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| Meet Wilson |
Eventually fate led me to a job, which led me to another, and finally I was in a position to start saving some money. I spent hours reading posts on internet forums, and I spent months looking for a van that would suit my needs. I learned from the forums that a person shouldn't buy a Vanagon from someone who didn't own and love the van. I learned that it was not wise to use PayPal for the purchase, and I learned not to buy a van off of eBay. The posts that I read said that I shouldn't buy a van that I didn't personally inspect and that I shouldn't pay to have it shipped unless I was able to oversee the initial loading of the truck, because shipping a Vanagon could cause damage to the van while it was in transit if it is loaded improperly. I tried to follow these rules. I really did. I tried to find a van that was local to me in the great state of New York. The main problem I had with local (within a 300 mile radius) was that the vans had seen the winter conditions and the road salt of the northeast, so rust was an issue.
I did find a really nice blue air-cooled van one day while I was riding my bicycle across NY during the summer of 2013. It was up in the Catskill mountains on the side of the road with a "For Sale" sign in the window. I took down the phone number, looked over the van while I was there and I was actually impressed with it. It had under 100,000 miles on the odometer. The paint was in good condition, there weren't any major dents or scratches, and the little sign on the window stated that it passed NY state inspection and also had an under-the-seat gas heater. The sticker price was a firm $8,000. It was a little over my budget, but maybe I could borrow some money if I had to. The real kicker for me was that it was air-cooled. The way I saw this project was that I wanted to convert the van to a Subaru engine, and the conversion from air-cooled to water-cooled on top of converting from a Volkswagen to a Subaru power plant would really just be extra work. I just felt unsure about it. I called the owner anyway and discussed the van at length with him. He was a very nice man and he did love his van. He actually felt that if he sold it he would like the new owner to keep it original. I didn't think I would be able to do that and eventually, I told him that if I came up with the money I would give him a call back, but at the time I had only $3,000 saved.
Fast forward to January of 2014. I was eagerly searching... maybe almost frantically searching for a road-worthy Vanagon on the internet with the intent on paying between 5 and 7 thousand dollars. I searched on thesamba.com and I checked Craigslist postings and even looked at eBay a few times but always came up short. The clock was ticking. If I was going to have a road-ready Vanagon by May, when my seasonal job let me out, I would need it soon if I was going to have enough time to go through it and repair any of the systems or parts that required attention.
Then one day it happened. I saw a beautiful looking cream colored van that was relatively rust free for sale out in Utah for sale on eBay. It was an 1984 water-cooled Westy. The sticker price was $5,995. I called the gentleman and was a little impatient when I talked with him. I was very excited and didn't want to miss out on the opportunity. The man was very nice and sent me more photos of the van and he even went to the van and started "it" so I could hear "it" run. I mean, just because a fella says he is starting the van doesn't make it so. Anyway, I asked if there were other people who had bought vehicles from him in the past that I could maybe talk to about their experience to make sure that I wasn't going to send my money to a man on the internet for a vehicle that I had no way of inspecting, and trust that this man would send me the title and eventually ship me the van.
The man sent me some contact information for a man who he had sold a Porsche 914 to. I played phone tag with the buyer for about a week before we actually connected. He sent me a few photos of his Porsche and told me that the seller had actually put him up for the night when he went out to Utah to inspect the car and to load it onto a truck for shipping it home to Colorado. His story checked out, so I figured that I would give the fella from Utah a call back and send him some money. I was very excited! When I called him, he told me that he regretted to inform me that he had already sold the van to a buyer in Texas. Shit!
I spent a few weeks in despair but continued the search. Then one evening, after I got home from work, my phone rang. It was the seller from Utah. Initially I thought that maybe the deal he made with Texas had fell through, but he told me that it went well. However, he did notice another van that was similar to the one he sold was for sale on eBay out of Colorado. The only difference was that the van he saw had air conditioning and the one he sold did not. I thanked him for the lead and checked out the ad.
When I called the seller in Colorado, he said a few things that I didn't want to hear. The title was not in his name. He bought it from an Estate Sale - he had a very salesman-like attitude. I asked if he could send me photos and videos and if he could send me a photo of the title. He did all of those things. Then I asked my friends on the internet if anyone lived in Colorado Springs who might be able to do me a favor and check out a Vanagon that I was interested in buying.
A man that I had met on the Appalachian Trail responded and said that he could check it out for me. I didn't know him very well, but figured that if the seller was willing to meet a local fella to show the vehicle, then it might not be too shady of a deal. He obliged my requests, but something still didn't sit exactly right with me. I was kind of nervous to wire $6,000 of my hard-earned cash to a man I will never meet, and hope that the van would get loaded on a shipping truck and the title would be quickly mailed to me.
I decided that I would use PayPal in order to add a layer of some kind of protection for myself. I'm not 100% sure it would have helped much after hearing bad stories from other PayPal users but it helped me sleep a little better. The seller said that if I was going to use PayPal he was going to ask that I pay more to cover some of the fees associated with its use. I agreed to send $6,200 in exchange for a title.
Then I looked into shipping. I tried U ship and I also searched the internet for shipping companies and got a few quotes. Eventually I found a shipping company based out of Colorado. They told me they could get the van on one of their open transport trucks sometime during the next week. They asked me to pay about $1000 and would accept cash on delivery. I had to fill out some paper work for them and fax it over to their office, and they asked for pick-up and delivery addresses and contact information for the person or persons who would be at either place. Everything was falling into place.
Later that week, while I was at work, my phone rang. The shipping company was trying to pick up the van, but there was no answer at the pick-up location and the shipper wasn't answering his phone. I was talking with the dispatcher of the shipping company when he asked who was supposed to ship the van. I told him the fellas name and he said, "That guy owes us money." My heart skipped a beat. I wasn't sure what they were insinuating, but I was suddenly very nervous. The next 20 minutes lasted a lifetime. I had a vision of a man dressed in a short sleeved dress shirt and a crooked tie carrying a briefcase full of my money and driving down the road in "my" van. I tried calling the seller and there was no answer. I tried again... no answer. Finally, the seller answered, loaded the van on the truck and it was on its way to me! SIGH! Whew... that was close.
When the van arrived I couldn't contain my joy. The driver pulled the van up the driveway, I payed him and I helped him back his truck up so he could get headed back in the right direction. I wasn't sure how well the van would ride. I had never driven one before. It didn't have any plates on it. The roads were covered in salt and snow and slush, the exhaust was broken, but I didn't care. I sat in the drivers seat with a giant smile on my face. My family watched as I turned the key. It fired right up. I found reverse and away I went. Up the street and back, then up another street and back again. It was incredibly fun to drive. It was loud, it was dented a little, there were pieces missing and broken, there were a few places where the clear coat was peeling, but it was mine! I was in love.
I pulled back up the driveway. Everyone was outside cheering. There were a few people who wanted to go for a ride, but it was dark, I didn't know anything about the fluids, the condition of the brakes, the condition of the tires or pretty much anything at all in the grand scheme of things. Common sense told me to park the van, so I did. Inside there was an ice cream cake on the kitchen counter, waiting to be eaten.
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| Home!! |
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| Love him, dents and all. |
Sometimes you can do things pretty much all wrong, and it still turns out just right!
Very sweet story. I'm sure you'll be very happy to meet your new Vanagon family too. We'll see you on and off the road. Happy travels.
ReplyDeleteI love Wildon and you. I am glad that you two found each other.
ReplyDeleteMiss you. He's my buddy. I m glad I married you. ;)
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