just bought a "new" car

[hedz]

picked up a sweet 1980 volkswagen dasher with a diesel and a 4 speed for 3700. it has 40k original miles and the interior is perfect. brown paintjob. a/c needs a recharge. rust on the outside around the rear window and along the weather channels on the roof so it's going to need paint. i'm probably going to have to do some minor preventative work to keep the cancer from spreading. just drove it back from valdosta. changing the oil today, going to find a speedo cable, and grease the front end, air up the tires and a few other things. i averaged about 40 mpg. you have to keep the car around 60mph on the interstate to get that mileage. i'm hoping that cleaning out the fuel system and replacing fuel filter and oil change and airing up the tires will help. it may need new glow plugs. i don't know much about these cars so it's going to be a learning process. My trasmission is waiting to go back in the 79 mc so i can sell it. i'm not strong enough to drag it outside and put it on my car jack so just waiting on some muscle help there. i think a friend will come by today. anywho folks this vw is probably the nicest and newest car i have ever owned and i'm a very happy camper right now.

also i met a awsome body man. i thought i was good with sheet metal and thought i was going to have to replace my roof. he proved me wrong. he liked my truck so much and he got to hammering on it while i was changing my friends 455 water pump in his rat rod 69 cutlass two days ago. he didn't smooth out the roof or the door channel but he got the roof out enough and moved the door channel enough that now my door shuts without bending!!! and rain water doesn't pour into the cab anymore! he is hooking me up with some body glue stuff to pour in the weather channel.

awesome week

[Damon23]

Good deal. I kind of liked those cars. Is it the coupe, 4 door or wagon? You should check out thesamba.com if you have not already. It is a huge VW board. If you are in Georgia you should check out georgiadubs.com they have a pretty good board as well. We are getting ready to start the resto on a 71 Westfalia camper bus in the winter. Should be fun.

[hedz]

i love westfalias. that's a great project you have there. i'm in alabama. i wish i could take some pictures but my phone that i used to take them was stolen a couple weeks back. i definitely need to learn more about this vehicle. i'm going to add some old school a/c gas in my dasher tomorrow. i think it will revive the a/c which is blowing but just barely cold. changing the oil tomorrow as well. i just put silicone on the rear window and some around the front to try to keep the rain out. aired up the tires. a 90 year old mason was the previous owner so i have masonic papers in the car and masonic emblems on the rear. which i will never take off .

it's the coupe.

the worst thing about this dasher is that it's rusting and needs a paintjob. looks good at 20 feet.

what engine and transmission do you have in your vw westfalia?

[Donnie]

hedz, I speak VW diesel.......I have owned many-----pm me if you have any diesel question's about your Dasher 1.6 engine, so we don't clutter up this forum with NON-FORD interest's.....Donnie

[Damon23]

The westy needs a bunch of work but it was cheap ($500) and it came with a rebuilt transmission but no engine. Going to get one after the first of the year and get it running.

[Subzero]

I love old air cooled VWs and diesels. I've even thought about buying a van or Golf to get a little more mpg for a daily driver.