Confession

[satchmo]

My name is satchmo, and I am an air-cooled VW addict. My story is long and convoluted, but there is a happy ending.

After selling my 'finished' 1973 9 passenger blue and white bus ("Deer Hunter") several years ago, I thought I would try my hand at water cooled VWs. Besides, I wanted a camper bus, and my back was being tortured by the bench seat in Deer Hunter. A 1987 Vanagon Weekender fit the bill nicely, but I really didn't like the plastic interior, and I didn't have room for it when I moved to Claremont, so away it went (to Amherst, actually).

Six months into living in California and I was developing an itch that needed scratching. Over last Christmas break, I rented a VW bus from Surfari Wagons in Costa Mesa (http://www.vwsurfari.com/) and camped up and down the coast, enjoying nearly empty campgrounds and beaches from Carlsbad to Big Sur. That only stoked the addiction. I looked around for a Westy locally, but California has cast off nearly all VW buses made after 1975 due to problems complying with the strict smog standards here. There are lots of pre-1975 buses around, but oh my god, have they been hacked and abused. What to do?

Luckily, germansupply Scott had a bus on consignment. I know he is in Toronto, Canada, but the bus was originally from California, had only 55,000 original miles, and was driven very little after arriving in Canada in 2000. There are only a few people who I would buy a bus from sight unseen, and Scott is one of them. See the original ad here: (http://www.germansupply.com/Picture_Gal ... falia.html). So I called and made arrangements to pick up the bus and drive home over Spring Break in March. Addiction causes confused thinking like this and makes you set out on grandiose and sometimes unwise adventures. I am no exception.

Scott picked me up at the Toronto airport with bad news. The bus engine had developed a fairly significant oil leak, and the heat did not appear to be functional. Hoping that the oil leak was due to a bad oil pressure sender, we dove in thinking we could solve this and get me on the road. No dice. The leak was from the oil cooler. And the heater cables were frozen as well. Even wiring the heater valves full open failed to give a whisper of warm air up front. Add in the missing gaskets for the front fresh air vents and we had full-on air conditioning. In March. This was not going to work and not what I had expected or prepared for.

With the present reality soaking in, I made arrangements for Scott to work on a few things and I would organize having the bus shipped home (money grows on trees here in California, you know). I flew back to California and a new reality soaked in: it is prohibitively expensive to have a shipper import a car from Canada for you. You need to do it (the importation) in person yourself. So I make another trip out east in May, to Buffalo, NY this time. My plan was to have Scott drive the bus from Toronto to the border where I would meet him, shake hands, and drive through customs with my new bus. Then, I was going to drive to Syracuse to have vdubtech babysit the bus for a while until a shipper could pick it up. I would fly back home from Syracuse after giving the bus to vdubtech and prepare a place for the bus when it was delivered. I love it when a plan comes together like this, don't you?

Someone, John Steinbeck, I guess, said the plans of mice and men are doomed to fail. He was right. I took the red-eye from LA to NY and got to Buffalo by 10 am or so. Scott was going to meet me at the border then, but he said he might be late. No problem, I thought. My flight home isn't until 7:30 pm; I have lots of time. But as noon rolled around and Scott still wasn't there, I got worried. I texted him. His reply: the oil leak has gotten much worse and I am waiting for a truck to flat bed it to you. Huh? What does that mean for my drive to Syracuse then, I wondered? Do I need to find a place to store it in Buffalo? Crap. I started pacing laps around the Tom Horton's at the border just for something to quell the anxiety but instead I mostly raised the suspicion of the employees there. Scott texted again, stating that the extra oil leak was due to an out of place valve cover gasket, which he fixed, but he was going to wait for the flat bed anyway. Three o'clock now and time is ticking away. At about 4 pm, Scott arrives with the bus. It seems fine and I might yet still get across the border and to Syracuse in time to catch my flight. But we have to get Scott back to the place where the flat bed and his ride are waiting, about 10 miles back up the road. Okay, we will just swing around and what? Go through Canadian Customs? Fate had one more adventure in store for us.

Scott is driving as we get to CA customs.

Agent: Where are you from?
Me: California
Scott: Toronto
Agent: Passports?
Scott: I don't have one. Here is my driver's license.
Agent: Why don't you have a passport? And why is there no license on this vehicle? Who is the owner?
Scott: Tim is the new owner. We are just trying to import it to the US.
Agent: What are you doing here then?
Scott: I need to get back to my truck.
Agent: I think you should just pull your vehicle over there.

We park the bus and two other customs agents come over and ask us to leave the vehicle and have a seat "OVER THERE."

Agent: Whose bus is this?
Scott: It is Tim's.
Agent: Did he buy it from you?
Scott: No, he bought it from one of my customers.
Agent: How do you guys know each other.
Scott: I run a VW shop in Toronto and Tim is a customer of mine.
Agent: How come the bus is not currently registered in Canada?
Scott: Tim bought it about two months ago.
Agent: So how did you get here?
Me: I flew from California in to Buffalo this morning.
Agent: How did you get HERE?
Me: I took a cab.
Agent: So where are you going with the vehicle?
Me: Syracuse.
Agent: Then what?
Me: Then I'm flying home.

After that the agent walked away and conferred with another agent for a while. Then she came back and said we needed to get things straight real fast because as things stand right now, she was going to impound the bus. Double Crap! In as calm a voice as I could muster, I told the agent that I had all the paper work to support the transfer of ownership but that it was in the bus that I was forced to leave before I got the chance to show them.

Agent: Where are the documents?
Me: I'll get them for you.
Agent: Stay where you are. Describe for me their location.
Me: In a black brief case and in a manilla folder marked, ironically, "1978 Westfalia."
Agent: (Gives me a sour look and goes to the bus again. Then confers with other agent. Then back to Scott and me)
Agent: Okay, you are free to go.

Whoa! Bullet dodged! But we have to get Scott up the road then I need to get back to US customs, where it is now just about 5 pm and there is a huge line of cars waiting. I know I need to go to the Border Patrol for vehicle importation, but there is no escape from the slowly moving line of cars going through the gates. When it is my turn, I explain my situation and already know what the Agent's reply will be: "Go park over there and wait in that building."

The building at US Customs looks like the booking room at the jail, at least what I imagine one looks like since I myself have never been in one. Bullet proof glass in front of the counter and signs everywhere warning you not to smile, cough, sneeze or fart, or you will be deported. That is a slight exaggeration, but there are lots of posters telling you that cell phone use is not allowed. Great, how am I going to get ahold of vdubtech to tell him I am way behind schedule? After waiting for what seemed like another couple hours, an agent calls me up to the window and says to sign here, here, and here. Good to go. What? Don't I need to show you that I have complied with every regulation of the EPA? And the DOT? And there is a new CA certified catalytic converter installed and the EGR stuff is all in place, and the lights work, and I have a temporary CA registration, and the original importation stickers are there, and, and, and I've done all this work! "Nope. You may go."

Just as I get on the road, vdubtech calls. "Where are you?" "I'm still at customs and you wouldn't believe my story if I told it to you. Can you pick up the bus at the Buffalo airport since I am going to have to get a flight home from there as I don't have time to get to Syracuse?" Vdubtech, what a saint, says okay. So I park the bus in Lot A32, put some money under the floor mat and the keys in the engine bay. I call vdubtech as I run into the terminal and let him know where I left the key. I get a flight home that leaves in about 40 minutes and think to myself:

"Well, that was interesting."

If you have read this far, you deserve some pay off. Take a look at some photos of the bus here (https://picasaweb.google.com/satchmodud ... tfq48_G7wE). Before I imported the bus, Scott looked into the reason the heat did not work and found some substantial mouse nests in the ducts. He cleaned that out but wasn't able to address the oil cooler leak. I did that once the bus got here and we got it past smog testing, which will be a story for another distant day. A little cleaning and exploration under the bus revealed some hidden surprises, including nearly pristine wheel wells and the original factory number stamping on the front torsion beam. I'm slowly working on everything that needs attention while enjoying some sweet drives into the mountains and up the coast. I'm back in the driver's seat again with a monkey on my back. And I like it.

Tim

[Birdibus]

Hi Tim, I'm very happy to learn you got a new bus. Sounds like a good one. Sorry it was such an ordeal. Funny, I was thinking the other day, wondering if you were interested in my 74 camper. I guess not.

[Sylvester]

Wow Tim, that is a nice Bus! And underneath, I love the lack of rust!

[vistacruzer]

Awsome! whats the next adventure? Don't do that to often you will get grey hairs.

[vistacruzer]

Just went through the pictures NICE. Thanks for making my morning coffee even better

[hercdriver]

Just went through the pictures NICE. Thanks for making my morning coffee even better

Me too. (Glad to see I'm not alone with the morning coffee read.)

Great story and beautiful bus. I've come to see these vehicles as more than just transportation. They're the antagonist/love interest in a chapter that makes up our own unique story.

[Amskeptic]

Just went through the pictures NICE. Thanks for making my morning coffee even better

Me too. (Glad to see I'm not alone with the morning coffee read.)

Great story and beautiful bus. I've come to see these vehicles as more than just transportation. They're the antagonist/love interest in a chapter that makes up our own unique story.

How's that bus running with the two or so miles of custom redundant wiring redundant wiring removed?
Great morning read here in drizzly 58*!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Eureka, CA.
Colin58*??????????????

[ruckman101]

I enjoy a good love story, thanks Satchmo.


neal

[satchmo]

Just went through the pictures NICE. Thanks for making my morning coffee even better

Me too. (Glad to see I'm not alone with the morning coffee read.)

Great story and beautiful bus. I've come to see these vehicles as more than just transportation. They're the antagonist/love interest in a chapter that makes up our own unique story.

How's that bus running with the two or so miles of custom redundant wiring redundant wiring removed?
Great morning read here in drizzly 58*!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Eureka, CA.
Colin58*??????????????

Still warm here. Bus is doing great without the redundant wiring. Idle is still high (1300 rpm when warm). I have other things to attend to, like the muffler that is holier than thou.

Just got back from a trip to the coast. Camped near Santa Barbara and Ojai. Biked along the beach in Ventura. Hung out on the sand at Carpenteria. Toured and wine-tasted through Solvang and Los Alivos (location of the movie "Sideways"). Made Jiffy Pop in the bus while listening to the Beach Boys on the stereo. This is living the good life.



Our first trip in the new bus was to Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains. I wanted to see how the bus would handle a 6000 foot climb. It did great. We camped at Hanna Flats and we did a bunch of hiking. I'm bringing mountain bikes the next time I go there.



We only saw one other Westy in our travels, sad to say. Keep and use yours when you can. You will always remember every detail of a trip in your bus. Not so much a trip in your (fill in the blank).

Tim

[Hippie]

That's never seen a salty road, has it?

[satchmo]

That's never seen a salty road, has it?

Probably not. The only area with any serious rust is the starter battery tray on the engine compartment side. It is too bad that the VW design placed the battery, with it's paint eating acid, in an area of the vehicle that would potentially collect significant amounts of water when driven in the rain. I don't think the owners manual made any mention of possible problems here. Can you picture it?

"The battery tray is subject to the accumulation of moisture and harsh chemicals. To prevent premature rusting of the battery tray, remove the battery once every three months or three thousand miles, clean the tray and apply VW wax part number 021-033-195. Inspect and replace, as necessary, the rubber grommet in the water drain hole."

In all honesty, this bus had some excellent undercoating applied at some point in the past. The only problem right now is that it is peeling off in large chunks. I need to decide what to do. Remove it all? Remove only the loose chuncks? Recoat everything? Leave it alone? Granted, I won't be driving it in salt, but I would like to drive on some gravel from time to time, and I worry about rock chips. Due to the salt, I wouldn't even consider something a lot of folks here do with regularity - driving and camping on the sand beach at Pismo. The Horror!

Tim

[RussellK]

Tim thats a beautiful bus. Was the vinyl removed from your headliner or did some Westy's come that way? I've never seen heat exchangers so shiny. Congratulations.

[Amskeptic]

It is too bad that the VW design placed the battery, with it's paint eating acid, in an area of the vehicle that would potentially collect significant amounts of water when driven in the rain.

Remove only the loose chuncks?

It's great that there are plastic boxes available for batteries.

Remove the loose chunks, give the remaining undercoat the impact/peel test with a plastic scraper. If is well-bonded, it is a suitable base for your spray application of 16 cans of Rustoleum paintable rubberized undercoat.
Colin

[satchmo]

Tim thats a beautiful bus. Was the vinyl removed from your headliner or did some Westy's come that way? I've never seen heat exchangers so shiny. Congratulations.

The original vinyl "contact paper" had been scraped off at some point, probably because it had turned into an ugly, shrunken, wrinkled mess, leaving a weird 'glue on plywood' texture on the ceiling along with little left-over shards around the edges. That panel over the driver's seat was also cracked and bent, so I took it down. Good thing I did since I found a huge mouse nest in the insulation up there too. I decided to replace it all with a piece of baltic birch plywood. I knew I could never match the color of the cabinets, so I didn't even try. I kept it a little lighter for good visibility up front.

I also don't care to have half of my vision to the rear of the bus blocked by cabinets, so I took out the head banger cabinet and the side closet, then covered up what was left of the vinyl on the rear ceiling with another sheet of 1/4" plywood overlayed on top. All these modifications have the ability to be reversed at some point if one wanted to do a full restoration of the original camping gear.

Tim

[sped372]

Nice! That thing looks clean!

The adventure of getting it will only add to your bond over time. May you have many more (pleasant) times ahead of you.