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

[Abscate]

[sunnydog]

Sorry folks, I got no new tale to tell. February in Portland OR rounded out with 10.34 inches of rain, making it the rainiest Feb on record. I have been delayed by landslides, caught in emergency repaving traffic jams -- but that lonesome bus is hibernating in my garage. No fairweather here yet. So if y'all are in the mood, I'm gonna go back to the well. I mentioned that in my father's stuff was photos I'd never seen, including some from the 1970-71 European tour. So if you go all the way back to page one of this thread there is a poor quality square photo of the bus on the first day we got it at Holyrood Close in Cambridge, where I am sitting on my mom's lap. Here's a companion photo with my dad in a white sweater, and us three kids the same. Hey look! No overriders on the bumper. ... Whatever.

No additional photos of the bus in this set of pictures during any of the Great Britain (bollocks! none at Stonehenge) or France (none at the Arc de Triomphe, merde!) portion of the trip, but then this beauty shows up: Written on the back in my mother's handwriting it says "The Rain in Spain! near Santa Victoria." I don't know specifically know where that is, but I can tell that 2 year old me, standing there by the back tire does not care if the rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain... I am simply eager to go stomp around in that puddle!

Then here's another from Spain, taken out the baywindow from the passenger seat: the back of this one says "flags and flowers in Madrid"

I suspect this particular set of square photos came from a camera that my mother carried, and this album somehow ended up in Dad's stuff instead. There are a few more bus photos in this batch, but I'm gonna save them for some rainy future month when someone prompts me for a story and I've got no recent drivetime in.

Spike 0180, thanks for the prompt, and Abscate, thanks for all your posts over the years. Here's hoping spring gets here soon and this Love and Rockets earworm gets out of my head.
sunnydog
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'71 Westy w/ a 1776 singleport, 34P3 & 205Q. Points.

[Xevin]

You cannot go against nature
Because when you do
Go against nature
It's part of nature too......

Thanks for the lyrical earworm. It will be looping through my head all day
We need to make a Tamale run soon Be well.
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Keep on Busin'

[Abscate]

Awesome photos and thanks to those parents who conquered film photography to record those moments and save the pictures..
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.ssS!

[71whitewesty]

Still my favorite thread on here. Great stuff Sunnydog. Weather is starting to break though and I know mine need a good run in some sun soon.
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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"

[sunnydog]

With Apologies to Ogden Nash, or whoever wrote it:
"Spring iz sprung, Thre gass iz riz. I wonder where my feeler gauge iz"

After a crazy winter, snowstorms and windstorms and trees blown down, much chainsawing and splitting, I finally got a chance to coax the old girl from winter slumber in the barn with lots of starterfluid and battery charging and endless cranking, then promptly sank it hubs deep in the lawn and had to pull it out with the 4runner... Wait, that was the riding lawnmower. The bus started right up no problem.

Let the fairweather driving season commence! Off to the hardware store! I chased down somebody driving a '71 deluxe and beeped at him. While driving through town, Mrs. Sunnydog called me and said "You drove past me going the other direction and didn't even wave!" I said, "I'm too cool for that?" She said" No you're not."

Collected Mrs. Sunnydog! Off to the pub! Here's a blue sky shot with a just the tip of Mt Hood visible. (This probably is Xevin's new signature line quote: Sunnydog said:"just the tip...")

Driving along the lake at sunset:

Classic profile angle in the evening light:

Of course there's a bunch of mechanical stuff that still needs doing, which I had wanted to wrench on over the winter, but no such luck. We shall see what springtime 2017 brings, but this slow rujevenation continues.
Spring iz sprung the grass iz riz, keep them buses in the biz!!!
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'71 Westy w/ a 1776 singleport, 34P3 & 205Q. Points.

[sunnydog]

Yes!
Fairweather Friday Night VW Bus Driving Season has arrived, also known as FFNVWBDS, which is a pretty clusmy acronym beacsue it is only consonants. Do you want to discuss torque spec? Would you rather debate the pro and cons of straight 30-weight oil? This thread is not for you.

I rolled that bus out last evening, headed down to the country market and got a few beers, then went south on the country straightaway with a bus-shaped shadow to the east and a grove of oak trees that are just starting to leaf out.

Parked at the lake. Enjoyed a beverage and the view for a while, but the windows were dirty, and the bus was dirty as it had not been washed in a while.

Nuthin specific to do, so I decided to drive to the car wash. Broke the law and did some one-hand grip driving and action photography. That's right: dirty window action.

Parked at the carwash, washed the car and enjoyed a beverage.

Drove down the the side of the Columbia River and started to dry and detail the bus, really scrubbing the windows and chrome. Enjoyed a beverage...
The local jazz radio station has an amazing Friday night selection of blues, and deep funk -- they start to play "No more Okey-Doke" by the Meters, which is a stone 1977 classic:

Link


So! Picture me in a public parking lot, miles from home, detailing a VW bus under a streetlight at sunset by a river, but now dancing and shaking my tailfeathers! I'm thinking that this is how life is best lived I am having a great time what more could anyone need?

Meanwhile, other people are probably more like or or even ...

Now with all the windows clean, I am sitting in the backseat of the bus enjoying all that glass, watching sunset get almost wrapped up, while Brethren's "Outside Love" (1969) is rolling out those speakers.

Link


I start taking arty photographs of VW glass:

Eventually I pack it all that sunset and good funk jams off to a great restaurant and grab some carne asada and spicy camaron tacos, while the bus lurks outside the window. Oh, and maybe I enjoyed another beverage there, too.

Then around the corner to another place, a fancy speakeasy-style cocktail bar where the there is live music from one of the best singers ive ever heard, and where I am eventually joined by Mrs. Sunnydog.

So today, Saturday, I got a list of things to accomplish. But my head is a little foggy this AM. And I am a little slower than normal. But I gotta get in shape! I gotta rehydrate! Do you know what tonight is?
It's FSNVWBDS!
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'71 Westy w/ a 1776 singleport, 34P3 & 205Q. Points.

[KentABQ]

[Xevin]

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Keep on Busin'

[sunnydog]

Hey asiab3 --
Last year when you rolled through the Lucky Lab in Portland OR, I saw you click on your motorbox lighting and I was insanely jealous. That's brilliant!
Let me tell you the story about about that one time in the early 90s when I was troubleshooting a sudden "why does my coil wire keep falling off?" failure by the light of a bic lighter... right next to the old hose, fuel filter and the screwdrive clamps.

Maybe I'd better not.

Last weekend I came across these FLEX strip LEDs in the local O'Reillys autoparts for $19.99. They are rubberized LED strips with double-sided sticky tape backing. So for all you stock purists, look away now! I am going to hack a bus! Parts link here:
https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/custom-accessor...04/2619924

Cleaned the paint on the inset part of the door frame, then peeled and mounted the stickyback flex strips

I got always-on power from the extra 0.375 terminal on the voltage regulator and brought it out to the little triangle strut. LED lights use very little amperage so 22AWG was bigger than the wires they came with. I scavenged a retro toggle switch and mounted it in a piece of scrap plastic. I routed all the butt splices and micro fuse holder behind the plastic, then landed the ground terminal on the ground for the tail-lights that is right there. Cable tied everything real good y'all.

Here they are when on during the day. I had to climb a long way in to take this photo. That's my elbow on the right.

And the final comparison! Night time is the right time!

3 seconds and a toggle switch click later -- the light of a thousand suns!

If I was a total nerd, I'd parallel wire a signal LED to the dash that would remind you those lights were on. Good thing I'm not a total nerd.
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'71 Westy w/ a 1776 singleport, 34P3 & 205Q. Points.

[airschooled]

Woohoo! I remember that day/night… Well, at least the part at the 'Lab until I put too many back on Xevin's porch…

Nice job on the lights; keep an eye out on the "peel and stick" backing of the LED strips, I added some zip-ties to mine in case the adhesive fails in the 105° heat we've been having this week… Luckily it's calming down to 98° or so when I drive up next week!

Robbie
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Learn how your vintage VW works. And why it doesn't!
One-on-one tech help for your Volkswagen:
www.airschooled.com

[71whitewesty]

Are you running a dual port now?
Great post as always.
_________________
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"

[Abscate]

There are only a couple of threads of family history cars on the whole Samba and they are awesome.....
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.ssS!

[SamboSamba22]

[sunnydog]

[Abscate]

I hope the year that has passed has brought you to the acceptance phase, sunny dog. I did just reread the entire thread and loved it all again.

I unsuccessfully lobbied my Dad to buy a camper van when I was a kid - we had a 1966 Beetle which was our only car for three years in a family of 5 - with both parents in college and three whippersnappers in grade/middle school. When his Ford died, I told him I thought a camper would be cool driver, useful for the Summer camping trips but he was a cheap SOB

Oh, what might have been.
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.ssS!

[71whitewesty]

[Abscate]

Oversize single ports with boots?


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.ssS!

[sunnydog]

[Abscate]

Three times actually, but no representations of comprehension were made...


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.ssS!