Date: Thu, 20 Jul 1995 13:32:58 -0700
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: jim@atcweb.atc.1dc.com (Rusty VanBondo)
Subject: Rusty meets real Rusty (Vlong)
Last weekend Rusty, Cherry, "Snark" the hyper Schnauser dog, took off in the
'83 Westy slowmobile to go camping in Northern Arizona with the inlaws in
tow in their GMC truck. The trip was a success outside of no fish on my
flypole and several 25-35mph uphill climbs at 7550-8350 ft elevation. The
traffic that built behind me really appreciated the acceleration and power
of my fully loaded 2.0 aircooled "powerplant." Nearly every one that passed
gave us the thumbs up. Well, I think they were thumbs.
The highlight to me was the discovery of a junkyard which contained several
type threes, late model bugs at the kleenex stage, misc '70s bus burn
victims, a '66 Westy parts bus and a candidate for the Bimbo magazine's
"Weirdest of the weird" page. It turned out that the owner of the yard was
really named "Rusty." I just had to laugh to myself when I heard this little
tidbit. "Rusty" had a weirdmobile that was a '63 *walkthough* Kombi/Standard
11 window that had been grafted onto a frame of a lengthened '55 Chevy/GMC
4WD truck frame with semitruck gas tanks located directly below the
driver/passsanger doors. The front end was extended beyond the VW nose with
a huge, old stlye, tractor engine cover/radiator and hand fabbed flat
fenders. The fender mounted headlights appeared to be '35-'48 style. VW
blinker covers were still used in the usual position. Rear fenders were the
'55 Chevy/GMC style. The passanger side rear fender was unmercifully cut to
allow for the opening of the rear most side cargo door. The rockers of the
VW were at least a full three feet off the ground. Tastefull roller applied
paint was screaming zonker/school bus yellow with the tractor frontend and
beltline painted house paint black. It looked kinda like the bus for the
Rehab School for the Visually Impaired Engineers! =) Rusty mentioned that
the vehicle was a "hell of a reputation around the area for several years."
(No doubt that it was!!) It turned out that "Rusty" was a very nice guy and
sold me some parts for the '67 Westy Resto from Hell at a reasonable price.
The inlaws weren't in tune to the magnificance/significance of the sight and
said that they would catch a burger in town and wait for Cherry and I. They
waited for a nanosecond beyond the McConsumption and bailed on down to
Phoenix. *THEY BAILED!* This made for a very interesting drive home
listening to "my beloved" telling me that it was rude to bring the innies
camping and then turning into "Mr. VW Vortex" once again. "Can't you for
once...lalala" I reminded her that we picked up about $300. worth of hard
to find poop that would go into HER camper resto (from hell)for nearly zilch
and it made no sense to blow on by the yard and then try to communicate and
negotiate via telephone and the 400 mile distance. Everyone tells me to
"relax" and not be so hyper, but if I take two seconds to scratch my...
scalp and mellow out, then everyone gets on my... scalp about it. Sheesh! I
just need to relax on the same channel as their "Busy/Anal" vacation
schedule. (Breaker, breaker one nine). I could understand as retired people
really have to keep a fast pace with all that they have to do- Especially
while on vacation. ;) I know Cherry well enough to know when the price for
eating a little crow is worth the VW parts (like always!).
Watch for pics of the Cluster Fuzz bus in the Bimbo mag and in the NEATO
newsletter "Stand by your Van" section
.......................................Westfalia........................
Rusty VanBondo -----
Phoenix, Arizona (AZ) USA _|###|_
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