For the past six years, my 1985 VW Vanagon Westfalia has been my traveling companion. I piled my kayaks and River Dog inside and hit the road in pursuit of whitewater adventures around Colorado and our great country.
To get the old van roadworthy and up to my modern standards, I spent countless hours on the cold concrete slab outside my condo covered in grease and lit by a dim headlamp as I methodically upgraded the van piece by piece. I even managed to document much of the upgrade process with numerous YouTube videos that resulted in my own little cult following among the Vanagon faithful.
Along the way, I learned to be a pretty good shade tree mechanic along with a thing or two about building custom electronics. But as of late, I’ve wanted to set aside my part time job as mechanic and to just drive a modern vehicle with all the amenities. And so I decided to part ways with my van this Spring.
I created a comprehensive For Sale Ad that you can still see on my website that shows all of the love and care that I put into it over the years. As I’d hoped, the ad attracted a great couple from out of state who drove off today in Dharma the van. But since they’ve been known to frequent climbing areas near Moab and Durango, you just might see it again down the road. Be sure to give a honk and a wave.
Without a doubt, I will miss the camping comforts of the Westfalia and the projects the van brought me, but I will always have my stories of that old VW van.
We loved sharing the van with you this summer Pat. Good memories of sailing along the CO byways. It was a hoot ! Thx for the fun. Mom and Dad
We loved our first night in her. Looking forward to many more! So nice to meet you and River! Hopefully the next time you see her she will be dressed to the nines!
It was great to meet you and Thomas also! It’s been great to hear about the A/C progress he’s made already!
Well, she made it to Florida and back with us. I think we are about to take her to Utah in August! We are constantly giving her little upgrades and tweaks. She gets better and better 🙂
So glad to hear it! Let me know if you’ll be passing through Boulder along the way.
No no no, how could you? After all the dreams, blood, sweat, tears, how could you sell out. Lord, Lord have mercy. It brought a tear to my eye, to read about it. LOL. I do understand, and I know it had to be difficult, because I too have a westy that I may just part with if I can find a suitable replacement. I’m curious if you have secured a replacement yourself and what it might be? I’m torn. You are an interesting dude, Patrick, I enjoy your digital presence. Peace. -shad
Pat looking into a boating conversion and saw your price on the turbocharged version. How many horsepower did you get and did you modify your tranny? I’m looking to get over the hills and thought yours did pretty well, any hiccups?
Pat, this site is an excellent reference for me. I just bought the exact same van (same color and everything, only my solar panel in on the back) from a guy in NC.