71 Westy -- bought new in London by my father, rolls again!

[notchboy]

That bus is not only cool to have as it was in the family - its also the embodiment of your fathers itch to travel. To me you are one of the lucky ones that get to connect the VW affliction with the actual instrument in which turned your gears as a youngster.

I think your father will be riding shotgun for many years to come

Sorry to hear of his passing, my prayers and thoughts are with you and your family brother.
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[Abscate]

[Vee Dub Nut]

My condolences to you and your family Sunnydog.
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Fightin' Texas Aggie Class of 2006

67 Beetle (TBD)

74 Transporter (EJ25 Swapped) - Build Thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0

See all my VW pics on Instagram @ vee_dub_nut

[71whitewesty]

Real sorry to hear. What a fantastic tribute to him.
_________________
71 Westy 1600 DP, all stock Bus 1
1970's Snow Trac 1600 SP (sold 12/2016)
1968 Tucker sno cat, sold 2021
1969 Tucker Sno cat 542
2017 VW Alltrac
71 tin top stock 1600 DP (project but runs)
Twin 71 White Westy, Bus 2, that I pulled from a 15 year slumber in a dry eastern WA field in 2015.
1966 Sundial Camper "Boomer"

[sunnydog]

My ceremonial drive this afternoon, to get back in the saddle and get right, I headed back to go birdwatching at the same wildlife refuge from 2 weeks and a lifetime ago. My bus found a younger brother in the parking lot. I took photos then left a creeper note on the syncro, saying~ "text me for a photo if you want". They did and I sent it. They've got an '87. I courteously scrawled out their license plate...

Continued East up Hwy 14 to Cape Horn and pulled off and opened the slider tight along the guardrail, then just chilled out with the view and some binoculars for an hour. I could see hikers on Angel's Rest, a couple of waterfalls, an eagle in a nest in a tree along the river, and got a 7-minute view of one of the Navy's crazy-fast CCM Mk1 stealth boats doing 35-40 knots downriver:
http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/this-is-the-navy-seals-shadowy-new-multi-mission-stealt-1655361180

Then I dropped into the valley of the Washougal River and took a winding ride back to my new favorite pub, bought some beer to go in a "crowler" (which if you've not seen a one, is a canning machine that seals up 32-ounce cans for taking home ), dropped some beer off at a friend's because I felt like doing a random good deed, then continued home on the tiniest rural backroads I could find as the sun set and everything turned golden.

Dammit, I got a tail-light out.
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'71 Westy w/ a 1776 singleport, 34P3 & 205Q. Points.

[Abscate]

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.ssS!

[wcfvw69]

It sure sounds like your father lived and enjoyed a long, wonderful and adventurous life. My condolences for your loss.
_________________
Contact me at [email protected]
Follow me on instagram @sparxwerksllc

Decades of VW and VW parts restoration experience.
The Samba member since 2004.

**Now rebuilding throttle bodies for VW's and Porsche's**
**Restored German Bosch distributors for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored German Pierburg fuel pumps for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche fuel pumps or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche distributors or I can restore yours**

[Xevin]

dropped some beer off at a friend's because I felt like doing a random good deed.

Darn, went outside and didn't see any beer
When we get together all rounds on me
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Keep on Busin'

[justcruzin]

Sorry for your loss. At least your Dad got to see his bus doing what it did best, making family memories.
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Kim
Sacramento, CA

1964 Split Window Bus
1966 Beetle Build Thread= http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=472933
1969 Delivery Van= http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=566282
1970 Westy Build Thread= http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=479538
1971 Squareback Build Thread = http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6652459#6652459
1970 Single Cab, Samson = http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8022609#8022609

[notchboy]

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[Bala]

Sorry for your loss.
That last picture just might be my favorite (new or old) from this entire thread. Perfect, burnt out taillight and all.
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1976 Westy

1966 Beetle

[[email protected]]

My condolences as well, I'm sure dad was smiling to see your love for the bus and family travels carrying on. Love the pictures!
_________________
72 ASI Bus "Mill"
66 Singlecab
68 Squareback
62 Ragtop Bug
77 Westfalia

[lhwood]

Sorry to hear about your loss, but I'm glad that he had you as a son and went out the way he did! You and your sister are AWESOME people. good on you.

In this time of a changing world order, it gives me some hope and a small light that we are not lost yet.

Cheers to your father, you, your sister and your Bay Window![/b]

LW

[sunnydog]

Okay folks, thanks to all again for the well-wishes and condolences. I am probably gonna do my usual disappearing act for a while but here's a 2 quick photos from Sunday night. I rolled Mrs. Sunnydog and Daughter #1 over to St. Johns in North Portland to a place called Cathedral Park, under the St John's bridge; built ~1929, which is probably Portland's most beautiful bridge that everybody forgets about, and my second favorite one. (I prefer the utilitarian Hawthorne bridge, built 1910, which has to be raised at least every 8 hours to keep it from sticking. There's probably something about cantankerous old mechanisms that calls for VW owners to love...) Anyhow, the St.Johns Bridge has massive gothic arches underneath and I specifically lined up the bus to get this photo:

...where I carefully made sure the bus was level in the photo, but did not think to notice that the unloaded bus is not level, and the street and the bridge is. Whatever. I know there is a "Bays on Bridges" thread, but how about "Bays Under Bridges"?

The reason I may have lost my balance? We spent the afternoon at the Cathedral Park Jazz festival, which had just wrapped up with the deep funk/soul music of Farnell Newton and the Othership Connection. I carefully found a spot to take a photo of the stage, the dancing crowd, the bridge arching gracefully overhead and the bus in the distance -- but I am putting a circle and arrow here so the forum mods don't dump my picture for lack of VW content.

[Globespotter]

Condolences to you and your family, and thank you so much for sharing with us. Memories of times spent with loved ones are worth so much, and your bus will keep them alive.
_________________
1977 Westfalia - October 2015 - Current
1971 Super Beetle - May 2012 - Current
1979 Westfalia - 1986-1991
1971 Super Beetle - 1977-1980

1971 SB Survivor Story: https://globespotter.com/
Road Trip Thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=511800&highlight=
My 77 Westy Thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=647114&highlight=

http://vw-mplate.com/mcode.php?lang=EN&id=30990
https://vw-type2-id.xyz/mplate/72067382

[sunnydog]

Wait! Where'd summer go? I am just getting ready!

With all that has been going on this summer, I've only been available for occaisional Sunday drives, so this post is gonna be a quick review of late summer 2016 highlights. All my meandering storytelling brought to you at no charge and without any links to a kickstarter page!

First, a lovely sunset from August 12, taken down by the pub. Yes, still that same one. I do not have a new favorite one yet, so I am still hitting up my old favorite, but not my old, old favorite. I find I am taking a lot of cloud shots these days for no reason in particular.

Down the street from Xevin's house on August 13, under some massive old street trees. We drove my bus to an awesome tamale restuarant in North Portland, then hit about 3 pubs. Somehow, the evening remained relatively debauchery-free...

Out in front of the same barn where the old bus slumbered for all those years! This is August 28th. Shortly after taking this pic, I took the canoe out of the barn rafters, put it on top of the bus and started to tie it down, because I was heading for the lake -- but shortly after that, I suddenly had to take our sweet old Doberman to the vet and then I never made it to the lake at all. Goddam 2016 strikes again.

September 5th, Mrs. Sunnydog and I took a short ride east up the Columbia River Gorge, stopping here at the former St. Cloud homestead, where nothing is left of the entire place except the apple orchard, and nobody harvests these Spitzenberg and Newton-Pippin apples. I wanted to take a stroll through the trees down to the river, but quickly found with all the apples on the ground it was a great place for yellowjackets! We continued on...

We pulled in at Skamania Lodge and had a bite to eat, but I won't bore you this time with culinary tales (except for this: Bison chili and corn muffins). Aftrwards, we stopped in downriver from Bonneville dam to take some more gratuitously scenic photos...

and of course some cloud shots...

Today Sept 11, I swapped out the driver side step for one that was less beat up. Earlier this year, my buddy the immediate previous owner (I'll call him "T") visited for a while and I pestered him for stories about the bus. He shared this one: Once he was driving and he was in the leftmost, but still going forward, lane at a stop light. When the light turned green, somebody in a new Honda Civic, (it still had the temporary paper license plate) who was in the left turn lane, decided they wanted to go straight, instead. So they punched it across the intersection and swerved in front of the bus... or at least tried to. According to T, they pulled in against that driver's side step, and the German steel sliced open the entire right side of the Civic from the front fender across both doors and the rear quarterpanel, too. "Laid open clean like a can opener!" T told me.

I am challenged here because as I've said before, I want to keep these dents and collect these stories, but that step sucks. So I swapped it out for one that still has wear and patina, but at least isn't all twisted up.

And FINALLY! You may recall that VWDog sent me some shorty overriders a long while back, except the rubber bumper parts were shot. I've kept looking, but have never found anything else that was the right style, so I finally decided to cut some rubber strips out of a thick mat and mount them on the overriders with some carriage bolts. They don't really want to lay down right beacuse the rubber is not hard enough. I think I'll have to glue them down to get it to look a little closer to what I was hoping for. So, a work in progress...
But aren't they all? Keep on Busin' people!

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'71 Westy w/ a 1776 singleport, 34P3 & 205Q. Points.

[sunnydog]

Howdy folks! It's been a great fall in the PNW for bus owners! I collected several pounds of fresh chantrelles from the forests around Mount St. Helens and made delicious eats. I also collected a few gallons of wild crabapples and made crabapple jelly, which we spread over our Thanksgiving turkey instead of cranberries. Finally, I stumbled across a quince tree and took 7 to make "dulce de membrillo", a delicious Spanish/Portugese dessert that pairs with manchego cheese and port wine. Yum!

What's that?--this is not a food blog? Okay fine: it's actualy been pretty rainy, with the wettest October in 100 years and a similarly wet November. We got 5% of our average annual total on Thanksgiving alone. So I have been dodging showers in the bus, trying to only take it out on storm-free days, but even then, it's a lot of rain-speckled windows.

When the rain broke, daughter #1 and I chased rainbows along the backroads of the county:

Sunday/yesteday we went out in the afternoon into the valley of the Washougal River and cut our Christmas tree at the u-cut lot and strapped it to the top of the bus. Yes, it might have been more practical to have used the 4-runner and a utility trailer, but seriously, that's only 63% as fun as doing it with the bus. It's been studied. So we took the bus and our additional scientifically-verified 37% joy and parked in the muddy field. The four of us (Mrs. sunnydog, Daughter #1 and Ms. Doberman and I) all looked for the right kind of tree. Well I guess I was mostly looking for a good photo op to snap this picture of the bus with Christmas trees in the foreground... But once I had this, THEN I looked for trees...

I am a bad tree picker because every tree deserves a home no matter how ugly or misshapen, so I pointed out the worst trees and my opinions were summarily disregarded by the other team members. They picked out a shapely 9' grand fir and I cut it down and had it on top of the bus in no time. Daughter #1 snapped a pic of our handiwork:

We continued on down the valley to our small town and got some hot coffee, then stopped by the side of the Columbia River where there is a new park and river access. Too dang cold to stay long, but I snapped this pic with the side lighting of a wintry 4:15 sunset. Happy holidays to everybody! I'm gonna put some lights on the bus this year. Maybe I'll go bump the Christmas lights thread for 2016!

sunnydog
_________________
'71 Westy w/ a 1776 singleport, 34P3 & 205Q. Points.

[71whitewesty]

Sunnydog, you always have the best posts. Thanks for the update and happy Holidays to the family.
_________________
71 Westy 1600 DP, all stock Bus 1
1970's Snow Trac 1600 SP (sold 12/2016)
1968 Tucker sno cat, sold 2021
1969 Tucker Sno cat 542
2017 VW Alltrac
71 tin top stock 1600 DP (project but runs)
Twin 71 White Westy, Bus 2, that I pulled from a 15 year slumber in a dry eastern WA field in 2015.
1966 Sundial Camper "Boomer"

[chabanais]

You can't know sweetness without having tasted the bitter.
_________________
"I spud therefore I yam."

[Spike0180]

Seems like with the recent warm weather that there should be a new post of fairweather bus driving here.
_________________
Brutis Patches Izabich: 1970 VW Transporter - 1776cc DP
Current State: Projects never truly end...
Location: Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Other cars: 2003 F150, 2003 Jetta GLI vr6-6sp

Sambastic: adj; the quality of being nit picky, elitist, expecting everyone to do things the way they believe is best with no regard to situation, "sambastic"