TheSamba.com :: View topic

Thu Nov 19, 2009 12:24 pm

Two and a half years ago my dad found a 78 bus on thesamba for me. He told me about all the cool ideas he had. About a week later we baught the bus. The bus was pretty rough, the passenger rear corner was smashed in and there was a lot of surface rust, so it needed a full resto.
We knew someone who had built a early double cab, it went through a full resto and it had full air ride from Nate at wagens west ( good guy thanks Nate). We thought that would be cool to do for my first car.

The day after we baught the bus it went to oregon to have the resto, air ride and 944 brakes put on with the 5 by 130 bolt patteren. The plan was for the bus to be done for my 16th birthday. I guess we were not very important to the guy that was supposed to build the bus. It took almost a year for the body work and paint and it sat for almost 6 months before that. After the bus got back from the body shop (sub contracted) it sat for even longer and i was told he was going to put it together asap to get it done. All they did was fit the front beam and c notch the rear for that air bags. I was sent an email of the bus going up and down. I was excited and was hoping for the bus to be done soon, didnt happen. the bus sat even longer. I had my 18th birthday in october. My dad told me that i could make the decion to bring it home and finish it myself. I decided to do that.

The trip went great and i couldnt wait to get the bus home and start working on it. When i got home i put the bus on jack stands and began to work. As i was going through the bus i discovered that the front brakes and hubs were worng. Nothing would fit right. After being fed up with the front i decided to work on the rear. As i would try to put the rotors on they would catch on the adapter plate form Russel at Old speed. (Great guy very helpful and nice, Thanks Russel if you are reading this) I was at the point were i didnt want to work on it because nothing was working. after making many phone calls i figured out that the shop didnt assemble the rear end correctly.( i cant explain the frustration i had at that point). Long story short i had to send the adapter plate back to Old Speed and they made it right. The front was another story, i had to chase part numbers to see what i had and to see what i needed. I found the right parts and it seems to work and the 16* 7 and 8 fuchs fit.

I currently have almost all the galss in (need middle 50/50 sliders) still need to have brake lines made and i still need to wire and plump the air compressor and there's talk of a 911 3.0 sc motor goinging in when i finsh.

I figured that i would share this with you all, and i will update when something changes. And i will get pictures asap for everyone.

Thu Nov 19, 2009 2:09 pm

that sucks man!!! can i ask why you went all the way to or , when there's plenty of good shops around you? (your lakewood/tacoma right not lakewood/stanwood?)

do you mind sharing the name of the shop that took over 2 year to not complete your bus? i'd just like to know for future reference, if you don;t feel like posting that here there's a feedback thread on most of the larger shops you should post up in there and link me.

welcome to the bay forum ande your bus sounds like it's gogin to be sick, post up the photo's.

there's alot of us WA guys here so don;t be afraid to start a thread for local help if you need it, i've been out to a few people's homes to help where i can.

take care good & good luck!

Thu Nov 19, 2009 2:33 pm

Ya iam in lakewood.well this was before i was in the vw community, we thought that the guy in oregon would do a good job because he did another bus that turned out really cool. The shop is more of a race car shop my family is in the vintage racing community, The shop is Emory motorsports.

Thu Nov 19, 2009 6:13 pm

that name sounds familiar and not for a good reason.....

but besides that i was asking if your in tacoma area or further north (there's 2 lakewoods on the westside and most don't know about the northern one)

here's some good local shops in order to your location
http://www.ovalsmotorsport.com/
http://www.franklinsvwwerks.com/
http://store.averysaircooled.com/merchant2/
http://www.autoviceservice.com/

also check out
http://www.wetwesties.org/

for the local vw camping club, it's one of the larger clubs and we do a bunch of events.

if you need any other help just shoot me a pm, i got parts and know a few people that can lend a hand as well, so good luck and happy bus-ing man!