NOTE: The following carnage occured in an '85 Vanagon Westfalia.

So you think you will finally pull that dash and re-condition those leaky air flaps? Or maybe change that rattling heater fan blower? Have you got spare 10 hours?

I did, and this is what I saw:

Here's the blower unit already split in two. I had to break the plastic welds with a sharp utensil. Buy the special, and cheap, metal clips at your local friendly VW dealer so you can put it back together. These are some of the flaps at fault. The foam has broken up and allowed air leakage into the cabin. Not good on a 95-degree summer day when the A/C is trying hard to cool off the cabin. That little plastic tab lying across the flap snaps into the rectangular holes to keep the foam in place.

Here's the other half. No, not my wife! I'm not married. Now you know where the heater exchanger and the fan blower motor hide. My replacement blower is lurking at the top left corner of the picture.

This is the bottom of the unit. These flaps 'sealed off' the fresh air from the rear cabin vents in my Westfalia. I had to carefully break some more plastic welds to get these out and glue the plastic part back on. The unit actually rests on this part so there's no chance of the glue letting go. The two openings at the bottom of the picture are the fresh air intakes.

Look, Ma! I'm naked!

Here's a picture of my Westy without the dash. You can see the two opening in the center -- that's where the fresh air comes in. It's nice to see this much solid gusseting in a potential impact zone. My kneecaps feel better knowing it's there.

Hey! What's that silver stuff!

Well, it's there to help to insulate the front of the cabin. No, I can't tell if it's working now, but I am sure it will help a little in July and August. At least when I tap the sheet metal below the windshield it no longer resonates as loudly. It's now more of a 'thunk' than a 'tink' with an echo. I used a roll of asphalt-based aluminium backed self-adhesive product available at your local home improvement mega-center.

Here are the bottom flaps I pried out of the unit. This is the 'before' shot. I forgot to take the 'after shot', but you'll see the difference later. That's the dash at the bottom of the picture.

Aaaah, the top of the blower/flap/fresh air thingy. You see the flaps now sport self-adhesive dense insulating foam. This type of foam is meant for sealing truck camper tops where they meet the body. This stuff is 1/4 inch thick and comes in a roll of about 30 feet.

Here is the bottom of the assembly again. Compare with picture #3.

So how's the Westy now? After some cable adjustments I am satisfied with the results. I get only a suggestion of air flow with the flaps closed at 70 MPH. After the foam settles in and conforms to the shapes a little better I should get no air flow at all.

What about the blower fan? Well... It does not produce the air output I thought it should. At full blast with flaps open the air flow feels like a dying frog's breath. At above 25 MPH the fresh air flow overtakes the fan's efforts. According to some helpful people at Vanagon.com mailing list the problem may lie with another set of internal flaps. These flaps are not connected to any cables, instead they should shut on their own when the blower is running. I should hear a 'thunk' of the flaps shutting when the blower is first turned on. I don't hear anything but the hum of the motor. No, I don't plan on pulling the dash any time soon to remedy this.

NOTICE: I may update this page later with some dash-removal tips. Attempt the previous at your own risk. Not responsible for beer and donuts consumed in the process. Usual disclaimers apply, blah blah blah, yada yada yada.