TheSamba.com :: View topic - 67 Standard Peach Kombi, West Palm Beach, FL

Sun Dec 14, 2008 11:05 am

I was visiting St. Augustine, FL in the Summer of 2007, and saw dave buckholts' speedster singlecab in a parking lot.

I stared, gawked, took pictures, and was hooked on aircooled VWs again (my first car was a 1973 super beetle).

The search was ON! I was determined to find a split windows bus.
After seeing the prices of them, I made a deal with the wife to sell my sportbike and get a bus.

Well I found one on ebay that fit the bill. I am not a fan of bodywork or rust repair, and was looking for a driver that needed some TLC.

Here are the pics and text from the auction...

Quote: 1967 VW 11 window Bus with split front window. 1600 dual port engine. Has new starter, alternator, and Ranco transmission. New tires in July. body is good condition, there is a place on the drivers side floor pan that is rusted through as you can see in pic. other than that spot the rest of the bus's floor is solid. few bubble spots of rust along bottom of van. does not look to be major. It's lowered 17 inches. the bus does run, it is a daily driver to the owner, she is just ready to have a car with heat and air.

Please call Darcie at 561-6##-#### for any other information or questions.

The lack of interior was not a problem, the paint looked excellent and shiny, and in my excitement, was not even concerned about the Jetta steering wheel and how the heck they got that in there.

Called the number from the auction, spoke to the female owner.
Bus was in Georgia. She drove it there from West Palm Beach where she drove it about for some time after buying it from the previous owner. Still had FL title and tags.

The deal was on and I had it shipped down via car carrier.
Carrier dropped it at a nearby gas station, and I drove it home...

First thing I noticed was the extra sloppy steering. Everything was as I had expected, but the steering was unbearable. That and the just as sloppy shifter, which I did not think was a big deal...very fixable

Sun Dec 14, 2008 11:19 am

The seller informed me the color was an original VW color called "Flamingo Coral". Nice story, but after searching so long and browsing thesamba.com for so long, I knew better. She said it was an ex show bus. That I believed after seeing the custom speaker pods on the cargo door, and the Porsche bucket seats.

The airbrushed image above the driver's headlight is a guitar with the word Woodstock across it.

I got the bus home, and she had sent two old copies of VW Trends magazine with it, and one had a feature article of the bus.

Sun Dec 14, 2008 11:29 am

The surprises after delivery were:
The sloppy steering as I mentioned,
the sloppy Scat T-handle shifter (I had one on my bug, and don't recall it being that bad),
a crack across the width of the passenger side safari window,
and a mural on the back hatch under the tree-hugger stickers that just had to go....

The mural was of a VW graveyard of old buses and Freddy Kruger driving a peach colored bus up out of a grave with the headlights on. The wife and I were like WTF? I meant to say what the heck? (we have kids now.)

The black object above the passenger's headlight was an electrically amplified, manually retractable car stereo antenna. Out of place does not begin to describe what I was thinking...WTH? It required 2 distastefully places holes that could not be covered with an antique style antenna.

Sun Dec 14, 2008 11:34 am

I remember when Butch Votino was building your bus. It was 1995-1997. He owned a VW repair shop next to Adams VW in West Palm Beach. Before I learned to turn a wrench I took my '65 bus to him for repairs. I remember the large air brush on the back hatch & the Briz bumpers. I thought the color didn't really fit the guy building the bus. Butch looked like a hippy biker guy with a handlbar mustache. He seemed to be in his 50's. It's interesting how its turned back up again & now back in South Florida. The color is definitely custom

Sun Dec 14, 2008 12:05 pm

Too bad all the high tech stuff got stripped out. Listening to cassetes and playing Nintendo would have been fun. Looks like the 914 seats are still with it.

Does the engine still have the second alternator?

Sun Dec 14, 2008 4:14 pm

The mural on the rear hatch was dated 1995, so I assume that is when it was built.
I actually created this thread as a kind of bus blog to document what I've done since I got it.

I have had it for 11 months and put 6000 miles on it.

in subsequent posts u will see more pics up to how it looks now.

Sun Dec 14, 2008 8:32 pm

Isnt there a thread on this already somewhere. I remember it when it was on craigslist and didnt sell right up the way from me then she put it on ebay. Its cool.

Sun Dec 14, 2008 10:13 pm

Kinda of wierd they placed stickers to cover up the painting on the tail gate.. Did you pick it up at a steal of a deal?

Sun Dec 14, 2008 10:38 pm

vintagevolks wrote: Kinda of wierd they placed stickers to cover up the painting on the tail gate.. Did you pick it up at a steal of a deal?

Yes and NO.

Sun Dec 14, 2008 11:31 pm

I found some more auction pictures and the auction text, so I edited the first post.

Mon Dec 15, 2008 6:45 pm

WTF happens to "show cars" from the 80's and 90's?? I have seen more and more cars that were once perfect just ran into the ground and all but headed to the yard. So much time and money put into it to let it happen, but it does. Just look at the pictures of this bus that was nice enough to be featured in VWTrends to end up looking as it did when you bought it..it just baffles me...AGHH...ok im done ranting :lol:

Mon Dec 15, 2008 7:47 pm

i remember that writeup.

Mon Dec 15, 2008 8:22 pm

what did you do with the briz bumpers? and why did you cover up the rear mural. thoses where awesome!!!!!

Mon Dec 15, 2008 8:55 pm

Screw that...I'd have sold those briz bumpers first thing for some quick cash to fix up the rest.
Clue us in on that steering setup.

Tue Dec 16, 2008 4:13 am

Briz bumpers are for sale $130 for both.

Mural was nicely done, it was just not my taste to have the graveyard scene on my bus so it had to go.

I agree on the state of the bus. I guess when you dump so much $$ into it up front it gets kind of boring after that and ends up being sold to someone that doesn't have the same sense of care for it.

Tue Dec 16, 2008 8:53 am

I have the article on that bus too....

Tue Dec 16, 2008 9:13 am

deluxekombi67 wrote: WTF happens to "show cars" from the 80's and 90's?? I have seen more and more cars that were once perfect just ran into the ground and all but headed to the yard. So much time and money put into it to let it happen, but it does. Just look at the pictures of this bus that was nice enough to be featured in VWTrends to end up looking as it did when you bought it..it just baffles me...AGHH...ok im done ranting :lol:

Yeah. Absolutely amazes me the condition that some of the cleanest show rides end up in. To have something done to a high standard and just let it go to all to crap #-o

That does look like a nice ride. Take good care of it :wink:

Tue Dec 16, 2008 9:57 am

Hey Don, throw up some pics of the updated interior and front "semi" correct seats. :wink:

Tue Dec 16, 2008 5:31 pm

Culito wrote: Screw that...I'd have sold those briz bumpers first thing for some quick cash to fix up the rest.
Clue us in on that steering setup.

Im sure hes got a write up on it somewhere, it was a total hack of a alte model sedan welded onto the bus shaft if I remember

Tue Dec 16, 2008 8:13 pm

OK, I tried all the tricks for adjusting the steering play using the adjustment screw, no success. Tie rods were OK, with no play.
I bought a link pin kit, and a new drag link and rented the reamer and went to work in installing the center pin. My shoulder was sore from reaming, that was tiring....
Still had play.
So I have the wife rock steering back and forth and see the play is in the steering box.
Next task was getting a rebuilt steering box. Ordered one from BFY Obsolete parts (bad story), and tried to remove mine to send back for some CORE money ($250 to be exact)

Removed steering wheel (yeah, it is a Beetle Speedometer, shut up)

OK, some welding went on here...

Looks like some kind of adapter that I can just slip off....wrong.

Taking off the adapter

Adapter off, now what

Maybe I can remove it from below by disassembly...

No go.
That b*tch is cut and then welded on

Old parts:

I had to cut the outer column and the inner shaft. this meant that I was not going to be able to return this box for core money. My steering box just doubled in price...