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Mon Feb 08, 2010 11:08 pm

I just bought a '71 VW bus. It has the louvered windows on both sides and I think it is called a bay window bus. Is that right? It has the pop up roof and a rear seat that folds out into a bed. It runs good and has NO RUST! The brakes seem OK but I'm going to pull the wheels and check them out. The glass is all good. It has the original paint which is a reddish color and dull. Now for the bad. The nose panel is pushed in where the spare tire is mounted under the windshield. I pushed that out today and am going to fiberglass the defects. The rear bumper is missing as well as the headliner and some of the interior panels. Overall it's solid and worth puttin' on the road. I'm hoping to have it ready by spring. Thanks, Mike

Mon Feb 08, 2010 11:33 pm

sounds like a westfalia

Mon Feb 08, 2010 11:41 pm

Photos would be good.

Tue Feb 09, 2010 1:28 am

Sounds like a solid 71' bus...do you have the full camper interior with the Z-bed/table and ice box?
P.S: 1 picture is worth a 1000 words, so how about you post some :D

Tue Feb 09, 2010 1:34 am

Wow! It's like you west coaster's just stumble across these things, kinda like stepping in dog poop.

"Aw honey, I got another one of those bay-bus things on my shoe again...dammit"

Over here you have to be dedicated and still search for months to find the right rusted piece of crap to drag home. :evil:

Tue Feb 09, 2010 4:58 am

chazz79 wrote: Wow! It's like you west coaster's just stumble across these things, kinda like stepping in dog poop.

"Aw honey, I got another one of those bay-bus things on my shoe again...dammit"

Over here you have to be dedicated and still search for months to find the right rusted piece of crap to drag home. :evil:

:lol: True.

Tue Feb 09, 2010 8:33 am

I'll post some pictures soon, just haven't had a chance to get to it yet. It rains a lot here but we don't get much snow so they don't salt the roads, hence rust is not a serious issue. Go figure. This bus has the E-Z bed but no table or ice box. It has a closet and a 4 legged stool. I am not going to do a restoration so I may sell the camping stuff. My wife is in a wheelchair so this will be a back-up vehicle in case our Plymouth van breaks down. The guy I bought it from said it is a Westfalia so it may be. It is about 90% complete so it shouldn't be too much work to get it on the road.

Tue Feb 09, 2010 10:06 am

With the right ramp the van could work as a back up van. "Watch your head on the way in honey" I don't live with someone confined to a chair, but I don't know if fitting a lift would be worthwhile. You may have enough room without removing the bed and closet. The sink and jump seat take up the most room, and there isn't much floor space to be gained under the bed. A foot aprox. if I am correct.

Oh yeah, pics needed!

Tue Feb 09, 2010 11:56 am

pictures or it didnt happen. 8)

Tue Feb 09, 2010 1:04 pm

Tue Feb 09, 2010 1:40 pm

camit34 wrote: =D> =D> =D>

Tue Feb 09, 2010 2:00 pm

chazz79 wrote: Wow! It's like you west coaster's just stumble across these things, kinda like stepping in dog poop.

"Aw honey, I got another one of those bay-bus things on my shoe again...dammit"

Over here you have to be dedicated and still search for months to find the right rusted piece of crap to drag home. :evil:

nan nan anana...lol

you have a '71 bus with a pop top and 2 windows and a folding bed in the back........

that's the answer you get with out pics!!!!

Tue Feb 09, 2010 2:12 pm

theizzardking wrote:
nan nan anana...lol

:lol: :lol:

Tue Feb 09, 2010 2:51 pm

Rule of thumb to all posters (and apologies for the original poster, this rant isn't meant to pick on you...)

Posting a question on a message board is easy. Posting pictures is slightly less easy. You are asking a community of people with a wide variety of expertise, knowledge, and skill to answer questions that require all three.

We can guess, hypothesize, have theories, and occasionally deduce, but all of those are no more than best guesses for a question that probably needs a precise answer.

Humans are limited to 5 known senses, the internet reduces us to two - sight and sound. Sound, for the most part, is unnecessary. Sight, however, is very very useful.

Our sight can help us read the problem as best described by you, but it works even better with a picture. That picture really is worth the thousand words that it is rumored to be worth. Perhaps more.

So since I'm ranting about pictures (and really, I don't mean this personally, so please don't take it that way) Let's chat about the quality of pictures.
Blurry, out of focus, overlit, really bad cell phones. All of them are craptastic that do little to assist the problem. Make sure the photo illustrates the problem clearly. Make sure it is in focus. If you are taking a "close" photo, your camera probably has a "macro" setting that allows for very close shots.

And while I'm at it, and since this button has obviously been pushed and I'm on a roll, let's think about this for a moment...

It takes a little more time to take the photo, download the photo to your computer, upload it to a file sharing site, find the link, then post the link between the image tag. It takes far more time than it does to just post a question. However, since you are asking for free advice, advice that often comes a a hefty price from some of these folks (who are professionals), is it too much to show them that you are willing to go through the effort of posting a photo?

Bottom line, the time you take to ask the question is directly proportional to the quality of the answer.

Ask it, show it, be precise. The likelyhood of a good answer will increase, as will your ability to get back on the road.

Rant mode off. Apparently I needed to say that.

Regard the original post, sounds like a Westy. Care to post pics? There are lost of 71 westy owners in California, feel free to join us on a camping trip.

Tue Feb 09, 2010 2:57 pm

you got that op!!!! not only do we require pics but you must attend a photography school and master the art of picture making before you can even begin to post here!!! bwhahahaha

j/k i think that's a little over kill

pics do help as about 90% of all camper models are as you described
so picking a model will be difficult.

welcome man and glad you got a new bus, there are plenty of us pnw guys on here to help so if you need anything you don;t need to go far.

soo good luck and don;t let the pedantics scare you away.

Tue Feb 09, 2010 3:14 pm

... and get in good with the wet westies club - those guys can fix anything.

Tue Feb 09, 2010 4:20 pm

Alrighty Wampe, we don't hate you but rather we're all green with envy. You really need to show the pics or the collective will of all the folks here will ruin your engine.......can you feel the bearings starting to scrape?

I want one like that....

Tue Feb 09, 2010 6:03 pm

Yes we do trip over buses out here,I found this just laying in a field.

http://s145.photobucket.com/albums/r217/Freds_Bucket/1969%20VW%20Westfalia/
It's for sale

Tue Feb 09, 2010 6:29 pm

I believe it, thats about what my Westy looked like when I got it. I was lucky enough to inherit a west coast westy shortly after it made its way east. 40 years in CA and 6 months in a NJ garage. Same rust pattern and all.

Does it run and does the sunroof work?

Tue Feb 09, 2010 8:17 pm

I also found a 1971 bus, looks to be a sunroof retrofitted with a old school pop top. It runs great, other than a charging issue, has receipts for a engine rebuild in 07, a trans in 08, and a complete les schwab brake job in 2009. I picked it up last weekend for 800 bucks, plus a few hours of searching for the registered owner to transfer the title. Here is a link to pictures.. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=178700&id=659314107&l=3738ef9e9e PS, this is an easy way to share pictures..

As far as buses growing on trees here, i have a route I travel home from town where according to my wife, I stalk 4 buses that never move.. But even better, I used to live in Southern Humboldt County, in California. There was an old man that at one time owned a auto shop. He bought many buses from many broken down hippies. He had 20 plus splitties, and a box van full of NOS parts. He told me that he would sell the whole bunch for 10,000, but they had to be moved immediately.. I unfortuntley didn't have the cash, and they sat there until I moved several years later