Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 17:44:39 -0400
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: "David Easterwood" <deasterw@st6000.sct.edu>
Subject: Old Westy Saga (Bus Vulture)
Well, here's the report. I got to the guy's place in Alabama about
4:30 in the afternoon & said "Hi, my name's Dave. Where's the bus?"
He took me around back & said "there she is, look her over & see if
that's what yer lookin' for."
Good points:
Bus is practically rust free. Two rust holes in the entire bus. One
next to the brake fluid resevoir, barely more than a pinhole, the other
in the rocker under cargo doors, about the size of a quarter. Crawled
underneath & it looked almost like new. Original paint & the asbestos
wrap around the heater tube looked as if it were put on there last week.
It also had an ambulance fan.
Bad points:
The guy was absolutely not shy about cutting the bus. Additional brake
lights above originals. Additional front turn signals above bullets.
Engine cooling vents cut out & idiot air scoop installed. Two guages
(fuel & oil temp) cut into dash. Dent in driver door & dogleg.
Missing cabinet directly behind passenger (where tumblers would be
stored) & rear cabinet on driver's side. Missing one rear lamp cover.
Must have started leaking at some point because submarine hatch sealed
with tar. Front seat from a ford pickup.
All in all about half as nice as he described over the phone. I agreed
to his asking price ($650) & paid him. Then things got ugly. Remember
in the previous post I said someone else had put a deposit down &
couldn't pay it off? He showed up. He had sent his wife to the bank
to get a loan. Allen explained to him their contract stated he was to
pay the balance in 3 weeks and it had been nearly 8 weeks. Allen even
returned his downpayment (which he didn't have to contractually). The
kid was heartbroken & I felt really bad for him although he didn't look
like he could afford to get it back on the road.
Anyway, I got his name & number & told him I would try to find another
bus for him. I decided against towing the it with my bus for that long
a distance, so I'm renting a truck to trailer it back this weekend.
Anyone with leads on the cabinets & light cover please let me know.
Plans are to spend a couple of weeks going through mechanicals & then
straight to the body shop to weld it up & paint it (original color,
Sealing Wax Red).
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* 59 Dbl Dr Walk-Thru Panel Dave Easterwood *
* 59 & 61 Single Cab Pickups deasterw@st6000.sct.edu *
* 60 & 66 Westfalia *
* 66 Hardtop & Sunroof Deluxe Buses 61 Deluxe Beetle *
* 73 & 77 Westfalias 69 Rust Bug *
* 74 Thing 64 Type 34 Karmann Ghia *
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