About the Obsolete Air-Cooled Documentation Project

Often while working on a VW, I have run into situations where I was not sure what was correct for my car. This sometimes occurs while trying to locate a specific part that is missing on my vehicle. Generally the first thing I do is pull out one of my catalogs -- Wolfsburg West and Rocky Mountain Motorworks are the best for this -- and find the category of the part I am missing. Then find the year application. Bingo, now I know what I am looking for. This sometimes works, but sometimes it doesn't. If they don't carry the part it won't be in their catalog. Or, perhaps, you've taken something apart and left it somewhere, and now that you've come back to it you can't remember how the darn thing went together! Maybe you're trying to find subtle differences between two parts, or comparing measurements to find out which one is the least worn.

In short, sometimes you need a reference. Unfortunately, the Bentley "Official Service Manuals" often fall short in this regard. This problem is compounded by the fact that when you need a reference like this, you generally cannot find them. If you can find one, it'll probably be expensive (maybe on an auction site like eBay), there will probably be only one, and someone else will probably get it. This scarcity does not get rid of the fact that you need the information. At this point you might give up, pay someone else to fix it, or maybe handle it "blind" and do it the best you can without any information. None of these options is really that great, and the latter can ruin a rare part, vehicle, or (depending on circumstance) endanger those that use the vehicle or part that you have cobbled together.

The goal of this project is to put these hard-to-find technical reference materials online, including parts reference manuals, specifications manuals, part rebuild specs/procedures, tools manuals, and etc. I will be using a flatbed scanner to scan materials, saving them as JPG or GIF files, and uploading them to the internet. The goal of this project is NOT to remove the market for these manuals to be republished! If an obsoleted manual is put back into print, it will be removed immediately from this site. Materials still being printed, such as the Bentley workshop manuals for '63-'67 busses and the VWoA service manuals, will not be put online. In addition, if you can pick up something that is on this site, by all means do so! There is no good substitute for having a book at your side while working.

I welcome donations of materials that I do not posess for the project. I will accept items from you both on a permanent basis and a "lending" basis. I will also consider purchasing materials from you if you are not willing to allow me to borrow them from you. Scanning from borrowed materials takes top priority so that they can be returned as quickly as possible, however the time of processing may be considerable depending on how busy I am, email me to inquire how much free time I have to scan. In any case, either donation, lending, or selling, please contact me via email. Thank you!

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astrogeek@dork.com

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