My 71 Small Pop Top Riviera

[blackivory69]

TOOTSIE!!! That's her name. She's a 1971 Small Pop top Riviera. Let's back up a little. I had VWs in different type but never had a Type 2. But I always dream of a DC which I have right now before I saw Tootsie, her name is Zoey, but that's a whole different story. After I got my DC, I had a craving for a camper. And there were 3 major things that I want when I was looking. 1st, it's gotta be a bay. 2nd, it's gotta be a small pop top. And 3rd, it's gotta be a 71.

I live here in SoCal. And I looked and waited, and then looked and waited some more but I can't find those 3 combination that I want. Until one day, there she was in Craigslist. A 1971 Small Pop Top Riviera! BINGO!!!

There was one big problem though, she was in Oregon. A 12hour long drive. But I was not doing anything and bored (I was on family leave at that time) so what the heck. I called the PO and we talked over the phone. He said that the photos on CL were old, those were before they stripped her. Now the bus was on primer, only the front seats and Z-bed, and the tranny and engine is out and in pieces. I asked him to send me photos of the current condition. And these what I got;

Ugh.. I asked him, what happen. He explained that he was in the process of fixing her but found a Split that he really wants. So he put her up for sale. He was originally asking $2900 for it. I offered $2000. And he agreed.

So off to Oregon I did. 12 long hours of driving. It was a nice drive though going there,

And I stopped and slept before I reached my destination. The next day, I arrived at the place and check her out. Lower windshield, no rust. Both dog legs, perfect. Under carriage, good. PO mentioned some bondo on the rear corner, I said ok. Not that bad, I said. The PO put a nice new carpet on the floor where he put all the parts (engine, tranny, etc. etc) inside the bus. I lifted the carpet partially by the sliding door to see the floor and it looked good. I said hmmmm even the floor is in good condition huh? PO didn't say anything. So we did the paperwork paid the guy. And then he asked me how am I gonna bring the bus home. I said, with my truck. "With that?!", he said. It's a 1998 Toyota Tacoma ext cab . "Is that 6 Cylinder?", he asked. I said, "nope, 4 cylinder". And I can see the look in his face, thinking I was crazy. So how are you gonna do it? I said "I'll tow it with this, and showed him my "BUG" tow bar. I had a custom made bumper where I attached the short tow bar to make it work. And he watched me attached the the tow bar coz he wanted to copy my set up.

And here we go, I managed to pull out from his unpaved drive way which was very steep and very sharp curb with no problem. I stopped when I got down his hill and attached the safety chain and I noticed one tire was kinda low on air (front, right side). On my way out, I stopped by a small store to ask for the nearest gas station. On my way out I had to make a very sharp turn to get out of the parking lot. I made it to the gas station but I noticed my tow bar was bent.

(If you zoom the photo, you'll see the bent tow bar)

"Uh-oh!!! This is not good". I was only 5 miles away from where I got the bus. I took it off and I jumped on it and it straighten a little bit.

So I moved from the gas station to the parking lot and the tow bar collapsed completely .I disconnected the bus from the truck to assess the damage and it was not good. I tried to straighten it again and I did but I knew I will not get far and it will be very dangerous to continue using it. Then I remembered on my way here I saw a VW junkyard. I did a search on my phone and I got the number. I called and somebody answered. I asked if they have another bug tow bar and he said yes but it was not for sale. I told him my situation and he agreed to sell it to me but he has to find it first and he said I need to be there in a few minutes because he was closing for the day, it was 4:30pm. "Oh great" I thought. "I'll call you back in few minutes", he said.

Few minutes later, nothing. "I'm screwed big time", I thought. "Think, think, think". And all of a sudden a bulb in mind lit up, 2 WORDS! HARBOR FREIGHT!! I googled if there was an HF nearby, and there was!! Only 5 miles away! So I called them if they have the universal tow bar on stock and they said, "Yes, and it's on sale for $74 right now". YES!! Woohoo!! So I unhooked the bus and left a message on the window, "Please do not tow my bus. I'm just fixing my tow bar. I'll be back." So I went to pick up the tow bar. Upon inspecting it, I noticed in the box, it says, "fit a 2" ball" (I had 1 7/8"). Ok, no problem I'll just buy a 2" ball. But HF didn't have a 2" ball with 2 3/4" shank length which I needed. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I don't have a dedicated tow hitch on my truck. I only have the bumper with the 3500lbs limit. So I looked for an Auto store and luckily there was an O'Reilly nearby and they had the ball that I needed.

Went back to the bus and started assembling the tow bar. Upon assembly, I found out that the configuration of the tow bar will not work on my custom made bumper. I needed 4 new holes on the bumper to make it work. "Oh crap!". So I asked in the gas station if there was an auto shop nearby where I can bring the bumper to drill holes on it. The guy said, "Yes, only 2 miles away that way. But they must be close by now." It was past 5pm already. "F€#%!!". Oh what the hell, let me try anyway". And I'm glad I did. Because they were still open. I told the guy where to drill and how big the holes I needed. After a few minutes, "here yah go, $20". I thanked him and told him what was going on and he said good luck.

I drove back to the parking lot to see if the bus was still there. And yes, she was still there. I hooked up everything and it was perfect!

And then I transferred everything that was in the bus to the back of my truck to make it more stable on the freeway. So after $250 worth of gas. $74 for the tow bar, $10 for the tow ball, $20 for the machine shop, we finally made it home.

Oh yeah. On my way home, I was thinking, what am I gonna call her. And Tootsie Roll came to my mind, I know she's not really dark brown, I was probably hungry during that time and I love tootsie roll. OK! TOOTSIE it is then.
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1970 Double Cab. Stock engine (1600 SP)
1973 Thing (Mexican Safari)
1970 Karmann Ghia Convertible
1969 Buggy

[Skoolieman]

That is a really awesome bus! That is one crazy story for the trip home. Glad you got it home safe. I was worried as I was reading the story as to what the end would bring. Congrats on the nice find. Now lets see some pics of the dc.
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'69 Westfalia Camper~Cassidy
1600dp with H30/31 carb 009 distributor and alternator conversion

[blackivory69]

Here they are. The SISTERS. DC is my daily driver. But the heater is not connected and it's kinda chilly here right now in SoCal. So I'm using my Tacoma for now. Also I need to troubleshoot my electrical because my battery dies after not using the truck for 3 days. But it rans really good.

_________________
1970 Double Cab. Stock engine (1600 SP)
1973 Thing (Mexican Safari)
1970 Karmann Ghia Convertible
1969 Buggy

[hoagy86]

that was a pretty decent story. Im glad everything worked out. whats your plans for her. cant wait to see what you do for it.

[blackivory69]

Thanks Skoolieman & Hoagy86.

Right now I'm doing body works. I'll post some photos later. But the plan is repaint her to OG color. I have to strip that ugly primer. PO stripped her to bare metal and used that brown primer. So it will be easy for me to strip, only one layer of primer. After I strip that primer, I'll spray her with epoxy primer. She's is originally red so we will paint her original color.

When she's ready to received a new "heart", we will give her e healthy 1776cc. I'm still thorn between SP & DP . I want SP for better torque but I want a single progressive carburetor (weber or dellorto). Is there anybody here with that kind of set up? If not possible, I'll probably consider DP so that I can ran that single progressive carburetor or a single stock carburetor if I get an SP. I don't want to deal with syncronising and adjusting 2 carburetors. I just want simplicity and easy maintenance. Tranny will be probably stock configuration, I might go with Rancho. Her shoes will be BF Goodrich AT.

And then when she's all healthy and kicking well, we'll give her a custom made interior. Sorry Purist but her interior will be different from OG. This is why I didn't mint that she was naked when I bought her. She will have solid wood interior, my "boss" want Maple with natural stain. So maple all over her. And then she'll have a stove and oven combo, a sink, and a refrigerator. All of these are brand new. It's kinda hard to swallow the price of the ref because its almost $800 , but we need it.

This is not gonna be a car show. In fact far from it. We will use this camper, we'll,,, to camp what else. That's why I'm not gonna go crazy with the paint. We'll do the paint ourselves (me & the boss). If it turns out good, great! If not, who cares. We just want a paint better than a rattle can.

As with the interior, woodworking is happen to be one of my hobby so I have all the equipment to do the cabinet and panelling.

I'll try to post here my progress but please forgive me for not having a descent photos. I'll only use my phone the whole time during this build. And this will also take some time but our target is to finish her by summer of 2014.
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1970 Double Cab. Stock engine (1600 SP)
1973 Thing (Mexican Safari)
1970 Karmann Ghia Convertible
1969 Buggy

[blackivory69]

Upon close inspection, this is what I found. The good. Windshield area (only a few pinholes). Lower nose/valance is good, both doglegs are good, roof is very good. The bad: both rockers, both rear corners, under the driver seat has some holes also, front floors, both battery trays are gone, and the big head ache is the cargo floor. It looks like I'm gonna need to change the whole cargo floor.

_________________
1970 Double Cab. Stock engine (1600 SP)
1973 Thing (Mexican Safari)
1970 Karmann Ghia Convertible
1969 Buggy

[busdaddy]

[blackivory69]

[busdaddy]

Ahhhh,,OK, I saw the row of non factory welds along the left side panel and what look like welds along the back of the crossmember where it meets the floor in the tire pic, either way it's a bummer.
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Rust NEVER sleeps and stock never goes out of style.

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[blackivory69]

[ned]

Nice bus. My friend Mike has a 75 like yours with an upright engine. I especially like the way you rolled that thing all that way with thatt cheesy set up and bitchin tire.

[blackivory69]

[blackivory69]

I was about to order the whole floor but I found a very healthy donor floor that also came from a 71 according to the seller in Craigslist. So I pick it up. It's already been cut.

It looks dirty because it was. But it was really a solid floor. The only rust was under those plates where you anchor the bench. I cut them and welded new pieces that was left over when I did my DC.

And then I started cutting the floor. And drilled hundreds of weld spots.

After breaking a few drill bits and a couple of spot weld bits. The whole floor was gone. I treated the cross member with the rust converter and then brushed a commercial grade primer on them.

_________________
1970 Double Cab. Stock engine (1600 SP)
1973 Thing (Mexican Safari)
1970 Karmann Ghia Convertible
1969 Buggy

[hoagy86]

wow your not messing around with it our you haha that's a real nice job still watching

[blackivory69]

After drilling hundreds of those spot welds, it's time to test fit the donor floor. And start welding it.

Welding the floor was not so bad but there were a lot of pin holes. Hoping that POR 15 will take care of those. I ordered quart of POR 15 gas tank sealer. And started applying it with a brush.

The next day, it came out good.

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1970 Double Cab. Stock engine (1600 SP)
1973 Thing (Mexican Safari)
1970 Karmann Ghia Convertible
1969 Buggy

[geopanoramic]

strong work

[hoagy86]

[tootype2crazy]

Looks good man. Pinholes on german floors>no pinholes on aftermarket floor repair panels. I'm real happy for you getting that nice floor in and that you made it safe on you towing trip. I have a similar tale but I was in the bus and someone else was towing!
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air-cooled or nothing for me
1978 Sunroof Deluxe Bus (daily driver)
1978 Transporter (mom's, making into a camper)
1970 Single Cab 2.1 turbo/EFI 6 Rib, 78 front beam, vanagon backing plates on rear (project)
2001 GTI VR6 (wife's)

[blackivory69]

I remembered the PO mentioning the rear corners have a "little bit" of Bondo. So I went to the rear to investigate.

It looks good right? I opened the hatch and looked inside. I looked to the drivers side, yeap a little bit, I think I can flatten it more, no biggie. And then I turned to the passenger side and "HOLY COW!" This is what I saw,

I dug a little area on the corner and this is what I got,

.

So I called the guy where I bought the floor and bought the corners that he had lying on his backyard. And I started cutting, this was what "little bit of bondo" the PO was talking about.

_________________
1970 Double Cab. Stock engine (1600 SP)
1973 Thing (Mexican Safari)
1970 Karmann Ghia Convertible
1969 Buggy

[scrivyscriv]

Any progress?
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Robert in Memphis
Dünkelgrügen 1967 Java Green bug thread
Engine rebuild thread
If you're ever in the Memphis area, you are welcome to stop by for advice and help.