| Author |
Message |
Bob D.
Samba Member
Joined: September 11, 2003
Posts: 613
Location: Chicago, IL
|
 Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2004 9:05 am Post subject: The Empty Garage aka Cold Turkey Bus Withdrawl |
 |
|
I'm fresh out of the hospital after another operation to try to patch together my disintegrating body. This time, taking bone from my hip and using it to rebuild one of my ankles. Of course this is not pleasant, but do you know what is really bothering me? The operation, and resultant long recovery time with my foot in a cast, means an early hibernation for my bus this year! 
I parked it in secure storage last week. It has a fresh oil change, a full tank of gas with stabilizer, and over-inflated tires. If everything goes perfectly, I can be driving again by April or May. Right now, that seems an awfully long time away.
It is amazing to me how you can become so attached to these crazy old vehicles. I have been a car nut all my life, but I'm not sure I have ever "bonded" with a car quite like I have with this bus. I have tried to figure out why, and have managed to come up with a couple of reasons, such as the fact that the comparatively slow "putt putt" speed of bus travel has sort of a calming effect. And, in this part of the country buses are so rare that they tend to bring a smile to the faces of passersby. But its more than that, I just can't explain it very well. If anybody else thinks they have articulated well the bus mystique, please let me know. 
Whatever the reason(s), I enjoy the heck out of driving my bus.
So for all you left coast or dry climate types who might be blase about hopping in your bus every morning and tooling around, here is my unsolicited advice for the day: appreciate and enjoy the experience, take an extra lap for me, and keep on bussin! 
_________________
1978 7-Passenger, 37K miles
Proud Member #1, SBS (Stock Bus Society)
*Enjoy and appreciate your good health*
We used to play for silver
Now we play for life |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
poptop tom
Samba Member
Joined: July 27, 2004
Posts: 1607
Location: The Hoosier State
|
| Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2004 9:50 am Post subject: |
|
|
Wishing you a speedy recovery Bob!
Hopefully I'll my have my westy (unnamed at this point) rolling down the road around the same time you're back behind the big wheel.
After previously owning a '72 transporter (burned up at a gas station), foloowe by '79 transporter, then a '73 westy, and then the '71 westy, and proceeding on over the last six years w/o any kind of VW, I'm know the feeling you speak of.
Everday I start something new and my rig is in pieces, but each time I'm upgrading the quality and detail of the work. I want it to be as close to perfect as it can be.
I'll cruise it over to the windy city when it's finished to give you a look!
Tom (whose still trying to figure out how to get the front door window trim and vent glass out) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
DurocShark
Samba Member
Joined: April 05, 2004
Posts: 6624
Location: Crappy town in a crappy state. But the beach is nearby, so I have that going for me.
|
| Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2004 10:12 am Post subject: |
|
|
Get better quick!!!
As for the "putt putt"... My 73 no longer putt putts. It zooms. Amazing what that little 1700 engine can do. I easily keep up with traffic even on freeway onramps.
In fact, it seems to really piss off other drivers who expect me to be barely moving so they try to zoom around me. But I'm going so well that many cars just can't get the accelleration to pass. LoL!!!
_________________
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
earthmuffin
Samba Worm Farmer
Joined: September 24, 2003
Posts: 1542
Location: In the shower..........peeing!
|
| Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2004 10:29 am Post subject: |
|
|
I'm going to drive my VW's all winter long just in honor of you east coast part-timers. Yesterday, today, tomorrow..........Ya'll should think about moving! LOL
Hope you get to feeling better fast.
_________________
This thread SUCKS!!! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
steve74baywin
Samba Member
Joined: December 29, 2003
Posts: 452
Location: FL - Tampa
|
| Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2004 11:52 am Post subject: |
|
|
Bob D, I will take spins/laps for you......
My buses are not my daily drivers, but I do use them at least once a week. Took my dog for a ride in the 74 this weekend. Anyways, I couldn't imgine putting my VW's away for months... I think I'd move,,,um, wait, I did move.......
_________________
Steve |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
OrangeWesty'73
Samba Member
Joined: October 17, 2003
Posts: 377
Location: Chicago Area
|
| Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2004 1:08 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Get well soon Bob,
I know in our area it is always a gamble as to when to put your bus to sleep for the winter. Today being a perfect example of a great vw driving day.
Stand by your van!
speedy recovery to you!
_________________
-------------
'73 Westy |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
MrBreeze
Samba Hitman
Joined: October 06, 2002
Posts: 5540
Location: Lawn Guyland, Noo Yawk
|
| Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2004 1:10 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Don't worry, Bob. Soon you and your bus will up and about and feelin' fine 
My bus goes to the body guy for a few months in Nov/Dec. I'm looking for a bug for the winter. I feel like I'm going against my bus roots, but I've never had one and I figure it'll be less room to have to heat up. Or I could just buy a car with heat.
Nah.
_________________
-=Rob
WTB: Bay Shore or Queensboro VW Frames
HBB 1984-2009
RW 1943-2011
ER 1964-2023 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
ruckman101
Samba Member
Joined: March 15, 2004
Posts: 961
Location: Portland "Little Beirut", OR
|
| Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2004 3:46 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Yah, speedy recovery. Just got mine back on the road. It went down back in March. Long stretch of months rebuilding the motor on this day, that day, and whenever I managed to fit in some time. My only running car at the moment. I'll think about you folks east and mid-west where the salt poors freely onto the roads. Just wet here, usually a week of snow and or ice, that's it. Wished I'd started my bus resurrection last year. I would have given it a run on the ice storm we had this past January. Had a Toyota pick-up then. Not a chance I was driving it in ice.
Maybe you'll have an early spring, and a new spring in your step.
neal
_________________
Where are we going, and why am I in this hand-basket? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
sodbuster
Samba Member
Joined: August 08, 2004
Posts: 1086
Location: wherever my baywindow takes me.
|
| Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2004 8:39 pm Post subject: |
|
|
get well soon Bob. I think I will drive my bus to work tomorrow in your honor.
_________________
100% VW fleet.
71 Campmobile.
71 Transporter Single Cab.
2012 Jetta GLI.
2018 Atlas SE
I am my own best mechanic. You should be too!
Fahren nur mit verriegelter schiebetür! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Bottomend
Grease
Joined: September 20, 2003
Posts: 1500
Location: Smell Aye! via Nude Hamster!
|
| Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2004 9:31 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Bob D. Colin has told me in PM's how much he values your budding friendship...
Please know that even though none of the rest of us have met you, we feel like we know a part of you. Keep up the posting through this period. You inspire US! ( maybe a little jealous of the low miles too...) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
CoBusDriver
Samba Member
Joined: December 30, 2003
Posts: 359
Location: Home is where you park it
|
| Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2004 9:34 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Here's to a speedy recovery
I'll drive my bus through the winter...with crappy bus heat and leaky door seals in your honor!
_________________
Big Mike
'58 standard
'71 westy |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
jeremysmithatshawdotca
Samba Member
Joined: February 11, 2002
Posts: 2530
Location: Edmonton, AB
|
| Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2004 10:03 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| MrBreeze wrote: |
Don't worry, Bob. Soon you and your bus will up and about and feelin' fine
My bus goes to the body guy for a few months in Nov/Dec. I'm looking for a bug for the winter. I feel like I'm going against my bus roots, but I've never had one and I figure it'll be less room to have to heat up. Or I could just buy a car with heat.
Nah. |
The beetle I used to have would get so warm and toasty inside at highway speed, I'd have to roll down the window a bit! Not quite so warm in the city though, but it did have a gas heater for that.
Get well Bob, maybe the reason we become so attached to these vans is that we get to know them so much more intimately, taking them apart ore often, and to a greater degree than most other types of vehicles, and that way, we invest ourselves into the busses!
Jeremy |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Amskeptic
Samba Member
Joined: October 18, 2002
Posts: 8568
Location: All Across The Country
|
| Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 10:51 am Post subject: Re: The Empty Garage aka Cold Turkey Bus Withdrawl |
|
|
| Bob D. wrote: |
I enjoy the heck out of driving my bus.
|
The 2004 Itinerant Air-Cooled Consulting season drew to a close just last night at 473,009 miles on the odometer. I have driven 17,000 miles since July 10th, 20,000 miles since my first customer in Atlanta in April. And I still enjoy driving the heck out of my bus
Colin
( and I enjoy the heck out of driving my bus, too )
_________________
www.itinerant-air-cooled.com |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
VWBusrepairman
Samba Member
Joined: July 06, 2004
Posts: 4726
|
| Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 2:22 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I will drive my '78 Sunroof Bus in your honor, here in the corn fields of Indiana, unless there is salt on the road-of course.
The sunroof lets in some nice cool air and my door seals aren't the best, but I will wear some coveralls and fight the cold!
I don't even have the heat box flappers attached as of yet!
Get well soon! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
steve74baywin
Samba Member
Joined: December 29, 2003
Posts: 452
Location: FL - Tampa
|
| Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2004 6:17 am Post subject: |
|
|
As I said early, I find excuses to drive my buses... This time,, the 74,,, Last night we were cleaning a bench in the garage, another bench I would need to get to had my 74's middle seat in front of it, we took it out of bus to hual stuff a few months ago... So I drive bus from back yard to front of garage to load seat in it.... When all work in garage was done,,, I of course had to mention how I need to make sure I replace the juice back in the battery,, so,, at 9Pm last night a 22 minute ride out of town and back was in order......
The night before that, after investigating the a squealing brake noise in the 78 I had to take that for a ride to,,, heat the oil, replace juice in battery..
_________________
Steve |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Amskeptic
Samba Member
Joined: October 18, 2002
Posts: 8568
Location: All Across The Country
|
| Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2004 2:07 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Keep driving those buses, Steve, they hate being neglected. I might do a charge-the-battery ride from Rochester NY to let's say, Florida in January, to help drive the moisture out of the engine oil or something
Colin
_________________
www.itinerant-air-cooled.com |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
thenexttownshend
Samba Member
Joined: November 27, 2003
Posts: 461
Location: Rhode Island
|
| Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2004 7:36 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Amskeptic wrote: |
Keep driving those buses, Steve, they hate being neglected. I might do a charge-the-battery ride from Rochester NY to let's say, Florida in January, to help drive the moisture out of the engine oil or something
Colin |
Hmm sounds compleatly neccasary to me, i think i may take a similar drive to properly air out the fresh air vents. Can never be to careful about those.
_________________
Steve
-1973 Bus Type II |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
DurocShark
Samba Member
Joined: April 05, 2004
Posts: 6624
Location: Crappy town in a crappy state. But the beach is nearby, so I have that going for me.
|
| Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2004 8:16 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Don't forget to drive long enough to rotate the air in the tires!
_________________
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
steve74baywin
Samba Member
Joined: December 29, 2003
Posts: 452
Location: FL - Tampa
|
| Posted: Fri Oct 29, 2004 6:03 am Post subject: |
|
|
Well now I think I have a novel idea...
Steve in RI, why don't you head over to NY where Colin can join you, head to Chicago and get Bob D and his bus out of storage, and make a 3 bus carbus to Florida. Y'all can camp in my back yard for a week or two.
_________________
Steve |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Bob D.
Samba Member
Joined: September 11, 2003
Posts: 613
Location: Chicago, IL
|
| Posted: Fri Oct 29, 2004 6:19 am Post subject: |
|
|
| steve74baywin wrote: |
Well now I think I have a novel idea...
Steve in RI, why don't you head over to NY where Colin can join you, head to Chicago and get Bob D and his bus out of storage, and make a 3 bus carbus to Florida. Y'all can camp in my back yard for a week or two. |
LOL! Do NOT tempt me.... Swing by in April or so, when I should finally be out of this [insert favorite expletive here] cast, and I just might join the carabus. 
Steve, believe it or not I moved from Marco Island to Chicago in the 1980s, been here ever since. Right idea, wrong direction! Enjoy your "winter" down there and drive those buses!
Thanks everybody for all the kind words, and the laughs, in this thread. Much appreciated.
_________________
1978 7-Passenger, 37K miles
Proud Member #1, SBS (Stock Bus Society)
*Enjoy and appreciate your good health*
We used to play for silver
Now we play for life |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
