakin' 12-gauge, what do you think?

Mon May 05, 2008 11:40 am

This is the truth:

I bought my first Vanagon from a couple who were part of a firedancing troupe that performed at carnivals and fairs around the west. They had originally bought it from an older lady in Oregon and had, amongst their adventures, lived in this '85 GL in a parking garage in San Francisco for several months before moving to Denver.

When I went over to buy it, we went into the basement of their house, where they lit incense and sat with me on reed mats in order to do the title transfer. They asked for one more trip around the block in the Vanagon, a, um, smoking trip, then I dropped them off and went on my way. The floor of the cabin had three layers of eggshell foam, covered by an oriental rug (sleeping area.) I pulled up the rug and foam and found an ornate glass pipe and a good-sized bag, which, in good conscience, I promptly returned to them along with a green crystal necklace.

They were happy with my honesty and were certain that I'd bought myself a lot of good karma. They were correct--by all rights, that Vanagon should have died on me many, many times, but it took me 5,000 miles around the West with leaking heads, a bad PS rack, and popping CV joints...

Oh, they let me keep the crystal necklace. I've kept it in each of the Vanagons I've owned since.

This latest Vanagon was purchased from an 85 year-old farmer from Kansas. I found a bunch of dead mice in the B-pillar. Not quite as interesting.

Joe T.

Mon May 05, 2008 2:23 pm

I took my grill off to plug some mouse-entry points and found these resting under the radiator.

Does this mean my transmission is about go out?

Mon May 05, 2008 2:30 pm

Chris, I can't tell you EXACTLY what those are...

But do you know the plot of the movie, 'Help?'

:shock:

Best!

Mon May 05, 2008 2:37 pm

Chris, those are critical parts of your heater blower. You obviously got the upgraded model with the better quality motor components. :lol:

Mon May 05, 2008 2:51 pm

Quote: those are critical parts of your heater blower
Hmmm, you may be correct, Hiram, but given the ice cream sundaes associated with the right-hand gear, I think these may actually be important parts of the highly efficient air conditioning system that came with the 84s.

Mon May 05, 2008 3:03 pm

I believe they are actually part of a rare factory option that allowed you to connect a Snoopy Sno Cone Machine directly to the radiator.
Although the green sno cones were delicious, owners started reporting head gasket leaks and upset tummies.

Mon May 05, 2008 9:24 pm

This thread just earned a sticky. I made a weird honking snotty noise when I read that, the in-laws in the next room had to know what made me laugh like that- but they didn't find it as funny.

Tue May 06, 2008 2:33 am

hiram6 wrote: Chris, those are critical parts of your heater blower.
photogdave wrote: I believe they are actually part of a rare factory option that allowed you to connect a Snoopy Sno Cone Machine directly to the radiator.

Then that could explain this tool I found burried in my dashboard when I replaced my heater blower this winter.

I thought it was some sort of dental tool, but now an ice pick seems like a possible explanation....

Tue May 06, 2008 4:36 am

It is a scribing tool used by metal workers to mark precisely on metal. I have one.

Tue May 06, 2008 10:31 am

Under the bench of my '89 Westy was all the stuff you'd need down there: road atlas, tire chains, jack, hangers for the closet ( which I'll never use - does anyone actually use their closet to hang clothes? ), electric hook up wire wrapped and tied with a brown tube sock, old grey water tank, wire for cable TV hook up, and in the glove compartment all the original factory pamphlets and literature. Under the dashboard ash tray I found a receipt from a car ferry in Washington state. Thought that was pretty cool. I'm looking to add one from the CAT ferry from Maine to Nova Scotia this year! In the cabinet above the rear bench I found a flat rock I guess for weighting down maps or magazines. On the shelf in the back of the closet I found a couple of lighters still in their packages ( look to from the early nineties ) and a bag of pipe cleaners - maybe the only pipe paraphernalia found in a Westy in this thread that isn't drug related! I haven't looked behind the fridge or under the front seats yet............ Also the PO of my van was a retired pilot and installed a compass on the dash and a little altimeter. A nice touch of history and personality. :D

Sun Feb 19, 2012 9:04 am

McVanagon wrote: hiram6 wrote: Chris, those are critical parts of your heater blower.
photogdave wrote: I believe they are actually part of a rare factory option that allowed you to connect a Snoopy Sno Cone Machine directly to the radiator.

Then that could explain this tool I found burried in my dashboard when I replaced my heater blower this winter.

I thought it was some sort of dental tool, but now an ice pick seems like a possible explanation....

mechanics pic for o rings and such, i have 3 i bought off the tool truck

Sun Feb 19, 2012 9:37 am

Glad this thread came up. I had made a new thread and after about 10 comments it just disappeared. So this is a 'grossest' contribution.

Have the dash apart, including the heater core et al out. Lots of indications of nesting including a small round nut partially chewed open. When I bought the van 2 years ago I did a mega mega cleaning due to squirrel and mice infestation of the van sitting in Wa state for some years. Lots of urine, big feces, small feces. That's the background. So I'm cleaning behind the dash et al starting passenger side and going left. Lots of dirt, grease.

Finally get to the drivers corner. Fortunately had disposable gloves on, reached around column A and felt a mass but had no ideas if wiring or what. First time brought my hand out with fur and crap on it. Went in for the 2nd time (you do this blind of course) and pulled and got a wee bit showing. First I thought it was a wasp nest and let it go. Then I realized that I saw an eye and very leathery face. EEEEEEEWWWWW. So did it again (my heart was almost fibrillating) and jiggeled and pulled and got about 3 inches out but very difficult.

All 3 mechanics refused to help (I needed someone strong to pull it all out) and tho I didn't want to I had to do it so put on heavy oil cloth gloves and jiggeled and pulled. It was impossible to get it all out, so I got my hand up as far as I could and with the hardest pull I could manage
managed to get about 5 inches out but it ripped. GROSS, it's a squirrel, the upper teeth were almost 1inch long and curved, the lower teeth were just as long. It was a mummified body of a squirrel.

I figure it was coming down A column from up in the liner (indications that squirrels and mice had been up there) and got its tail caught and couldn't free itself and had a slow long death. GROSS, the tail is still stuck up there but I can't get at it. Blew compressed air up and down the column, only got bits of fluffy fur. This scenario fits with the burn marks around the driver's door light.

This has got to be the grossest, eeewwww. I teased the 3 mechanics that I had it behind my back and I was going to show them. They all ran like wimps. I wanted them to squirm and they did but I never would have showed it to them as they were very serious about NOT seeing it.

So I suppose I should replace or take down the liner to be able to get something long down Column A. It was GROSS because it was a preserved body, not just remmants. I'd bet that the nesting material and fluffy fur AND the eaten nut I found in the heater core belonged to that squirrel.

This is not the only scary stories of squirrels relating to this particular van and myself. That's another story, another time :)

Sun Feb 19, 2012 10:51 am

Daizee, the little tree rat befouled your beloved van with his turds. I reckon William Munny nailed it when he said "We all got it comin', kid."

If there's a just and loving God who happens to own a van that stays parked for much of the year, that squirrel was slow in dyin', and it hurt the whole time.

Sun Feb 19, 2012 12:03 pm

Yes Dark Alley, I agree and I have to force myself not to think of that. This all happened over 2 years ago and as the van was not used for some time (not working) who knows when.

2 years ago when the PO still had the van, we were working in the engine compartment and I was "attacked" by a squirrel. It came back at me several times and climbed up my back and into my hair. It was very aggressive repeatedly and had an afinity to the van and me. Never bothered the PO! So now I get the message it was trying to deliver perhaps. But that mummy was there long before I bought the van but I had known of squirrels having been in residence, just didn't know, one still was. I am sad for that squirrel but I am glad in a way that I've got most of it out.

Sun Feb 19, 2012 12:56 pm

BuffaloNyWesty wrote: Well the idea of geriatric sex occuring on this very spot killed the mood for that weekend..........

Sat Apr 19, 2014 6:53 am

I bought my bus on E-bay back in 2009. After winning the auction I flew to Los Angeles to finally see it in person and to take it home with me.

After looking it over, while knowing little to nothing about them other then the fact that they were awesome and useful machines and something that I wanted to be a part of.

I exchanged the money and drove it from the person that I had bought it from to a local and reputable mechanic that I had researched, I then had them go through everything that would ensure my way home with myself and the bus intact....

Then, I stopped at the local DMV for a new plate, etc, before making the 9, or so hour drive home, in which I was able to experience right away the way in which it handled the up-hill capability as I had went through what is referred to as The Grapevine to get home....

Just as I was heading out of town I stopped to visit a friend in the LA area, I began looking around inside of the glove-box a bit more extensively and inside of the plastic envelope that has the user manual, etc. I found, tucked inside of the pages, a flattened bag of very old, and very crusty weed, along with some Zig Zags..., What VW purchase would be complete without a complementary doobie....

Sun Aug 16, 2015 10:11 pm

Just in case we have any more gruesome stories... I don't think XKCD has learned how much further it goes with Vanagons.

:shock:

I found pesos in Winston, and decided that it was his money, and stored them securely within him.

Best!