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Wed Jan 06, 2010 1:34 am

bjjpdx wrote: I have always wanted a bus, since at least High school, but ended up tinkering wth vespas and lambrettas instead (cheaper). After seeing my freinds 72 bus,....and riding in it i got the bug.

:lol:
My first bus (71) I got in high school I paid $300.00 for. I ended up trading it for a vespa. that was like 25 years ago. My 71 westy is my DD, oh and I traded a surfboard for it! Great thread BTW!

Wed Jan 06, 2010 2:12 am

I bought my first bus cause it was close to me and it was cheap. Hell,I didn't even know if it would run or not cause some of the FI parts were missing. My dad though I lost my mind but I got it running and and back on the road. He flipped. :lol:

From this:

To this:

To bad it was so rotted though. :cry: It is making my Westy whole again though so it will live on. :)

Wed Jan 06, 2010 7:29 am

I got my 68 westy because I dont fit in the split windows very easily. So I didnt want to be hunched up on long drives. The bay was way bigger to me and was a fraction of the cost. And if that didnt sway me-they have more power, are safer and the parts are cheaper.

I never got around to looking at Vanagons.

Wed Jan 06, 2010 8:23 am

I finished my Ghia and was looking for a different project. The Wife and I both like camping but living in an apartment complex I have no room to store a camper. From research I found that a Westy would fit in my garage but now what do I want a splity, early bay or late bay.

Someone in our local club had a Splity Bus and I asked if I could sit in it. Being 6'-7" there are very few vehicles I fit in. Well I fit but when I looked up I was staring at the upper vents. So a Splity was a no go plus to expensive.

I test drove a 1969 Westy near my home and I had a bunch of problems because I was not use to a Bus yet.

Someone else in our club has a 1976 Westy that I sat in later and checked out the controls being more use to a Bus things seem to fall into place more.

I settled on a early bay because of the interchangeability of parts from my Ghia this way I only need to carry one spare parts bag for both vehicles.

I fell in love with a 1970 Westy and that was it.

Wed Jan 06, 2010 9:28 am

We had a 1970 bay and a bug when I was young. The folks used to load up my 2 brothers and me and drive from Long Island NY to Deltona FL to see the grandparents.

I wanted one to restore to relive those days. My dad who drove those long journeys with 3 young boys thinks I'm crazy. His memories of the adventures are slightly different. Although he is always asking about the resto!

Wed Jan 06, 2010 9:35 am

I bought my first (and only) bus on a bit of a whim. I was getting married in a week and thought it would be cool to spend part of our honeymoon camping in a Westy, so I spent about 5 minutes looking on Craigslist, found one, went to see it... got my typical fever to buy something impulsively and did. It's a '78 and I didn't know anything about ACVW's. I drove it home, then tried to drive it to work the next day but ran out of gas on the freeway. I put gas back in it but it never ran right so I dropped it off at a buddy's shop and left town to get married. When we returned my buddy had it running great, new tires, new stereo, inverter, smogged all at no charge as a wedding present. We picked it up and put 4K miles on it on a tour of the west coast from LA to Victoria Island.

I used it as a daily driver for a while and we spend at least two weeks a year camping in it. I love my bus. We just bought a new house with a 3 car garage so it has it's own garage space. I'm starting to go through the interior and try to get things back to a somewhat original state.

It's the best impulse buy I've ever made.

Wed Jan 06, 2010 10:09 am

i wanted a change, i thought parts were cheaper and more available(yeah right). but this is the most work ive done to a VW, so im keeping it for now.

Wed Jan 06, 2010 12:46 pm

1) It has a cute face :)
2) It's practical :)
3) It was in good shape :)
4) It was cheap :)

Wed Jan 06, 2010 1:52 pm

The price was very right. And I got the title with it.

Wed Jan 06, 2010 1:55 pm

My family has always had VWs. All the way back to my Great-Grandfather who had a '58 Splittie. I remember trips to the beach in it when I was younger (early '80s). Many buses and beetles later, here I am continuing the tradition (unfortunately no one else in my fam still has anything air-cooled).

I wanted something I could learn to work on myself. So far so good. My uncle has been helping me a bit, and my grandfather is friends with a VW mechanic in town. Family took their cars to him for at least 30 years.

Camping is nice.

After I test drove it I couldn't say no. Fun to drive!

Wed Jan 06, 2010 1:58 pm

68 Double Cab. That sums it up for me. Enough said!

Wed Jan 06, 2010 9:06 pm

the van became a part of the family immediately- splitties are too old, slow, archaic, but a bay window (78 westfalia) still has 'character' and modern mechanical upgrades that allow you to keep up with traffic (at a Price, as i have learned) my wife to be would Not allow me to buy a vanagon, etc

Wed Jan 06, 2010 10:59 pm

I got my bus because I needed transportation desperately at the time. I was in mechanics trade school up in Pottstown, PA around May in 2008, and I had just slid my '72 Super Beetle under a truck. Crap. Left a big VW-shaped hole in me (and a few holes in my face too) that I was 100% determined to fill. I set body and soul to finding a good condition 70's Volkswagen in the local state area for under the insurance check's amount. Luck, and Craigslist, saw to it that I met my goal dead on. 5 Miles south of Allentown is where she sat, unneeded and unwanted by the current owner. The man, Mr. Birkel, was quite nice, and was good for haggling. We eventually settled on what she was worth to him, and we had a deal. A week later My friend Matt, a saint of a friend, and myself went with his truck and a U-lug trailer to pick 'er up. I guess I should mention a test drive revealed no vacuum assist, a slow to go out oil light, and a staggering ability to not pull beyond 30 miles to your hour. So we loaded the old girl up and started for what was then home in the budding rain. Long story short (EDIT: too late), all engine related problems fixed with simple solutions.
Sorry if this was a bit of a story, but I tend to get wordy when talking about good memories I have. Trust me, picking up the bus was just the start of many good memories to come!