Sportsmobilers Unite! FAQ

[alman72]

^ at least you got a reply! I didn't.

[TweedLinn]

Wow, that sucks. Maybe the nice lady that answered my email got fired for giving them away..! I emailed the northern division, wonder if that makes a difference..? Us Midwesterners are notoriously overly friendly and giving after all
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76 Sportsmobile

[Bnzz]

Yeah I sent an email to them and they replied the next day explaining how they were set up. The lady who answered told me that the guy running the mid-western branch was at the Andrews, In plant where mine was built. I received the sticker in about a week. that was about a month ago. I was impressed

[TweedLinn]

People prone to jealousy: I suggest not reading much further...

Here it is, the original upper bunk ladder!! It has no markings, but Nobody will be able to convince me that this isn't made for a bus, the fit is just far too perfect, and as we have seen, the ladder was mentioned in some accesory literature.. It still needs some cleaning, as the P.O. had carpet taped to the rungs, but I couldn't keep it to myself any longer..

How the top of the ladder secures itself to the bus

Bottom feet

Showing the "it looks too right to not be right" fit

Tell me that's not meant to be..

And the grand finale - After fitting so perfectly to the top rail, it is also a perfect tight fight to the floor...!

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76 Sportsmobile

[jtauxe]

I posted this reply int he "Rarest of the rare" thread as well, but repost here, as you did, for completeness:

That is very cool, and is of high interest to us Sportsmobile owners. I would be keen to make up one of these myself, especially after the welding class that I will be taking this fall. I am guessing that building the ladder itself from aluminum could not be too hard. The plastic bits on the ends will be the tricky part.

I would encourage you to document the heck out of that ladder. That is, take careful measurements of dimensions. I expect that the top and bottom plastic inserts would be great candidates for 3D printing, if we could get the solid model files made for them. If you could at least work up some detailed photographs (like various views of the plastic parts against a backdrop of a 1-mm grid graph paper or something) then perhaps others could work up the solid model.
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John
"Travelling in a fried-out Kombi, on a hippie trail, head full of zombie..." - Colin Hay and Ron Strykert
http://vw.tauxe.net
1969 Transporter, 1971 Westfalia, 1976, 1977, 1976, 1977, 1971, 1973, 1977 Westfalias,
1979 Champagne Sunroof, 1974 Westfalia Automatic, 1979 Transporter, 1972 Sportsmobile, 1973 Transporter Wild Westerner, 1974 Westfalia parts bus, 1975 Mexican single cab *FOR SALE*, 1978 Irish 4-door double cab RHD

[Tcash]

Sportsmobile Penthouse ladder

[TweedLinn]

Got the Original Sportsmobile armrests/map pockets installed on newly acquired green door cards.

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76 Sportsmobile

[alman72]

if only the darn kid in the brocure would move his hand, you could know for sure! does it fit up top when the penthouse is down? Iknow there is an inch or so, just wondered if it would slide in feet first.
I did score a Privacy Curtain for my penthouse on my last trip to the pick and pull

[TweedLinn]

[Bala]

Here are some pictures of the Sportsmobile my dad and I recently saved. It is pretty filthy. We're cleaning it up a bit then it'll be for sale.

Dealer option?

Original vinyl?

Every Texas bus has a .22 or similar round in it somewhere.

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1976 Westy

1966 Beetle

[TweedLinn]

AWESOME!! So much nice padded trim, etc still there.. And more armrests!

[jtauxe]

Wow - great find, Bala.

I expect that should clean up pretty well, and it seems to have a lot of the original bits and bobs that are pretty special.

What year is it?
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John
"Travelling in a fried-out Kombi, on a hippie trail, head full of zombie..." - Colin Hay and Ron Strykert
http://vw.tauxe.net
1969 Transporter, 1971 Westfalia, 1976, 1977, 1976, 1977, 1971, 1973, 1977 Westfalias,
1979 Champagne Sunroof, 1974 Westfalia Automatic, 1979 Transporter, 1972 Sportsmobile, 1973 Transporter Wild Westerner, 1974 Westfalia parts bus, 1975 Mexican single cab *FOR SALE*, 1978 Irish 4-door double cab RHD

[Bala]

We tore out the floor, it was just too nasty and ripped up to keep. We're trying to preserve as much as possible though. We'll include the stuff we remove for the new owner. Even the toilet!

It's an early '73 (October or '72 if I remember correctly).
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1976 Westy

1966 Beetle

[Sage79]

My '73 has the same original vinyl floor.
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Dirk
'79 Westy 2.0FI
'73 Sportsmobile 1.7dual Solex 003Auto - now my daughter's
'77 delux 2.0FI 090Auto - now my son's

[Boesen]

I witnessed this ladder in person as Tweed found it at a local VW scrapyard.
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1979 Westfalia Deluxe http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=474334&highlight=iowa

[Quadratrückseite]

[danfromsyr]

spotted this Florida Sportsmobile with westy windows in a FL news article.
http://www.tcpalm.com/specialty-publications/vero-...66301.html

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[alman72]

^
that is one weird sportsmobile. old bumper, half and half nose clip(both upper and lower blinkers) later color canvas(maybe it is a special remake?), later style pop up (mechanics inside vs outside) and westy windows.

[alman72]

I posted this in the side tent thread, but Sportsmobile folk need to see this too. I found some smb literature that I will post as well

[alman72]

sportsmobile literature