On the Road Again

My everyday ride in Boston and Cape Cod is a 79 bus, bay window style. It makes my day just to climb in it and sit so high and chill out as I move around the scurrying drivers intent on cutting me off as they rush about in their Brownian futility. Wouldn't trade it for the world. I've met so many people who come up to tell me about "the best summer of their life.." Peace!

Now, I am building my next novel around a character who lives in one on Beacon Hill in Boston. Could be the best summer of my life!

The best feature of my '71 DeLuxe Transporter is that it is my daily driver .
Peace out , Wizzard

You can't afford $ 7,000 for a car/camper? The Times must not pay very well. New, a Vanagon camper was around that price and probably higher. Most post 1967 buses/campers sell for far less than their original purchase price. A new bug costs way more than $ 7,000 and you can't sleep in it or cook a meal.

Good article. I've had my 71 for 16 years would never give it up. But you can spring for 7 grand to keep the wife happy.

"The rents" bought me a VW bus for my first car in college- I had a photojournalism assignment to take some newsworthy photo-in the middle of winter, the van slid into some bushes in the snow as I returned to the frat- the van buried half way in the snowy evergreen became my "news photo" Oh well. Several years later I had another one and traveled to California with my girlfriend- we stayed at Sunset beach, then drove north- the alternator went out in Ventura and something else was wrong in Palo Alto, where we had to stay a few days- great memories-- but a mini-van has always been a more viable vehicle since 1984.

Back in 1969 I drove a '63 custom camper van with 5 crank window/curtains, closet, fold down backseat/bed, ice fridge when I was 16. I installed a curtain behind the front seats and had a party on wheels.

Eventually I removed the fridge to haul my band's equipment.

If the van was a rockin'....

My '65 VW Bus was a 1500 cc that I had to tow home, which happened to be my boss' warehouse in southern Maryland, 1972.

It had thrown a valve thur a piston, as I recall, but I was up to rebuilding it with the remarkable Idiot's Book. The rebuilt honey served me well until 1977.

In the meantime, I had it painted in Kansas, for $25, and extensively modified the interior myself to my ideal: paisley headliner, cabinets, unusual seating, a quickie bed setup, and put the spare tire on the front "hood."

I loved the way it drove, and driving it, leaning over the steering wheel, and the company of highway people I picked up in those days.

Then one night, in N. Californian, I met a lady in a tavern and went home with her. My friends rolled my car on their way back home, totallying it. Need I add, thankfully, they were f...... safe, not a scratch, and I got an old skill saw for reimbursement.

Still, good memories will last 'till I go to the grave. Years later I bought a '68 Van,pop-up, one-piece windshield, but that's another story.

We are currently in North Carolina driving our faithful westy, Lazarus on a vacation from Missouri. A fully functioning roadworthy bus costs more like $20,000. I know of no better way to spend my bread!

David and Lesley

http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/cto/2440615688.html

I own a 72 Westy hardtop that I inherited in mint condition. I wouldn't sell it due to all the memories I have grown up in it with my grandparents. They truly are the 'Peoples' car. I've since rebuilt the engine to larger specs (2056cc) and rebuilt the Trans as well.

I bought my brand new VW Bus from LA VW (Downtown) back in 1978 and owned it for 15 years.
After two rebuilt engines I sadly retired her. I miss that bus more than any of my cars of my past.

I had a '67 bus back in the day. Me and my dog Robyn would live in it all Summer in Isle Vista. I would do research in the UCSB library in the morning, then we would go to Coal-Oil Beach until the sun went down.

Thanks, but I'll stick with my classic Toyota Chinook poptop and Toytota Chinook Omega. Mechanically they run circles around VWs, and they're easier and cheaper to fix. Better design, too.

Ranger Don

I once had a 72 camper with custom dual exhaust that I drove from Boston to Seattle to Vancouver to San Fran to LA to Tijuana back to Seattle then back to LA to Phoenix to El Paso to Omaha to NYC and back to Boston... the stories that Bus could tell. I sold it for 4k to a Phish Phan in Vermont with 33k more miles than it had when I bought it.. 95-97

My boyfriend and I moved to Hawai'i in 1978 and we sent our VW van over by boat to be there when we arrived. We had no home at the time, so for the first couple of weeks, we lived in the van. I hated taking "spit baths" in the local McDonald's and sleeping at beach parking lots. But the "camper" did its job and was home for us for a short while. I moved back to the mainland after only 3 months, but my boyfriend stayed ... and still lives there to this day. I have to ask him (we are still friends) whatever happened to the "bus?"

I have bought VW campers in Europe three times and travelled all of Europe for several of the best years of my life. Met many wonderful people and saw it all from the Arctic Circle to the Sahara and from Ireland to Turkey. And at very little cost! It can't be beat.

I bought my 1978 Westfalia in college in 1987. I also own a Syncro Vanagon Westfalia and have owned a number of 1974 "Westys" and a LT28 Westfalia also made by VW. I love them and would never want to not have the instant camping and mellow vibe that goes with them.

Peace Dude (Y)

My first was a '56, purchased from two Australian carpenters who were living in it on the street in London, across from the Duke of York Headquarters.
They had mail delivered to it, using the plate number for an address. They had bought it from a German, who had worked in the VW factory, and who had built a rudimentary camper car inside the van. Many coats of white enamel later, it was good to go. When we moved to Copenhagen, we lived in it for a month in a campground in Naerum, a suburb, and I walked to the highway every morning and caught the City bus to work downtown. A year later, we lived in it for three months in Italy with our infant son, before selling it to a friend and leaving Europe. Its only quirk was that I had to file the points every 100 kilometers; and the security system in London was restricted to removing the rotor from the distributor each evening.

The second was also a '56, purchased from a plumber who had used it for a work van. An apprentice repainted it, I built an interior of 1/8" plywood and stressed-skin panels; and off we went to the midwest, in our $100 car, to graduate school (from the west coast.) With a set of chains, that van was unstoppable in the Michigan winter.

The third was a full-blown Westfalia, bought with scholarship money; and it saw the eastern seaboard, Atlantic Canada, the Florida Keys each Spring Break, and annual trips to the west coast every summer for six years, with two kids romping in the back end.

A family move back to the west coast prompted the last VW van--a new red window van that was totally "bare" and that soon was equipped with a Westfalia hammock in the front, and a backward-facing passenger seat just behind the cockpit that suited the elder son for sleeping; as well as the typical folding rear seat that doubled as a double sleeping space. Holidays in California, hiking trips in the Rockies, and duties as a beast of burden as the first home renovations commenced, were all part of the job description. The battery fell out through the bottom, onto the street on this one, and I couldn't teach my elder son to drive it; but, no hard feelings--those cars were an important part of my family's life for 20 years.

This past spring while on a family vacation to Joshua Tree I ran into a couple driving a 70's Westy. As a Squareback owner I complemented them on their taste in vehicles. After doing so the husband admitted with a grin that it was a rental from Surfari... could that have been you guys?

My son-in-law recently bought a 72 van. When he took his 10 yr. old daughter for her first ride she asked him in a confused voice ''Dad how do the windows go down.'' When he showed her she was truly amazed.

I had a '64 "bus" back in the 70's and had a blast rumbling around in that van. I met the original owner one day in San Pedro who told me he had bought the VW in Germany brand new. He nick-named it patches because of the number of collisions it had gotten into. I should've taken this as an omen because 10 years later when my dad bought it from me he got in a serious accident which left the van totalled and my dad comatose. He would never fully recover from that accident and succumbed to his injuries two years later. "Patches".... a lot of memories, not all of them good.

We drove '68 and '69 VW buses summer of '73 "hippie road" from Frankfurt to New Delhi and back. 8 people each bus. Vehicles, indestructible. Adventures, priceless. The '68 repeated the trip that Fall.

From 2002 to 2004 I did a drive about around North America. Memories and friendships for several lifetimes ... incredible experience .... www.roadhaus.com

I am still driving my 1966 VW Bus and frequently get shout outs about would I sell it. My family of 7 bought it new in Germany on our way to live in Egypt in 1966. In Cairo I daily drove paying passengers from the American University to and from the AUC on Tahrir Square and to the Zamalek French School for the young kids of AUC faculty. When full I carried total of 14. It was the last car loaded onto a ship to escape to Europe during the June 1967 6 Day War.

Then it became my 9 year old son's hearse when he died of rabies July 1967. Since then and after divorce it was often the traveling home of my 4 remaining children, filled with chickens when my son moved from Portland to Humboldt Co. CA, my Dogmobile when I raced another of the Border Collies to the vet in California.

The Idiot Book was my faithful friend during my hippie days, and it took me 3 months to complete the rebuilding of my engine, the only time I tackled the complete job. Otherwise it has had several engines, 3 repaintings, and still looks gorgeous.

I drive slowly and locally now due to a genetic eye disease that limits my abilities to cross the country again, but since I will not give it up, my kids purchased their own, and my youngest still has a '71 in Colorado.

I had a '67 VW bus back in 79. My Pops bought brand new when I was a kid. I drove that thing all over So Cal for 6 years. It was my home away from home during my college and post college years. IT served as my hotel on my trip up the coast and supply storage on several camping trips with friends. I gave it back to my Pop when I bought my first car and he kept it another few years before selling it for as much as he paid for it brand new. I wish I still had it.

Dude, you can't drive a stick???
And find a project bus, get some tools and build one.
I've traveled to J-Tree dozens of times in a '64 and an '81. Once in the dead of winter, coldest nite of my life near skull rock

I'm so in love with the VW bus I started a blog about them. www.volkslivin.com. check it out.
Doing a book about people and their VW experiences and looking for people to interview and photograph. Thank you.

I don't mind the look, very cool. I gave up my 2004 convertible because I got fed up with window parts never-ending replacement. How can the dealers continue to sell parts that they KNOW are unreliable..? You're not taking me for a ride anymore, I'm switching teams.

I crashed one once when some one pulled oput in front of me, face through windshield, deep tuck with steering wheel, knees buckled dash board...no thanks