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

Vee Dub Nut · Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 5:23 am Post subject:

This is such a great thread.. I enjoyed the update. I've quietly been following this one for some time. The story of the Bus and your father is really special. Although I'm a generation later, it reminds me of my grandfather who helped me get into VWs.
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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

sunnydog · Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 3:40 pm Post subject:

Thanks Vee Dub Nut!
Here's a couple more moody dark photos from last night post-rainbow, courtesy of daughter #1...

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

Is there a rain-speckled windows thread?
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'71 Westy w/ a 1776 singleport, 34P3 & 205Q. Points.

pierrox · Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2015 7:05 am Post subject:

Congrats on the curtains - have yet to see a close-up to really appreciate!

No problem about the delayed response, it's been busy here too. Shame I didn't come across your thread earlier, would have been happy to drive you around Paris in my green van! Next time for sure.

Love the smile on your daughter's face. A VW van puts smile on anyone who comes close to it for sure!

sunnydog · Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2015 9:33 pm Post subject:

Howdy everybody! And to you pierrox, thanks for your reply, I still can't believe how many folks are interested in this thread. I would be happy to have been chauffeured around Paris in a bus. Sounds like good reason to go back soon!

At long last (because I know this is your favorite part) here's 2 more photos from the olden days.
I think we've seen a variant of this photo before, when the family was camped along the Umpqua River somewhere in southern Oregon. Notes here say 1977.

And maybe also earlier than 1977, but clearly in the late 70s, based on the wing collar, plaid pants and my father's awesome mustache and attempt at sideburns. This is in Santa Rosa, CA visiting my grandparents on my dad's side. That's me hanging off the raingutter in the striped tanktop.

It is amazing how much my brother ended up looking like my grandfather. he''s even got the same kind of mumble...

I've been summer-driving this old bus here and there and everything is good, but no real big road trips yet underway this summer. Maybe something late in august? We shall see...
Good roads everybody!
Sunnydog
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'71 Westy w/ a 1776 singleport, 34P3 & 205Q. Points.

sunnydog · Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2015 1:29 pm Post subject:

Hi folks, long time no post here, and no real updates to report. Late summer
remained busy right into fall, so VW driving has unfortunately been at a minimum.

I got a PM inquiry asking what the original price for this bus was from a fellow Samba member who wanted to learn what an original 1971 original UK sales value would have been. I went to my carefully stored stack of docs and found that memory does not work like one thinks it does. I do NOT have the original bill of sale, so I guess that makes me a liar from my first post. Or at least a tall-tale-teller.

For anybody else who has a tourist delivery vehicle, though, I did find the April 1970 shipping cost sheet. I've inlcuded it here, but I'll send it to Everett for the archives/literature/tourist delivery page as well, because I don't see one there.

Our bus was shipped from Bremerhaven (Bremen harbor) Germany to Boston USA, so the grid shows costs for shipping a T2 campmobile was $158, then I think $27 for US port handling, wharfage and custom clearance. The back of this page has my dad's handwriting doing the math for 3200 times 0.07 = $224.00, so he was figuring out the 7% federal excise tax also due.

There's a 1969 form in the Tourist Delivery literature section:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/lit/1969pricelist_tourist.php

where
Page 3 (bottom left) shows a basic campmobile is $2565
plus campmobile equipment is $625
or plus campmobile equipment with pop-up top and luggage rack is $985
or plus campmobile equipment with pop-up top, luggage rack and tent is $1125

So a full '69 campmobile would have cost $3690. I assume that is all is USD because of the dollar sign in that brochure?

Then page 6 of that same brochure shows delivery prices, and for example shows another $112 for shipping a vehicle to London for pickup.
But there is no similar brochure posted for 1971.

So why was my dad calculating 7% of $3200? Was US Federal excise tax only on the base vehicle and camping equipment, but not on the camping equipment upgrades?

Anybody got any specific price sheet info in their tourist delivery papers that might help clear up what total costs would be?
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'71 Westy w/ a 1776 singleport, 34P3 & 205Q. Points.

Tcash · Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2015 2:30 pm Post subject:

Tourist Delivery
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7819922#7819922

Window Stickers
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=609590&highlight=window+sticker

Abscate · Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2015 3:43 pm Post subject:

This...is the most.....awesome.....thread......ever.
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.ssS!

sunnydog · Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 1:22 pm Post subject:

Thanks to Tcash for posting up those links for the window stickers, for cross-posting the shipping costs sheet I found in the tourist delivery thread and also to Everett for posting that sheet in the tourist delivery literature section in the archives. TCash you must have a serious case of OCD and a photographic memory to remember what is out in the darkest corners of this site.

Speaking of photographs, since I haven't posted any in a while, here's a couple more. I previously said that my family camped every summer at DL Bliss state park at Lake Tahoe, by Emerald Bay. Here we are in the summer of 1977, with that Westy orange tent (which i just figured out was a $147 option in 1971 dollars). How do I know it is 1977? My brother is wearing a red Portland Trailblazers shirt. He wore that shirt all summer, because as everybody knows, the Trailblazers won the '77 NBA championship that June 5th, in Game 6 over the 76ers. Actually, I guess it's not specifically a Trailblazers shirt, it's a Jack Ramsay basketball camp shirt. My brother went to the camp and there was a great picture in the paper of Jack Ramsay with his hand on my brother's shoulder, leaning in as my brother's team was discussing strategy. In this photo, my dad is leaning in, too. But he's probably asking "Hey, don't you think we should wash that shirt? You are stinking up the whole outdoors."

I have great memories of that place and in particular a guy named Ranger Burger, who ran the evening campfire and would play guitar and lead songs like "The Cat Came Back" and always close up the evening with "Goodnight Irene". So many, many hippies in the 70s with their accoustic guitars.

Jump ahead a few years, and this is probably one of the last photos of the bus that I have from its original ownership with our family. January of 1980. Can you see it? Sixteen inches of snow fell that year, when the Portland OR area typically gets only a few inches at most. I think this is also the first picture that shows the spare tire mounted out on the nose. So that was the beginning of that particular set of wrinkles and rust. Don't put your spare tire out front, people. See what happens? First you put the spare tire out front, then after a few years, you sell off the entire car. See? Bad juju and consequences...

Abscate, thanks for your post. It sucks to be as busy I have been the last few months, and I get texts from local bus friends telling me to "come out and roll it!", and "there's a beer waiting", etc. I am grateful for the community and the support. I owe some storytelling back, so I promise to keep this thread rolling along too, with new updates and old flashbacks every so often.
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'71 Westy w/ a 1776 singleport, 34P3 & 205Q. Points.

Pinetops · Samba Member Joined: March 24, 2007 Posts: 2987

I love it, awesome pics, story and bus.
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"A rolling bus gathers no rust."

Xevin · Samba Member Joined: January 08, 2014 Posts: 7635

Beers not going to dry out in our town Wink

I'm off today, let me know if you need some heavy lifting and grunt work.
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Keep on Busin'

pierrox · Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2015 12:59 am Post subject:

Great photos and memories!
Love the tire under the snow. Might post it to my brother who is thinking about doing the same treatment to his '71...

vwmike · Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2015 11:01 pm Post subject:

Great reader, keep it going as long as you have the bus! The best part of this thread is the way your personality comes out in you writing, I feel like I know you after reading it all.

Abscate · Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2015 4:41 am Post subject:

It's a shame VW stopped the tourist delivery program ...Volvo and BMW deliver 10 cars per day on this. Save 5-7%, get free flight over/ back, drive around EU for 2-3 weeks, then free shipping back home.

I'll take a EUrovan diesel Westy in deep blue with a stickshift for 500, please Alex.

What is, totally awesome?
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.ssS!

sunnydog

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited over to Xevin's and once I got there was given a ration of crap for having a Bay that just sat around unused. I got accused of being a fairweather driver.

Okay, I am guilty as charged.

So I am glad that after the rainiest December and January I can remember, the sun came out today. I rolled open the garage door, did a little preflight walkaround inspection and maintenance. The old girl took an extra couple of cranks, and yes I left ethanol gas sitting in it for two months, but it turned over, fired up, and started purring smoothly.

Me and the old doberman put it in the driveway for a quick wash,

Then I went to town, got some coffee, ran some errands and liked the sunset reflection I found in this big puddle...
Did I mention the rain?

Here's a cool thing I stumbled across this winter in a box of car stuff that originally came out of the trunk of my dad's car when he could no longer drive and we had to sell his car. When it sold, I just shoved that box onto a shelf in my garage without thinking too much about it, but when I opened it up and took a closer look at what was inside it, I found a black vinyl slipcase and inside was a foldup metal reflective triangle.

Yep, Dad was safety-concious! But when I looked closely at the text on the case it says "Keep in immediately accessible place -- NOT IN THE BOOT". The instructions report that triangle should be placed "in all events at least 50 yards in advance of the obstruction in the same carrigeway" but that "at least 150 yards in advance on motorways and dual carriageways". And in the lower corner is a note that the triangle is "Approved to British Standards".

So, clearly this triangle was purchased somewhere in England along with the bus, then when my safety-concious father sold the bus (1982?), he kept that awesome triangle, taking it to his next car (VW Rabbit) and kept on doing so, (Toyota Tercel, Camry, Camry, Camry) only for me to eventually find it in a box in early 2016.

Reunited, and it feels so good!
Reunited, 'cause we understood!

Doin' my best to get a little 1978 Peaches and Herb stuck in your head... Very Happy

I think I'm gonna store that triangle under the bench seat. Maybe it's not as accessible as it should be, but for certain it's "NOT IN THE BOOT".

Happy 2016 (late Rolling Eyes

) to everybody here on the Samba; miles and miles of good baywindow bussing to those of you here in the best forum with the best rides!
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'71 Westy w/ a 1776 singleport, 34P3 & 205Q. Points.

Xevin · Samba Member Joined: January 08, 2014 Posts: 7635

Glad you got your buddy out on the first sunny day of the Fall/Winter Wink

Peaches and Herb? Evil or Very Mad

You a bad man sunnydog Laughing

Cause it feels so good Dancing

Link

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Keep on Busin'

69Weekender

Wow man, i just read through this thread.
So unreal that you found it! Great pics.
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Mitchell
ISO any California Road Runner Camper parts or info
1969 California Road Runner Camper: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=646780
2015 Toyota Tacoma V6 4x4
Past:
01 Honda Insight, 06 Beetle TDI, 77 Toyota, 96 Geo Metro, 06 Tacoma, 13 Jetta Wagon, 05 Jetta, 96 Corrado VR6
Other ICE Machinery: Alco 251F 16v & 8v

71whitewesty

I was starting to wonder where Sunnydog went! Great to see you getting the bus out. I've been guilty of fair weather driving this winter myself but we have a few sunny days ahead!
Great shots and story. Very Happy

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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"

1961bluebug

fantastic story and pictures. I also keep my grandfather´s ´61 bug in my barn but ists too far gone to do some serious work on it.
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Eskimotom

Certainly one of the highlight threads of the Samba forums. I'm glad I found it. This thread and the 71 camper I picked up last summer which lead me to this story.

NASkeet

It would have been most unusual to buy a brand-new, left-hand drive, VW Type 2 in London, England, in 1970; yet alone a Westfalia campervan! Confused


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