I recently talked my wife into purchasing a bay
window as our first bus. We're no stranger to VW's but this is our
first type 2. We enjoy camping at VW shows, and we also have a rail
buggy we take to the woods a few times a year. Until now, we've tent
camped, but are growing tired of that. After hanging out in a friends
early bay westy, we decided a westy could work for us fine.
I honestly only looked for a week,
but as soon as this bus came up on the samba it seemed perfect for us.
My wife's favorite color is green, the bus seems in very good shape
minus the motor (more on that in a minute), and best of all, it seemed
like a very good deal. After a very long and nervous weekend of waiting
to get ahold of the seller, I drug my friend and my trailer from Pasco county to Sarasota (a little over 100 miles) to go and get it. We
paid the asking price of $1500 which I think is more than fair,
especially considering how the bays are jumping in popularity around around here.
The bus is a 78 Westy. It really doesn't have much rust. Around the
windshield (mainly the bottom), bottom of the nose at the floors (not
bad), the floors at the step in front of the front tire, and a couple of
very small spots on the cargo floor (the worst is from the leaking vent
window in the back on the drivers side, but it still isn't bad).
The interior is in very good shape, with only the cooler cabinet being
water damaged (from that leaky window). It was included so I can use it
as a template if we decide to do that. All of the latches are in place
and work.
The rock and roll bed and rear bed cushion look brand new, the front
seats are in good shape with some wear on the covers. The top cushion
on the roof looks brand new, but it's missing the extension pieces that
go in the opening. It's missing the childs cot, but came with all
curtains (even the wrap around for the windshield and front windows) as
well as the mosquito net for the rear hatch.
OK, so our plans are to preserve the interior and the body and drive the heck out of it.
Mechanically, I plan to swap a
Chevy Ecotec 2.2 for an engine. I have a motor, computer and harness in
my garage that I was saving for our next rail buggy. I intend to mount
a radiator between the frame rails.
I also plan to build a rear disk brake setup. I hate drum brakes, and
as I said, I intend to pull our rail buggy with it on a trailer, so I'd
love as much braking as possible.
Here are the pics from the ad. I'll take some better pics of the rust and document my progress.
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