82 year young lady - 71 tin top - Help me help Anna

[Abscate]

Ive paid Brandts latest bills and will get caught up on acknowledging donors and wrapping up the financials early next week. Ive got some shipping to reimburse those who donated parts which were hundreds of dollars of value. One shipping mistake which I will eat.

Sorry about the email confusion - I use the (dot) notation to prevent the email being skimmed by bots and then loading me with spam

the node is nycap.rr.com

user is abscate

latest updated list to come.

Brandt - can we put a first name on this thread so she is a 'real person' here


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.ssS!

[brandt]

Thanks all for the support and to Abskate for the final reimbursement.

82 year old lady's name is Anna.

I have not heard from her but I do plan to check in soon.

[Tcash]

"82 year old lady - 71 tin top - Help me help Anna"

Does this work?
Tcash

[Abscate]

[Tcash]

added
Tcash

[brandt]

I heard from Anna a few days ago. So far she has driven her bus a few hundred miles including a get ready for winter trip to Cortez, Colorado and back, about 150 miles round trip. She says it runs fine.

Sounds like she has a hard time getting it into reverse, though, like it's just hard on her shoulder. It seemed normal to me when I was driving it and Colin didn't notice any issue.

She opted to register her bus with vintage plates which in Utah is the way to go. She can't seem to find her owners manual either. It was in the bus when I had it and it could be out in the mess that is my garage but I don't think so. I sent her a link to the scanned one in the archives until hers turns up.

All for now.

[71whitewesty]

So cool. Great work and glad to hear she's putting miles on it.
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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"

[Tom Powell]

Brings a smile to my face and a tear to my eye. Makes me proud to have been a part of this. Keep on bussin Anna.

Aloha
tp

[Clara]

I like this story.
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The Obsolete Air-Cooled Documentation Project http://oacdp.org/

[airschooled]

The aftermarket reverse lockout springs are two or three coils lighter. If someone has one floating around, substituting it for the OG spring would make the reverse pushdown easier.

Maybe I'll see her in November!
Robbie
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Learn how your vintage VW works. And why it doesn't!
One-on-one tech help for your Volkswagen:
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[Amskeptic]

[pierrox]

Whoa, just finished reading those 13 pages. You guys are awesome. Long live the VW community!
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Our bus is on Instagram
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[Tom Powell]

Any updates?

Aloha
tp

[Abscate]

[brandt]

I have not checked in to this site for a long time but a recent PM has inspired me for better or for worse to give an update.

I stopped by Anna's house a few months ago to check in and return her owners manual that I had mistakenly kept. It's a long, sad story that I have not posted or had the heart to pass on to Colin or any of the others that helped.

Sometime shortly after Colin and I dropped off her perfectly running bus she decided to let her "meat guy" take it to someone to get a "tune up" even though she said it was still running great. Remember Anna has a traumatic brain injury as well as other ailments. While I was at her house I tried to start it and did with trouble but it sounded like hell and ran even worse. She told me the guy who did the "tune up" changed the spark plugs. When I changed them one of them had a semi-questionable thread insert to manage a problem exactly like Robbie had. So she still relies of rides from others to get to town and her doctors appointments.

While I am still deeply moved by the experience of all of us helping her I unfortunately no longer have the time or desire to help her further.

Brandt

[Tom Powell]

DAGNABIT

Thanks for the update brandt. We all got a lot of warm fuzzies from the work and donations that were done here, but perhaps with Anna's physical and mental condition some higher power is telling us she shouldn't be driving. I just hope that somehow the meatballs that disabled the bus get their dues and that Anna can continue getting rides from friends and helpers.

Aloha
tp

[brandt]

Overdue update.

I have not had the heart to post this.

I learned in early 2020 that Anna passed away. She died sometime around Thanksgiving 2019. She was long estranged from her children and family. Unfortunately, there is no obituary to post as none was ever published. I only met her a few times.

I learned of her passing by way of a post-it note on my door several months later. The note came via a former neighbor/caretaker of hers who had, once again, tracked me down. She had become estranged from Anna as well. Anna had told her as well as me that I was to inherit the bus.

Anna's next of kin turned out to be a brother in Arizona who learned of his sisters death months after the fact. I spoke to him once. He spent a week in Utah trying to sort out Anna's few belongings. He could not locate a written will nor a title to the bus. It seems Anna was a dependent of the state of Utah.

The bus sat for a few more months. There is a few seconds along the highway where I could see it. The last I checked in 2017 it wasn't running. Then it disappeared. I don't know where it went. Perhaps the State came and towed it off to auction or someone else?

Thanks again for everyone who made a contribution to this project. I will never forget it.

Rest in peace Anna

[aeromech]

May Goodness always befall you. I encourage people to do as you have done. Seems like this lady needed your friendship
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Licensed Pilot (Single engine Land)
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VW type 1 1962,63,65,69,72
VW Type 2 1971 (3 ea.) 1978, 1969
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Capable of leaping tall buildings in a single bound

[Abscate]

You rest well tonight too, Brandt, for the good you did for others.

Nice thread.
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.ssS!

[SGKent]

Sorry she is gone.

Probably someone took it and sent to Vermont for a title using a bill of sale.
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“Most people don’t know what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin