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

[sunnydog]

Ok folks, the other day it was my birthday and Mrs. Sunnydog asked me what I wanted to do. I said, "I wanna go for a bus drive. And I want to eat good food. And drink beer." No one reading this should be surprised at this list. So we headed East up the Columbia River Gorge, which I happen to think is one of the most beautiful places on earth. I been places and many are nice, but summers here are THE BEST. Low humidity 85 degrees for weeks on end. The idyllic dream weather of summer days in the Pacific Northwest are what allows us locals to survive the other nine-and-a-half months of gray drizzle.

After a quick oil change, we drove to Skamania Lodge for the brunch, where yours truly ate a platefull of scrambled eggs and hash browns with salsa, biscuits and gravy, and about 7 pieces of bacon. I had a mimosa because I needed to get a serving of fruit in to have a balanced diet. This lodge is one of our favorite places to visit and hang out, but not to stay, because although the fireplace and lobby main room are great, the rooms are just hotel rooms. Snapped a pic of the bus in front. No valet service please -- this is a classic car.

Drove north into the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, into the big woods. Into the heart of Sasquatch territory. I saw a bumpersticker on a beat-up old truck the other day that said "Bigfoot saw ME!". No sightings to report.

Traveled down those backwoods forest roads to a place called Government Mineral Springs. Early in the 1900s there was a hotel out here in the woods, far away from anywhere. This was during the prohibition era, so you can imagine what was happening out here... Now it is just the end of the road with big mossy trees.

We parked near where the springs were and went an stuck our hot but normal-sized feet in the cold creek water. We stopped at the Iron Mike pump to sample some of the nasty-tasting well water. It's probably a 30 year tradition for me to drive out and drink this water every summer. This year I found signs posted up that said, "Non-potable water!" Apparently after 100 years of people coming all the way out here to drink the nasty-tasting water, the EPA recently said that there was a lot of iron in it, more than recommended. NO KIDDING!

I drank some. Once again, I did not die. It tastes like you licked a rusty old cast iron skillet. On the other hand, with the annual visits I've never had anemia. So I got that going for me, which is nice.

As it was a hot day and we were still full, we were sorely tempted to take a nap and just chill out. Mostly I wanted to continue on, so we split the difference and I drove while Mrs. S napped in the passenger seat in a series of increasingly uncomfortable looking positions. No photos.

We returned out of the woods to the side of the Columbia River still heading east towards Hood River, OR. Lots of train traffic in the gorge, some right next to the highway:

Stopped in a Double Mountain brewing in Hood River, enjoyed a beverage. Sent a text to 71whitewesty, who was able to come join us. Enjoyed another beverage. Check out my appropriate wheel/curb turn for hill parking!

And here's a side mirror shot of 71whitewesty pulling alongside as we were headed out.

Crossed back north across the Hood River Bridge:

Pointed out the view of Mt Hood from the Washington side:

Then crossed back over to Oregon on the Bridge of the Gods (no pictures) and ended up at Thunder Island Brewing in Cascade Locks, which might be the pub with the most beautiful view in the entire Gorge area. Had to park away from the main lot and dodge the sprinklers, oh no, wet feet again.

I've mentioned it before, but the Bridge of the Gods is where the Pacific Crest Trail crosses over the Columbia River, so in August, the town starts to get the groups of through-hikers, people who started in Mexico and are heading to Canada. There is a thing on the PCT called "Trail Magic", where some good samaritan does a favor for hikers, some unexpected act of kindness, like passing on some food, or offering a hiker a hot shower or a ride to the store. This brewery offers trail magic pints. You buy them and the credit sits there at the pub and through-hikers can walk up and claim a free cold beer. I told Mrs. Sunnydog that for my birthday gift I wanted 5 pints of trail magic beer credits for through-hikers to redeem. And she does it, no questions asked. There's a similar thing with the VWs for sure -- I've heard stories of broken down VWs on the side of the road, and another comes along with that perfect accelerator cable, or the right tool for the fixin'. We've all got to pay it forward, no?

After a tasty barleywine and a charcuterie plate, we pulled a few blocks away, opened up the slider door, sat in the back with our feet up and watched the sunset over the mountains while listening to the Ray Charles live 1960 Newport Jazz Festival -- a cool breeze passing through the bus, while Ray played hotter and hotter.

Finally we passed back to the Washington shore across the Bridge of the Gods again, with a few more bugs on the windshield than when we started, and headed West towards home.

Last stop on the way home, we pulled off the road at the Cape Horn overlook. This is where I parked last summer around in mid-July, just 2 weeks or so after my father passed away. I've stopped here a million times, I couldn't even begin to tell you how many, but I have never seen this view more beautiful. The sky was pink and the river was reflecting all that light back up, like it was somehow lit from below. We stayed until the colors faded. They always do, but me and Mrs. Sunnydog were there to see it, and it was my birthday, and it was some kind of amazing VW road magic.

189.9 miles of joy -- keep them buses rolling, people!
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'71 Westy w/ a 1776 singleport, 34P3 & 205Q. Points.

[THall]

[bluestripe]

A bus coming home to the original family and after some life delays, getting back to the road is terrific!
_________________
Eric & Sukey
1973 Trinity Camper

[sunnydog]

Hello folks --
Its been a while since I posted anything up in this thread, so here's a quick photo recap of summer/early fall shenanigans.

I posted up my Eclipse trip to Mount St Helens in the Eclipse thread, but here's another evening shot of the old bus climbing through the Pacific northwest forest roads!

At Xevin's urging to cover up that unsightly hole, I finally wired in a sidemarker light on the rear passenger side.

I wired in a oil temp gauge. I used a sump plate sender -- I searched all the temperature sender threads and opinions and came to the conclusion that I could monitor what I wanted with that; I could see the trends and get a general idea how hot it was running. At speed it reads about 10 degrees low because it is in the airstream, at idle in a line of traffic it is pretty much spot on with a IR thermometer reading of the case at the dipstick. Even my gauge install is little hacky. Do you like my duct tape finish of the mounting bracket? I don't.

I hired the services of Asia Minor aka Robbie to teach me how to rebuild my original 205Q distributor. We took it all apart, cleaned and lubed it, put it all back together -- installed, timed and tuned it. Here's my report: It is now far easier to drive because it just rolls away from stops. With the 009 I had to goose the rpms up to 2k then slip the clutch. Now I can literally slip the clutch at idle and it will roll out. However, with the 009 I also used to be able to climb hills between 2k and 4k rpm, now I can't go below 2600, or I bog out. This is fine, because of course an aircooler should climb in the peak torque range (or maybe a little over-peak for fan speed cooling) anyhow. So I just had to learn how to drive it again. Note I have not installed the throttle positioner arm on my 34-Pict-3, tho I have the parts, so that's part of the long term restoration I will get to eventually.

I've been taking the dog for rides to the pub. She is terrified and does not want to get into the bus. Whatever.

Plenty of firewood this year for camping and fall evening bonfires. No summer bonfires this year because it was too dry and the forest fire risk was too high. Whatever.

Mrs. Sunnydog got a great new job, but it is in San Francisco -- we have been flying back and forth on weekends. I passed this VW Bus display in the SFO airport where San Francisco is celebrating the 1967 Summer of Love! Only a nerd like me notices they are incorrectly using a late bay, specifically a 1973. Plus the slider and the gas door are on the wrong side. Whatever.

For the most part, this season has been a long run of highly enjoyable fairweather sunset drives. Here's a bunch of photos I've been accumulating.

Happy Fall everybody!
_________________
'71 Westy w/ a 1776 singleport, 34P3 & 205Q. Points.

[Abscate]

Good to hear from you sunny dog

We are patiently waiting the spectacular fall colours to be applied here in New England...
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.ssS!

[KentABQ]

Thanks once again for the posts to one of my favorite threads.

Seeing the last pic in your previous posting (stopped in a parking lot) makes me think how far that bus has gone, all the countries it's visited, and all the adventures it's taken you on in the past 46 years. All the travels would make a great book.
_________________
-Kent-
1976 Riviera, 1.8l FI chrome yellow VAN - "Chloe"

"I must say, how can you be in a bad mood driving this vehicle full of vibrant color.
Cars of today are so bland in comparison. It's like driving a celebration!" ---WildIdea

Bus ownership via emoticons:
---williamM

[sunnydog]

Hey folks -- I got a little cabin fever this weekend at home as it was cold and rainy, and I would have taken the bus for a drive anyhow but one of the other cars was parked in front of the garage and the only key for that car was in California, and I was home alone all weekend, and it was a full moon, and it was daylight savings time, and I had never seen the Lord of the Rings movies and somehow it seemed like a good idea to watch all three of them back to back. Okay, maybe it was a lot of cabin fever...

So today turned sunny in the late afternoon and I took the bus (my precioussss! ) out for a quick spin for fall colors and sunsettery:

Hey KentPS --
It's kind of funny you suggest a book, as I do a bit of writing and authorship here and there in my actual career. I actually like the format here, where I can give intermittent pseudo-blog-post updates hidden away in a Volkswagen website under the cover of a half-assed-resto-thread but get to occasionally go off on long tangents about food or music. Or food-and-music (I just picked a bag of fresh chanterelles from the woods near Mount St Helens; does anyone want my recipe for Volcano Mushroom Tart? Send me a PM. ) And I get to write run-on sentences and use punctuation in any-way-I-damn-well-see-fit, like with today's over-the-top hyphen festival. I am not trying to sell you anything, or asking you to go fund me and if you like it that's great! and for those who don't, click away! There is always Erb Smith's how-to posts and videos for you to peruse.

Months ago I stated that I had a few, some of the very last few, of of the '70-'71 European tour photos to post up, and that I was saving them for a rainy weekend. I still never did that. Last weekend would have been perfect, but I am certain another rainy weekend will be coming soon... and so those photos will too! Here is an alternate version of a photo of a parking spot some of you might have seen waaaay back on page 1 of this thread; a different view of the bus parked outside the Houses of Parliament in London.

No pictures have yet turned up of the bus in front of the houses of Funkadelic.
sunnydog
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'71 Westy w/ a 1776 singleport, 34P3 & 205Q. Points.

[Xevin]

If you zoom in, I think you can see Bootsy

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Keep on Busin'

[sunnydog]

Okay folks, I am have been waiting for a rainy weekend and here it is: for Sunday afternoon, my phone says 44 degrees F, 100% chance of precipitation, and 94% humidity. I can hear the moss growing outside. I am cozy inside with a nice fire and a bellyfull of leftover sweet potato pie topped with maple whipped cream. Was 4 pies too many to make? Maybe. But I gotta put on that hibernation weight to make it through winter...

Here are the last 5 photos of our family's 1970-71 European Tour that I used to start out this whole thread. These small square pics are from my Mom's camera and I picked out the ones that had a little bit of the bus in them. There are plenty more excellent photos from the trip (leaning tower of Pisa? Check! Roman Colosseum? Check! Alhambra? Pompei? Parthenon? You Bet! All with no bus, sadly.)

Let's go! -- First shot is another action on -the-road shot from from May '71 in Spain and the note on the back says "flag-bedecked streets in Madrid". I think there's something else going on here however, as there this pic is clearly centered around another bus just ahead. Is that a barndoor split? Also, you may hate them, but I love driving roundabouts. Discuss.

Second photo: What's going on here? Padre on the right and the three niños hanging out with some dude in a suit while wearing paper hats. July 1971. Caption on the back reads, "kind man in Spain who gave us lemons while we waited for a bicycle race". Such an enticingly vague description! Who, where and what... but no further information why. And no info about the hats, no lemon details, nothing further about the race, the bicycles... Look, the bus! There it is!

Third photo: Snapped from the passenger seat in July 1971 -- The caption says "dyed sheep, southern Yugoslavia". It does indeed look like those are some pinkish-orange sheep. Which as far as I know, is not a natural sheep color. Sure you dye the wool, but do you dye the whole sheep? Is this to keep the flock separated, so that the farmer knows which sheep is which? I do not know.

Photo 4: Bus in the lower left corner, September '71. I started to pull this photo out of the album and it was stuck so well that the photo started to tear. I stopped and left it alone, therefore I have no idea what the caption says. Looks like Germany or Austrian Architecture, and when looking close (remember I told you my dad was a minister) my guess is that he wanted a picture of the bible verses written across the front of this building in German.

Photo 5 is classic! The compleat setup! The top popped, the tent up, the stroller on the luggage rack, the brown futbal! I suspect this was taken in the same campground in Haderslev Denmark as a picture waaay back on page 5 of this thread, but who really knows? The info I have on our itinerary says the family left Europe much earlier in the summer, while the datestamp here says "Sept 1971"...? This pic is also stuck hard in the book, so I've got no caption to go here either...

There ya go! It's been over 5 years since I started this thread, and I announced it in my very first post: "There is a long story to tell if you are interested.", and there was, and there is more to tell, too. I'm gonna still keep it going, but I'm gonna wax philosophical for a second here.

Those last 2 photos that are stuck in the photo album probably have captions on their backs, but I can't get to them. There's probably some great anecdote about the kind lemon man of Spain, but I am never gonna learn it, either. In my day job, I try to read as much as possible, science it up with general questions, then establish hypotheses and gather data to answer the questions I posed. And to fulfill the science circle, you must publish your results.

But you gotta have a foundation of knowledge to do that, and sometimes knowledge is not readily available (like the inaccessible photo captions) and sometimes what was once known begins to disappear and fade (like a certain Padre's memory loss I shared here in previous pages).

The best part of Samba-lurking for me is seeing how the memory and knowledge of the community persists in this new electronic format and venue. Rather than this memory being embedded only in an old obscure book, or only in the experience of some cranky old dude (like Tram) or professional Asshole (like Skills) or wiseass (That's you, Xevin), that knowledge is collected here and available to everyone who can "learn how to use the search function, dammit!" And I am also fascinated by the way that ethics and honor arise out of the community as well, with some people getting knocked down and some get lifted up, mostly based on the criteria of how well they serve the community.

So thank you to all the Samba for letting me slowly roll out these non-technical posts, which have a small home in memory here because they simply happen to have pictures of a VW bus in them, and some of you people like busses too. Happy Thanksgiving ever-body! Can I get another slice of pie?
sunnydog
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'71 Westy w/ a 1776 singleport, 34P3 & 205Q. Points.

[Abscate]

Sunny dog...I can read messages through paper and under picturesbut then I have to kill myself.

We actually look for art under people-with-too-much-money-to-spend's art in their SoHo lofts for too much money, thus easing their burden of same. We do it without touching the artifact. One of the joys is collecting $X to tell people their Picasso has velvet Elvis underneath , where X is large.

Seriously, plan A , you might find a good museum person can tell you how to release those pictures from the paper with steam or solvent vapor.
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.ssS!

[71whitewesty]

All time favorite thread. Nice work Sunnydog. Keep it up, that bus is still making memories.
_________________
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"

[Clatter]

Oh, man.. How did I miss this thread for so long..?

Good on you, for not ruining it with endless technical drivel, or petty back-and-forth.
(Like the thread-nobody-would-ever-read that is mine).

Keeping it to tangibles that anyone can relate to - family, food, friends, travel (BEER! ) is genius.

Free associative regurgitation is most welcome;
How you 'just let it fly' is refreshing.

Funk tunes I never heard before,
And a couple of right tasty sounding camping food ideas..

Excellent thread.
Thanks for taking the time.
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Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Xevin]

[sunnydog]

Abscate -- Um, Ah, What? Okay I figured it out but my point is that the mystery is good -- having a little mystery in life is fun.

71Whitewesty -- you are doing it right, taking the family on exciting bus adventures. If there's anybody who hasn't seen these vacation vids, check 'em out. Oh here's one: https://vimeo.com/197723575

Clatter -- Howdy! You like beer too? I will be spending more time in the Bay area soon.

Xevin -- I DON'T KNOW YOU, MAN

Anyway, I lied. I found two more pictures from England, with the bus parked at the same place but cross-angle photos. These were taken in Coventry, which is about 2 hours NW of London on the M1 then the M45. Bus is parked in front of Coventry Cathedral with the old section behind, which was bombed out in the WWII Coventry Blitz, but kept standing as ruins. Then the same parking spot but a different angle, this time showing the new portion of the cathedral constructed after WWII, built in the 50s, an opened in the early 60s. The new and old buildings were connected as one big cathedral space. Nice Beetle down the street, too!

Is that a bright red Ford Capri Mk1 with a 1298cc Kent straight-4? Wowzers!
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'71 Westy w/ a 1776 singleport, 34P3 & 205Q. Points.

[Abscate]

Wow - that Coventry one hit close to home.

Mom woke up in 1940 and asked why it was light out at 1am. Grand-dad told her that was Coventry burning....

My roots go back to the 'Black Country' area of Birmingham Coventry Wolverhampton - until the US needed Dad to come build a Saturn V, Space Shuttle,and a Lunar Lander.
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.ssS!

[Abscate]

Mods... could we start a sticky topic for ‘ family cruising’ those folks who write an ongoing tale without gofundmes or drama, just sharing a great life of trips?

Sunny dog
Tuna and that guy who drives him around
White westy
Malcolm in the UK

Or perhaps add these to the existing sticky with a brief header
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.ssS!

[sunnydog]

Abscate I missed your post! Whaddaya mean no drama? This thread is full of intrigue, backbiting, threats, lies and statistics.

Actually here's what this thread is actually full of: Me being nervous about this goddamn bus. When's it gonna break? When am I gonna scratch and ding it? When's it gonna catch on fire? When are the brakes gonna fail and I jump it off the cliff on the sharp corner of the steep driveway?

Most of all, it's this: driving down some road and wondering what that faint new noise was. Did I hear it again? That's some drama. Honestly, this thing is an albatross [and by albatross, I mean it metaphorically is a psychological burden that feels like a curse, as derived from Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner].

What to do? Baby it? Let it sit quietly in the garage all winter? Trailer Queen?

Absolutely not!

Christmas Eve, you take it out in the first snow dusting of the winter and drive it.

I got no heat so note the barn coat and the gloves gripping the steering wheel. Drive it into town and catch some lunch at the corner diner. The cook says "Look at the Christmas lights on the bus! Is that yours? My family had a bus! We drove it to Baja twice." Then she tells her story (cuz everybody has got one) then I tell her mine and she nearly starts getting teary and says "Ooh that's a special bus!"

As we swap other stories and drink coffee the dusting of snow turns into freezing rain and the town shuts down because Portland-area drivers don't know anything about snow and ice and how to drive. So eventually I roll out and there are no pictures of the way home because the rain was freezing on the windshield cuz of no heat and I had to try and keep a bit clear of ice by holding my hand against the inside of the windshield, and I didn't have a scraper in the bus, so I stopped at a little market and bought one, scraped, then kept heading home. I passed cars in the ditch. I climbed up a crazy steep icy hill [or to keep the Coleridge theme intact, I "clomb" it], and I eventually got to the end of my driveway

And in these photos it looks like nothing at all on the roads, really it was nothing -- If I was in the 4runner I would not have thought twice about it. But this bus! In my very first post -- and it is over five years of this thread now -- I wrote this: "This bus is supposed to be, wants to be, a runner." And I am still trying to hold up my end of the bargain!

Later that evening, as the snow really did come down, I decided to put it back into the garage, but took one more photo

Then with it tucked away, I went inside for Christmas Eve dinner of lobstertails, a whole roast duck and a bottle of Nebbiolo.
Have a fat and happy New Year folks! May 2018 roll out before you like a 50 mph smooth and winding country road at goldenhour...
sunnydog
_________________
'71 Westy w/ a 1776 singleport, 34P3 & 205Q. Points.

[Danwvw]

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1960 Beetle And 1679cc DP W-100 & Dual Zeniths!

[Abscate]

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.ssS!

[Alan Brase]

WRT your dated sep 1971 pictures. Keep in mind that those dates are the PRINTING date, not the the photo date. (how things changed with digital!)
Often people would take exposed rolls of film home and have their favorite processor develop and print them so the printing date might often be 6-8 weeks later than the date of exposure.
_________________
Al Brase
Projects: 67 sunroof bug, 67 Porsche 912 Targa, 70 Westy
Dec 1955 Single Cab pickup WANT 15" BUS RIMS dated 8/55, thru 12/55
To New owners: 1969 doublecab, 1971 Dormobile
Vanagons:
80 P27 Westy JUL 1979, 3rd oldest known US
83 1.6TD Vanagon, 87 Wolfie Westy daily driver, swap meet home