WTB / NPC - Looking for a Nice Vanagon Front Air Dam, I know many here have Westies/Vanos! Options

[Tom_T]

Okay - I know it's a long shot - but I'm trying to find a very nice used or NOS VW Vanagon / Westy front Air Dam to finish up the resto of our `88 Westy.

These are now NLA & excellent condition ones are as rare as hens' teeth to find today (help Mikey!?), and Bus Depot sells a non-OE aftermarket resin one made by Westfalia - despite their online catalog listing it as OEM - it's not, as I found out $200 later! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif) - which will just crack &/or splinter into a gazillion pieces on the first hit or scrape!

OE ones were apparently only on USA & Canada market Vanagons from 1988-91 on the FG Bumper Vanagons, and are made in 5 sections - L & R side, L & R front & center front joiner pieces - & made out of a flexible black poly-something pebble-finish material.

Finding this part is driving me crazy for the past several months of fruitless searching!!!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

I know a lot of folks on here have Westies & Vanagons of various flavors, and maybe you've pulled off your OE flexible Air Dam to give yours a more off-roadie look or to add those hulking steel bumpers????

If you have anything, please send me some hi-rez pix & your price.

I don't want anything with the usual torn front corners that most have, as shown on ours in the pix below.

This is what I need to replace on our Westy -



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But without the cracks, tweaks & damage at the L & R front corners shown below -





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Anyone????
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[Tom_T]

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... and before anyone asks - yes, I've been checking TheSamba & evil-bay, etc., as well as the "regular retail Westy & Vanagon vendors like GoWesty, Van Cafe, Bus Depot, VW Classics (Germany), etc.

So I need help finding a nice air dam....

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[pete000]

I get them from Van Cafe. Not cheap but they usually have them.

Mine, not a Westy, but a Vanagon for sure... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

[Mikey914]

looks like an ABS type plastic. It's possible to make these, tooling adds up as well as pricepoint. I'd need to sell at least 50 to break even on something like this. Even at $150-175. The multiple sections make it easier to form, but mean more individial parts to make.

[Tom_T]

looks like an ABS type plastic. It's possible to make these, tooling adds up as well as pricepoint. I'd need to sell at least 50 to break even on something like this. Even at $150-175. The multiple sections make it easier to form, but mean more individial parts to make.

Mark,

I thought ABS was a hard non-flexible plastic - but not sure. I'm thinking it might be a TPE or something similar to your repro 914 bumper tops & bumper guards/tits, but I'm not an expert. I can get you samples of the original if you want to go forward, & can hopefully find a decent set of parts from other ones in really good shape.

The side pieces have a female receiver cast into the backside, to receive the male end of the side pieces - so that could make it more complicated to make tooling & cast. However, breaking down the side & front into 4 larger + a small center joiner piece makes it easier & smaller/cheaper to ship. So I don't know which is the better route from your end?

I'd also suggest reinforcing the back of the L & R front corners, so that they don't crack at the corners when the bottom of the front scrapes & flexes backwards.

Since Bus Depot is selling the hard plastic resin ones for $200 - which will break/crack on any bottom scraping or impact then be trash - I think you're in the ballpark, if not a bit low - depending on how much of a margin the other suppliers need over your cost. It sounds like if your cost might be in the $150-175 range, then retail would be at least $250-300+.

I think that Bus Depot, Van Cafe & GoWesty might all go for it, and maybe some others too. And then you could advertise them in TheSamba yourself to sell out of 914Rubber in addition. So I think you could easily hit 50 within 6-12 months, if not sooner - perhaps even a full 50+ first run pre-sold.

I'd be in for one for sure, & am willing to help get you in with those vendors! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I can check with the top retailers to see how much & how many they might take from you, & get back to you.

Call me when you have time to discuss it further - my cell was in the PM, if it's not still on your cell phone from calls before this on the 914 goodies.

Cheers! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/santa_smiley.gif)
Tom
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[pete000]

It is a five piece set. Dealer will sell you each piece separate.

Fairly easy to get, but not cheap.

http://www.busdepot.com/2540

[Tom_T]

I get them from Van Cafe. Not cheap but they usually have them.

Mine, not a Westy, but a Vanagon for sure... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

Sweet Vanagon Pete! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/drooley.gif)

I've been talking with Peter at Van Cafe since Spring & he doesn't have them. I did get his last FG front bumper though for this accident repair & resto.

Here's a couple of pix of our Westy from May before the resto/repair/repaint, & the front view shows both the chip touch-up I'd started last Spring (white spots on front/etc.), as well as the LF corner damage where my wife got clipped that made this into a full repaint/rolling resto project - moving her Westy in front of my 914's resto ...... again! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)



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Anyone with a nice front air dam???

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[Tom_T]

It is a five piece set. Dealer will sell you each piece separate.

Fairly easy to get, but not cheap.

http://www.busdepot.com/2540

Nope - dealers don't sell those even in 5 separate pieces - they're long NLA, as I've already checked with Commonwealth VW, etc. & Van Cafe, GoWesty & Bus Depot could have gotten them from the VW network if they were still available. I asked them all around this Summer.

And I've already got one of those Bus Depot fakes sitting in my living room! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

It is not OEM - it's a German aftermarket look-alike made by Westfalia Werke (an OEM supplier, but not the correct OE air dam), it's 3 pieces, and it's made from a hard plastic resin - not flexible like the OE ones, so it will crack/break/shatter on the first good scrape or hit!
... and Vanagons do tend to bottom out & scrape going over our SoCal street cross gutters & driveway aprons/gutters! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

This listing is very misleading by Bus Depot! When asked, they claim it is the Euro version, but apparently the Euro Vanagons/Westies never came with air dams, so Westfalia made this as a cheaper aftermarket add-on that dealers etc. could sell to Germans/Euro-landers who want the air dam look! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

Thanx anyway for trying anyway! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

PS - Mark - that's the one that I was mentioning, which people will be RE-buying every year or two, depending on how soon they bugger it up. Whereas the flexible OE type will flex & may get scrape marks & cracks at the lower lip in the L & R corners - but won't break apart, like this Bus Depot POS will do!

[Tom_T]

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.... maybe some weekenders have one? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

[pete000]

Wow, I have ordered two of them, but that was 4 years ago I think.

Bummer, mine is getting some scrapes and I was thinking of ordering another, but if they have dried up, yikes !