Gus the VW bus

Rewind a few years – quite a few years really, to the late 1970s (it was actually probably the early 80s). As a kid I used to go to the library a lot, as it was only a block from my house. I would check out all kinds of books, but the one that really fascinated me was a book on building your own custom van. It was probably called “Do-It-Yourselfer’s Guide To Van Conversion” (an actual title) or something like that. I was fascinated by the fact that you could actually live in a van (down by the river). I wanted to build my own, but I was in junior high and had no money. It was basically that crazy custom van crazy of the ’70s, and I got the fever a little late. By the time high school came around, the custom van fad was gone.

Around 1996 or so I almost bought a VW bus. I can’t actually remember what kind it was, or the year. Pretty sad considering how into them I’ve become.

So…now we’re back to the end of 2006. I’ve sold my Galaxie, and I am looking for another classic car. I was fascinated by a car I had seen in Arizona on a trip – what I later learned was a VW Squareback. So I then found the mother of all aircooled VW websites, thesamba.com. As with all forums, I needed a name. So I went on the Yahoo! English to German translator webpage, and typed in squareback. and it spit out Quadratrückseite, which is a made up word I’m pretty sure – so I used that as my forum name. I started asking questions about the different types of aircooled VWs, and which one would be good for our family. It just so happened there was a VW show in Greensboro, NC coming up, so we made the trip to check them out.

Here’s some pics from that show – I still love this squareback.

After seeing them all in person, we decided the squareback (and the split window buses) – although very cool, were too small inside. So the winner would be the bay window bus. And as luck would have it, I found one on craigslist a few days after the show.

More in The Beginning, Part Three…

In the beginning…

Around the end of 2006 I had the (yet another) urge to buy another classic car to (attempt to) restore.  In 2002 or so I bought a 1966 Ford Mustang off of eBay for $500. I had it for just a few months and then somehow decided the ’66 was more of a parts car. So I bought a 1964.5 Mustang and started to work restoring it.

(the 1966 is lurking in the left background)

I bought a welder and replaced quite a bit of sheet metal. The ’66 was sold off at a profit. The restoration of the ’64.5 was rolling along nicely, and then…our daughter was born. Restoration pretty much came to a halt. Then I was informed that I need to transfer to North Carolina in order to keep my job. We were in the Chicago suburbs at the time, and the prospect of pulling a car in pieces hundreds of miles didn’t sound very entertaining. So I talked to the guy I had originally bought the ’64.5 from, and he had a 1968 Ford Galaxie that was less of a project. So we did a straight trade, and he ended up having the Mustang finished by a college bodyshop – it looked awesome. He sold it on eBay. Somewhere I have the pictures of it finished, but it was exactly the way I had wanted it to turn out – down to the exterior and interior colors.

So we pulled the ’68 Galaxie to North Carolina, where it sat in the garage for a year or so.

Ultimately I sold it to my neighbor across the street, who restored it with his high school son.

The bus part of the story comes in The Beginning, Part Two…coming soon.

I need another blog like I need a hole in the head. My other blog Eating Peaches, is about my return to art.

But I do have another passion (obsession) – Volkswagen Buses. Specifically the 1968-1979 Type 2 ones. More specifically, my 1978 camper (Sportsmobile conversion). With this blog I hope to document the restoration of the bus. I’ve owned it since February 3, 2007 – bought it on craigslist.