Itinerant Air-Cooled

I am selling my 1978 7-passenger bus with 37,000 original miles. Almost all the paint and interior, and all mechanicals, are original and untouched but for preventive maintenance. It was driven sparingly throughout the years and always remained inside a garage when not in use. It starts, idles and accelerates as new and is an unabashed pleasure to drive, accelerating strongly and quietly and easily maintaining modern highway speeds. The mechanical condition has been proven on several cross-country drives, many multi-hour jaunts and countless around-town trips. There are no leaks of any kind and no burning of oil. It has the bus-specific adjustable Koni shocks, and demonstrates exemplary ride, handling and braking.

No repairs of any type are required. The original paint has a rich, deep gloss, and the original interior material a brightness and sheen, that really distinguishes this bus from other examples. The engine compartment has never been cleaned and appears new with the original plug wires and coil. There is no rust on any part of this bus. The wheel wells are still shiny with factory paint, protected by effective and period-correct waxoyl.

Being a 25 year-old original also means that there are some minor flaws from age and use. These minor flaws include: several touched up stone chips mainly on the left side, a wiper scratch on the windshield, and minor scratched areas on the top of rear seatback (from cat claws). In addition, the lower part of the driver's door, and part of the front panel near the driver's side headlight, were repainted decades ago due to a minor mishap, but the color match is excellent and casual observers never notice. None of these flaws detract from the outstanding overall appearance.

Included with the bus are the original factory keys (one key fits all locks including engine compartment) and manuals as well as service stickers on the driver's door jamb documenting the mileage through the years. The bus has been lovingly maintained, including exhaustive tweaking by Colin at least twice each year since the birth of IAC. If buses can have a soul, this one does, and it rewards the owner in many small ways. Selling only because circumstances require. Price is $19,000 firm.

Sorry to hear that you must sell, Bob. I have heard much of this bus from Colin. The last of the Bays as they were meant to be, right off the showroom floor.

Do you have pictures? If not, I would be glad to come up and help you out in this regard, I am in your general Chicagoland area. I think pictures and maybe some video would be helpful in showing the stature of your vehicle.

Colin, my friend. It's time.

An attempt to post a pic...

Good night!!

That bus is beautiful, holy cow!

does it not have undercoating? I have it on mine and thought that it was applied by the factory in 1978. Any one know for sure?

Nice looking bus there. If you sell the standard, how will I calibrate my own bus?

VWBusrepairman wrote:Nice looking bus there. If you sell the standard, how will I calibrate my own bus?

You'll just have to buy mine!

Seriously, I do have some good pics I can pass along, and could also take pictures of any specific area(s) that you would like, if that would be helpful. Colin also has an excellent memory for detail and I'm sure he would help answer any questions you might have too.

Really, I would not mind coming up and snapping all sorts of pictures for you. I really just want to see it up close, live, in person.

Bob, you had any interest yet? I go back and forth sometimes thinking about selling my bus - today Im keeping it, however on Wednesday I was thinking about selling. Im interested in what the chicago market is for bay windows these days.

I just put an ad on the "other" VW site yesterday, and already have several interested folks who seem serious, one especially so. Until you talk in person or money changes hands, however, none of it means much. Still, a good start.

If I doesn't sell soon to the VW community, I will reluctantly market it locally, as there are some communities in which I drive the bus that my asking price would be pocket change for the folks who live there, and I can easily see it being bought on a whim by somebody to cruise to the beach or their weekend place.

Bottom line, my guess is that buses are so rare in IL that, although there is no ready market for them, they are so unusual that the nice ones would sell just based on uniqueness. In a world of black SUVs, my sage green bus is quite a conversation starter. ;-)

If that's the case, Bob, tell your friends that I will sell my bus to them for 18 thousand!

What a deal. Tooling around the northern suburbs in style!

LOL! A bit too much hyperbole in my post, maybe, but you know what I mean--buses are relatively cheap on the scale of "classics" or "hobby" cars (everytime I watch car auctions on TV I get a headache and/or nausea ;-) ), and for the right person a nice bus would be a fun weekend cruiser to add to their toy list. Who knows, though....