Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2007 04:55:21 -0500
Reply-To: Max Wellhouse <maxjoyce@IPA.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Max Wellhouse <maxjoyce@IPA.NET>
Subject: Re: Remembering the First Bus
In-Reply-To: <2cb866ef0709060733m5bcbdb04jd8cc83a23d9b277c@mail.gmail.co m>
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My first bus was a white Kombi-looking thing that I got from some
honest-to-God hippies in 1970 or 71 for free....sorta. They were
from TX and driving a load of tapestries(and who knows what kind of
drugs) to a head shop at the Iowa State U. campus in Ames when they
burned a hole in the #2 piston in the small farm town of Clarinda in
the SW part of Iowa. I happened to be in the VW dealer(a steady diet
of hanging around all the mechanics as a teenager) when I overheard
the Service manger tell them that a new motor was pretty expensive
and towing it to Ames would also cost a lot of money. I talked to
them outside and they said if I paid the $3.61 bill for the
compression check at the International Harvester dealer in Clarinda,
I could have the bus for free. Borrowing my roommate's Ford XL and
renting a U-haul bumper hitch tow bar, I paid the bill and even drove
it around town spewing oil out the breather of course. Got it home
and slapped a used P/C in the holy cylinder and drove that bus all
summer. Managed to get a legal title to it via Iowa law at the time
and revelled in it's "0-60 in an afternoon" demeanor. It was unique
to Iowa as it wasn't rusty and it had the double doors on the
driver's side. not the passenger side. Ended up giving the bus to my
roommate in exchange for him co-signing a loan for a 1963 Porsche
356B coupe(also from TX) that was totally cherry and $2100.......and
yes it was the coolest car I've ever owned and I wish I still had
it. Worked 80 hours a week at the Gulf Station for $1.85/hr. to be
able to afford the Porsche payments.
Also bought a 71 bus while living in Arkansas(1977 or thereabouts)
for $700 from an independent foreign repair shop and used it for my
whitewater vehicle for many years until I found a 79 Loaf for $3000
in 1985. Put a lot of miles on it and two engines later, decided I
wanted heat even in Arkansas and bought the current 90 GL off a truck
lot in Little Rock in 1997. I managed to "gentile" the dealer down
from the asking price of $5500 to $2750 when the salesman and I test
drove it and the oil light was blinking. I didn't know much about
Vanagons at the time, but I did know about the non-factory oil
filter issue and that solved the blinking light to this day.
That's my story and I'm stickin' tuit....
DM&FS
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