TheSamba.com :: View topic - What's the weirdest/ grossest/ coolest thing you've found...

Fri Oct 12, 2007 5:33 pm

...about $4.00 in US pennies, an anti-freeze-soaked kids book, and enough grey fur to knit a dog, all from under the floorboards under the R&R bed.

Everything else appears to have checked out OK, thank God.

Fri Oct 12, 2007 6:28 pm

The last Bus I bought was a '71 Westy, from a true Stink foot Hippie, straight off the commune, I found 3 pipes/ one hitters, a small bag of weed & various vials of un-labled pills, lots of new tune up parts. The Bus had sat at a open storage area in the sticks, anyone could have looked thru the Bus anytime, over the 4 years it was there...........

Fri Oct 12, 2007 6:35 pm

On the top of the JDM Subaru 3.3 that is about to find it's way into my '89 Vanagon- a chicken bone. Yuck. At least I think it is from a chicken.

Sat Oct 13, 2007 8:19 pm

Found a well used, but intact Bently repair manual under the passenger seat of my 84 GL. Flwt pretty good about it, they tend to be a little on the spendy side. The Bus also came with a really groovy Grateful Dead
"Steal your face" decal in the rear window!

Cheers,
Chris

Sat Oct 13, 2007 8:47 pm

Just today went to look at a 87 Carat Weekender in ______ NY.

The Mice! Oh the F-in' Mice. PO was a slob and left this Rust bucket "as is".

Went into the nooks and crannies only to find Mice homes, well condo's to be exact.

It is for sale. I threw up in my mouth when I popped the engine cover.

Don't even ask the price of it.

If I found a pipe,etc., the dude selling it has smoke a-plenty from it!

Geeze!
:shock:

Sun Oct 14, 2007 7:38 pm

Don't have a pic that I can find, but a completely preserved dessicated mouse in his comfortable palace...inside the front heater assembly.

Mon Oct 15, 2007 7:45 am

i imported a transporter from germany ex army red cross. ithad a false floor with rails to hold things. in the rails besides the 50 lbs of nails and screws i found a couple of spent rounds, some blanks.some not all around
9mm.

the other story is at the dealer i used to work at, somebody donated a vanagon which wasn't running. one of the other mechanics decided to check out what was wrong and started removing spark plugs and air cleaner when he jumped back about 20 feet. there was a nest with 3 baby squirrels still alive.

Mon Oct 15, 2007 8:16 am

Quote: a chicken bone. Yuck. At least I think it is from a chicken

Tangled in the roof rack of a '69 baywindow Westy that I bought in 1984 in Colorado were four strange, fibrous, bent-stick-looking items, each about five inches across. . Thinking they were chunks of brush I untangled them from the bars and tossed them on the ground next to a friend of mine who grew up on a ranch. Upon examination he determined that they were trimmed remnants of horses hooves (like giant toenail clippings). Say what?

My current '84 Westy, purchased in Silver City, New Mexico, came with several unlabeled cassette tapes in the glove box of what sounded like Arabic childrens' songs from the Egyptian equivalent of Sesame Street.

Mon Oct 15, 2007 11:35 pm

Removed the front passenger seat and found the remote for the stereo nestled inside the swivel mechanism. It should have been ground to pieces but didn't have a scratch on it. Now if I could just find the water tank filler key...

Tue Oct 16, 2007 4:54 am

This gross and how I found my van. floor completely covered in mouse poop, shed snake skins, $27.00 in change and ones, and lots of crusty goodies from spilled drinks.

Tue Oct 16, 2007 5:09 am

mumubunnylips wrote: Removed the front passenger seat and found the remote for the stereo nestled inside the swivel mechanism. It should have been ground to pieces but didn't have a scratch on it. Now if I could just find the water tank filler key...

You should contact the PO, and tell him where you found it. It's still probably driving them crazy, thinking they lost it at a campsite or something, only after tearing the van apart blaming each other for loosing it......

Tue Oct 16, 2007 2:23 pm

I found a heavy duty rain suit, pants, jacket and hat, bright yellow with the crest of the local phone company, official issue! This was a keeper! It lives where I found it (under the rear bench) and comes out when needed. This thing will keep me dry in a hurricane. (and it fits)

Wed Oct 17, 2007 3:03 pm

wasn't in my vw, but in my 53' chev 1/2 ton that I found around 20 spent shell casings, an unused county fair ticket (somewhere in Oregon), an a old pack of cigars, and a hand full of old budweiser bottle caps.... no rubbers though... (maybe his one shot was at the county fair he didn't attend....)

Fri Oct 19, 2007 11:16 pm

LostMyVWkey wrote: This gross and how I found my van. floor completely covered in mouse poop, shed snake skins, $27.00 in change and ones, and lots of crusty goodies from spilled drinks.

Wow! I can't believe anyone actually found a EV nastier than mine!
Found some change, a half eaten ho-ho, gummi bears, sugar babies, etc. all ground into the carpet.
Yeeuuucckkkkk.

Sun Oct 21, 2007 8:23 pm

i bought a super clean 68 westy from the original owners that bought it through the dealer that had a program back then where they had a plane ticket to europe where their factory fresh camper waited for them to drive around europe and had a boat trip with shipment home.
the windows had the original water transfer decals from all the citys and areas they traveled,,, which i thought was cool... but when i removed the rear seat behind the drivers side i found a set of pictures of said hippies taken in one of those photo booths ,,, there they were all hippied out with him haveing huge bushy side burns , striped shirt and her with head band and peace signs on her cheeks,, i posted the pictures in the van and gave them to the new owner when i sold it ,,, i miss that van!

Thu Oct 25, 2007 3:22 am

I haven't done a full clean-up yet, but so far there've been two things of interest:

1. A paperback book called "Mysteries of People and Places" ... sort of appropriate, considering the topic here.

2. A cheap Haminex 35mm camera with duct tape across the back. I opened it to see if there was any film in it that might explain more about the mysteries of this van, but it was empty. Oh well.

BTW, I bought the van from a curbstoner in May, and just recently got it back on the road. Perils of dealing with curbstoners and their effect on the flow of vw karma will be the subject of a separate thread. For now, suffice it to say that I'm sure the van has other mysteries in store for me.

Thu Oct 25, 2007 11:33 am

Mind if I ask, "What is a curbstoner?"

Thanks,

Lanval

Thu Oct 25, 2007 11:40 am

Oh, sorry about that.
It's basically an unlicensed dealer. In our case, for example, it's someone who advertises and sells multiple vehicles here on The Samba, serving as a middle man for the previous owner, or who picks up the vehicles for cheap from some hidden source, and then resells them.
See for example:
http://mva.state.md.us/VehicleServ/REG/curbstoner.htm

Sat May 03, 2008 7:05 pm

I found this writting under the luggage rack plastic last week when I was changing the poptop seals. I had two German girls I work with translate:

Hellos from (unknown city)??? Death to FC Bayern

Bayern is the middle part of Germany. They said Germany has three parts to it. upper, middle, and lower.

FC Bayern is the Munich Soccer Team or Football Club of Bayern.

They said that there a couple of letters they were not taught in school. They grew up in Germany and are 40ish. They were pretty certain an "old timer" wrote it and was probably traveling from (unknown city)??? to watch a soccer game that day.

Thought I would share...

Matt[/img]

Sat May 03, 2008 9:03 pm

When I first got my current van i was finding stuff everyday for a few weeks, here are a few of the better ones:

A big bag, and pipe. (a few roaches a couple of days later)

$48 dollars in wrapped pennies in a toolbox. plus about $30 in loose change

2 full rain suits.

a 2nd Bentley manual that came with the van. (so now I've got three)

a sony discman.

3 citronella candles shaped like the heads on easter island

rear hatch screen

various camping supplies

sailboat mast lights

the current registration for a trailer in VT (if only I could track it down)

A few pizza crusts, half eaten cupcake, various other food items

more bags

20+ years of filth

but luckily nothing that relates to the PO's having sex in anyway