Adventures in Peryl, a ‘71 Westy

[richparker]

Made it home safely today! 9 days, 650 miles and we never left Colorado!!!!

So we went to 4CORE, then over to Penitente Canyon, then to Hooper, Co where we spent a few days doing the tourist thang. In Hooper we stayed at the Sand Dunes Pool & RV Park. What a great place, it was like an oasis. They had a natural hot spring pool, camping, laundry facility’s, showers, a bar and restaurant. We used that as a home base for a few days and went to the UFO Watchtower, Colorado Gator Ranch, Great Sand Dunes NP and Zapata Falls. From there we headed to Alamosa for supplies and headed to South Fork for the Rhythms on the Rio Festival. The is a huge bus camp at this festival called Buses on the Rio. This year there was 100 VW buses camping, woot! We were lucky enough to know the right people at bus camp and we got into camp on Thursday, which was a day early. We got a killer camping spot and volunteered on Friday in the parking/ camping area. I basically directed traffic and lined cars and RVs up to enter the event. We stayed at the event for 3 nights and had to leave Sunday morning to head home and get back to life.

The bus handled the trip nicely and was a pleasure to drive. I did have to break out the tools a few times, as expected on the first adventure of a new build. I had a rear blinker bulb go out, I had to adjust the rear brakes and I had to tighten the belt twice. The engine is loosening up nicely now. MPGs were around 15 for the first few hundred miles and jumped to 20 on our last tank. I attribute this to the engine loosening up and the fact that the last tank was all highway miles from Alamosa to Durango. There are still a few items to iron out and I’ll be dropping it off at the shop tomorrow.

Next weekend we are off to Ridgeway, Co to a craft fair my wife will he vending at.

Camp spot at the RV Park

Sand Dunes

Day camping at the NP

Zapata Falls

Buses by the Rio:

Camp spot

View from spot, Lil P on the roof top deck. That’s a ‘55

Lil P hanging around eating apples

Entrance to bus camp

First sticker on the new bus

Top of Wolfie

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’71 Westy build
Adventure thread
’65 Deluxe Build
’63 Deluxe Build

[KentABQ]

It doesn't seem like it was long ago since you purchased Peryl.
So major kudos to you for getting it up and running so quickly.
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-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

[richparker]

Few more pics of the trip that Greg sent me.

Silverton

Cajun Boil foil packs for dinner

Lake San Cristable

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’71 Westy build
Adventure thread
’65 Deluxe Build
’63 Deluxe Build

[71whitewesty]

Great first trip in Peryl! I see lots of fun trips in your future.
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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"

[richparker]

Weekend road trippin!!

Rockin out!

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[hoagy86]

Looks like fun

[richparker]

Super fun weekend in Ridgway. My wife vended her jewelry at a craft fair and she had her best show ever, woot! Miles and I drove up there on Friday and met up with her around 8ish. We ate super dank tacos at Gnar and cruised to a friends house and camped in their driveway for the weekend. Miles and I hung out and enjoyed the fair all weekend. Good times! The bus ran amazing and had no issues pulling the mountain passes. Engine temps were great all weekend and I didn’t have to pick up a screwdriver all weekend. Although I did pick up two 10mm wrench’s and tightened the E-Brake cables a bit. The drive there was a bit rainy and the drive back was crazy, with high winds and heavy rain.

Shooting for Buses at the Brewery in Colorado Springs next weekend.

Broke 95k on the chassis

Driving in the clouds

Dropping down into Silverton

Red Mountain Pass

Driveway camping

Lunch in the bus

Random car photos

The drive back on Red Mountain was crazy!

Still some snow in the high country

Molas Pass

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’71 Westy build
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[Spike0180]

Looks like an awesome trip Rich. I love the updates.



PS. please don't take offense to Abscate and I's banter. My side, at least, is not directed at you by any means. I believe I stated earlier that i thought it a good choice to go with what your engine builder suggests, because engines are all in the combo.
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Brutis Patches Izabich: 1970 VW Transporter - 1776cc DP
Current State: Projects never truly end...
Location: Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Other cars: 2003 F150, 2003 Jetta GLI vr6-6sp

Sambastic: adj; the quality of being nit picky, elitist, expecting everyone to do things the way they believe is best with no regard to situation, "sambastic"

[The Pilch]

This is so awesome!!

[hoagy86]

Looks like the adventures are just beginning! Looks like fun

[richparker]

Road trippin!

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’71 Westy build
Adventure thread
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[jmstu76]

So how does Peryl compare to the bone bus?
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James

'76 Deluxe Sage Green Westy
2258 cc GD case 78mm CW crank, 2.0 H-beam rods 5,325” 22mm pin, JE forged pistons with 15cc dish, JE rings, type 11 clearanced oil pump, CB Eagle 2205 Type-2 “Torque Special” hydraulic cam with matched lifters fed by CB Dual Weber 40 IDF MX with 6” foam air filters, currently 55 idle, 130 main, 200 air correction, 32 mm venturis. 27in General Grabber AT2 All Terrains, Berg Shifter, stock '76 exhaust HPC Ceramic Coated. 11/18/2020

[richparker]

[richparker]

Just when I say the engine in Bones got better MPG, I got 19 MPG on the last tank. Not to bad for out of the box at elevation.
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[richparker]

Made it home safely, what a great weekend adventure! Left Friday around 1ish and it seemed like we’d never get there. First we stopped in Pagosa Springs for pizza, which took like an hour, then we stopped in Poncha Springs for gas and Miles wasn’t feeling well. We hung out there for about 30 minutes until Miles was feeling better. Then about 30 minutes later Miles puked 🤮, so we pulled into the Gunsmoke to clean him and the bus up. After he puked he was feeling much better and was bouncing off the walls again. We finally rolled into Manitou Springs around 830, 7.5 hrs for a 5.5 hr trip...

After arriving to busboyjakes place we walked downtown for beers and burgers. The Keg served up a mean southwest Green chili burger, mmm. The next morning Miles and I were up and out early to go meet up with Mr. C Bugs. Let me tell you this guy was a real hoot! He sells all sorts of bug and bus parts and he hooked me up with a new windshield, woot! We met him at his place and followed him to a wholesale warehouse where I got my new non-shaded windshield at a most excellent price. Busboyjake had picked me up some mud flaps from a local truck shop a week or so ago, so I got a few goodies this trip. After picking up the windshield Miles and I B-lined it to the Garden of the Gods to meet up with everyone for the cruise. There was probably about 50 VWs there and everyone was very talkative. We did the cruise and ended at the Brewery for the event. I rolled with the local Colorado Springs crew and got a prime spot in the from next to the Brewery. We chilled there for 4 hours, drank, ate and had a ton of laughs. Miles P ran around like a crazy man and tried himself out.

We got on the road around 330 to head towards home. Since we were on the south east side of the city I decided to take I25 south to Hwy160. Fuck was it hot!!!! I was hot the bus was hot and somehow Miles slept through the whole thing. His sleeping was good though, it allowed me to drive straight through to Wolf Creek Pass where I wanted to camp. When we got there it took us an hour to find a camp spot. 🙄. But we finally did and hung out in the bus messing around and playing video games.

This morning we got up kinda early to hit the road. I had to pick my mom up at the airport at 11am. We made it on time and spent the rest of the day running errands in Durango.

We had a blast and the bus ran great!

Trip stats:
Days: 2
Miles: 726
MPGs: 18-19, with is up 3 MPG from our last trip
Oil consumption: ~1/4 qt

Wolfie

Rappin out

Busboyjake place

Mr. C Bugs rigs

The event

The way back, P was out

Bugs

Camping on Wolfie

Up Yellowjacket hill, 6% grade

Windshield and mud flaps

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’71 Westy build
Adventure thread
’65 Deluxe Build
’63 Deluxe Build

[Abscate]

I almost freaked when you lake San cristable shot, it looked like Peryl was resting her back leg on a step stool.

Great kid name too. I’m sure you though about “Kilometers” but it looks like this metric thing isn’t going to catch on, just like “ fetch”
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.ssS!

[richparker]

VW cruise

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’71 Westy build
Adventure thread
’65 Deluxe Build
’63 Deluxe Build

[richparker]

I hung the riding gear up for a couple of months while I concentrated on the bus build. Not that’s it’s done I’m officially back in the saddle with three rides in 5 days, woot! It’s nice that my bike fits in the bus, but I need a hitch for my bike rack. I’m stoked to have a place to change in and out of my gear again at the trailhead. When I was bus-less I just got naked in the lot, figured fuck it I’m in Colorado.

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[cmonSTART]

I have to say, I really like those tires!
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'78 Bus 2.0FI
de K1IGS

[Spike0180]

Awesome. Agreed you need a hitch, the dirty bike in the bus will require a lot of extra cleaning and takes up changing space. I change in my f150's back seat. It works well with a supercrew, but a bus would be a little bit easier. A pop-top would would be great or one of the tall ford transits. That's luxury. I'm 6'2" and I can stand up straight in one of those
_________________
Brutis Patches Izabich: 1970 VW Transporter - 1776cc DP
Current State: Projects never truly end...
Location: Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Other cars: 2003 F150, 2003 Jetta GLI vr6-6sp

Sambastic: adj; the quality of being nit picky, elitist, expecting everyone to do things the way they believe is best with no regard to situation, "sambastic"