Rust assessment and pre-sale inspection checklist

[EL665]

Hi all,

First post here. I'm about to pull the trigger on a well-maintained well-upgraded 84' Vanagon. Solar, propex heater, bigger aux battery, Behr air conditioning, etc. 120k miles on the body, engine replaced by GoWesty in 2013. It checks a lot of boxes, but it's priced accordingly at $30k.

I have a couple questions that I'm hoping the collective wisdom here can help me out with.

First question:

I'm having a local shop spend ~3 hours inspecting the van before I decide to buy. They're a well-reviewed shop that works on VWs and the occasional Westy, but they don't specialize in Westys or vans.

If you were about to buy a Westy, what would you tell the mechanic to look for during an inspection?

Second question:

It wasn't visible from the listing photos, but in person I can see the van has some rust. Most of it is little specks of surface rust here and there where the paint chipped, but there's a few areas that I'm curious what the folks here would say about it.

Here's the most concerning bit of rust, in the bottom corner of the front windshield:

This next one is along the front edge of the driver side door, a thin line of rust, but the paint doesn't seem to be chipped. I don't think I've seen rust appear like this before.

Random specks along the window edge on the side of the body:

More specks:

Aside from those pics and a handful of other tiny tiny miscellaneous rust specks, the body appears to be in good shape.

What's the prognosis on windshield rust like that? Would this degree of rusting stop you from plunking down a big chunk of change on an 84' Westy?

Thanks all!

[PDXWesty]

Greetings! - First off, where are you located? Some other overall pictures would help in evaluating the van. Not to burst your bubble, but $30k seems really high for an 84 van which only looks to be in fair condition.

For comps, check this out: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2477272

The shop even though they don't specialize in westy's will know what to look for. It's not particularly complicated to do a pre-inspection.

Best of luck!
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89 Westy 2.1 Auto

[Ahwahnee]

Were I shopping, one thing I would certainly do is examine the behavior of the coolant after a hot drive of decent length (say 30 minutes or so).

Vans sometimes go on the market when a combustion leak in a cylinder becomes apparent. Expensive to fix and hard to create in a typical test drive and inspection.

I agree that the rust shown is a bit much for the money asked. How do the seams look, especially on the driver's side? Those are usually the first to go.

[DeLvxe]

Regarding the rust assessment, this is not bad at all. Take a close look at the seams for rust / bubbling. The corners around the windshield are a pretty common location for rust and should eventually be addressed, but the photo is far from bad. Some vans will leak inside through these spots. At this point, it is a much bigger problem. Mine looks much worse than this but is dry inside.

Agree that $30k is high, but only you can decide if its worth it. I live in the Pacific Northwest where prices are generally high for these vans and paid $22k for a '91 Westy with a Subaru engine a few years ago (more rust than yours, but nothing too bad) and have been happy with it.
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1991 manual camper with EJ25

[leecat]

Those rust spots aren't bad at all - it's the seams and below the sliding door sill I'd be worried about. Also check under the very lowest part of the doors - the windshield seal looks to be the factory one - if ALL the seals are original, including the door scrapers, water will run down inside the doors and rot out the very underside of the doors where you cannot see.

I'd yard that windshield out, treat the rust (there will be more under the rubber) and put a new seal in. Not that big a job.

Good luck with it! I too would choke on the price, but whatever the market will bear - you're a better judge in-person that us sight-unseen, I think.

Edit - if you took rubbing compound to some of those small rust spots and hit them with touchup paint, they'd look pretty dang good - rust always looks worse when there's a patina spread onto the surrounding paint.

[EL665]

[dabaron]

that is a very clean Westy. if it runs and does not have hidden rust under a respray, you should buy it.
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1991 Vanagon GL Camper
i had no idea i wanted to be a mechanic
"burnin oil and cookin coils" -- Destructo

BiWerks Design, LLC

[SCM]

[EL665]

[valvecovergasket]

[Ahwahnee]

Okay - now I'm seeing a $30K van.

[Yellow Rabbit]

It nice enough and I love the color but I just can’t get over $30k for a van with rust. If someone offered me that for my rust free low mile van I’d jump on it. It must be a seller’s market right now. There ar3 plenty of vanagon shops in the PNW you should be able to get a good inspection done.

[PDXWesty]

I don't know. If you're in a hurry to buy a van then you're going to spend more. I just browsed the west coast classifieds and there are many vans between 15-25K that are in similar condition. It has a pretty dirty 8 year old engine and 84's command less money generally.
Here's one for almost half that price then you could put 10K into it: https://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/cto/d/granite-falls-1984-vw-westfalia/7334435477.html
Or a pretty clean 87: https://seattle.craigslist.org/see/ctd/d/seattle-1987-vw-westfalia-camper/7333422742.html

Patience and you can have as nice a van for a lot less.
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89 Westy 2.1 Auto

[16CVs]

I see you're in Seattle by reading your post but you should put your location in your header, people can only help you if they know where you are. There are a lot of helpful people here on the Forums that will jump in their car at a moments notice to give you a hand, but they'd have to know that you're close by first.

30K for an 84 is crazy, I don't care what shape it's in. Seats with no armrests, older style fuse box and a rebuilt engine that is 8 years old. I personally don't care for the striped interior and always want to buy the newest of anything I can find. Newbies fall into a trap thinking that an 84 and a 90 are all the same. You'll see a lot of sellers that are dumping their early van to hold onto a newer one.

What is up with the Yellow wire looped in the dirty engine compartment, has the owner been having Ignition switch or starter problems?

Good luck and welcome to the madness if yo do buy one.

Stacy
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1987 Syncro Westfalia Triple knob (bastard)
1989 Syncro Tristar Triple knob "Swedish"
2013 Jetta Hybrid a true "Zwitter"
Samba member # 14980
Call anytime number 650 722 4914 .
Keep Your van running and upkept tastefully for the love of the hobby.
Don't let your van end up in an "abortions" thread.

[Vanagon Nut]

If you haven't done this, check post dates, update dates of ads for similar Westies on craigslist to get an idea of what's moving, what's sitting. e.g. locally, in Vancouver BC, I've seen listings for similarly stay up on CL for some months. i.e. seller is holding out on price, people aren't biting. But, it is camping season and, some dolts leave their ads up even if the item is sold.

From what I know of rust at the window spots, the rust you see is indicative of more rust under the seals themselves. Not a "show stopper" but something to consider, IMO. Don't let the seller convince you that the rust is an easy fix for the average DIY type. e.g. I've heard that the side windows can be tough to remove - reinstall.

Neil.
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1981 Westy DIY 15º ABA

1988 West DIY 50º ABA

VE7TBN

[16CVs]

I'd look at this in Here in Ca .ID # : 2477933 $15K is a decent price.

Stacy
_________________
1987 Syncro Westfalia Triple knob (bastard)
1989 Syncro Tristar Triple knob "Swedish"
2013 Jetta Hybrid a true "Zwitter"
Samba member # 14980
Call anytime number 650 722 4914 .
Keep Your van running and upkept tastefully for the love of the hobby.
Don't let your van end up in an "abortions" thread.

[BCgee]

30K for an early 80s 2wd westy isn't reasonable IMO, maybe 15-20k for a very well-sorted rig. The GW engine is getting dated and is still underpowered, albeit I run an SVX in the interior rockies.

That rust wouldn't be a deal-breaker for me, but I would make a plan to remove the front window seal and cut out/re-weld/etc the actual leak ASAP.

As others note, the market is insane and demand is high.

Suerte.
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1987 SVX Syncro Hightop

[Alaskaberrys]

[pdm777]

My Advise:

Buy the newest + best condition Westy.
Find a 1990-1991 if you can.

For $30,000 you should see a late model
with good mechanicals and upgrades.

expand your search!
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1990 Westy Full Camper

[pdm777]

for comparison of values:

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1990 Westy Full Camper