October 26
I drove to Payson, AZ, where the seller lived, to buy our new 1972 Volkswagen Type 2 Bay Window Westfalia Camper bus. After a thorough examination, I determined that this bus was perfect for us. It was nearly rust free, so no major body work was needed. It had no driveline, so we can install a subaru engine for increased performance, fuel economy, reliability, and parts availability. It already had a pop-top, so we didn’t need to track that down, and the interior had already been stripped giving us a blank canvas to design the camper as we wished. The major down side is the dents. There are a lot of them, and a couple of them are in very inconvenient places. The two in particular that I feel will be the most difficult are right below the RH wiper mount, and on the drip rail at the back. I’m not sure how those are going to be attacked yet, but I’ll work that out when the time comes. First step, get it on the trailer!
The previous owner, a man around 18, and his parents were very nice and helped to get the bus on the trailer. The driveway was steeply sloped up to the garage that housed the bus. It was tricky to get the trailer maneuvered into place on the narrow neighborhood streets of Payson, but after a few tries, I got it in place as best we could. The only functional brake on the bus was the parking brake, so we used that to inch the bus down onto the trailer. While loading, we discussed our plans for the bus and different things that could be done. They had mentioned the desire to have the bus restored and send it to a storage unit in Hawaii for them to use when they visit the island. Ah to have money…
I really like the fact that this bus was clearly owned by a hippie sort of person. There are multiple stickers on the window in support of Jerry Garcia, the Grateful dead, and a really awesome Alice in Wonderland sticker. I’d like to try and preserve those stickers as a way to hold onto the heritage of the bus, but we will see where the restoration takes us.
