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Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:10 am

Here's another lurker coming out of the shadows to say hello to you all.

Here is what I am up to in a nutshell.

I lost my job about a year ago and then did a brief stint at underemployment. The job market here in beautiful southern Vermont is pretty limited and not likely to get better for quite some time. So I decided to ride it out, sell my house, travel a bit and see what comes of my adventures. I considered various modes of travel. My Prius is a great road trip car and very easy on gas, but setting up a tent and breaking camp seemed like it would be a drag. A RV is comfy, but too big to go just anywhere and a conversion van just doesn't have much character. So a VW camper bus seemed like a great solution and a vehicle that so many seem to have a great relationship with.

After much research gained from this forum I jumped in and bought a 1977 Westy from California that is in really great shape and pampered most of its life.

I have never owned a VW and I am not very mechanically knowledgeable. Even worse when it comes to things electrical. (1000+ message posters roll there eyes :roll: ). I am not afraid of learning, but feel like I am 30 years behind in experience.

I have had the bus checked over by my local air cooled expert and it passed with flying colors.

I will have lots of dumb and obvious questions. I am a good search function user and have bookmarked quite a few threads already.

I want to bond with my bus, but the more I read the more the thing scares me. I am waiting for it to catch on fire or have some kind of catastrophic mechanical failure in the middle of Death valley or something like that. I will be so relieved when I finally break down somewhere so I can just get it over with and learn to relax.

If you made it this far my apologies for being so long winded.

I do appreciate all of your passion for these vehicles and compassion for helping anyone out that needs it.

Tim

P.S.- My fuel lines are good, the fuel filter is next to the tranny before the pump, I know about the AIRS list and have upgraded my AAA membership!

Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:15 am

Welcome and congratulations!

Let's see some more pics and bring on the questions, they're only dumb if you don't ask them.

Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:19 am

Nice/CLEAN bus. Post more pictures of your bus and of your travels.

Soon you will be a vw bus addict. The repair bills on these older vw's are not as much as the moderen day vehicles. Just remember you can't drive it like a newer vehicle. I take more rest stops on my air cooled vw's and enjoy your road trips.

Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:19 am

Welcome!

I'm not very good with electrics myself, but i've been slowly picking it up. And breakdowns happen no matter what your traveling in. But i bet a bus is a whole lot cheaper to fix than a Prius. ;)

Don't be scared of your bus, get out there and enjoy it. They're amazingly simple.

- Marc

Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:20 am

That bus is gorgeous! I'm jealous.

You're in good hands here. Don't be afraid to ask about anything. Everyone was a first time bus owner at one time.

Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:24 am

That is a SWEET bus! You are going to have a great time! I agree, more pics.

Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:27 am

Nice exterior restoration! Post the money shot (some of the engine)!

If the engine is in great shape with new proper fuel lines and vacuum hoses you shouldn't have any problems. Check out www.marcandeliana.com to see another's adventures in traveling with a 70's Westy.
Don't be afraid as these buses can go a long ways without problems.

Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:29 am

Hello there....

This may be out in right field, but I'm looking into going "Full Timing" RV living within 3 to 5 years as a retirement. I have started reading up and rersearching the subject matter...

Learn everything on how to work on your Bus, needed repairs, tools, spares and up keep.

My main tip is to get some books on Full timing (Amazon):
Living aboard your RV / Janet and Gordon Groene has been my best reading yet.

Join like Thousand trails, KOA, Elks / Moose lodges as with the yearly membership...you can camp at those places nation wide for free up to 1 1/2 months at a time.

You can live free in National parks if you work a day or two per week with park duties.....

There's ton of tips in those books.

Good luck and welcome to the forums!

Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:33 am

Congrats on the Bus!! Don't be afraid of it, get out there and drive it. Every mile you register on the odometer is going to make you that much more confident in what it can do and how it does it. I just drove a '79 Bus that I pulled out of a field in Indiana 2 years ago 2500 miles over the course of a week and I loved every second of it. It had sat for a little over 10 years and didn't look like it could make it around the block, but I did those 2500 miles and had not one breakdown the whole way. We went from Syracuse, NY to Madison, WI to Chicago, IL to St. Louis, MO to Cleveland, OH and back to Syracuse. We spent 5 of 7 nights in the Bus and my wife and I had an incredible time. Looking forward to the next trip!! If you're up for a little reading and a bunch of pics, here's the first trip I took in that very RustyBus, and it includes a snowstorm in Vermont!

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=279077&highlight=books

Don't be afraid to ask questions, don't be afraid to crawl under your Bus and figure out how it all works so if something does go wrong on the side of the road you know what to do. Get yourself a Bentley manual and keep it with you. Enjoy your Bus, welcome to the site!! Hope to see that beautiful Bus at some of the East Coast shows next year!!

Here's a thread about the trip my wife and I took in the Bus at the end of September with lots of pics along the way. The little snafu at the beginning of the trip was entirely my fault, so I don't really count it as a breakdown....

http://itinerant-air-cooled.com/viewtopic.php?t=7162

Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:58 am

Congratulations and welcome to a very unique community. Regardless that you may be half a world away (nod to Traveling Writer) you can still get help with that pesky T2 sensor problem, errant eletrical short (me), or a heads up on where is the best local micro brew. You are about to empbark on a wonderful strange trip. Lean back and enjoy the wind coming in the window. If you make it to NW Florida stop by for lunch and a brew.

Jack

Sun Oct 25, 2009 9:01 am

Thanks already for the confidence boosting responses! I recognize all of you from your many helpful posts to others.

I have been crawling around and under my bus for a few weeks now and can identify a lot of things that were a mystery to me at first. It is pretty exciting as I am a voracious learner.

I do have the Muir book and the Bentley manual. I still have difficulty with really simple things that are taken for granted. It's like when I try origami and I get lost between fold A and fold B. It always looks like there are 3 steps in between that I somehow missed. So in the manual it might be something like remove X to fix Y, but I don't know what X is. I wish there was someone mentor close by that I could shadow for a while.

I was going to go the route of restoring myself and in hindsight would have benefited greatly in gaining a lot of knowledge, but it seemed like too much at once. So I went for something that looked pretty solid and road worthy and will learn as things go awry and make my own modifications over time. I don't even have a good set of metric tools anymore so there are other things I need to invest in as well.

Here are some more pics. Questions to follow soon.

Sun Oct 25, 2009 9:02 am

OK, so I don't have the picture thing down yet I guess, but you can see them in my gallery.

EDIT: figured it out, told you I'm a quick learner!

Sun Oct 25, 2009 9:08 am

Welcome! this is how it should go... [img] PIC [/img]

Sun Oct 25, 2009 9:27 am

aopisa wrote: I wish there was someone mentor close by that I could shadow for a while.

There is a traveling ACVW mechanic that his specialties is Buses......

http://itinerant-air-cooled.com/viewforum.php?f=57

Just book a day with him...cheap education! :wink:

Sun Oct 25, 2009 9:37 am

I hate this guy Tim already.... :lol:

"I just got a bus." "You can eat off the engine." "It's interior looks like I made a deal with the devil, shot back to the 70's and picked up parts." "Not sure what to do, it'll only do 80mph up a hill in 4th."

I am puking right now...

Seriously, welcome and I love your bus! It is one of the most beautiful examples ever posted. I especially love the interior. Check out my gallery sometime...mine is almost the same. Now that the body and drive train on mine is solid. I've been working on the interior. Maybe it'll be as nice as yours someday soon.

Good luck and don't be afraid to ask questions.

Sun Oct 25, 2009 9:48 am

VDubTech

I thought I recognized Route 9 in Vermont. I travel that road several times a month and avoid it (in any vehicle) when the weather looks dodgy. It can be a beautiful day on either end and perfectly horrendous as you start to climb. I grew up in the snow belt of Cleveland, lived in Chicago and now in Vermont so I am experienced in winter driving techniques. I had the worst drive of my life last year going over that mountain. My hat's off to you and your wife for braving it in that weather!

Sun Oct 25, 2009 9:49 am

NICE bus...you are already a head of the common new guy, good luck and i wish you well on your adventures.

Sun Oct 25, 2009 9:59 am

THAT THING LOOKS BRAND NEW!

and it even came with a fire extinguisher and first aid kit! nice score!

Sun Oct 25, 2009 10:08 am

frank79

See, I told you I felt guilty :oops: because it looks like I just pulled out a check book while the rest of you are scraping your knuckles and tracing wires.

My rationale is that I am buying a house on wheels. I wanted something that was going to be as dependable as possible. At any moment my permanent address can be gone and I did not want to be in the middle of rebuilding an engine (of which I know nothing about) and suddenly have to move.

I also feel guilty because this thing essentially had only one PO (the 2nd had it for only about a month) and it was probably only taken to shows and the beach on picture perfect California days. Now I am going to live out of it. Stil,l I can always bring it back to it's former glory after I settle down again after seeing what you were able to do. I only wish I can do a quarter of what you are able to accomplish. :lol:

BTW-I can only pull about 45 in 3rd going up our biggest mountains here in VT.

Sun Oct 25, 2009 10:24 am

I think Frank79's right on the money, you're gonna have everyone jealous with that gem. She's a beaut...I think there was a time when my Percy looked just like yours. May have been about 30 years ago though. :lol:

But it sounds like it's in good hands...it has an owner that thirsts for knowledge about it, AND lives in it! Right on! Welcome. 8)