We're vanagon hobbyists. We have a 1986 Wolfsberg Weekender (brown one w/ pop top) as our camper and a 1990 Carat as a daily driver.
The ultimate resource for the vanagon nut is the vanagon mailing list, where you'll find about 1000 like-minded folks with answers to pretty much every problem you could have. You can sign up here:
http://www.vanagon.com/community/index.htm
 
Highly recommended.